17 Oct Meet the Finalists – Early Career Entrepreneur of the Year 2017
This new award for 2017 recognises the achievements of an Early Career Entrepreneur who best exemplifies the ideals of entrepreneurship by starting and successfully managing one or more businesses in a way that demonstrates notable entrepreneurial characteristics and achievements. See the profiles below to find out a little about the finalists who will compete for the grand prize, to be announced on the 2nd of November 2017.
Meet the Finalists
Mick O’Dwyer
CEO – Swift Comply
- Winner of International Association of MBA’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2016.
- Under Michael’s leadership SwiftComply has won several awards including Bank of Ireland’s Startup of the Year 2017.
- Selected by TechStars for its competitive London program in 2016, SwiftComply has raised over €3 million in funding over the past 12 months and has opened international offices in Silicon Valley and Amsterdam.
- Notable investors include Techstars Ventures (Uber, Twilio, Classpass) and Owen Van Natta, former COO of Facebook and CEO of MySpace.
Brian Lee
Co-Founder & Managing Director – Freshly Chopped Ltd.
- Brian has built a business empire on his passion for health and fitness.
- In 2012, he founded Freshly Chopped with his business partner Andy Chen.
- The healthy fast food chain now has over 30 outlets across Ireland with new outlets opening soon in the UK and Cyprus.
Niall Moloney
Founder – Pow Cow
- Semi-Finalist at the Virgin Media Business VOOM Competition, 2016
- Bronze – Best Irish Food Startup Awards – BOI Startup Awards, 2017
- Listed as one of Ireland’s Best 100 Startup’s in the Sunday Business Post, 2017
- A personal career highlight was working at the 2012 Olympic Games and meeting some of the worlds best-known athletes including Usain Bolt.