Cork CEO attends Washington business summit
The CEO of a Cork-based science company was part of the impressive panel of Irish female business leaders at the first North American Entrepreneurship summit in Washington DC last week.
Andrea Doolan, CEO of Atlantia Food Clinical Trials was at the North American Entrepreneurship summit also attended by Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who joined a round table discussion as part of a series of engagements in Washington to mark St Patrick’s Day. Later that evening the women business leaders attended a prestigious gala dinner hosted by the Ireland Funds at the National Museum Building, where President Joe Biden presented Mr Martin with the International Leadership Award.
The Taoiseach later tested positive for Covid and remains in the US in quarantine.
The new initiative led by Enterprise Ireland and the Irish Government was developed to help reconnect with the USA post-pandemic, and to continue to eliminate the gender gap, advance women’s entrepreneurship, and highlight the value that women entrepreneurs create for businesses and society worldwide.
A full programme of events took place over the week for the Enterprise Ireland’s Women in Business Group and Irish summit participants, who included Orla Mitchell, CEO, WaterWipes; Vivian Farrell, CEO, Modular Automation; Carmel Owens, CEO, Sidero; and Andrea Doolan.
Cork-based Atlantia Food Clinical Trials was established 11 years ago as a spin out from the APC Microbiome Ireland SFI Research Centre at UCC. It opened offices in Chicago in 2019 and has grown significantly in the US market since then. The highly specialised, Enterprise Ireland-supported company is the only food research centre of its kind in Ireland.
Atlantia primarily works with companies that want scientific backing to prove their food or food supplement has a health benefit; those undertaking health campaigns, those in the probiotic and prebiotic space, in sports performance, and those working with the elderly. Clients include Nestle, PepsiCo, DSM and Danone.
Andrea Dolan said, “It is such an honour to be part of Enterprise Ireland’s Women in Business Group, and to help highlight the importance of women entrepreneurship at the first North American Entrepreneurship summit. We’ve had a busy week which will hopefully lead to further business development in the US market.
“The decision to expand our clinic base in the US was due to the ever-increasing demand for clinical trials on functional foods. This industry is in a phase of rapid discovery and strong growth, and as a leading expert in clinical studies, we can help our clients to deliver on their product development needs, in a highly competitive market.”
In addition to promoting entrepreneurship, the Enterprise Ireland Women In Business initiative aims to increase the number of women in leadership and senior management positions. Enterprise Ireland's Female Entrepreneurship Unit was established in 2012.