Leonora O'Brien is an Irish pharmacist and entrepreneur.[1][2][3] Having worked in pharmacy regulation,[1] she is the founder and chief executive officer of Pharmapod,[4][1][5] a cloud-platform for pharmacists and physicians to monitor safety of dispensing processes and drive the safe dispensing of medicines.[6][7][8][2][3] O'Brien has won a number of awards[3] for her business endeavours and is a leading voice in the field of women in business.[9][10][11][12][4][13]

Early life and career

O'Brien was born in Castlerea, County Roscommon.[8] O'Brien qualified as a pharmacist.[9] She worked in pharmacy regulation and policy development in both Ireland and the European Union.[8] She moved out of Pharmacy regulation into the private sector in 2012, having noticed a gap in the market for inter-pharmacy interaction.[3][1][14]

Pharmapod

O'Brien developed the business case for Pharmapod in the 12-week-long LaunchPad entrepreneur hub at the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) in Dublin in early 2012.[15] O'Brien founded Pharmapod in November 2012, as an online tool which assists pharmaceutical dispensaries (including doctors)[11] to keep track of and report anomalies, which can cause fatalities.[3][6] By 2014, Pharmapod was operating in Ireland, the UK (in a deal with the NHS)[6] and Kenya (a focus was put on the developing world, where the product was considered very useful, especially with a view to capturing trends in counterfeit medicines),[16] with an employee base of 10 people.[16][8] Seeking up to €5 million in December 2014,[17] by the end of 2017, Pharmapod had raised over €1.8 million in capital, with both institutional and angel investors.[2]

Awards and prizes

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 O'Dea, Ann (11 March 2014). "Women Invent: 100 top women in science, technology, engineering and maths – Part 1". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 28 August 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Keogh, Olive (25 August 2016). "New Innovators: Starting up and keeping going...Irish entrepreneurial spirit alive and kicking". Irish Times.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Doyle, Carmel (9 July 2013). "Irish start-up Pharmapod on mission to bring pharmacies into the digital age". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 1 November 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 Huang, Gregory T. (3 November 2014). "Dublin's Startup Commish Brings Lesson in Buzz From NYC". Xconomy. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 "CEOs, entrepreneurs, and managers short--listed for Image businesswoman of year awards". Irish Independent. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 O'Donoghue, Paul (28 September 2014). "Irish tech girls rule, ok?". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Dromey, Trish (13 May 2013). "Pharmapod has its eye on EU expansion". Irish Examiner. Archived from the original on 19 June 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Entrepreneur pharmacist is driven by patient safety". Irish independent. 24 June 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  9. 1 2 "Offering support to ladies who launch". The Times. 15 January 2017.
  10. ↑ Bushnell, Niamh (17 February 2017). "Notes From The Commish: Women, tech and hell". DublinGlobe. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017 – via IrishCentral.
  11. 1 2 Sweeney, Tanya (16 April 2015). "Are women really as powerful in Irish business as we think?". Irish Independent.
  12. ↑ "Solving gender gap in tech will help fix skill shortage". Irish Times. 25 September 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  13. ↑ "Clinicians wanted for health tech start-up programme". Irish Medical Times. 10 January 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  14. ↑ Newenham, Pamela (23 November 2015). "Conference for female entrepreneurs on funding". Irish Times. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  15. 1 2 "26 outstanding start-ups that smash the 'boys' club' stereotype". Silicon Republic. 17 February 2016. Archived from the original on 1 July 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  16. 1 2 3 4 "VIDEO: Kilkenny Group CEO named IMAGE Businesswoman of the Year 2014". Newstalk. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  17. ↑ McCabe, Sarah (7 December 2014). "Pharmapod plans to raise up to €5m from new investors". irish Independent. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
  18. ↑ Hunt, Gordon (9 February 2017). "Irish founder of Theya Healthcare makes Cartier award shortlist". Silicon Republic. Archived from the original on 9 February 2017.
  19. ↑ Armstrong, John (13 April 2017). "Irish Entrepreneur Named Laureate For Europe At 2017 Cartier Women's Initiative Awards". "Irish Tech News". Archived from the original on 16 April 2017. Retrieved 2 November 2017.
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