At 105 centimetres or 3' 5" tall, Sinéad Burke has become a booming voice in the global fashion world. Talking equality with US Vice Presidents and people such as Oprah, speaking not once, but twice, at Davos and being a contributing editor to

What makes a great CEO and how can they transform a culture?

Jun 19th, 2019 35m 55s

Ruth Curran knows the answer to both of those questions. Ruth travels the world to find the best CEOs, CFOs and CIOs for a whole range of high-level organisations. She’s managing partner at MERC, Ireland’s leading executive search firm – a role

How I manage 2,000 employees

Apr 26th, 2019 35m 36s

Managing a team of 2,000 employees is a huge responsibility, but Anne O’Leary takes it all in her stride. As chief executive of Vodafone Ireland, she has worked hard to build an inclusive, flexible and empathetic culture. Anne does not believe

Left a good job in the city and started a €6m business

Mar 29th, 2019 33m 23s

When entrepreneur Nikki Evans quit her well-paid management consulting job in London to move home to Ireland during the recession and start a pre-paid gift card business, people thought she was bonkers. But last year, over a decade after launch

"If we have to pay for this dinner we don't have it"

Jan 17th, 2019 32m 25s

It was an awkward dinner and a "make or break" moment. Louise Grubb, co-founder and CEO of TriviumVet was going to have to explain how her wonderful pharmaceutical business couldn't pay the dinner bill. She was in Copenhagen wining and dining a

The tricky business of funding for female founders

Nov 29th, 2018 28m 13s

Andreea Wade is famous on the start-up scene and she is also intimately acquainted with the boardroom tables of venture capital firms. That's because she's CEO of Opening, a fast-growing start-up that's using artificial intelligence in the recr

Where have all the women gone?

Sep 20th, 2018 25m 39s

She'd just become partner at Accenture, and Vivienne Jupp assumed she'd be joined by lots more women in the partnership ranks. She wasn't. The veteran board member and businesswoman began to notice two things: people talked differently about wo

From social housing to VP of Walt Disney

May 30th, 2018 32m 14s

Trish Long is the General Manager and Vice President of Disney in Ireland. She's also worked with Oprah. How did she do it? She shares her remarkable and unplanned path with Margaret E Ward, one that began with her bargaining with her father to

From food truck to a 40-job food business

Apr 20th, 2018 31m 58s

Newly married, a 10-day-old baby and newly redundant, 2008 was an interesting year for Sara Mitchell and Gavin McCarthy. But 2009 was an even more interesting year, when the pair, a former property developer and marketing professional with no f

"People just don't trust women with money"

Mar 7th, 2018 30m 52s

Especially in Hollywood, but actress and filmmaker Naomi McDougall Jones is proving them wrong. She reveals to Margaret E Ward how she not only crowdfunded but created an an engaged and loyal audience for her very first film. It's a 'how to' th

A groundbreaking scientist on adjusting to motherhood

Jan 24th, 2018 32m 1s

Professor Aoife McLysaght discovered a totally new human gene. Her day job is as a genetic scientist, but there was a time when she was going to give it all up. After an unfriendly encounter with a colleague who queried her holiday leave, she s

15 November 2017: Elva, Aine and Pamela - GirlCrew

Nov 15th, 2017 27m 36s

GirlCrew - it's a global online platform and app that helps women make new friends, wherever they are in the world. It all started when a young woman, left alone due to coupled-up friends, needed someone to go to a concert with. A short note po

From call centre agent to Google's head honcho in Ireland

Oct 13th, 2017 27m 13s

Fionnuala Meehan had "no clear career path" after her arts degree. So she took a job in a call centre where she was regularly pranked by German teenagers. She had her first child while still working in the call centre, then later moving on to w

An accidental entrepreneur on the importance of "why"

Sep 8th, 2017 27m 10s

Dr Ciara Clancy, accidental entrepreneur, physiotherapist, and 20-something CEO, has just been named on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She plasters her office not with accolades and press clippings, but with her "why." In her office you'll find t

The secret to selling from the man who built an empire

Jul 12th, 2017 35m 34s

Businessman Feargal Quinn's first book Crowning the Consumer sold more than 100,000 copies and was translated into 14 languages. It came after building a national chain of grocery stores, Superquinn, which he started at the age of 23. How did h

Leading in a crisis when you've just lost £24.3bn

Jun 9th, 2017 25m 16s

Ellvena Graham, OBE, is currently chairman of ESB, Ireland's electricity supply board, but in 2008 she was a director in the Royal Bank of Scotland when it lost £24.3bn - the biggest corporate loss in British history. How did the daughter of a

"We did something during the recession which saved us"

Mar 20th, 2017 1h

When the recession hit in 2008, Bobby Kerr's national chain of more than 100 coffee shops, Insomnia, was on the frontline. "We were a luxury item," he tells Margaret E Ward. How do you survive that? By 2008, Bobby was a well-seasoned businessma

Women can have it all & how introverts can succeed at work

Jan 13th, 2017 59m 53s

Ireland's first female private investigator (PI) Sandra Mara, cracked her first case at 9. She found not only her passion but also fulfilment and decided to follow her father into the family business of private investigations. "That's no job fo

How this serial entrepreneur of global start-ups silences her self doubt

Jan 12th, 2017 56m 11s

"I need help" - the 3 most powerful words any manager or entrepreneur can say. Aine Kerr is a serial risk taker. She left her permanent pensionable teaching job at 20, to retrain as a journalist. She left her high-profile political corresponden

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