ENTREPRENEURS AWARD

This category recognises three women who own and run some of Ireland’s largest independent companies. Nominees must actively manage the daily affairs and own at least 20pc of the shares of the company if it is private or at least 5pc of the shares of a pu

MARISSA CARTER Founder of Cocoa Brown (MCCB Beauty)

Beauty expert Marissa is an award-winning entrepreneur and ceo of the top-selling international beauty brand, Cocoa Brown Tan. Her revolutionary 1 Hour Tan is acclaimed by the beauty industry, with one bottle sold every 15 seconds.

Cocoa Brown is stocked by 10,000 retailers including Primark, Boots, Tesco, Superdrug and Ricky’s NYC. Cocoa Brown products hit shelves in November 2012 but the trading company MCCB Beauty wasn’t incorporated until June 2013. In the last three years, turnover has increased 33pc year on year.

Approx 20 new Cocoa Brown products will be added to the range in the next 12 months.

ALISON COWZER Co-founder of East Coast Bakehouse

Alison Cowzer set up a large-scale food manufacturing business based in Drogheda, Co Louth, producing a range of biscuits for the Irish, UK and European markets. As an investor and Dragon on RTE’s Dragons’ Den series, she has made investments in a number of start-up enterprises. A co-founder of The Company of Food, Alison also works with a small group of high-growth potential Irish food SMEs, aiming to generate significant return for both the entrepreneurs and investors through equity investment, mentoring and sharing of food industry expertise. Alison is also a director of Elivar, an Irish start-up focused on the sports nutrition market.

Alison also spends time on marketing, branding and strategy projects with a number of NGOs. She is a board member of Women for Election, a non-partisan organisation that provides training, mentoring and support to women interested in getting involved in political life. She is also a director of the Ronald McDonald House charity, supporting families of seriously ill children.

JANE NÍ DHULCHAOINTIGH Founder of Sugru

Jane Ní Dhulchaointigh is the inventor and CEO of Sugru, the world’s first mouldable glue. Jane studied at the Royal College of Art in London, where she had an idea that led to the first version of Sugru in 2003. While there, she imagined a world where this magic material existed and set out to make it a reality.

Six years and 8,000 lab hours later, the formula for Sugru was complete. Sugru launched in December 2009 and its community of users has continued to grow, with 12 million mini packs reaching people in over 170 countries and territories worldwide.

Jane is passionate about promoting a culture of creativity and resourcefulness, and sees it as an antidote to the throwaway mindset.

Sugru has received recognition from Time Magazine as one of ‘The 50 Best Inventions of 2010’ and has been dubbed the ‘21st century duct tape’ by Forbes. In 2012, Jane won the inaugural London Design Festival Design Entrepreneur award, whilst the Observer listed Sugru as one of Britain’s New Radicals: a UK business changing the world for the better. CNN recently named Jane as one of “7 tech superheroes to watch”.