Top honours for businesswomen
THE very first Network Ireland Wicklow Women in Business Awards took place in Tinakilly House last week, with Molly Williams, Audrey Dalton and Leigh Williams the big winners on the night.
Yvonne Hyland was also presented with a Special Recognition Award for Social Enterprise on a night when local women from business, the service industry, the professions and arts and culture were celebrated.
Molly Williams from Hidden Valley Holiday Village and Christmas Island in Rathdrum was the winner of the Small Business Award. Molly’s husband hails from Redcross and the couple moved to Co Wicklow in 2005 where, despite her chemistry qualifications, she found herself drawn to the outdoors and Hidden Valley. The couple, who have three children under the age of five, run the business together: he builds the infrastructure while she runs the companies themselves.
Wicklow Brewery’s Leigh Williams collected the award for Emerging New Business. Her adventure began when she founded ‘ The Snug’, a summer-only restaurant on her partner’s family’s holiday park in 2003. As the restaurant went from strength to strength, they extended next door, purchasing a full seven-day licence from the only pub in the village. They then turned the neighbouring building into a high-end restau- rant before taking a chance on the growing interest in craft beers in Ireland and founding ‘Wicklow Brewery’ in September 2014.
Her love of dogs led Audrey Dalton to set up Pawtrait and her talent secured her the award for The Arts last week. After graduating from DIT with a degree in Photography, Audrey worked as a professional photographer for a number of years. In 2015, she launched her two photography businesses: Audrey Dalton Photography and Pawtrait, from her studio in Cherrylane Gallery, Killincarraig. She works with a number of charity and welfare organizations to help make a change for animals in Ireland. Yvonne Hyland was presented with a special award for Social Enterprise in recognition of the work she has carried out for Tiglin and other ‘not for profit’ clients. She runs Arc Agency, which provides public relations, communications and fund raising services for these groups.
The gala awards, which took place on Thursday, May 11, featured guest speakers Terry Prone, Phil Thompson from Tiglin, Deputy Stephen Donnelly and President of Network Ireland Rebecca Harrison. The sum of €1,110 was raised for Tiglin during the night.
The award winners now go forward to the national Network Ireland competition, which takes place in Druids Glen on October 6.