EVELYN O’TOOLE

Evelyn O’Toole is founder and CEO of Complete Laboratory Solutions (CLS), the largest privately owned contract laboratory in Ireland, where 240 people are employed.

We have a new normal in place now. Our ways of working to manage through 2020 as a critical and essential service have continued, with practices such as split shifts and extended opening times to manage our team’s well-being. Video calls in lieu of face-to-face, like the rest of the world, are part of our daily working lives, especially for our analysts on contract division, who work across 20 client sites. One back-to-normal activity that we miss and look forward to are our in-person social events, as they are a key part of our culture.

The ability to work remotely and the advances in technology to support it have really come to the fore. Being able to scale the business and increase efficiencies by taking out unnecessary travel abroad or around Ireland has supported business and sustainability goals. More broadly, it has also presented opportunities for Irish SMEs to see themselves as potential global suppliers and has accelerated opportunities in this space for some.

2022 is looking good for CLS. Our Covid-19 testing is providing a new stream of business that we did not have in 2019. Looking at the sectors that we support, the med-tech and pharmaceutical industries are in a very good place, while the environment and food sectors will continue to adjust to the impact that the pandemic has had into the year ahead.