Taking Care Of Business with Ronan Berry
Oct 14, 2026 · 41 min · 11 segments
From classroom to cleanroom, Leah Fletcher shares her journey to founding Athlone-based Dunbar Pharma, discussing funding, regulation, international expansion and the challenges of scaling an Irish…
Ronan BerryHostLeah FletcherGuestConor PeckGuestOrla MartinGuestUm, yes, I think that a lot of progress has taken place over those, um, 20 years.
Initially, when it was set up, it was very much to provide a platform for female entrepreneurs to connect, to learn, to be inspired.
And while it still does that, it very much has moved on to celebrating the achievements, ambition, and contribution of women in business in across Ireland, and we're seeing, um, the, the growth in the number of women embracing entrepreneurship.
Um, we're seeing, um, it's, it's great as it is, and Ireland has been pretty strong in terms of women working with co-founders and working in businesses.
Um, but we're seeing them now very much being the, the entrepreneurs within the business, and that's great.
With regard to the national, um, enterprise event, it's, it's grown to be Ireland's largest female enterprise event, National Women's Enterprise Day.
So across the network of 31 local enterprise offices, we're predicting about 1,600 people will take place in the different events and, um, so that's phenomenal.
And then in addition to that, each year it seems we're getting an increasing amount of valuable media focus on female entrepreneurship around the time.
So that's radio interviews, press, and TV interviews for women in bus-business and across a range of businesses.
That's funny you should say because just later on in the show this evening, I'll be talking to Leah Fletcher from Dunbar Pharmaceuticals.
And that point on women in enterprise, have you seen in the 20 years, are women getting involved in businesses now and ventures maybe that weren't really as common or maybe they weren't, didn't think they were going to be allowed to maybe 20 years ago?
We may have seen maybe 20 years ago, there might have been, um, more women involved in service-type businesses and part-time businesses.
And what we're seeing now, um, over the past number of years, growing numbers of women setting up businesses with real opportunities to grow and scale, working on the value add in their businesses.
And you can see then different entrepreneurs, they, they're moving on to the next business.
Uh, so instead of maybe creating a business, a salary for themselves, which is, which is perfectly fine too, um, providing a service that's needed, they're-- we're seeing increasingly, um, entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs who have identified a niche, move into that area, grow, take on new products and services, and then start looking at other, um, opportunities for themselves to, to build as female entrepreneurs.
Um, yes, I think that a lot of progress has taken place over those, um, 20 years.
Initially, when it was set up, it was very much to provide a platform for female entrepreneurs to connect, to learn, to be inspired.
And while it still does that, it very much has moved on to celebrating the achievements, ambition, and contribution of women in business in across Ireland, and we're seeing, um, the, the growth in the number of women embracing entrepreneurship.
Um, we're seeing, um, it's, it's great as it is, and Ireland has been pretty strong in terms of women working with co-founders and working in businesses.
Um, but we're seeing them now very much being the, the entrepreneurs within the business, and that's great.
With regard to the national, um, enterprise event, it's, it's grown to be Ireland's largest female enterprise event, National Women's Enterprise Day.
So across the network of 31 local enterprise offices, we're predicting about 1,600 people will take place in the different events and, um, so that's phenomenal.
And then in addition to that, each year it seems we're getting an increasing amount of valuable media focus on female entrepreneurship around the time.
So that's radio interviews, press, and TV interviews for women in bus-business and across a range of businesses.
That's funny you should say because just later on in the show this evening, I'll be talking to Leah Fletcher from Dunbar Pharmaceuticals.
And that point on women in enterprise, have you seen in the 20 years, are women getting involved in businesses now and ventures maybe that weren't really as common or maybe they weren't, didn't think they were going to be allowed to maybe 20 years ago?
We may have seen maybe 20 years ago, there might have been, um, more women involved in service-type businesses and part-time businesses.
And what we're seeing now, um, over the past number of years, growing numbers of women setting up businesses with real opportunities to grow and scale, working on the value add in their businesses.
And you can see then different entrepreneurs, they, they're moving on to the next business.
Uh, so instead of maybe creating a business, a salary for themselves, which is, which is perfectly fine too, um, providing a service that's needed, they're-- we're seeing increasingly, um, entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs who have identified a niche, move into that area, grow, take on new products and services, and then start looking at other, um, opportunities for themselves to, to build as female entrepreneurs.
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