Entrepreneurship Class Acts

BARRY MURPHY

BE Civil 2010, ProfCert 2013

Fergal Meegan and Barry Murphy’s NovaUCD headquartered Assiduous, a team of capital markets professionals and technologists dedicated to helping business owners grow and achieve financial independence, has raised €1 million from EU strategic investor EIT Digital, Enterprise Ireland and private investors. Assiduous also announced the launch of its Corporate Finance Autopilot™, a virtual corporate finance service-as-a-software solution, enabled by the latest AI advances, which aims to bridge the gap between business owners and capital markets throughout their entire corporate lifecycle.

DAVID HARTIGAN

MSc Management Consultancy 2016

David Hartigan, awarded the Rising Star Award at the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards, is founder and CEO of BCorp-certified Hemp Heroes, a seed-to-shelf hemp company in Co. Wicklow, which manufactures a range of hemp-based products. It was shortlisted for the 2025 Guaranteed Irish Business Awards in the food category.

CONOR HANLEY

BE Chemical 1990

Conor Hanley’s medical technology company FIRE1 has raised $120 million in new financing. The company aims to improve heart failure management by making it easier for patients to monitor their own condition. Ireland Strategic Investment Fund contributed $22 million to the round. FIRE1 has also received Breakthrough Device Designation from the US Food and Drug Administration.

SADHBH WOOD

BBL 2024

Sadhbh Wood is co-founder and CEO of Bean Around, which makes cosmetic skincare products from coffee grounds. The company is also working on coffee-based biochar, a charcoal which can enhance biogas fuel production and capture carbon from the atmosphere. In 2024, Bean Around made the Lidl Kickstart programme and was a finalist in The Irish Times Innovation Awards.

STEPHEN O’DWYER

BE Biomedical 2021

Stephen O’Dwyer is founder and CEO of TrojanTrack, the equine biomechanical analysis company which utilises deep neural networks to assess racehorses for injury. The company is one of nine selected for UCD’s six-month AI Ecosystem Accelerator Programme, delivered by NovaUCD and CeADAR. O’Dwyer was a finalist in The Irish Times Innovation Awards.

SHARON CUNNINGHAM

MBA 2015

Sharon Cunningham, co-founder and CEO of Tipperary based Shorla Oncology, together with Shorla’s CTO, Orlaith Ryan, was named 2024 EY Entrepreneur of The Year. They were also winners in the Emerging category. Shorla is a specialty pharmaceutical company that develops and commercialises innovative oncology drugs. Its mission is to make existing oncology treatments better through formulation re-innovation.

HEIDI DAVIS

BSc Human Nutrition 2015

Heidi Davis, CEO of Peri, has been named Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up Founder of the Year for 2024. The company uses AI-enabled technology to personalise the management of menopausal symptoms. The Peri, a wearable device, helps users log their symptoms and provides insights to guide women toward a personalised management plan. EI’s Founder of the Year Awards celebrate start-ups with potential to become world-class companies of the future.

EDDIE DILLON

BComm 1997

Eddie Dillon, co-founder and CEO of fintech CreditLogic, is a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 in the Emerging category. CreditLogic uses a platform which simplifies the capture, processing and validation of client data for banks, reducing customer processing times by 90% and cutting operational costs of complex processes by 50%. CreditLogic serves all banks in Ireland, key public sector entities, and a growing number of other regulated businesses.

JOHN FITZGERALD

BE Electronic 1991, MBA 1999

John Fitzgerald is CEO of Irish technology company SuperNode, which has secured €8 million in funding to further its development of superconducting transmission cables. Funding comes from investment group Volnay and Norwegian green investment group Aker Horizons, which co-own the company. SuperNode specialises in next-generation cable systems capable of conveying more energy than conventional electricity cables.

HUGH SHEEHY

BE Mechanical 1989

Hugh Sheehy is CEO of Dublin headquartered electric vehicle (EV) charging company Go Eve. They announced a partnership with Netherlands-based Zerova Technologies that aims to cut EV charging time from hours to minutes and make it easier to charge vehicles at workplaces, hotels, depots and garages. The UCD spinout company’s DockChain technology allows a single charger to charge multiple vehicles.

SIMON FORSYTH

BBLS 1997

Simon Forsyth is CEO of LirOptic, a UCD spinout company, and one of ten global start-ups selected for Round 8 of Luminate NY, the world’s largest accelerator for start-ups working on industry-first solutions enabled by optics, photonics, and imaging (OPI). Each finalist receives $100,000 and competes for up to $2 million in follow-on funding. The LirOptic Lens is a first-of its-kind adjustable solid-state lens.

ANTHONY MC LOUGHLIN

BE Mechanical 2004

Anthony McLoughlin is founder and CEO of Better Futures, an AI-focused start up at NovaUCD, which has won the Distribution Solutions Award category at the ABB 2025 Startup Challenge, receiving a $30,000 prize and a contract with automation group ABB to bring EVA™, the company’s AI Assistant Platform, to market in the next six months. EVA™ is designed to free up engineers from paperwork.

BRENDAN NOUD

BComm 1999

Brendan Noud, co-founder and CEO of learning management system LearnUpon, is a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 in the International category. He launched LearnUpon in 2012 and it is now the leading cloud-based learning management system, with offices in the United States, Australia, Serbia and Dublin. Customers around the world use LearnUpon to train employees, customers, partners and resellers.

FERGAL MEEGAN

BBLS 2001, MBS 2002

Fergal Meegan and Barry Murphy’s NovaUCD headquartered Assiduous, a team of capital markets professionals and technologists dedicated to helping business owners grow and achieve financial independence, has raised €1 million from EU strategic investor EIT Digital, Enterprise Ireland and private investors. Assiduous also announced the launch of its Corporate Finance Autopilot™, a virtual corporate finance service-as-a-software solution, enabled by the latest AI advances, which aims to bridge the gap between business owners and capital markets throughout their entire corporate lifecycle.

BARRY MURPHY

DAVID HARTIGAN

CONOR HANLEY

SADHBH WOOD

STEPHEN O’DWYER

SHARON CUNNINGHAM

HEIDI DAVIS

EDDIE DILLON

JOHN FITZGERALD

HUGH SHEEHY

SIMON FORSYTH

ANTHONY MC LOUGHLIN

BRENDAN NOUD

FERGAL MEEGAN

BARRY MURPHY

BE Civil 2010, ProfCert 2013

DAVID HARTIGAN

MSc Management Consultancy 2016

CONOR HANLEY

BE Chemical 1990

SADHBH WOOD

BBL 2024

STEPHEN O’DWYER

BE Biomedical 2021

SHARON CUNNINGHAM

MBA 2015

HEIDI DAVIS

BSc Human Nutrition 2015

EDDIE DILLON

BComm 1997

JOHN FITZGERALD

BE Electronic 1991, MBA 1999

HUGH SHEEHY

BE Mechanical 1989

SIMON FORSYTH

BBLS 1997

ANTHONY MC LOUGHLIN

BE Mechanical 2004

BRENDAN NOUD

BComm 1999

FERGAL MEEGAN

BBLS 2001, MBS 2002

Interested in a different year?