Meet the Founders Forum Team
Ciara Gorman
HPSU Founders Forum Manager Enterprise Ireland
Ciara recently took up the role of managing HPSU capability programmes for Enterprise Ireland clients, including the HPSU Founders Forum. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge in Human Relations and Organisation Development on a global basis. She has expertise in the areas of Project Management, Implementation of HR practices and Policy development.
Paul O'Dea
Facilitator & Programme Director
Facilitator & Programme Director Paul O’Dea is a founder of a number of startups that have scaled internationally. As part of his role in Select Strategies, he advises companies on strategies to scale. He is a published author on growth and is HPSU Founders Forum, Programme Director.
Emer O'Donnell
Facilitator & Programme Manager
Facilitator & Programme Manager Emer O’Donnell. A director of growth firm Select Strategies Emer has had a range of leadership positions in the technology sector. Over the past decade she has led multiple international growth transformation projects for clients seeking to scale.
Samantha Cantwell
Founders Forum Project Manager
Samantha has joined Founders Forum as programme co-ordinator. Samantha has a broad range of experience in client and stakeholder management including 10 years as Operations Lead for the technical department in Royal College of Surgeons.
Harry Largey
Founder Forum Facilitator
Harry Largey is an MBA qualified Entrepreneur, Board Member and Coach with thirty years’ experience with a range of high growth Irish and Global software and services companies.
Sean Baker
Founders Forum Facilitator
Sean Baker is an ICT entrepreneur and he co-founded IONA Technologies plc. He is the chairperson of NDRC, and has been a board members of a number of Irish software companies.
Elaine Connolly
High Performance Executive & Leadership Coach
High Performance Executive & Leadership Coach, Entrepreneur and Mentor with 30 years’ experience across a wide range of industries. Elaine is a Facilitator on HPSU Founders Forum and Business Advisor on Enterprise Ireland’s International Selling Programme.
Caelen King
Founder Forum Facilitator
Caelen King is an experienced founder (built WhatClinic to $6M in revenue) and executive (NewBay & Baltimore) with extensive onshore and offshore team building experience. Caelen currently works with a range of scaling companies at board level and had made a number of angel investments.
Fiona Slevin
Founders Forum Facilitator
Fiona Slevin has over 20 years’ experience as founder, CEO, COO and Director growing life sciences and technology start-ups, as well as careers in consulting and international corporates.
Barry Walsh
Founder Forum Facilitator
Barry Walsh has 16 years experience facilitating business owner peer groups helping them to help each other grow and make their businesses more profitable. Barry has held leadership roles in a number of successful businesses including his own..
Alan Kelly
Founder Forum Facilitator
Alan Kelly is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience working with multiple early stage and growing companies. His expertise is in M&A, Funding and Finance.