September 2016 Three NUI Galway Innovators Shortlisted for Award

Blackstone LaunchPad NUI Galway Shortlisted for Women Mean Business Awards

Three nominees from Blackstone LaunchPad at NUI Galway have been shortlisted as finalists for the Women Mean Business Awards 2016: Executive Director, Mary Carty; Program Manager, Natalie Walsh; and student entrepreneur-in-residence, Edel Browne.

Celebrating its 10^th anniversary this year, the awards serve to promote Irish women entrepreneurs and help increase the visibility of inspiring female business leaders.

Blackstone LaunchPad at NUI Galway has supported over 2000 students on campus since launching in February. The ethos is to support and empower the individual student by creating supports specific to their needs and personal development; to help them to shape their pathway and celebrate their own unique talents and strengths.

Mary Carty and Natalie Walsh are both shortlisted for the Boots WMB Empowering Women Award which recognises the initiatives made by companies and individuals to facilitate and encourage the progression of women in their careers.

19-year-old Edel Browne, founder of Free Feet Medical, is shortlisted for the Sodexo WMB Female Newcomer Award. This award is for a new start-up where the recipient demonstrates outstanding innovation within her business. Edel is a third year Biotechnology student at NUI Galway.

Free Feet Medical is a device which helps people with Parkinson’s disease overcome gait freezing, a symptom affecting over 70% of those diagnosed with the disease.

NUI Galway President Dr Jim Browne said, “On behalf of NUI Galway I’d like to congratulate my colleagues, Mary Carty and Natalie Walsh and student entrepreneur-in-residence Edel Browne on being shortlisted for the Women Mean Business Awards 2016. Each of them represent a diverse aspect of innovation and in their work with Blackstone LaunchPad at NUI Galway they serve as wonderful role models, working in different ways to empower students to consider entrepreneurship as a viable and attractive career pathway.”

Blackstone LaunchPad at NUI Galway is a campus based entrepreneurship programme. The programme is accessible by over six hundred thousand students globally. Blackstone LaunchPad is a campus based experiential entrepreneurship program open to students, alumni, staff and faculty offering coaching, ideation and venture creation support. It is modelled on a successful program originated at the University of Miami and was further developed by the Blackstone Charitable Foundation.

For more information, visit www.blackstonelaunchpad.org 

ENDS