Donegal businesswoman wins major entrepreneur award

Portnoo-based businesswoman Gillian Doyle scooped the Regional Award for Best Business Idea at the regional finals of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur (IBYE) competition in Sligo on Thursday.

Gillian will now go on to represent Donegal at the National IBYE Finals in March where she will compete in the Google Headquarters in Dublin for the title of Ireland’s Best Young Entrepreneur.

Gillian qualified for the competition when she won the ‘Best New Idea’ category in the Donegal IBYE finals in November and her company,Cerebreon Technologies, specialise in high-end data analytics and business management systems.
Speaking after the final she said she was thrilled to have won and was looking forward to representing Donegal in the national finals.
“In all honesty, I really was shell-shocked to win the Regional Final. Since the Donegal final in November it has been all go, there was a stage where I had been in 9 countries in 7 days, so just getting back to the competition was all a bit of a whirlwind. I was driving home on Thursday night and said to myself – did that just really happen?”

Gillian, who is originally from Kildare, insisted that Portnoo was the perfect place to establish and grow the business and said she has been truly amazed by the level of support she has received.

“I’m not talking about grants or financial assistance, it is the support, the advice, learning and mentoring. It has been nothing short of phenomenal. The Local Enterprise Office and Enterprise Ireland have been so supportive and so helpful.”