Formed in 2005, DCU Ryan Academy is a partnership between Dublin City University – Ireland’s University of Transformation and Enterprise – and the family of Dr Tony Ryan, one of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs.
DCU Ryan Academy promotes and accelerates early stage entrepreneurship in Ireland, through its leading entrepreneur, startup and innovation programmes and through events and activities which support broader entrepreneur and startup ecosystem development. The Academy helps startups transform great ideas into successful businesses. Your journey starts with us.
OUR TEAM
DONAL BRADY
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Donal is an entrepreneur with experience in the financial services & online education sectors.
Donal has successfully scaled and exited businesses and worked with hundreds of SMEs as a trusted advisor with a focus on business strategy and execution.
He has third level qualifications in business and digital innovation. He is passionate about accelerating early stage businesses and supporting emerging entrepreneurs.
Tel: 01 7006786
NIAMH COLLINS
DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMES & OPERATIONS
Niamh is an experienced Director of Programmes and Operations at DCU Ryan Academy with a demonstrated history of designing, developing, recruiting for and execution of high quality accelerator programmes for early-stage startups and experienced entrepreneurs in Ireland.
Niamh develope's and manages many of relationships with stakeholders; including national organisations, state bodies and industry, which is an integral part of her role. She overseas; all event management including Hackathons, StartUp Wake, Programme Finalé Events and seminars.
Team recruitment and leadership is a pivitol part of Niamh's role and overseeing the day-to-day activities of the Academy to ensure operational efficiency.
Tel: 01 7006786
MAURA JONES
SALES & EVENTS COORDINATOR
Maura is the Academy’s Sales & Events Coordinator. She delivers a high level of customer service and attention at all times and is the first point of contact for everyone visiting or participating in Academy programmes.
Maura's is responsibilities include; event organisation and delivery, venue hire and customer liaison. She also supports many of the programmes delivered at the Academy and more recently Maura has taken over the coordination of one the Academy's monthly events called 'Mentoring for Scale'.
She joined the Academy in 2012, after a successful career working in insurance compliance and underwriting.
Tel: 01 7006786
SIOBHAN KAVANAGH
FINANCE COORDINATOR
Siobhán is DCU Ryan Academy’s Finance Co-Ordinator. Siobhán has been with the Academy since early 2016.Siobhán’s role plays an important part across all programmes and is responsible for working in collaboration with other support teams, such as Finance, Procurement and HR, on a range of financial aspects. The Finance Co-Ordinator ensure’s the smooth operation of the Finance Department’s administration.
Siobhán has enjoyed an extensive career within the finance sector and brings a wealth of expertise to the role.
Tel: 01 7006765
KATE HOGAN
Lighthouse Project Coordinator
Kate is the Academy's Startup Lighthouse Programme Co-ordinator with responsibility for liaising with our partner hubs throughout Europe, which include: F6S (UK), ViLabs (Greece & Cyprus), FastTrack (Portugal), Startup Division (Lithuania) and etVentures (Germany).
With a keen interest in helping startups to establish and scale, Kate has worked with startups to further define their offerings and secure funding through various Horizon 2020 initiatives.
She has an academic background in science and technology entrepreneurship, experience in regulation, insurance and project financing.
Tel: 01 700 6766
TATIANA QUADROS
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR
Tatiana is our Digital Marketing and Social Media Co-Ordinator at the Academy.
She has an MSc in Digital Marketing and BA in Business and is passionate about communicating in the digital world. Tatiana has significant experience in delivering impactful business communications and social media marketing campaigns.
Tatiana joined the DCU Ryan Academy team to integrate the various online marketing activities of the Ryan Academy, and to work with the various team members on the management and delivery of the entrepreneurial programmes and events.
Tel: 01 7006761
