Geraldine King Judging Panel Co-Ordinator
Chief Executive, Employment & Recruitment Federation (ERF)
Geraldine joined the Federation in 2009 and is responsible for the running of the ERF office and all divisions of the Federation, including all PR & Marketing and internal communications. Since her arrival to the ERF she has been focused on expanding the services of the ERF to members and has introduced the accredited Certificate in recruitment practice to the Irish recruitment industry the only certificate for recruiters in Ireland. Her belief and vision is that the recruitment industry should be viewed as a profession and have a full academic career path, she has been instrumental in the success of the government award of the first under graduate 3 year degree apprenticeship programme for recruiters in partnership with the National College of Ireland which commenced in September 2020. She has also successfully led the ERF to obtain their own Skillnet which provides much needed reduced funded training for members. She is listed for the 5th year running in Staffing Industry Analysts top 100 EU leaders and in the top 150 Global power Women.
Prior to joining ERF Geraldine worked with Grafton Recruitment managing 3 of their branches on the East Coast.
Geraldine is a qualified trainer and coach, and she has an MA in HRM.
Meet the Judges for 2022.....
Jannetje van Leeuwen
A successful entrepreneur, angel investor, super connector and door opener
Jan has co-founded and managed four start-up business ventures in Hospitality, Print, Entertainment, and Consumer Goods sectors.
During her time at IQ Branding Solutions, Jan shaped commercial strategy to deliver 7-figure turnover in 4-years, yielding double digit profit growth. She established a niche company, punching well above its’ weight by landing large blue-chip contracts and holding significant market share.
Jan speaks four languages, which has helped her accumulate international experience, transacting business across the UK, Europe, and the US. She has worked with leading brands across multiple industry sectors, including recognisable names such as Aramark, Celestica, Diageo, Google, IKEA, JC Decaux, PWC, Sport Ireland, and Verizon.
A mentor that is genuinely interested in sharing her experience and opening doors within her extensive network. Also, Jan has supported Enterprise Ireland over the last 3.5-years, both as investment panellist and mentor to HPSU and LEO New Frontiers clients.
Alongside this Jan has invested in nine start-ups, across Technology, Fintec, Events, SaaS, and Property sectors. She is also a private investor with HBAN.
Additionally, on a pro bono basis, Jan supports Common Purpose Ireland on their Advisory Board, and is a member of Foroige’s NFTE National Judging Panel, a youth entrepreneurship programme.
Anthony Cooney
CEO –
Fingal Dublin Chamber of Commerce
Anthony Cooney took up the position as Chief Executive Officer of Fingal Dublin Chamber of Commerce in July 2017. Fingal is Irelands fastest growing , youngest and most culturally diverse region on the island of Ireland and the Chambers primary role is to enable the region to be at the forefront of economic development both from an indigenous and foreign direct development perspective.
Anthony would reach out to overseas organisations in order to put Fingal at the very forefront of economic development plans both incoming and outgoing.
Prior to joining Fingal Dublin Chamber Anthony worked for more than twenty years with one of Europes largest private Equity organisations specialising in the acquisition , management and turnaround of “ Recurring Income “ B2B businesses throughout the UK and Ireland.
Companies specialising in the food service , catering and hot & cold beverage supplies was Anthonys main focus and he managed some of the UK and Irelands largest businesses in this sector
Joe Harlin
CEO –
Business Development Manager
Joe retired from Wavin Ireland as Business Development Manager after 47 years of service. During his time in Wavin, he has been involved in direct sales, project sales, merchandising, key account management and business development. Joe has 20 years’ experience in training staff in product knowledge and sales techniques.
Janice O Rourke
Education and Operations Manager for the Employment and Recruitment Federation
Since joining the ERF 4 years ago she has worked on building the offering of ERF Skillnet and supported the implementation of the BA Hons Degree for Recruitment Executives in partnership with NCI. Prior to joining the ERF Janice spent 15 years in Hewlett Packard where she was the Procurement Manager. She loves GAA football and hurling which she enjoys with her family
Alan Costello
Venture Leader, NDRC,
Alan is a venture investment specialist, working with startup and scaling business in Ire/EU to define internationalisation plans and raise investment capital to support that. Special interest across science & technology fields and currently focusing on climate and sustainability growth oriented businesses.
Rebecca Harrison
Founder & Managing Director of Food at Fishers Ltd
Rebecca Harrison, former President of Network Ireland, the leading organisation for women in business, currently sits on the National Retail Consultation Forum, the Board of Retail Excellence Ireland and the SFA’s Skillnet Steering Committee. She is managing director of Fishers of Newtownmountkennedy department store & founder of Food at Fishers Café.
Gerry Leydon
Gerry is a qualified accountant with 35+ years' experience working in Finance, Supply Chain and General Management for MNC companies in Ireland and UK. His most recent role was with Coca-Cola and was responsible for the Drogheda and EMEA Concentrate Supply Chain operations. In recent years, Gerry has become actively involved at national, regional and local level with a number of Not for Profit and Community organisations. These include Drogheda Alzheimer’s, Teaching Council of Ireland, North Leinster Citizens Information Service and Drogheda Tidy Towns
Kara McAlister
Kara T. McAlister is a US educator, who has worked as a teacher educator, lecturer, and researcher in the U.S., the UK, Slovakia, Czechia and Ireland. She earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 2010, and her research interests include cultural and linguistic diversity in education. She has been a visiting researcher at Bangor University, and a lecturer for Northern Arizona University in Arizona and CIEE in Prague and London. Dr. McAlister moved to Drogheda in 2019 and is currently teaching English Language Development for SHSA.
Claudia Kemna
Principal M.O. for the weather service
Claudia moved to Ireland from Germany a little over 20 years ago, after completing her education in the fields of banking and geodesy. In combining these skills with information technology, she worked in a number of government departments in the field of GIS, and went on to complete an MSc in Geographic Information Sciences at TU Dublin. She now lives in North County Dublin and works as Principal M.O. for the weather service, where she currently manages the development of a visualisation and dissemination project.
Business Awards Gallery
PRIVACY POLICY DROGHEDA & DISTRICT CHAMBER INTRODUCTION This Privacy Policy details the privacy practices of Drogheda & District Chamber of Commerce. We have focused on implementing the practices of Fairness, Transparency and Accountability to protect the privacy of our customers, clients and all who visit our website www.droghedachamber.ie In accordance with The General Data Protection Regulation (EU2016/679) and The Data Protection Act 2018, Drogheda & District Chamber of Commerce is identified as a Data Controller of your personal information. There may be occasions when we are also identified as a Data Processor. As an Organization data protection and privacy is of the utmost importance to us and we respect your trust in us, to use, store and share your personal information. In this Privacy Policy we explain how we collect personal information about you, how we use it and how you can communicate with us, regarding the use of your data. All personal information we collect about you will be processed in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) and The Irish Data Protection Act 2018. This Privacy policy relates to personal information which is collected through the website of Drogheda & District Chamber of Commerce and does not extend to personal information which is collected on a manual basis or to non-automated records. WHO ARE WE? We are Drogheda & District Chamber, located in Drogheda, Co Louth, Ireland. As the leading business organisation in Drogheda, our mission is simple, to promote, engage, support, and ultimately make business better for our members and the wider community. We are a volunteer led organisation and for over 125 years Drogheda & District Chamber has been the beating heart of the business community. How we collect information about you When you browse our website www.droghedachamber.ie, we may ask for personal information such as your name, email address. We may also collect information about you when you are on the internet such as the website you came from, IP address, domain types, i.e., .co.uk and.com), your browser type the country where your internet service provider is located, the pages of our site that were viewed during your visit and search terms that you used. This information is only used for our own research and to improve our service to you. We will only collect your personal information when you provide it to us, when you email us, send an enquiry through our “Contact Us” page and when you subscribe to any of our services. Drogheda & District Chamber use the social media platforms of Facebook, and Twitter to keep our members informed of events and services which we consider may be of interest.. Our website uses “Cookie” technology. A cookie is a little piece of text that the server places on your device when you visit our website. They help us make the site work better for you. For further information on our use of Cookies, please refer to the Cookie Policy on www.droghedachamber.ie What Personal Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website, we collect particular information related to your device, such as the IP address, referring website, details of the pages your device visited and the time that your device visited our website. Drogheda & District Chamber respect your right to privacy, and we will only collect personal information when you provide this to us. When you submit an email enquiry, subscribe to our mailing list or newsletter or register for an event, or complete any of our on line forms we will process your personal information for specific purposes which allow us to provide and deliver our services to you. The categories of personal information that we collect from you include, names, email addresses, postal addresses and phone numbers, transactional information (including invoices due and paid). How We Use Your Personal Information Drogheda & District Chamber will process your personal information for a variety of legal purposes, including but not limited to the following: • To provide services to members and potential members • Networking opportunities • To respond to any communications, you might send to us • To send you email alerts and newsletters that you have opted in to receive • Educational events • Promoting members • Lobbying • Start Up Business Assistance • Collaboration • Process membership transactions (including transaction confirmations and invoices • Send members industry updates, event/news/notifications, and administrative communications • Manage members use of our services and to respond to enquiries and comments and provide membership services and support Use of Non-Personal Information We gather statistical and analytical information collected on an aggregate basis of all visitors to our website www.droghedachamber.ie. This non-personal information encompasses data that cannot be used to identify you. Google Analytics We use Google Analytics to analyse the performance of www.m1skillnet@droghedachamber.com. The information Google Analytics gathers using our website’s cookies, generate generic reports about the use of our website. Further information regarding our use of Google Analytics is detailed in our Cookie Policy Our Legal Bases to Process Your Personal Information We detail below our identified legal bases which allow is to process your personal information: • Processing is necessary for the performance of a Contract to which the Data Subject is party or to take steps at the request of the Data Subject prior to entering. The Contract • Consent • Legal Obligation • Legitimate Interest of the Data Controller • Public Interest If we process personal information based on your Consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing which took place prior to its withdrawal. Sharing of Personal Information There may be occasions when it is necessary for us to share your personal information with our external working Partners and Stakeholders for the purposes of providing our services to you. We detail below some of our external Third Partners; however, this is information is not an exhaustive list. • Web Hosting Company • Consultants • Saas Providers • Email Platform • Payroll Provider There may also be occasions when in accordance with Independent Statutory Legislation we are obligated to share personal information. Under certain circumstances, we may be required to disclose your personal information in response to valid requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. Is Personal Data Transferred outside the EEA? We do not knowingly transfer personal information outside the EEA, however our CRM system is Hub Spot and is hosted in Europe. How we keep your Personal information Safe Drogheda & District Chamber are committed to the protection and security of your personal information. We use a variety of technologies and procedures to protect your personal information from, “unauthorised use, and access, accidental loss, unlawful destruction, alteration, unlawful disclosure. As effective as security practices are, no physical or electronic system is entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the complete security of our data base or can we guarantee that information that you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the internet. We have implemented strict internal guidelines to ensure that your privacy is safeguarded at every level of our organisation. We will continue to revise policies and procedures and review our systems and we will implement additional security features as new technologies become available. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. When we receive your personal information, we use appropriate security measures to prevent your personal information from being compromised in any way. When you contact us to ask about your personal information, we may ask you to identify yourself, this is to help protect your personal information. How Long Do We Keep Your Personal Information? We process and retain personal information to meet our legal and regulatory requirements and for as long as necessary to enable Drogheda & District Chamber to provide our services to our members. It is not our practice to retain personal information for longer than is considered necessary. Third-Party Sites Our website may contain links to other Third-Party sites. When you click on one of these links you are visiting a website operated by someone other than Drogheda & District Chamber and the operator of that website may have a different privacy policy. We are not responsible for their individual privacy practices; we encourage you to investigate the privacy policies of such Third-Party Operators. Children We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If you are under 13, do not access, use, or provide any personal information on www.droghedachamber.ie or through any of its features. If we learn that we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13, without parental consent, we will delete that information. Do We Use Cookies Yes, we use a variety of Cookies. A Cookie is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then be stored on your system. Our website uses these Cookies to collect information which enables us to improve our service. You have the option to either accept or refuse these Cookies and know when a Cookie is being sent to your computer. If you choose to refuse our Cookies you may not be able to use some portions of our Service. Full details of our use of Cookies will be found in our separate Cookie Policy. Your Personal information Rights In accordance with The EU General Data Protection Regulation and The Data Protection Act 2018 you are afforded the following rights in certain circumstances. However, not all “Rights” are absolute, and exemptions may apply. Right of Access: You have the right to obtain confirmation from us whether or not we process personal information about you and where that is the case, access to the personal data, including the purposes of the processing and the categories of personal data concerned. The recipients or categories or recipients to whom the personal information have been or will be disclosed. You may also submit a written request for a copy of personal information you believe we may be processing about you. Upon such a written request, Drogheda & District Chamber will verify the validity of the request for security purposes. Your subject access request will be responded to within thirty days, However, where the request is unreasonable, or onerous such requests will be responded to within a two-month time period. Right to Rectification: You have the right to the rectification of inaccurate personal information about you without undue delay. Right to Erasure: You may ask us to delete your personal information, however this is not an absolute right and any such request will be considered in connection with our legal obligations and under the legal framework of the EU GDPR Right to Restricting and Objecting: You have the right to restrict or object to us using your personal information. Right to Data Portability: Upon your written request, where possible we can share a digital copy of your personal information with you or another organisation. How to contact us Should you have any questions regarding how we process your personal information please send an email to brenda@droghedachamber.ie You can also address your correspondence The Data Protection Compliance Officer, Drogheda & District Chamber, Dublin Road, Drogheda, Co Louth, Ireland. The Data Commissioners Office can be contacted at www.dataprotection.ie Changes to this Privacy Policy We will make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time, particularly when we make changes regarding how we process your personal information and expand our services. Details of any changes made will be posted here so that you can see what information we gather, how we might use that information and in what circumstances we may disclose it. By continuing to use our site after we post any such changes, you accept and agree to the privacy policy as modified. Updated - December 2020