Cpl Resources boss Anne Heraty named Businesswoman of the Year

The IMAGE Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2015 took place last night.

The event recognises Ireland's top business women and their contribution to the Irish economy.

Anne Heraty, chief executive of Cpl Resources plc, was named as the Overall 2015 Image Businesswoman of the Year.

With an annual turnover in excess of €390m, the company has more than 650 permanent employees.

In any one week, Cpl also has around 10,000 temporary or contract staff under management in customer sites.

Ms Heraty has won numerous awards - and her company was ranked as 'Best Place to Work 2015' in the Large Organisation category.

There were also nine category winners announced.

Fiona Flannery, CEO of DEPFA Bank plc, was named Management Professional Businesswoman of the Year and Bernadette Kinsella, CEO of worldBOX.ie, took the Start-up of the Year title.

The CEO, festival director and creative director of Body & Soul, Avril Stanley, was also named as Creative Businesswoman of the Year.

The Social Entrepreneurship award was given to Michelle O'Donnell-Keating and Niamh Gallagher, co-founders of Women for Election - while Chupi Sweetman-Durney, creative director of Chupi Jewellery, won Young Businesswoman of the Year.

Sandra McKenna, co-founder of Sheology Digital, took the title of Digital Businesswoman of the Year - and the Overseas Businesswoman of the Year Award went to Dr Jeanne Bolger, vice president of investment ventures at Johnson & Johnson.

The CEO Businesswoman of the Year Award was awarded to Anna Malmhake, the CEO of Irish Distillers Pernod Ricard.

The awards also introduced the Lifetime Achievement Award to former chair of the RTÉ Authority and one of the founding partners at Wilson Hartnell Public Relations, Mary Finan.

Sara Mitchell, co-owner of Poulet Bonne Femme picked up the accolade for Entrepreneurship.

She explains how her rotisserie chicken business came about.

"My husband was made redundant in 2008, we had just had a new baby - he was 10 days old, our first child," she said.

"We realised quite quickly that there were no more jobs - neither of us were going to get employment - so we set about doing something ourselves.

"Rotisserie is something that we had seen on holidays in Spain and really enjoyed - and noticed that it wasn't in Ireland, and maybe we were missing it."