Leonora O'Brien

Leonora is a qualified pharmacist with over 25 years’ experience in pharmacy practice, policy development and regulatory affairs at a national and international level. In previous roles, Leonora was the Chief Pharmacist for the Unicare Pharmacy group, the largest pharmacy group in Ireland where she was accountable for the legislative, professional and ethical compliance of the operation. She also worked for the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (the Pharmacy Regulator) and was European Manager for Celesio AG based in Germany where she had accountability for development and management of its patient safety and professional services strategy, both B2B & B2C, for 2,300 pharmacies across 8 European countries.

Leonora is a Lead Entrepreneur at Going for Growth - a customised program to support women entrepreneurs who are serious about growing their businesses. Now in its 14th year, Going for Growth has supported over 900 women entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions and measures its success in terms of the participants’ increased turnover, additional employment created and the number of new exporters. Sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, the Going for Growth program is based on the premise that entrepreneurs learn best from each other's experiences. Therefore, Leonora and her fellow Lead Entrepreneurs facilitate the program through interactive roundtable sessions where participants set business goals and hold each other to account.

Leonora founded Pharmapod Ltd in 2012, a pioneering company that develops software to reduce medication errors and promote safety of patients worldwide. Pharmapod was acquired by Think Research in Canada in 2021. With Leonora as CEO, Pharmapod was widely adopted across over 10,000 pharmacies and Long Term Care facilities by corporate clients such as Pillpack by Amazon in the US, CareRx in Canada as well as independent pharmacies and Pharmacy regulators. Pharmapod launched in multiple international markets including US, Australia, UK and Ireland securing over 65% of the Canadian market.

Leonora has served on a number of boards including the Technology Ireland Board and was a member of Council for the Dublin Chamber of Commerce. Leonora is an ambassador for women in business and STEM and has won numerous awards for business, pharmacy practice and innovation including Business Woman of the Year (Irish Women’s awards), Best Pharmacist-led team award (Irish Pharmacist awards) and the Tatler Women of the Year Award for Entrepreneurship.

About Going for Growth

Going for Growth is a customised programme to support women entrepreneurs who are serious about growing their businesses. Now in its 14th year, Going for Growth has supported over 900 women entrepreneurs to achieve their growth ambitions and measures its success in terms of the participants’ increased turnover, additional employment created and the number of new exporters. Sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, the Going for Growth program is based on the premise that entrepreneurs learn best from each other's experiences. Therefore, Lead Entrepreneurs facilitate the program through interactive roundtable sessions where participants set business goals and hold each other to account.