JCI Galway picks ten of the county’s best young people for 2016

Galway’s top ten young people under 40 include an international rugby star, the founder of a technology start-up, an Antarctic adventurer and an aid relief workers in Afghanistan.

They were among the selection nominated by Junior Chamber International Galway in a competition designed to identify those in the community, who have done something remarkable.

Nominations to identify these outstanding young people (aged 18-40) in Galway were sought from the public in February.

This year they received a record number of nominations for young people to be considered one of the Ten Outstanding Young People for 2016 in Galway.

Among them were Dorothy Creaven, co-founder and CEO of Element Wave with eleven staff specialising in mobile software technology for the iGaming industry, who was chosen in the Category of Scientific and / or Technological Development; Maria McLoughlin, an Advocacy and Communications Officer with Goal Ireland working on the Syria #NowYouKnow campaign, and Zena Ní Dhuinn Bhig is currently working for Concern Worldwide in Afghanistan as a Programme Support Officer – both chosen in the Humanitarian and / or Voluntary Leadership category – and Irish rugby star Robbie Henshaw who was chosen in the Category of Personal Improvement and / or Accomplishment, alongside Gavan Hennigan, the adventurer who has raced across Antarctica and Siberia and now plans to row across the Atlantic later this year.

There were three winners in the Category of Business, Economic, and / or Entrepreneurial Accomplishment – Gill Carroll, owner of 37 West and 56 Central; Maria Phillips, CEO and founder of Couture Intel, a luxury goods comparison site portal, and Barry Duffy, who has developed a shared office space in the heart of the city called SuperPixel.

Edel Browne, a second year Biotechnology student at NUI Galway was chosen for Academic Leadership and / or Accomplishment; she has been building her company, Free Feet, a medical device company with a special interest in Parkinson’s.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.