AMBA & BGA EXCELLENCE AWARDS
The Postgraduate Leadership Award was won by UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School alumna Lorna Conn
POSTGRADUATE LEADERSHIP AWARD Lorna Conn, UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, University College Dublin, Ireland In January 2022, Lorna Conn became CEO of CPL, Ireland’s largest talent solutions company, with 14,000 employees spread across 47 offices in 13 different countries. Conn was then appointed to the executive committee of CPL’s parent company – Tokyo-listed Outsourcing Inc (OSI) – in March 2023, where she is the only woman in a six-member team. In addition to her CEO role, Conn is now senior managing executive officer of OSI’s overseas technology business, overseeing operations in the UK and Oceania for a company that operates in 39 countries worldwide, has more than 250 sister companies and employs more than 130,000 people worldwide. START-UP OF THE YEAR AWARD Puneet Saini, University of Canterbury Business School, New Zealand for Script Sense Script Sense aims to alleviate the number of deaths that occur because of medicine-related errors by equipping pharmacists with advanced tools for data-informed decisions and clinical insights. It draws on cloud computing, process automation, machine learning and AI to help provide a safer and more efficient healthcare experience that mitigates prescribing errors and positively impacts patient outcomes. ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD Gaetano Lapenta, Polimi Graduate School of Management, Italy for Fybra During his executive MBA (EMBA), Gaetano Lapenta decided that he was ready to move from manager to entrepreneur and run an impactful venture, in both social and environmental terms. The idea for Fybra, a manufacturer of patented air quality products that draw on sensors and algorithms, was inspired by his daughter’s health concerns. The EMBA, meanwhile, gave him the necessary focus and tools to develop a minimum viable product, get a team together, raise funds and launch his business.
Script Sense co-founder and University of Canterbury Business School graduate Puneet Saini ( pictured right on videolink ) accepted the Start-Up of the Year Award
Polimi Graduate School of Management alumnus Gaetano Lapenta received the Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Ambition | FEBRUARY 2024 | 17
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