The Science of Business

Serial entrepreneur Louise Grubb has an incredible track record of business success. Driven by innovation Louise is currently working on her third successful start-up.

Following her graduation from Trinity College Dublin with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics Louise worked as a dietician at Crumlin Children’s Hospital and despite loving this work Louise decided to place her focus on business and went on to complete an MBA at DCU and a marketing course with the Marketing Institute of Ireland. From there, she got a job in sales with Cow & Gate Nutricia where she spent the next five years, working her way up to Senior Manager. She and her husband, John, a vet, decided to leave Dublin and move back to her native Waterford where she decided it was the right time to go it alone in business and set up her first company.

NutriScience was established in 1999, the company develops and manufactures nutraceuticals for animal health and its launch was a global success. When an opportunity arose in 2009, NutriScience was sold to the Belgian animal healthcare company, Ecuphar which continues to manufacture and employ people in Waterford.

Louise had a new business venture in mind and she established Q1 Scientific in 2012. It is the first Irish company to specialise in the provision of a stability storage service, meeting the highest international standards, as required for the highly regulated pharma, medical devices and bio-sciences industries. Today Q1 Scientific employs twelve people and can count 10 of the world’s top pharma companies as clients. Louise recently moved to the role of Chairperson as another new business venture was already within her future sight.

After raising 3.2million in capital Louise co-founded TriviumVet with Tom Brennan and launched the business in 2018. TriviumVet specialists in the development of drugs and other medical devices to treat chronic diseases in companion animals. The company has already developed a beef-flavoured tablet for treating gastric ulcers in older dogs. The drug is currently making its way through the regulatory process, while a heart disease treatment is also at the advanced stage of development.

Louise’s business acumen and achievements have been recognised over the years with an array of business and innovation awards including being selected as a finalist in the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. Along the way, her businesses have also been shortlisted and have won many prestigious industry awards inlcuding the AIB / Business & Finance Irish Emerging Company of the Year, David Manley Start Up Business of the Year, Irish Industrial Products Exporter of Year, Pharma Start-up of the Year, to name but a few.

Louise is a keynote speaker at national and international conferences and also offers her time as an adviser to start-up companies on business development and marketing. She developed the Irish Business Role Models teaching program for 3rd level education in association with Enterprise Ireland and supports several local charities.

Most recently Louise has launched a new podcast series, titled ‘The Science of Business’. Each month Louise meets with some of the people behind the pharma and life science sectors in Ireland who share their own career paths and interesting business stories in this leading global field. ‘The Business of Science’ can be found on Soundcloud.

Louise lives in Waterford with her family and it is here where her parents and grandparents before them have been in business for over a century. Her father ran a pharmacy and general store in the city and there, working part-time throughout her teenage years, Louise was first introduced to the world of entrepreneurship.

• No. of episodes: 9
• Latest episode: 2021-09-16
• Science

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