“I FINISHED SECONDARY SCHOOL WHEN I WAS 16. I WAS SO YOUNG THAT A BUSINESS DEGREE SEEMED LIKE IT WAS THE LOGICAL WAY TO GO BECAUSE IT WOULD PROVIDE VARIOUS OPTIONS”
When the opportunity to become Chief Executive of Platform94, the west of Ireland’s largest innovation hub, came her way, Marie Donnellan felt it was too good to let pass.
“It was just a fabulous opportunity that presented itself unexpectedly, and it was just such a perfect fit for me, I couldn’t turn it down”, she says.
“I remember at the time when I was telling people that I had been offered the role, they said that if they took out a pen and paper and crafted an ideal role for me, they wouldn’t get a better fit”.
Leaving her role as Audit Director with EY’s Galway office was not without risk, of course. But she felt it was time to take what she describes as a “dive into the unknown”.
“I had experienced a profound wake-up call. After losing my daughter, my perspective on life had shifted hugely. It brought a deep clarity about what matters, how fragile life is, and the importance of making a meaningful impact. That continues to guide everything I do.
“It was certainly a big risk. But sometimes when you take a big risk, you have no choice but to make it work. It can be a good thing to pull away your safety blanket a little bit; it creates a big fire under you because you have to make a success of it”.
Donnellan believes her time with EY provided her with a solid foundation for her current role.
“I was hugely fortunate during my time with EY to be afforded many great opportunities and to work with amazing people. While at EY, particularly while working closely with founders and scaling businesses, I saw firsthand both the ambition that exists regionally and the gaps in support that companies face as they try to scale internationally. The Platform94 role presented an opportunity to have a more direct impact—to build something, shape it and support businesses and entrepreneurs at a critical stage of growth.”
Her journey to becoming a Chartered Accountant began with a business degree at the University of Limerick.
“I finished secondary school when I was 16. I was so young that a business degree seemed like it was the logical way to go because it would provide various options.
“I had a natural aptitude for accountancy in school, but I didn’t get my Chartered Accountancy qualification thinking that I’d be in practice for 40 years. I was always commercially minded and entrepreneurial, and I saw it as a great way to build a solid business foundation, which it certainly provided.”
Donnellan joined EY’s Limerick office when she graduated in 2008.
“Ireland was just going into recession, and it was a fantastic role to get. I learned a lot. I was also blessed to be in a regional office where I got exposure to the full audit process from start to finish. The training was exceptional. It gave me a great base to work off”.
She moved to Galway in 2016 for the opening of the EY office in the city. “It was only supposed to be a short spell in Galway, but I’m still here”.
Giving organisations the space to grow
Donnellan joined Platform94 as CEO in 2024 and says that the organisation “is a centre of excellence for scaling businesses.”
“We are anchored by our 66,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Galway and extended through the SCALE by Platform94 community across the west and northwest. We support ambitious, export-focused companies that are moving beyond early-stage into real scale”, she says.
“This support ranges from physical infrastructure and workspace through to peer-to-peer learning, strategic advisory, international partnerships and targeted programmes. We help indigenous businesses scale globally from the west of Ireland, focusing on practical outcomes—growth, job creation and international expansion”.
Platform94 started out as Galway Technology Centre in 1994, when it was established by a Government task force in the wake of the Digital Equipment Corporation closure.
“At its peak”, Donnellan explains, “Digital Equipment Corporation employed 2,500 people, which was about 10 percent of the Galway City working population at the time. It was devastating for Galway. The aim was to provide a place where displaced workers could start their own businesses”.
The Galway Technology Centre started as a small 6,000 square-foot facility. “It’s now 11 times the original size. We have over 100 companies and over 700 people based in the building. These are primarily indigenous companies, but we do have a certain number of FDIs that use it as a soft-landing base in Ireland”, Donnellan says.
“One of the biggest problems for companies coming out of an incubator or that early stage is finding their own commercial premises”, she notes. “In general, they are asked to sign a 20- or 10-year lease if they are lucky. We offer one-year rolling licenses, which are very helpful to them. Our units range from two-person to 60-person units. This provides businesses with great flexibility to be able to grow and expand”.
Donnellan joined just as the latest extension to the space was completed. “I was fortunate to be joining a 30-year-old organisation with a great history, team and community. The extension brought with it a need for strong financial and business development leadership. Over the past two years, we have doubled occupancy and achieved record financial and operational performance, transforming the business.
“My ongoing focus as CEO has been not just expansion but strengthening core depth in order to do so successfully”.
Building businesses that will last
Donnellan knows that Platform94’s work is enhanced by the support available in Ireland.
“We are very fortunate, as a country, to have the level of support that exists through Enterprise Ireland and the Local Enterprise Office. Their work is exceptional and something we should not take for granted”.
But there is a gap at the more established end of the journey, when companies are moving into international scale, she says.
“At that point, support often shifts towards external professional services, which many scaling businesses simply can’t yet afford. That’s where we are focusing our efforts— providing more accessible, practical supports, including access to experienced operators, fractional executive leadership and peer networks. We are also very aligned with Enterprise Ireland and our international partners in supporting companies as they enter new markets, particularly through soft landing pathways”.
What matters most is ensuring businesses feel connected to a wider ecosystem and have access to the right supports and networks, she continues. “That is exactly what we are focused on through our scaling community—ensuring companies in the west and northwest are not just competing but leading on an international stage”.
This means supporting them as they manage the strain that comes with growth. “Areas like sales capacity, cashflow management, leadership bandwidth and operational systems tend to come under real pressure as businesses scale. There is also a constant balancing act between investing for growth while protecting margins, particularly in an uncertain economic environment. AI and digital transformation are high on the agenda, but in many cases, execution is well behind ambition”.
She believes the biggest pitfall facing many business founders is trying to grow their business too fast without the right structure and the right people around them. “They need to be very deliberate about building leadership capacity early, strengthening mid-management and putting scalable systems in place before growth accelerates. The most successful companies I see are disciplined in execution, consistent in delivery, clear in their priorities and actively surround themselves with the right supports. Scaling is not about rapid expansion. It is about building a business that will last. That can only be achieved by sustainable growth and proper scaling structures”.
Future opportunities
Donnellan is optimistic about the future of Platform94.
“When I look ahead, all I see is opportunity. I genuinely believe that the potential for this region, with the calibre of innovation, entrepreneurs and scaling businesses we have, is vast. That in turn creates a huge opportunity for Platform94 to continue evolving in line with the needs of those businesses”. A key focus is the continued development of the regional scaling community in partnership with Enterprise Ireland. “We are also placing a strong emphasis on internationalisation, including the expansion of soft-landing locations to help our companies enter new markets with the right connections and on-the-ground support”, she continues.
“We have recently opened a Platform94 base in Manchester, which is already proving very valuable in supporting exploratory market visits, facilitating introductions and helping businesses build early traction in the UK. Looking forward, the ambition is to continue building Platform94 as a centre of excellence for scaling businesses, ensuring ambitious innovative companies from this region can compete and succeed on a global stage”.
And her own future? “I have no idea what the future will hold for me. I don’t know what next week will hold, let alone next year! I’m currently enjoying taking one week at a time, and maximising the opportunity to make a meaningful impact”.