Image PwC Business Woman of the Year 2022 Award Winners Announced

On Wednesday night, April 20, Eva Pau, commercial director of Asia Market, was named the IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year 2022 at a glamorous black-tie event in the Clayton Hotel Burlington Road, Dublin. Eva is the second generation of a well-known family business founded in Drury Street, Dublin in 1981, and recognised as Ireland’s largest importer, wholesaler, distributor, food service supplier and retailer of Asian food products. Overseeing a significant role in the business’s succession and evolution, Eva has played on Asia Market’s established strengths, and brought the tools and market trends of her generation into its ever-evolving strategy. She has also diversified the business into other congruent verticals in both B2B and B2C arenas, including the establishment of Duck, the authentic Hong Kong-style BBQ meats restaurant on Fade Street. Eva is currently vice chair of the Chinese Society of Ireland, a member of the Advisory Council of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies and a board member of DublinTown. 

The IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Fiona Dawson CBE, who after a career of 33 years in the organisation, recently retired from her role as global president of Mars Food, Multisales and Global Customers. She currently chairs the Women’s Business Council in the UK and sits on a number of advisory boards, including that of Trinity Business School. Fiona is a non-executive director of the LEGO Group, Marks & Spencer, and Kerry Group. She is a Businesswoman of the Year alum, having previously been awarded IMAGE Businesswoman of the Year (Overseas) in 2016. Former recipients of this Lifetime Achievement Award include Voxpro co-founder Linda Kiely; Breege O’Donoghue, former group director of Primark; Mary Finan, a founding partner of Wilson Hartnell PR; retail entrepreneur Geraldine Swarbrigg; Freda Hayes, founder of Meadows & Byrne; and journalist and former editor of the Sunday Independent, Anne Harris. 

The annual IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards champions businesswomen’s contribution to the Irish economy and their vital role within the Irish business community at home and abroad. The black-tie awards ceremony, which welcomed 800 attendees, was held in partnership with PwC, sponsored by BMW, Kuehne+Nagel, Glenveagh, The Executive Institute, and SIRO; and in association with Marks & Spencer, Malfy, Movement, Gotcha Covered, and Enterprise Ireland. The awards recognise women in business, from CEOs and management professionals to the entrepreneurs behind some of the country’s most successful organisations and most ambitious start-ups. “This year’s IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards really demonstrates how talented, enterprising and resilient Irish women are,” says IMAGE Media CEO Clodagh Edwards. “We were delighted to see such an impressive and diverse range of talent on our shortlist for 2022; many in new roles or businesses created over the most extraordinary past couple of years, others who have developed or further finessed their successes. 

Our winners are richly deserving of recognition, and I’m so proud that IMAGE Media can offer voice and platform to all.” Says Emma Scott, People Partner at PwC: “Congratulations to the very worthy award-winners and all those who were shortlisted for this year’s IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards. This year’s awards are a celebration of the achievements of women in business throughout the country. From superior leadership values and clarity of communication to fresh perspectives and a more questioning approach to risk, studies have shown that businesses perform better with greater diversity. In that context, women in business must continue to act as a beacon for the next generation – those who follow you will thank you.”