Rónán is from Clondalkin, Ireland and is a social entrepreneur and activist.
As a teenager he represented Ireland on the Irish Karate Squad, was Captain of
his Gaelic football team and President of his student council. In November 2013 he
was presented with the Irish Presidential Youth Award, a Gold Gaisce Medal. He
comes from one of Dublin's most disadvantaged communities, instilling in him a
strong social conscience and commitment to positive social change.
Rónán graduated top of his class with a degree in Gnó agus Gaeilge from Dublin
City University and was awarded the Chancellor's Medal for Outstanding
Achievement.
As an undergraduate student he represented Ireland as the winner of the global
Enactus competition for social enterprise and has also represented the young
people of Ireland as a delegate to the European Union, UNESCO, One Young
World and the United Nations.
He was elected a Young Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum and is a
member of ChangemakerXChange, the world’s largest social enterprise
collaboration network for young social entrepreneurs. In 2020 he was nominated
as a leading 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur.
Rónán set up his first social enterprise upon graduation and has been successfully
launching social enterprises since then. The enterprise he is currently leading,
Thriftify (an e-commerce solution for charity shops), has been awarded the Best
Social & Sustainable Start-Up and was recently recognised as a High Potential
Start-Up by Enterprise Ireland as it raised substantial investment to scale its model
internationally and signed up 95% of Ireland's charity shops to its platform.
In October 2019 Rónán was arrested along with other activists from the climate
action campaign Extinction Rebellion for blocking the gates of Dáil Éireann as part
of a successful campaign for the Irish Government to declare a climate
emergency.