22 budding entrepreneurs from 6th class at St. James’s CBS primary school visited MetLife Europe Limited’s newly-expanded Dublin office on March 2nd where they pitched business ideas to a panel of venture capitalists a.k.a MetLife’s team of volunteer dragons.
Helping the students prepare their pitches were MetLife volunteers Maeve Judge, Finn Hegarty, Nicole Brack, Brendan Fitzgerald, Vienna Phua, Rose Kavanagh and Kalpesh Shah, whose enthusiasm and creativity matched that of the students in making sure the young entrepreneurs got their message across!
Dragons Pat O’Grady, Head of Finance Operations- Western Central Europe; Deirdre Moore, Head of FP&A & Shared Services- Western Central Europe; Rosemarie Dizon, Head of HR Ireland & Penny Bryant, Head of Communications – Western Central Europe were delighted to explore the innovative ideas put forward by the students, which included a smart fridge producing recipes based on what food is in the fridge, a drone-operated takeaway food delivery service and a pencil recycling business.
“I was overwhelmed by the energy and enthusiasm of the students to learn new things. They had some really creative ideas – certainly no boundaries to their imaginations! I definitely enjoyed the day as much as they did” said MetLife volunteer Finn Hegarty.