Catherine O'Neill is the 25-year-old managing director of Amelio Group, an engineering firm which specialises in drainage and civil engineering.
O’Neill founded Amelio while still a student at Queens University, Belfast. She graduated in 2012 with a first class master’s degree in civil engineering.
Amelio have offices in Belfast, Dublin and Gloucester, England, and employ more than 50 staff.
The services they provide include civil engineering projects; CCTV pipeline inspection surveys and reports; sewer cleansing services with 24/7 response maintenance; drain repair services using “no dig” technology; emptying septic tanks; cleansing of interceptors and water tanks; pollution remediation and treatment; leak detection and utility mapping.
The company is aiming to increase its market share of the civil engineering and drainage industry throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom in the coming months.
What is your greatest business achievement to date? In 2012 I started Amelio using the kitchen table in my parents' home as my office, with the assistance of a colleague from university and one piece of equipment.
Approximately one year later I moved into offices at Work West Enterprise Park in Belfast.
Having premises enabled us to expand rapidly. Amelio has over 50 employees and is still expanding.
Our greatest achievement to date has been to further grow the business and establish two further bases in Dublin and Gloucester.
What was the best piece of advice you received when starting out? One of the most useful pieces of advice I got has been in the form of the famous expression "a pessimist is a person who sees a difficulty in every opportunity.
“An optimist is a person who sees an opportunity in every difficulty”.
The Amelio team and I are optimists and we approach every difficulty as an opportunity to improve, to grow and to be innovative in dealing with usually common and/or reoccurring problems with a new and fresh approach based upon sound engineering expertise.
What is the single most important piece of advice you would offer to a less experienced entrepreneur? I think one bit of advice which I would offer would be to quickly establish a strong, corporate brand and to promote that at every available opportunity.
When I started this company I initially gave it the name One Environment.
This was based on using the first three letters of my surname and then environment to reflect that we carried out environmental services.
I accept that this was a rather amateurish attempt at branding.
Thankfully, however, with the assistance of Invest Northern Ireland I and a professional design team [Positive Design]; the brand Amelio was launched.
Amelio means to ameliorate, to improve, to make better.
What would make you a better leader? I am still at a very early stage of my development as a business woman.
I acknowledge that I still have a lot to learn about all aspects of business.
Although I am a civil engineering graduate it has become clear to me the importance of understanding fully the financial aspects of running a business.
To assist with developing my skills in this area I am currently studying accountancy.
