Leah Fletcher named HPSU Founder of the Year for cannabinoid meds

Fletcher is interested in how cannabinoids can be regulated and used in pharmaceutical contexts, she told SiliconRepublic.com.

Leah Fletcher, the founder and CEO of Dunbar Pharma, Ireland’s first EU GMP-certified cannabinoid pharmaceutical manufacturer, has won this year’s Enterprise Ireland High Potential Start-Up (HPSU) Founder of the Year award.

Based in Athlone, the company produces WaterClear THC, a trademarked plant-derived dronabinol active pharmaceutical ingredient.

“My interest in cannabinoid medicines began while I was living in Canada around the time cannabis was legalised there,” Fletcher told SiliconRepublic.com in an interview earlier this year. “I was fascinated by how quickly the conversation around the plant was changing and how emotional, political and commercial it was.”

Fletcher first began her career as a teacher in an Irish national school and then a school in British Columbia, Canada before taking a “huge leap from classroom to cleanroom.

“I became interested in how cannabinoids could be moved away from uncertainty and placed into a pharmaceutical framework – evidence, quality, consistency, compliance and patient safety,” she said.

The annual Founder of the Year Award recognises leading entrepreneurs emerging from Enterprise Ireland’s cohort of supported founders and businesses. This year, five finalists were shortlisted for the prestigious award alongside Fletcher, including Lia Eyecare’s Breda O’Regan; Mark Birrane, the founder and CEO of Wondr; Robert Norton, the co-founder of Kaptea; and Seán Kirwan, MedWrite AI’s CEO.

To date, 500 HPSU companies have taken part in the Founders Forum programme’s 11-year run. Mark O’Sullivan, the co-founder and CEO of NeuroBell, which develops portable brain monitors for neonatal ICUs, took home the award last year.

The Founder of the Year Awards 2026 took place at the Salesforce Tower in Dublin. The award ceremony was preceded by a competition where founders pitched their businesses to a judging panel consisting of Enterprise Ireland executives, Founder Forum alumni and other entrepreneurs.

“Over the past 11 years, 500 HPSU companies have come through the Founders Forum, from food and beverage, biotech and medical devices to AI, cybersecurity and SaaS,” said Mark Christal, the executive director at Enterprise Ireland.

“That mix reflects the diversity, creativity and ambition that define Ireland’s entrepreneurial spirit. Tonight’s five finalists were chosen by their peers to represent their founder groups, which says a great deal about the respect they have earned within this community.”

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