Elaine is an Irish-American woman of influence, says The Irish Voice

A CLARE woman has been named one of the 50 Irish-American Women of Influence by well-known US publication The Irish Voice.
Elaine Brennan from Roslevan in Ennis has lived in the United States for 16 years but makes regular trips home to the county, in particular to her parents’ home in Miltown Malbay.
Ms Brennan was awarded the title by another Clare native, the Consul General of Ireland, Noel Kilkenny.
While well-known for spending four and a half years with Enterprise Ireland in New York, Ms Brennan is now the CEO of Socrates Healthcare.
These appointments follow years of working in research and development in the United States after graduating from the then Galway Regional Technical College, now the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, as well as universities in the UK, Belgium and later, America.
Ms Brennan moved to the US in 1995 with a Morrison visa, which her mother applied for without her knowledge and first lived in Miami and Boston before settling in New York City.
One of Ms Brennan’s most notable achievements was inventing biodegradable chewing gum while working in research and development with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“It is a great conversation starter,” Ms Brennan jokes, “but it is true. I was in science and we were affiliated with MIT, so I think I got about $5 for the patent at the time. Wrigleys bought the patent but because they were buying it from the college, I got just a nominal fee.”
Being named among the most influential Irish Americans in business was a big honour for the Clare woman.
“It is really nice to be honoured by the Consul General because there are a lot of Irish people contributing to the economy here in lots of different ways. Now I work for an Irish company so it means I get to contribute to both sides, Irish and American,” she notes.
While Ms Brennan enjoys living in New York, she also lived there during the city’s darkest time.
“The US has been fun but we were here during 9/11 and we lived in Ground Zero and my brother was here at the time too. My father was an air traffic controller in Shannon and he was directing the planes back so it was strange the way it directly affected the family, despite us being so far apart,” she recalls.
While the impact of the terrorist attacks in 2001 was felt far and wide, the scar it left on New Yorkers and all Americans was plain to see for the Clare woman.
“There was a lot of bitterness after it happened and after that, people here became more conscious of being patriotic. That is also coming across in business now where people want to keep business here in the US. There is a push here to keep manufacturing here and to keep Americans employed and that is more obvious than before but it is not just about 9/11 but also about the economy and the global crash,” Ms Brennan says.
Ms Brennan featured on RTÉ radio’s weekend show, The Business, recently discussing the opportunities that exist in the United States for Irish companies.
“My message,” she tells The Clare Champion, “is that there are still a lot of opportunities here, you must know your market and your product. Sometimes people assume that there is a market here for their product because it is America but that is not always the case,” she said.