Professor Emmeline Hill was a co-founder of Equinome Ltd. and leads the Plusvital R&D team. In 2004 she was awarded a President of Ireland Young Researcher Award to establish the world’s first academic research programme dedicated to understanding performance traits in the Thoroughbred. She has been at the forefront of Thoroughbred performance genomics during the last decade and has published more scientific papers on equine exercise genomics than any other researcher worldwide. She is an Associate Professor of Equine Science at University College Dublin and leads the Equine Exercise Genomics research group at UCD funded by Science Foundation Ireland. She has retrained a former steeplechaser to be her weekend hack and she rides regularly with her two children.

Sean Finn is Financial Controller of Plusvital joining the team in September 2022. He is a Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland having first obtained a degree in Economics from Trinity College Dublin. He also holds a Diploma in Management from the Irish Management Institute. He has experience across a range of businesses & particularly enjoys supporting them on systems organisation & management as well as finance and business strategy development. He sees the role of finance as primarily about adding value across an entire business & not just conveying the financial results. Outside of work & family life he likes nothing better than taking his dogs on long walks as well as getting to the cinema as often as possible.

Dr Beatrice McGivney is the Research Manager at Plusvital. She graduated from Trinity College Dublin with a degree in Human Genetics and then joined Professor Hill’s Equine Exercise Genomics research group obtaining a PhD in Equine Functional Genomics. Beatrice started her career in Equinome Ltd in 2009 and following a three-year interval working as postdoctoral researcher she returned to Equinome Ltd. in 2014. Beatrice’s research has focussed on understanding the genetic response to exercise in the Thoroughbred and the development of tests to predict performance traits in the Thoroughbred racehorse. She loves to get out riding whenever she the opportunity arises with hunting and polocrosse being the latest endeavours.

Originally from Yorkshire, Amy joined Equinome Ltd in July 2013 with first-class honours in Equine Science from the Royal Agricultural University (Cirencester).   During her degree, she worked with high-performance polo ponies which inspired her undergraduate research project investigating myostatin mutations in polo ponies, which she conducted in collaboration with Equinome.  More recently with passionate interest in equine behaviour, welfare, performance and industry Amy completed her doctoral degree, supported by Plusvital, investigating genetic contributions to behaviour in the Thoroughbred horse.  This research was performed as part of the Equine Genomics Group at University College Dublin.  Amy has since returned to a research and development role in Plusvital as a Product Owner, facilitating both early stage research fieldwork, as well as overseeing product development.  When not ‘empowering equine performance’ at her desk in Plusvital Amy is a keen runner, taking part in the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon and Connemarathon earlier this year.

Experienced in developing innovative product, brand development and enhancing brand experience for global equestrian consumers, Clare led the Research & Development team as Product Innovation Manager for Horseware Ireland prior to joining the Plusvital team. She holds an MSc in International Business Management from University of Galway (previously National University of Ireland, Galway) where she graduated top of her class.

A lifelong equestrian she owns two Connemara ponies, competes regularly at Dressage Ireland events and has recently developed a keen interest in side saddle.

She holds additional diplomas in Equine Health, Equine management and a BA in Fashion Design.

Originally from Scotland, Fiona Goor has been involved for 25 years in the racing and breeding industry. After graduating from college, she moved to Sydney working in the bloodstock and marketing departments of William Inglis & Son for 3 years and in 1999 moved to Ireland to take up a position at Derrinstown Stud in the Nominations department.
In 2002, the opportunity arose at the international bloodstock agency, De Burgh Equine where she then spent 13 years as Office Manager and during these years also worked in a consultancy role to William Inglis & Son, and latterly, Aushorse as their European Representative, travelling to Australia each year to attend the major yearling sales.

Heather Mackenzie originally from Cheltenham is Sales Manager for Ireland at Plusvital. Heather has a wealth of knowledge of the equine industry having studied equine management and worked in the industry for almost 20 years. Heather competed in eventing in Ireland as well as riding in point to points across the UK. Heather has had the pleasure of caring for some special horses in some of the UK’s top racing yards including Grand national winning trainer Lucinda Russell and Sue Smith. With a passion for nutrition and how it can impact on performance, Heather has an excellent understanding of how supplements can really benefit clients in the Racing, Breeding and Sport horse sectors.

Gita Lelesiute, originally from Lithuania, completed her BA degree in English Philology at Vilnius Pedagogical University and set out for some adventure to Ireland where she’s lived for over 20 years. She joined the Plusvital team as Executive Assistant to the CEO in early 2014, and became Operations Manager in 2015. Gita manages the process of supplements orders and works closely with our factory at David Taylor Animal Nutrition Ltd to ensure smooth manufacture and dispatch of all the supplement orders. From exports and registration documents to regulatory processes and quality control, Gita provides fast and efficient support to our sales team and agents worldwide.

Gita is also our Office Manager, overseeing the smooth day-to-day running of the business.

She devotes her spare time to her daughter and her pets and is an avid animal rights advocate.

Prof David MacHugh obtained a BA (Mod) degree in Genetics from Trinity College Dublin in 1988 and undertook PhD research in animal genomics at TCD. His postdoctoral work on livestock paleogenomics was funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Bioarchaeology. In 1999 he took up a lectureship in University College Dublin and was appointed Professor in 2009. He is currently the Associate Dean for Research, Innovation and Impact at the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science. He is also a Conway Investigator (www.ucd.ie/conway), co-founder and Scientific Advisor to Equinome Ltd. (www.equinome.com) and a co-founder and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of IdentiGEN Ltd. (www.identigen.com).

Prof MacHugh’s research programme is focused on functional genomics of host-pathogen interactions for Mycobacterium bovis infection and development of novel disease biomarkers for bovine tuberculosis. Other research activities include livestock production genomics; population genomics of extinct and modern livestock populations; and with Professor Emmeline Hill, genomics of health and performance traits in Thoroughbred horses.

Prof Lisa Katz, an Associate Professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine, UCD, Ireland, obtained her DVM from the University of Georgia (USA, 1994) and holds an MSc degree in equine exercise physiology (Washington State University, USA, 1998) and a PhD degree in equine vascular biology (Royal Veterinary College, UK, 2003). She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM, 2001) and the European College of Equine Internal Medicine (ECEIM, 2005). Prof Katz has over 44 refereed publications in the scientific and clinical veterinary literature and has made several contributions to book chapters in her specialist areas. Her clinical and research interests include equine laminitis, equine exercise physiology and equine genomics.