Hazel works as the Senior Strategic Business Partner in Agriculture for Walton Institute. Hazel works very closely with actors across the field of agriculture in Ireland and across Europe. Strategically placing Walton, as the lead in the application of technologies into Agri and Food. She has worked on countless projects with Walton following results from basic research through to the commercialisation of the results. She is currently the Site Manager for Walton/SETU at the SFI Research Centre, VistaMilk ; Board member of Smart Agri Hubs Network for Europe; a member of Gender Alliance in Agriculture (GAIA) and she is one of the leads for SETU on Ireland’s European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH), ENTIRE.

She was Smart Agri Hubs (Regional Cluster Lead for Ireland and the UK); Regional Cluster Lead for AgROBOFood; Principal Investigator on AgriDISCRETE (a Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, Ireland); Walton Agri activities manager of Precision Agricultural Centre of Excellence (PACE), a SETU-Walton led Digital Innovation Hub and Project Manager on CITIES2030.

Hazel has a BA in Business and Arts Management from IADT and an MBA from Carlow IT. Her career has spanned many industries including Art & Cultural Organisations, Tourism, Equine Business, Irish Foods, and Rural Development programmes. She was nominated for Shell Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2007) and Women Breaking through in Business (2007). In 2007 and 2010, her work on arts & cultural projects was nominated for The David Manley Awards.