JACQUELINE O’DONOVAN has been awarded an OBE in King Charles’ Birthday Honours.
The second-generation Irishwoman is Managing Director at the London based O’Donovan Waste Ltd.
She has blazed a trail for women across the industry after taking over the reins at the family business following the sudden death of her father, Cork native Joe O’Donovan in 1985.
Ms O’Donovan was just 19 at the time, but she has solidly led the company, with the support of her three siblings, ever since and the business is now an industry leader.
On Saturday, June 17, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s Birthday Honours list, having been recognised for her 'outstanding services to Recycling, Safety and Industry'.
“I cannot express how honoured I am at being recognised with this OBE for my work within recycling, waste, sustainability and safety,” she said this week.
“To come from such humble beginnings, and to leave school with little to no qualifications and do a job that I absolutely love in an amazing transforming industry is such a surreal feeling.”
She added: “Having attended local state junior and senior schools and recalling my teachers telling me to listen or I wouldn’t get a job, makes me chuckle, and proves that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. I am blown away with this recognition and truly honoured.
“To wake up on Saturday morning to messages of congratulations from Lords, professors and many friends and colleagues is a dream come true.”
Ms O’Donovan has held a leading position within the UK’s waste and recycling industry for more than 36 years and has been seen to transform the sector’s safety and sustainability practices.
She is recognised as an industry disruptor, a trailblazing female business leader and an advocate of safe, green, and sustainable operations.
Ms O’Donovan was born in Kilburn, north London, after her parents moved to London from Cork in the 1950s.
She recalls that life was hard for the Irish family, with all six living in a cramped one-bedroom flat until they moved to north London when she was aged five.
Life was to get harder when her father, Joe, who worked in construction until 1959 before starting his own demolition company, and then moving into waste management, passed away unexpectedly in 1985 at the age of 51.
But Ms O’Donvoan and her siblings continued their father’s legacy and the business grew from a firm with a £175,000 annual turnover to one that is now turning over more than £20million a year.
