24 creative businesspeople on shortlist for Ireland’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year

Twenty-four entrepreneurs will vie for the title of EY Entrepreneur of the Year at a gala awards ceremony in Dublin this Thursday.

More than 1,400 business leaders and entrepreneurs are expected to attend the event, with one winner selected from each of the three categories – emerging, industry and international – as well as an overall winner.

The overall winner will represent Ireland at the World Entrepreneur of the Year awards in Monte Carlo next June.

The 24 finalists were selected by a judging panel of previous winners, including Dairymaster chief executive Edmond Harty; Taxback.com founder Terry Clune; CPL chief executive Anne Heraty; and PCH founder Liam Casey.

Representing the full spectrum of industries, the 24 finalists together employ 6,000 people and generate annual revenues of €630 million.

EY Entrepreneur of the Year partner Frank O’Keeffe said each of the 24 shortlisted entrepreneurs “has overcome significant challenges, particularly in these difficult economic times, to accomplish great success”.

Last year's overall winner was Patrick Joy of Suretank, the world's largest manufacturer of cargo-carrying units for the offshore oil and gas industry. Brian Hogan of KSG won the award for industry, and Kieran Fitzpatrick and Maurice Curran of Barracuda FX were named as winners of the emerging category. Mr Joy was also named winner of the international category.

An Post conference

Elsewhere this week, An Post’s annual Grow My Business conference takes place in Croke Park on Wednesday, while the inaugural Ireland Inc summit will take place in the DoubleTree by Hilton in Dublin on the same day.

Now in its sixth year, the An Post event aims to show business owners easy-to-implement ideas to help expand their customer base and ensure sustainable growth. Listed among the line-up of speakers is Frankie Sheahan, former Ireland and Munster hooker.

Among the speakers at the Ireland Inc summit are Partners founder John Hartnett; Avolon CEO Dómhnal Slattery; Glen Dimplex chairman Sean O’Driscoll; ThoughtBox founder Cristina Luminea; and Eamonn Sinnott, vice- president of global operations at Intel.