The winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year will be announced at a televised awards ceremony on September 29th.
There are eight finalists in three categories.
The finalists in the international category are:
Gerard Brandon, Alltracel Pharmaceuticals plc
Kevin Neville, Data Display Co Ltd
Tony McEnroe, Farran Technology Ltd
Hubert Watson, Finlay BME
John Concannon, JFC Manufacturing Co Ltd
Gerard Keenan, Keenan Systems
Sarah Newman and Andrew Collins, Needahotel. com
Aidan Heavey, Tullow Oil plc
The eight finalists in the industry category are:
Frankie Whelehan, Choice Hotels Ireland
Michael Carey, Jacob Fruitfield Food group
Seán Coyle, Keystone group
Paddy Callaghan, Nature's Best Ltd
William Doyle, Newbridge Silverware
Owen O'Callaghan, O'Callaghan Properties Ltd
Oliver Hughes & Liam LaHart, the Porterhouse Brewing Company
William Wright, Wrightbus Ltd
The finalists in the emerging category are:
Gregory J Turley, ArgusCarHire.com
Andrew Walsh & Craig Benton, Celtic Composting Systems Ltd
Donal Byrne, Corvil Networks
Brian Conlon, First Derivatives plc
Brian Baird, Meridio
Ann-Marie Slavin, OPT2VOTE
Colm Lyon, Realex Payments
Jerry Kennelly, Stockbyte
These have been selected from 125 nominations received by the programme's judging panel, chaired by businessman Denis O'Brien. The nominees will be featured in RTÉ programmes in August and September.
The judges will select a winner from each of the three categories and one of the category winners will be awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year title for 2005. Previous winners include Eddie Jordan and Moya Doherty. The competition is sponsored by The Irish Times, RTÉ, Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, InterTrade Ireland and Shannon Development.
