The 2016 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year finalists have been revealed, 24 companies are in the running for the awards' three categories.
2006 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Anne Heraty, and chief executive of Cpl Resources chaired the judging panel which narrowed the field. The programme is in its 19th year, it was founded to build a community to support ambitious entrepreneurs. It focuses on the theme of building a business legacy and includes bespoke executive education and mentoring initiatives.
The finalists have a combined workforce of almost 3,000 people and turnover of nearly €450m. The group will be given the opportunity to network with an experienced community of successful business peers.
These companies will also be invited to the EY CEO Retreat to Boston.
The EY Entrepreneur Of The YearTM 2016 finalists are:
EMERGING CATEGORY
Kitman Labs – Stephen Smith
Oneview Healthcare PLC – Mark McCloskey
Tiger Stores – Niall Stringer and Gillian Maxwell
NewsWhip – Paul Quigley and Andrew Mullaney
Freshly Chopped Limited – Brian Lee
Beats Medical – Ciara Clancy
Q1 Scientific – Louise Grubb
Plotbox – Leona and Sean McAllister
INDUSTRY CATEGORY
3fivetwo Group – Dr Suresh Tharma and Mr Ashok Songra
JMW Farms – Jim Wright
Leckey – James Leckey
M&M Contractors – Gareth Loye
Codd Mushrooms – Leslie Codd
Green Property – Stephen Vernon
TPI Group – Colin Culliton
Uform – Eamon Donnelly
INTERNATIONAL CATEGORY
Athlone Extrusions – James McGee
Kainos Group Plc – Brendan Mooney
MobileWebAdz – Kieran O’Keeffe
3D4Medical – John Moore
Abbey Machinery – Clodagh Cavanagh
Prepaid Financial Services and eCOMM Merchant Solutions – Noel Moran
The Healy Group – Maurice Healy
iCabbi – Gavan Walsh
Speaking at the announcement, Kevin McLoughlin, Partner Lead of the EOY programme said: "This year’s shortlist is of a remarkable standard, and it is particularly encouraging to see an increase in the number of female finalists in the programme from last year.
"The finalists represent a fantastic mix of listed and private entrepreneur-led companies from a diverse range of sectors, including food, retail, technology, and manufacturing. There is also a particularly strong spread of finalists from the burgeoning life sciences and pharmaceutical sectors in Ireland."
The EOY judging panel will determine the winners based on a number of criteria, including - innovation; value creation; strategic direction; financial performance; national and global impact; and the entrepreneur’s contribution to society and industry.
Mr McLoughlin added, “We are looking forward to helping this year’s finalists put the necessary building blocks of funding, talent and innovation into place as they create their business legacy and we are proud to remain at the forefront of supporting and championing entrepreneurship in Ireland.
"We’d sincerely like to thank all of the phenomenal businesses that entered this year’s programme and applaud the tremendous contribution they make to Ireland’s economies – North and South."
The winners will be announced at the televised Awards Gala night in October 2016. The overall winner will go on to represent Ireland at World Entrepreneur Of The Year in Monaco in June 2017.
