EY Announces Entrepreneur Of The Year Shortlist

/ 3rd May 2016 /

The shortlist for the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards has been announced, with 24 companies selected to compete across three categories. According to EY, the 24 finalists employ almost 3,000 people and have annual turnover of €450m.

The shortlist includes Stephen Vernon, the property developer currently in the process of selling Blanchardstown shopping centre.

Kevin McLoughlin, EY partner in charge of the awards, said: “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.”

Emerging Category

• Stephen Smith of Kitman Labs

• Mark McCloskey of Oneview Healthcare

• Niall Stringer and Gillian Maxwell of Tiger Stores

• Paul Quigley and Andrew Mullaney of Newswhip (pictured)

• Brian Lee of Freshly Chopped

• Ciara Clancy of Beats Medical

• Louise Grubb of Q1 Scientific

• Leona and Sean McAllister of PlotBox.

Industry Category

• Dr Suresh Tharma and Ashok Songra of 3fivetwo Group

• Jim Wright of JMW Farms

• James Leckey of Leckey

• Gareth Loye of M&M Contractors

• Leslie Codd of Codd Mushrooms

• Stephen Vernon of Green Property

• Colin Culliton of TPI Group

• Eamon Donnelly of Uform.

International Category

• James McGee of Athlone Extrusions

• Brendan Mooney of Kainos Group

• Kieran O’Keeffe of MobileWebAdz

• John Moore of 3D4Medical

• Clodagh Cavanagh of Abbey Machinery

• Noel Moran of Prepaid Financial Services and EComm Merchant Solutions

• Maurice Healy of the Healy Group

• Gavan Walsh of ICabbi.

The 24 finalists will join around 50 previous finalists for a ‘CEO Retreat’ in Boston. Category winners and the overall winner will be announced in October.

Photo: Ian Murphy, Invest NI (left); Anne Heraty, chairman of the judging panel; Sean Duffy, programme director; Julie Sinnamon (right), Enterprise Ireland; and Kevin McLoughlin (right). (Pic: Maxwell Photography)