27th September 2013, Friday
By TheCork.ie
news@TheCork.ie
They’ve met the competition, they’ve faced the judges and now the journey
of Ireland’s top entrepreneurial talent through the EY Entrepreneur Of The
Year™ programme will be documented in an RTE 1 series kicking off on Monday
30 September at 8.30pm. The programme will air every Monday at 8.30pm
until 21 October, with the live awards on Thursday 24 October at 10.40pm.
Spread over five action-packed episodes, the series follows Chairman of the
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ judging panel, Padraig Ó Céidigh, as he
travels across the island of Ireland to meet the 24 leading Irish
entrepreneurs competing for the title of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™.
Four local entrepreneurs will represent Cork throughout the series as they
battle Ireland’s entrepreneurial elite in the run up to EY Entrepreneur Of
The Year™. Starting with the Emerging Category, then moving on to the
Industry Category and, finally, the International Category; the first three
episodes will focus in on the 8 finalists shortlisted per each of the
competition’s 3 categories. Appearing in Episode 1 on Monday 30 September
are Sean Sheehan of Wisetek Solutions (Passage West) as well as Connor
Murphy of Datahug (Ballincollig). Episode 3, aired on Monday 14 October,
will focus on the International Category finalists including Dan & Linda
Kiely of Voxpro (Douglas).
“Over the past 6 months the 24 selected finalists have participated in a
once in a lifetime peer-to-peer, business building experience. Now the
entrepreneurs have the opportunity to share their stories with the nation”
said Frank O’Keeffe, Partner-in-Charge of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™
programme. “We created this series to inspire Ireland, allowing the general
public to go behind the scenes of our home-grown entrepreneurs’ businesses;
share their successes and failures and witness, first-hand, what these 24
incredible individuals are doing for Ireland Inc.”
Split between three categories – Emerging, Industry and International – the
24 finalists represent the full spectrum of Irish businesses, from the
“ones-to-watch” to our trailblazing international market leaders. The
series offers an all-access pass into the finalists’ journey through
Ireland’s premier business awards programme, tracking their progress as
they come face-to-face with Ireland’s entrepreneurial heavyweights for the
final judging interviews. The penultimate episode follows the finalists to
the USA as they join over 100 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Alumni™ on the
high-octane CEO Retreat across Chicago, New York and University of Notre
Dame.
Mark Little and Miriam O’Callaghan, reunited for the first time since
Little’s departure from Primetime, will take to the stage at the televised
live awards, the final episode of the series, to co-present the EY
Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Awards Night. Held at the Citywest Hotel in
Dublin on 24 October, the Awards will bring together over 1,300 of
Ireland’s business elite to celebrate our island’s top entrepreneurs. A
winner will be selected from each of the three categories and, from these
three winners, an overall winner will be selected as EY Entrepreneur Of The
Year™ 2013.
Pioneered by EY, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ programme is run in
association with Enterprise Ireland, InterTradeIreland, Invest Northern
Ireland, RTE, Newstalk and The Irish Times.