Ireland’s Top Entrepreneurs take to the TV Screen
From the poster boys of Ireland’s erupting tech scene to the heavyweights excelling in global and domestic markets, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year brings you The Entrepreneurs – an all-new documentary series that follows some of Ireland’s most successful entrepreneurs as they overcome fear, failure and adversity in pursuit of their ambitious visions. Starting on Monday 29 September at 8.30pm, the four-part RTE 1 series will air every Monday at 8.30pm up until 20 October.
To complement the TV series, the entrepreneurial stories continue online each week with web exclusive content available on RTE Player as well as the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year social media platforms where viewers can interact with the entrepreneurs. Viewers can join the online conversation using the hashtag #EOY2014 or by visiting eoy.ie.
“We are so often exposed to the tales of success or failure on the frontlines of business, but seldom do we get to experience the real human stories behind Ireland’s greatest entrepreneurs and their businesses” commented Frank O’Keeffe, Partner-in-Charge of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme. “As key supporters of entrepreneurship throughout the island of Ireland, we wanted to create an online and television series that got to the heart of what it truly means to be an entrepreneur and to give an honest reflection of the struggles, the sacrifices but also the sense of pride and fulfilment that are central to founding and growing a business.”
Spanning hotels to sports pitches, mobile apps to offal, the entrepreneurs featured in the TV documentary series represent the full spectrum of Irish businesses and sectors, including ground-breaking emerging companies (Trustev, Soundwave, Movidius and Handy); powerful industry players (Kilkenny Group, Wilsons Auctions, Kestrel Foods & Dalata Hotel Group) as well as Irish companies competing in the global big leagues (Comer Group, Ding and SIS Group). From experiencing the launch week of Soundwave 2.0, laying the pitch in Celtic Football Club to visiting the newly purchased Kilternan Hotel complex, our viewers are invited to spend a day in the lives of Ireland’s most prolific business minds, learning what makes them tick and motivates them along the path less travelled.
To top off the series, the entrepreneurs will re-visit our screens in their capacity as finalists in the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards, where they will join Mark Little and Kathryn Thomas for the televised Awards Gala screened at 10.50pm on RTE 1. Held at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin on 23 October, the Awards will bring together over 1,500 of Ireland’s business elite to celebrate our island’s top entrepreneurial talent. A winner will be selected from each of the three categories – Emerging, Industry and International – and, from these three winners; an overall winner will be selected as EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2014. The overall winner will then go forward to represent Ireland at EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year in Monaco in June 2015.
Pioneered by EY, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme is supported by Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, InterTradeIreland, The Irish Times, Newstalk and RTÉ television.
The programme line up is as follows:
PROGRAMME 1 – Monday 29 September 8.30pm
Featuring:
Marian & Greg O’Gorman, Kilkenny Group (Cork)
George Mullan, SIS Group (Sligo)
Pat Phelan, Trustev (Cork)
Featured in brief & in web exclusive content on the RTE Player:
Andrew Murphy, Sláinte Healthcare (Cork)
Tony Judge & Gerry McKernan, Clubs to Hire (Dublin & Belfast, respectively)
Dermot Smurfit, GameAccount Network (Dublin)
PROGRAMME 2 – Monday 6 October 8.30pm
Featuring:
Brian & Luke Comer, Comer Group (Galway)
Ian Wilson, Wilsons Auctions (Antrim)
Brendan O’Driscoll & Aidan Sliney, Soundwave (Dublin & Cork, respectively)
Featured in brief & in web exclusive content on the RTE Player:
John Purdy, Ergo (Dublin)
Mark Hutchinson, Hutchinson Engineering (Derry)
Brian Crowley, TTM Group (Clare)
PROGRAMME 3 – Monday 13 October 8.30pm
Featuring:
Sean Mitchell and David Moloney, Movidius (Dublin)
Stuart Dobson, Elmgrove Foods (Tyrone)
Oisin Hanrahan, Handy (Dublin)
Featured in brief & in web exclusive content on the RTE Player:
Vincent & Gerard Cleary, Glenisk (Offaly)
Bill Walsh, Aspire Technology (Dublin)
Terry Fox, Cupprint (Clare)
PROGRAMME 4 – Monday 20 October 8.30pm
Featuring:
Mark Roden, Ding (Dublin)
Pat McCann, Dalata Hotel Group (Dublin)
Lorraine & Michael Hall, Kestrel Foods (Down)
Featured in brief & in web exclusive content on the RTE Player:
Gabriel Moynagh, Sysnet (Dublin)
Mike Stack, Tricel (Kerry)
Ian Haldane, Haldane Shiells Group (Down)
PROGRAMME 5 – Thursday 23 October 10.50pm
The EY Entrepreneur of The Year Awards featuring all 24 entrepreneurs
ABOUT EY ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ (EOY) is the world’s most prestigious business awards programme for entrepreneurs and is run in 145 cities worldwide. Currently in its 17th year, the EOY Ireland programme has evolved into an exclusive development programme for Ireland’s most impressive entrepreneurs. Through its annual international CEO Retreat, peer-to-peer mentoring, executive education series and community impact initiatives, the EOY Ireland programme has established a community of 380+ leading entrepreneurs and gained a reputation as the best-practice EOY programme globally.
Chaired by the 2002 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Pádraig Ó Céidigh, the independent judging panel includes previous winners Denis O’Brien, Jerry Kennelly, Anne Heraty, Liam Casey, Brian Long, Terry Clune, Pat McDonagh, Dr. Edmond Harty and representatives from Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland and InterTradeIreland.
The three category winners as well as the overall winner of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2014 will be announced at the Awards Gala taking place in Dublin on October 23rd. The overall winner will then go on to participate at World Entrepreneur Of The Year in Monte Carlo in June 2015.
Pioneered by EY, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme is supported by Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, InterTradeIreland, The Irish Times, Newstalk and RTÉ television.
