it@cork

ENTERPRISE MINISTER PRESENTS GENESIS AWARDS

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, T.D., presented the End of Year Awards at the 10th Annual Genesis Enterprise Programme (GEP) 2008 Awards & Showcase, at Cork Institute of Technology last night

This year Genesis celebrates a decade of entrepreneurial achievement. During the last ten years, Genesis has supported 160 people and teams in starting their businesses. More that 70% of the start-up businesses are in operation today employing more that twelve hundred people. More than 50% of the businesses are trading internationally. 32 businesses have gone on to be designated “High Potential Start Ups” by Enterprise Ireland. Genesis has a proven track record of success with knowledge-based start-ups across a number of sectors, including medical devices, biotechnology, energy, food, photonics, mechanical engineering, telecommunications, photonics etc.

Publicly funded by the Department of Education & Science, the Genesis Enterprise Programme is a 12-month rapid incubation programme designed to nurture, support and develop entrepreneurs leading knowledge-based start-ups in the South West Region. The Programme provides entrepreneurs with funding, training, mentoring and office facilities. The Genesis Enterprise Programme is administered by the Cork Institute of Technology in partnership with 9 other regional and national organizations, University College Cork, Enterprise Ireland, the 5 South West Region County Enterprise Boards (Kerry, Cork City, Cork North, South Cork, West Cork), Údarás Na Gaeltachta, and Cork BIC.

Each year the participating businesses are presented to the public in a showcase exhibition with the achievements of particular businesses in reaching commercial milestones being recognised in an Awards ceremony. Composed of seasoned professionals and experienced entrepreneurs, the Adjudication Panel for the Awards was Michael Hayes, AIB; Michael Cotter, Ernst & Young; Colin Walsh, Thomas Crosbie Holdings; Charles Garvey, Nitrosell; and Jerry Kennelly.

The winners of Genesis Emerging Business of the Year and a cheque for €2,500 were Pat Lucey & Colm Horgan from Aspiracon. Aspiracon develop solutions that take the chaos out of project management, helping project managers to meet their commitments. Aspiracon has integrated project management knowledge into a set of software tools that are tailored to meet customer requirements.

The Business Development Achievement Award and €1,500 went to Sorcha McDonnell of Mediterranean Flavours. Producers of Fresh Artisan Pasta, Mediterranean Flavours uses only natural ingredients and traditional Italian methods in its product range of tagliatelle, fresh-filled ravioli, fusilli, and maccheroni. Available in the multiple stores and business supplies to the Catering Industry and also the multiple stores under the Brand name 'Pasta Milano'.

Market Entry Success Award and a prize of €1,500 went to Prionsias Collins of EuropeanIrish.com. Through EuropeanIrish.com, Irish People living in Continental Europe and Irish people travelling to Europe can find local Irish Entertainment events and news from where to watch live Irish Matches to finding Irish Sports or Social Clubs, Irish Festivals, Irish Dancing Schools, Irish Bands, Irish Embassies and Irish Bars.

The Award for Opportunity Investigation and €1,500 went to Tapasol’s Dan Hayes & Brendan Fidgeon. Tapasol builds servers in hours not days. The company provides automated server installation solutions to companies who struggle with the costs of utilizing highly skilled engineers to install their solutions in their labs and at customer sites around the world. The company was founded by Brendan Fidgeon and Dan Hayes who have, between them, over 30 years experience in the IT industry and who worked in Motorola for the last 10 years.

Business Plan of the Year and €1,500 was awarded to Glantreo and Dr John Hanrahan. Glantreo Ltd is a materials science R&D company with a particular interest in the area of nanotechnology. Glantreo hold a number of patents in the area of nanoparticle synthesis and in the application of these materials in the water filtration and chemical separation markets.

On the night, Genesis also presented its inaugural Alumni Award. The Award has been initiated as part of its 10th anniversary celebration and will be presented annually to an alumnus who has made substantial achievements in their commercial field or has contributed in a significant way to the economic development of knowledge-based businesses in the region. The 2008 Genesis Alumni Award was presented to Kieran Moynihan, one of the founders of Comnitel Technologies. After completing the Genesis programme, the company went on to merge with a US and a UK company to form Vallent, a 500 person global company with annual revenues of approx. 65 million dollars. In February 2007, IBM acquired Vallent as part of a major expansion into the telecoms industry in a deal believed to be worth $200 million. Vallent became a key part of IBM's management software division, Tivoli, which has over 7,000 employees worldwide and revenue of 2.5 billion dollars. IBM, with strong support from the IDA, has expanded the Vallent R&D team to over 150 engineers in Cork and 50 in Galway.

The Awards are sponsored by Allied Irish Banks; Ernst & Young; Enterprise Ireland; the Cork and Kerry County & City Enterprise Boards; and Cork Institute of Technology. Media partner for the Event was Thomas Crosbie Holdings.

Michael Hayes, AIB Development Manager, said: “This is AIB’s sixth year of involvement with the Genesis Enterprise programme and during that time we have seen the quality of the outputs go from strength to strength. AIB has a deep-rooted history in supporting business owners and entrepreneurs. By supporting such initiatives such as Genesis and indeed through financing the creation of and development of businesses, AIB is now the bank more businesses choose. AIB is delighted to support Genesis and wishes all the 2008 participants every success with their ventures.”

Ernst & Young too is, pleased to be associated with the awards. According to Michael Cotter, Director of Transaction Advisory Services, Ernst & Young, "Celebrating entrepreneurs and the businesses they build and grow has been a priority for Ernst & Young for more than two decades, and we are proud to continue this distinguished tradition through sponsorship of the Genesis Enterprise Programme Awards. These Awards recognise the determination, energy, vision and innovative qualities of this year's participants. It is clear from the outstanding quality of the entrants into the programme this year that Cork and Kerry has a thriving and growing entrepreneurial spirit. We should consider ourselves very fortunate that we have such people helping to ensure the region remains competitive into the future"

In its first time association with the Awards as official media partner, Colin Walsh, Group Marketing Manager with Thomas Crosbie Holdings, said, “Thomas Crosbie Holdings is delighted to be the Official Media Partner for the Genesis Awards. We have a long history of supporting business and innovation through all of our group companies from our print titles right through to our new media subsidiary, Thomas Crosbie Media, which manages our digital media portfolio for access via TV, mobile phone and personal computer. Entrepreneurship can be a lonely calling. There are many long hours of trying to get people to believe in you and your vision so when an opportunity comes along to recognise the achievements of these entrepreneurs it must be taken. I hope that we will be recognising the achievements of this year's participants for many years to come.”

Micheál Martin, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment presented the Awards along with the event sponsors, AIB and Ernst & Young. Minister Martin says that the GEP is “a prime example of the successful synthesis of the resources of the Development Agencies and Educational Institutions in stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation.” Michael Delaney, Head of Development, CIT was Master of Ceremonies. Over 300 people attended the event drawn from the regional development bodies, current and past Genesis participants, venture capitalists, private investors, the higher education community and the wider business community in the South West region.