West Cork businesses in line for honours

WEST Cork is well represented in the line-up of finalists in the 2020 EY Entrepreneur of The Year awards.

Among the 24 who have made the cut are John O’Connell of Skibbereen based West Cork Distillers and Tim Houstoun of Global Shares, which has an operation in Clonakilty and who resides in Timoleague.

The finalists will compete across three categories - Emerging, Industry and International - and one overall winner will be selected in November.

Cork is strongly represented in this year’s shortlist with seven others including: Dr. Sinéad B. Bleiel, AnaBio Technologies Ltd.; John Goulding & Joe Lennon, Workvivo; Ed Donovan, Advanced Medical Services; Pat Lucey, Aspira; Tim Houstoun, Global Shares; Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Poppulo and Andrew Mackin, Mackin.

They are all hoping to follow in the footsteps of well-known Cork businesspeople Daniel Mackey and Peter Coppinger, a Bantry native,  Teamwork.com, who were crowned EY Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2018.

Roger Wallace, of the programme said: ‘2020 has been a challenging year so far for many businesses but we know that if there is one group that will rise to that challenge, it’s our island’s entrepreneurs. The judges have selected an exceptional group of businesspeople from a very impressive pool of nominees. This year we’ve seen lots of newer, cutting-edge tech and life sciences businesses nominated, as well as more established and traditional players. This year’s finalists are a diverse group, representing a huge range of industries, all of whom share an insatiable hunger for growth and incredible resilience to challenges. As we begin reopening our economies, North and South, our entrepreneurial businesses will be essential to recovery.’