Liam Casey, chief executive of PCH International, was named Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 last night.
His supply chain management company was set up 11 years ago in Cork. It now employs over 800 people in the consumer electronics and PC industry, with offices in Ireland, China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, the US, Brazil, the UK and South Africa. It has exports all over the world.
Liam Casey said he thought he won the award because of the firm's international growth. 'We source components and products, taking them from a concept right to the consumer, through all the stages of manufacturing, packaging and logistics, from beginning to end,' he said.
Oliver Tattan of health insurer Vivas Health was named Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. The company was founded three years ago and now has 150,000 customers, reported €100m in revenue last year, and has a 7% health insurance market share.
Property developer Michael Taggart of Taggart Holdings was named Industry Entrepreneur of the Year. Founded in the 1980s when Taggart was 19 years old, his Northern Irish based house building firm is an international property player, building in Ireland, the UK, Eastern Europe and the USA.
Former secretary general at the Department of the Taoiseach, Padraig O'hUigin, was named the 2007 Special Award winner for his work towards the foundation of the IFSC, on Social Partnership and fostering a climate in which entrepreneurs could thrive.
This year over 125 companies were entered for the awards, the culmination of which was the naming of the three winners last night at Citywest in Dublin.
This was the tenth year of the awards. Former winners include Irish business pin-ups like Denis O'Brien, Eddie Jordan, John McColgan and Moya Doherty, Tullow's Aidan Heavey, CPL's Anne Heraty, and Aer Arann's Padraig O'Ceidigh.
