Finalists prepare for awards ceremony in September

The winner of the Entrepreneur of the Year will be announced at a televised awards ceremony on September 29th.

There are eight finalists in three categories.

The finalists in the international category are:

Gerard Brandon, Alltracel Pharmaceuticals plc

Kevin Neville, Data Display Co Ltd

Tony McEnroe, Farran Technology Ltd

Hubert Watson, Finlay BME

John Concannon, JFC Manufacturing Co Ltd

Gerard Keenan, Keenan Systems

Sarah Newman and Andrew Collins, Needahotel. com

Aidan Heavey, Tullow Oil plc

The eight finalists in the industry category are:

Frankie Whelehan, Choice Hotels Ireland

Michael Carey, Jacob Fruitfield Food group

Seán Coyle, Keystone group

Paddy Callaghan, Nature's Best Ltd

William Doyle, Newbridge Silverware

Owen O'Callaghan, O'Callaghan Properties Ltd

Oliver Hughes & Liam LaHart, the Porterhouse Brewing Company

William Wright, Wrightbus Ltd

The finalists in the emerging category are:

Gregory J Turley, ArgusCarHire.com

Andrew Walsh & Craig Benton, Celtic Composting Systems Ltd

Donal Byrne, Corvil Networks

Brian Conlon, First Derivatives plc

Brian Baird, Meridio

Ann-Marie Slavin, OPT2VOTE

Colm Lyon, Realex Payments

Jerry Kennelly, Stockbyte

These have been selected from 125 nominations received by the programme's judging panel, chaired by businessman Denis O'Brien. The nominees will be featured in RTÉ programmes in August and September.

The judges will select a winner from each of the three categories and one of the category winners will be awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year title for 2005. Previous winners include Eddie Jordan and Moya Doherty. The competition is sponsored by The Irish Times, RTÉ, Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, InterTrade Ireland and Shannon Development.