We would like to encourage all our members to actively use the IIBN LinkedIn group as a way to introduce yourselves to other IIBN members and to engage in real networking – whether virtual or face to face.

Notice of events will be circulated early in the New Year and be sure to check online for other chapter events at www.iibn.com

Happy Christmas and wishing you all a very successful 2012

Le gach dea ghui agus La Shona Nollaig dhuit

IIBN

The Irish International Business Network (IIBN), Dublin, would like to extend our thanks to all of our 2011 event attendees, members, sponsors & keynote speakers.

Please join IIBN Dublin members to wrap up the year for Christmas Drinks on Monday December 12^th in the Mint Bar, Westin Hotel, Westmoreland Street, Dublin 2 from 7pm.  This is an informal get together and all are welcome.

We would like to take this opportunity to quickly reflect on what has been an exciting and eventful year for IIBN Dublin.

- 2011 has seen IIBN Irish membership more than double in size and has encouraged closer ties for IIBN globally.

- With four fantastic events in Dublin culminating with the resounding success of the inaugural IIBN Global Conference in the Irish Times Building and the Aviva Stadium on 10^th and 11^th November.

- The conference was preceded by 3 keynote speaker events which including Declan Ryan, CEO, Irelandia Investments where he guided attendees through its business to date, highlighting its strong hold in South America and the Far East; renowned entrepreneur Oliver Hughes founder of the Porter House Group which spans the globe including London, New York and Dublin and Mike Hemingway presented the award winning Dove campaign.

We would like to thank our sponsors Beauchamps Solicitors and Hays Recruitment for their support and also PwC who have kindly hosted a number of IIBN events in Dublin.

Wishing you every success and a Happy New Year and we look forward to hopefully seeing you on 12^th December.

Pat Brazel (Dublin Chair) and the Dublin Board

On Thursday, 14th October, in The Burlington Hotel in Dublin, John Teeling, Founder and Chairman of African Diamonds was IIBN’s most recent keynote speaker.

Over 100 IIBN members and guests attended the evening which first heard from 3 IIBN members who presented their companies to the assembled group.

Caitlin O’Connor, Managing Director, Accelerating Performance

Jim Breen, Founder and CEO of PulseLearning, the 2007 winner of the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards and Founder of TriGrandPrix

Neil Leyden, Winner of ‘Your Country, Your Call’.

Conor Foley, Chairman of IIBN Global, went on to introduce John Teeling who generously treated each attendee to one of his miniature bottles of whisky.

John gave a remarkably 40 minute presentation which touched on his career to date and the current issues facing new businesses today. His speech was was followed by an open and lively Q&A session which could have gone on late into the evening.

John has established numerous companies, seven of which are on the London Stock Exchange. He currently chairs six – two in diamonds, two in oil, one in gold and one in zinc.

In addition to mining, John also has an active career in Irish industry holding stakes in a number of industrial ventures as well as being the founder of the only independent Irish whiskey distiller which sells in 45 countries. He lectured on business and finance in University College Dublin for 20 years and he also holds a doctorate from Harvard Business School in addition to his MBA from Wharton. John is an Ernst & Young, Entrepreneur Of The Year finalist.

Click on the photo below to review the photos taken on the night.

On 26th April, IIBN members in Dublin enjoyed a private evening with Jerry Kennelly at the offices of PwC, Spencer Dock, North Wall Quay. Over 100 IIBN members attended and the evening was opened by Paul Hennessy, Partner at PwC and supporter of IIBN.

Jerry is a key supporter of IIBN and has spoken for IIBN in London and New York. Jerry guided attendees through his career to date, beginning with a brief history of his first links to photo journalism and ending with an insight into his current ventures.

Jerry founded Stockbyte and Stockdisc, two companies based in Tralee that captured 10% of the global royalty-free stock photography market in ten years. In April 2006 both companies were sold to Getty Images (formerly GYI) for a consideration of $135 million. Kennelly’s companies produced the highest pro-rata profit and profitability per employee in this worldwide industry.

Kennelly, who started business as a freelance photojournalist in 1981, has been honoured by the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards and was selected as the Ernst Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005. Stockbyte is also a former winner of the DHL Exporter of the Year Award.

Kennelly has spearheaded the Young Entrepreneur Programme since the concept was first mooted in 2006 and has collaborated with the poverty relief agency GOAL and the Press Photograpers Association of Ireland in documenting their work abroad and using those creative images to spread their messages through the media, exhibitions and calendars. Jerry is now leading a multi-national team on a stealth mode business start-up due to launch a new global business in 2010.

Prior to Jerry’s presentation, 3 IIBN members were invited to give a three minute company presentation. They were:

Maoiliosa O’Culachain, Director and Co-Founder, Global Shares
Garrett O’Keeffe, Director, First100 – Performance Acceleration
Killian Stokes, Founder, My Good Points

Many thanks to Joe Tynan, Paul Hennessy and PwC for generously hosting the event.

Click on the photo link below to view more photos taken on the night:

a href=http://www.flickr.com/photos/21038411@N04/sets/72157624059393796/ class=tt-flickr tt-flickr-Square title=26th April Jerry Kennelly dublinimg class= src=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1182/4606124577_effd43de98_s.jpg alt=26th April Jerry Kennelly dublin width=75 height=75 //a

On 11th February, Ray Nolan was the keynote speaker for IIBN Dublin. Over 100 members and guests attended the event which took place at the new Audi Centre in Ballsbridge, Dublin.

A serial I.T. entrepreneur, Ray has been instrumental in the success of a number of companies in the Irish technology sector. He founded his first company in 1989 to develop bespoke software solutions for the legal and hospitality sectors, before subsequently developing www.coretime.com, a leading time and billing management system sold to Sage in 2004.

Ray founded Hostelworld.com in 1999 when he identified an opportunity to introduce online bookings to youth and tourist hostels. As CEO, Ray grew the company to become the leading worldwide brand with distribution contracts in 170 countries and sold it in November 2009 for more than $500MM.

Ray continues to enjoy success with new companies, launching www.worky.com, and Cloudsplit in 2009.

Awards for Ray include Ernst Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year 2003, and IIA Net Visionary 2006.

Prior to Ray’s presentation, 4 IIBN members presented their companies to those in attendance. They were:

Pat Flynn, CEO, Flynn O’Driscoll Business Lawyers
Declan O’Neill, Entrepreneur of the Year Programme, Ernst Young
Peter Sheridan, CEO, Co-operation Ireland
Douglas Carson, Founder, Carson Crushell Architects

Special thanks to Flynn O’Driscoll Business Lawyers who generously sponsored the event. Thanks also to Audi for opening their new flagship offices for IIBN Dublin.

The format for the launch evening included an introduction to IIBN from its Chairman, Conor Foley.

Five successful Irish entrepreneurs made brief company presentations on the night.

John Power, Chief Executive Officer, Aerogen:

John set up the company in Galway in 1997 as Cerus Medical and merged with US company Aerogen in 2000. In 2007 John led a successful MBO of his original business and Aerogen again became an Irish owned company. Aerogen currently employs 36 people leading the growth of its drug delivery business from its Galway headquarters, with sales support staff based in San Francisco, New York and Oxford in the UK. Sales this year are expected to top the €10 million mark.

Pat O’Flynn, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, oFactum:

oFactum is a Trade mark and symbolises Private Equity and Business Development. oFactum’s current focus is building and or partnering in businesses with an Enterprise Value (EV) of between €10 million and €50 million.

David Bobbett, Chief Executive Officer, HK International:

HK International is a leading global supplier of stainless steel kitchen equipment to the food service industry. The company employs 970 worldwide with manufacturing and service offices in Mexico, US, Canada, UK and Indonesia. Group Management and European Marketing are based in Dublin. HK delivers flexible, value driven restaurant equipment solutions in to 70 countries, supporting 20,000 restaurants. HK’s biggest customer is McDonald’s.

Dr Hugh O’Donnell, Chief Executive Officer, Kentz:

Kentz is a global engineering specialist solutions provider, which serves a blue chip client base primarily in the oil and gas, petrochemical and mining and metal sectors. Its clients include ExxonMobil, Shell, Rio Tinto, Qatar Petroleum and Linde. Kentz has operations in 23 countries and employs over 10,500 people across 35 nationalities. In the year ending 2008 the Company generated revenues of $643.4 million and profit before tax of $40.7 million.

Margaret Nelson, CEO, FM104:

Margaret Nelson started her career in FM104 as Sales Director and was appointed to the Board in 2004. FM104 is the largest local radio station in Ireland in terms of listeners and revenue – with nearly 200,000 Dubliners tuning in daily and employs in excess of 80 employees. Margaret was part of a management team who successfully sold the station to UTV in December 2007 for a record breaking price of €54 million. Margaret was appointed CEO by UTV in June 2008.

The formal proceedings will be followed by a private party at Lillie’s Bordello from 10pm.