We are delighted to announce Powerscourt as IIBN’s newest sponsor and we look forward to introducing you to them in the coming weeks and months.

Powerscourt is a strategic communications consultancy founded by Rory Godson who was Irish Editor of The Sunday Times and then Business Editor based in London. He was head of corporate affairs at Goldman Sachs before starting Powerscourt in 2004. It helps companies and senior individuals tell their story in a manner which delivers their overall strategic goals. Based in London, it is a full-service firm which offers strategic advice and counsel, financial results and calendar communications, analyst and investor relations, Mamp;A and fund-raising communications, market intelligence, crisis management, profile-raising. It provides financial public relations and investor relations to many leading firms. The client list is a Who’s Who of major UK and Irish businesses.

For full details regarding the excellent work carried out by Powerscourt visit its website at www.powerscourt-group.com

Should you wish to connect with Powerscourt regarding your own business and/or its strategy please do email me by return email and I will connect you with a suitable member of the Powerscourt team.

Its team comprises former bankers, brokers, editors and communications professionals.

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.