The Irish Times Business Awards The Irish Times Business Awards The Irish Times Business Awards

The third annual Irish Times Business Awards in association with KPMG took place on Thursday 3^rd September 2020. The virtual awards were livestreamed and a playback can be seen here. The awards recognise and celebrate Irish businesses and their leaders for their achievements and outstanding leadership qualities.

Commenting on our support for the awards, KPMG’s Managing Partner, Seamus Hand said: "We’re delighted to support these awards and their recognition of outstanding leadership and company performance. The winners provide exceptional role models for everyone in business in Ireland.”

...And the award goes to...

Irish Times Business Person of the Year in association with KPMG: Ornua’s Róisín Hennerty

Company of the Year: An Post

Deal of the Year: Decawave 

Local Enterprise of the Year: Shorla Pharma 

Distinguished Leader in Business: Willie Walsh

Several business leaders were chosen to vie for the  Businessperson of the Year award, sponsored by KPMG. They included: Róisín Hennerty, Managing Director of Ornua Global Foods Division; Donal Murphy, Chief Executive of DCC; Belfast construction entrepreneur Kevin Lagan of Fast- House; Ger Rabbette, Chief Executive of Uniphar; Brian O’Sullivan, Chief Executive of protein nutrition bar group Fulfil; Pat McCann, Chief Executive of  Dalata; Joanna Murphy, Chief Executive of Taxback.com; Noel and Valerie Moran, founders of Pre- paid Financial Services; Pat Beirne, founder and Managing Director of plastics business Mergon; Mark Cummins and Charles Bibby, founders of tech company Pointy; Gene Murtagh, Chief Executive of Kingspan; Kate McLaughlin, founder and Chief Executive of We Got Pop; David McRedmond, Chief Executive of An Post, and Séamus Gorman, Chief Executive of Hibergene. 

There were three other award categories: Company of the Year, Local Enterprise of the Year, and Deal of the Year.

The nominees for Company of the Year, sponsored by KPMG, included An Post, in recognition of its successful pivot from letters to parcels and its work in keeping its services operating during the COVID-19 lockdown; Irish Distillers, which enjoyed another year of strong growth for its key spirits brand Jameson whiskey; and Fenergo, a fintech recently valued at $800 million. This award was won in 2019 by Dalata, Ireland’s largest hotel group.

Deal of the Year

For Deal of the Year, the short- list comprised of Pointy, the Irish tech company acquired in January by Google for a reported $160 million; computer chip- maker Decawave, which was sold for $400 million to US-based Apple supplier Qorvo; and Green Reit’s €1.34 billion sale to Henderson Park. This award was won in 2019 by State forestry group Coillte. 

Local Enterprise of the Year

The nominees were Skmmp, an Irish virtual fashion business; Shorla Pharma, a Tipperary-based healthcare start-up; and Nolan’s of Clontarf in Dublin, an independent local retailer. This award was won in 2019 by Strong Roots. 

Watch a video playback of the 2020 Awards here. 

Reflecting on the finalists and the highly competitive nature of the awards Seamus Hand said: "At KPMG, we are privileged to work with so many of these businesses and it is their leadership through innovation that we are recognising and celebrating."

The Irish Times Business Awards 2019 in association with KPMG took place at the Mansion House, Dublin on Wednesday May 8, 2019. Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD, joined us as the guest of honour for the KPMG sponsored awards event hosted by Sharon Ní Bheoláin of RTÉ.

The shortlist for each of the awards categories featured a wide range of many of Ireland's leading companies, business leaders and entrepreneurs. The awards were judged by a distinguished panel of business leaders chaired by Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director of Microsoft in Ireland. Cathriona was joined on the judging panel by independent director Mark Ryan; Margot Slattery, Country President, Sodexo Ireland; Dr John Hegarty, Chairman of The Irish Times Trust; Caroline Keeling, Chief Executive of Keelings; KPMG Managing Partner Seamus Hand; Martin McVicar, Managing Director of Combilift; and Ciarán Hancock, Business Editor at The Irish Times.