The October guest speakers are:  

Podcasts of previous 'Entrepreneurs Live!' seminars are available.

All seminars take place from 1 pm - 1:50 pm (light lunch available from 12:30 pm) in NovaUCD, Belfield Innovation Park, Belfield, Dublin 4.

Attendance at the seminar series is open to all especially undergraduate and postgraduate students.

**** As space is limited at these seminars advanced registration is recommended ***

To register to attend any seminar please contact: Caroline Gill,  t: 716 3715,  e: caroline.gill@ucd.ie

The NovaUCD 'Entrepreneurs Live!' Seminar Series is kindly sponsored by the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board.

The last seminar in October is taking place as part of Innovation Dublin 2011.

Speaker Profiles

Raymond Coyle, Founder and CEO, Largo Foods

Established in 1982 by Raymond Coyle, Largo Foods is an Irish snack-food company manufacturing such well-known brands as Tayto, Hunky Dorys, King and Perri. The company leads the snack-food industry in Ireland with a 50% market share and generates 20% of sales from exports.

Raymond Coyle’s path to the snack-food industry started out in quite a different field. As a potato grower for Tayto and Perri in the late 1970s, he felt there was an opening for a small company manufacturing potato chips, as Tayto then had an 85% market share. In 1982, Largo Foods was established with a staff of nine people and the business continued to grow steadily until 16 years ago when the firm introduced Hunky Dorys potato chips to its range. Hunky Dorys now accounts for a significant portion of the group’s retail sales.

The company then established a factory in Plzen, Czech Republic and in 2000, it added a small manufacturing unit in Chisinau, Moldova. Six years later, Largo purchased the Tayto business in Ireland for €63 million. Over two years, the businesses were integrated to one site in Meath and market share grew from 45% to 50%.

Largo Foods also introduced a unique family attraction, Tayto Park, in late 2010.

Ray has been selected as a finalist, in the Industry Category, Ernst & Young 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Ian Barrett, Co-founder, Joule Solutions

Joule Solutions was founded by Ronan Ginnell and Ian Barrett in 2007. The company has grown to be one of Ireland’s largest manufacturers of solar panel and tube systems and hot water cylinders. 

Joule Solutions’ core business lies in the design and production of copper and stainless steel hot water cylinders and solar thermal heating systems. These innovative, green-tech products are manufactured and distributed from the company’s 40,000 sq.ft. distribution facility in Ballyfermot.  Employment figures within all sectors of the organisation currently stands at 24, but with the company growing at a rate of 35- 40% per year, a major expansion is planned into the UK market in 2011.

Joule operates a nationwide next-day delivery service to over 200 customers nationwide. These include: Grafton Group Plc, BHT Group, Associated Hardware Plc, National Hardware, Independent Heating Plumbing Merchants Nationwide.

Ian and Ronan have been selected as finalists, in the Emerging Category, Ernst & Young 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Patrick Farrelly, CEO, Aqua-Nu Filtration Systems

Patrick set up Aqua-Nu Filtration Systems Limited, in Co Louth, in 2004, having taken early retirement from the Public Service. 

Aqua-Nu have developed a method of filtering water through ceramic that works 700 times faster than its closest rival and has the power to knock out a long list of water-borne illnesses such as legionella and E.coli and tropical diseases such as sleeping sickness and river blindness. The system also removes contaminants such as heavy metals and pesticides.

What makes Aqua-Nu’s system of particular interest is that it works without pressure (ceramics usually need heavy pressure to work) and that the filter disc can be made in any shape or size. This means it will work with anything from a water bottle to a group water scheme and can be used in a wide range of industrial, commercial and domestic applications.