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(left to right) Dr Hugh Brady, President, UCD, with Richard Burrows, Joint Managing Director, Pernod Ricard plc, Jerry Liston, Executive Chairman, Smurfit School UCD, Declan McCourt, Chief Executive, OHM Group, Kieran McGowan, Chairman of the Governing Authority,
UCD.
Irish Distillers honoured the late Kevin McCourt, former Managing Director of Irish Distillers Group at
Smurfit School, UCD on 10th September 2004. Kevin McCourt was one of the leading figures in the development of business in Ireland during the second half of the last century. Irish Distillers made a significant gift to Smurfit School in honour of the exceptional contribution by Kevin McCourt to the growth of Irish Distillers under his stewardship. Declan McCourt, son of the late Kevin McCourt, also made a generous perpetual gift to the school.
At a reception held at the school, the principal MBA Lecture Theatre was named in honour of Kevin McCourt, and a specially commissioned portrait of Kevin McCourt was unveiled. This portrait will now hang in the Kevin McCourt MBA Lecture Theatre.
Richard Burrows, Chairman of Irish Distillers and Joint Managing Director of Pernod Ricard, members of the McCourt family, and friends attended the event. Also attending were the President of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady, businessman Dermot
Desmond and the broadcaster Gay Byrne.
Kevin McCourt who died on May 13th 2000 aged 85, was an experienced businessman who served on the boards of a number of major companies both in Ireland and abroad. He started his career as a clerk in Dublin United Tramways, where his brilliance and ability brought him quickly to many other posts. By 1944 he was chief executive of the Federation of Irish Manufacturers. In 1949, he became a founder member of the Industrial Development Authority and later executive director of Carrolls of Dundalk. In 1958, he moved to Holland to become co-managing director of Hunter Douglas NV. Returning to Ireland in 1963 he was appointed director-general of Radio
Telef�s �ireann. Leaving this post in 1968 Kevin took up a new challenge and became group managing director of Irish Distillers. There followed chairmanship of Gorta and a variety of other chairmanships at Irish Steel, Irish Agricultural Machinery and Hibernian Life Assurance Ltd, and directorships at, amongst others, Jefferson Smurfit Group, Peterson Tennant Group Ltd, Baltimore Technologies and Bula Resources. His friends and family - son Declan, and daughters Pamela, Germaine and Deirdre, remember him dearly.
Contact: Niamh Boyle, tel 01 667 0477, mobile 087 248 1476, niamh@nbinternational.ie
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