- Theme of the 16th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ Seminar Series
Dr John O’Dea, founder and CEO of the award winning biomedical company Crospon, today launched the 16th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series.
The theme of this seminar series, which is organised by NovaUCD in association with the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board, is setting-up and running a company in challenging times. The aim of this series is to encourage would be entrepreneurs to ‘just start’ their businesses. The overall objective of the ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ initiative is to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship among the academic, research and student populations at University College Dublin and beyond.
Dr John O'Dea, Founder & CEO, Crospon
Each of the four speakers in the current series will share their experiences in setting-up and running successful enterprises especially in challenging economic times. The speakers will also emphasise the lessons they have learnt and reveal the highs and lows that they have encountered along their entrepreneurial journeys. After each seminar attendees will have an opportunity to question the guest entrepreneur.
During his seminar, Dr John O’Dea said, “We are blessed in Ireland with an almost unique conglomeration of multi-national companies where graduates can develop many of the skills needed to develop export-oriented businesses. For the medical device industry this is particularly important since there is a heavy quality and regulatory aspect to the business which it is important to have a keen awareness of prior to embarking on a start-up.”
Crospon is involved in the development and manufacture of leading-edge, minimally invasive, medical devices for imaging and aiding clinically invasive procedures in the areas of bariatric surgery and gastroenterology.
Caroline Gill, NovaUCD, who manages the series, said, “Given the present challenging economic climate it is not surprising that the ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars are attracting large and diverse audiences and are stimulating enthusiastic debates on key issues relating to entrepreneurship.”
The other speakers in the current series are; Greg Byrne, The Three Little Pigs Company (28 September), Raymond Coyle, Largo Foods (5 October) and Ian Barrett, Joule Solutions (12 October).
According to Michael Johnson, CEO, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board, “The ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series is a hugely successful collaboration between our organisation and NovaUCD. By talking openly about their experiences as entrepreneurs, the featured business owners give audiences a valuable insight into the commercial and personal challenges that arise when starting and growing a venture.” He added that, “particularly in the current economic circumstances, there is an urgent need for entrepreneurship to be promoted as a viable career choice and as a means to put Ireland back on the path to growth.”
Each seminar takes place in NovaUCD, Belfield Innovation Park, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, from 1 pm to 1:50 pm. Attendance is free and all are welcome to register in advance to attend.
Click here for additional information, including registration details.
NovaUCD has hosted over 80 ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars since 2003. Previous guest entrepreneurial speakers include; Eamonn Fallon, Daft.ie; Colm Lyon, Realex Payments; Emmet O’Neill, Smiles Dental; Andrew Parish, Wavebob and Susan Spence, SoftCo.
ENDS
21 September 2011
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 1 716 3712.
Editors Notes
Speaker Profiles
Dr John O’Dea, Founder & CEO, Crospon
Established by Dr John O’Dea in 2006, Crospon is involved in the development and manufacture of leading-edge, minimally invasive medical devices for imaging and aiding clinically invasive procedures in the areas of bariatric surgery and gastroenterology. Crospon currently employs 20 people between its offices in Galway and California.
Crospon has received recognition for its technology and innovation over the last number of years including the Irish Medical Devices Association Company of the Year (2009) and Irish Small Firms’ Association Innovator of the Year Award (2010).
John has also been selected as a finalist, in the Emerging Category, Ernst & Young 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
With 20 years experience in the medical device industry, John has overseen the successful launch of seven electronic medical device products in the past thirteen years. He co-founded Caradyne, an Irish respiratory medical device company in 1998, which was selling products in 30 countries prior to its acquisition by Respironics Inc. in 2004.
He is a Board member of the Irish Medical Devices Association, Adjunct Professor of Medical Device Design in the School of Engineering and Informatics, NUI Galway and a Vice-President of Engineers Ireland.
He holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and a PhD in Electronics Engineering, all from University College Dublin.
Greg Byrne, Founder & CEO, The Three Little Pigs Company
Greg is the founder and CEO of the marketing consultancy, The Three Little Pigs Company. Greg works with early-stage companies to help them enter markets and win leadership brand positions.
Greg is also heavily involved in a number of networks to support entrepreneurship in Ireland and co-founded the http://www.smallbusinesscan.com/ community platform.
He founded the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Brand Programme as a platform for fostering entrepreneurship in Ireland. Greg devised and implemented the strategy to create a leadership brand position for Ernst & Young in the entrepreneurial market in Ireland- building the Entrepreneur Of The Year ® Awards Programme as a ‘community-forming, development-through-knowledge platform’ for Ireland’s high-potential entrepreneurs.
Greg was the founding general manager of Irish Life Home Loans, working with IIB Bank and Irish Life Finance Group in the marketing and sales area for many years.
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.
NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.
The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board is a State Enterprise Development Agency offering support to individuals in the county of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown who are thinking of starting a business and to those who are looking to grow their small business. There are 35 City & County Enterprise Boards located across Ireland and the role of each is to help the development of micro-enterprises (i.e. businesses employing up to 10 people) in their locality.