Jacques Lefebvre, co-founder and CEO of DataKraft, a niche software development company which recently raised €1 million in venture capital funding, today delivered the 65th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar.

Jacques Lefebvre, co-founder and CEO, DataKraft

Seminar podcast.

The aim of the ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series, which are organised by NovaUCD in association with the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board, is to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship among the academic, research and student population at UCD. A seminar series has taken place each Spring and Autumn since 2003 and Jacques Lefebvre today launched the 12th series.

The three other guest speakers in the current series, which runs each Wednesday lunch time (1 pm to 1:50 pm) until March 11 are, Brendan O’Regan, founder and CEO, Zenith Technologies (February 25); Charlotte O’Kelly, co-founder and managing director, TechWorks Marine (March 4) and Donal O’Riain, founder and managing director, Ecocem (March 11). The seminars take place in NovaUCD, Belfield, Dublin 4 and attendance is open to all.

According to Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD, “Given the present economic climate it is not surprising that the ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars are attracting large and diverse audiences. New high-tech ventures are increasingly seen as a means of offsetting unemployment and of transferring research-generated intellectual property into the market place.”

Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD; Jacques Lefebvre and Michael Johnson CEO, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board

At the NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars the guest entrepreneurs talk about their experiences of setting-up and running their businesses. They also emphasise the lessons learnt and the highs and lows encountered so far on their entrepreneurial journey and they reveal the secrets of their success.

Michael Johnson, CEO, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board said, “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.”

Previous NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ guest speakers include; Anne Heraty, CPL Group; Eamonn Fallon, Daft.ie; Brody Sweeney, O’Briens Sandwich Bars; Oliver Tattan, Vivas Healthcare and Dr John Teeling, Cooley Distillery.

ENDS

18 February 2009

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e-mail: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, tel: (01) 716 3712.

Editors Notes

NovaUCD is University College Dublin’s €11 million Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre.  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 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 in Ireland and the role of each is to help the development of micro-enterprises (i.e. businesses with up to 10 employees.

Speaker Profiles

Jacques Lefebvre, Co-Founder and CEO, DataKraft
DataKraft is a niche software development company which was co-founded in 2004 by Jacques Lefebvre and Carol McKeon. The company’s DataKraft Studio is a revolutionary and unique software platform which can be used to create professional database applications. DataKraft Studio requires no coding and is 20 times faster than traditional development methods.  

DataKraft Studio is helping companies of all sizes by delivering custom business solutions that meet their exact needs while also delivering increased productivity and information visibility. The platform can be used by IT services companies to generate bespoke database systems for clients. 

DataKraft, which has recently raised €1 million in venture capital funding from Enterprise Ireland and the AIB Seed Capital Fund, employees 10 people and is based in Sandyford. Its customer base is located in Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK and Australia and clients include the Big Red Book, Bryan S Ryan and InterTradeIreland’s Acumen Programme.

Jacques holds an engineering Masters degree from ESIEA, Paris and a postgraduate business diploma from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Brendan O’Regan, Founder and CEO Zenith Technologies
Zenith Technologies is a privately-owned Irish company which was founded in 1998 by Brendan O'Regan. Zenith Technologies provides innovative, reliable and technically advanced process measurement, automation and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) solutions to the process, pharma/biotechnology, food and electronic sectors. As these sectors are regulated by the US Food and Drugs Agency, all of Zenith’s systems and methodologies deliver FDA compliant solutions.

The company is now diversifying beyond the automation space and offering services and solutions to other aspects of the pharmaceutical business in areas such as MES, global programme management, managed services and general engineering.

Zenith has global preferred supplier agreements with GSK, GSK Bio and Novartis and has also successfully executed projects for Wyeth Medica, Pfizer and UCB Schwarz Pharma. 

Zenith, which has an annual turnover of €30 million, currently employ in excess of 250 people worldwide and is headquartered in Cork with offices in Dublin, India, Singapore, UK and USA. 

Brendan has a degree in Physics and he was a finalist in the 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards. The company was ranked in the 2007 and 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 companies.

Charlotte O'Kelly – Co-founder and Managing Director, TechWorks Marine
TechWorks Marine which provides clients with world-class solutions to monitor the marine environment was co-founded by Charlotte O’Kelly in 2002.

TechWorks Marine supplies real-time data from its monitoring platforms which enables its clients to make effective management decisions.  The solutions are based on a proprietary data acquisition and transmission system, the TechWorks Marine Black Box, (TMBB). The TMBB is designed for use in hostile environments delivering data via real-time telemetry which can be viewed 24/7 online.

TechWorks Marine was the winner of the Innovation and New Technology Award at the 2002 Shell Live Wire Young Business Start-Up Awards and was runner-up in the 2003 National Enterprise Awards.

Charlotte has an honours degree in Environmental Resources from Kingston University and a Master’s degree in Applied Oceanography from University of Wales, Bangor. She is also the current Chairperson of Women in Science and Technology Association. 

Donal O’Riain, Founder and Managing Director, Ecocem  
Ecocem is an independent specialist producer of ‘green’ cement which was founded in 2001 by Donal O’Riain. Ecocem currently produces 700,000 tonnes of green cement annually and also annually reduces CO2 emissions by 630,000 tonnes.

Ecocem's green cement is made by processing a by-product of the steel industry, known as Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag (GGBS). The carbon emissions from the production of Ecocem’s cement are typically 85% less than those produced from the creation of standard Portland cement as this it has zero emissions of SO2 (acid rain) or NOX (low-level ozone). In addition Ecocem’s green cement has better strength and durability over standard cement.  

Ecocem’s cement has been or is being used in a string of high-profile developments including the Convention Centre Dublin, the O2 Arena and the Lansdowne Road Stadium. Ecocem which has a turnover of €40 million currently has 60 employees and is located in Dublin and in the Netherlands.

Donal is a UCD engineering graduate and he was a finalist in 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.