Dr Eddie O’Connor founder and CEO of Mainstream Renewable Power will launch the 13th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series on Wednesday, October 14.

Mainstream Renewable Power’s global vision is to develop, construct and operate a range of renewable energy plants using wind energy, solar thermal and ocean currents. The company, which was established in 2008, has raised €72 million in funding including a €20 million investment from Barclays Capital.

The 13th ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series, which has a clean-tech theme will feature four additional seminars and will be held each Wednesday lunch time (1 pm to 1:50 pm) from October 14 until November 11. Each seminar takes place in NovaUCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, attendance is free and all are welcome to attend. 

The aim of the ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars 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.  

The other guest speakers in the current series are Dr Peter Daly, co-founder, Cleantech Ireland (October 21), Tom Marren, MD, Combined Energy Solutions (October 28) and Dr Hugh Henry, Director of Innovation and R&D, Bord na Móna (November 4).  

At the last seminar to be held on November 11 a panel, including André Fernon, co-founder, SolarPrint and John Travers, CEO, Alternative Energy Resources will share their experiences of  Enterprise Ireland’s first dedicated clean-tech trade mission to Silicon Valley which is underway at present.

At the NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars these guest entrepreneurs talk about their experiences of setting-up and running their businesses. They will emphasise the lessons learnt and the highs and lows encountered on their entrepreneurial journeys and they will share the secrets of their success. At each seminar attendees will have the opportunity to ask probing questions of the guest speaker.

The launch of the 13th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series by Dr Eddie O’Connor is an Innovation Dublin 2009 event.

ENDS

30 September 2009

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

Editors Notes

NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of knowledge transfer activities at UCD.  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). www.dlrceb.ie.

Innovation Dublin is a week-long festival promoting innovation and creativity in the city. Taking place October 14-20, it’s an opportunity for Dubliners, whether they’re entrepreneurs, students, researchers, artists or large corporations, to celebrate new ideas and fresh initiatives. Over 200 exciting events are scheduled including seminars, workshops, tours, showcases, discussions, exhibitions and live performances. Each event is themed around a key aspect of urban life: culture, enterprise, people, the environment or the public realm.  

Speaker Profiles

Dr Eddie O’Connor, who was named a world energy policy leader by Scientific American magazine in 2003, is the founder and CEO of Mainstream Renewable Power. Mainstream Renewable Power’s global vision is to develop, construct and operate a range of renewable energy plants using wind energy, solar thermal and ocean currents.

He was previously the founder and CEO of Airtricity Holdings Ltd which he established in 1997. Airtricity went on to become a global leader in renewable energy development and wind farm operations. In 2007 Airtricity sold its North American business unit to E.on, the German utility giant, for approximately $1.4 billion. In January 2008 Scottish and Southern Energy acquired the remainder of the company for €1.1 billion.

Eddie holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering and a Masters in Industrial Engineering from University College Dublin and a doctorate in Business Administration from the International Management Centres, Europe. In June 2008 he was conferred with an honorary Doctorate of Science by UCD.

Dr Peter Daly is an experienced business leader and company founder whose experience encompasses a number of sectors including start-ups and large corporations.  He formerly co-founded and was CEO of two healthcare companies, one of which EiRx was listed on AIM.

Dr Daly recently co-founded the new Irish networking organisation Cleantech Ireland.  Cleantech Ireland has been set up by a group of business people, angel investors and academics with the aim of creating a space for networking and to promote new company formation and financing as well as technology transfer. Their focus is wide ranging but is primarily on the tech side and includes such areas as green IT, PV, energy storage, green buildings, energy efficiency products and software, new materials, smart grid and renewable energies.

Tom Marren is Managing Director of Combined Energy Solutions (CESenergy) and owner of Marren Engineering. He has considerable experience in building & installing cogeneration and air conditioning systems and business management. Tom is also a director of Cogent Energy Australia.

Combined Energy Solutions has a proven track record in the successful delivery of on-site sustainable energy generation solutions and energy efficient products on a business-to-business basis.  The company designs, builds, maintains and operates energy centres in Ireland, England and Australia. The company’s solutions are successfully in operation within the industrial, pharmaceutical, commercial, healthcare and leisure sectors.

Tom has a degree in Building Services Engineering from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA from University College Dublin.

Dr Hugh Henry is Director of Innovation and Research and Development at Bord na Móna. Established over 50 years ago to develop Ireland‘s peat resources, Bord na Móna is now active across a range of peat based and other industries including environmental technology and renewable energy fields.

Hugh joined Bord na Móna in 1990 working as a research scientist on a range of development projects focusing on wastewater treatment. He subsequently held a number of positions within the company including senior/principal environmental consultant, manager of the environmental consultancy unit and chief operations officer of Bord na Móna's environmental business.

In his current role he is directly responsible for the management of the research focus and subsequent product development initiatives across the entire group. This process will expand the company beyond its present activities into new opportunities in the resource management, environmental technology and renewable energy fields thereby developing a commercially and environmentally sustainable future for its employees and other stakeholders.

Hugh was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science and Technology from the Institute of Technology Sligo and he subsequently completed a PhD there. He also has a graduate Diploma in Business Finance from the Irish Management Institute.

André Fernon is co-founder of SolarPrint. SolarPrint is developing Dye Sensitised Solar Cell (DSSC) technology, a novel 3rd generation printable, flexible solar cell technology, which uses abundant, cheap raw materials and employs a low-cost, fast and easy manufacturing process. SolarPrint recently announced a significant investment of €1.6 million from Custom House Capital, Enterprise Ireland and a number of private investor partners to ramp up production and accelerate the company’s growth.

André started his career as a financial analyst within the Morgan Stanley Investment Banking Division before joining Apollo Real Estate Advisors, a US private equity firm, where he remained as Vice-President until his return to Ireland in 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he was a Director of Crownway Investments, an Irish private equity firm.

He has a BA in Economics and a Master in Management from the ESCP-EAP European School of Management.

John Travers is CEO of Alternative Energy Resources (AER). AER, which is headquartered in NovaUCD, is a leading Irish biofuels company with a world class performance record in three key areas; production and supply of biofuels in the Irish market, large scale biofuels production projects and next generation biofuels research and development.

John has extensive experience in the energy and consulting sectors. He has worked for 14 years in the energy industry, spending 5 years at Shell International in Holland as an operations manager and subsequently commercialising Shell technologies for the worldwide oil and gas industry. He joined McKinsey management consultants for 4 years and worked as a manager specialising in energy. He led consulting projects at international companies and governments in Ireland, UK, US and Africa.

He holds an engineering degree from UCD and an MBA from Harvard University.