Colm Lyon, founder and CEO of Realex Payments, who was named Internet Hero at the 2009 eircom Golden Spider Awards for his contribution to the Irish internet industry, today delivered the 75th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar.

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 populations at University College Dublin and beyond.

Realex Payments is a leading European payment service provider offering a broad range of online payment services for over 3,500 domestic and international clients and employs over 70 people.

Colm Lyon, Realex Payments

Speaking at today’s seminar Colm Lyon said, “The best time to start up a business is when you want to. There will always be external, negative factors that will affect your business plan. I firmly believe in the opportunity and the global potential that the internet has to offer Irish entrepreneurs. Using the internet, new business models can be established and can grow rapidly on a global level. Internet businesses are global from inception, there are no borders.” He added, “For me, the transformation came when I realised Realex Payments was not just about Ireland but about the internet, and that meant the world.”

During this NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars the guest entrepreneurs talk about their experiences of setting-up and running their businesses and outline how they are handling the challenges of a changed economic environment. They also emphasise the lessons learnt and summarise the highs and lows that they have encountered along their entrepreneurial journeys. In addition the guest speakers reveal the secrets of their success. After each seminar attendees have an opportunity to ask probing questions of the guest entrepreneur.

The remaining speakers in the current series are; Howard Beggs, co-founder and CEO, Helix Health (Wednesday 3 March), John Lynch, CEO, Merrion Pharmaceuticals (Wednesday 10 March) and Ray Nolan, Founder, Web Reservations International and Worky.com (Tuesday, March 23). 

Speaking at the launch of the current series, Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD, said, “The ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminars continue to attract large and diverse audiences which is not surprising given the increasing recognition of the role of universities in promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. The establishment of new high-tech ventures is vitally important in transferring research-generated intellectual property into the market place and creating high-quality jobs.” He added, “Recently published statistics show that the level of invention disclosures by UCD researchers to NovaUCD increased by 60% in 2009. This demonstrates the growing strength of the pipeline of innovative ideas coming from UCD, many of which are destined to be exploited in the years ahead through new knowledge-intensive ventures.”

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.”

NovaUCD has hosted an ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series each Spring and Autumn since 2003 and Colm Lyon today launched the 14th series. Previous visiting entrepreneurs have included; Eamonn Fallon, Daft.ie; Sean Gallagher, Smarthomes; Anne Heraty, CPL Group; Jacques Lefebvre, DataKraft and Dr Eddie O’Connor, Mainstream Renewable Energy.

Each of the remaining seminars take 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.

ENDS

24 February 2010

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 (0)1 716 3712.

Editors Notes

NovaUCD is University College Dublin’s 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 the industry and business communities. NovaUCD as a purpose-built incubation centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises. Twenty-six knowledge-intensive companies are currently located in NovaUCD.  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.