2012 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award Shortlist Announced

There are three categories in the awards – business, arts and social. All shortlisted entrepreneurs will be interviewed in early December by the awards judging panel, which is headed up by Dr. Chris Horn.  After the interviews, the three category winners will go through to the final, with the overall winner being announced at a ceremony in January.  The awards carry a prize package of more than €100,000. The nominations in the business category are as follows:

Daniel Bradfield of AirDryer Systems

Daniel Bradfield of AirDryer Systems is short-listed in the Business category for ‘Marilyn’ – an appliance for the home that promises ‘clothes drying made easy.’ Marilyn reduces the costs of laundry drying by over 90pc and reduces drying time by up to 75pc.  Multiples in the UK and Ireland are so impressed with their own test results, they have advised AirDryer of significant orders on the way for 2012. AirDryer was set up in 2009 and is based at The Rubicon Centre, CIT Campus, Bishopstown, Cork.  Bradfield, who is from Ballincollig, spent the last three years developing and refining ‘Marilyn.’ An engineer by trade, he has over twenty years’ experience in the design of domestic and industrial air handling products.  He has also worked in manufacturing in Europe, the USA, and Asia.

George Howlett & Philip Gillen, Safefood 360

Launched in April of this year by George Howlett and Philip Gillen, Safefood 360 is the first-ever global online food safety management software solution. It enables food processing plants to set up, record, manage and report on all aspects of their food safety system necessary to meet legal and commercial compliance requirements. Safefood 360 has already generated a lot of interest worldwide and is currently being trialed by over 250 food plants in 52 countries on five continents. In their first year, they have raised €750,000 in financial backing. George Howlett from Blanchardstown has 23 years’ experience with companies such as Coca-Cola, Largo Foods, Disney and Batchelors. He also ran his own consultancy specializing in food industry development. Philip Gillen from Malahide is an IT specialist. He worked with Butlers Chocolates and in 2005 set up his own software and project management company. They began collaborating on the Safefood 360 concept in 2009, and both now work full time in the company.

Sandra Maguire, EduBills.ie

Sandra Maguire, from Cabinteely, Co. Dublin, came up with the idea for EduBills.ie while working as a secretary in her son’s primary school. Having spent many hours opening envelopes from parents, which contained cash and cheques for things as diverse as personal accident insurance, speech & drama, computer and PE classes, inmilk, school trips, registration fees and so on – and then having to issue receipts, refunds of overpayments and return unsigned cheques – she knew there had to be a better way. Maguire realized that the answer was to have an online payment and ordering system which parents could use from the comfort of their own homes or offices.  Schools could upload the items parents needed to pay for, including schoolbooks, tracksuits, uniforms and so. EduBills started trading in June 2011 following extensive research with schools, parents, and suppliers, conducted in collaboration with Dublin City University.  By the end of August this year, orders to the value of over €45,000 had been put through the system. EduBills.ie is based at Docklands Innovation Park, East Wall Road, Dublin.

The awards were established in 2003 and nurture the enterprising spirit in business, the arts and in the social community.  All nine short-listed entrants will receive mentoring, courtesy of Enterprise Ireland.  The overall winner will win mentoring and business advice valued at €100,000 plus a financial grant of €10,000 in cash.  The other two category winners each receive €1,000. The €100,000 in mentoring is provided by leading experts in finance, law, accountancy, management consultancy, payroll & accounts software, corporate and brand identity and public relations. Membership of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce is also included.

Business to Arts, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, business innovation centers, incubation centers and enterprise support agencies work with the David Manley Award committee in implementing the award scheme.

The other judges include Gerard McNaughton (of Tilestyle and representing Business To Arts), Julian Davis (Fleishman Hillard and representing Social Entrepreneurs Ireland) and Louise Farrell (of 02, who chairs the business category judging – Louise is David Manley’s daughter.)

Previous winners of the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award to date are Fred Hanna, Founder of Swiftext and grandson of the famous Fred Hanna (2003); Simon Factor of Moving Media (2004); Francis McKeagney, Innerworkings (2005); Emergent Events (2006); EirGen Pharma (2007); Camara (2008); RendezVu (2009); and Rothar (2010/2011).