The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award is a global recognition programme, to identify, acclaim and support entrepreneurs. The programme is currently run in over 50 countries, across six continents. The Irish programme, now in its 13th year, has been identified as one of the strongest worldwide.

Each year, entrepreneurs throughout the island of Ireland are invited to participate and vie for the coveted award. Entries can be made in any one of three categories: Emerging, Industry and International. Following interviews and rigorous judging, 24 entrepreneurs are shortlisted in May. The finalists engage in a strategic programme of activities over the next six months which culminates with a prestigious televised awards ceremony. An award is presented for each category, and an overall winner is announced as THE Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winner.

The enterprise culture in Ireland remains strong and there is a positive predisposition towards entrepreneurship. The Entrepreneur Of The Year Programme provides us with valuable role models whose experience can teach both Ireland's existing and future business people. In Ireland, we have created a brand that entrepreneurs are widely recognised under and Ernst & Young is committed to acclaiming and supporting entrepreneurs in an innovative way.

To read more about the programme please read our digital brochure.

Created by the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year programme, EOY.tv is a unique business website aimed at providing a resource for fledgling companies and an educational tool for second and third-level students.

The site contains an extensive video archive including interviews with entrepreneurs, the prestigious award ceremonies, and case studies examining aspects of doing business.

In educational terms it is a natural progression from the ground-breaking EOY DVD series distributed to schools and colleges over the past few years aimed to promote and encourage entrepreneurship amongst Ireland's future business generation.

The available Visual Case Studies each have a specific educational business theme and are accompanied by teacher's notes linking to the Leaving Certificate curriculum.

So, one of the most attractive aspects of EOY.TV is not alone the excellence of its content, but its accessibility to students and teachers alike - a double benefit that it can be viewed at home or in the classroom!

Now, we are taking this exemplary business resource one great step further by offering 24 graduates the opportunity to be awarded internships by the end of the year with the 24 finalists from the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2010.

As the entrepreneurs battle it out for the coveted title of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year© these are the people who determine the winners - meet our 2010 Judges!

All our entrepreneurial judges on the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year© judging panel are business people who have achieved success in their respective fields. Many of our judges are themselves former Entrepreneur Of The Year award winners. Our judging panel also includes distinguished representatives from our two sponsoring agencies, Enterprise Ireland and Intertrade Ireland. All are ideally placed to recognise that vibrant entrepreneurial talent which distinguishes the winners of tomorrow.

• Mr Padraig O'Ceidigh - Aer Arann
• Mr Brian Long - Atlantic BridgeVentures
• Mr Tom Hayes - Enterprise Ireland
• Mr Pat McDonagh - Thirdforce
• Mr Liam Nellis - Inter-Trade Ireland
• Mr Liam Shanahan - Shanahan Engineering Ltd
• Ms. Anne Heraty - CPL
• Mr Jerry Kennelly - Tweak.com
• Mr Michael Carey - Jacob Fruitfield
• Mr Hugh O'Donnell - Kentz Group

• Entreprenur Of The Year attends the UCC Innov8 Week

• Ernst & Young Homepage
• Ernst & Young Graduate Careers