Jack Teeling Named EY Entrepreneur of The Year™ 2017 in the Emerging Category
Jack Teeling (pictured), of Teeling Whiskey, has been named the Emerging EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ for 2017 at the 20th annual awards ceremony held in Dublin recently. Over 1,500 business leaders from across the island of Ireland were in attendance at the awards gala, alongside guest of honour, Tánaiste, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald to celebrate the achievements of the 24 finalists. The 2017 finalists, collectively employ over 5,200 people and last year generated revenues of almost half a billion Euro.
The Teeling Whiskey Company was founded by Jack Teeling in 2012, reviving the old Teeling family trademark of Irish whiskey. The company has quickly become the leading independent Irish whiskey company by driving category choice and innovation through a selection of unique handcrafted small batch Irish whiskeys. The Teeling Whiskey Distillery started operation in 2015 as the first new distillery in Dublin for over 125 years and has taken in over 200,000 visitors since. Teeling Whiskey is now exported to over 50 different export markets, has won over 100 international awards.
Commenting on Jack Teeling’s award win, Joe Healy, Divisional Manager, High Potential Start-Ups of Enterprise Ireland said: “Jack Teeling, the winner of the emerging category is an outstanding example of a young Irish entrepreneur who has made exceptional commercial progress in just 5 years. He has developed an international business by backing his own vision, developing a strong brand presence with a high level of innovation in the business model. The key building blocks have been put in place to really scale this business in the coming years. Enterprise Ireland looks forward to continuing to support the Teeling Whiskey Company on its journey and fully expect the company to be a stellar example to Irish start-up companies with global ambition.”
At the awards ceremony, Harry Hughes from Portwest was announced as the International category winner and the overall winner of EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ for 2017. Harry has helped grow Portwest into a leading global safety supplier with sales in over 110 countries. Evelyn O’Toole, founder of Complete Lab Solutions, which is a leading contract laboratories provider of sampling and analysis for the food, environment, and life sciences industries, was named Industry EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™.
Kevin McLoughlin, Partner Lead for the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Ireland, said: “We are delighted to be celebrating the 20th year of the programme in Ireland. During that time we have seen some truly incredible entrepreneurs take part. The diversity of participants in terms of industry, gender and location continues to grow and that is something we are delighted to be able to facilitate. Jack Teeling has led Teeling Whiskey on a fantastic growth curve since 2012. His innovative thinking has helped them become the leading independent Irish whiskey company. All our finalists can be proud of their achievements. The standard this year, as in previous years has been extremely high. On behalf of EY I would like to congratulate all of our 24 finalists, and in particular Portwest, CLS and Teeling Whiskey.”
The winners are selected by an independent panel of judges chaired by Anne Heraty of Cpl Resources plc. The panel includes previous EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ (overall and category) winners Michael Carey, Mark Roden, Terry Clune, Dr. Edmond Harty, Joe Hogan, Jerry Kennelly, Brian Long, Pat McDonagh and Denis O’Brien as well as Joe Healy from Enterprise Ireland and Jeremy Fitch from Invest Northern Ireland. When determining the winners, the judges evaluate a number of criteria, including: innovation; value creation; strategic direction; financial performance; national and global impact; and the entrepreneur’s contribution to society and industry.
Each year EY presents a Special Award to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the island of Ireland through their entrepreneurial vision, innovation and commitment to excellence. This year, the prestigious honour was awarded to Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien, co-founders of FoodCloud. Their journey began like any other entrepreneurs’; they identified a problem, and sought a way to find a solution. Five years on they have diverted 18 million meals from the landfill, to people’s plates by connecting businesses that have too much food with charities working in communities that don’t have enough.
The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ programme is supported by Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, The Irish Times and Newstalk and the TV series was broadcast on be3. The Gala Awards ceremony will be aired on Monday 30 October at 8pm on be3. The 2018 programme will be open for nominations from January 2018. For further information, please visit www.eoy.ie.
