Tralee, Thursday 30^th March 2017: Munster Joinery Founder and leading entrepreneur, Donal Ring, was honoured last night (Thursday 30^th March) at Ballygarry House Hotel & Spa, Tralee with the Cantillon Entrepreneur Award in association with professional services firm EY.  The award was part of the Business Leaders’ Ball which was attended by the county’s leading entrepreneurs as well as representatives from Kerry County Council, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Kerry Local Enterprise Office, North, East & West Kerry Development; South Kerry Partnership Development, Udarás na Gaeltachta and the Institute of Technology Tralee.

Commenting at the awards, Munster Joinery founder Donal Ring said, “Thank you to IT Tralee and EY for this award and well done to all those involved in another hugely successful enterprise month. I am honoured to accept this award on behalf of our very committed and hardworking team and also on behalf of my late brother Patrick.”

Ian Venner, Energy Lead and Assurance Partner, EY Ireland commented: “The Cantillon Entrepreneur Award serves to recognise a local entrepreneur who has demonstrated a clear ability to innovate, inspire and outperform within business. As a firm, EY is committed to supporting and fostering Ireland’s entrepreneurial community – which is the heart of the country’s growing economy – and as such, I am delighted to be able to present Donal with this important award”. 

Earlier that day, over 250 people attended the Cantillon Conference at The Rose Hotel in Tralee, for Ireland’s only one-day ‘Fintech’ discussion forum. The Institute of Technology Tralee, in association with FEXCO, hosted this annual conference which is named after Ballyheigue native Richard Cantillon, an 18th-century banker, credited with the origin of the term entrepreneur and a pioneering economist.

This year, the Cantillon Conference was themed around Building Borderless Business, and welcomed industry experts from companies such as EY, Indeed, SAP, DELL EMC, Accenture, Voxpro, Deloitte, Grant Thornton and FEXCO to lead discussion on the three key areas of; Digital Financial Technologies, Cyber Security and Digital Building Blocks. MC’d by TV presenter Miriam O’Callaghan, the conference drew attention to the challenges and opportunities for Irish companies, both start-up and established, in the areas of financial technology and cyber security, as well furthering the discussion around attracting the necessary talent to support these growing sectors.

Commenting on the event, Brid Mc Elligott, Vice President for Research, Development and External Engagement at the IT Tralee said; “Once again the Cantillon Conference has proven to be a huge success. The key to the event’s popularity is the fact that topics for discussion are chosen to reflect issues that are topical and relevant to the strategic development of entrepreneurship and transformation of our current economic model. We had some of the world’s leading experts in the area of Fintech with us in Kerry yesterday disrupting the entire financial and cyber security landscape. Once again we are delighted to have EY on board with our Cantillon Entrepreneur Award and look forward to building on this relationship in the future. Kerry and the wider region is unrivalled when it comes to entrepreneurial success and we congratulate Munster Joinery’s Donal Ring as the second recipient of the Cantillon Entrepreneur Award.”