A round-up of today's other stories in brief
O'Dwyer retires from Arthur Cox
Arthur Cox, the law firm that recently advised the board of Jurys Doyle on the €1.25 billion acquisition of the hotelier, yesterday announced the retirement of James O'Dwyer, the group's chairman.
Mr O'Dwyer (58) has been chairman for more than 12 years and will leave the firm at the end of April. He will continue to act as a consultant and adviser for the group's key clients. "James has made a major contribution to the growth and development of this firm for more than three decades," said managing partner Padraig O'Riordain.
Headquartered in Dublin, Arthur Cox also has offices in Belfast, London and New York. Under Mr O'Dwyer's leadership, the firm has grown from a group of 14 lawyers in 1972 to more than 220 today.
Arthur Cox said it will make a decision on a successor shortly.
Ican.ie takes top internet award
Online advertising agency Ican.ie, car rental site ArgusCarHire.com and the Revenue Commissioners' Revenue.ie were among the winners last night at Eircom's Golden Spider awards for excellence in online business.
The awards, which among other things look at content, structure and navigation, visual design and interactivity of internet sites, attracted 620 entries for 25 different categories.
Ican.ie, which counts Aerlingus and BT among its clients, won the grand prix award and one for best online marketing, while ArgusCarHire.com picked up best travel and tourism website and best e-commerce website. Michael Dwyer, founder of Pigsback.com received the internet hero award for his outstanding contribution to the industry.
Irish firms among fastest growing
A total of 36 Irish companies were last night named among Europe's 500 fastest growing technology companies at an awards ceremony in London.
Data Electronics, Ireland's fastest growing company, ranked 14th in the annual listings, which are organised by Deloitte and cover public and private companies throughout Europe, Middle East and Africa. The winner was Norwegian broadband provider Catch Communications. Overall five-year revenue for the 500 companies grew by an average of 935 per cent.
A separate survey released to coincide with the awards showed that the heads of technology companies are becoming increasingly confident about the future outlook. A record 82 per cent of chief executives said they were either extremely or very confident that their company will sustain its growth over the next year.
WDC fund to lift investment cap
The Western Development Commission (WDC) Investment Fund has won approval from the European Commission to increase its maximum investment under State aid rules to €1 million. Up until now the fund has been restricted to a maximum investment amount of €317,000.
Lifting the cap will enable the fund to look at a much wider range of potential investments and to consider putting money into more mature companies that may require larger amounts of funding.
The WDC fund was set up to foster a venture capital culture in the west of Ireland.
Trainor takes marketing post
The Marketing Institute has appointed former Trintech vice-president Tom Trainor as its new chief executive.
A graduate of University College Dublin (UCD), Mr Trainor was sales director, corporate business, with Eircom, executive vice president with Trintech, and has also worked with Kindle Banking Systems and Bank of Ireland.
