HAVING SUCCESSFULLY run the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Ireland for a number of years, accountant Enda Kelly is now trying to repeat the trick with Digicel in Haiti, the impoverished Caribbean nation devastated by an earthquake last year.
Only a fortnight ago, Digicel took the 24 finalists in the Haiti competition to the University of Florida in Miami for a retreat, with Denis O’Brien for company.
“It’s all raw activity that they’re involved in but there’s some great stories,” Kelly told me at a breakfast briefing in Dublin earlier this week.
“The difference with Ireland is that they don’t have the same access to finance and markets.”
With Haiti under his belt, Kelly would like to expand the award’s footprint. “I’d love to take it to the other island as well.”
TESCO'S LATESTpush into the west of Ireland appears to have been well-received by locals.
The British supermarket giant opened stores in Swinford, Co Mayo, and Oranmore, Co Galway, on November 15th.
Sources tell me it doubled its budget for Swinford in the first week of trading and exceeded the target in Oranmore by 60 per cent.
This “astounded” Tesco chiefs at its regional office in Dún Laoghaire.
Every little helps.
