Ireland's Ambassador to the United States, Sean O hUiginn, yesterday presented the first annual Ambassador's Award to the venture capital management firm, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, for promoting Irish-US business. The award was given by the mid-Atlantic chapter of the Ireland Chamber of Commerce in the USA (ICCUSA) at the Union League of Philadelphia. It was accepted by Mr Don Caldwell, CEO of the company established in 1999 to bring Irish technology firms to the US.

Mr Caldwell said: "The US is the largest market to sell technology into. When we help open the door for our European portfolio companies to access that market, they find the single biggest opportunity to scale their operations."

According to Mr Justin Rea, principle of XACP: "The recent success of Opennet-Telecom in winning an industry-leading contract with AT&T shows Irish technology firms are readily accepted by US corporates. Once they have won in the US it makes entering the European market that much easier." Opennet Telecom, one of nine companies listed in XAPC promotional material, is a telecommunications software company focusing on Internet protocol mediation.

XACP describes itself as a venture capital management firm operating several funds. It was established "in order to capture the investment opportunity created by the explosion of IT start-ups in Ireland and the UK", and has offices in Dublin, London and Radnor, Pennsylvania.

The award was named in honour of Mr O hUiginn, ambassador to the United States since 1997 and closely involved in Anglo-Irish relations and the promotion of US-Irish business.