The managing director of an Irish engineering company with projects in locations as diverse as Venezuela and Malaysia was last night named as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Mr Liam Shanahan, managing director of Dublin-based Shanahan Engineering, was selected from a shortlist of 24 finalists to win the overall competition. Mr Shanahan was also named winner of the international services category, one of three awards given along with the Entrepreneur of the Year itself. Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy presented the awards at a ceremony attended by an estimated 500 people in Dublin's Burlington Hotel last night.

Mr Shanahan told the gathering that he was "shocked" to receive the award. He paid tribute to his father, also called Liam, who founded the business in 1979, and to the company's staff. "They are the people that really deserve this," he said.

"I feel extremely honoured, quite shocked and flattered that we were chosen among this particular field," he said after the ceremony. "I think an event like this really serves to recognise enterprise in Ireland at a very key and important time."

Shanahan Engineering is a global operation that employs over 200 people. The company provides construction management, operation and maintenance, and technical field services to the power generation, oil and gas and industrial process sectors. Over its history, the company has developed from performing contracts to managing them on behalf of clients. Recently, it began developing wind farms in Co Donegal.

The company has offices in Blackrock, Co Dublin, the US and Japan. It works with a number of blue-chip clients, including Mitsubishi Heavy Engineering, General Electric, Marubeni Siemens Westinghouse and Hitachi. Its current project locations include the Middle East, China, Angola, Venezuela, the US, the Dominican Republic, the UK, Spain, Nigeria and Malaysia.

Before he joined the company in 1989, Mr Shanahan worked in the hotel and construction industries. He was educated at University College Cork, where he received a bachelor of civil law (BCL), and at the European School of Management, EAP, where he earned an MBA. He is married to Ruth Shanahan and has five children.

Mr Shanahan pointed out that the company had no significant domestic market, but predicted that this would change as the Republic's energy market opened up. "And we'll continue to grow internationally at the pace we've been achieving in the last few years," he said.

Mr Shanahan and Shanahan Engineering will go on to represent Ireland at the World Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Monte Carlo next year.

Mr Enda Kelly, Ernst & Young partner, said Mr Shanahan won the award because he had demonstrated that Irish entrepreneurs could provide high-value services to world-class standards, even in the most complex technical areas.

Ernst & Young hosted the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in association with The Irish Times, Enterprise Ireland, Shannon Development and RTÉ. They are part of a global programme aimed at identifying, supporting and rewarding entrepreneurs across all sectors.

The awards were made in three categories: International Services Entrepreneur of the Year; Industry Entrepreneur of the Year; and Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. A panel chaired by businessman Mr Denis O'Brien chose the winners.

Mr Ray Nolan and Mr Tom Kennedy of Hostelworld.com won the Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. Hostelworld provides a secure online booking service for hostels and budget accommodation around the world.

Both men founded the business in 1999 when IT specialist Mr Nolan and hostel owner Mr Kennedy met. By now, 4,500 hostels in 15 countries around the world avail of the service. The company also has revenue sharing deals with larger travel sites to whom it licenses its system. Mr Nolan and Mr Kennedy expect their website to sell €100 million worth of accommodation in the next 12 months.

The pair said the award was a victory for the by now much-maligned dotcom sector. "If they are run like a proper business, like anything else, they can be good businesses," Mr Nolan said.

Mr Kennedy said that the company still had a lot of growth left in it, and said it planned to move up the market to cover budget hotels and other forms of affordable accommodation not targeted by other sites.

Mr Gerry McCaughey, chief executive of Monaghan town-based Century Homes, won the Ernst & Young Industry Award. Century Homes was established in 1990, and is now the biggest timber-frame building manufacturing company in Ireland and the UK. It exports throughout Europe and Asia.

It currently has five facilities throughout this country and Britain, and plans to open a sixth in Tullamore, Co Offaly, in 2005.

The company plans to double its turnover from its current level of €50 million to €100 million over the next five years. Its workforce, currently 300, will grow to 600 over the same time frame.

Mr McCaughey said the award was a vindication of the company's belief in itself. "I feel absolutely delighted for every single person that works in the company," he said.

"When we started out we were told you will never sell wooden houses to the Irish. But 13 years on, we are in a situation where timber-frame houses will take 50 per cent of the market."

He added that the company was now producing one in 10 of all houses built in the country.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy said the sector of the economy represented by the finalists and winners was vital to the economy.

"The indigenous sector continues to be of critical importance and must, therefore, be actively encouraged because, above all, entrepreneurship requires courage," he said.

Previous winners of the award include Mr Eddie Jordan (Jordan Grand Prix, 2001) and Mr Pádraig ó Céidigh (Aer Arann, 2002).