RICHARD Kennedy, chief executive of global agri-tech company Devenish, has been named the 2019 EY Entrepreneur of the Year.
He is the fourth outright winner from Northern Ireland in the 22 years of the EY programme, following in the footsteps of Dr Peter Fitzgerald (Randox), Brendan Mooney (Kainos) and the late Brian Conlon (First Derivatives).
Richard has been central to a stellar period of growth at the Belfast-headquartered animal nutrition firm, which has gone from a £5 million turnover and 23 employees in 1997 to more than £250 million turnover in 2018 and more than 500 employees, and which now trades in more than 40 countries.
The growth at Devenish has largely been driven by investment in innovative research, carried out in the group’s Performance Houses.
Latest year the firm received €118 million in funding from the European Investment Bank which will help to further build and develop the business as it looks to grow its turnover to £350m within the next three years.
Alongside being named as the overall winner of EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Richard was named International Entrepreneur of the Year.
Anne Heraty, chair of the judging panel said: “Richard Kennedy has been instrumental in leading the innovation that has been driven Devenish’s success. He has developed a clear and ambitious vision for the business to support their growth in global markets.”
Kevin McLoughlin, partner lead for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year, added: “This year’s programme had 24 phenomenal finalists. The diversity in terms of industries is a great sign of the health of the entrepreneurial environment on the island, which EY is so proud to play a role in supporting.
“Devenish is a company operating in a traditional industry but with a huge emphasis on leveraging technology and scientific research to create innovations which have been driving the group’s growth over the last 20 years.
“Richard Kennedy has been central to the success of Devenish and his entrepreneurial vision has helped give the company ambitious targets to strive for. He is a great example of how boldly pushing the boundaries within an industry can lead to great success.”
The awards ceremony in Dublin, which was attended by prominent business leaders and the Republic's Minister of Finance Paschal Donohoe, heard that this year's 24 finalists collectively employ more than 13,000 people and have revenues of €1.2 billion.
Triona Mullane received the award for Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. Her company, mAdme Technologies, allows some of the world’s largest mobile operators to better engage with their customers and is active on over 200 million mobile phones globally.
And Pat McDonagh, founder of Supermac’s, one of Ireland’s leading restaurant chains, the Só Hotel Group and six motorway and national route service stations, was named Industry Entrepreneur of the Year.
