N I Enterprise Celebrated

As part of National Enterprise Week, Invest Northern Ireland - in association with Ulster Bank - has hosted a Celebration of Enterprise gala dinner at which several local entrepreneurs were honoured for their contribution to business.

At the event held at the Transport Museum, Cultra, and hosted by BBC presenter Noel Thompson, Orla Corr of the McAvoy Group became the latest entrepreneur to be inducted into Invest NI’s Hall of Fame.

A special award was also made posthumously to Professor Frank Pantridge, the inventor of the portable defibrillator, recognising his contribution to innovation.

Other awards were presented for specific categories in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and export.

These were Best Business Entrepreneur: awarded to Patrick McGrath of Ripfactory whose flagship product is the Ripstation, a fully automated, high-speed, CD ripping and encoding system; Best New Innovation: awarded to Willis Heating & Plumbing, for a new solar water heating system, the Willis SolaSyphon.

The Innovator of the Year went to Fusion Antibodies, a biotechnology company specialising in the areas of oncology and infectious disease and the Best Emerging Exporter accolade was awarded to Singularity, which provides business process management software and solutions.

The Exporter of the Year award went to Fintec Crushing & Screening, a market leader in the manufacture of mobile crushing and screening equipment for use in quarrying and recycling applications.

(BMcC)