Archipelago's John Egan

Tullamore man wins entrepreneur award

Tullamore man John Egan has added another enterprise award to his collection. Last week John was revealed as the overall winner of the 2013 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards. John set up a company - Archipelago - in 2010 to create an Irish community of young entrepreneurs working to reduce youth unemployment and emigration in Ireland by making entrepreneurship a viable career choice. Last year Archipelago won the European wide Ben & Jerry's and Ashoka Join Our Core competition for social enterprise. John's latest win, which saw him triumph over eight other shortlisted entrepreneurs, translates into €10,000 in cash as well as over €100,000 worth of mentoring and consultancy services from a variety of blue chip companies. The 2013 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award was presented to John last week at a ceremony in Dublin by judging panel chair Dr Chris Horn and Irish rugby team manager and co-founder of Snap Printing and Home Instead senior care franchises Michael Kearney. Speaking about his win, Mr Kearney said entrepreneurs are the life blood of an economy. "They have vision, passion, energy and courage," he said. "They are one of the key drivers of Ireland's recovery. They deserve support, encouragement and the financial support in order to succeed." Dr Horn said he and his fellow judges looked for entrepreneurs with qualities similar to the man the awards were named after - passionate, energised, invigorating and highly engaging. "While we were well impressed by all the nine finalist teams, we were extremely impressed by John - and by what Archipelago has achieved to date and plans to do in the future," he said, adding that Ireland "needs more people like John". It was a pub conversation amongst friends discussing their future and Ireland's attitude towards young entrepreneurs that led to Archipelago being formed. The community of young entrepreneurs now has over 8,000 registered members. Events include the well-known monthly "Archie Talks", think tanks, courses and programme. The renowned "Archie Boost" sees one entrepreneur at each talk winning the gate receipts, which usually amounts to some €3,000m and a communications clinic, account workshop and more. Archipelago has ambitious plans for this year including expanding "Archie Talks" to more cities in Ireland, opening an enterprise education initiative and establishing internship programme.