By Business & Finance 
The Business & Finance Awards, in association with KPMG Ireland, celebrated a ‘New Era of Excellence’ at Dublin’s Convention Centre on 12th April, with 1,000 of Ireland’s business, political and social leaders in attendance at the celebrations.
The Business & Finance Awards, in association with KPMG Ireland, celebrated a ‘New Era of Excellence’ at Dublin’s Convention Centre on 12th April, with 1,000 of Ireland’s business, political and social leaders in attendance at the celebrations.
Presented by veteran broadcaster Pat Kenny, alongside Business & Finance Managing Editor Sarah Freeman, this year’s awards acknowledged the former US Treasury Secretary Henry (Hank) Paulson with the Sutherland Leadership Award, which was presented by Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe TD. Mr. Paulson and his wife Wendy travelled to Ireland to accept the honour.
The awards were the first to be hosted since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The night was a huge success with several familiar faces in attendance such as former Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Devan Hughes, CEO and Co-founder of Buymie, was full of praise when talking about the work that Business and Finance has done for entrepreneurs.
“It is often said that entrepreneurs are celebrated in the light for the work that they do in the dark and I feel like Business and Finance for us has been the light”.
Also in attendance was Professor Frances Ruane, Chair of The National Competitiveness Council and former Director of ESRI.
Speaking about the awards, she said that it was good for everyone to return to the event and discuss how they had managed to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eamon Fennel of Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company found the awards to be a great place for networking and to “find out what people have been doing outside of LinkedIn”.
The Business & Finance Awards celebrated its 47th year this year.
Business & Finance was launched in 1964 as Ireland’s first business magazine with the Awards programme established a decade later. The Business & Finance Awards is Ireland’s premier business awards programme and includes among its previous honorees outstanding leaders of our time across business, politics and wider society.This includes former United States President Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Sir John Major, former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, President Michael D. Higgins, former ECB President Mario Draghi, former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Senator George Mitchell, and Sir Bob Geldof, among others.
