Source: "Five firms battling it out for Genesis award",Sunday Business Post - Dublin,Ireland
The Genesis Programme presented its inaugural Alumni Award to Kieran Moynihan, IBM Software Group, Tivoli Vice President & CTO Telecom on April 14th at the 10th Annual Genesis Enterprise Programme (GEP) 2008 Awards & Showcase, at Cork Institute of Technology.
The Award has been initiated as part of its 10th anniversary celebration and will be presented annually to an alumnus who has made substantial achievements in their commercial field or has contributed in a significant way to the economic development of knowledge-based businesses in the region.
"For the first time this year, a special award will be presented to an alumnus of the programme, Kieran Moynihan, one of the founders of Comnitel Technologies. After completing the Genesis programme, the Cork company went on to merge with two US firms to become Vallent, which employed 120 people in Ireland. The company was sold to IBM last year in a deal believed to be worth $200 million."
Vallent became a key part of IBM's management software division, Tivoli, which has over 7,000 employees worldwide and revenue of 2.5 billion dollars. IBM, with strong support from the IDA, has expanded the Vallent R&D team to over 150 engineers in Cork and 50 in Galway.
Genesis is a one-year rapid incubation programme designed to support the development of start-up knowledge based businesses in the South West region. Based in the Rubicon Centre on the Cork Institute of Technology campus in Bishopstown, it is administered by Cork Institute of Technology.
Funded by the Department of Education and Science, the programme also has the backing of University College Cork and other nearby third level institutions, the five local Regional Enterprise Boards, Udaras na Gaeltachta and the Cork Business Innovation Centre.
Enterprise Ireland also supports the programme by providing feasibility funding for the participating firms. Michael Delaney, head of development at CIT, said that the Genesis programme had been in operation for ten years.
This year’s awards were sponsored by the County and City Enterprise Boards, Enterprise Ireland, Ernst & Young, AIB and Thomas Crosbie Holdings.