The fourth David Manley Media Award was awarded last week to Metro Éireann editor Chinedu Onyejelem for promoting entrepreneurship among the ethnic communities in Ireland through this newspaper.
The fourth David Manley Media Award was awarded last week to Metro Éireann editor Chinedu Onyejelem for promoting entrepreneurship among the ethnic communities in Ireland through this newspaper.
Onyejelem was recognised for his establishment of both the Metro Éireann Media and Multicultural Awards (MA-MA), which honours people and groups across Ireland who work to combat racism and promote cross-cultural understanding, and the permanent tsb Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, launched by former President Mary McAleese in 2007.
He also previously represented Ireland on the Black Members Council of the National Union of Journalists for the UK and Ireland, and was selected to serve on the judging panel of Ireland’s EU Journalist Award 2010.
The David Manley Media Award is judged by a panel comprising chair Dr Chris Horn, Prof Thomas Cooney of DIT and Nicola Byrne, founder and CEO of 11890. The award is run with the support of Kantar Media, whose client services director Samantha Rowntree presented Onye-jelem with his award at the offices of Mason Hayes & Curran in Dublin recently.
Other award recipients on the day included John Egan and Steven Menton of Archipelago, who won the 2013 David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Award for establishing what has become the largest community of young entrepreneurs in Europe with over 8,000 registered members.
Egan and Menton are the 10th winners of the award, and will receive €10,000 in cash and over €100,000 worth of mentoring and consultancy services from a variety of blue chip companies.
Meanwhile, Ronan Clarke of Smart Wall Paint won in the ‘Emerging Business Entrepre-neur’ category and Laura Dovn and Ben Readman of BLOCK T in Smithfield took the award in the ‘Emerging Arts Entrepreneur’ category. They each receive €1,000 in cash and mentoring.
Louise Manley, chair of the David Manley Awards committee, said: “David was a man who deeply loved his native Dublin and Ireland and dreamt of it flourishing through a thriving SME sector and an increasing flow of new entrepreneurs striving to add further value to our lives and communities.
“It is safe to say that that dream is in safe hands if the volume and quality of this year’s finalists and category winners are anything to go by.”
