Brazillian-Irish Darryl Ismail, the owner and founder of successful online travel wholesaler Chase International, has been announced as the overall winner of the Permanent TSB Ethnic Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2009.
Ismail was presented with his award at a special awards ceremony in Dublin this afternoon.
In addition to winning the overall prize, Ismail was also awarded the accolade of Technology Entrepreneur of the Year 2009.
Born in the UK to Irish and Brazillian parents, Ismail grew up in Brazil but went back to college in the UK, where he also worked before moving to Ireland.
Chase International was founded in 1990 and its head office is in Dublin. It employs 100 people from Ireland, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Slovakia, Egypt, China, Kenya, India, Brazil and New Zealand.
The company is an online travel wholesaler providing products to travel companies, such as travel agents, tour operators and other large consortiums. Chase Travel mostly deals with B2B customers on an international level.
“Mr Ismail is an outstanding role model within the ethnic business community in Ireland and highlights the entrepreneurial contribution many ethnic minorities continue to make to our economy and to our global reputation as business leaders,” said David Guinane, chief executive of Permanent TSB.
“Chase International is an example of a progressive company whose passion to succeed, abundant energy and perseverance in overcoming obstacles and delivering an innovative, cost-effective and popular service is a recipe for entrepreneurial success,” said Brian Kearney-Grieve, chairman of the judging panel and programme executive with The Atlantic Philanthropies.
“Despite the unprecedented economic challenges facing Ireland at the moment, we can see from this year’s entries that the entrepreneurial spirit and talents of the ethnic community are still alive with many entrepreneurs continuing to hold their own while others are using the current environment to identify opportunities and establish new ventures,” said Chinedu Onyejelem, editor of the Metro Eireann newspaper, which runs the awards.
Article courtesy of businessandleadership.com
