Walking away with the crown!

Saturday saw the return of the JCI Galway Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, now in its 17th year, with Galway businesses competing for the coveted prize.

And top honours went to James Byrne of Hillwalk Tours who won the title of JCI Galway Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2015, the crystal perpetual trophy and a share of the prize fund.

Other award winners on the night were Barry Duff of Super Pixel, winner of the one-to-watch award; Katie O’Loughlin of Bubbles and Bark, winner of the most improved award; Aisling Kearney Burke of Beechmont Art Studio second runner up, and Noel Kelly of Creva Agri International, first runner up.

The awards, which began in 1999 are the longest running awards of its type in Galway and a crowd of over 120 attended a gala dinner in the Galway Bay Hotel to hear the stories of this year’s entrants before the judges returned their verdict.

“The standard in the year’s competition was incredible, congrats to the winners, but each entrant should be very proud of themselves. I would like to thank all our sponsors, supporters, judges, entrants and JCI Galway members for all their help in making the awards a huge success,” said JCI Galway President Ronan Walsh.

JCI Galway meets the second Tuesday of every month at 8pm in the Harbour Hotel and new members are always welcome. For more information visit www.jcigalway.org