Martin McKay, Founder and CEO at Antrim-based Texthelp has been named the International and overall 2022 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™. This year the programme received a record number of entrants and this year’s finalists collectively have revenues in excess of €1 billion. Seven finalists were from Northern Ireland and these businesses employ more than 1,100 people and generate revenues of more than £300 million.
Martin McKay founded Texthelp in 1996 to help people with communication difficulties. What started as a company focused on people with profound Speech and Dexterity Disabilities has become a world-leading Assistive Technology company creating smart, inclusive software that helps people read, write, express their thoughts and share information more accurately & fluently – across all stages of life.
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Martin has led significant growth of the company and overseen a series of acquisitions that bring together the best language technologies from around the world. This included the acquisition of Sweden-based assistive technology firm, Oribi in October of this year, the acquisition of the Education Technology Division of Don Johnston Inc, a US-based assistive technology company in January, and in July 2021 it acquired Danish firm, Wizkids. The company now employs 350 people and has doubled its turnover since 2020. Its goal is to advance the literacy and understanding of one billion people by 2030.
This year, for the first time, the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Sustainability Award was presented, recognising the critical importance of innovation leadership in meeting our collective sustainability challenges. Stephen Nolan, Managing Director of Nutritics, was named as winner of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Sustainability Award for the company’s Foodprint service; an easy-to-use carbon footprint scoring, display and reporting system that helps food businesses and their customers manage and measure their carbon impact.
Nutritics estimates that in 2023 Foodprint will remove approximately 27 million kilograms of CO2 from being omitted, the equivalent to the emissions of around 21,000 cars or the intake of 1.6m trees. Nutritics was established in 2003 and serves customers across over 100 countries. In 2022 its turnover more than doubled.
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Commenting at the event, Rob Heron, Managing Partner for EY in Northern Ireland said: "It’s been an absolute honour to get to know our 2022 finalists and on behalf of EY Northern Ireland, I am delighted to extend our warmest congratulations to this year’s winners, each of whom has demonstrated cutting-edge, innovative thinking and new ways of working in their respective industries, ultimately shaping how we live and work on the island of Ireland and globally.
“It’s also noteworthy that seven of this year’s finalists, as well as our overall winner, are from Northern Ireland- a true testament to the diversity and continued strength of entrepreneurship in the region and something we are incredibly proud to support at EY. As we mark the 25th anniversary of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year programme I am delighted to renew our commitment to empowering entrepreneurs to grow their businesses at home and around the world.”
Source: Written from press release
