Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 1998

DENIS O’BRIEN
Chairman, Digicel Limited.

Denis O’Brien founded Esat Telecom Group (ESAT) in 1991 to compete against the former state-owned telephone company in Ireland. In October 1997, Esat, of which Mr.O’Brien was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, listed on NASDAQ ( New York). Esat established itself as the number two telecommunications company with a 30% share of the overall telecoms market. Esat was sold in April 2000 to British Telecom plc for $2.4 billion.

In April 2001, Mr.O’Brien established Digicel and launched a GSM cellular phone service in Jamaica. After three and a half years of operations, Digicel Jamaica has secured just over 1.4 million subscribers (out of a population of 2.6m) and 70% market share, making it one of the fastest growing cellular companies per capita in the world. Over the last eighteen months Digicel extended its GSM network to Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Aruba and Cayman.

Mr. O’Brien was appointed Chairman of the Games Organising Committee for the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games by Irish Prime Minister, Mr. Bertie Ahern, T.D. He is also Chairman and co-founder of Frontline, the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders.

Mr O’ Brien is a member of the Court of the Bank of Ireland, Chairman of The National College of Ireland. He holds a BA degree from University College Dublin and an MBA from Boston College, MA.

He is currently chairman of the Irish Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel. He was also a judge at the inaugural World Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards 2001