TERAPROOF:User:keevanbrowneDate:26/08/2010Time:15:59:00Edition:27/08/2010ExaminerLiveXX-2708Page:25 Zone:XX1

25MONEY & JOBSIrish ExaminerFriday 27.08.2010

XX1 - V1

any other business...

GRAPEVINEwith JOE DERMODY

joe.dermody@examiner.ie

on theprime numbers ...

Shop assistants will soon send messages to the mobilesof passersby via a hypertag.

At Hickey FabricationServices, Kilmacthomas,Co Waterford, from left: MDGer Hickey, businessdevelopment manager, PatColdrick, and SavanaEngineering’s Wayne EYeager and Wyatt E Yeager.

Picture: Patrick Browne

■ MICHAEL LILLIS hasjoined aircraft leasinggroup Avolon as chairmanof its Latin American advi-sory board.He is a former Irish

diplomat and former headof GECAS’s Latin Americaand Caribbean business(since acquired by GE), fi-nancing over 180 aircraft,valued at in excess ofUS$6bn ( 4.7bn). He alsoheaded up Irish aircraftlessor GPA. He has fi-nanced aircraft for LatinAmerican airlines Avianca,Aeroméxico, Gol, LAN andTAM.

■ JOHN GAFFNEY hasjoined Donegans Solicitorsas a partner. He brings 19years experience, havingworked with Freshfields inParis, with Skadden Arpsin London, and with theUnited Nations Compensa-tion Commission in Gene-va.He has practiced com-

mercial law as a partnerwith firms in Dublin andCork. He graduated fromNUI with BCL and LL.B de-grees, and from the Uni-versity of Amsterdam withan LL.M in EU and Interna-tional law.

■ SARAH CUNNINGHAMhas been promoted to ac-count executive at Pem-broke Communications.Ms Cunningham joined theconsumer division in 2009,working with client such asBord Gáis Energy, CrownPaints, Connacht Gold,Children’s Miracle Net-work, Vintners Federationof Ireland, Novartis andTeagasc.Ms Cunningham holds a

BComm with a major inMarketing and holds anMA in Public Relationsfrom the Dublin Institute ofTechnology.

■ JOHN HURLEY hasjoined the fuel supplierGreatGas as business de-velopment manager.Mr Hurley joins from

Halcrow Barry Engineering(National Roads Authority)where he was a retail con-sultant.Mr Hurley has also

worked with Topaz Energyas a network developmentmanager and he has alsoheld positions with ShellUK and Irish Shell.GreatGas has headquar-

ters in Churchtown, CoCork, and is part of theDCC Plc group.

■ DR PETER STAFFORDhas joined the Society ofChartered Surveyors as itsnew head of policy andpublic affairs. He joinsfrom the Construction In-dustry Federation, wherehe was head of researchand policy. Dr Stafford hasalso lectured in the UrbanInstitute Ireland in UCDand the Geary Institute. Heholds a doctorate in Poli-tics and an MEcon in So-cial Research Methodsfrom the University ofManchester, and a Mastersin Political and PublicCommunications, DCU.

■ MIRIAM O’NEILL hasjoined the Automobile As-sociation of Ireland (AAIreland) as product PR ex-ecutive.Ms O’Neill joins from the

An Post-Fortis joint ven-ture, Postbank Ireland,where she was a commu-nications executive.She was also previously

a marketing executive withBanqueting Food Systems.Ms O’Neill holds a BA inEuropean Business, and aHDip in PR and EventsManagement from thePublic Relations Institute ofIreland.

COLD FRONT: The ESB are cutting off power to 900 households a month — or 30 aday — because people cannot pay their bills. Bord Gais has disconnected an averageof 230 people a month in the last three months. Meanwhile, the Oireachtas JointCommittee on Economic Regulatory Affairs is inviting the Commission for EnergyRegulation to an emergency meeting next week to discuss concerns over a planned5% increase in electricity prices, due in October. Hundreds of thousands of domesticcustomers will be affected by the price hike, which has already been authorised.

Shoppers soon to receive mobileads sent by new hypertag device

WALKING by tech-savvystores will soon result inyou receiving adverts onyour mobile phone.Irish mobile-phone mar-

keting company, Adikat, ispartnering withBritish-based proximitymarketing specialists, Hy-pertag. Shop assistantswill wear a hypertag de-vice that will sendpassers-by messages, viaBloooth, about the store’svideo clips, links andevent notices. Companieslike Unilever and Co-ca-Cola are already usingthis new marketing tool.Adikat owner, Vince Do-

herty, says: “Permis-sion-based mobile mar-keting is increasingly pop-ular, so this strategic al-liance will be highly ad-vantageous to us. We willhave access to first-handexperience in deployingmajor campaigns for top

brands in Ireland.”Doherty says that global

partnerships like thesewill help kickstart the Irisheconomy.International companies

can offer new productsand a chance to expandthe marketplace a compa-ny works in.“There’s a huge market-

place to be accessed andwe need to think outsideour shores,” says Doher-ty. “We live on an island,but we can buildbridges.”Doherty says that he

had to overcome legalbarriers in order to securethe partnership, as Britishpartnership law differsfrom Irish law.He was also unable to

find any State schemesthat offer financial assis-tance to companies look-ing for international part-nerships.

Number of work days lost tostrike in EU halved since 2008

RECESSION has giventhose still in employmentcause for cheer — the av-erage number of workingdays lost, per 1,000 em-ployees, due to industrialaction fell from 50.5, in2008, to 24.3, in 2009,says a report from Euro-found’s European Indus-trial Relations Observato-ry (EIRO).The EIRO report covers

the year period2005–2009, in the Euro-pean Union memberstates and Norway. Paydisputes remain the most

common cause of indus-trial action across the EU.Manufacturing was

most prone to conflict,followed by the broadpublic sector, and trans-port and communications.The most ‘strike-prone’

countries were Denmark,France and Belgium,while Austria, Estonia andLatvia were essentiallystrike-free. The level of in-dustrial action in the newEU member states wasonly about a quarter ofthat in the former EU15countries.

O’Keeffe wins coaching awardBUSINESS coach KevinO’Keeffe has been select-ed for a coaching excel-lence award at the presti-gious 2010 ActionCOACHGlobal Conference, heldrecently in Barcelona,Spain.ActionCOACH founder

and chairman, Brad Sug-ars, said: “Kevin has al-ways embraced our 14points of culture. He is a

great coach and business-man, with an approachthat connects withclients.”O’Keeffe, who coaches

companies throughoutCork city and county, wasone of 20 global awardwinners.ActionCOACH has more

than 1,000 offices in 32countries. To learn more,visit: www.actioncoach.ie.

Waterford company shows its metalwith mining equipment contract

WATER-FORD-basedindustrial steel

product manufacturer Hick-ey Fabrication (HF) hasstruck gold with a contractto build mining explorationequipment for an ambitiousnew American client.Savana Engineering MD,

Wyatt Yeager, says the newgold extraction machinesunveiled yesterday at HF’sfacility in Kilmacthomas,Co Waterford, are the firstof up to 15 new productscoming on stream this yearalone. These bespoke ma-chines have been pre-sold toclients in South America.It seems that there is no

recession in the global busi-ness of exploring for pre-cious minerals.Wyatt Yeager explains:

“During a recession, goldbecomes more valuable thanever. Judging by the numberof new mining companiescalling me to order new ma-chines, this will continue forat least ten years.“Despite the downturn in

the construction industry,there is still a need for min-erals in TVs, automobiles,computers and phones, somining is something thatwill always be a growth in-dustry. We are just capitalis-ing on the industrial de-mand for gold, platinum anddiamonds.”Mr Yeager says Ireland is

an ideal location for thisnew manufacturing venture,as it is within easy reach ofthe US, Africa, Asia and Eu-rope.Clients in each of these

zones are looking to developnew products with Savanaand the engineering expertsat Hickey Fabrication, whohave been given a very wel-come lift by the unexpectedarrival into their orbit of Sa-vana. Yeager says: “Thepeople at Hickey Fabrica-tion will not know this, butthey were part of my planslong before they ever knewwho I was. I did extensive

research on fabrication andengineering firms, and Ichose them because of theirqualified engineers, theirprofessionalism and the factthat they were using the lat-est 3D modelling, and I hadideas I wanted to developinto new products.“What sealed it for me

was the way they treated melike royalty from day one,walking me through everypiece of equipment long be-fore I had given them somuch as a penny. Plus, theirfabricators can think forthemselves and solve prob-lems without turning to meevery time. That has beenunlike anything I could havehoped to find back in theStates.”Hickey Fabrication yester-

day unveiled the first of its

range of highly efficient, be-spoke, purpose-built ma-chines for Savana’s miningindustry clients. On displaywere a 100-ton wash plantthat includes a rotary dualscreen trommel and twopan-American gravity con-centration mineral jigs, plusa 35-ton portable gold anddiamond sampling plant.While this is a first foray

into mining products forHickey Fabrication, thecompany is built to respondto changing demands. All ofits products are bespoke,one-off orders, such as theaward-winning glass andsteel staircase and balustradesat Waterford Institute ofTechnology’s nursing educa-tion building, plus car show-rooms in Cork City, Mal-low, Waterford, Kilkenny,

Clonmel and Dublin.The company has a

proven ability to adapt tochange. Prior to the currentrecession, 80% of the com-pany’s fabrication orderscame from the constructionsector. Now, 80% of its out-put relates to pharmaceuticalcompanies and plant main-tenance. It has been a finalistin several Small Firms Asso-ciation annual awards, andhas also been named Water-ford Business of the Year,accolades which helpedcatch the eye of Savana En-gineering.Having launched in 2001,

Hickey Fabrication soughtWaterford County Enter-prise board’s help to build a2,400 sq ft workshop inLemybrien in 2002. Overthe next few years the com-

pany built up a business ser-vicing the pharmaceutical,chemical, food and buildingindustries.Hickey Fabrication em-

ploys 35 full-time employ-ees, and company MD GerHickey’s main goal in thecurrent economic climate isto ensure that he brings inenough orders to retain allof those highly-skilled staff,comprised primarily ofqualified electrical and me-chanical engineers, fabrica-tors and Autocad 3D mod-elling designers.Ger Hickey notes: “This

work for Savana Engineer-ing is something new, some-thing no other company inthis country is doing. Itgives great encouragementto the lads on the floor, andlets them know that their

jobs are safe. I want to keepmy people employed. Theyare all highly-skilled people.“They all have technical

skills, but everybody in thiscompany is also effectivelyin a sales role. When WyattYeager visited, the lads tookhim through every step ofevery piece of technology,from hand-drawn sketchesof the product to Autocadand onto the fabricationprocesses.“That is a tedious enough

hand-holding approach, butwe’re used to that. Every-thing we do is bespoke. Wenever produce the samething twice. The customercomes first, and in this cur-rent climate, survival is allabout your ability to changeand adapt.”Hickey Fabrication has

certainly proved itself onthat front. The mining ex-ploration machines unveiledyesterday will shortly beused to extract gold, dia-monds and other preciousminerals from mines inSouth Africa.Savana Engineering has

placed orders for a suite offurther machines. Some willbe river-based alluvial ma-chines, dredges, barges andflotation devices used in theextraction of gold and pre-cious gemstones in relativelyshallow explorations, otherswill be for deeper explo-rations into hard rock,crushing quartz and diggingdown deeper for zinc, titani-um and platinum.For Hickey Fabrication,

things are certainly lookingup. For this Waterford com-pany at least, all that glittersprobably is gold.

RTÉ enlists recruitment firmWE understand that RTÉhas enlisted a recruitmentagency to help it find can-didates for the post of di-rector general, with aview to attracting applica-tions from overseas.Outgoing director gen-

eral, Cathal Goan, hasagreed to remain in theseat until a successor isappointed. The most like-ly contenders are internalsenior executives — chief

financial officer, ConorHayes, managing directorof news, Ed Mulhall, headof radio, Clare Duignanand the head of TV, GlenKilane.The position is expect-

ed to be advertised here,and overseas, in the nextfew weeks. The appoint-ment will be made by thegovernment on the basisof a recommendationfrom the RTÉ board.

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