Winner Announced!

Last Monday night the Minsiter for Science, Technology and Innovation presented the iFactor Award to Claire Quigley on behalf of the Linc Incubation Centre at IT Blanchardstown. The winning concept was a National Enteprise Speakers Academy. Joe Harford, chair of the judging panel commended the three finalist centres: Synergy Centre at ITT Dublin, The Cube at IADT and the Linc Centre at IT Blanchardstown for the effort that had gone into the concepts and presentations. Congratulations to Linc and we look forward to next year's finals in IT Blanchardstown!

iFactor Judges

Christine Kurjan

Innovation Delivery work with their clients to identify, develop and implement new possibilities Chris brings to IDL's Creative Director position the experience of 15 years of engineering, design, and innovation work with IDEO (international innovation and design firm). Exposure to many industries, organisations, teams, and development processes over the years has honed her skills of assimilation, applied creativity, and concept communication. Meaning she's quick to get it, can be a one-person walking brainstorm on a good day, and brings new ideas across in meaningful ways. Chris teaches innovation skills, as well.

There have been so many different kinds of projects in her past life, you can see her head spinning still: like, underwater ROV’s, car washes, museum membership, high-speed cooking, online auction websites, healthcare services, toilet paper, fighter aircraft, skin tissue growth systems, organisational change, and knowledge management. There must be something we can collaborate on... In the meantime, Chris also enjoys painting, travel, fitness, and preparing for Burning Man.

Degrees: Bachelor’s of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Georgia Tech Master’s in Mechanical Engineering, Design Division, Stanford University

iFactor Judges

Martin Kelly

Martin is the EMEA partner for IBM Venture Capital Group

Over the last 18 years, Martin has held a variety of technical, project management, consultancy and business development roles for firms including PWC Consulting, Masterfoods Europe, H.J.Heinz UK and Bank of Ireland

Starting his career as a systems programmer in Financial Services, Kelly joined IBM as part of the PWC acqusition in 2002. Previously, he led business development in public sector, healthcare and pharma businesses in IBM Ireland.

Martin has a BSc in Information Systems from Trinity College and an MBA from University College Dublin.

iFactor Judges

Joseph F Harford

Joe Harford is a science graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology and a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering. He has held various senior positions with multinational pharmaceutical companies during his career, including Bristol Myers Squibb, Newport Pharmaceuticals. As President and CEO of Yamanouchi Ireland, he was responsible for the merging of Yamanouchi and Fujisawa in Ireland, to form Astellas Ireland Co., Ltd. He retired as Chairman of Astellas, having served 20 years with the company.
A past Chairman of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering, past President of the Federation of Chemical Industries and past Chairman and President of the Economic Social and Research Institute. At the inception of the EPA, he was appointed to serve on the advisory committee of the Agency.
Joe also chaired IBEC’s Energy Policy Committee and was for many years an active member of the Advisory Board of The Queen’s University Belfast Environmental Science and Technology Centre (QUESTOR) in Belfast.
Appointed a member of the Performance Verification Group, that was set up in conjunction with the social partners to progress benchmarking in Local Government. He was appointed Chairman of the High Level Manufacturing Group, by the Minister of Enterprise Trade and Employment, which reviewed the competitiveness of Ireland’s manufacturing sector.
Currently he is a council member of IBEC’s National Council, Board Director of the Fingal County Enterprise Board; Chairman of the Enterprise Ireland’s National Functional Food Forum; a Board Director of Sustainable Energy Ireland and Managing Director of Joe Harford & Associates Ltd, which specialises in strategic management issues in high-tech companies and organisations.

iFactor Judges

Bernie Cullinan

Bernie is CEO of Clarigen (http://www.clarigen.com/), a company providing a full HR solution for companies in the SME sector. Bernie is also a non executive director of Supplierforce. Prior to this, Bernie was CEO of SteelTrace, an Irish company which was sold to Compuware Corporation in Detroit in 2006. Prior to SteelTrace, Bernie was for five years COO of Performix Technologies, another technology company whose major market was the the US. In these roles, Bernie has played a key role in driving growth through sales and acquisition in addition to raising funds in the US, UK and Ireland to support the growth strategies.

Prior to Performix, Bernie has held challenging roles driving business growth within organisations, in some cases, coming from a troubled business base, delivering significant results in Ireland, the UK and Australia.


Bernie is a past Chair of the Irish Software Association, the representative body of the technology sector in the Republic of Ireland. In that capacity that Bernie was involved in the development of the Leadership 4 Growth program.


Bernie has a BComm from UCD, an MBA from UCD and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Competition Coming Soon!

The iFactor will kick off soon. The innovation competition is open to campus incubation centres in Dublin for this year as part of Innovation Dublin (14th - 20th October). Stay tuned for more info!