Last year's overall winner Liam Shanahan says prize brings many benefits, writes Barry O'Halloran

It's just about a year since Mr Liam Shanahan of Shanahan Engineering was chosen as one of the finalists of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Competition and close to six months since he was named as the overall winner at the televised final in Dublin's Burlington Hotel.

At the weekend, Mr Shanahan took the next step when he went to Monte Carlo to take part in the world finals. However, he failed to add the world crown to his Irish title, as Filipino businessman Mr Tony Tan Caktiong, president of Jollibee Foods Corporation, was named Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year. The winner was selected from 31 nominees

However, the last year has meant more to him and his company than a trip to the Mediterranean.

He says that the experience has been of enormous benefit, and he stresses that he would not have won the award in the first place but for the people who work in Shanahan Engineering.

A lot of the benefits of participation and victory can be seen within the company, according to Mr Shanahan. "Objective external recognition really motivates and encourages people within the company," he says. "And for people like us in Shanahan Engineering, who work all over the world, it's been really unifying."

Shanahan Engineering specialises in designing, building and operating power plants, and oil and gas supply infrastructure. The company has a presence on every continent, and has offices in the US, Switzerland, Japan, China and India. It is based in, and ultimately managed from, Ireland. It has been in business since 1979.

It was Shanahan Engineering's international business that helped seal the win last September. In fact, Shanahan is much more an international business than an Irish one. It does very little work in this country.

It was the international dimension that helped clinch the award last year, Mr Shanahan believes.

"Part of it was the fact that we have such a strong international presence but have a very small domestic market," he says.

There were benefits also from a business point of view. "What I found most beneficial was the chance to meet other people with similar priorities and interests and, in a sense, learn from people that many of the problems that they face are the same as those we face," he says. "That, for me, was one of the largest benefits."

His company has not been sitting still either. It opened an office in Beijing three weeks ago.

China is the biggest emerging economy in the world, with more than one billion people. It wants to develop combined-cycle power plants to meet its rapidly expanding energy demands. However, it has no expertise in building these facilities on a large commercial scale. Shanahan Engineering, on the other hand, has extensive experience of working with this technology.

The company also has previous experience of working in China in the late 1990s. Then, other Europeans led the operation. This time Chinese management will front it. Mr Shanahan believes that it is vital to have Chinese management if you want to do business in that country.

Shanahan has also recently opened an office in India, another powerful emerging economy. Again it will be working on bringing the latest power-generation technology to that country.

On the oil and gas front, Shanahan Engineering works in the field of managing and maintaining infrastructure such as exploration rigs, pipelines and refineries.

The company does a lot of work in Africa and, en route to Monte Carlo, Mr Shanahan was due to meet a number of those clients in Paris.

Historically, Shanahan Engineering has done very little work in this country. Last year it carried out a small contract for the ESB, installing two gas-powered turbines at Aghada power plant in Co Cork. But its low profile here may be about to change, assuming that the Government speeds up the slow rate of infrastructure development.

Last week, The Irish Times reported that the company was set to bid to build the €500 million east-west electricity interconnector between Ireland and Wales.

According to Mr Shanahan, the company has made a formal expression of interest in the project to the Commission for Electricity Regulation.

Shanahan Engineering is likely to make a formal bid for the project, which is a Government priority, later this year.

Mr Shanahan says that there may be other projects in which his company will be interested. So despite failing to win the top prize in Monte Carlo, it looks like we will be hearing a lot more about Shanahan Engineering.