Ones to watch
Tina Marie O’Neill, Donal Buckley, Killian Woods, Catherine Sanz and Emmet Ryan profile the key 100 individuals in the property industry
Sally Anne Sherry
Managing director, Ecocem
Sally Anne Sherry was the former legal counsel for Treasury Holdings, the director and general counsel at Bartra, and the former in-house counsel for Ecocem before taking over the reins from Susan McGarry as managing director last May.
The Irish-owned green cement company was set up in 2000 by Conor O’Riain, now Ecocem Europe’s managing director.
Sherry, a Donegal native and mother of four, is focused on advancing the company’s low-carbon cement technology, ACT, which aims to reduce cement industry emissions by up to 70 per cent. The product was highly commended in the Reuters Sustainability Awards last year.
Sherry actively champions women’s roles in the workplace and is an advocate for sustainability, co-founding sustainable swimwear Kahm with her sister, Áine Boyle, in 2021.
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Sally-Anne Sherry, a Donegal native, is focused on advancing the company’s low-carbon cement technology, ACT, which aims to reduce cement industry emissions by up to 70 per cent.
Mary O’Brien
Co-founder and chief executive, Hapi Homes Ireland
Before founding the affordable modular homes company Hapi Homes, serial entrepreneur Mary O’Brien co-founded two healthcare businesses, including medtech company Videodoc, and coronavirus anti-viral med company, AiPharma, formerly located in Dubai.
At Hapi Homes, she has worked directly with underserved communities and delivered various projects that created access to housing, education and healthcare for remote or displaced populations. Last year, for example, Hapi Homes partnered with the government of Grenada to build 200 houses there following Hurricane Beryl.
Hapi Homes’ use of modern methods of construction (MMC) supports the government’s push for sustainable, net-zero-ready housing and hopes to offer faster, affordable, and customisable homes to meet some of the country’s immense housing demand.
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Justin Kinsella
Chief executive, Harcourt Technologies
After overseeing his own architecture firm for two decades, Justin Kinsella has moved into an innovative new space in recent years.
In 2021, Kinsella established Harcourt Technologies Ltd (HTL), a new venture that has licensed technology from COBOD International, a Danish firm, that can 3D-print homes.
In February, the company delivered on its first major pilot scheme for Louth County Council, completing three homes for the local authority using 3D-printing technology imported from Denmark.
Following completion of the pilot project in Louth, the company struck a large commercial deal with CRH-subsidiary Roadstone that will facilitate HTL to acquire millions of euro worth of machinery needed to 3D=print close to 1,000 homes a year.
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Nicholas Polley
Founder and managing director,
3D Design Bureau
Aaron Devitt
Founder and chief executive, MARC
MARC streamlines and automates communication between tenants, landlords and contractors and was developed by Aaron Devitt, a marketing student at TU Dublin. Devitt deferred his final year to focus on MARC full-time, raising €1 million in funding to build the AI software in the past 12 months.
Devitt’s inspiration for MARC stemmed from personal experience when his family faced prolonged heating issues due to poor communication with property management. This led him to interview over 70 tenants, uncovering widespread dissatisfaction with existing property management processes.
He won the Irish Student Entrepreneurship Forum’s grand final in April 2024, earning the title of Irish Student Entrepreneur of the Year and a €10,000 prize.
MARC continues to gain traction in the proptech sector, securing contracts with major property managers and expanding its team.
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Ciaran Fitzpatrick
Chief executive, Fitzpatrick & Heavey Homes
Fitzpatrick & Heavey Homes, led by Ciaran Fitzpatrick, is becoming a force in the residential development space and has completed some innovative projects in the past year.
The firm currently has 350 homes under construction nationwide and has worked on large development projects for local authorities in Wicklow and Westmeath.
Fitzpatrick has also overseen some strategic moves made by the company in recent years. He was behind the firm’s acquisition of Eurometals, the Irish construction materials firm, as part of a €3 million deal and the business’s recent merger with CTS Construction & Trade Supplies, the Cork-based firm.
He is also leading the company’s ambitious plans to expand its landbank, amassing a €200 million fund in January to acquire sites from landowners with lands zoned for residential use.
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Andrew Lynch
Founder and chief executive, Homely
Dublin entrepreneur Andrew Lynch has always had an interest in both real estate and finance, gaining a degree in construction economics, working as in investment analyst and then co-founding Yonobi, a private investment firm specialising in supporting businesses bridging real estate and technology.
He spent a few years in London, where he co-founded co-working space Huckletree, and established nine office spaces across Dublin, London and Manchester as Huckletree’s chief operating officer.
On his return to Ireland, he set up Homely in October 2023, a new rent-to-own home ownership and fintech platform, which is backed by a property finance fund up to an initial €30 million. Homely plans to expand to 1,000 homes available to customers over the next five years to 2030.
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