DCUawardtoDr. Naughton
DUNDALK born Martin Naughton was conferred with an honourary doctorate alongside former US President Bill Clinton at DCU last week.
The billionaire founder of Glen Dimplex was praised for his business ingenuity at the ceremony, where Professor Patrick Flood of DCU Business school hailed him ‘an innovator who has grown one of Ireland’s most successful international businesses.’
‘Martin received very little handed to him on a silver platter and has been described as a ‘self-made’ man,’ said Professor Flood.
‘His global business success has been, in large measure, due to his vision, his perseverance, his dedicated focus on research and development and his ability to motivate and bring people with him on an extraordinary business success story.’
His business, Glen Dimplex, provides employmentment for more than 10,000 em-employees worldwide with extensive state of the art research and development facilities based in Dunleer, County Louth.
‘ This growth has been achieved through the exercise of the Naughton family ethos of honesty, morality, decency and integrity.’
Glen Dimplex grew from humble roots in Newry, Co. Down to become the global leader in electric heating.
Accepting his award, the Dundalk man also took the opportunity to offer some advice to graduating DCU students:
‘You are a very talented group, if you want to be an interesting person and do interesting things, then mix with interesting people and do interesting things.’ He added: ‘We want to make Ireland an exceptional country that we can all be proud of – so do go away for work experience by all means but please come home, we need you to achieve our national potential.’
An engineer by profession, Dr. Naughton has overseen his company to become the world’s largest manufacturer in domestic heating appliances. His company has plants in Ireland, the UK and North America.
He is a past pupil of De La Salle College Dundalk, where he funds an annual scholarship programme and is also a donor to a number of educational institutions, notably Trinity College Dublin and the University of Notre Dame. In 2016, he and his wife Carmel were named philanthropists of the year by the Community Foundation for Ireland.