Chief executive of the Maxol group, Tom Noonan, with the recipient of the Maxol Irish Motor Industry Person of the Year Tom Kiernan, and minister for the environment and local government Noel Dempsey TD.

27 November 2001: The Maxol Irish Motor Industry Person of the Year is former Irish rugby international Tom Kiernan. He is also a non-executive director of the tyre distributor, More Miles Ltd.

The award was presented yesterday by minister for the environment and local government Noel Dempsey TD, at a function in the Westbury Hotel in Dublin.

The prestigious award recognises the input people have made to the motor industry and to society.

The event is co-sponmsored by the Society of the Irish Motor Industry's magazine and the Maxol Group.

Tom Kiernan was one of 12 nominees for the award, which was instigated in 1997. Previous winners include Bill Cullen of Renault Distributors, Jim Callery for his work on Strokestown House, and Eddie Jordan of the Jordan Racing Team.

Chief executive of the Maxol group, Tom Noonan said the calibre of the 12 nominees says a lot about the type of people working in the motor industry and selecting a winner from such an eminent group was not an easy task.

The judges were Tom Noonan, Andrew Hamilton of the Irish Times, Brian Murphy of Belgard Motors, Paul O'Grady of the Irish Motor Industry magazine and Noel Smyth, chief executive of RMI, Northern Ireland.

Tom Kiernan represented Ireland on the rugby pitch on 54 occasions and captained the national side a record 24 times. He was formerly finance director of More Miles Ltd. TW