Martin Naughton is the founder and president of the Glen Dimplex Group. He started the company in 1973 as Glen Electric, with a mere 10 employees, later acquiring Dimplex, the leading brand in the U.K. heating market. An engineer by profession, Naughton oversaw his company’s growth to become the world’s largest manufacturer of domestic heating appliances.

A longtime supporter of the University of Notre Dame, in both a civic and philanthropic manner, Naughton was honored by the university in 2006 by renaming their Institute for Irish Studies as the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies (Donald Keough, a former Business 100 honoree and keynote, was the original benefactor of the Institute). Naughton has served on Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees since 1991. He co-founded the university’s Ireland Council, and received an honorary Doctor of Science in 1998. He was chairman of InterTrade-Ireland, a cross-border and business trade group, and has been extremely active in promoting peace in Ireland through economic ties. Naughton resides in County Meath.