Friday, January 29, 2016 US Business in Ireland 2016 · 2016-02-03 · Joe Tucci, president of EMC,...

US Business in Ireland 2016

A special report on the outlook for business in Munster

Friday, January 29, 2016

US Business in Ireland

2 IRISH EXAMINER | 29.01.2016

CONTENTS

MutualfriendshipKevin O’Malley, the USAmbassador to Ireland,explains how the uniqueUS-Irish relationship isdelivering equal benefitsfor both parties.

— pages, 10, 11

Highly skilledroles to fillCork hurling star BrianCorcoran is playing alead role in Regeneron, apharma firm recruiting tofill hundreds of highlyskilled jobs in Limerick.

— page 30

Cultural focuson peopleBarbara D’Ovidio tellshow Voxpro ensures itsstaff feel they are highlyvalued members of thecompany’s growth plan

— page 32

Joe Tucci, president of EMC, visiting the Ballincollig plant in 2013, when he praised the EMC employees in Ireland and recognised their contribution to EMC’s global vision.Photo: John Sheehan Photography

Steady growth in South-Westhighest jobs growth outside of Dub-lin last year, up 17%, and bodes wellfor further future expansion.

“Looking across the South West,and Cork in particular, the varietyof new investments and the expan-sion of existing profiles across abroad range — not just in technol-ogy, but also in financial, pharmaand biopharma, has made this agreat year.”

Mr Savage also cites the presenceof UCC, CIT, and the prospect of itsmerger with the Institute of Tech-nology Tralee creating a new and vi-brant university as additional fac-tors underpinning future growth:“The spine is being built to continuethis investment and with the digitaltransformation that is going onright now which is changing theway we do business with the cloud,social, mobile, big data and the In-ternet of Things — affecting every-body in the way we do our business— I think Cork and the South Westregion in general is very well posi-tioned to take advantage of that.”

As a graduate of CIT, Mr Savageadmits to a particular gratificationin EMC’s development of a mastersin cloud computing along with theInstitute that is now delivered re-motely around the world, and hasbeen acknowledged by Forbes as thekey cloud degree globally.

“We are tremendously proud ofthat, and, in real terms, what thathas done for us is provide a platformwhere our talent can constantly up-grade their skills. If you are movingand transforming at a tremendouspace, like cloud is doing, you mustinvest and prepare for the future bymaking sure that you collaboratewith universities like UCC and CITto provide the programmes to trans-form those skills.”

“This level of investment takessome looking after, added to in otherareas such as creating a support net-work, providing access to Govern-ment, research and development, in-novation, and increasing workaround harnessing the right kind oftalent. During my presidency, Iwould hope to extend some of thatgreat work through more partner-ships and networking with bodieslike the IDA and Enterprise Irelandand making sure we are complimen-tary to one another.”

With 5,300 people employed in Ire-land by EMC and Dell, the planned€59bn acquisition announced in Oc-tober will make it the biggest evertech deal. Dell employs approxi-mately 2,300 in Ireland, between itsEuropean financial services head-quarters in Dublin, a multilingualEMEA business and technologycentre in Cork, and an EMEA sol-utions centre in Limerick providingserver and storage support.

EMC has 3,000 staff, almost all ofwhich are based at its centre of ex-cellence in Cork, where functionsinclude marketing, customer ser-vices and international finance.

“The complimentary nature ofboth organisations makes this avery exciting prospect, and some-thing very much to look forward toin the future,” he says.

As the recovery continues togather pace, Cork accounted for the

communities, with the aim of devel-oping more innovative companiesand, ultimately, more sustainablejobs at a regional level.

“Another great honour over thepast five years has been my time onthe board of Enterprise Ireland, andnow I am very much focused on theSouth West region where I chair theimplementation group of the ActionPlan for Jobs.”

With more than 700 US companieslocated in Ireland, providing over140,000 jobs, the AmericanChamber’s brief is as varied as it isall-encompassing.

AS the incoming president of theAmerican Chamber, Bob Savage,vice president and managing direc-tor EMC Ireland, sees the position asan important honour, and one nottaken for granted.

“It is an extremely big honour notjust for me, but also for EMC. Thechamber has been a very powerfuland effective organisation for manyyears for all of us in US FDI. And ofcourse, the ‘E’ in EMC stands for thelate Dick Egan, who became the USAmbassador after his time with thecompany, and maintaining thoselinks to that office is another im-portant aspect of the AmericanChamber’s activities,” he says.

Mr Egan, who founded EMC withhis college friend Roger Marino in1979, retired as Chairman Emeritusin 2001 to accept an appointment byPresident George W Bush to serve asthe US Ambassador to Ireland.

“The chamber has long been in-volved in tremendous work focusedon innovation, research and devel-opment, and attracting top class tal-ent into the country to continuallymove up and forward,” he added.

Mr Savage is one of a number ofChamber members appointed thismonth to lead a task force advisingthe Government on regional job cre-ation. He will chair the South-Westregion and is joined by two formerAmerican Chamber presidents —Eamonn Sinnott (Mid-East) andGerry Kilcommons (West), as wellas current board member BarryO’Sullivan (Mid-West).

The Government has earmarkedup to €40m for local job creation,which will facilitate the key priorityof more new companies beingstarted up and scaled. It will also en-courage greater collaboration be-tween the research and business

EMC Ireland’s Bob Savage says it is a bighonour to be named as president of theAmerican Chamber in Ireland.

American Chamber of Commerce Ireland,president

Interview: John Daly

Bob Savage

Editorial:Joe [email protected]: 021 4802313

Contacts

Advertising:Aidan [email protected]: 021 4802118


IRISH EXAMINER | 29.01.2016 3

Recruitment signals clearbenefits of US-Irish links

o ped by t h e AmericanChamber and the RoyalIrish Academy the awardsacclaim exemplary ideasoriginating in Ireland whichhave made a social andeconomic impact.

This is a country whichfosters and celebrates inno-vation. Many of the inno-vations that emanate fromIreland, and have an impacton a global scale, come fromthe community of US FDI.

The impact is seen acrossthe full spectrum of indus-try. Irish designed computerchips and software pro-grammes are powering sys-tems worldwide. Irish de-vices are improving andsaving lives worldwide.‘Created in Ireland’ is nowsynonymous with qualityinnovation in sectors likeonline media, data, cleantechnology, and many more.

Awards are presented in anumber of categories. Theseinclude the Irish operationsof a US company; an Irishsmall or medium enterprisewith links to a US company;and an Irish higher edu-cation or research instituteworking with US firms.

The World of Talent Cam-paign — a joint AmericanChamber and IDA initiative— highlights abroad the ca-reer opportunities that nowexist in Ireland. It is sup-ported by leading multi-national firms in Ireland.The www.worldoftalenti-nireland.com website is anonline resource for thoseconsidering moving or mov-ing back to Ireland.

Those considering a moveback can do so in the knowl-edge that the most inno-vative, exciting companieson the planet find Ireland agreat location for business.

term RDI is fundamental tocontinued growth in theIrish economy.

‘ Ireland’s InnovationPathway’ is a strategy paperlaunched by the AmericanChamber in 2015. It under-lines the need to reassessIreland’s proposition forFDI.

The paper arguesstrongly that achieving aglobal leadership position inRDI will proof the Irisheconomy against globalcompetition for investment.Ireland must double RDI in-vestment to 3% of GDP. Im-plementing this strategyshould, by 2025, supportfurther positive increases inUS FDI over the period.

FDI in Ireland has pro-vided stability for the econ-omy. The innovation papersuggests that Ireland canwin increased investmentby focusing on excellence,innovation, and sustaininginvestment certainty.

It recommends that com-plexity in the current RDIsystem be removed; thatease of access to RDI systemis provided by ensuring en-terprise agencies are clientcentric; that RDI centres areinternationally ranked interms of their scale, scien-tific and engineering repu-tation, and proven leader-ship in particular domains;that objectives are alignedto achieve a more balancedportfolio of investment withgreater focus on the RDI im-pact on the economy andthat we develop, attract, andretain key individuals andglobal leaders in RDI.

Excellence in research in-novation in Ireland as a re-sult of US FDI is recognisedby the US Ireland ResearchInnovation Awards. Devel-

AFTER a phenomenal yearin the US-Ireland businessrelationship in 2015 we needto future proof Irelandagainst global competition.

The way to do this accord-ing to the AmericanChamber of Commerce inIreland is to double ourspending on research, devel-opment and innovation to3% of GDP. The path to fu-ture success in foreign di-rect investment (FDI) lies inresearch, development, andinnovation (RDI). Bringingsuccessful new ideas to fru-ition should continue to se-cure further positive in-creases in US FDI here.

Recruitment drives atcom pan ies l ike Apple ,Pfizer, and ABEC in Corkand Regeneron and Meco inLimerick show how growthin US companies is deliver-ing benefits to Munster.Many indigenous Irish com-panies have learned fromUS corporations based hereand developed overseasmarkets.

Jobs are being deliveredthroughout Ireland throughFDI. In the south of thecountry there has been arange of new companiesopening up such as Mal-warebytes in Cork and Uber,which has just opened itsfirst centre outside the US inLimerick. This will ulti-mately create 300 jobs.

The growth of companieslong located in Ireland isequally encouraging. Apple,which will expand its cam-pus in Cork and add 1,000new jobs, is an outstandingexample. Bausch and Lombwill invest €75million inWaterford and add 125 newjobs, Regeneron in Limerickare delivering plans to bringtotal investment to $350mwhich will add 500 jobs by2017. The long list of expan-ding companies includesDell, Pfizer, GE Healthcare,and Northern Trust.

Many Irish companiesbenefit from the innovationof US companies here. Oneof the most impressiveexamples is Voxpro in Cork.When this company won amajor contract with Googlethey had just 40 staff. Nowthrough their work withGoogle , and other wel lkn own names such asAirBnB, they are on track toexceed 1,200 jobs in Corkand in the US too.

Last year was a year ofgrowth and all indicationsare that 2016 will be anothervery good year for US FDI.There is, apparently, muchin the pipeline. In the longer

Janina Zambrzycka, winner of the Niall Condon Pfizer ProcessSafety Award, with Niall J Condon, Pfizer VPfor BioPharmaceuticalManufacturing Operations, visiting Cork Institute of Technology;Pfizer is one of many US-owned companies with plans to recruitnew staff in Ireland this year. Picture: Darragh Kane

Report Des O’Sullivan

Research focus

American Chamberof Commerce Ireland



Mark Redmond, chief executive, American Chamber; Eamonn Sinnott, GM Intel Ireland; and Donal ÓgCusack at the 2015 Cork Business Lunch in the Maryborough Hotel.

FDI at an all-time high

increase investment to 3%of GDP by 2025 from the cur-rent level of 1.6%.

“We need to make surethat there is a global recog-nition that Ireland is a placewhere you can carry outhigh value research and de-velopment and innovation.”

The US Ireland ResearchInnovation Awards insti-tuted last year demonstratehow major innovationexists in Ireland thanks toUS investment. They re-ward innovation in US andIrish companies and inIrish institutions of highereducation.

“This is showing theworld where amazing inno-vation is happening,” hesaid. “We have to futureproof our society and econ-omy. We need to attractmore jobs, and encourageexpansion.”

vigilant. Ireland faces verystiff competition for US FDI.“We have to benchmark our-selves with those countrieswe compete with for jobs.”

On the higher tax rate,singled out by the IDA as apotential future problem, hebelieves that there is an op-portunity for Ireland to be-come more competitive byincreasing the level of in-come at which the top mar-ginal rate kicks in.

It happens at a low level inIreland relative to othercountries.

“It kicks in when youwant to reward exceptionalperformance. To take 50%away before someone evengets a bonus is difficult. Wehave said to governmentyou do need to look at it.There is certainly an aware-ness that this is an import-ant factor.”

The American Chamberalso wants to ensure thatthere is work mobility with-in Ireland, that if somebodywants to move from Traleeto Cork or vice versa thatthey can do so.

Last year, the AmericanChamber carried out amajor exercise with itsmembers on what will con-tinue to attract investmentin Ireland. The conclusionwas that Ireland needs to in-vest more in research, devel-opment, and innovation, to

The American Chambermakes sure that Ireland’sreputation as a global lo-cation of choice is main-tained and enhanced. Thechamber communicatesvery strongly the amazingtalent in Ireland and the ap-preciation of that talent bythe leaders of companies inthe US.

“That is a very strongmessage. Talent is thenumber one reason why UScompanies come here,” hesaid.

The American Chamberfunctions as an advocacygroup.

“We represent the viewsof our members to govern-ment. We aim to ensure thatIreland is very competitiveon the global stage.

“The priority is to ensurethat we continue to have acost competitive environ-ment, that we continue tohave a very strong pool oftalent, including talent thatis attracted in to thecountry. We have to makesure Ireland is an attractiveplace to come to live andwork.”

Mark Redmond stressedthe importance of the physi-cal and digital infrastruc-ture, schools, residencesand the personal tax regime.He does not see any impedi-ments in these areas butwarned that we must be ever

US investment into Irelandis at an all-time high.

Mark Redmond, chiefexecutive of AmbericanChamber of Commerce inIreland, said this is under-pinned by brilliant com-panies like IBM, which cel-ebrates 60 years in Irelandthis year, and Apple, whichis involved in major expan-sion in 2016.

Amazing innovation ishappening in Ireland.

“What we hear again andagain from leading US com-panies is that they arestunned by the positive im-pact that their Irish oper-ations are having on theirglobal figures,” he said.

The proof of that puddingis in the eating. The most re-cent figures suggest that USinvestment in Ireland nowstands at a staggering $310billion (€285bn). That figure,Mark Redmond points out,exceeds US investment intothe BRICS countries (Brazil,Russia, India, China, andSouth Africa) combined.

If Ireland can maintainthe focus on our nationalreputation as a centre of glo-bal excellence he is confi-dent investment this yearwill be another all timehigh.

US Foreign Direct Invest-ment (FDI) into Ireland inthe five very tough yearsfrom 2008-2012 exceeded theentire investment of the pre-vious 60 years. “While manyothers around the worldwere questioning Irelandthe US business sector sawthat our fundamentals aresound and confidence in Ire-land did not wane” he said.

“If that is the case you canonly but be extraordinarilyoptimistic about the future.All the indications are thatthe pipeline is very strongfor 2016. We are seeinggrowth throughout Ireland.We can be very optimisticabout the strength of US in-vestment here”.

By any standards thegrowth has been extraordi-nary. And, as Mark Red-mond points out, it is a twoway relationship. Irish com-panies are now employinglarge numbers in the US.Companies like Glanbia, theKerry Group, and CRH em-ploy thousands of people inthe US.

It is remarkable that out-put from US companies inIreland accounts for 26% ofGDP. US companies directlyemploy 140,000 people here.Their Irish workforces cre-ate products that enhancethe lives of people aroundthe world.

Four out of every fivemedical stents in the worldare made in Irleand,

“When you go into thesecompanies and you see theprecision and skills of theIrish workforces it is quiteremarkable,” Mark Red-mond said.

Mark Redmond, optimistic forfuture investment in Ireland.

Interview: Des O’Sullivan

Mark RedmondChief executive, American Chamber

Tech centre forUS, Irish andChinese talentJoe Dermody

American bank StateStreet, Zhejiang Univer-sity (ZJU) in China, andUCC are collaboratingon a new technologycentre in Cork.

The collaboration ex-pands State Street’s rela-tionship with both uni-versities and will in-itially focus on emergingtechnologies, and howthey impact on the finan-cial services industry.

“This is an excitinginitiative that will en-able us to better under-stand emerging technol-ogies and their impacton our businesses andour clients,” said SusanDargan, head of StateStreet’s global servicesoffshore. “Ireland hasbecome synonymouswith disruptive technol-ogies, with numerouscentres of excellence.This partnership is a tes-tament to our history ofinnovation and bringingtogether academia andbusiness.”

The technology centrewill initially involve 20students from UCC andZJU focused on areas in-cluding virtual cryptocurrency and investorbehaviour. The partner-ship includes a researchexchange programmefor students between thetwo universities. UCCmay also establish as-sociated master and doc-toral programmes.

Prof Ciaran Murphy,dean of Cork UniversityBusiness School, UCC,said: “We are delightedand proud that StateStreet has selected Ire-land and University Col-lege Cork as the location

for their European tech-nology centre. We areaware that other citiesand universities in Eu-rope were considered.

“In joining with ourcolleagues in ZhejiangUniversity we are collab-orating with one of thetop three universities inChina. We are confidentthe centre will create aunique global researchexperience for studentsand will help Ireland tobe at the forefront of Fin-tech research.”

Research at ZJU spansphilosophy, economics,law, education, litera-ture, history, science,art, engineering, agri-culture, medicine, andmanagement.

Yang Xiaohu, execu-tive vice dean of Soft-ware College and head ofState Street ZhejiangUniversity TechnologyCentre, said: “ZhejiangUniversity has par t -nered with State Streetfor 14 years on researchand development of ad-vanced informationtechnologies for StateStreet’s global needs. Weappreciate this new initi-ative and look forward toworking together withState Street and UCC.”

Susan Dargan, of StateStreet bank, says Irelandhas a global reputation fordisruptive technology.

“Ireland has 38 researchcentres in third levelcolleges. The priority areasare clustered in six themes:ICT, health & medical tech,sustainable food, energy,manufacturing & materials,innovation in services andbusiness processes



“Ireland has the youngest population in Europe and has one of the lowest old-age dependencyratios at just 18.6%, compared to an average of 27.5% in European Union member states

The new ‘One Albert Quay’ block in Cork, headquarters for Tyco, the American security systems company which is to recruit 500 new staff.

Action plan sets 92,000 jobs targetminister to destinationsright across the world, sinceas part of our plan to sup-port increased exports wehave doubled the number oftrade missions.

It should also be notedthat the presence of multi-nationals in a region createsa positive knock-on effect inits area. IDA Ireland esti-mates that for every 10 jobsgenerated by Foreign DirectInvestment, another sevenjobs are created in the widereconomy. This creates apositive economic impact atlocal level. Support servicesand business grow to meetthe needs of these work-forces.

I have over the past yearlaunched regional actionplan for jobs and a keymeasure in those plans arefuture FDI growth of be-tween 30-40% in each region.The IDA are committed toachieving this target.

An extra 92,000 jobs forthe southern regions of Ire-land would mean 92,000 livesback on track, tens of thou-sands of people off the doleand thousands of emigrantscoming home to their com-munities. I believe this is agoal worth fighting for.

IDA are continuing to pro-mote all regions includingMunster and a key part ofthat is providing state-of-the-art property solutionsfor potential investors in theregion eg. IDA Ireland isbuilding an Advanced Tech-nology Building in Traleethis year.

Ireland has been very suc-cessful in attracting the fol-lowing sectors: Pharma-ceuticals, medical devices,ICT, engineering, financialservices and life sciencecompanies all have a verystrong presence in Irelandacross several regions. Wehave worked hard to devel-op Ireland’s reputation as aEuropean hub in some ofthese sectors.

Considering the economicdifficulty of recent yearsand international competi-tion Ireland has continuedto do well at encouragingFDI companies into Ireland.Ireland managed to workwith companies to retain apresence and these com-panies are expanding andcreating more IDA Irelandclient company employmentthan ever before.

I have led nearly 30 trademissions since I became

extra 92,000 jobs for these re-gions over the coming years.This would bring employ-ment in these areas signifi-cantly past the peak thatwas hit at the time of theboom.

A key part of our Jobsplan is attracting companiesto Ireland and Munster iswell placed as an attractiveregion for US companies toset up. Munster has alwayshad a strong track record inattracting FDI companies.Most recently, there havebeen several recent signifi-cant announcements in thearea — particularly in soft-ware, customer support andshared services activities.

Of course smaller an-nouncements can have justas big an impact outside thebig cities and I am rem-inded particularly of Abecmaking an investment in anempty factory in Fermoyand creating 100 jobs, Irishcompany Technopath in-vesting in Ballina CountyTipperary, Dawn Meats inWexford and the continuedsuccess of Dairymaster inKerry.

However there are stillfar too many people unem-ployed, both in Muster andright across the country.Jobs are growing in everyregion but some regions aregrowing faster than others.That is why at the heart ofthe Action Plan for Jobs isensuring that job growthhappens right across thecountry.

The three regional jobsplans we have put in placefor the southern part of thecountry are targeting an

impact with 135,000 extrapeople at work across theco untry s i nce we f i rs tlaunched this Action Plan.

In the South, 44,500 extrapeople are at work since welaunched our f irst jobsplan, with the exportingcompanies supported bymy department throughIDA and Enterprise Irelandleading the way, creatingover one third of these jobs.

Some of the notable jobsannouncements by IDA andEnterprise Ireland com-panies include Apple inCork announcing that itwould create 1,000 extrajobs, Eishtec in Waterfordand Wexford creating over1,000 jobs, Tyco announcing500 jobs for Cork, Glanbiamaking a huge investmentin Beliview on the Water-ford/Kilkenny border andNorthern Trust makingseveral announcements tot-alling hundreds of jobs forLimerick.

The southern part of thecountry suf fered catas-trophically from the jobscollapse that happened be-tween 2008-2010.

If you take the six coun-ties of Munster plus Wex-ford, Carlow and Kilkenny,102,800 jobs were lost duringthese years. Construction —which had been articifiallyinflated — was particularlybadly hit, as were the expor-ting sectors, which had beenneglected. Companies sup-ported by my departmentthrough IDA and EnterpriseIreland lost 15,548 jobs inthese areas during theseyears.

We took office with a planto build a new, sustainableeconomy, based on exports,enterprise and innovation,to replace the failed modelbased on property and debtwhich collapsed. Throughour Action Plan for Jobs wehave implemented thou-sands of measures to pro-vide better supports to ex-porting companies and at-tract more FDI, put in placenew sources of credit forSMEs, make tax changes tosupport sectors like tourismand to reward work.

This has had a significant

Richard BrutonMinister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Minister Richard Bruton and EuropeanCommissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan,unveiling Glanbia Ingredients Ireland’s €235m investment plan.

At the opening of ABEC in Fermoy , Co Cork, Seán Sherlock, Ministerfor Trade Promotion; Cllr Kevin O’Keeffe; Scott Pickering, presi-dent of ABEC; Paul McConologue, MD of ABEC; Jim Lynch, CFO ABEC;Joe Munley, VP global manufacturing ABEC; Brian Conroy,Michelle Yewlett and Ray O’Connor, all IDA. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

“Munsterhas always hada strong trackrecord inattracting FDIcompanies

US Business in Ireland US Business in Ireland

Starwood,growing withCork throughthe decadesStarwood ReservationsCorporation has grownand transformed since itbegan operations in Corkin 1994. Established as ITTSheraton with an originalbusiness plan of creating40 jobs, the operation hassuccessfully expanded toover 500 positions in 2016with a remit to support theEurope, Africa and MiddleEast operating divisionacross all levels of customercare throughout its 1,270hotels. “We have movedfrom being predominantly acall centre to a true contactcentre where our associatesroutinely communicatewith guests via Voice,Email, Chat, Social mediaand most recently in App,”says Caroline Cooney-Hurrell, Vice PresidentCustomer Contact Centre,EAME. “While our corebusiness is managingdirect interaction with theguests and customers onbehalf of Starwood, overthe years we have built upnew skill sets and securedjobs that support hotel andheadquarter operations.

We now have teams thatsupport web development,corporate training, rate andsystem support for hotels,business analytics andmarketing. We think oneof the things that makesus special is that we havea strong culture of self-development, with everyonefrom the VP of operations

down having started theircareer ‘on the phones’,interacting with our guests.We all understand whatit is like to deal with aguest and we never losefocus on putting the guestcentral to everything wedo. Hospitality is in ourDNA, we are conscious thatwe represent our hotelsand are an extension ofour brands, regardless ofwhat role we have in thecompany.”

Hundreds of Starwoodassociates have foundrewarding careers movingthrough several positionsand departments inCork, with many of theleadership team havingbeen with the company forover 15 years. A number ofthe Cork team even go rightback to the very beginning

in 1994, having joined withthe intention of staying fora short stint but insteaddiscovering rewardingand progressive careers.“One of our most covetedbenefits is access to staffand family rates at ourhotels,” says HR DirectorIrene Santos. “We considerourselves so lucky to workfor a company that allowsus to stay at some of thebest hotels in the worldon preferential rates. We

encourage our associatesfrom day one to exploreour hotels and gain a trueunderstanding of whatit feels like to be a guest.Given the profile of manyof our staff - young, mobileand hungry for travel - it isa perfect fit.”

Starwood is located in aunique city centre location,occupying the formerThompson Bakery buildingon MacCurtain street forthe past ten years, and

actively involved in theregeneration of the street.“The diverse multiculturalnature of the workforcehere fits right in with theslightly quirky feel of thestreet. I am sure manypeople walk past the officeevery day and have no ideathat more than 500 talentedpeople call it their homefrom home. Our associatepopulation for the mostpart live in the city centreor environs, it is a huge

positive for us that manycan walk or bike to workand contribute to the lifeblood of the city. Like manyother companies, we worryabout the availability ofgood quality city centreaccommodation to ensureCork remains an attractiveplace to live. We relyheavily on a mobile globalworkforce choosing Cork asa place to live.”

Late in 2015, the boardsof directors of Marriott

ChristinaWinkler : GermanHire date: February 8th, 2010Position:Ambassador

“I work with the Ambassadordepartment to provide apersonalised service to our mostvaluable customers - a job that isnever boring, with new challengesevery day. One of the big perks aremy many travels through Europeand stays in places like SheratonKrakow, Westin Grand Berlin,Hotel Fürstenhof Leipzig and HotelDanilie in Venice. I even got to bemy own ‘Tour Operator’ back in2014 for 7 weeks travelling throughPeru and Ecuador. As backpackers,we stayed in cheap hotels, junglelodges and even in a big canoe onthe Amazon River, gazing at a starlitsky. I learnt that not knowing wherethe future will take us is always alittle scary, but also exciting. This iswhy I am looking forward to the bigchanges coming at the companythis year, full of excitement, readyfor a new chapter in my life and anew adventure.”

Pilar Herrero: SpanishHire date: March 12, 2012Position: Customer ServiceQuality Assurance

“After finishing my master degreein Architecture and an internshipin Rome, I decided that it wastime to improve my English. HotelDesign has been my passionsince I was a kid, and a quicklook to the Starwood hotelsportfolio was more than enoughto realise how much I wantedto work for the firm. I will neverforget the day my manager cameto tell me that they had decidedto renovate the employees breakroom, only a few months afterI started working as a SalesAssociate. Since then, I have beeninvolved in many design projectsthrough Starwood, especiallyworking with the MacCurtainStreet Traders Association andFourem Architects on the planto rejuvenate the street - one ofthe biggest satisfactions in myprofessional career so far.”

Charlotte Backman: SwedishHire date: June 08, 1999Position: Manager,Quality Assurance

Gerald Sheehan: IrishHire date: December 15, 1998Position: Digital MarketingAnalyst

“It’s hard not to pick up a Corkaccent living here and I’m told Isound more Irish than Swedish atthis stage. Cork people know howto make you feel welcome andthere is always someone at handto help and guide you. I nevermade a decision to stay in Ireland,it just happened. I now managea dynamic department with ateam of Quality Business Analyststhat evaluate work in 9 differentlanguages. My work has taken meto many places around the worldsuch as China, Canada and theUS. It has opened opportunitiesfor me to learn and develop, totravel and build a career. I havenow built a life in Cork with plansto get married in the near futureand the birth of my son last year.And Starwood is still more thana job.”

“My current role involves crunchingnumbers for over 250 hotels acrossEurope, Africa and the Middle Eastand trying to make sense of thetrends coming out of those verylarge sets of data. Over my timeat Starwood I’ve had numerousopportunities to travel acrossEurope, North America and theMiddle East, all the while availingof our luxurious hotels. Althoughwe have some stunning rural andbeach resorts, my preferencesusually lean more towards oururban hotels and some personalhighlights in the last few years weretrips to Istanbul and Venice. Rome,Warsaw and Barcelona were allgreat experiences too. The office inCork boasts a very culturally diverseset of employees – a less celebratedbut nevertheless important benefitthat affords the culturally curiousa great opportunity to make newfriends from all over the world.”

Fernando Canovas: SpanishHire date:April 06, 2006Position: Co-ordinator, GlobalMarketing Operations

“After finishing my BusinessAdministration degree at universityin 2005, I decided to join twofriends on an Irish adventure toCork for a few months to improveour English. Starwood has givenme the opportunity to travel aroundthe world and to discover some ofthe most stunning places on Earth.Thanks to Starwood, I have visitedplaces that used to be only part ofmy dreams, like Singapore, Bali,Mauritius, Rome, Paris, Athensand many others. I have enjoyedincredible experiences like scubadiving in the Mauritian coral reefs,or breakfast at a rooftop restaurantoverlooking the Acropolis. It hasbeen more than 10 years now sinceI moved to Cork for ‘a few months’and one of the reasons thatmade me extend my stay was theopportunity of working for StarwoodHotels.”

“My journey with Starwood startedin 2009 at Le Meridien Rimini, Italywhile I was still studying Economicsat the University. My GeneralManager invited me to join theStarwood Customer Contact Centrein Cork to increase my know-howabout the Hospitality industry. Aftera short period, I had the luck to jointhe department where I currentlywork in, the Global Rate SupportTeam. Last summer I was selectedto represent the Corporate officefor a cross training program, amarvellous opportunity that gaveme the chance to spend 2 monthsin the Costa Navarino Complex inGreece. If I had to leave Starwoodtomorrow I would leave richer than Iarrived and it is not the money thatmade me rich - but the experiences,the work and the people I met.Thank you Starwood.”

“I joined Starwood in 2007 for theSales and Service team. Fromthere I got promoted to variousteams - Starwood offers fantasticopportunities to their employeesto get promoted within no time- unlike in other companies whereyou have to work for years in thesame department. There is never adull day in Social Media. Besidesproviding customer service throughFacebook and Twitter, our teamalways needs to be up to dateof what is going on in the world.Time is crucial. In 2010, Starwoodasked me to train my Ambassadorcolleagues in Guangzhou, China - atrip that will for sure be part of thosestories you tell your grandchildren.A shout out to my colleagues: theyhave been some of the loveliest,most welcoming and funniestpeople I met.”

Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Starwood House, MacCurtain Street, Cork. Starwood expands in Munster

On January 25th, Starwoodlaunched its first remote huboperation at Sneem in Kerry,having have already sourcedGerman, French and Dutchspeakers to fill operationalroles. “We are hopingthat this opens up a new

talent pool for us in a verycompetitive skills market andwe were delighted to comeacross talented individualswho not only speak verymuch in demand languages,but also have greatcustomer service skills,”

says Irene Santos. Workingwith the IDA, South KerryDevelopment Partnershipand the Sneem EnterpriseCentre Committee, Starwoodhas employed state-of-the-art technology to ensurethe latest spoke in the

company’s Irish hub willintegrate smoothly andefficiently. “We are excited tosee this new project cometo fruition and hope it will bea win-win situation for bothStarwood and the Sneemarea.”

Hotel Danieli, Venice. St Regis, Abu Dhabi. W Hotel, Barcelona.

Staff members of the Sneem Hub during their induction day.

Andrea De Santis: ItalianHire date: February 04, 2013Position: Global Rate SupportTeam

Birgit Jobst: GermanHire date: May 08, 2007Position: Senior Supervisor,Social Media Eame

Caroline Cooney-Hurrell, Vice President Customer Contact Centre, and IreneSantos, Director of Human Resources.

International, Inc. andStarwood Hotels & ResortsWorldwide unanimouslyapproved a definitivemerger agreement underwhich the companieswill create the world’slargest hotel company.Combined, the companiesoperate or franchise morethan 5,500 hotels with 1.1million rooms worldwide.“This combination bringstogether two of the mosttalented teams in the

industry, and we lookforward to combining ourrespective innovative ideasand service commitment todeliver unforgettable guestexperiences,” says CarolineCooney-Hurrell.

The transaction isstill subject to MarriottInternational and Starwoodshareholder approvals andregulatory conditions, withboth parties expecting thetransaction to close inmid-2016.

Starwood hasemployedstate-of-the-arttechnology toensure the latestspoke in thecompany’s Irishhub will integratesmoothly andefficiently

Contact Centre. Starwood Hotels and Resorts,Starwood House, MacCurtain Street, Cork.




US Ambassador to Ireland


US Ambassador to Ireland, Kevin O’Malley, said Ireland is making impressive strides in its recovery. Photo: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

business benefitsTransatlantic ties deliver mutualmore things together, and soon. It’s a wonderful virtuouscircle, and I wouldn’t want itany other way.

“With regards to Norwe-gian Air International spe-cifically, the application ispending with the Depart-ment of Transportation; itwould be inappropriate tocomment while that reviewcontinues.”

■ Are you optimisticthat we can continue toclaw our way out of reces-sion. It seems to me thatIreland’s recovery is pat-chy, that many problemsremain in areas l ikehealth funding. Do yousee a way to making acontinuing economic re-covery fairer for allcitizens?

“Ireland is certainly makingvery impressive strides inits economic recovery. Iunderstand GDP for 2015was projected at 6%, far andaway the highest in the EU,in or out of the Eurozone.Recovery, however strong,can be uneven and healthfunding is a complicatedissue almost anywhere.

“I do want to mentionsomething Ireland can do,and is doing, with the UnitedStates, and the rest of theEU, which could help boostgrowth — and that is to sup-por t t he T ransat lant icTrade and Investment Part-nership, known as TTIP.

“TTIP is a free tradeagreement, but it is morethan the traditional FTAwhich seeks primarily tolower tariffs.

The goal of TTIP is tolower all unnecessary bar-riers to trade and invest-ment — tariffs, and alsothings like red tape, delays,and uncertainty over prod-uct requirements — butwithout compromising onour commitment to stronglabour rights, enforceableenvironmental protections,food that is safe for ourchildren, and intellectualproperty rights that encour-age entrepreneurship.

“This could especiallyhelp small businesses, theones that may currentlyfind trade out of reach, bymaking border proceduresmore efficient, shipping andpaperwork simpler, and in-ternet transactions moreseamless so entrepreneurscan easily access new mar-kets for their products.

“Moreover, this is an op-portunity for the UnitedStates and the EU to bolsterour strategic partnership, aswell as set the rules of theroad together. TTIP candemonstrate to the worldthat you don’t have to sacri-fice standards to create op-portunity. In doing so, wecan unlock new opportun-ities and build a better,brighter, and more resilienteconomic relationship.

“The world is becomingmore globalised each day; Ibelieve companies every-where are thinking globallymore than ever before.When US companies want toexplore Europe, they oftenstart in Ireland. So the moreglobal the entrepreneurialmindset becomes, the morelikely I believe a US busi-ness is to come to Ireland.And as I said before, if thereare any impediments to thisglobalisation, they havemore to do with Europe as awhole than with Ireland.”

■ Can I ask you to specu-late about the potentialimpact of a British depar-ture from the EU on US; ifBritain were to leave theEU would this have an im-pact on US investmenthere?

“I don’t want to speculate ona hypothetical. Neverthe-less, I can reiterate whatPresident Obama has said:the issue of Britain’s mem-bership in the EU is up to itscitizens to decide.

“From our perspective,the United States favours astrong UK in a strong EU. Iknow that the Irish govern-ment is concerned about thepossibility of the UK leavingthe EU, and understandablyso. If there is any potentialupside for US investment inIreland in that scenario —and I’m not sure there isgiven the level of uncertain-ty — it seems likely to bemuch less than what Irelandstands to lose.

“The Taoiseach said a UKdeparture is “a major stra-tegic r isk for Ireland,”which suggests that anygood news on investmentwould be minor compared tothe bad news overall.”

■ Air connectivity fromCork is a major issue loc-ally. There are plans by aNorwegian Airline to in-troduce a direct transat-lantic route from Corkthis year, and it would beseen by business in thisregion as beneficial .Would the US supportsuch a proposal?

“The number of peopletravelling back and forth be-tween Ire land and t heUnited States is significant,and growing. It’s yet an-other reflection of this won-derful relationship.

“Many of those people aretravelling to visit family,many more are doing busi-ness, and quite a few aresimply coming to enjoy Ire-land’s charms.

“I know in America, welove Irish visitors. This isanother reason why weunderstand each other sowell — it’s because we knoweach other, and we get toknow each other better byvisiting. And when we knoweach other better, we do

talk radio’s Down to Busi-ness programme last Au-gust. McKelvey met entre-preneurs at the GuinnessEnterprise Center. In No-vember, the US Embassyhosted an event with culi-nary entrepreneur DannyMeyer, with a discussion ofbest practices for the hospi-ta l i ty industry andstrengthened US-Irelandculinary and hospitalitylinkages. Meyer also gave amasterclass for culinaryentrepreneurs at Dublin In-stitute of Technology’s (DIT)Culinary Arts programme.

“We also look for ways toconnect US and Irish entre-preneurs across sectors.Last April we hosted ourEmbassy’s annual economicconference which focusedon the impact of the creativeeconomy in US-Irish re-lations. The conference en-gaged 500 prominent US andIrish entrepreneurs andleaders to share insights onthe impact of creativity onbuilding ecosystems of inno-vation. More than 50 speak-ers from diverse creativesectors came together forthe day-long event includingsenior executives from Intel,Dell, LinkedIn, Disney, theSmithsonian Institution, theNational Endowment for theArts, among others. The dayexplored themes of buildingcreative communities work-ing in areas from technol-ogy, arts, culture, scientificresearch, design, and socialentrepreneurship.

“In November, in partner-ship with the Dublin CityUniversity Ryan Academyfor Entrepreneurship, webrought together 120 youngdelegates from Ireland andNorthern Ireland, as well asthe US and internationalstudents, for a social entre-preneurship hackathon.

“In an intense 48-hourhackathon, sponsored byIntel, IBM, Kerry Group,and Pepsico, delegates aged18 to 25 outlined importantsocia l problems f ac ingthem, formed teams to incu-bate creative solutions, andultimately competed in apitching competition wherethe groups presented theirsolutions to an experiencedpanel — including myself.The winning project ,Educa$ion, proposed an on-line banking platform togive young people a practi-ca l way to learn aboutbudgeting, banking, and fis-cal responsibility. It wasamazing to witness how thehackathon both developedand exhibited the entrepre-neurial skills of dynamicIrish and US students, aswell as strengthened crossborder dialogue.”

■ Is the internal US viewon investment by US com-panies abroad changingand might this be a threatto future US investmentin Ireland?

our strong trade and invest-ment links underpinned byour shared entrepreneurialspirit which will lead to newcollaborations and new jobsfor both Irish and US firms.

“Another way we’re con-necting Irish and Americanentrepreneurs is throughour Creative Minds series,which I launched in Janu-ary 2015. The series invitesprominent US artists and in-novators to share their ex-pertise with the next gener-ation of Irish leaders.

“The goal is to find waysto create new collaborationsand encourage more cre-ative economic and culturallinkages between youngentrepreneurs in the UnitedStates and Ireland. Forexample, in February 2015we hosted a South by South-west (SXSW) Send Off eventfor the Irish delegation ofstartups and musicians whoparticipated in the SXSWmusic and tech conference.

“Through a panel dis-cussion and performances,the event armed the Irishdelegation with the tools forsuccess at this importantconference. I look forwardto hosting another send offfor the 2016 Irish delegationto SXSW this March.

“We hosted an event withstart-up entrepreneur JimMcKelvey, founder of mo-bile payments companySquare, who shared his keysto business innovation. Hewas also featured on News-

gether and start-ups alsohave more support thanever before.

“In the United States, Sec-retary of Commerce PennyPritzker recently launched aStartup Global initiative tohelp early-stage Americancompanies plan for inter-national success. I am im-pressed by the high level ofsupport in Ireland for start-ups both from the businessand academic communitiesacross exciting incubatorand accelerator spaces.

“At the US Embassy wehelp Irish companies look-ing to either expand or in-vest for the first time in theUnited States through ourfederal Se lectUSA pro-gramme which is a one-stop-shop for companies lookingto invest in America.

“Last year I led a del-egation of Irish companiesto a Select USA Summit inDC where they met witheconomic development of-fices from all 50 states. Someof those companies havesubsequently expandedtheir operations in the USwhile two companies havealso established new green-field operations on our eastcoast. Through these invest-ments the companies willhelp to grow jobs on bothsides of the Atlantic and Ilook forward to leading asecond Irish delegation tothe 2016 Summit in June. AsUS Ambassador to Ireland, Iwill continue to champion

country which are doinggreat things in Ireland notonly in the manufacturingand services industries butin research and develop-ment. These companies areinspiring new Irish-ownedspin-offs — companies thathave the ambition to suc-ceed globally.

“Over the past year, Ihave observed countlessexamples of the scale andgrowth of our economic re-lationship. Taking our won-derful relationship to thenext stage is important forboth our countries as webroaden and strengthenshared prosperity on bothsides of the Atlantic. And Ilook forward to meetingmany more of them over thenext year, to learn theirstor ies and their inno-vations as we work togetherto advance this great two-way economic partnershipthrough 2016.”

■ You are reported assaying you are workinghard on ways to hook upIrish and Americanentrepreneurs? How hasthat been developing andis it bearing fruit?

“Irish entrepreneurs arereally pushing the bound-aries when it comes to inno-vation. New technologiesand new opportunities areconstantly emerging forIrish and American com-panies to do business to-

“I have witnessed the hightech, innovative, globally fo-cused, and ethically mindedcountry that modern Ire-land has become. While Iread with awe the statisticsthat define the size of theUS-Ireland economic rela-tionship — now valued atmore than $510 billion — myvisits to state-of-the-art USfacilities in Cork, Dublin,Galway, Ballina, and Limer-ick have offered first-handinsights into the role invest-ment plays in the incrediblebond that exists betweenour two countries. Ireland’sstory of economic recoveryis compelling.

“The Irish have forged astrong reputation as an ex-cellent place to do businessin the global marketplace.Business in Ireland offersmultinationals an entréeinto the well-establishedmarkets of Europe, andoften beyond. Ireland has es-tablished itself as a dynamicand productive place forbusinesses to grow.

“It is extraordinary tolearn about the collabor-ations between US com-panies on the ground herewho are developing custom-ised courses in partnershipwith local universities andinstitutes to ensure a pipe-line of highly qualified em-ployees to fuel growth andexpansion, and also to givestudents real-world skills. Ihave also visited many UScompanies around the

cited the recent decision bythe EU Court of Justice toinvalidate Safe Harbor, amethod that some 4,400 USand European companieswere using to transfer dataacross the Atlantic. This hasraised costs for existingcompanies, and created sig-nif icant uncertainty forthem. There are questionsaround whether taxationpolicy across the EU willchange and if certain com-panies might adopt theirown policies. This couldhave a disproportionate im-pact on US companies. TheEuropean Commission hasundertaken several state aidinvestigations relating totax policy which appear totarget US companies.

Ambassador O’Malley re-ferred to questions over theTransatlantic Trade and In-vestment Par tnership(TTIP) — in some parts ofEurope while Asian andsome Latin American statesare queuing up to join theTrans-Pacific Partnership.This is a free trade agree-ment negotiated among theUS and 11 other countries inthe Pacific region. Issueslike these raise questionsabout how the investmentlandscape in Europe willlook in a couple of years,which may provide reasonsfor some companies to lookelsewhere.

“The world is becomingmore globalised each day. Ibelieve companies every-where are thinking globallymore than ever before.When US companies want toexplore Europe, they oftenstart in Ireland. So the moreglobal the entrepreneurialmindset becomes, the morelikely I believe an Americanbusiness is to come to Ire-land,” he said.

■ You have always had adeep knowledge of Ire-land through your ownroots. How has your per-ception of the countrychanged now that youhave been living here forthe past 16 months?

“Since my arrival just over15 months ago in my officialcapacity as US Ambassadorto Ireland, I have travelledthe length and breadth ofthis beautiful country on anextensive range of public,business, and cultural visitsto cities, towns, and villages.

“The warm welcome andthe Céad Mile Fáilte ex-tended to both myself andmy wife Dena on our travelsmore than underscores thespecial close relationshipbetween the United Statesand Ireland.

US investment in Ireland isgrowing at a faster pacethan in the rest of the worldaccording to that country’sAmbassador to Ireland,Kevin O’Malley. Irelandnow enjoys the fifth highestUS Foreign Direct Invest-ment in the world.

Ambassador O’Malley, asecond generation IrishAmerican, St Louis attorneyand friend of PresidentObama, points out that Ire-land has established itself asa dynamic and productiveplace for businesses to grow.

US investment in Irelandhas been increasing forsome time. From 2008 to2012, US companies invested$130 billion in Ireland —much more than all US in-vestments in Ireland duringthe 58 preceding years. In2014 US investment ex-ceeded $311 billion.

Ambassador O’Malley,who has been here since Oc-tober 2014, said: “When I ar-r i ved in Ire land, thiscountry was the seventh-largest destination in theworld for total value of USinvestment, according to theUS Bureau of EconomicAnalysis. Since then, invest-ment has continued to flowinto Ireland. Ireland receiv-ed more new U.S. FDI thanany other country in theworld in 2013 and again in2014. US investment in Ire-land is not only growing, itis growing faster here thanit is in the rest of the world,and Ireland now has thefifth-most total US FDI inthe entire world.”

He agrees the Taoiseach’sview that Ireland’s greatestasset is its talented people.

“I hear from US com-panies all the time that theyalso concur. Ireland is theyoungest country in the EU,which helps supply the newskills needed in our increas-ingly digital economy. Manyof those skills come fromIreland’s quality educationsystem, especially at thethird level. As an English-speaking member of the Eu-rozone, Ireland can be agateway to Europe — andoften beyond – for manycompanies. Ireland’s taxsystem — not just the rate,but the ease and simplicityof corporate tax — is an-other factor. But probablythe biggest reason for ourjoint success is our long,deep historical connection,our cultures have a greatdeal in common — we just‘get’ one another.”

Against this background,issues that create uncertain-ty are, he said, more to dowith the EU as a whole thanwith Ireland alone. Here he

■ Kevin O’Malley




Donal Sullivan, VP and general manager of Tyco Business Systems, with developer John Cleary, launching the new ‘One Albert Quay’ development, Tyco’s headquarters in Cork. Picture: Denis Scannell

Tyco unveils expansion ambitions

to local arms of other globalbrands such as PWC andArup, and also making themove to the six-seven storeybuilding are Malwarebytes,and Ardmore ShippingGroup.

The quayside block “is thesmartest, and best, commer-cial building in Ireland, andeven though it’s a cliche tosay it is ‘state of the art,’ itreally is, and we’ll con-stantly update the technol-ogies to ensure it remainsthat way,” pledges DónalSullivan.

Tyco’s board will meetnow in Cork four times ayear, and attributes helpingsecure the major employerto the region were accessi-bility, city centre locationand lifestyle attractions, aswell as cost of living and costof business advantages out-side of major cities like Dub-lin and London, Tyco’s MrSullivan has said.

the world (including over300 international airports,over 100 stadia, and repre-sented in most of the For-tune 500 firms) Tyco is abusiness ticking away inthe background, makesproduct for over one mil-lion firefighters, has of-fices in more than 50 coun-tries — and now is an-chored in Cork.

Already, the companyhas started to fly in cus-tomers from markets as di-verse as Europe and theFar East to Ireland to seeits smart technologies andaccess controls going towork in One Albert Quay, abuilding which signals re-covery of confidence in de-veloping a new CentralBusiness District in Cork,and will it’s hoped go on toattract even more FDIfirms to Ireland.

One Albert Quay is alsoto become a Cork city home

Tommy BarkerProperty Editor

THERE are not too manygenuinely global com-panies of scale headquar-tered in Ireland, not tomind in Cork city, but Tycowith 57,000 employees andthree million customersaround the globe hasstarted to move into thatslot with some aplomb.

Having secured the glo-bal HQ status after a moveof Tyco’s business basefrom Switzerland to Cork,the fire protection, secur-ity and sensors controlgiant is moving some 270staff into new offices at the€58 million One AlbertQuay office building byCity Hall next month, as itprepares to ramp up em-ployee numbers to 700 overthe next two years.

The Cork office buildingis going to serve as both astest-bed and a sophisti-cated ‘smart building’showroom for Tyco prod-ucts and abilities, and onthe eve of its opening, Ire-land GM and Tyco vicepresident Dónal Sullivanhas said it will serve as atalent magnet for Cork,helping them in their driveto lure new jobs and talentin a competitive inter-national skills market.

As it currently stands,Tyco’s 270-and-growingworkforce represents overa dozen nationalities.

With an incredible onebillion Tyco-related sen-sors in buildings around

At a Midas Ireland event to help scale up small firms were: PeterSimkens, MD of DSP Valley Cluster in Belgium and chair of SiliconEurope Alliance; John Blake, chair MIDAS; Dónal Sullivan, VP andGM of Tyco Ireland; and Seán Mitchell, CEO of Movidius.

Manufacturing pharmaceuticals and food

ingredients in Cork since 1978

FMC INTERNATIONAL Tel: 021/4517200Wallingstown www.fmc.comLittle IslandCo Cork



Peter Cagney, Intel Security, who also coaches with College Corinthians under 13A team in his spare time. Picture: Denis Minihane

‘MeetingUS softwarepioneerswas surreal’

and when immigration officers ask me whoI work for, they say: ‘We have McAfee on oursystems’.” Shortly after Peter’s second sonCathal was born, Intel acquired McAfee in2010. It wasn’t long before Peter realised thatIntel was more structured and focused onengineering and developing talent.

“Intel has a deeper reach into the industrywhich opens so many doors and Inteldoesn’t do things by halves, it investsheavily in its engineering teams. In Cork weare currently hiring software developers towork on two new major programmes,” hesaid.

“Intel has a big emphasis on work/life bal-ance, so sport is big at Intel Security. Run-ning was my release, but as I get older, likemany men my age, I cycle more than run. Ialso coach my sons’ under 13s and under 6ssoccer teams at College Corinthians. Des-pite being a Limerick man they made mevery welcome from day one. And the effortwe are all putting in is paying off. The u13swere promoted from division 4 to division 3last year and are now reveling in the in-creased competition. I enjoy seeing the kidsdevelop and it gives me great satisfaction tohelp their game improve, but I don’t thinkI’ll be giving up my day job just yet! MartinO’Neill can rest easy,” said Peter.

WORKING for US multinationals opens upnew horizons, enhances career prospectsand provides travel opportunities, saysPeter Cagney, director of engineering, IntelSecurity, Cork, who has been employed byUS companies all his working life.

It all began when Peter studied electronicengineering at University of Limerick. Heapplied for a J1 summer work visa in the USand Symantec arranged for him to work intheir Los Angeles office.

“It was surreal to be working in SantaMonica on security software, meetingpeople that are pioneers in the industry,” hesays.

Shortly after Peter graduated, Symantecacquired a company in New Zealand andasked him to work on the integration of thenew company for six weeks. Seven years onhe was still there, married to Ranjan, withtheir first son, Lorcan.

“In 2004, I knew it was time for me to re-turn to Ireland, before my daughter Róisínwas born. There were lots of opportunitiesin Ireland, and when McAfee announced itwas opening a R&D centre in Cork I knewthis was a great opportunity for me and myyoung family,” Peter recalls.

Since then the engineering team in Corkhas grown from 20 to over 140 people today,and is still growing.

“McAfee had a global engineering work-force, but it felt like a startup” he said.

“The Cork team is very dynamic, the cal-ibre of which equals anything I’ve seen, withone distinction — they have a unique deter-mination and conviction and they don’t fearobstacles. In fact, the Cork site has devel-oped a reputation of solving complex prob-lems for the entire global organisation,” headded.

“Paul Walsh, Vice President Engineeringgave me and my peers the opportunity towork on projects that had a huge impact onthe organisation. This allowed me to travelthe world, hire new teams in Cork, and workwith large profile customers like Dell, LGand Vodafone. I still get a great buzz seeingthe products we develop in Cork on systemsin electronic stores all around the world,

Intel Security’s Global Community Service Day,where 50 members of staff helped clean up CorkSimon Community high dependency homes.

Interview: Joe Dermody

Peter CagneyDirector of engineering, Intel Security

“Irish labour costs (€29.80 per hour) have remained stable compared to some EU countries whichhave experienced significant increases in wages and salaries (Belgium, €39; France, €34.60)





At the 2015 FDI Forum in Cork were Barrie O’Connell, president, Cork Chamber; Ray O’Connor, IDA; Ann Doherty, chief executive, Cork City Council; andDoug Howlett, Munster Rugby and Cork City’s ambassador for the FDI Forum. Cork City Council also sponsored a similar event in London to introducethe city to major global FDI decision makers and influencers. For more see www.corkcity.ie/invest Picture: Diane Cusack

IDA optimisticas job creationhits record highin South-West

panies into Ireland, hope-fully to encourage com-panies to grow, expand, andsustain jobs,” Ray O’Connorsaid. “Ultimately it is aboutjobs”.

Connectivity is vital. CityJet now operates severalflights per day into LondonCity Airport and there areplans by a Norwegian air-line to launch a direct CorkBoston service this year andNew York next year.

“It would be a fantasticaddition to say we have di-rect transatlantic connec-tions into Cork. That createsopportunities” he added.

IDA measures jobs on theground with an annual em-ployment survey. Anothermeasure is what is known asinvestment approval.

Those two measures areleading to a sense of opti-mism right now. There is astrong list of investments inthe pipeline for the firstquarter of this year. Thesuccess of 2015 is likely to bematched in 2016.

One national challengerevolves around personaltaxation. It was referencedby IDA chief executive Mar-tin Shanahan thismonth. He said that thehigher marginal tax ratekicks in too soon and is high.

“If we want to continue toattract foreign direct invest-ment and we want to becompetitive we need to en-sure that we keep that underreview as the fiscal situationimproves”.

IDA client companieswere responsible for about65% of Corporation Tax paidin Ireland last year.

In Ireland the number offoreign direct investmentsrose from 197 in 2014 to 213in 2015. New name invest-ments — from companiesnot previously in Ireland —rose from 88 to 94 in thesame period. The number ofpeople employed at overseascompanies now stands at187,056. This is expected togrow to 209,000 by 2019.

such as life sciences, tech-nology and global businessservices. This enhances theability to attract new invest-ment in. The significantgrowth in Cork last yearsaw nine projects an-nounced in both the city andcounty.

Regions like Cork havetwo huge attributes. Theavailability of skills andcompetitively priced prop-erty and offices. The chal-lenge for the IDA locally isto get such companies intosmaller satellite townsthroughout the region andthis policy has been pursuedwith some success.

Cork is home to almost150 overseas companies em-ploying 28,500 people. Thestrong base of existing inter-national brand name com-panies coupled with goodquality infrastructure andpositive quality of life ex-perience provides Cork witha strong value propositionfor new companies.

The IDA South-Westregional business develop-ment manager remarkedthat the level of downsizing— where companies reducethe number of jobs — wasdown last year. The fact thatthe level of jobs lostwas down slightly boostedthe overall employment fig-ures. Ireland in 2016 is amore competitive businessenvironment for companiesoperating across a wholerange of functions.

IDA Ireland maintains aclose working relationshipwith the AmericanChamber of Commerce inIreland, the body which rep-resents the interests of UScompanies here. Ray O’Con-nor regards it as a great or-ganisation. The UnitedStates is the strongestsource of foreign direct in-vestment into Ireland andthe North American marketis the largest source of in-vestment in new projects.

“What the IDA does is tryto attract overseas com-

OPTIMISM reigns in theIndustrial DevelopmentAuthority, whichhas achieved fantasticgrowth in the past 12months and expects more ofthe same in 2016.

Ray O’Connor, the IDA’sSouth-West regional busi-ness development manager,said that the Authority nowis experiencing the highestlevel of employment inclient companies ever.

The IDA is ahead of itsown ambitious five-yeartarget — launched just oneyear ago — to boost ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) byover 40% and create 80,000new jobs in Ireland. Thisstrategy is firmly com-mitted to regional targets.The IDA wants moreforeign companies to investoutside of Dublin. In 2015more than half the jobs cre-ated through the IDA wereoutside the capital andthese gains were in everysingle region.

After fantastic growthin the past 12 months —during which client com-panies created just under19,000 jobs — more of thesame is expected in2016. While the global trendin foreign direct investmentfavours large urban centresthe IDA figures showstrength in regional lo-cations.

Last October, forexample, IDA Irelandlaunched an Invest in Corkinitiative. This was theeighth phase of its digitalmarketing initiative de-signed to attract inward in-vestment by highlightingspecific attributes of par-ticular regions.

There are challenges.Most companies want to bein large urban centreswhich in terms of Irelandmeans Dublin. In somecases companies just wantto be in Dublin full stop.

In others there are oppor-tunities to win them forCork and other regions.

It is against this back-ground that the IDA has setitself the ambitious task ofincreasing foreign direct in-vestment in the regions by30%-40%.

Cork is particularlystrong in business clusters


Ray O’ConnorBusiness development manager, IDA South-West

‘I’ve been able to generate an incredible global network in Cork’try long enough to knowwhat we’re doing, and wantto take the opportunity tomake this not only success-ful, but the ideal place towork.

“I’ve been able to generatean incredible global net-work in Cork. No betterplace than the pub to do so.The best thing is the diver-sity of people I’ve met andworked with here . Theworst thing is when theymove home. I came with theintention of living and work-ing for a year or two for theexperience. Last year I’dbeen here long enough tonaturalise.

“I’ve been able to developa core group of friends andcolleagues with a rotatingcast of ex-pats. Cork is thehome I go to now, the‘States’ is weird place I visitto see family and pop intolocal Irish embassies (pubs)to proudly announce I livein Cork and ask the Irish ex-pats, ‘where ya from andwho d’ya know?’”

rigidity of the former andfreedom of the latter.

“When you work for acompany that has a 10-yearor a 20-year history, youcan be pretty sure of whatto expect and where it willgo. Working at Malware-bytes is exciting specifi-cally because of the un-known. We know what wewant to build it into and weall have a sense of owner-ship and a bit of swagger,as we’ve been in the indus-

Matt McCarthy, seniorsales account managerwith Malwarebytes, is anIrish-American who is en-joying his new life in Cork.

“I came to Cork to es-cape the Yanks and endedup working for one,” hequips. “It worked out okaythough, because he wasabout as American as Iwas Irish. I got cured of myromanticism of being aMcCarthy returning toCork all those years aftermy family fled on a coffinship.

“I l ear n ed I was a‘Plastic Paddy’. Anotherdam n A m er i c an whothought I was Irish be-cause I was saddled withthe surname.

“In t h e i n t er veningyears, I’ve worked for anestablished Americanmulti-national. And I amnow helping start up theEu ropean oper at ionscentre here for a youngAmerican tech company,an d exper i en c ed a l l

Matt McCarthy of Malwarebytes, who has found Ireland to be agreat base from which to develop global business operations.


Matt McCarthy

Senior salesaccount manager,

Malwarebytes

for FDIEnsuring Ireland stays topsmore reporting require-ments. Multinationalswill need to examine theirstructures and ensurethat they continue to be fitfor purpose in this newpost BEPS environment.With an open and trans-parent tax regime sup-ported by real substance( IDA su ppor t ed c om -panies employ more than160,000 people in Ireland),we have nothing to fearand indeed this could rep-resent an opportunity forIreland,” she adds.

“We cannot be compla-cent, and need to watchclosely as our competitorc ou n t r i es respon d t oBEPS and continue to en-hance our offering whererequired. Access to talentis increasingly importantas workforces become in-creasingly mobile.

“By international stan-dards our marginal in-come tax rates are highand may become a barrierto attracting high skilledworkers if we fail to focuson this. It may not be taxas we know it, but Irelandhas responded well andwith focused, consistent,and sensible policies wecan continue to thriveinto the future.”

rate of 12.5% on corporateprofits, one of the lowest inthe world, and lower againat 6.25% for companies inno-vating in Ireland.

Add this to a 25% R&D taxcredit and Ireland’s offeringis attractive by Europeanstandards. Investors haveresponded positively. Am-Cham report that total USinvestment to Europe fell19% in the first nine monthsof 2014, while US flows toIreland surged by almost42%. Good news for Ireland.

“What next for BEPS?BEPS has a way to go yet,but I expect we will see in-creased transparency and

and investors do not like un-certainty. They want toknow that when they investin a country, it has a stableand consistent tax regime.Ireland dealt with BEPSproactively — we movedquickly to eliminate the‘double Irish’, and whileother countries are stillgrappling with the impli-cations of BEPS, Ireland in-troduced the world’s firstand only BEPS compliant‘IP regime’ (known as KDB).Ireland has provided a safeharbour for investors instormy seas.”

Most vitally, she says, Ire-land has retained its low tax

John Daly

Carol ine O’ Driscol l ,Par tner with KPMG,Cork, says that tax hasplayed an important rolein attracting FDI into Ire-land for decades.

“As a small open econ-omy this makes sense, hascreated job opportunities,and has served us well,”she says. “But the sandsare shifting. The OECDBEPS project (Base Ero-sion Profit Shifting) aimsto redefine the basis uponwhich countr ies taxprofits of global businessand to ensure greatertransparency.

“It represents a frame-work for global taxation ofcrossborder business.Many companies havefound themselves in thenews headlines due totheir tax affairs. Tax issuddenly on the agenda inthe board room at a levelnever seen before.”

Whatever your views,one thing is clear, changeis nigh. So how is Irelandpositioned in all of this?

“I’d argue we are wellpositioned. One thing thatthe BEPS programme hasbrought internationally isa level of uncertainty —

Caroline O’Driscoll, partner with KPMG, Cork, says Ireland is wellpositioned for future changes to in international tax regulations.

Why companies invest here

Data courtesy of American Chamber and IDA Ireland

Corporate Tax RatesIreland’s corporate tax rate is 12.5%. The PWC ‘Paying Taxes 2015: The Global Picture’ has ranked Ireland 1st in Europe for ease of paying business taxes. BULGARIA 10.00%IRELAND 12.50%LITHUANIA 15.00%SINGAPORE 17.00%CZECH REPUBLIC 19.00%HUNGARY 19.00%POLAND 19.00%UK 20.00%PORTUGAL 21.00%SWEDEN 22.00%DENMARK 23.50%AUSTRIA 25.00%CHINA 25.00%NETHERLANDS 25.00%SPAIN 28.00%LUXEMBOURG 29.22%GERMANY 29.65%JAPAN 33.06%FRANCE 33.33%BELGIUM 33.99%USA 40.00%

POPULATION UNDER 29 YEARSCOUNTRY TOTALIRELAND 40.2%FRANCE 36.5%UK 37.2%NETHERLANDS 35.3%POLAND 35.2%EU 32.2%SPAIN 30.8%GERMANY 30.1%ITALY 29.2%HUNGARY 32.5%SWITZERLAND 33.1%

✸

✸

✸✸

✸

US companies

have invested

over $277bn in

Ireland since

1990Output from US

companies in

Ireland now exceeds

$80 billion per

year

US fi rms

contribute €3 billion

to the Irish Exchequer

in taxes and an additional

€13 billion in expenditure to

the Irish economy in terms

of payrolls, goods and

services employed in

their operations.

IRELAND’S MOST IMPORTANT ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIP■ Total US investment to Europe in the fi rst nine

months of 2014 fell 19% from the same period in 2013, to $115 billion, while US fl ows to Ireland surged nearly 42%, to roughly $37 billion. US direct investment stock in Ireland totalled a record $311 billion in 2013, a greater investment stake than Germany and France combined ($196 billion).

■ The US accounted for 76% of Ireland’s inward investment in 2015. Analysed at a sector level, Ireland is the No. 1 location worldwide for US FDI in the chemicals sector, which includes pharmaceuticals and second worldwide in the information sector.

■ Irish companies directly employ an estimated 80,000 people within 227 companies at over 2,600 locations, in all 50 States across the USA. The cumulative stock of Irish foreign direct investment (FDI) in the US stood at $16 billion in 2014.

■ In 2015 the IDA announced a record 12,000 net jobs created by client companies 76% of these came from US companies.

■ US fi rms in Ireland form a critical part of Ireland’s cutting edge, internationally traded goods and services economy in industries such as information & communications technology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical technologies and fi nancial services. Ir

ish

Exam

iner

Graphics

LABOUR COSTSSince 2008 Irish labour costs have remained relatively stable compared to a number of EU countries which have experienced signifi cant increases in wages and salariesEuro Labour Costs P/Hour 2014 2008 2014 ChangeNORWAY 37.80 54.00 43%DENMARK 34.60 40.30 16%BELGIUM 32.90 39.00 19%SWEDEN 31.60 37.40 18%LUXEMBOURG 31.00 35.90 16%FRANCE 31.20 34.60 11%NETHERLANDS 29.80 34.00 14%FINLAND 27.10 32.30 19%AUSTRIA 26.40 31.50 19%GERMANY 27.90 31.40 13%IRELAND 28.90 29.80 3%

Business mobile broadband basket(international comparison)

Euro per month excluding VAT – PPP applied

Third quarter, 2014

Denmark Germany Netherlands Spain UK Ireland

Fourth quarter, 2014 First quarter, 2015

€50

€40

€30

€20

€10

€0

Latest fi gures

show US fi gures

exported in excess

of €100 billion of

products and services

from Ireland into world

markets.

140,000

people employed

by 700 US

companies



GE Healthcare to recruit 140 staff anddouble its capacity in €36m investmentIn December, GE Health-care unveiled plans to invest$40m (€36m) at its manufac-turing facility in Carrigtwo-hill, Cork. Employment atthe Cork facility, which cur-rently stands at almost 500people, is expected to in-crease by 140 people.

The investment which issupported by the Depart-ment of Jobs, Enterpriseand Innovation through IDAIreland, will double the fa-cility’s production capacityof medical imaging contrastmedia — from 22.5 million to43 million units per year.

This investment will posi-tion GE Healthcare globallyfor growth in developingprecision medicine andbiopharmaceuticals.

Paschal McCarthy, themanaging director, GlobalSupply Chain at GE Health-care, said: “We are proud tobe part of GE Healthcare’s

“This investment is a sig-nificant vote of confidencein our people and their com-mitment to delivering thevery best possible productsavailable in the market,”added Mr McCarthy.

Life Sciences division as itgrows and positions itself tomeet the international de-mand for precision medi-cine, biologics and other ad-vanced medicines such ascell and immunotherapies.

Richard Bruton, Jobs Minister, Paschal McCarthy, MD, Global SupplyChain, GE Healthcare, and Barry Heavey, IDA Ireland, announcingGE Healthcare’s plans to expand its facility in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.

“Ireland is home to many of the world’sleading high-performance companies includingIntel, Twitter, Pfizer, Citi, Huawei, Takeda,Fujitsu, Novartis, and Trend Micro.

‘I have been made to feelmy contribution is valued’

team dinners and a fewdrinks the odd time.

“We make an effort to cel-ebrate birthdays and specialoccasions, and I have per-sonally always felt that thisis important to fostering agood atmosphere in the of-fice and makes for a betterworking relationship es-pecially when you work soclosely together.”

She says managers are allvery approachable.

“As an employee I havebeen made to feel that mycontribution to the com-pany is valued and import-ant, and they always findtime to tell you that you aredoing a great job — which inmy past experience can besomewhat lacking frommanagers; it’s always niceto be told you are doing well.It’s a great place to work, alot of fun working with nicepeople every day doing bigbusiness across the globe.”

paratively smaller multi-national there is more of anopportunity to get to knowone another better than youwould if you were workingin a very large company,”she says. “I recently visitedthe Austin office and it wasgreat to put faces to namesof people I have been work-ing with for months viaphone or email.

“I was made to feel very athome and a number of thestaff went to a lot of effort toshow me around Austin andto give me a sense of howthey work on a daily basis.

“It definitely helped me tofeel more a part of the ‘team’because you can sometimesfeel a sense of disconnectfrom the team as a whole be-cause of the time differencein working hours and thedistance etc. We have beenon a number of team outingssince I started working hereand will often go for lunch,

Nicola Cullinane mostlyworks with the sales depart-ment at Loop1 Systems andthe company’s partners atSolarWinds.

“We work together tomake sure that our custom-ers software licences arekept up-to-date year uponyear,” she said.

“I also perform variousother administrative dutiesfor the EMEA office and Iwork closely with our teamin the US. I moved here fromanother company. Havingspent a number of yearsworking in the arts and cul-tural sector in a marketingrole, I decided I was lookingfor a change in direction.”

Nicola says that the ITsector is one of the fastestgrowing industries in Ire-land, with a very transfer-able skill-set which couldlead you to opportunities towork abroad.

She says that she found itvery appealing that Loop1Systems is a multinationalcompany with a base in Lon-don and headquarters inAustin Texas. The companynurtures its in-house talent.

“There is a strong sense ofcommunity, and as a com- Nicola Cullinane says management are very approachable at Loop1 Systems. Photo: Dan Linehan

Nicola CullinaneSales administrator, EMEA, Loop1 Systems


Unit 2 & Unit 11, Owenacurra Business Park, Knockgriffi n, Midleton, Co. Cork.

(021) 4621077 www.tecomet.com

Specialising in Shot Peening, Contract Inspection Surgical Instruments, Machining and Finishing of medical grade plastics and

metal components and Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection

| US Business in Ireland





Frances Lenihan advises that companies should assess their potential extra benefits from KBD relief.

KDB keeps Ireland tops for innovationAs the OECD’s Base Ero-sion and Profit Shifting(“BEPS”) project continu-es to develop, the inter-national tax landscape re-mains in the spotlight.

With the publication ofa number of significant re-ports in 2015, includingsome final BEPS Actionreports and the EU Com-missions Action Plan onCorporate Taxation, it isvital that Ireland’s inter-national tax strategy re-mains a key focus.

As announced in 2015,the EU’s Business Code ofCond uct Group com-menced a review of nineexisting intellectual prop-erty (“IP”) regimes inother European countriesfrom a harmful taxesviewpoint.

In addition the OECDconfirmed that existing IPregimes would have toclose to new entrants fromJune 30, 2016, and must bephased out by June 30,2021. As a result, manycountries are currentlyreviewing their existing IPregimes and will need toamend their IP regimes.

This is to ensure thatthey are compliant withthe OECD’s modi f iednexus approach which —

as part of its BEPS project— was recommended inthe final OECD Action 5Report.

The modified nexus ap-proach seeks to only allowa taxpayer to benefit froman IP regime to the extentit can show that it incurredexpenditure (such as R&Dexpenditure) which re-sulted in the IP income.

In order to ensure thatIreland has remained re-sponsive in this rapidlychanging international taxenvironment, the IrishGovernment introduced anumber of positive devel-opments in Finance Act2015. This has included theintroduction of the firstOECD-compliant new IPregime in the world — theKnowledge DevelopmentBox (“KDB”).

The introduction of theKBD as a new corporationtax incentive was first an-nounced by the Ministerfor Finance , MichaelNoonan, in his Budget 2015speech in October 2014.

an amount for ‘uplift ex-penditure’ — the lower of30% of the qualifying ex-penditure or the aggregateof the acquisition costs andgroup outsourcing costs.

The Finance Act alsoprovides that appropriatedocumentation will need tobe retained to demonstratethe basis of any KDB claim.

This requirement, in ad-dition to the tracking andtracing requirement for in-come and expenditure pur-poses, underpins the im-portance of having appro-priate transfer pricingdocumentation in place forrelevant companies thatclaim the KDB relief.

The regime aims to en-hance Ire land’s inter -national tax strategy. Inconjunction with the 12.5%corporation tax rate, thecurrent IP amortisation re-g ime and the R&D taxcredit regime, the KDB cer-tainly enhances Ireland’soffering as an IP location.

Companies should nowconsider if the KDB reliefwill apply to the activitiesthey undertake and assessthe additional benefit thatmay result from this newtax incentive.■ Frances Lenihan, senior managerin the tax department at Deloitte.

As far as qualifying expen-diture is concerned, in addi-tion to expenditure incurredby the company on R&Dwithin the EU, expenditureon outsourced R&D willqual i fy where the out -sourced work is performedby an unrelated third party.

Where such R&D activ-ities are performed by agroup company, such ex-penditure will not be qual-ifying expenditure. It mayhowever constitute upliftexpenditure (see opposite).

Overall expenditure onqualifying assets includesall the expenditure that thecompany has incurred onR&D activities in relation tothe qualifying asset.

This includes all of thecompany’s outsourced costs(to third parties and groupcompanies) and also any ac-quisition costs incurred inrelation to the qualifyingasset (where purchasedfrom either third parties ora group company).

A firm’s qualifying expen-diture can be increased by

Qualifying IP assets forthe purposes of the KDB are,namely, patents and copy-righted software.

The rules regarding qual-ifying IP assets are some-what relaxed for smallercompanies where the qual-ifying IP income is less than€7,500,000.

Thus, the KDB will be ofparticular interest to busi-nesses who have or who areconsidering establishingR&D facilities in Ireland; inparticular in the patentedpharmaceutical industryand technology sectors.

When determining thequalifying profits amount, acalculation is required asfollows:

(QE+UE / OE) x QA

QE = Qualifying expend-iture on qualifying assetUE = Uplift expenditureOE = Overall expenditureon qualifying assetQA = Qualifying profitfrom relevant qualifyingasset

The Department of Fi-nance launched a 12-weekconsultation process in Ja-nuary 2015 to seek viewson a number of matters inrelation to the KDB.

Subsequent to this, theDepartment of Finance re-leased their feedback inconnection with the KDB.This included draft legis-lation in relation to thenew IP regime.

Therefore, there was nogreat surprise when the Fi-nance Act 2015 includedlegislation to introduce theKDB. As envisaged theKDB is in accordance witht h e O ECD’s mod i f iednexus approach.

The KDB is available tocompanies for accountingperiods beginning on orafter January 1, 2016.

It provides for a 6.25% ef-fective rate of corporationtax on qualifying profitsthat relate to qualifying IPassets which result fromqualifying R&D activitiescarried out by the Irishcompany.

Frances LenihanSenior tax manager,

Deloitte

“Outsourced R&D activities qualify where thework is done by an unrelated third party

First Data recruiting tofill 300 skilled positionsNew York technology com-pany First Data is to employ300 highly ski l led em-ployees at a new researchand development centre inNenagh, Co Tipperary.

The new facility will bethe company’s first Irish lo-cation outside of Dublin.First Data currently em-ploys approximately 300workers in two separate fa-cilities in Dublin.

Tom Higgins, First Data’schief administrative officer,said: “We have always en-joyed outstanding collabor-ation with authorities inIreland to grow our busi-ness there and have bene-fitted from the country’s ex-traordinarily talented anddiverse workforce.

“The facility in Nenaghwill house some of our mostadvanced research work inpayments technology.”

Among the anticipatedwork at the new R&D centerin Nenagh will be appli-cation/software develop-ment, application analysis,business analysis, technicalproject management, sys-tems consulting, and enter-prise architecture.

Pending the signing of alease for the property and

completion and renovationof an existing 32,000-sq ft fa-cility at Stereame BusinessPark, hiring will commencefor the opening of the centrelater this year, with occu-pancy expected in 2017.

IDA chief executive, Mar-tin Shanahan, said thismove was a strong endorse-ment for regional businessdevelopment in Ireland.

First Data is a provider ofcommerce-enabling tech-nology and solutions, serv-ing approximately six mil-lion business locations and4,000 financial institutionsin 118 countries globally. Its23,000 owner-associates arededicated to helping com-panies, from start-ups tothe world’s largest corpor-ations, conduct commerceevery day by securing andprocessing more than 2,300transactions per secondand $1.9 trillion per year.

An Taoiseach, EndaKenny, said: “First Data’sinvestment is a vote of con-fidence in the Mid-West andin the Irish workforce. TheGovernment is determinedto support strong job cre-ation all over the country asthe best way to keep the re-covery going.”





US marketWisetek plans further expansion inwere finalists in two cat-egories in the Cork DigitalMarketing Awards 2015 —Best Website and Best ZeroBudget Digital MarketingCampaign.

As part of the company’sinternal corporate ini-tiatives, environmentalweek is an annual eventwithin Wisetek that aims toencourage employees totake part in environmentalactivities, both as teams andas individuals.

A recent week focused onthe theme of ‘Waste Not,Want Not’, with all staff tak-ing part in activities andprojects around reused ma-terials that would otherwisebe considered waste.

“Our wood pallets wereturned into wonderful nestboxes for our symbol, theOwl, as well as the construc-tion of sheds for local com-munity projects. We alsoraise awareness of ways tocut down on unnecessarywaste in our day to day ha-bits,” said Mr Carr.

The Wisetek CarpentryChallenge was a similar cor-porate initiative which en-couraged employees to workas teams to create func-tional objects, with manyemployees building highquality furniture, and oneteam even constructing afully functional go-kart.

ment of a secure web portal:“This system underpins theeffectiveness of Wisetek’sreturns management ser-vices. Extensive market re-search highlighted the needfor simplified interactionsbetween the logistics and ad-ministration functions andthe equipment vendor’sfield based organizations; ie,sales, customer engineer-ing, project managers, etc,to best organise product andparts returns processes.”

Last November, Wisetekwere honoured with theGreen Business 2015 Awardby the Little Island BusinessAssociation, which recog-nises “businesses who haveexcelled in the environ-mental and green sectors ofour economy and/or the op-eration of sustainable prac-tices in their business.”

Chief financial officer,Paul Carr, said: “Wisetekstrives to be recognised bycustomers, employees, andthe community as a respon-sible business, committed tobest environmental practiceand absolute transparencyin all work practices.”

A month earlier, Wisetekalso won the IT Project ofthe Year 2015 at it@corkLeaders Awards — the an-nual event recognising theleading companies in Cork’sIT community. Wisetek

industry, having previouslyheld senior roles for EMCCorporation, MemorexTelex, and Xerox Corpor-ations. “Returns manage-ment — increasingly beingrecognised as affecting com-petitive positioning — pro-vides an important link be-tween marketing and logis-tics. The broad nature of itscross-functional impactsuggests that firms wouldbenefit by improving inter-nal integration efforts.

“In a firm’s planning forreturns, a primary factor isthe remaining value of thematerial returning andwhere it may re-enter thesupply chain.”

Wisetek has developedthe TotalRMA managed ser-vice, which now organisesthe entire evaluation, collec-tion, and return of all end ofuse products.

“This innovative serviceprovides IT equipment ven-dors with a comprehensiveservices model that ensuresall returning materials areanalysed, valued, collected,reconciled, and processedefficiently at optimal cost.This maximises the overallcorporate value that canpossibly be realised from re-turning products andparts.”

A key aspect of this pro-ject has been the develop-

significant profit generatingactivity, and today Wisetekoperations have expandedacross the globe to provideservices through the appli-cation of Lean Sigmamethodologies of Recoveryfor Reuse, Return to Vendor,and Asset Value Recoveryoperations.

“Through these preciselycontrolled operations, weensure the brand integrityof our OEM clients remainsfully protected while theyenjoy optimal financial re-turns,” says Cork native MrSheehan.

“Reverse logistics is morethan just returns manage-ment; it is activities relatedto returns avoidance, gatek-eeping, disposal, and allother after-market supplychain issues,” explains MikeHiggins, Wisetek sales direc-tor, who has 30 years’ salesand marketing experienceof working in the global IT

used assets,” he adds.Material no longer

required is recycled to Wise-tek’s Sustainable EARTHstandard, which is extern-ally certified to the Respon-sible Recycling standard,compliant with all globalregulations including thestringent recommendationsof the 1989 Basel convention.

“Wisetek assembles, con-figures and tests complex ITsystems for specific custom-er orders, as well as manag-ing ‘Proof of Concept’ pro-grammes in each global re-gion — USA, EMEA andAsia — for Original Equip-ment Manufacturers.”

Initially established tosupport major IT hardwaremanufacturers in resolvingthe increasing demands ofE-Waste regulations, andminimising its large costburden, the company hasnow transformed this cor-porate requirement into a

sible IT recycling servicesto the world’s leading ITcorporations. Wisetek op-erates from bases in Ire-land, the USA, and Thail-and, with its list of custom-ers including EMC, VCE,McAfee, Foxconn, Tyco,and Dell, plus similar largedata centre services com-panies.

“Wisetek’s recyclingpriority is the recovery ofmaterial, either for reusewithin our client’s oper-ations or for remarketingto our global network ofbuyers under the Wisetek-market.com site.”

This involves the man-agement of all aspects of IThardware products prior totheir primary use and,critically, when they areconsidered redundant.

“These reuse prioritiesassure our clients that theyreceive optimal financialpay-back from the flow of

Wisetek has operations inthe USA and Asia, withplans to extend furtheracross North America andContinental Europe.

“Wisetek was foundedback in 2007 to supportmajor enterprise systemsmanufacturers to meet theincreasing demands of glo-bal E-Waste regulations,”Sean explains.

“With my experience inwarehousing and oper-ations management withinthe IT industry, I recog-nised early that these ever-increasing internationalregulations for managingend of life electronic wastein returning customer sys-tems was becoming alarger management chal-lenge and cost burden formajor IT organisations.”

The company has nowgrown to become a globalprovider of secure data-elimination and respon-

During a week where muchof the US was effectivelyshut down due to massiveblizzards, Sean Sheehan,CEO of Wisetek, wasn’tabout to let the weather getin the way of companybusiness.

“We began this trip inAustin, Texas, and then onto North Carolina for moremeetings,” he explained,speaking from the US. “Wehad planned to follow thatwith further meetings inBoston and New York, butare instead heading to theWest Coast due to airportclosures in the Northeast.We’re not about to letweather get in the way ofWisetek business,” he said.

With extensive experi-ence in the electronicsmanufacturing industry,including EMC & WangLabs, he has been proac-tively involved in all as-pects of operations man-agement including manu-facturing, warehousing, re-verse logistics, rework, andquality.

An advocate of manufac-turing Lean Sigma method-ologies, Mr Sheehan holdsan MSc in ProfessionalPractice and a Diploma inInternational Selling.

Headquartered in Corkand currently employingmore than 220 people,

JohnDaly talks to Sean Sheehan, CEO of Wisetek, a Cork-based companywhich delivers reverse logistics, IT asset value recovery, and manufacturingservices to the electronics and IT industry; the company is enjoying a surgeof growth in the USA and Asia, with plans for US and EU expansion

Sean Sheehan, chief executive of Wisetek in Cork, say s the experience he and his co-executives gained with US-owned IT corporations provided anideal foundation upon which to develop Wisetek as an Irish company with steadily growing overseas operations. Picture: Dan Linehan

Wisetek Thailand team, who visited the Deng Forest Communitycommunity, who live beyond the reach of electricity services.

Wisetek CEO, Sean Sheehan, with members of thein Krachan National Park to donate batteries to the

Hibernia delivers cableaccess to US and UKThe Cork region is gainingdirect access to Nor thAmerica and the UK viathe new Hibernia Net-works’ high performanceundersea Express cable.

The cable will deliver thelowest latency between Ire-land, the US and EU, offer-ing an economic opportun-ity for Cork and its en-virons and all areas alongthe Atlantic Corridor.

Hibernia owns and oper-ates four cable landings

will allow Irish companiesto expand their global foot-print. The new link willprovide direct connectivityto UK and North America.”

Minister for Agriculture,Food, the Marine and De-fence, Simon Coveney, said:“This high capacity, directtransatlantic connection

and six different routes con-necting Ireland to NorthAmerica and Europe.

Back in 2010, the companyoriginally unveiled plans toconstruct a transatlanticsubmarine fibre optic cablenetwork from New York toLondon offering the fastestroute from North Americato Europe at sub-60m underProject Express. The addi-tion of a spur to connect toCork was driven by demandfrom IDA client companies.

A map showing the connectivity available via Hibernia Networks.



IDA jobs in 2015: Regional BreakdownREGION TOTAL EMPLOYMENT GAINS LOSSES NET

CHANGENET CHANGE AS % OFTOTAL EMPLOYMENT

Dublin andMid East

91,339 9,681 -3,888 5,793 6.3%

South West 33,831 4,151 -665 3,486 10.3%

Mid West 15,766 1,689 -637 1,052 6.7%

West 19,121 1,475 -924 551 2.8%

South East 12,766 735 -431 304 2.4%

North West 5,370 478 -187 291 5.4%

Midlands 4,307 376 -136 240 5.6%

North East 4,556 398 -282 116 2.5%

Total 187,056 18,983 -7,150 11,833 6.3%

Ireland’s net job creation rose 6.3% overall during 2015 among IDA-backed companies, with the South West enjoying strongest growth.

FDI driving recoveryKerry students attendcourses in UCC or CIT.

In taking its overview ofthe hugely positive upwardtrend in FDI, the IDA notes:“Annual figures are a snap-shot, particular areas willhave their ups and downs,but the overall direction isunmistakable — foreign di-rect investment is growingin all regions, contributingto the overall strongnational performance.”

The number of invest-ments secured in 2015 rosefrom to 213 from 197 in 2014.The number of new name in-vestments went to 94 from 88in the previous year. Thestrong net job creation per-formance is a result of avery strong pipeline of newinvestments and lower joblosses within the employ-ment portfolio. Losses as apercentage of the overallemployment portfolio wereat their lowest level ever.

companies in Limerick andits hinterland employ 15,766people between them.

The IDA groups and ana-lyses counties in terms ofclusters with their naturalbusiness neighbours. Thusit includes Waterford andSouth Tipperary in its fig-ures for the South East.Waterford is included in itsfigures for the South East.

Thus, viewing Munster asa province is difficult, andindeed probably pointless.The IDA’s regions are basedupon natural hinterlandswhich tend to share thetypes of resources of inter-est to visiting companies;e.g. many Kilkenny studentsattend WIT, while many

2014, there were around 95US-owned FDI operations inCork alone, employing23,112 people.

When we note that the 700or so US-owned companiesin Ireland employ 140,000collectively, we see how wellthe Munster counties appealas a base for US investors.

Munster’s overall sharegrows considerably whenwe include the province’sother key counties.

The IDA’s figures for 2015also showed a phenomenalperformance for the MidWest region, which includesLimerick, Shannon andClare. The region was up1,052 net jobs, 6.7% more itstotal in 2014. IDA-backed

Results issued recently byIDA Ireland show that one-in-five of all new jobs cre-ated in Ireland in 2015 havebeen as a direct result ofIDA-supported foreign di-rect investment.

Almost 19,000 jobs werecreated last year by IDAclient companies in regionsall over Ireland, with over9,000 of those jobs createdoutside Dublin.

As the graphic aboveshows, the net gain for theIDA’s Dublin and Mid-Westregion came to 5,793 jobs, up6.3% of the region’s jobstotal at the end of 2014.

The South-West — Corkand Kerry, as defined by theIDA — enjoyed a net gain of3,486 jobs, up 10.3% on theprevious year. This thrivingregion is home to companiessuch as Apple, Pfizer, EMC,GSK, Amazon and others.

US companies dominatethese figures. At the end of

Joe DermodyAnalysis

Hortonworks torecruit 50 staff atnew Cork officeUS-based software providerHortonworks is to hire 50people over the next 18months with the opening ofits new centre of excellencein Cork.

To be situated next to theClarion Hotel, the officewas officially opened ear-lier this week, and alreadyhas 10 staff in place.

Hortonworks is a leaderin accelerating businesstransformations with OpenEnterprise Hadoop, devel-oping, distributing and sup-porting an enterprise-scaledata platform built entirelyon open source technologyincluding Apache Hadoop.

“Our presence in Irelandis yet another step towardsmaking Enterprise Hadoopas widely available as poss-ible,” said Andy Leaver, VPof international operations,Hortonworks. “We will alsowork towards the recruit-ment of up to 50 new em-ployees for our new Cork fa-cilities to continue to meetthe significant uptake inHadoop across Ireland andthe rest of Europe.”

Founded in 2012, the com-pany became the first ofHadoop distributor in late2014 to file for IPO. In 2015,Hortonworks developed anexten sive network o fpartners and customers tofuel the international adop-tion of Hadoop and deliver‘best-in-class’ technicalsupport.

Bluemetrix, a Cork-basedbig data specialist deliver-ing web analytics and dataconsultancy, recently be-came the first HortonworksSilver Certified Partner inIreland.

Liam English, founderand CEO of Bluemetrix.said: “The volume andsources of data have in-creased exponentially and

the pressure on Irish busi-nesses to operate in the ‘al-ways-on’ environment hasgrown dramatically. Thepartnership with Horton-works will further enhanceour Hadoop and Big Datacapabilities, and help usprovide our clients with themost up-to-date tools, re-sources and training. Thiswill also enable local busi-nesses to turn data into ac-tionable insights.”

Hortonworks’ Cork officewill provide space for an ex-panded global technicalsupport team for the morethan 750 customers as wellas space for other oper-ational professionals. Addi-tionally it will offer an ideallocation to welcome bothpartners and prospectivecustomers.

Hortonworks’ presencein the region has seen Trus-tev, the Cork-based technol-ogy company for the finan-cial and e-commerce sec-tors, opting to enhance itsanalytics proposition basedon the Hortonworks DataPlatform.

The announcement issupported by the Depart-ment of Jobs, Enterpriseand Innovation throughIDA Ireland.

Martin Shanahan, CEOat IDA Ireland said: “Tar-geting companies in the BigData space is something theIDA has focused on in re-cent years. Hortonworks isa prime example of a com-pany thriving in this sector.The 50 new roles that Hor-tonworks has announcedhere today will be filled bycandidates with Tech Sup-port, Finance, HR, Market-ing, IT and Operationsbackgrounds. Talent re-mains the number one rea-son that companies chooseto locate in Ireland.”

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, John Kreisa, HortonworksVP for marketing, and Andy Leaver, VP for internationaloperations, Hortonworks, attending this week’s launch in Cork.



‘I’ve had the same career trajectory here as in London’counterparts in London, US,Guernsey, India, and Singa-pore to ensure round theclock service to our clients.”■Have global perceptionsof Ireland’s financial ser-vices industry alteredmuch since the global re-cession years?“Throughout the recession,Ireland maintained its posi-tion as a global hub for fi-nancial services, with morethan 35,000 people directlyemployed across all areasfrom retail banks to fund ad-ministrators to insurance.More than 200 of the world’sleading financial servicesfirms have a presence herein areas from retail banks tofund administrators to in-surance. Almost €1.9trillionof funds are administered inIreland.

“We are now seeing an in-crease in financial roles mi-grating to Ireland, whichhighlights the significanceof Ireland in the global fi-nancial services stage.”■ What are your mainambitions for the future?“I want to continue workingat Northern Trust, buildingmy group. As NorthernTrust continues to hire ex-pertise in Limerick, there isan abundance of opportun-ities to develop career wiseand get involved in otherareas of the business.”

transactions across morethan 40 markets daily. Wepartner closely with our

management across broadspectrum of financial in-s tr ume nts . We ma na g e

multi-cultural country. Weha ve s e e n hug e s o cia lchange, and economicallywe are now able to look for-ward, having been throughthe recession. Living in themid-west enables me to havea city job with a more re-laxed lifestyle. I have betterwork-life balance and ahassle-free commute.

“I enjoy working with ateam of talented partners.Graduates from the localthird level institutions forma large part of our work-force. There are a number ofthem in my own group, andthey are all well rounded,keen, strong employeeseager to grow their careersin the business.”■ Can you describe thework you do, and howyour work operates on aglobal level.“I run the Global Trade &Settlements division in Ire-land. My group looks after anumber of functions forsophisticated global clientsperforming tasks such asfunding, settlement, trans-action routing, and account

“As one of the biggest em-ployers in the mid-west,Northern Trust has allowedme combine my personalgoals of being close to familyand achieve a strong work-life balance, whilst stillbeing able to develop my ca-reer. Northern Trust’s Ire-l an d o f f i c es are g l oba lcentres of fund adminis-tration and in particular theLimerick office continues toexpand. By the end of 2017,Northern Trust will have al-most 1,000 staff in Limerick.Personally whilst I enjoyleading a group, I also reallyenjoy the strategic side. Myrole has enabled me to set upa division with a blank can-vas, and build the team.Whilst it’s hard work, it isdefinitely rewarding, watch-ing the group develop into astrong centre of excellence.”■What have you enjoyedmost about being back inIreland and working forNorthern Trust?“Ireland has changed sig-nificantly in the past 10years. It has become an in-creasingly progressive,

■ Can you describe yourcareer and education andhow have you ended upworking for NorthernTrust in Limerick?“I studied both my under-graduate and postgraduatedegrees at UCD. I alwayshad a keen interest in globalmarkets, and when I grad-uated, I took my first rolewith an American bank inDublin. I was keen to stay inthe global banking arena,and in 2008 I went to Londonto work for a major, globalbank. London was a greatcity to live and work in, andmy role enabled me to travelextensively to the US, Asia,and Africa, but I was alwayskeen to come home.

“It was important for meto find the right role in theright firm for two reasons;I’ve always worked for glo-bal firms, and I wanted tocontinue this and I alsowanted to ensure that I con-tinued to move forward withopportunities to develop mycareer. Northern Trust’s ex-pansion in Limerick offeredme the opportunity to moveback to Ireland whilst at thesame time maintaining thesame career trajectory Iwould have had in London”.■ What opportunities,personal & professional,does this posit ion inNorthern Trust give you?

Gordon Woulfe, Northern Trust, who says a lot of financial roleswith large corporations are migrating to Ireland.

Gordon WoulfeGlobal trade and settlements, Northern Trust

Interview: Joe Dermody



Employees working on the iMac production line at the Apple European Headquarters in Hollyhill, Cork. Pictures: David Keane

1,000 new staffFuture bright as Apple plans to addattracting Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) — showthat more than 187,000workers are employed byFDI companies in Ireland

To further the point, 2015saw a net increase of 11,800IDA-supported jobs in theyear — a 66% increase onthe previous year. All theattributes the Taoiseachcited must be making animpact overseas.

One additional factorthat perhaps doesn’t quiteget the credit it deserves,however, is the lifestylecomponent. Numerouscountry MDs point to-wards the quality of life onoffer in Ireland — and evenmore so in an area likeMunster — as a significantdraw.

For all that Dublin hasgoing for it, the capitalstruggles with a number ofissues with workers hav-ing to endure higher houseor rental prices, longercommutes and a generalstrain on certain services.

This, to a large degree, isMunster’s secret weaponin the fight for investment.Last year’s Cork ChamberCompany of the Yearwinner was Solar-Winds;the Texan IT managementcompany whose EMEAoperations are run out ofCork.

authorities have been fullycooperative in providingcomprehensive replies in re-sponse to Commission’s re-quests. Though transferpricing rules have beentightened over the years, thetax administration had asignificant degree of discre-tion in the past.”

Speaking last year inDavos, Switzerland, AnTaoiseach Enda Kenny de-nied there had been anyspecial deals between theIrish Government and anyUS company based here.

Apple is one of severalcompanies to have becomethe focus of European Com-mission enquiries. TheCommission is due to issue areport on its findings on Ire-land’s relationship withApple in March.

The European Commis-sion has already orderedDutch authorities to recoverup to €30m from US coffeechain Starbucks, and toldLuxembourg to do the samewith Fiat Chrysler for theirtax deals.

While we await the Com-mission’s report, it is reas-suring that Apple maintainsthe Commission’s reportwill not have any materialimpact on its Irish base.

Latest figures issued bythe IDA — the Irish govern-ment agency charged with

trust chief, Margrethe Ves-tager, earlier this week.

Mr Cook says that thereis no “special deal” in placethat Apple would have toanswer for.

Speaking back in June2014, when this story firstcame to light, EuropeanCommission VP in chargeof competition policy, MrJoaquín Almunia, said: “Inthe case of Ireland, the

the Irish government, thecompany has firmly insistedthat no such deal exists.

The issue relates to howEU members apply state aidrules. The European Com-mission insists that theserules must be applied fairlyand in a non-discriminatoryway.

Apple confirmed that TimCook has met with the Euro-pean Commission’s anti-

Enda Kenny labelled it aboost for the South West re-gion and a sign of thecountry’s broadeningeconomic recovery.

“These new jobs come ontop of 1,000 additional jobsalready created at Apple inthe past 12 months, whichbrought the workforce inIreland to more than 5,000in 2015,” he added.

“This continued expan-sion by the company is tes-tament to the quality of thetalent pool, the infrastruc-ture, and the business en-vironment that thiscountry has to offer andfurther cements Apple asone of Ireland’s leadingemployers.”

The company’s commit-ment to Ireland is clear andit will not be affected by theongoing European Com-mission investigation.

While much public andmedia attention has beendevoted to this inquirywhich is examining if anagreement was in placewhich would have contra-vened EU State Aid rules

Cook on a recent visit toIreland said the companywas “rooted in Ireland”, acountry they are proud tocall home.

Back in November,Apple unveiled plans to re-cruit 1,000 new staff for itsCork campus, bringing thetotal employed in the cityto 6,000 once all the jobscome on stream. A newly-constructed building onthe Cork campus, which isdue to be completed bymid-2017, will help accom-modate the expandedworkforce.

The announcementmarked Apple’s latest sig-nificant investment in thecountry following its pre-vious commitment tospend €850m on a new datacentre in Athenry, Co Gal-way, which some analystshope could help launch atech ecosystem in the areadespite the relativelysmall amount of jobs itwill create.

Welcoming the news ofApple’s latest expansionin Ireland, Taoiseach

Apple’s story in Cork isone almost everyone in thecity has a connection to,given the sheer scale of thecampus that now exists atits European headquartersin Hollyhill.

Since Apple co-founder,the late Steve Jobs, landedin Ireland to open the facil-ity 35 years ago, its storyhas been one of continuedexpansion.

Following his successor,chief executive Tim Cook’svisit to the country lastNovember, all the signssuggest a continuation ofthat trend.

The company is now thesingle biggest employer inCork with more than 5,000staff currently employedacross a range of func-tions.

Everyone, more or less,knows someone whoworks or has worked withApple and if they don’tthey more than likelyknow someone in a jobsupported by its presencein Ireland’s second city.

The Hollyhill facilityhas grown from a modestoperation when it firstopened its doors in 1980 toa central command centrefor much of Apple’s busi-ness outside of the US.

And what of the futurefor Apple in Ireland? Tim

Apple chief executive Tim Cook signalling his approval for the ITgiant’s Irish operation on his recent visit to Cork.

Report: Rachel O’Leary

IT recruitment driveApple European Headquarters, Hollyhill, Cork

The interior of the new building unveiled at Apple’s facility in Hollyhill, Cork, when announcing its latest recruitment drive.



CIT’s deep connection with USA

the region, especially inthe engineering, ICT andpharmaceutical sectors.

CIT is looking forward tocollaborating with manymore both here and in theUS. For fur ther in -formation contact: Email:[email protected]: 353 21 4335302

alumni work in the US, egCIT’s New York Alumni arehelping to create new oppor-tunities for our graduates sothat they have a truly inter-national experience.

CIT continues to grow itspartnership with the US andis already working withmany US multinationals in

Cork Institute of Technol-ogy (CIT) has forged manylinks with the USA, pri-marily through agree-ments with US Collegesfor staff and student ex-change but also many re-search and project collab-orations, like ‘ProjectTara’.

This initiative is a jointventure between CIT’sBlackrock Castle Observ-atory , UC Berkeley ’sCentre for Science Edu-cation (“Multiverse”) anda number of private indi-viduals and companies inIreland and the US.

CIT Hincks Centre forEntrepreneurship Excel-lence carried out researchsponsored by the IrishAmerican PartnershipScholarship and re -searched the origins of theICT sector in Ireland andits subsequent develop-ment from 1960 to 2010.

CIT students go on workplacement to the US an-nually and now many

Students from Beaumont Girls School at the CIT Blackrock CastleObservatory, experiencing ‘Project Tara’, a system that allowspeople in Cork to control a telescope trained on the night skies inCalifornia, USA. Photo: Denis Scannell

■ Researchcollaborations

Tim’s 27 years in HollyhillThrough the evolution

of the Mac and the adventof the iPod, iPad andiPhone, the work of Timand his team has consist-ently evolved.

“Apple in Cork haschanged dramatically. Isuppose the productitself; the level of atten-tion to detail is very sig-nificant now compared toyears ago. That obviouslyrequires all the engineersto think outside the boxand we’re always chal-lenged with coming upwith new ways to carryout the processes that arerequired by all the newproducts but that’s whatmakes it interesting.”

Despite his evolvingwork the goal remains thesame: to make the bestproduct possible.

“It’s a large companylocally but also a largecompany globally, so weget to share what we learnhere with the other re-gions because at the endof the day we’re one com-pany split up all over theworld but the goal is com-mon, really: to make goodproducts.”

Meet Tim, an Apple manu-facturing engineeringmanager. He is pretty farup the ma na g ementladder in Hollyhill, Cork,but his journey has been along one — he started withthe company 27 years ago.

“I started in Apple in1989 as a manufacturinghire maintenance techni-cian in the printed circuitboard assembly business.After that I would havedone a number of rolesthrough supplier quality,manufacturing engineer-ing and my current role asmanufacturing engineer-ing manager,” he explains.

“I got to travel to all ofthe regions where we havemanufacturing, includingour design centre in Cu-pertino, working on newproduct designs.

“I suppose being thelink between manufactur-ing and design so that wecan build it efficiently —and in a vertical launchenvironment — with thegoal being that when thegreen button is pressedthat we can build as manyas possible in as short aspace of time.”



Teamwork is central to the ethos at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, says Brian Corcoran, the company’sIT director, and a winner of three All-Ireland hurling medals with Cork.

Regeneron setto bolster itsIrish footprint

economy over the last 30years, but I believe the bio-pharma industry is reallythe future now,” he says.

“There are a number ofnew companies and projectscoming to Ireland now, andthis underlines the level oftalent that we have here,”adds Mr Corcoran.

“We are not a large islandwith a big population, butwe are a talent-rich countrywith well educated people.Regeneron are certainlyvery happy with the qualityof hires so far, and that issomething that will only getbetter into the future.”

ethos encouraged from thetop down at Regeneron,” headds.

Once in operation, theLimerick facility will bededicated to the productionof biologic medicines, a sec-tor Ireland now excels in.The availability of highlytrained staff is essential tofuel this growth — helped toa major degree by theNational Institute for Bio-processing Research andTraining, which providestraining to more than 3,300people a year.

“Pharma has been a hugecontributor to the Irish

is the case that you willoften spend more of yourtime with your colleaguesthan you do with yourfamily. It is important thatthese relationships can bemaintained in social wayslike company gatherings,barbecues and the annualChristmas party — all ofwhich offer opportunities tomingle in a social context,along with partners, wivesand girlfriends. Given theamount of time we spendworking, often to deadlines,it is important that there bean element of fun within it,and that is very much an

Some 38% of the com-pany’s current full-timeemployees are from Limer-ick, with more than a thirdgraduates of the Universityof Limerick and LimerickInstitute of Technology.Three-quarters of theworkforce is from theMunster region.

“We work within an in-dustry where there is fre-quent pressure to deliverthe goods to a requiredschedule, but we are veryconscious that people needtime to relax and achievean even work-life balance,”Brian explains. “Indeed, it

to leverage global systemsby supporting them locally,and we will always needsuitably qualified people totranslate data into in-formation and knowledge.”

With group headquartersat Tarrytown, New York,USA, Regeneron evaluateda number of locations for itsfirst major internationalexpansion before event-ually selecting Limerick, achoice influenced by thesupport of IDA Ireland, andthe expertise provided bythe National Institute forBioprocessing Researchand Training.

Regeneron PharmaceuticalsInc announced recently anadditional investment ofmore than €300 million in itsLimerick campus, addinganother 200 jobs.

This will bring the com-pany’s overall investment to€600 million, with a totalworkforce of 500 by 2017.

Having acquired theformer Dell Computerpremises in Limerick for itsfirst Industrial Operationsand Product Supply site out-side of the United States in2013, the site houses the lar-gest-scale bulk biologicsproduction facility in Ire-land.

“Teamwork is very muchpart of the ethos of Regener-on, both here at the site inLimerick, and with our col-leagues in the US,” saysBrian Corcoran, director In-formation Technology. “Allof my career has been withAmerican companies, and Ican attest to the strong em-phasis placed on maintain-ing good relationships with-in that environment.

“Regeneron has a signifi-cant strength in that, whileit is a multinational, it is stillrelatively small in terms oflocations and number of em-ployees,” he says.

“We are still small enoughthat it is practically possibleto know most people withinthe organisation, whichtranslates very well into acollaborative focus through-out.”

As the facility grows intothe future, so too will the ITstaff required within the in-frastructure: “Being part ofa large corporation, we try

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in Limerick, where the US company isexpected to employ 500 people by the end of 2017.


Brian CorcoranDirector of IT, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals



UCC: fostering an ethos ofinnovation, research andindustry collaborationJohn Daly

2016 has dawned brightly forUniversity College Cork(UCC), being named TheSunday Times University ofthe Year for a record-break-ing fourth time.

Following its triumphs in2003, 2005 and 2011, the guidenoted UCC’s growing inter-national reputation basedon its high performance inresearch, and exceptionaltrack record in innovation.Coming as it does during thecelebration of the life andlegacy of George Boole, theaward recognised UCC’stradition of independentthinking, and particularlythe ability of its researchersto generate research in-come, which totalled over€83m last year.

“It is gratifying to see thework we do across the teach-ing and research space re-cognised, being at the cut-ting edge in the generationof new knowledge at an in-ternational level, as well asthe work we undertake incollaboration with enter-prise partners,” says Profes-sor Anita R Maguire, vicepresident for Research andInnovation, who is activelyengaged in research, STIpolicy, academic industrycollaboration and strategicdevelopment of the pharma-ceutical industry.

“All of these activitieshave come together in acomplex mix, and beingnamed University of theYear is a recognition of thesuccessful delivery acrossall of those aspects.”

From a research perform-ance perspective, the 2015CWTS Leiden Ranking exer-cise, which ranks 750 uni-versities worldwide focus-ing on the top 1% most fre-quently cited publications,UCC was the foremost insti-tution in Ireland, holding16th position in Europe and52nd worldwide. This recog-nition was consistent withrecent performances inother ranking exercises, in-cluding the European Com-

UCC researchers collab-orate with 700 of the world’stop universities across 120countries. Prof Maguire en-capsulated the University’ssuccess as a unique combi-nation of world-leading re-searchers, internationallycompetitive research infra-structure, trans-disciplin-ary activity and extensiveindustrial partnership.

“This complex combi-nation not only provides thebedrock for sustained suc-cess in the generation ofnon-exchequer income andenterprise development, butalso provides the agility torespond rapidly to emergingareas of national and inter-national strategic priority.”

centres led by UCC are: theIrish Photonic IntegrationResearch Centre (IPIC) atTyndall National Institute;the APC Microbiome Insti-tute; The Centre for Marineand Renewable Energy–MaREI; and INFANT, theIrish Centre for Fetal andNeonatal Translational Re-search, in addition to co-leading Insight with threeother universities.

“Having this level of in-vestment in UCC underpinsthe excellence of our re-search activity. The scopeand the complexity of the re-search programmes and theindustry interface — theseare the elements that makeit all so rewarding.”

2015 as one of the world’sleading institutions in pro-biotic research, the gutmicrobiome and its role inIrritable Bowel Syndromeand other areas of gastroin-testinal health. The com-pany was the winner of theSME category in the inaug-ural US-Ireland ResearchInnovation Awards for itswork bringing a patentedIrish probiotic, discoveredin UCC, to the internationalmarketplace .UCC wasnominated in the HEI cat-egory for its institutionallinks through an innovativepartnership between theteam led by Professor Ma-guire and Lilly, of Kinsaleand Indianapolis.

In an initiative begun in2012, UCC is a participant in11 of the 12 research centresestabl ished by ScienceFoundation Ireland in thelargest joint state/industryresearch investment in Irishhistory. State investment of€355m is matched by a con-tribution of some €190mfrom over 200 enterprisepar tners. The research

mission’s U-Multirank,which surveyed 1,200 highereducation institutions from83 countries. In this analy-sis, UCC was the top per-forming university inter-nationally, based on obtain-ing the highest number of‘A’ scores, with 21 out of 28.

“We are very fortunate atUCC, being at the heart ofsuch a major cluster ofmultinational companies,which is an extremely im-portant strength and oppor-tunity for the university,”Professor Maguire explains.

“Our role in continuing tosupply the graduates withthe appropriate skills thesecompanies need. Added tothat is the role we play as re-search partner, which hasseen very strong and im-portant long term collabor-ations developed betweenour key researchers andmany of these companies inthe region — relationshipsthat have been extremely re-warding to both parties.

“That initial connectionfostered between UCC andthe company’s site here inIreland often develops overtime into a greater collabor-ation with its research head-quarters in the US and else-where. At that level, there isa huge generation of knowl-edge and sharing of expert-ise which has become verysignificant over the last dec-ade as these Irish multi-nationals have moved frombasic manufacturing sitesinto roles of greater stra-tegic importance globally.”

The inaugural issue of theGlobal EntrepreneurshipNetwork Magazine, dis-tributed by the FinancialTimes worldwide, highlight-ed Ireland and UCC as a hubfor innovation, new ideas,start-ups and creativity.

The GEN initiative is ‘anew voice for promotingentrepreneurial growth andsupport start-ups aroundthe world,’ and featured aforeword by US PresidentBarack Obama.

“As one of the main par-ticipants featuring in theGEN magazine, UCC is de-lighted to be part of this im-portant initiative that helpspromote Ireland as a globalhub for entrepreneurship,innovation and business.The focus is collaborationbetween research, edu-cation, entrepreneurs, in-dustry, and government toadvance the entrepreneur-ship eco-system in Irelandon the global stage.”

Alimentary Health, aspecialist microbiome re-search company based inCork, and a foundingmember of the APC Micro-biome Institute at UCC, re-ceived global recognition in

Professor Anita Maguire, vicepresident of Research andInnovation at UCC.

Photo: courtesy of the RIA

Prof Fergus Shanahan and Dr Sally Cudmore of the APC MicrobiomeInstitute in UCC, a Science Foundation Ireland national researchcentre which is focused upon gastrointestinal bacterial research.IBM seeks

to recruitsoftwareengineers

IBM Ireland has been ex-panding its Analytics &Solutions Lab to advancecloud social collaborationand HR analytics soft-ware, in a move geared to-wards helping organi-sations build and main-tain a smarter workforce.

As part of the expan-sion, IBM is creating sev-eral high value softwareengineering roles at thedevelopment lab, whichhas of f ices in Dublin,Cork, and Galway. Thisproject is supported bythe Department of Jobsthrough IDA Ireland.

IDA Ireland CEO, Mar-tin Shanahan, said: “IBMhas a long history in Ire-land where it has con-stantly evolved as a busi-ness to suit client needs.IBM takes advantage ofIreland’s highly-skilledICT workforce in theareas of cloud computingand analytics research tofurther advance the capa-bilities of businesses inIreland and around theworld. Seeing a companylike IBM expand here inIreland sends out a verypo wer f ul messa g e toother ICT companiesacross the world.”

Artificially intelligent com-puter Watson was created inIBM’s DeepQA project; in2011 it competed on TV show‘Jeopardy’ against formerwinners Brad Rutter and KenJennings. Watson won thefirst place prize of $1m.

“Overseasfirms accountfor 66% ofIrish exports;EU and USAare our mainmarkets

Flex rebrands to reflect its expansion to offer full range of business servicesto solve the challenges of theconnected age. Throughgreat intelligence and in-sights Flex brings custom-ers closer to the marketsthey serve, creating a supplyadvantage almost anywhereby improving visibility andvelocity in a dynamic world.

Flex has a long history inIreland having opened itsfirst operation in 1983.

Flex in Ireland is made upof a diverse workforce of al-most 700 employees workingacross a broad range of func-tions and locations which in-clude Cork, Limerick, andLeitrim.

challenges of this new agerequires the right partner atevery step.

With extensive experienceacross virtually all indus-tries, ranging from health-care and automotive, to in-dustrial appliances, energy,communications, enterprisecomputing and consumerelectronics, Flex is equippedwith the unique expertise toimprove speed to market, ef-ficiency, quality assurance,and cost e f fect ivenessthroughout the entire life-cycle of a product.

Flex is partnering withcustomers large and small

products from almost everyindustry. Flex is very wellpositioned to help custom-ers manage these challengesand capitalise on the oppor-tunities that arise from thistransformative period.

Its global scale and exten-sive physical infrastructureincludes almost 200,000 pro-fessionals working across100 sites in 30 countries tocreate a smarter, more con-nected world. In today’smarketplace, demand forsmarter, more advanced sol-utions is growing exponen-tially. To meet the complextechnological and logistical

Manufacturing Services(EMS) solutions company towhat it is today; a companythat offers its customers afull range of services frominnovation, design, engin-eering, manufacturing, glo-bal distribution, and after-market services across al-most every industry.”

In today’s world a new ageof intelligence has emerged;an era of rapid transitionand transformation, full ofnew disruptive technologiesand business models. Cus-tomers are facing a futurethat requires connectivityand intelligence in new

In July 2015, Flextronicsannounced a name changeto Flex.

This change reflects thecompany’s evolution to “aleading sketch-to-scale sol-utions company that de-signs, builds, distributes,and services intelligentproducts for a connectedworld, with a promise tohelp the world Livesmarter”.

Jerry Fitzpatrick, gen-eral manager of Flex’sCork operation, stated:“The name change reflectshow th e company hasevolved from an Electronic

Jerry Fitzpatrick says Flex’s newbrand reflects its expandedrange of services to industries.





An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, is pictured with Voxpro team member Keith Hynes and Voxpro co-founderDan Kiely at the announcement in November of plans to create 400 jobs at Voxpro in Cork, bringingt h e t o t a l n u m b e r o f e m p l o y e e s a t t h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l p r o v i d e r o f c u s t o m e rexperience and technical support solutions to 1,400 people. Picture: Daragh Mc Sweeney /Provision

Voxpro globalexpansion rollson with centre inNorth America

of new products andprocesses, client contentcreation, hardware techni-cal support, process im-provement and supply chainmanagement.

With the global outsourc-ing industry worth an esti-mated €750 billion, Voxpro’srelatively small status insuch a large sector hasallowed for a carefullyplotted expansion allied to aglobal economy currentlyreturning to pre-recessionlevels of commerce.

With ‘scale’ a key word forUS companies needing thenecessary infrastructure tobolster the pace of theirgrowth, partnership withVoxpro as the provider ofservices on their behalf hasproven a mutually benefi-cial union.

“American companiesneed partners who can growwith them in Europe,” hesays. “Our vision is to event-ually have a presence infour corners of the world.”

With US multinationalsan established presence inthe Irish landscape for over50 years, Mr Kiely stressesthe need to adapt to the de-mands of global commerceto ensure that presence con-tinues into the future.

“Ireland Inc, like anyother business, has to re-in-vent its value proposition ona regular basis, and whatmight have been attractiveto tech companies five yearsago will not be the sametoday,” he believes.

“And, by 2020, that valueproposition will look com-pletely different again. Backin 2010, for example, Irish ITgraduates with languageswould not have been a hugepriority, whereas today thiscombination is paramount.Ireland will continue to bean attractive place to USmultinationals as long as wekeep re-inventing the valueproposition, and this appliesparticularly to those techcompanies setting up theirheadquarters here.”

open by Q3 this year in NewYork, which represents an-other step in our expansionacross North America.”

Having decided in 2010 toposition Voxpro as partnerto many US multinationalswith a ‘go to Europe’ strat-egy, the Cork company hasexperienced exponentialgrowth as a result.

“Our success has beenbuilt on delivering BeautifulCustomer Experience inpartnership with our clientsand through the talent anddetermination of our teamof extraordinary people,”Mr Kiely says of Voxpro’sstellar growth. Voxpro em-ploys staff from over 26countries, transacting busi-ness in more than 13 differ-ent languages. “Our multi-lingual graduate talent poolis undoubtedly the key toour success.”

Through its complex stateof the art communications,Voxpro’s centre in Corkhandles queries fromaround the world.

“If a Google customer hasa problem related to theirGoogle For Work account,which includes productslike email, calendar, googledocs, hangouts and cloudbased storage, and they con-tact the Google TechnicalSupport helpline for assist-ance, that email or tele-phone call comes directly toour dedicated Google teamat Mahon and we deal with iton behalf of Google.

Similarly, if a customerbooking accommodationthrough Airbnb encountersdifficulty and contacts cus-tomer service support, thatmail, chat message or callalso comes directly to us andis dealt with on behalf ofAirbnb,” he adds.

Voxpro provides a widerange of services to itspartners including trust andsafety, social media man-agement, coding, globalknowledge management,fraud analysis, productquality insights, the trialing

“North America is a veryimportant part of Voxpro’sexpansion strategy in 2016and beyond,” says CEO, DanKiely of the Cork company’scontinued expansion.

“We launched our first op-erational centre of excel-lence in Folsom, Sacramen-to, last October. Our em-ployment numbers thereare already at 120 and willgrow to 200 by the end of thefirst quarter of 2016, in-creasing to 700 peopletwelve months later.”

The Voxpro Folsom facil-ity will be designed to mir-ror the campus-like style ofmany of its Silicon Valleyclients — ergonomic andadaptable, with open spacesand cutting-edge design.

“We’ve always lookedto change the perception ofcontact centres; the Folsomcentre will reflect that in itsdesign and operation,” hesays. Headquartered inCor k, Vox pro pro vide soutsourced customer ser-vice across a range of lan-guages for a diverse varietyof global companies, includ-ing Google, Nest, Airbnb,Stripe, TravelZoo and Etsy.

Voxpro is now Google’smost successful vendorpartner, managing queriesand issues related to theGoogle For Work productsand services. Established byDan and Linda Kiely twodecades ago as a pagingcompany, Voxpro has growninto a major enterprise de-livering multilingual techsupport and business out-sourcing services across theglobe. Staff numbers at itssupport centre at Mahon inCork are set to reach 1,200by Q2 of this year.

“Expansion in the US is akey part of our strategy overthe next three years, and weare already looking at othersites there,” Mr Kiely ex-plains. “The Folsom site isprimarily to service ourpartners based on the WestCoast, and we are currentlylooking at suitable sites onthe East Coast to serviceclients located there.”

Voxpro operates fourcentres in Ireland, in addi-tion to a sales and market-ing office in San Francisco.

“We aim to have anothersales and marketing office


Dan KielyVoxpro, chief executive and founder

Why people are top priorityBarbara D’Ovidio, Voxproteam manager, says her roleinvolves facilitating the per-sonal and career develop-ment of her team by coach-ing them to maximise theirpotential, and also by devel-oping their skills.

“We are very lucky tohave such a suppor tivework environment wherepeople go out of their way tohelp one another. We are allworking towards a commongoal. Voxpro often organisessocial activities and events,l ike Christmas par ties,summer BBQs, charity fun-draisers and fancy dressparties. They are alwaysgood fun and I take part inas many as possible.”

She has also organised afew team and departmentalevents. Voxpro has a cultureof filling roles with talentedpeople from within the com-pany, if and when possible,she says.

“I love being in a positionwhere my company sup-ports me in motivating andpreparing my team for pro-motion and allows me to de-velop their skills and ident-ify their career goals in areally fast moving environ-ment. I myself was recentlypromoted into a more chall-enging role and my managerconstantly supports my per-sonal development and ca-reer aspirations.”

They acknowledge andencourage each employee toshare feedback and theypromote their ideas for im-provements in the companyvia initiatives such as theVoxpro Innovation Awards.

The company’s seniorleadership team is con-stantly striving to build abetter working environ-ment. They are very ap-proachable and their doorsare always open for a chat.

Barbara D’Ovidio, Voxpro team manager, says social events add tothe supportive atmosphere among employees. Picture: Dan Linehan

ADI fetes 50 years in business, 40 years in Limerick and 15 years in Corkprise that now exists, theexistence of the Shannonairport route remains amajor ingredient for multi-national industry in theMid-west. Allied to an ad-vanced t e lecommuni-cations infrastructure thisconnectivity with access toglobal markets from Ire-land is vitally important tofuture investment.

We have built our suc-cess over the years by hir-ing top graduates from Ire-land and abroad. As a re-sult, a great talent pool hasbeen compiled over 40years, many of whom havegone to other parts of ourbusiness in the US andaround the world. Invest-ing in education across themid-west region since 1976Analog Devices has earnedan exceptional reputationfor engineering innovationand retaining graduates.

More than 80% of Anal-og’s work-force in Irelandis educated to degree-level,with a significant propor-tion holding master’s andPhD degrees. Over half ofthe company VPs world-wide are originally fromthe Limerick operation,with Irish born VincentRoche now ADI’s presidentand chief executive officeronly the third CEO sincethe company was founded50 years ago.

major milestone in any or-ganization and a reflectionof the people talent in theIrish operation.

An innovative pioneer inthe semiconductor indus-try, Analog was also one ofthe first US companies to de-velop a base in Irelandwhich led the way for othermultinationals locatinghere helped by factors suchas access to third level col-laboration, the strong grad-uate talent pool and theState’s supportive approachtowards business. Vital tothe global business enter-

tive electronics markets.Limerick global operationmanufacturing facility en-ables ADI success by provid-ing leading edge capabilitiesand technologies to the busi-ness units and according toDenis Doyle, vice presidentand g eneral manag er ,“delivers product and sys-tem solutions via a sophisti-cat ed re l iable productsupply chain while meetingstringent customer require-ments for quality, respon-siveness, delivery and cost”.

Analog Devices celebrates40 years in Ireland in 2016, a

cruiting highly skilled grad-uates and collaborating onresearch projects.

A world leader in highperformance signal process-ing, the Irish operationtoday stands at the forefrontof technological develop-ment and is addressing cus-tomer demands by deliver-ing innovative platformsthat “sense, measure, inter-pret and connect” and lever-aging these platforms acrossa diverse set of applicationsfor industrial, healthcare,consumer, communicationsinfrastructure and automo-

Limerick in 2016, ADI alsoemploys nearly 100 people atits R&D facility in Corkwhere it has had a presencefor the last 15 years.

ADI has built up a well-es-tablished record for engin-eering innovation and dis-covery as evidenced bynearly 300 U S pat ent sgranted to ADI inventorsbased in Ireland, which isnearly 20% of the total USpatents held by the companyand the highest number fortechnology companiesbased in Ireland.

Leo McHugh, vice presi-dent Instrumentation prod-ucts states “as an innovationfuelled organization, ADIneeds a constant supply ofhighly educated engineersand we continue to build onour success over the yearsby hiring top graduates fromIreland and abroad”.

ADI has developed stronglinks with most third levelinstitutions in Ireland andin particular with TyndallInstitute Cork, University ofLimerick, University Col-lege Cork and Limerick In-stitute Technology in re-

A nalog D evices I nter -national (ADI) is a world-leading semiconductorfirm specialising in highperformance analogue,mixed signal and digitalsignal processing (DSP) in-tegrated circuits (ICs).

ADI’s products play afundamental role in con-verting real-world phe-nomena such as tempera-ture, motion, pressure,light and sound into elec-trical signals to be used in awide array of applications.With an annual turnover of$3bn and with 20% of rev-enue invested in R&D, ADIproduces over 10,000 prod-ucts selling to more than60,000 customers and em-ploys 9 ,000 employeesworldwide

ADI was one of the firstUS high-tech companies toestablish a presence in Ire-land and it has proven to bea successful move. Thecompany, which ce l -ebrated its 50th anniver-sary in 2015, holds a formi-dable presence on the Irishtechnology scene and hasgrown to employ 1 ,200people at its original andmain Irish hub in Limer-ick, home to ADI’s Euro-pean based Research andDevelopment centre andIreland global operationsmanufacturing facility.Celebrating 40 years in

Analog Devices International (ADI) in Limerick, a world leader in semiconductors, specialising in highperformance analogue, mixed signal and digital signal processing (DSP) integrated circuits (ICs).

Analog DevicesInternational

ADI

ANALOG DEVICES. SOLVING TOMORROW’STOUGHEST ENGINEERING CHALLENGES TODAY

ADI has become the world leader in high performance signal processing solutions ensuring we have the best people solving the toughest challenges.

Contact www.analog.com/careers

• Senior Design Evaluation Engineer X 3• IC Design Engineer• Applications Technology Project Manager• Chip Architect/ Technical Lead• Digital Marketing Manager

(Renewable Energy)• Systems Engineer• Strategic Marketing Manager

(Motor & Process Control)• Marketing Manager

(Lab & Field Scientific Instrumentation)• Analog Mixed Signal IC Design Engineer• RFIC Design Engineer X 2

• Process Control Marketing Manager• Test Development Engineer• Isolation Power Conversion Strategic

Manager• Senior Staff Model Developer• IoT Web Developer• iOS Developer• Linux/ Unix Systems Administrator• Marketing Communications Manager• Digital Physical Implementation Engineer• RFIC/ MMIC Engineer• Project Manager

Our staff in Analog Devices, Raheen, Limerick.

ADI at a glance• Headquartered in Norwood, MA, with a global presence• Over 20 design centres worldwide• Global manufacturing, distribution and inventory network• Sales and Applications support in every region to support our

customers locally• Annual turnover of $3 billion• 20% of revenue invested in R&D• Leadership in key technology areas of Analog and DSP• #1 market share in Converters and High Performance Amplifiers• Over 10,000 products selling to more than 60,000

customers• Approximately 9,000 employees worldwide

➧We arecurrentlyrecruitingfor the followingpositionsin Ireland:

Analog Devices, Cork Operation.



Pfizer Ireland’s Paul Duffy says the company’s Irish operation has an optimistic future as new job announcements have resulted from a global upturn in the demand for its product.

Pfizer builds upon strong Irish rootshorizons, winning a numberof significant contracts.

“Modifying and changingare a constant necessity inorder to stay current, andPfizer has continued toadapt to the changing de-mands of the marketplace,as well as constantly invest-ing in our sites here in Ire-land,” he says.

As a former president ofthe American Chamber, DrDuffy recalls an engagingand enjoyable year thatbrought him into contactwith many different com-panies and individualsacross Ireland.

“All the companies arehere to do well and do theright thing, and when youhave people with culturallyaligned objectives and a re-spect for local policies it allcomes together very well.The American Chamber is avery small grouping, with aminimum of efficient staffand zero bureaucracy. Itpulls people together verywell and does help to fosterrelationships through wellstructured networking andlobbying to communicatethat the needs of Americanbusiness are properlyunderstood in a very bal-anced and fair way. As anorganisation, it is efficient,truthful and honest, and hasbenefited everybody associ-ated with it very well overthe years.”

medicines for global export.The constant thread wehave had from an Irish per-spective is our ability to bereliable and consistent inwhat we do.

“We are manufacturinglife-saving medicines, a veryimportant task at which wehave proven our reliabilityover the years. The Pfizeroperation in Ireland is rightup there with the best in theworld, and as a result of thatwe have secured a great dealof investment, $7 billion,over time — with $300m inrecent years.”

Having experienced sig-nificant growth over muchof the 1980s and 90s due toproduction of blockbusterdrugs like Lipitor, the arri-val of the so-called ‘patentcliff’ forced the company toseek greater efficiencies inits structures to remaincompetitive in a new manu-facturing environment.

“The situation forced usto go back to basics abouthow we did business, andhow to address our coststructures, while maintain-ing our standards of quality.The Pfizer brand is so estab-lished and important inCork, all stakeholders wereon board from the start to dowhat needed to be done.”

Rather than contemplatea reduction in its Munsterfootprint, Pfizer insteadlooked to new commercial

The investment followedan earlier €90m at the com-pany’s Grangecastle facilityin Dublin. The new facilityensures the Ringaskiddysite will be in a position to beconsidered for developmentwork on a number of pipe-line products, including itsnext generation cholesteroland oncology therapies.

“The Ringaskiddy sitewas Pfizer’s first manufac-turing facility in Ireland al-most 45 years ago, and hasnow evolved into hi-techmanufacturing of Pfizer’snewest and most complex

and the integration com-pletes sometime this year.”

The €150.5bn deal willmake Ireland home to theworld’s largest pharma-ceutical company, employ-ing over 4,700 people.

In 2014, Pfizer opened anew €22m facility at its Rin-gaskiddy plant dedicated tomanufacturing the nextgeneration of products. Thenew product technology lab-oratory will lead the devel-opment of new capabilitiesin manufacturing nichedrugs within the globalPfizer production network.

Pfizer is in a good placeright now with a good baseand a number of productsbeing worked on,” says DrPaul Duffy, vice-presidentbiopharm and externalsupply ops.

“Added to that, we havethe prospect of the Allergancombination in 2016, whichis going through the regula-tory phase at present. LikePfizer, they have a strongpresence here in Irelandover a long period of time,and promises to be anotherexciting phase, assumingthat everything goes to plan

Pfizer has experienced atransformative turnaroundin recent years with an in-crease in the global demandfor its products resulting innew jobs across its Irish op-erations.

Rather than an earlierplanned consolidation of itsworkforce, an optimistic fu-ture is now in prospect forthe pharmaceutical giant’sCork facility as new job an-nouncements have resultedfrom a global upturn in thedemand for its product, andunderpinned with a signifi-cant investment in plantand personnel to accommo-date future growth.

One of the earliest USpharmaceutical businessesto locate in Ireland, Pfizerestablished its first produc-tion facility at Ringaskiddyin 1969 to produce foodchemicals, including citricacid and gluconate prod-ucts. In 1972 the first pro-duction plant was con-structed to produce bulkpharmaceutical products ona site that grew consider-ably over the years to meetgrowing production de-mands and increased pro-duction capacity.

Pfizer employs 3,300people across six sites in Ire-land and has invested $7bnin the country since theopening its first site in 1969.

“Having experiencedsome challenging times,

Following Pfizer’s €150.5bn deal with Allergan, the company will employ 4,700 people in Ireland.


Paul DuffyVice-president biopharm and external supply ops, Pfizer



American Chamber of Commerce Ireland Major Events 2016

FEB 2 HR Leadership Forum

Venue: Intel

MAR 3 President’s Lunch 2016

Including the launch of the Irish-US Relationship 2016 report

Venue: Intercontinental Hotel, Dublin 4

Time: 12:30 - 15:00

Guest Speaker(s): Joseph Quinlan & Bob Savage

MAR 10 Network for Women in Global Organisations

Passing the Torch

Venue: Vodafone, Dublin 18

Time: 17:30 - 19:30

APR 8 HR Leadership Forum

MAY 12 Network for Women in Global Organisations

Mentors & Mentees The “How to” Guide

MAY 20 American Chamber Annual Dinner

Innovation Awards 2016

Venue: The DoubleTree by Hilton

JUN 24 HR Leadership Forum

JUL 1 Independence Day Lunch


Time: 12:30 - 15:00

SEP 9 HR Leadership Forum

SEP 15 Learning & Development Conference

SEP (TBC) Cork Business Lunch

OCT 13 Network for Women in Global Organisations

Celebrating Contribution of Business to the Equality Agenda

OCT 28 HR Leadership Forum

NOV 24 Thanksgiving Day Lunch


Time: 12:30 - 15:00

DEC 6 Network for Women in Global Organisations

Passing the Torch

DEC 8 HR Leadership Forum

For more info visit www.amcham.ie/events

Guest Speakers

Friday, January 29, 2016 US Business in Ireland 2016 · 2016-02-03 · Joe Tucci, president of EMC,...

Documents

Transcript of Friday, January 29, 2016 US Business in Ireland 2016 · 2016-02-03 · Joe Tucci, president of EMC,...