Episode 2: Home to Build the Future

Eamonn Sinnott, former GM of Intel Ireland, and David Dempsey, co-founder of Salesforce Europe, join Paula Roche of County Wexford Chamber, to talk about coming home to help shape the future of their native County Wexford.   

Eamonn and David share the fascinating stories of building careers that spanned the highest levels of the technology industry, and reveal why they have decided to bring that experience and expertise home to help Wexford capitalise on the rich opportunities that now lie in education, renewable energy, and talent development.  

About the guests: 

Eamonn Sinnott spent 35 years with Intel, helping grow it into one of the most significant foreign direct investments in the history of the State. With more than €30 billion invested in Ireland, Intel became a cornerstone of the global technology supply chain, and Eamonn played a key role in securing its long-term future. 

David Dempsey helped bring Salesforce to Europe from day one, leaving a senior role at Oracle to join a four-month-old startup with no customers. Over a 40-year career in technology, including senior leadership roles at Oracle and Salesforce, David has been at the forefront of the digital revolution. 

Business Connections is supported by LEADER.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

The gene pool that we have in Wexford is the raw ingredient that is necessary to be world class. So why not? So if you're here in Wexford and you have the mindset of being world class and you're curious to learn about it, it's a transferable skill that you can grow great things from that here.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

There's no reason that you can't do it from Wexford anymore. I think that's the big change. And in fact, you can probably do it better from Wexford because you have local stability, local support that can keep you sane when the going gets tough, but you can still run your business any place in the world. So you can definitely be world class here.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Welcome to Business Connections, a podcast series brought to you by County Wexford Chamber. In this episode, Paula Roach is joined by two guests who have held pivotal roles in the world's biggest technology companies and who are now bringing their experience and expertise home to help build the future of County Wexford. Eamon Sinnet spent 35 years with Intel, helping to grow it into one of the most significant multinational companies in the history of the state. Eamon led Intel through a pivotal period where the future of manufacturing in Ireland was uncertain, and he helped to reposition the business from a traditional manufacturing model to a more agile, globally competitive operation, in turn, securing its place in Intel's long-term strategy. And David Dempsey, who has spent over 40 years working in the technology sector across telecoms, cloud computing, and SaaS, David left a senior leadership position at Oracle to take a chance on bringing a small startup with no customers to Ireland. That company was called Salesforce, and David has been instrumental in building it into one of the world's leading software companies. Having operated at the highest levels globally, both Eamon and David are now bringing their experience and vision home, helping to shape the future of their native county Wexford. They talk about what it means to return with global perspective, the mindset required to build and lead at scale, and the unique opportunity that Wexford has right now to become a leader in education, renewable energy, and globally connected enterprise.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

No, indeed, I'm not very far away. 500 yards, not even. Hill Street. Yes, top of Hill Street.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

And am I right in saying you might even have been born in this building?

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Well, I was trying to remember. Yeah, it's clearly before my memory. But um I think this building might have been the nursing home. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Yeah, it was Dr. Furlong's, um, I believe. And um, yeah, a few people I've met over the past couple of years here in the chamber have said they've been born in this building. Incredible, isn't it? So back to my beginnings. Yeah, exactly. Dave, where are you from?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

And a little bit farther away from me, but I'm from Courage Fark, so I'm up at the top of the hill. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

We're still in Wexford today.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Yeah. So before we get into your impressive global career careers, which you certainly have, tell me a bit about your early connection to the county and what shaped you here.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

Well, for me, you know, being born in Hill Street and growing up in Hill Street, I went to um the CBS primary school, St. Peter's College, secondary school, played for the Volunteers Football Club and the Harriers Hurling team. So I think that's what shaped me, you know. I mean, established my roots deep in Mixford with that.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Big family?

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Uh three girls and myself. And yourself. Yeah, which often people say that I'm spoiled, but I think I grew up in a very forward-thinking household. I had my place.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Good, good. And is your family still around here?

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Yeah, um, my sister still lives in a family home and sisters living close by.

SPEAKER_02 3:38

Okay. And what about yourself, David, growing up? Did you go to school locally?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Almost the same as Eamon. I actually went to the brothers, well, the CBS, and uh but I stayed there for primary and secondary, and then uh left Wexford when I was sixteen, actually. Sixteen? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Did you go to Dublin?

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah, I went to Dublin and I got at that stage uh you did civil service exams and I got a job in the post office, a good job in the post office. So I went to Dublin when I was sixteen, didn't do my leaving, uh left left here at my intercert. Um but then uh you know at that stage I think that's what most people did, you know.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

And who did you live with? Like a you're only just a sixteen-year-old.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, when I went, I lived with uh actually I lived with uh uh John Dorn, who's a family friend uh from William Street. Uh he lived in Chapel Lizard, lived with him for a while, and then as soon as we got organized, a bunch of us we we moved into what were then the flat scene and you know lived in flats all over Dublin. You asked me about any part of Dublin where there was flats, and I can tell you I'm the expert on it back there.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

I lived in Chapel Lizzie myself, actually. Chapel Liz is gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, but it's too far out for whether you're sixteen or seventeen, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

And you both know each other. You arrived here today together. How do you know each other?

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Um we I can't initially came across each other and the various connections you'd make in the multinational subsidiary family that is in Ireland. And so we had an instant connection being being from the same place. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, it's funny because uh like uh that's the one thing about Wexford, you you sort of you travel around the world or you do different things, and then you come across somebody and you know you meet them in a formal setting and uh you know where we uh the your your current reputation is with you, and then somebody you just make that connection back to uh back to Wexford or back to you know, it's one thing. It's like if I'm walking along the main street and someone I hear a show behind me, how are you, Davy? I know it's somebody from Corish Park because I know it's that generation. Well that's because it's that generation, yeah. And it's the same, you know. I think Eamon and I we we met each other formally, but then uh you know, once you're from Wexford, you just make so many personal connections then back uh back before we were doing our our day jobs.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

So let's go into your early careers. Um Dave, you mentioned you started in the post office. How did you get to Salesforce?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Wow, that's a long um yeah, it was interesting. I I started as a post office clerk, so I worked in every post office in Dublin, the GPO, Ann Street, James's Street, Fibsara, all of those places, and it was great. I worked in the in this in the sorting office as well, um in Sheriff Street uh when I was 17 or 18. But then um there's a couple of stories, but but I I leave out some of it, but uh um I was a half-decent runner as well, and and I went to America uh to run. Uh I went to college in America uh running cross-country out there. But then I came back and I I was a civil servant and I went from the post office uh into various uh into telecom as it was at the time. But that this strange process in the civil service, it was great at the time, that they recruited people for other skills from internal competitions, and the computer industry was only uh really in its infancy then. And there was thinking that uh systems analysts or business analysts as they're called, uh, they should never come from a programming background because uh and then you remember this, Eamon, because memory was so scarce that the programmers tended to cramp everything into them into the available memory space, whereas business analysts taught about the wider business. So I was recruited through an internal competition uh in to be a systems analyst, and then telecom or PT or telecom at the time, then they trained me to be a systems analyst, and then I was in the IT industry.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

What a journey, eh?

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Which is which is so like it's just one of those things you just feels like a good idea at the time and you just go for it, and then it turns out to be a whole career. Yeah. And I mean that I spent what uh 35, almost forty years then in the IT industry after that, which is kind of strange.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

But you never would have thought when you're younger you're gonna land in IT, did you?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

No, because it's nothing that there was no IT then, and you just end up and it just feels like something that seems like a bit of gas. So I'll uh you know, I'll go for this, but you don't give any thought to it. And then afterwards, uh when you get into it formally, you know, it just you look back on it and you say that was just such a good move or such a fortuitous move. Okay. But hindsight's always 2020.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

So before we go into kind of your career in Salesforce, let's get your background then in terms of how you got to dub Oracle Dairy. You kind of went to, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 7:49

Well, let's see. Um I left here and went to study uh science in in Dublin in in what was then called Kevin Street, now TU Dublin. And um I I think I always had a a a little grow for those subjects. And um after graduation, I think often I feel like aging myself here when I rem remember on graduation how few jobs there were available anything. I mean, at the time it was Donnelly Visa time for the US or London. Um people just emigrated. There were two of us out of our graduating class that stayed in Ireland um looking for jobs. So you know it's it's it's interesting to kind of put a little pin in that part of the history to talk about uh business and career opportunities in Wexford now. Two out of the city. But then there were no two out of a class of about sixty.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Wow, and two only six.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

Everybody else, yeah, and I think they were circumstantial, you know. So so I think that was it's an important context. We graduated there, so I I was fortunate enough. Um I got a job up in Donegal, northwest Donegal in a small manufacturing outlet, and um really kind of began to learn the full tricks of the trade there. And uh we're moved down to Galway a couple of years later for working in a company that some people might remember as digital equipment when computers were large mainframe things and there was going to be a worldwide demand for a few. And um after that then Intel came along and um it was an incredible place to join. Intel was it was it was the first I it's often hard to describe it, but the way I was the way I would offer it to people is that it's a place where the product that we produced had to double in performance every two years for the same price. And I I I often challenge people to think of a similar product in today's terms that that has made such progression in terms of its capability for the same price, and it's very hard to to imagine any. So can you imagine the environment that that was that the sort of the dynamic there of learning and application and moving, you know, the futuristic view of the world that tomorrow was going to be better than today. So you had to kind of invest in yourself and in your systems and in your organization to meet that challenge and to be able to stay viable in the industry. So it was a fascinating place and it just kind of all consumed me. And the following was a 35-year career that I just um r retired from Intel last year.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Last year.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

So that was that was how I got into Intel.

SPEAKER_02 10:19

And you started at a more junior level and then worked your way up?

SPEAKER_03 10:23

Yeah, my first day on the job was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on night shift shift four in the thin films area of one of the factories there. I remember going into the bank to get some dollars uh for my journey, and the lady behind the counter said, I think you might need pesos for New Mexico. That's how little I knew about where I was going or what I was getting involved in, but it all sounded very exciting.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

You saw the opportunity in the U.S. Oh, yes. Okay. And you had a similar pro progression, David, that you went in kind of and worked your way through the little.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, well, it was always interesting because I was in the IT unit of of telecom at the time. I left there uh to go to London. Uh I left there in the in the late 80s to go across to London. And I joined a company called Oracle over there. So I spent a couple of years with Oracle in in the UK, and then I came back uh to Oracle in Ireland as the as the head of their consultancy division there. So I spent eleven years with Oracle. And Oracle at that stage was a growing company. I think I was employee number 750, you know, and it's now a couple of hundred thousand people, so it was the early stage. But then uh around about the end of the 1990s, early 2000s, the dot-com bubble was in its uh strength and uh uh there was a new business set up. I saw a little piece in Business Week, and it wasn't even a headline story in Business Week. It was on page 29, a single paragraph that this new company in San Francisco, Salesforce.com, were going to make enterprise software as easy to consume as buying a book on Amazon. And I had a bit of a laugh about that because enterprise software was tough to implement, it always ran over budget, it was very expensive, whatever. But myself and the two other uh the two other managers at in Oracle in Ireland, there were three of us who ran the business there. We used to go for breakfast every morning. We were down uh in a little greasy spoon near the pepper canister, saw this piece in the in in the paper, we started talking about it, and we said, Well, you know what, I think we'll send this guy an email and see what it's about. So we sent an email, literally sent an email to Mark Benioff, who was the owner of Salesforce, and said, This is not a bad idea. Um you know, we'd like to bring you into Europe. And from that, uh that's how Salesforce came to be in Dublin. There was no IDA inv IDA involvement or no support. Uh it was just that email we uh spent the next couple of months uh negotiating with them to get them in. They wanted to go originally to uh to Sweden. Uh they had some contacts there. We convinced them that Ireland was a better place and that we the three of us could get them up and running. Uh so um after a few months they decided to give it a try. Salesforce didn't want to come to Europe at that stage, they felt it was too early. The company was only four months old, it had no customers, it had 50 employees then uh didn't want to come in. Uh but they said uh we we we convinced them that it was a good place to be because the internet was was reasonably strong in Europe. English was the business language and we felt that the product would would carry across uh fairly easily. Um and they said they would test it, but uh their only commitment they said the Salesforce said it would invest two and a half million dollars then to get Europe up and running. So they committed a budget of two and a half million dollars to us, but they wouldn't give it to us up front. Uh they said they'd give us two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a quarter for ten quarters. And if we if we could get the business up and running for that, fine, and if not, they were prepared to write it off. So that's uh that's how we set up. The three of us left our good jobs in Oracle, my 11-year Oracle career. And I'll tell you an interesting thing, I think I might have told you this before, Eamon, uh, that um the day the three of us resigned from Oracle, we were the leaders of Oracle in Ireland. We sent in our resignation notice, and two two funny things happened. First, my mother was at home in Corish Park, and she doesn't watch any business news, but she saw something on television that uh Oracle executives had resigned on a business news, but it was actually the chief executive in in the U in the US had resigned, but she thought it was also nothing to do with us. But then the second thing we handed in our notice in Dublin, and we were asked uh the three of us and her notice at the same time, and we were asked to wait. That was Friday, we were asked to wait until Monday and come back in on Monday. When we came on Monday, we had the head of HR for Europe, the head of Oracle Europe, and the head of Oracle UK, the three of them were in the building. And they separated the three of us like like three people who'd been taken into guard of custody, and we were brought into separate rooms and each of us was offered the others' jobs. So I was brought into a room and I said, Don't worry about the other two guys, you can be the MD here. Still you stay. And I thought about it. No, no contacts with the others or contact with the others. So I said, No. I'm going. So I was walked out and with the head of HR of Europe, I walked across to my desk and we walked into the kitchen and he took one of those big cartons. You know the cartons that cornflex box, the 24 box of cornflex come in a big brown. He got one of those and he walked me back to my desk and watched me while I had to empty the drawers of my desk into the box, and then he walked me downstairs, out the door, and locked the door behind me. And when I got out, there was nobody on the street. The others weren't there, so I said, Oh, this is not a very good idea. This is not a very good idea.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

He panicked for a wee minute.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah, but then eventually the others too, the other two came out as well. And that was it. We were out of Oracle and we were Salesforce.

SPEAKER_02 15:24

It's brutal how quick you get to the same thing. And that was it, we were on the street.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

And and and the the interesting thing that it's a bit like the GPO in 1916, you know, there's a a a lot more people who are supposed to be in it than were actually there. So there's a lot of original founders of Salesforce. But how you'll know, uh, when we were outside on the street, uh we said, okay, well, what are we going to do now? And I said, Well, we're three execs, so we better get three mobile phones. So we walked up to vote a phone up in Baggus Street and we bought three mobile phones on my personal credit card. So our our numbers are consecutive. So that's how you know. I'm I'm 7331, 7332, and 7345. They're the three founders. You were right and it paid off. But these things, yeah, you when you look back at them, yeah, they're but at the time you just do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

It would have been a shock for Oracle to lose to lose three executives in one day, obviously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Yeah, but anyway, that's uh yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_03 16:14

Right decision. You remind it's reminds me vividly of when you what did you say again?

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Repeat what you said about Salesforce had no customers, no customers, and uh not even performance and nothing. It had a very, very flaky product, no customers, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:29

But yet the level of positivity and optimism and willingness to try something and to build a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Absolute belief that it was going to work, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

But not that there is an extraordinary kind of collision that I had as well with those Californian executives, you know, the Silicon Valley executives. So it sounds very similar.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah, and I remember I went down to the marker. I remember going over there and I was in my best European suit and tie and whatever, and I walked into an office in San Francisco. Mar our offices were at the bottom of Market Street in San Francisco, and I walked in and the guy, Mark Benioff, who was the founder of the company, he was sitting there with the biggest apple screen I ever saw, and a Hawaiian shirt and a dog in the corner. So the dog in the office, and I was there in my suit and tie, and the old dog is the dog was to make sure he didn't do anything. Well no, and in fact, in the middle of the whole thing, I was sitting there having this live conversation with Mark, and uh, you know, he really wasn't he was a bit bored by the whole thing, but in the middle of it, he just got up and he clapped his hands and he said, Wow, he said, This is the best day in my life. And I thought it was me, you've son, but when I looked, he'd been trying to get the dog was called Koa. He'd got out of the town, he was trying to get the dog to piss on a fire hydrant in the corner, and he did it during my meeting. So that was the that was his best day of his life. It wasn't me.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

You were performing tricks that didn't.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

No, no, it wasn't the dog, Oscar, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

You have quite an interesting story behind it. Um, Eamon, you have quite an interesting story in terms of how you come into leadership in Intel and scaled to quite a large size. Tell us a bit about how that happened from New Mexico to leading Intel in Ireland.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

Well, yeah, the the the job in in Ireland was to uh set up the first European manufacturing facility for Intel. And so that's you're talking late 80s, early 90s. Um the original setup was in a disused car warehouse in Palmerstown. So you talk about humble beginnings and you kind of realize to what it is today. It has become, I mean, by a long shot, the largest capital investment by any private investment in the history of the state. By and a considerable margin. So it's over 30 billion euro now cumulatively and and counting. And you know, over the last 30 years has been responsible for uh, you know, a massive percentage of of um the microprocessors delivered into the world. And I think the IDA often call Intel the jewel in the crown of the foreign direct investment. And I think certainly when it comes to manufacturing, because any group of people that can manufacture the world's most difficult to manufacture products can manufacture anything. And so I think it was always a great, you know, it was a great feather in our cap collectively to to see Intel do so well. Um so I came back from New Mexico and um we s it was a real collegiate atmosphere, as you as you kind of described, David, giving me memories of that possibility thinking and determination to succeed and to bring this very, very new technology to Ireland for the first time, and to Europe for the first time and to to ramp up successfully, and that's what we did in the early days. And so I as you said I'd started at a relatively junior level and it was just making progress through the ranks. Um and then in 2010, um I applied internally and got the job as the general manager of Intel in Ireland or and that was a proud moment for me. Yeah. Um what was interesting at that time, I suppose, was that whilst it was a proud moment for me, it was also a moment of a big inflection point in our in our industry and for our company. And um, you know, the future roadmap for Intel in Ireland was pretty bleak. It didn't look like we were in the position to be manufacturing the future products that were being designed. Okay. And so the kind of whilst on one hand it was a big achievement and a and a very personally a great success, the future prospects for it were that it had on a very nice 20-year run. And you know, the threat of tariffs kind of topical, but the threat of tariffs into Europe for electronic products from the then European economic community didn't materialize, and so Intel knew that it could supply the market from anywhere in the world and um you know it didn't need to have a European manufacturing base anymore.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

So the pressure was on. What did you do? Because we know it became a a huge success. So what's it?

SPEAKER_03 20:48

Yeah, the the the the spoiler alert is that it's been a massive success. Yeah, there's there's there's a lot of story I there's there's a lot to be said about um what happened, but I think fundamentally um the previous twenty years had been characterized by yeah, do you remember buying your first PC and the thing was the the thing that you feared most about buying it was that the next door neighbor would have bought a better one or a faster one the next day. You don't remember that the 386, the 486, the 586?

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Maybe the mobile phone, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:20

Yeah, okay, Polly, you're too young. Too young. Yeah, exactly. That's it. David, you can throw me a bone. I can't remember that.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

I started 286 and 360.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

And then the problem was as soon as you didn't. And then you upgrade the memory and stuff on those. Memory, of course, how much memory did you want? And it was always a case of um so if you were manufacturing those, if you didn't, if you didn't win the business to manufacture the next one, well, you get the one after that. Yeah. But that came to an end. And um with with all the cons product consolidation, as the geometry shrunk, we could fit more and more capability onto the piece of silicon. So it became that uh you we could consolidate manufacturing in a fewer, fewer locations, and Ireland was still not seen as the Place to do that. So we had to pivot. Your question is what did you do? We had to pivot from waiting our turn to being more proactive about what problems we might be able to solve for the company globally. And so we had to recognize that, you know, we had to recognize the competitive forces that Intel was facing in the external marketplace. But we also had to be very cognizant of the competitive forces that each of the individuals' manufacturing sites all over the world were facing. And we had to figure out a way to add value in that way instead. And I suppose that's the shorter way of explaining Paula that. With that mindset and with the capable and determined group that we had there, we were able to be very, very flexible, very responsive, very reliable and very trustworthy to be able to deliver in a very dynamic market. And I think one of the examples I might have shared it with you before, but I think you found it shocking at the time, but there was a a a kind of a lull period for us, but it was quite busy in one of the US facilities. And in fact, in China, Israel, and in in the US. And in a very short order, we were asked to see if we could fill those slots temporarily with the Irish workforce. And so the conversation went something like David, I have good news and bad news. The good news is I have a job for you. The bad news is I don't know what continent it's on. Or it's not on this continent. And I don't know if there'll be a job for you to come back to. And David, and oh and by the way, I need you to go talk to your loved ones and your kids' schooling and all of those considerations and think about it. And I need you to do it next week because we have this very tight window, and then we have to apply for visas and off we go from there. So tall order, but it's a testament to the workforce that within a couple of weeks we had 700 people and their families all signed up for various allocations.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

That's bit I was shocked by 700 willing to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

So it's a huge scale, willing to up and go and try. But in the same way as David described, that willingness to try that and do that. Imagine the skill levels that were increased in that in that cohort of people in the course of those few months' assignments. And we did find way for them to get back, and we did continue to uh find our way to win, if you like, the mandate to do mountain more and more manufacturing. And so we've built new and hence the success story that it is today. But that was kind of a pivotal moment.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Did you go, Eamon? Did you leave as well?

SPEAKER_03 24:38

Yes, I was part of that big exodus of people that went, and uh I went with my uh darling wife and our less than one-year-old newborn to uh the Pacific Northwest in America. We went to Portland, Oregon, and uh we spent a couple of years there and came back with an extra child in tow. So we had a great time. Yeah, it was uh an amazing experience. We learnt a lot about the new technologies and where the whole industry was going. And like everybody else, came back skilled and ready for the future.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

I think that's maybe what encouraged the 700 to get on board with this opportunity, is that they saw one of their leaders doing it themselves.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Well, it was definitely a collegiate effort, yeah. That's and yeah, for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yeah, it's it's fascinating when people get the opportunity to leave and go somewhere else because they're getting to gain new skills really and bring it back. And I think that's kind of a big part of why we have both of you in this podcast is that you went on to build very incredible careers with international companies and international companies that power a lot of other companies. I've used Salesforce before. We all use Intel. Um, so yeah, you're powering so many other businesses to do what they do as well. And now you're taking your experience and bringing it back to County Wexford, which is quite incredible. Do you want to talk a bit about what you're doing? Um, we'll go David U on offshore wind first, and then Eamon on SETU.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Yeah, I think that uh actually just before we get into that, I think that just to pick up Eamon's point there, I think that um the real thing that Intel did and Salesforce did it it democratized the technology industry, really, you know, because it made technology available to the uh to the to parts of society that wouldn't have had it. You know, before that, like I said, before Salesforce came along, enterprise computing was only something for the very biggest companies, you know, the biggest budgets, and Salesforce democratized that by by making it available to the local chambers or to credit unions or not-for-profits or whatever. And Iltel did exactly that then by I mean to Moore's Law or whatever, you know, that just driving down the price of computing. I think they were the two uh both our businesses. You we're the soft I'm the software business, aiming as the the hardware side, but but it really democratized access to technology, and that really has empowered society like like no other way. Um sorry, it's a side part of your question. But I think it's a it's a key part of it.

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Yeah, it is an important point. Yeah. And where that has kind of evolved the whole landscape really for a business, but also as you say.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

Yeah, but I think I I think hugely important then as well for a country like Ireland and for a town like Wexford, because it means that you can be world-class and stay local, uh world class because your capabilities are amplified by the technology that's available to you. And I think that's the real that's the real change in in in over my lifetime. You know, before that you couldn't really uh do it that well and stay local. You had to go someplace else. And if you look at the industrial revolutions around the world, they've been uh powered by by our uh by our emigrants. You know, we went elsewhere to power the other industrial revolutions. Now we're power powering the fourth industrial revolution, but we're doing exactly from here. We don't have to leave anymore. And that's the big I think the big change. We talked about this before, Eamon, that this is you know uh you can you can do it locally now, which is a massive difference.

SPEAKER_02 27:42

And to leave that out of Wexford, uh not Wexford to leave that out of Ireland is incredible as so many international companies are choosing Ireland as their intra European hub.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Um But I think we have a great reputation. We we have fantastic to Eamon's point, we have fantastic people here. Yeah, you know, our capability in terms of people, uh world class, there's no doubt about that. But also the one thing about it, and uh you know, we've felt with the same before, that you know, when you look at companies like Intel and Salesforce, uh they'll look at you know, there's various factors as to why they might set up and and price comes into it or cost comes into it, but it's never the top one. Stability and access to talent, but business stability was the number one driver for Salesforce. Right. You get in here, you come to Ireland, there's the you come to a normal society, but it's stable. And it doesn't matter, or I I don't do politics, but they can swing a little bit left, a little bit right, but it's still stable all the time. And in my you know, 35 years in the or 40 years in the technology business, that stability has been a massive influence. And I think it's the thing that the real differentiator for us, even still. And and Amy, I know that was the case with you as well, that the business the just the business openness here.

SPEAKER_03 28:49

Yeah, the capital investments are so high in our case, you have to be able to trust in that exact stability that you're talking about. Yeah, without that, why would you take the risk?

SPEAKER_04 28:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

And actually that's the thing you you asked me, Paula, then but you you know, what am I doing now that I'm retired? I'm involved with the offshore wind partnership. But it's the same, exact same capital investment because you're asking somebody to write a very big check, a very big check, to build out uh something uh uh something very physical with a long uh with a long life span of of delivering to us. And I think that that uh those check writers will only write that check if they see a stable society uh with a stable demand and a stable workforce and uh uh you know nothing that swings wildly in terms of politics or uh or business supports.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

So before we get into kind of the mechanics of offshore wind and uh what the wind partnership is doing, tell me what drew you to renewable energy and uh uh uh did someone approach you and ask you to support what happened?

SPEAKER_01 29:46

Well, no, it's in it's interesting um because uh if I go back to Salesforce, Salesforce was sounded out of values that have four values growth, innovation, trust, and equality. Now, you know, every company has values Intel had their own, but in in Salesforce case, growth was that it was going to democratize access to software by by making a subscription rather than a big upfront ticket item. Innovation was the continued innovation uh around the product. But those other two uh values, trust. You know, we were asking our customers to trust us a little startup uh to give us their most precious item, which is their customer data to look after it. And and we earned that trust by virtue of the fact that it was a subscription because you buy from me, but then uh you didn't write me a big check and I walked away. You you paid me every month, and you'd only pay me if if I continue to earn your trust on a monthly basis. And that changes the thinking of a company. It becomes much more customer-first company business. But then the last one was equality, and this democratisation was built into Salesforce in the very start and built into the business um ethos from the start that everybody would have equal access. And that equality then has carried through all my time there and it carried through into my view of society, that you know, we've only one there's only one uh world that we live in, and we all have equal rights to play in it. And I think that when you look at things like sustainability and and what we're doing to to the planet, there's only one go at this. There's no, you know, the the cliche thing, there's no planet B, but there is no other option other than to look after what we have here, and we're just destroying it at a rate of nuts. And it's not fair to ask uh you know me individually or or an individual uh to sacrifice to go to some to go to something that costing them they can't some position they can't really afford to make their little change for the planet when somebody else is is damaging the planet at a multiplier of of millions or billions of times, uh, you know, like a big industrial pollutant. So I think that uh the one chance we have to change that industrial damage is industrial repair, industrial level repair. And that's what offshore wind does. It brings that real industrial level repair potential to the planet. And separately, the timing is that you know, as we we record this uh whenever in in March, I mean the world's in crisis again around oil and energy and really gives us a some possibility of self-sufficiency. It's as close as we'll ever get to it.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Yeah, actually it's it's a perfect time to cut get more focus on it, isn't it, really, with the recent um oil and costs.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Yeah, because I mean it's out of it's out of our control now. We've no we've no clue as to what's going to happen next week. And the one thing about, you know, we have this fantastic opportunity to be self-sufficient and more than self-sufficient in energy. Uh and it's right here, it's right now. We have people who are prepared to build it out for us. And uh we just need to make sure to do exactly what uh the we're in the same position Eamon and I found ourselves in. We need somebody to enable and to empower the investments that uh that those businesses want to make. And that's and that's government and that's uh you know the legislation around it. We need to just be energy uh supportive in the same way as we're business supportive uh uh you know over the last uh couple of generations here in the country.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

So for those listening who hear the buzzwords of renewable energy and all that, but don't know too much about why it's so important to the county and to the region and the country. Talk a bit about that, Dave, in terms of what it can do to transform our country um and region and why Wexford um and the South East is such an important uh I suppose enabler in that.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

I think and I just you know, Eamon's the engineer here. I'm the I I'm from the other side and the on the business side of in terms of formal education. But so without being an engineer, it's very simple that the country right now uses around 6,000 megawatts of electricity to run the country. That's to power our homes, to power our businesses, whatever. And we have the potential off the south east coast here, the south coast EMAPs. There's four sites that have been identified off the coast of Wexford and Waterford. Those four sites have the potential to deliver 5,100 megawatts of electricity from just those four sites. So that's enough electricity to power the country, but we don't need it to power the country because we get that from oil or we get it from gas or whatever now. But it means that we have enough enough renewable energy uh capability coming here off the southeast coast. And the reality is that this is where these are the best sites in the country. Ireland has uh seven times more sea area than it has its landmass, so we have uh plenty of coast to build them on. The wind that comes in here into Ireland is perfect for generating uh offshore, generating electricity because the wind is very clean. It's not if you look at onshore, excuse me, offshore wind farms, onshore wind farms, you've got mountains or buildings, whatever in the way, and it the wind isn't as clean, but the wind off the southeast coast is is very clean, so it's ideal for building out uh turbines to generate electricity. And then we have the potential to land it into the area, to land at either uh uh some of the of the first site tonnew, half of that is going to land at Great Island, half will land in Cork, but to land it here, but this electricity then we have the potential to consume the electricity we generate off the coast to consume it within the region, and that's the key differential because Eamon will tell you that your business is a big power power is a big driver of it. The tech companies, the data centers, whatever, they drive a lot of power, they need a lot of power, but we've the opportunity to consume it within the consume the power that we generate within the region.

SPEAKER_03 35:24

Can I just make a little notice? Yeah, notice of something. So, Silicon Valley, if I said Silicon Valley to you, what would you think?

SPEAKER_02 35:29

San Francisco.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

You're right, and and Silicon Valley tech Intel gave Silicon Valley its name because of the semiconductor. Well, the resistor, the transistor was invented there, and then there was Fairchild Semiconductor, and this famous story of the treacherous eight that left Fairchild Semiconductor and eventually went and formed Intel. Three of them came, broke off, and formed Intel.

SPEAKER_04 35:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

And the question is how do you create a Silicon Valley? And you talk about the network universities, venture capital, and intelligent, smart people, right? And the treacherous eight is one of the famous blinch pins of the story. I just heard the treacherous three from Wexford setting up Salesforce. Yeah, leaving Oracle and setting up Salesforce. But the parallel is you need capable, smart people, you need an education thing that is pro enterprise and pro-innovation, and you need a venture capital kind of group that said it's like get those three simple things in place, and you can create Wexford as the Silicon Valley of Ireland slash Europe slash draw your imagination. Really? Well, Intel named Ireland the Silicon. We used to talk about Ireland as the Silicon Isle.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

There's a reason why our previous podcast guest, Rory O'Connor from Scurry, said you're one of his mentors, because again, that is a huge achievement, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah, but I mean these things, you know, hindsight's always 2020, and you go back to this and uh you're always perfect, you know. Uh but when you're doing things at the time, they're never quite that perfect, but you do absolutely you have an absolute belief that what you're doing is going to work. Yeah and what you're doing is gonna make a difference. And you know, everybody, anybody, any entrepreneur, anybody who's in business for themselves, you know, goes to that stage where you have to your your belief is tested. Because if you look at Salesforce, we ran out of cash, you know, in 2001. And I'm sure there were times in Intel where you know big businesses cycled through those. But in our case we actually ran out of cash in 2001 and the then the 250,000 didn't arrive, you know, for three quarters. But we were cute enough because we had put in a battery power separate bank account, you know, that the CFO knew about, but nobody else knew about that we could run on battery power if the if the money dried up, which it did dry up. But it meant we didn't get we didn't get any we didn't get paid for you know, get paid for Christmas 2001. We didn't get paid for the it would lead up to that six months, five months before.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

I find that mad b to hear because coming from X Corporate, where Salesforce was our CRM in in my the industry I worked in, I just thought like Salesforce was successful for decades.

SPEAKER_01 37:55

Well this uh it is now because you only look at and the same thing you look at Mark Benioff, the public persona, the guy who's on stage, whatever, you know, and but then behind that there's a personal and and you know you go to when we start with Salesforce first, uh you heard about this thing of you know people uh sleeping onto the desk alone. That's how it was. We were in Market Street in San Francisco, but we were down in the basement of um uh what was a post office building, and there was no desks there. The desks were the doors were taken off, and the desks were the doors were on trestles, and that was there were the desks. But that was sort of the vibe at the time, but everybody there absolutely believed that you were going to build something which which would change the world of business. But it didn't look like it because you were in this.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Well, isn't that a good thing for today, David? Would you agree that as you said, behind that there's a normal person and within that there's a mindset?

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Yeah, and the mindset is is the diff because everybody's you know, everybody's got the same personal, you know, stuff. You're late, getting out, get kids all that happens, it happens in all of our lives, but there's this absolute mindset, absolute belief that what you're doing you know is going to work and you're going to see it through to the end.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

And the resilience just to keep keep it going and keep it. Yeah, and it is tough.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

You have to have that resilience because you know it's a very lonely place as well uh when you're running the business because uh, you know, other people can shoot the breeze and uh you know can go off and whinge about it, whatever, but you can't. You have to at night you just go home and it comes with you, and you have to come in the next day and get your game face on and try and figure out how to do it. I think that's the that's the challenge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

Incredible stories. So the theme of this podcast is about coming home to build a future. So we've talked about your incredible careers and now you're both giving back to the county in terms of volunteer work. Do we call it volunteer work? What do we call it? What do you call it?

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Returnships.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Returnships. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 39:42

And yeah, returnships. They're like the new the new internships where people uh you know come to a certain stage like Eamon retired, I retired. But I mean you're not going to sit at home watching the chase every afternoon. So you want to just do something uh that keeps you connected, but also you feel uh will sort of raise some other boat as well.

SPEAKER_02 40:01

Yeah, well what I always say is that if your brain is used to being so active and leading, how do you ever get to retirement and not do that? Like that is I think that's why the where the return chips come from.

SPEAKER_03 40:13

Yeah. Well, for the record, I left Intel, I didn't retire.

SPEAKER_02 40:16

Yes, you didn't retire.

SPEAKER_03 40:17

But I was determined to take a break because in in all fairness and in truth, I was exhausted. It was uh it had been a long time. And um it was a very fast pace and a very international seven by twenty-four hour type of engagement, and it's all consuming. So I really needed a break. So I suppose for me, Paula, and that the answer to that question is I'm just remaining curious. And people like yourself say, Oh, why don't you come and join the and and on you go? And if it if you think that it's meaningful and helping people and adding value, then I'm up for it.

SPEAKER_02 40:46

Yeah. I'm gonna have to pick up on that, Eamon. So, Eamon, last year you spoke at our leadership summit, our chamber leadership summit. Were you there, Dave? No, uh you weren't you didn't come and see Eamon. Oh my god, he was fantastic. I didn't get invited fellow this. He said three things that really stuck with me because I was like, tick, tick, tick. One was be curious. You have to be be curious in business. The other one was grounded optimism. We all have to be optimistic, but it has to be grounded as well. And then the other one was to have some notions about yourself. Yes, love it. Explain them.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Well, um, in short order, I think it's a reflection of as you hear David talking about his experience with the the mindset that you encounter in at the head of these um technology companies. Um, you realize that they're incredibly optimistic for the future. And it can it can draw it out to kind of an extreme that doesn't sit well with me, at least. You know, this um as my German colleagues used to call it, uh everything is awesome culture. Where it's too much, it's it's it can be a bit overwhelming. And so I I came across this quotation from Seamus Heaney written on his gravestone is his epitaph, you know, walk on air against your better judgment. And I kind of you know double-clicked on that and went to go and research where it came from and what it was about. And it was a uh quote chosen by his family from his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. And when you kind of reconsider where he grew up and how he grew up and the environment in which he grew up, with the political and so on sectarianism that he had to deal with, um you realize the power of those words to be to have a certain appreciation for where you are and an acceptance of what where where you're at, but to never stop imagining for a better future, which was resonant very much with the idea of well, in every two years you're gonna double your performance, or I have no money, no customers, and and no no teams, so yeah, let's go. This this kind of optimism. So to me, what suited the Irish psyche was to adopt this grounded optimism, you know, not to be getting too ahead of yourself. The notions piece of it was you know, we are we can all identify with notions, and we're I think encouraged not to have them. Well, is this the Emerson that fellow on that podcast to grow up at the top of history? What the hell is he doing on that podcast? Wouldn't be an uncommon it wouldn't be an uncommon comment, right? And um the idea that listening to David, he saw an advert in the paper and sent an email when email was probably a reasonably sophisticated way of communicating with people at the time. And and yet the pure notions of that and he ends up bringing Salesforce to Europe, I just think that's worth applauding. And we need to be careful not to, in our in our cultural norm where we where does he think he's going with that? To just stop ourselves in time to say, and wouldn't that be amazing if you know, so to have that to to encourage those notions among us, um, is is my second point. And then the third one. Was to remain curious as you put it, but the idea that I can't imagine anybody being world class without whatever field you're in, without stepping out and figuring out what other people are doing. If you excuse the sporting metaphor, famously Ronald O'Gara thought he was a meticulous professional rugby player until he met Johnny Wilkinson. And Johnny Wilkinson reset the bar for what being world class is. And in fact, the whole transition of Irish rugby from an amateur to a professional sport to uh the best in the world at that sport is a fascinating case study, I think, for you know, uh the notions of it that we are such a small country with such a small playing population, yet able to occupy the upper echelons of the world ranks on this thing is a great story. So so staying curious, that's what I meant by that, you know, continuing to learn, see what's out there and apply it to yourself locally. Being world class is a transferable skill. So if you're here in Wexford and you are if you have the mindset of being world class and you're curious to learn about it, it's a transferable skill that you can grow great things from that here.

SPEAKER_04 45:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Yeah, and I think there's no reason that you can't do it from Wexford anymore. I think that's the big change because you know the world is a very small place here. And in fact, you can probably do it better from Wexford because uh you have local stability, local support uh that that can keep you sane uh when the going gets tough, but you can still you can be any place in the world, uh run your business any place in the world, and you look at somebody like Scurry, that's what they do, the the pitch around the world, but out of you know what was George Bridges' shop, you know. So I mean that's the difference. You can do that now. And you know, you you you couldn't really do that uh a couple of generations ago. You can do it now uh technically and and uh travel wise. The whole the world is a much smaller place, so you can definitely be world-class here.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

Yeah. Um Eamon, you said a man imagining for a better future there, and I think that's exactly what your returnships are doing. Both of them are imagining for a better future for Wexford, the South East, and the whole country, really. Um so let's talk more about that. We'll start with you, Eamon, in terms of your work with SCTU and the long-awaited Wexford campus. Why did you decide get involved in in that?

SPEAKER_03 46:06

You know, I was I was driving into town um into Wexford town recently, and I saw a big uh big poster banner for um recruitment for you know for student body into SETU and it said SCTU and U was the tagline. And there was a picture of a young aspiring student to go to to university, and it struck me about the absence of that when I was the age of the person on the on the billboard that there wasn't such an opportunity to go to university in Wexford, and I was um really encouraged to reach out and to see if there was a way that I could get involved in just ex continuing that that project and that idea. And so I contacted David and others, Patty Pendergast is the chair of the governing body, and they gracefully were quick to get me and offer me a chance to get involved in um a little project that they had going to recast the case for the Wexford campus. And um, I was delighted to participate in that for a while. And I think the case makes itself. I mean, everybody that's listening here can will intuitively know. Um but to me it's f foundational and fundamental to imagining the greater future for us. You know, the old adage is if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. But the idea that you can you can achieve a world-class, third-level education right from here in Wexford would be foundational in not just the mindset to not not to overset that point about what it means for lifelong learning, but the practicality, affordable, affordability ways, to be able to just go just that distance and not have to worry about accommodation charges, etc., would be, I think, a game changer.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

It does so much, doesn't it? Like it's there to support the business community in terms of upskilling, it's there to attract more foreign direct investment into the county, and it's there to retain our talent because we all know we all left Wexford once upon a time. Um it's hard to get us back unless the jobs are there. So having a campus for SETU Maxtrap will hopefully retain more talent in the county, right?

SPEAKER_03 48:10

And retain more talent for the very things that the likes of AI is not going to be able to provide for us. Yeah. We're not really ready for what's coming with AI. The Stanford index shows that the amount of compute that's dedicated to AI is doubling. If if it took us two years to double the performance of the microprocessor, how how how long do you think it takes to double the amount of compute that's applied to AI? I guess. Four months.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Four months.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

So every four months the amount of resources that are going in to power these AI engines is doubling every four months. So in one year you've got you start off with ten in the January. In my March it's twenty. June it's forty. September it's uh what, eighty, and December it's a hundred and sixty. That's a geometric progression that is an exponential impact. And so we like in if I could capture your eyes right now going, holy moly, what where is this AI thing going? The amount of resources that have been applied to this technology even puts the microprocessor advance into and and into perspective, and that is what has defined our careers. And the the advance of the microprocessor has democratized everything connectivity, even communications, productivity. AI is going to have a similar if not bigger impact. And we need to be ready. So we need universities. And this is where I'm I'm my angle into the humanities, that the one thing that AI doesn't do well is to yet is all of the human aspects of it. And so when set to our it would be very wise, I think, to partner with the likes of the well, they have their Walton Institute, but they also for energy, but they also have the likes of the Rexford Arts Centre, and they have the arts and creativity piece that I think will be the defining need. If if if expertise is a commodity, what's left? The human skills that AI is appallingly bad at is where I think the future lies, and I just might be very excited with the prospect of what it could do.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

That has to be another podcast, what AI is humanly bad at.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

Everyone talks about the positive of AI, but there obviously is downsides as well. So that's a whole other episode, Eamon, for us to do. Um David.

SPEAKER_01 50:26

Actually, you know, Paul, I just want to talk because Eamon talked about the you know, having that campus here. So let me give you a real life. I left here as a 16-year-old with with four honours in my intercert. Now, I've got two personas almost, you know, there's David Dempsey from Gory's Park, and then there's a formal side, which is Dr. David Dempsey. Now, I came back having left here with the four honours and my intercert, and then was working internationally back here in Wexford, and I saw SETU. And I went back to SCTU and did a master's in executive MBA, which allowed me to run my job and to do my master there, and then went back to do a doctorate, uh a DBA there in SETU. So it was all local. I didn't have to go anyplace else to do it, and was able to stay here working here and to go from one persona to the other persona all through that local campus in Wexford. And that's the differentiator, you know.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

And that isn't that isn't even the future version of our campuses or existing campus as it is.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:20

And you did your doctorate there.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And it was world class, you know. I mean, uh we we went, you know, doing the MVA, we we went overseas to look at businesses there. The uh the quality of the lectures there were fantastic. And uh, you know, my uh my DBA is is you know is as good as the DBA from any place else, any other institution in the world. And you know, it's very interesting actually that in Salesforce, my day job in Salesforce uh from an early stage, because we were a subscription business, I looked after our subscription renewals. And that started in the early stage, they were quite small, but eventually that gets to be a big business. And if you're in the business of, you know, if you've got five billion dollars of revenue, that has to be renewed. So that was my job worldwide was to renew that revenue. And there were big numbers on the renewal of that. And in 2007-2008, uh the world fell apart. We had the recession. And I remember being in Half Moon Bay, which is uh uh just near San Francisco at a management off site uh when the recession started to hit first. We had an economist in and we had you know various speakers telling us about what uh that the the sky was falling and what it was. And then uh Mark Benioff, for CEO, came to me at the time and he said, I need you to explain the impact of this recession on the company. So I had to get up and make the presentation to the exec team, to the to the whole management team, the worldwide management team, about the impact of this. And I obviously I did a good job because at the end of it Mark said, Great, Doctor Doom. So I became known as Dr. Doom within Salesforce for spelling that out. Doom, did you say? Doctor Doom. Doctor Doom. But that was in 2008, but I waited and waited and waited, so I got great satisfaction sending him an email in 2018 saying, Hey, it's official now, that's it. So I just finished my doctorate. So that's where that's where the motivation could to do it came from. Really? That came from pure notions problem. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Notions of grandjones.

SPEAKER_02 53:12

Do you have uh an MBA doctorate or anything?

SPEAKER_03 53:15

I do, I do, yes.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Uh I have my MBA from UCD. SETU is just such potential for the whole region. And the campus, there's a campus here now, but it's I mean, you've been involved in the campus here. The teaching is fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 53:27

In in the spirit of grounded optimism and notions, I think it it's just time. It's time. It will be fantastic advance and it will lift um all of the educational offerings from the university to really enrich and enhance the town and the county advice.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

As I understand it, Eamon, it's going to have three educational pillars within the Wexford campus, and one of them will be renewable energy, right?

SPEAKER_03 53:54

Yeah, there's a there's a tremendous focus from SETU, and that's where, David, with the connection between the offshore renewable energy, I mean, that's where the skills of the future are going to be necessary. I mean, you know, you these things won't just operate in isolation, they'll need maintenance.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

Yeah, especially when but you look at now as well. There's such a I mean, as we speak in March of you know, twenty twenty-six, the world is in a state of chaos in terms of energy, so this allows us to be the potential as a country to be self-sufficient, you know.

SPEAKER_03 54:19

And then the the skills that you need for that, David, to install the things, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:23

But they're and the AI even to figure out how to optimize them and yeah, and you know, people look at offshore offshore offshore energy, and you know, you know from the four sites here, Paula, that they're they're going to be built out off the southeast coast, uh and they'll eventually bring us five uh five gigawatts of power. But you look at those, they're massive engineering projects, you know. Um but you say, How can I get into that? But when you look at it, a lot of the industries we already have here in Wexford and in the southeast region, they're parallel industries. You know, whether you're building out a tower as big as the Eiffel Tower to get electricity from it, you still have to wire that up, you still have to land electricity, you still have to, you know, weld it up, you have to build it, you have to pour the concrete. And they're all parallel industries that we're very, very good at here. And you look at the companies in the region like Eastgate Engineering, who are based in Mooncoin, they're the ones who built out the Dogger Bank in northeast of England. And they're using local skills. You go across the bridge here to ASL, Mark Orkin at ASL, he's the one that's training people, you know, how to service or how to maintain the turbines. And they're all industries. It looks like a massive tonkatoy engineering project that we can never get into. But the reality is it's built up of of bits and pieces and skills that we already have here, and we just need to transition it to the internet.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

It's a whole ecosystem, really, isn't it? It it's as you say, it's the electrical side, which is East Gate Engineering, the maintenance side, which is ASL, the education side, which is SETU.

SPEAKER_01 55:43

And then you look at the Rosslair, you know, you to build these out, you need a massive port. So Rosslair is the perfect port. Rosslair needs to be strengthened because they're they're physically heavy towers that you're assembled, so you have to build out a very strong uh concrete uh landing port and assembly station for them. That Rosslayer is perfect for that. And if we don't do it in Rosslair, the reality is that we're going to do it in Port Talbot or Britain Ferry or you know, uh Pembroke or Milford Haven, and it's only fifty miles across by sea, and we lose that opportunity completely. And the same thing, the service ports, you know, Kilmore will send out uh the crew operating vessels, all the service stuff, the the uh the cables, as you know, the data cables land in Kilmore. You know, so there's so many reasons why we should do this. Separate from the power and the you know the government policy to have 37 gigawatts of renewable power by by 2050, just the local the local benefits are just massive to that.

SPEAKER_02 56:36

Yeah, like the energy objective obviously is number one to reach climate goals, but the job creation, the strategic growth for the region is in itself a whole other objective, which is uh a big one in itself.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Yeah, and you know there's the opportunity to consume the power that we generate here locally, that's the big thing. And it's not, you know, everybody thinks about data centres or whatever. It's not just about that. They're almost like the anchor tenant in a shopping centre, but it's the one if you look at the other factories around, you know, the ones that consume 50 megawatts of electricity, they're the ones, if you look you go to Waterford, there's Kilkenny Cheese, there's Smart Ply, uh, you know, there's a cement factory and there's a fertilizer importer, all in the same footprint. But they can all be powered by this renewable energy now rather than having to do it by energy that's we now get from coal, gas, or or or oil.

SPEAKER_02 57:24

Yeah. If we delve a little deeper into, I suppose, uh a local example of rene renewable energy, which is going to be Ton Neu, um Orsted, ESB, Air Grid together are going to deliver that as a ten-year programme. Is it too late or no?

SPEAKER_01 57:38

It's not too late because if you look, I mean, that uh the taxis already left the rank on that, you know, and that it went to auction. The auction was held last November and a a consortium of ESB and Orsted were the winners of that. They bid a price in of 98 uh uh 98 euros a megawatt hour, uh which was acceptable by public auction. But they're they're now in the planning stage of that, and eventually it'll be built out. It'll deliver power here around about 2035. But you know, uh that's fine because uh we know it's coming and we know that there's a commitment to it. And then the really interesting thing about that is those jobs, the local jobs will start to come online to service that, the build out of it. But then there's the local jobs to maintain it uh over its life life cycle, 20 or 30 years of life cycle. But then there's also the other benefits written into the contract as a community benefit fund of two euros per megawatt hour. And that's for the life of the of of that the 20-year life. And that brings in almost 500 million into the community in the second.

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Explain what community benefits fund could do.

SPEAKER_01 58:39

Well, it it's it's a fund that's completely ring-fenced from government and from you know any going into the government coffers. It's it's available literally to the communities. And it's a fund that's managed by an independent uh group still to be built out. But for every megawatt hour of electricity produced, two euros goes into that pot. It's about seven million uh it's about seven million a year from that particular site, and that would bring 140 million from the ton newest site standalone. But then community groups who are impacted or are in the region, they have the option to apply for funds to either build out capital projects or to support local uh redeployment of resources or even local groups, uh you know, teams, GA teams or community teams, any community events are all available to apply for funding from that community benefit fund. And it's managed independently. It's not a government fund, it's not an ESB or STED fund, it's managed by an independent source. And it's it's written into the contracts.

SPEAKER_02 59:39

It was a great decision, wasn't it? Um as of now in March 2026, we still don't have decision from government, though, on in terms of investing in these offshore renewable energy hubs like in Rosslair. What are your things?

SPEAKER_01 59:51

The ask is small, Paul. When the ask looks to be big, I mean, you know, Rosslair has an ask in, I'm not sure what uh 220 million. 220, I think uh just over 200. Port of Waterford is an ask in of you know 14 million, whatever. They look like big numbers. But you have to remember we're asking somebody else, and there's somebody ESB or said this Ton Nuo Consortium, they've already put their hand up to say, I'm prepared to write a check for something between one and a half and two billion to build out that site of their money, not of our money, but we need some basic infrastructure to get it up and running so the benefit stays here. They'll build out the site anyhow. Now, whether they build it out from Wales or whether they build it out from Rosslair, that's the real challenge for us. It has to be built out from Rosslair because you know we're the ones who are taking it into our area and we need to really get the benefits here. And Rosslair is the perfect port for it. Rosslair is literally just around the corner from where that site is going and it has the space there prepared, you know, the the planning application in Rosslair is to reclaim land to build out the strengthened pier for it. And then when the offshore uh development and build out is finished, Rosslair then ha is left with this fantastic port facility that's there for the for the region forever. It's just it's a complete no-brainer.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:02

They design it in a multimodal uh way.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

Exactly so that when you offshore is built out, that then the space is available, the strengthened pier, but massive strength and pier is available, and Rosslair really is the gateway to is the it's the gateway to Europe for Yeah, ninety ninety-two sailings a week out of Rosslair in and out of Rosslair with the bigger. And you know the thing is that you know, for so long Ross Lair was the place that it was where we emigrated from. My father went to work in Port Albert in the 1950s from Rosslair to work over there to build out what was the steel plant. Yeah. But now we've this we've the op we've the opportunity now to reverse that. Instead of sending our best people out to Rosslair, we bring back in the best opportunities the world can give us through Rossleer to keep our best people here. It's just such a different opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:44

It's a no-brainer, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

Just the the return on investment is there. It's absolutely there. So hopefully the next time we're talking, there will be some commitment on investment. Rosslair obviously have their MARA licence now. They're going through the planning um approaches now as our Waterford port as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

So and the thing is when you look at you know, this you know, we talk about we look at it from you know uh from the Wexter point of view, but this is a regional opportunity, and regional the region is table stakes in this because it's such a big opportunity. You need Rosslair, you need Waterford, you need the airport in Waterford, you need SETU to to do the research around uh around the whole industry and to turn out the graduates for it. You need the uh the manufacturing companies like Eastgate or ASL, those that are in it. So it's the there's no single entity to win this. We need to together as a region, it's such a big opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Yeah, absolutely. It's it it's a really strong ecosystem that's in the South East and you're chairing it as part of the Southeast.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Well again, but uh but um again, it's one of those if we talked about returnships. I mean Eamon mentioned like I unlike Eamon, I'm 69 now, so I did retire when I was 60, 66 or whatever, but but uh I had the time to do it and you know had the interest, the passion to do it. Yeah. And really all I do is I just pull the stakeholders together, the ones who are who can deliver this. I can't deliver it, I can only put people together and stop being so humble. No, but the but that's the that's the difference. But in terms of pulling the people together, the people with the skills and the people you know who can build this out. I'm uh uh that's the good thing about this committee is it's a partnership. Yeah. When we said first when we started first, it was called a task force. Okay. And I didn't realise at the time, but task force has a negative sort of connotation, like as if you're firefighting a problem. This is not a problem, it's an opportunity. So we changed to be a partnership quite quickly. So that's why it really is a partnership with the chambers and with uh with all the stakeholders.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:32

Yeah, the four county councils as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

The four county councils are massive, massive supporters. And in fact, you know, I had no connections with local authority ever in my day business and day job, and neither do you aim it probably was mostly at at national government. But the four local authorities are just so supportive here. And particularly, you know, we're in Wexford, so I I'll call out uh you know Eddie and the team there. There's they just get it. Yeah. And they know how important this is to us.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

Yeah, Eddie Chaff and Aamon Hoore probably are probably the ones most key involved. Um so they're they're a great partnership, but you do a great job in bringing people together, and that is a role in itself, is you have to create that space for people to come together and to support each other. That partnership doesn't exist without that.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

So um, I think that's probably one that I think you know why Eamon are probably and I are here today, and that we we we sort of step back from our day jobs. So we have and there's lots of people like us who who have been around the block uh, you know, and and know what it's like, but just have the time now to uh to pass that uh you know some knowledge on and and some uh some expertise on to onto others who who are in the earlier stages. We're lucky to have you then. No, but that but return but but lucky to have you, Davy. You're not in Corus Park, you can't give that to Hill Street. But but returnships are the are this concept of people with skills who want to change is a massive uh and we talked about this before, Eamon, around the whole thing around further education. Um you know, re-educating people for a new skill or a new uh a new challenge is is something that as a society we should we should keep thinking about as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:11

Well, you've both kind of um worked at a global stage in terms of what good looks like. And if you have the belief in our region and county that we can do that in terms of education at SETU and offshore wind um with renewable energy, that's a it's a pretty good place to be, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:28

But there's a very interesting remember Amon Wexford Council asked uh to be Wexford business ambassadors. I think that was a great that was a great initiative by the council.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

Is that led by the council, yeah?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:38

It was. Mr. Enright, I think it was the CEO of the time. Yeah. Yeah. And um we were both um appointed officially as Wexford ambassadors.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:47

So um, but others like if you look at because James O'Connor, who runs Microsoft at Ireland, James is from Inascorti, he was another one. Um Ryan Quigley, uh who at the time was with Abbott or Abvi, uh you know, he was an Other one at the time, and we were just people who happened to be in international businesses, but we had this common thing that we were all from Wexford. But just we were asked that when we were out and about to just talk about Wexford as we truly believed Wexford could be, and I think that's a great programme. And you look at the others, other the of the ambassadors were people from the sporting world. Yeah, Tig Furlong. That's my great claim to fame. Billy Walsh, my neighbour, for Court Park, is is another one.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:24

So with Gordon Darcy later on for a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:26

Well and and per and exactly so Gordon is so well respected around the world, so I'm sure he'll talk about Wexford in the same way as we do. And I think that's a it's sort of it's sort of a it was a great scheme, and um I think we should continue it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

Proud moment, folks. Yeah. What is your proudest moment from your careers? Eamon, go first.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:46

Oh gosh. Um I suppose it has to be um I remember when I worked in in Donegal in that small manufacturing place. I kind of I really got to see everything from design phase through to sales, manufacturing, after sales. It was such a small community. The fax machine in the lobby, we knew when we were getting an order or a complaint or we were faxing out invoices. So you really got a sense of the business, and I fell in love with the whole concept of manufacturing and the impact that it was having on the local community. You know, the the buses would come in, it was in the Giltuct area, the impact economically that it was having. So the whole thing made a lot of sense to me. Yeah, and then I had this idea that would it be wouldn't it be fantastic as a career objective to to be in charge of one of the a big one of these. And so I guess getting a big one of those. A big one of those is what I you know imagined, and the sheer notions of it, right? And um so it's funny how the mindset then takes over, but yeah, I suppose it if I looking back on it, leaving aside the obvious proud moments of having kids and getting married, shout out to Marion. Um getting the general manager position within Telegram Ireland was probably the one that yeah made me very pleased.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

It has to be, and in terms of how you scaled it.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:06

Yes, that's the that's the bigger story, yeah. Uh we went from we went at that time it was a cumulative investment, which it sounds amazing, of seven billion um euro in 2010, and today it's over 30. So it was the double double as I call it. We went, you know, the first phase of it was up to 15, and then we doubled to 15 to 30. So it remains today that facility is the most advanced high-volume manufacturing manufacturing facility in all of Europe.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:35

I'm proud of you, Eamon. You should be proud of yourself for sure. Um, Dave, is it saying no to the MD job in Oracle?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:43

No, I actually it's a bit like Eamon's because when we started first, the three of us, we went to try and find rented office at Dublin in 2000, and we were.com, Salesforce.com, would you rent me your office place, please? And we were marched out of the best offices in Dublin. Really? Yes, absolutely. Nobody would rent a Sunny space. Eventually we found one room out, Arena House um in in Sandyford in Dublin. Uh we found one room out there. And uh having been marched out and have the rejection letters for all of those fine buildings around the proudest moment for me was the day that the Taoiseach opened Salesforce Tower in Dublin. It was the biggest commercial lease in Ireland at the time. Uh you know, it's oh uh it's a massive building. It's over 500,000 square feet. And I think the real the real thing about that, why was that building is it incorporated the British Rail Hotel, what was the old B I Hotel on the Keys there? And that was the same hotel where so many people left Ireland, emigrated. That was where they spent their last night in Ireland as they were emigrating to empower other industrial revolutions around the world, and now they come back through that same building into Salesforce Tower in Dublin. So when T Shop opened that, I think that was the the proudest moment for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

Yeah, that's it. You're responsible for big, big teams, and that's a lot on you.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

But it's certainly you know the interesting colour, and and we we talked about this a little bit as well, and people think about multinationals, and everybody says, you know, the country is dependent on the corporate tax rate from three multinationals, but that's not it. If you look when I retire from Salesforce, I don't know what the number is now, but the payroll in Salesforce was almost 350 million a year. And it's not the corporate tax, but that 350 million a year is what buys the cars, it's what pays the mortgages, it what does the the dry taning and what keeps the local businesses going. And uh that's exactly the same thing in in Wexford, that a local business in Wexford, a global business out of Wexford, it's not the corporate taxes, none of that. It's the payroll that they put into the communities and the knock-on effects, it's what keeps everything going. I think that's the the real factor. No, it is, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

Yeah. I could talk to you for hours, but I'm gonna have to end it. I'm gonna have to end on three Ps. Um, the person. So who is a business leader, colleague, or mentor that you admire most or had a big impact on you?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:53

Well, I think in the context of the of the discussion we're having, you know, I was thinking back to my own childhood and I'm thinking of all my friends, and I'm thinking of perhaps I know them authentically, but they're all doing incredible work in a variety of locations. I'm just thinking of, you know, all the way just up from Parklands, all the way down, you know, to Hill Street and around I'm thinking of people like Eamon Sweeney, who just was appointed a freeman of the city of London. Oh wow. You might have uh read that it featured in the the people. Didn't know that. Yeah, I mean he he's doing incredible work in um in the University in Edinburgh now. Um you've got Declan Murphy who works in Oracle in San Francisco in the Bay Area. You've got Johnny Dury, who is uh leading his own marketing firm, you have Column Neville, who is a great patron of the Wexford Chamber and a good friend and uh and um somebody that I've admired and his authentic leadership in business. And um so so I I and I'm sure every one of them would be wondering what the hell am I doing on on the podcast for Wexford and you know how did he ever get that job in Intel? So I think it's it's I think we have a paradigm, we have a raw ingredient here in Wexford, maybe in Ireland as well. There's something different. Think of I've seen firsthand how many businesses, American businesses, are successful in Ireland, and why is that? You know, it's not the taxes, as David has said. Why, why are all these businesses through across so many different uh places, areas of business, manufacturing, service, financial services, why are they so successful? I think there's a raw ingredient we could talk about about what what's what's the Ireland's edge, what's our differentiation? And I believe we have it. So, and it's it's manifest in in the podcast we're having today, as well as the friends that I've just um acknowledged. The gene pool that we have in Wexford is the raw ingredient that is necessary to be world class. So, why not? Yeah, add in a university, add in renewable energy, add in a mindset that says we can do this, add in some examples like scurry.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:55

Jesus, I I think we're making a strong point. But I suppose to answer your question, um, I've come across a lot of executives, the people in America that had that humility about themselves, what Benioff's greatest day was when his dog was trended to urinate on the fire hydrant. Um, you know, d you you meet all these people who don't who don't um take themselves too seriously, but they're fiercely passionate about the business that they do. They they often strike and stay in my memory as names. And an Irish person like that that I came across was Gary McGahn, farmer CEO of Erlingus, farmer CEO of Smurf for Capital, and he's still still involved with Patty Power and Bed Fair and so on. But he's a man that I've met and was always very gracious with his time and has passed that test of took his business very seriously, but not himself, and has always had a great time to spend time with me and mentor me and give me advice along the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:46

It's an important trait in people, and that's exactly why you two are on the podcast, because you don't take yourself too seriously, but you are pretty incredible. Um David, who do you admire most?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:56

You know, I thought about this, Paula, when you said it might be one of the questions, but I sort of uh it's hard to pin it down to one person, you know. I I'm sort of of the belief that uh uh you know, better know one than no one better than me. Um, you know, so we all have that capability. But uh it if there was one person who gave me an absolute belief, um I mentioned that I was a a runner when I was younger. Yeah and I was very close to Jerry Kiernan um, you know, over the time. In fact, we uh before the Olympics we ran together every morning before he went off uh uh uh to Los Angeles for the for 18 months before that. Every morning I was in his house at six o'clock we'd go running together. And we'd run around, he lived in in uh Dean's Grange, and we'd run I lived in Bray at the time, and we'd run around Fox Rock or whatever, and the one thing that he came back every morning he asked me, every morning he asked me the same question. He was absolutely serious. He'd say to me, Would you say that's the fastest morning run in the world this morning? And that was his absolute belief was that he he would be the best in the world. There was no and and then he went in and uh you know had breakfast in his house and he went up to teach primary school up on Fox Rock. So it's that self-belief, but it's local. He never left that locale, but he never lost that uh self-belief. So I think that those sort of things that's one it's not a business example, but it's somebody that absolutely mm, you know, gave me belief that you can be the best in the world, but you can still be still be local.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:23

Okay. Um the place, a place in Wexford that means a lot to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:29

For me it'll have to be the beaches. Yeah. Pretty special. I spent all my childhood at Corokla.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:35

Currentlow for you, okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:36

Yeah. You know, that's my uh I should you should ask me first of all, because that's the case. You can both say it. I spent forever at Currot Low. Well, Cullen's Gap, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

I'm a Kalmore girl. I was like Kelmore.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:47

Yeah, well, counties here go to Currotlow. So but but that's it. I mean, I spent forever running uh park up in Cullen's Gap and you go down around the raven. And even today, when you go down, there's fantastic. Okay, like it's there's no place better than it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:01

You kind of grow up and you take it for granted. And it's on reflection you realise just how unique and special it is. And I live now in County Mead, and it's a you know, I really miss it. I really miss getting to the sea and to the beaches. It's much more of an effort.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:14

260 kilometres of coastline we have in Wexford. Yeah, incredible as this. Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:19

But you know, it's one thing that actually that that my wife and I were talking about this, uh Bernie and I were talking about this yesterday, that if if you're from Wexford and you're you can't see the sea someplace, you get very antsy. You know, like you live in different places, beautiful spots, but there's no sea. We were walking last night uh down around, you know, down along the quay and out on the arm at the crescent, and like if if you're away from that for too long, it it just doesn't feel right to get it. It's very calming, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:16:43

Yeah, yeah, very pints. Do you drink pints?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:48

I have been known to participate in an odd pint of beer, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:51

And where's your favourite pint in Wexford?

SPEAKER_03 1:16:53

My favourite pint in Wexford, well, I'd uh Column Neville would never forgive me if I didn't shout out to the Crown, but there's a good reason. It was also my father's uh local pub and so I remember the Crown um in its previous incarnation many years ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:05

So it's very close to us here in Hill Street.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:07

They do a great job, yeah. Yeah. And I'm I'm uh today's my son's 29th birthday, and the last drink I had was the night he was born. So I haven't had a drink for 29 years, but I do like going to the boat club, that's where I go on Friday evenings. The boat club.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:20

Yeah, beautiful then there, isn't it? Yeah, it's fantastic. Absolutely blessed. Your your son is 29 today.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:24

29 today, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:25

Happy birthday to him.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:27

That's it, folks. Um, Eamon, David, thank you so much for your time. Um, we'll be seeing each other again, so catch up with more stories. But um, I think that's a great kind of summary of your international careers and now coming back to Wexford in terms of giving back. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:42

Thank you, Paula. Thank you, Paula. Our privilege. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:46

Thanks for listening to this episode of Business Connections. For more information on County Wexford Chamber and how it is working to shape Wexford's future as a great place to work, live, and do business. Visit countywexfordchamber.ie. The recording of this podcast is supported by Leader.