Experts unite to plot course for business

THE Enterprise Strategy Group draws on expertise from across the Irish business landscape, with high-fliers from industry and trade unions as well as academics, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

Group chairman Eoin O’Driscoll is a former managing director of communications giant Lucent Technologies’ Irish operations. Mr O’Driscoll now heads consulting company Aderra, which provides advice on technology, strategy and change management. Mr O’Driscoll also sits on the boards of the National Microelectronics Applications Centre and Cork University Foundation.

Kerry Group managing director Hugh Friel heads the list of Irish industrialists in the group. Mr Friel’s track record includes spells with Aer Lingus in New York and Mobil Oil in London, before taking a senior position at North Kerry Milk Products, the forerunner of Kerry Group. Mr Friel was deputy managing director at Kerry when it floated in 1986 and took up his current position in 2002.

Reg Shaw is managing director of drug giant Wyeth’s €1.2 billion pharmaceutical campus at Grange Castle in Dublin. Dr Shaw spent 25 years with pharmaceutical heavyweight SmithKline Beecham before taking charge at Grange Castle.

SIPTU general president Des Geraghty brings to the table knowledge of trade unions and experience from the European Parliament, where he was economics and industry spokesman for the parliamentary grouping that included the Labour party.

Educational and research interests are represented by Trinity College chief John Hegarty, a former dean of research and professor of laser physics, and Blanchardstown Institute of Technology director Mary Meaney, who previously lectured in environmental science at Dublin City University. The group also draws on international academic expertise with New York-based Rita Gunther McGrath, an assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, and London School of Economics professor John Sutton.

Start-ups and small business are represented by Liavan Mallin, the Celtic Hampers founder who went on to set up a leading online retailing business in the US, and Martin McVicar, co-founder and managing director of forklift firm Combilift, and a former Entrepreneur of the Year.

The group’s other members are Alan Dwyer, managing director of promotional products company Eurostyle, Rory O’Donnell, director of the National Economic and Social Council, venture capitalist Frank Kenny, door manufacturer Masonite Ireland managing director Jim Hoey, and Nicky Hartery, an executive with computer giant Dell.