Planning approval has been granted for an extension to data-storage multinational EMC’s major plant in Ovens, Co Cork.

Two senior executives at EMC’s Cork operations, Aidan Trindle and Bill O’Connell, have been promoted to global roles within the company.

In a cavernous convention centre in front of 12,000 people lit by lasers and with smoke machines billowing, a man in his mid-40s took to the stage playing a distorted guitar solo — it was EMC’s chief marketing officer Jeremy Burton.