IDA Innovation Review Spring 2020 by Ashville Media Group

SPRING 2020

IRELAND REVIEW

FE ATURING

Top Stryker

On Guard

League leader in medtech devices

PLUS

South East

Tenable Ireland is securing the cybersphere

2.0

IRELAND’S THRIVING TECH CLUSTER

PLUS

#STEMsquad

IRISH WRITING A NEW CHAPTER

Opportunities abound for Ireland’s WOMEN IN SCIENCE

Hours in Waterford

W H AT T O DO, W H E R E T O E A T, P L A CE S T O S TAY

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IN A S S OCI AT ION W I T H

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CONTENTS Spring 2020

Meet the team IDA Ireland Head of Marketing Communications Caitriona O’Kennedy

Ashville Media Group Editor Tara Corristine Art Director Áine Duffy Creative Director Jane Matthews Published by Ashville Media, Unit 55 Park West Road, Park West Industrial Estate, Dublin 12, D12 X9F9. Tel: (01) 432 2200 ISSN: 0332-4400 All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2018.

Spring 2020

All-inclusive

M E E T T H E W O M E N AT T H E T O P O F THE IRISH BIOPHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

Home advantage Medtech giant Stryker is firmly committed to Ireland

15 Just rewards Apple’s 40-year relationship with Cork is bearing fruit

Cyber force Tenable’s EMEA HQ in Dublin is helping to protect our online economy

Gaining ground Meet the Irish disability activists working with international brands

To p s i n t e c h The South East region is attracting the leading names in technology

Tu r n i n g t h e p a g e Behind the curtain

Inside IDA Ireland’s new building, Three Park Place

Irish writing is finding new audiences

Up the Déise The team at Sun Life Financial in Waterford share their favourite places

IDAIRELAND.COM

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NEWS Spring 2020

NEWS VIEWS and

A first look at new job announcements, research projects, global rankings and ongoing innovation in Ireland.

Want to know more?

EDUCATED WORKFORCE

Visit the newsroom at idaireland.com for expansions, announcements and investments.

Jo McAleer Senior Business Solutions & Process Specialist Otter Products, Barrie Collins Managing Director Otter Products, Leo Clancy IDA Ireland, Cllr Fergal Dennehy Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork

Winning Ways IDA Ireland’s Winning – Foreign Direct Investment 20152019 Strategy finished on a high note with employment levels in client companies reaching 245,096: the highest ever number employed in the multinational sector. In 2019, 21,844 new jobs were created in 250 projects in FDI companies, half of these investments were from firsttime investors. Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland said: “Foreign Direct Investment continues to be a substantive driver of the economy and IDA Ireland clients now account directly for 10.5% of national employment.” Employment grew across all sectors, with 110 investments regionally, creating 5,368 net jobs.

56%

Ireland’s workforce is one of the world’s most educated with over half of those aged 30-34 holding a third-level degree. 2

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SMA RT MOV E

@JanssenIE “Today is a very exciting day for all of us here in @JanssenIE as we unveil a significant expansion at our #Cork facility. This new manufacturing building will see us welcome an additional 200 full-time employees to our Janssen Ireland family.”

A well-known name in the smartphone and tablet case sector, Otter Products EMEA was first established in Cork in 2010 and has since achieved accelerated growth across the EMEA market year-onyear. The company is moving on to the next phase in their development, locating to their new purpose-designed premises on South Mall, Cork City. Otter Products EMEA currently has 73 employees across the region and the new site has capacity for up to 100 employees, a sure indicator of the business’s growth ambitions. Opening the company’s new premises, Barrie Collins, Managing Director said, “We have built a business that is connected globally but works locally. Our people are central to our success and I see this office as a sign of where we are and setting us up for further expansion, as we near our tenth anniversary in Europe.”

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NEWS Spring 2020

New facility

Want to know more? Visit the newsroom at idaireland.com for expansions, announcements and investments.

$240m

WuXi Vaccines is planning to build a $240 million vaccine production facility on the newly established WuXi Biologics Campus in Dundalk, bringing 200 additional new jobs to the town over five years. Illustration of the proposed new WuXi Vaccines facility on the WuXi Campus in Dundalk, county Louth

Limerick bound FundRock, a leading independent UCITS Management Company and Alternative Investment Fund Manager, celebrated the official opening of its Limerick office in November of this year. Serving as an operational centre of excellence, it has already exceeded growth expectations with further growth expected in a variety of functions including Investment Risk and Compliance, Fund Accounting and Depositary Oversight, and Regulatory Reporting. Commenting at the opening, Conor O’ Brien, Managing Director for the Irish branch of FundRock said, “Today is another step in demonstrating FundRock’s full commitment to Limerick, the mid-west region and the funds ecosystem in Ireland.”

Xavier Parain Group CEO at FundRock, Patrick O’Donovan Minister of State, Anne-Marie Tierney-Le Roux Head of Regions IDA Ireland, Conor O’Brien Managing Director Ireland at FundRock, Cllr Adam Teskey Deputy Mayor City and County of Limerick, William Corcoran Regional Manager Mid-West Region IDA Ireland

@Patreon “We’re excited to grow the team at our new office in Dublin. We can’t wait to welcome the new teammates and continue our work supporting European creators together.”

L I KE M I N D S Jijay Shen CEO Huawei Ireland

Recruitment is underway at Huawei Ireland with the opening of its new state-of-the-art office, and operations at the Dublin HQ will include communications, administration, marketing, its Irish consumer business and related sales functions. At the launch, Jijay Shen, CEO of Huawei Ireland, said, “We are proud of our history in Ireland and Huawei will continue to support Ireland’s digital transformation through fixed broadband solutions, wireless solutions, and 5G.” Visiting Dublin to support the announcements, Huawei Rotating Chairman, Mr. Guo Ping said, “Huawei admires the resiliency and determination of the Irish people because these values are at the core of our business, too. Ireland has an open economy and a highly-skilled talent pool and today’s announcement of 100 jobs and the opening of a new Dublin office will drive our longterm investment and cooperation focus here.”

IDAIRELAND.COM

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NEWS Spring 2020

Want to know more? Visit the newsroom at idaireland.com for expansions, announcements and investments.

TOPS IN TECH High-tech jobs are on offer with the opening of Eurofins’ Global Software Engineering Centre in south county Dublin. Claudius Masuch, Director of the Eurofins IT Solutions Engineering Office at the life sciences company, is impressed with the standard of applicants. “In our search for talent in the Digital and DevOps space, I am pleased to see that the quality of applicants, both from Ireland and abroad, is outstanding.” Eurofins was established in Ireland in 2003 and currently employs approximately 800 people across laboratories in Dublin, Waterford and Cork in the areas of clinical diagnostics, biopharma product testing, food and beverage testing as well as environmental testing, and has corporate functions based in Dublin. Pictured above are Daniela Karthaus Eurofins, Tommy Fanning IDA Ireland, Director of the Eurofins IT Solutions Engineering Office Claudius Masuch, Sarah Tynan IDA Ireland

10/10

All of the world’s top ten Bio Pharma companies have operations in Ireland.

@BarryOSullivan “Good news for #AI in Ireland: we have the highest ratio of “AI talent” to the active population in the EU. Half of Europe’s AI talent is in the UK (24%), Germany (14%) & France (12%).”

A i m i ng high Dr. Norah Patten, a leading Irish engineer who is bidding to become Ireland’s first-ever astronaut was on hand to open EJ’s new production facility in Birr, county Offaly. EJ, a fifth-generation family-owned company headquartered in Michigan, USA, provides a full line of access solutions for the infrastructure systems of municipalities, utility companies, airport and port authorities, and private industries. Speaking at the event, Padraig Freeman, Vice President of EJ said, “Investing in our Irish facility allows us to serve local and European market needs from Birr. We are now exporting high-performance composite access solutions to several European markets.” The Malpass family; Tracy, Lindsey and Matthew present Norah Patten with a space-themed composite cover

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NEWS Spring 2020

Research project

$21mil ion Want to know more? Visit the newsroom at idaireland.com for expansions, announcements and investments.

Maynooth University is set to lead a €21m European research project consisting of 36 partners across 14 countries. Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in Supportive Systems (SHAPES) aims to help older people live actively and independently with the support of assisted living technology.

@Paschald “Congrats to all at @Intel_IRL on 30 years in Ireland. The company employs nearly 5K people as well as another 6.5K jobs supported. Investment of €15bn since 1989 and annual contribution of €1bn to the economy; their commitment to, and impact on, Ireland is in no doubt”

Overstock’s office in Sligo

Dr Michael Cooke Asst Prof. in Applied Psychology, Dr Deirdre Desmond, Assoc. Prof. Department of Psychology and Co-Director of ALL Institute, Dr Rudi Villing Asst Prof. in the Department of Electronic Engineering, and Prof. Mac MacLachlan Co-Director of the ALL Institute, with PAL TIAGo robot, funded with the support of Science Foundation Ireland

PublicRelay’s second Irish office will be in the new Cavan Digital Hub

Work-life balance Online retail and technology leader Overstock.com has opened its new European base in the IDA Ireland’s flagship North West business park in Sligo. Last year, the company announced the creation of new roles across software development, machine learning, and data analytics and the company has been successful in highlighting the affordable cost of living and lifestyle options in the North West, along with attractive career progression opportunities.

Relay race Leading US media monitoring and analytics firm, PublicRelay has announced plans to establish a new office in Cavan, creating 20 new jobs over the next two years. The company has an office in Dublin, and Cavan was chosen for its second site thanks to the strong pool of educated talent available in the region and the newly opened Digital Hub where the company initially will be based. “The educated, friendly workforce and proximity to our Dublin office make Cavan an ideal location to expand our presence in Ireland,” according to Eric Koefoot, CEO of PublicRelay.

IDAIRELAND.COM

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LEADING Women in Science

Science and Progress WORDS BY Tara Corristine

The biopharmaceutical sector in Ireland is making great strides to increase female participation in STEM, and retain that talent once it’s in the pipeline. We speak to three women who share the importance of schools programmes, role models and mentoring.

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Joyce Fitzharris A career in science offers the opportunity to pivot across different functions such as operations, strategy and leadership, as evidenced by the roles undertaken by Joyce Fitzharris, General Manager at SK biotek. Having studied Analytical Science in Dublin City University (DCU) and with two Masters Degrees under her belt – one in Environmental Protection from Sligo IT and the second in Emergency Management from DCU – Joyce Fitzharris’s first role was as an environmental chemist. “I started my career with Bristol-Myers Squibb, they were one of the first pharmaceutical multinationals to come to Ireland in 1964. I moved into Operational Excellence, an area that focuses on the techniques, tools and culture around continuous change and improvements.

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LEADING Women in Science

I had no background in that but I was facilitated to learn. It’s been a theme throughout my career that whatever area you move into you will be supported, either in advance of that or as you move into it, not just the technical areas but the people skills and broader skills needed to lead in an area like that.” Fitzharris was then tasked with setting up a Programme Management Office to execute the strategic projects needed to grow the business. “It’s a forward-looking approach that gets the leadership team thinking beyond their own function: where does the company need to be in five years, ten years? It became apparent that the site in Swords would be divested from the BMS network but rather than it being seen as a negative, we saw it as a chance to reinvent ourselves.” SK biotek, a contract development manufacturing organisation (CDMO), acquired the company in January 2018 and for Fitzharris, it’s an invigorating phase in an ever-evolving career. “New colleagues that have come into the organisation have shared their knowledge, it’s been very educational and exciting. We are now working with multiple customers, and these new relationships are akin to a partnership.” The changes continued apace and in December 2018, Joyce was appointed to lead the Staff function which encompasses the business support departments of HR, IT, Legal, Operational Excellence and Strategy. “We have two leads on the “I had seen site, the head of the how career operational side of the progression in business, and my side of the Bristol-Myers business. I also have a Squibb was reporting role, sharing how possible, they the business is doing with our were very owners, a division called SK encouraging holdings, and it’s another very through role interesting side to my job.” modelling, Understanding legal, HR senior female and IT functions may not have executives and been the original remit of an vice presidents.” environmental chemist but Fitzharris points out that at director level, the fundamental skill is leadership. “You have the experts in the team, you don’t need to have all of the knowledge yourself, it’s about getting the best out of them, seeing where the gaps are and developing their progression. Once you’ve honed those skills you can transfer into leading any function.” Seeing other women in senior roles, and being mentored by them affirmed the leadership possibilities for Fitzharris. “I had seen how career progression in Bristol-Myers Squibb was possible, they were very encouraging through role modelling, senior female executives and vice presidents. A previous GM, Susan Hynes, came up through the quality

ABOVE: Bring Your Children To Work Day

route. Mentoring was formal and informal, I had everything from an official mentor to those people I had coffee with who encouraged me. In Ireland, we are ahead of the curve. We have seen women in science at the top of the ladder here, it would be nice to see them expanding out into the CEOs of global companies.” As Ireland’s CDMO cluster expands, organisations that offer support mechanisms such as flexible working arrangements will benefit by attracting and retaining key talent, she says. “CDMOs could build or buy anywhere in the world but they are coming here precisely because of the talent and the knowledge of the world-class people that we have, and what we offer. We have a huge amount of women working here but how do we sustain that and continue to attract that?” Career breaks are just some of the agile working options available to SK biotek employees along with flexible hours and remote working. “It’s okay to tell colleagues that they can take time out: two years over a 25-year career, that’s no time. It’s down to organisations to help everyone to upskill as quickly as possible when they’re coming back. It’s fantastic when you see women progressing through the organisation, it’s a very rewarding part of my job.”

Karine Egan Karine Egan, Medical Director Ireland at AbbVie, believes that schools initiatives and leadership programmes are the way to encourage women into STEM, and keep them there. STEM Paths, a recent initiative undertaken by AbbVie, looked at how Irish industry, educators and professional bodies can work together to foster greater engagement in STEM disciplines by

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LEADING Women in Science

highlighting female role models. The organisation developed the Back to School for STEM initiative which sees employees from AbbVie’s five Irish offices and manufacturing plants visiting schools to talk about their career experience. “It’s hugely rewarding,” Karine Egan tells us. “You see the interest and curiosity being ignited, then and there. A lot of female students probably don’t feel confident going into the STEM subjects and I think so much work has to be done at that level.” Another recommendation of the report was to share the diversity of roles available across the sector. “We have a great university system that produces high-quality science graduates. It’s getting young women to want to go into those careers in the first place that is the problem. If you can’t see it, you can’t be it and that’s the truth of it. I’m a medical director in a pharmaceutical company and when I was at Leaving Certificate stage, I didn’t know that that kind of job existed, but I knew that I loved science.” It’s so important, she says, to impart that the scale of multinationals now based in Ireland means that a science qualification is a foundation for a variety of roles. “I remember one of my lecturers saying that science teaches you to question and think critically, and ultimately “One of the it’s a platform to go from there functions into any career. These I oversee is multinationals are so huge, clinical trials you may go in under one in Ireland, and function but as you develop that’s amazing skills and realise what part of for me because your job you are passionate if I sit down to about, that is where you will read a research really excel. That’s what we protocol, that need to impress on people pulls me out of more, you may go into science the business and realise that you are really strategy world good at business and that and suddenly pharma is a career that I’m immersed combines the two.” in what sparked “One of the functions I my interest in oversee is clinical trials in science in the Ireland, and that’s amazing for first place. me because if I sit down to read a research protocol, that pulls me out of the business strategy world and suddenly I’m immersed in what sparked my interest in science in the first place. It’s nice to have a career where you continue to develop strategic and management parts, but still stay close to the science.” Creating a supportive work environment can help to

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ABOVE LEFT: Employees from AbbVie celebrate at the Great Place to Work Awards 2019 ceremony. ABOVE RIGHT: AbbVie employees with Volunteers Ireland, students, parent representatives and staff from New Cross College Finglas at the completion of an extensive refurbishment of the school’s science lab. More than 60 employees from AbbVie’s offices in Citywest and Santry participated in the company’s global volunteering initiative, Week of Possibilities.

retain that female talent once it is in the pipeline, and earlier this year AbbVie was listed as the second Best Large Workplace in Ireland, and was recognised as one of the 13 Best Workplaces for Women, by the Great Place to Work Institute. This recognition is no doubt due to programmes such as AbbVie’s Women Leaders in Action (WLA) that was set up to support the development of female employees and there are currently over 200 members in Ireland across five sites. “We have a huge focus on WLA to encourage women to go for those promotions and develop those skills. We have a formal mentoring programme, someone who is a layer or two above you who can navigate for you and show you what is possible. If you don’t have that, you could get stuck in the day-to-day and not think of your five-year plan. It feels informal because it’s coffees and chats.” WLA is not just for women and is open to all employees. “In a company like AbbVie, women are very supported, and it’s very much a meritocracy at the same time. It’s meritocracy based because it’s about the work that you produce. I find it to be fair and balanced.” One of the WLA activities is career returners events. “It needs to be recognised that women will have families, and they should feel supported to do that. We should be encouraging people to have their children during their careers and not see it as a break. It should be accepted. We had a career returners event in Sligo recently for exactly that purpose because it gets to a point, especially if you have a couple of children, where you begin to wonder is it worth going back to work, and it’s very hard for those women when they are returning to the workforce and there should be more companies focusing on attracting those women as employees. There is demand for it judging by the huge number of people who turned up at our event. It’s an unmet need that needs to be addressed.”

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LEADING Women in Science

Orla Cunningham Orla Cunningham, Senior Director, BioMedicine Design at Pfizer, credits self-belief combined with strong organisational supports for her success in the sciences. “I was always encouraged to do what interested and excited me. I have three brothers and my parents never treated me any differently, I never felt like there was anything I couldn’t do. My older brother is a neuroscientist in academia and I followed in his footsteps, starting with a general natural sciences degree in Trinity and specialising in Biochemistry.” In 2006, she joined Wyeth, helping to establish a new early-stage preclinical drug discovery research group, and in 2009, Wyeth was acquired by Pfizer. “We set up the lab from scratch with three people and now our group has grown to 24. We have people from a variety of educational backgrounds, disciplines and countries. It’s a very young group because preclinical drug discovery is a relatively new field in Ireland, and they are full of energy and ideas and enthusiasm.” Cunningham heads up the BioMedicine Design group in Dublin and sits on the global leadership team, a path she believed was always available to her. “In Ireland, I think women are very well represented in the life sciences, across both academia and industry. I’ve always been very lucky in the mentors that I’ve had, from my PhD supervisor in Trinity to my first boss here in Pfizer who taught me a lot about the principles of antibody engineering.” She took advantage of the company’s internal supports, including its European leadership development programme, Female Aspiring Talent in Europe (FATE). “Women across the European organisation, and across operational functions, are brought together for a series of workshops on personal development, from working on visibility and impact to support on how to achieve work-life harmony. The programme provides one-to-one coaching on leadership and helps to establish mentoring relationships with experienced leaders across the organisation. Participation in FATE was a fantastic opportunity for me to grow and build a really supportive network across the business.” A similar

achievement programme for high-potential females in Pfizer Ireland was recently launched. These internal structures and supports have seen the organisation evolve and grow to reflect modern society. “I definitely see the difference from when we started in Grange Castle Business Park. We celebrated ten years on site in September and I can see the change happening. We have a new site lead and a really engaged, diverse leadership team which includes a number of great female role models. “I think in the past people tended not to talk so openly about family in the work environment, but these days it is a part of everyday conversation. I can see this change across the broader scientific community.” Attracting and nurturing the next “My experience generation of scientists is a role Pfizer takes in the workplace very seriously with engagement in has been a very educational outreach through the Junior inclusive and Achievement programme, a Kids 2 Work suportive one. initiative, Science Week events and I definitely undergraduate workshops across Irish feel there is universities including Trinity College Dublin, much better University College Dublin and Technological representation University Dublin. and that’s bound Cunningham has come to appreciate the to have really importance of representation with young positive knockstudents and enjoys the opportunities she’s on effects.” had to act as a STEM ambassador. “My experience in my career to date has been a very inclusive and supportive one. I definitely feel that there is much better representation and that’s bound to have really positive knock-on effects.”

ABOVE LEFT: Twenty women from across Pfizer’s Irish operations took part in the Female Aspiring Talent Ireland (FATI) programme that provides mentoring, leadership training and individual coaching. ABOVE RIGHT: Students from Plunkett College, Swords at the Pfizer and Science Gallery’s We Are All Scientists pop-up during Science Week.

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LEADING Medtech Innovation

Stryke force WORDS BY Ta ra C o rri st i n e

T’S SOMEWHAT OF AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO SAY THAT IT’S BEEN A BUSY COUPLE OF DECADES FOR STRYKER

Medtech giant Stryker is firmly embedded in Ireland, with its European Regional Headquarters and seven cutting-edge operations located here. David Tallon, Vice President of Research and Development, Stryker Neurosurgical, speaks to us about the dynamic educational partnerships they have launched, and how Ireland’s industry spectrum offers huge potential for growth.

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IN IRELAND. THE WORLD-LEADING MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY COMPANY BEGAN ITS IRISH JOURNEY IN 1998 WITH TWO GREENFIELD SITES AND A HANDFUL OF EMPLOYEES IN CARRIGTWOHILL, COUNTY CORK. IT HAS NOW GROWN TO SEVEN MANUFACTURING FACILITIES , INCLUDING A STATE- OF-THE-ART ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING FACILITY AND A GLOBAL INNOVATION CENTRE, AND ITS EUROPEAN REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS WITH AROUND 3,800 STAFF ON THE ROSTER.

Stryker was founded in Michigan in 1941 by Dr Homer Stryker after he had invented the turning frame and walking heel while studying orthopaedic surgery at the University of Michigan. Today, the company offers products and services across orthopaedics, medical and surgical, and neurotechnology and spine, with 7,784 patents owned globally in 2018. David Tallon is Vice President of Research and Development for Stryker’s Neurosurgical

business units with responsibility for R&D sites in the US, Germany, Ireland and Japan. He joined the organisation when it established in Ireland. “It was a different climate when Stryker came to Ireland in 1998. There were a lot of medtech companies starting here at the time and a cluster was beginning to establish. We had studied several different locations, and two divisions within Stryker decided to locate in

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LEADING Medtech Innovation

LEFT AND BELOW Stryker Instruments Innovation Centre in Carrigtwohill, county Cork

Ireland and our CEO had us both locate together in Cork. The cluster has only grown significantly since. A lot of our suppliers are in Ireland, and there is a strong startup community within medtech that has grown here.” The growing medtech cluster facilitated Stryker’s growth both organically and through business development and acquisition. “Stryker acquired orthopaedics company Howmedica in 1998, and with it a facility in Limerick, and it acquired Boston Scientific’s neurovascular facility in Cork. That was all due to the cluster. It’s a perfect success story: the company chose two small facilities here early on but because of the cluster, the environment and the success of the original facilities, the company has grown over the years.” The turn of the century saw the organisation invest heavily in research and development to continue its journey of innovation. “Manufacturing competency was part of the reason why companies came here, but that’s changed significantly over the years. We started our R&D journey in about 2000 and a large part of that was access to the European market and customers. There has been a lot of investment in research and development in the universities, a lot of incentives around establishing R&D and most companies, not just those in the medtech sector, have significantly invested in R&D over the years.” Last year, Stryker poured over six per cent of its global sales into research and development, and in June of this year announced that it is to invest over €200m in Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) projects at three of its five Cork facilities: the AMagine Institute in Anngrove, which develops additive manufacturing products

Kevin Manley, Senior Director, Global Research and Engineering Services, and Leader of the Innovation Centre, on the opportunities afforded to Stryker in Ireland. How is the Instruments Innovation Centre changing the face of medical technology? Opened in December 2015, the Instruments Innovation Centre is a global research and development hub focused on the development of products and technologies in Neuro, Spine, ENT, Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine and Robotic applications. We develop intelligent devices including power tools, ultrasonic aspirators, directed energy devices and mechanical devices for the removal and profiling of hard and soft tissue. Our innovative and collaborative work environment is second to none, housing a fully-equipped operating room used for product development, surgical simulation and customer interactions. We also have 15,000 sq. ft. of in-house prototyping and test lab facilities. At Stryker we believe in collaboration to achieve advances in medical device technology. As part of our R&D activities we engage and work with leading academics and research institutions on strategic projects in our mission to make healthcare better. How have the Irish locations supported and advanced Stryker’s world-leading position in the industry? The biggest reason to build and grow the Innovation Centre in Ireland is the access to talent and access to the EU and US markets. Ireland has the youngest population in Europe and it has the highest number of college graduates. It is also the second largest exporter of software in the world. The software ecosystem as well as the access to mechanical and electrical engineers and scientists in Cork and Ireland is incredibly healthy. It’s also a place for us to interact with our customers – over the past few years, more than 500 healthcare professionals have visited the Innovation Centre. This is priceless for hearing about our customer challenges and creating possibilities that help save and improve lives. Many of our marketing and sales employees also visit the centre, which further gives us insights into market needs. Are external supports offering what Stryker needs to continue to grow and innovate? Support from IDA Ireland through RD&I programmes has been essential to our ability to take on very high-end research activity in Ireland. Their continued support in the past 21 years has been a key factor in our continued growth and investments in Ireland. IDAIRELAND.COM

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LEADING Medtech Innovation

RIGHT Stryker Anngrove, Cork FAR RIGHT Stryker Model Farm Road, Cork

for three divisions, Spine, Craniomaxillofacial and Joint Replacement; the Neurovascular business in Model Farm Road, which develops stroke treatment products; and its Instruments Innovation Centre in Carrigtwohill, which designs, develops and commercialises surgical devices. Announcing the news, Stryker’s Group President, Orthopaedics and Spine Spencer Stiles said, “The continued growth and investment in Ireland is the result of many factors, inclusive of the Research, Development and Innovation support from IDA Ireland and the partnerships built with leading Irish universities and research centres. The support from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has allowed access to incredibly talented engineers and scientists based in Ireland.” One of those partnerships is the Digital Platform Services Centre of Excellence, a strategic collaboration with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) to develop digitally-enabled care products and performance metrics to deliver better patient outcomes. Announced in July of this year, it will be located in RCSI’s Smurfit Educational and Research Centre on the Beaumont Hospital campus. According to Shaun Braun, Vice President of Digital Platform Services at Stryker, the partnership will ensure that the firm’s digital offering is grounded in clinical reality and, says Tallon, expectations are high. “The concept of having an R&D team embedded in a research hospital and focused on digital products is something we haven’t done anywhere else and we have big ambitions for what is going to come out of that.” This collaborative environment supported by the calibre and number of organisations offers a company such as Stryker significant growth opportunities in Ireland. “The potential is there, particularly in the ICT industry and the pharma industry. From a combination device perspective, Ireland is very strong in data and the regulatory policies we have around data. We’ve got a very strong software industry so if companies start collaborating across industries, there is huge potential for growth. “In the medtech business, digital healthcare is becoming really important and it’s not just about the device that’s used in surgery, it’s about preparing the patient for surgery, preoperative planning, surgery itself and monitoring the patient afterwards, and that heavily relies on connected devices, digital health products and data, and software is the glue that ties all of that together. All of those competencies exist in multinationals and indigenious companies in Ireland so there is certainly potential to leverage that.”

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AT A GLANCE

GLOBAL SALES 2018

$13.6 billion $862 million 36,000 39 SPENT ON R&D 2018

EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE

STRAIGHT YEARS OF SALES GROWTH

“From a policy point of view, the Irish Medtech Association is very focused on driving initiatives around industry collaboration, and the talent pool is there. The universities are investing in software centres and AI. That’s going to be ripe for harvesting in the future.” One relationship that is already yielding rewards is the Manufacturing Apprenticeship Programmes run in association with Institutes of Technology nationwide. “It’s about 10 years since we started our first-time graduate development programme and it is in high demand, we have way more people applying externally than we are taking on. It’s extremely competitive and is now one of the most attractive development programmes in the country and in our industry, attracting engineering talent north and south. It’s been extremely successful.” Developing and maintaining relationships between education in industry will ensure Ireland continues to deliver the talent pool that industry needs. “If we look at where the market is going in digital health and artificial intelligence, design thinking, user experience and UX design are really important in the future, and making sure that universities are adapting their curricula, not to the needs of industry today but keeping up with what industry is going to need five and ten years from now, that they are relevant and ahead of the pack in terms of the graduates they are producing.

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LEADING Medtech Innovation

I r e l a n d ’s c o l l a b o r a t i v e educational environment is helping to shape and deliver talent, says Stryker Senior Director of HR for Ireland, Mairead Hogan.

TOP David Tallon, Vice President of Research and Development, Stryker Neurosurgical ABOVE Stryker Tullagreen, Cork RIGHT Stryker Instruments Innovation Centre

“The R&D leads here in Ireland all have networks in the universities, they are on advisory boards for curriculum because relationships with academics is key to influencing those curricula, and Stryker does a good job across all the different sectors that we are in within Ireland.” When considering the current talent availability, Ireland offers more than just its own pool, he points out. “We are tapping into, not just the market in Ireland, but the markets within Ireland. Stryker sites are spread around the country and there are very strong universities in Cork, Belfast, Dublin and Limerick. One of the benefits of being a member of the EU is the free movement of people, giving us access to talent in Europe. Our hiring is very multicultural and diverse and we have all nationalities in the Innovation Centre. We also have a really strong organic programme for developing our own lead talent internally. We’re in a good place.”

Are Ireland’s educational bodies offering the candidates, courses and collaboration that Stryker needs? Digitisation is advancing our industry in new and unanticipated ways. New technologies are transforming the way we view manufacturing and development of products. They are also paving the way for a new set of skills and challenging they way we view reality. These changes result in the move from traditional skills to the increased need for skills in STEM background subjects and ICT technology. Preparing now for tomorrow’s economy is never easy. We partner very closely with the educational bodies to discuss needs and develop courses which will help develop our existing and future employees. We collaborate with organisations to encourage young students to enter into STEM subjects and help identify career paths which they may not have thought of or chosen. Is Ireland offering, attracting and retaining the broad range of roles required for a world-leading company? Ireland is experiencing a shortage of tech talent, and part of this can be attributed to students not taking up STEM-related subjects. Government focus and increase in capital spending over the next decade is welcome news, especially for companies in Ireland who require a healthy pipeline of talent. Ireland’s low unemployment rate has not hampered our efforts in developing and attracting talent. Ireland has fast become one of the hot spots for Europe and our ability to attract talent from around the globe has continued to enhance our market. The proximity to Europe and having international airports allows for good commuter options and ability to easily travel. How does Ireland align with Strykers values? Stryker has four key values; Integrity, Accountability, People and Performance. These are the cornerstones of our culture and a key ingredient in Stryker’s success. Ireland as a country displays these values in the way its people embrace innovation and technological change. Performance and accountability is very evident in the pace and adaptation of technological change.

IDAIRELAND.COM

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12/02/2020 10:36

PROFILE The Leader

The Leader Paul Madden MANAGING DIRECTOR AT H L O N E S I T E , N E U E D A

Neu ed a delivers lar g e-scale tr an sfor matio n a l s oftware proj ects a c r o ss en te r p r ise integration, legacy system mo d e r n isatio n an d data s ervices .

“Ensuring that we are always ahead of the latest technologies is embedded in the culture of the company.” Is the world-leading talent you are looking for in Ireland? We have an operation in Athlone where we perform R&D for the likes of Ericsson, Neo4j and Citibank and we have been able to recruit locally the high-calibre software engineers that we need. Athlone Institute of Technology has been ranked the number one IT in the country twice in the last three years by The Sunday Times. We also have engineers who lived in the midlands region and were commuting to Galway or Dublin city, and we have been able to offer them high value work in Athlone. It’s important to the industry that the work they do is cutting edge. Athlone has a lot of selling points that make it easier to attract talent from overseas too; there’s a great education system, the cost of living is quite reasonable and it’s relatively easy to secure good quality accommodation that is close to your place of work. How has the Irish workforce helped to drive growth? Culturally, as a country we are very flexible. In larger software services companies elsewhere, the work relationship can be very contractual.

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We are much more focused on what the customer wants and the best way to help them. That willingness to bend over backwards to meet customer demand, rather than worrying about having the terms and conditions in place has reflected very well on us and worked very well with our clients. Our starting position is that there is a level of trust in place. What are the disrupters – both positive and negative – facing your industry? Our fear isn’t that the software services industry becomes disrupted, so much as our clients becoming disrupted. It’s creating awareness among our client base about new technologies. If you go back ten years ago, Ericsson’s major competitors were Nortel, Alcatel, Lucent, Siemens, Nokia – they were all huge companies with tens of thousands of employees, and now a number of them don’t exist. Companies don’t survive as long as they used to. How has Ireland changed as a place to work and grow a business? Athlone has undergone a hugely positive transformation. As a model, it is a great example of a town that has grown enormously. There is a lot of industry and plenty of jobs and a great community spirit in the town. When we were looking for office space, as soon as I mentioned it, there were business people from

AT A L G ANCE

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2018 120 11 35

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES*

EMPLOYEE NATIONALITIES*

P E R C E N TA G E O F F E M A L E ENGINEERS*

* ATHLONE OPERATION

the town calling to ask if they could help. When you are creating enterprise here, everyone will get behind you. How is your Athlone workforce helping to shape that culture? Continuous learning is something we emphasise, encourage and support within the company, that people don’t rest on their laurels, that they would continue to learn and develop. We are in an industry that is constantly changing, and to survive a 40-year career in this type of industry means you have to completely re-educate yourself every decade at least. We try to feature that as normal and it is something that our employees here respond really well to. They organise internal workshops themselves on new technologies: a couple of them will take the time to learn about it and then run a workshop for everyone else. Ensuring that we are always ahead of the latest technologies is embedded in the culture of the company. What is next for Neueda in Ireland? We are always hiring and we are halfway through a four-year plan for the Athlone site to get to the full 200 people. We believe that if you make a development site too big it becomes impersonal so if we want to continue to expand beyond that we are more likely to open another office, maybe on the west coast of Ireland. neueda.com

IDAIRELAND.COM

12/02/2020 10:38

HONOURING Celebrating relationships

IDA Ireland celebrated Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40-year contribution to Ireland at an inaugural award event, Looking to the Future.

Bearing fruit WORDS BY

Ta ra C o rri st i n e

PHOTOS BY

Iain White Fennell Photography

Apple CEO Tim Cook IDAIRELAND.COM

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HONOURING Celebrating relationships

Pictured (L-R) Martin Shanahan CEO IDA Ireland, Tim Cook CEO Apple, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD, Frank Ryan Chairman IDA Ireland

DA IRELAND’S INAUGURAL SPECIAL R EC O G N I T I O N AWA R D R EC O G N I S I N G THE CONTRIBUTION OF ITS CLIENTS TO I R E L A N D WA S P R ES E N T E D BY A N TA O I S E A C H L E O V A R A D K A R A N D I D A I R E L A N D TO A P P L E , A N D A C C E P T E D B Y I T S C E O T I M C O O K , AT A S P E C I A L LO O K I N G TO T H E F U T U R E E V E N T I N T H E N AT I O N A L C O N C E R T H A L L I N J A N U A R Y, 2 0 2 0 .

“We are introducing this annual Special Recognition Award as we believe it is important that we celebrate the huge contribution our 1,500-plus FDI companies have made to Ireland,” explained CEO of IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan. “Foreign Direct Investment continues to be a substantive driver of the economy. Our client companies in Ireland have demonstrated longevity, resilience and continued commitment, creating jobs – the numbers directly employed in the multinational sector in Ireland is at an alltime high of 245,096 (10% of the Irish labour force) – and delivering enormous benefits to the national and regional economies. In introducing this award, we are also recognising the achievement that is Ireland’s proven ability to be an enduring partner for businesses with international ambitions. It is also an opportunity to showcase internationally the level and sophistication of FDI in Ireland. “Apple has invested and reinvested in Cork for over 40 years now – Apple’s Cork site is an example of what is possible when a great company finds an exceptional pool of talent. Apple and its CEO have demonstrated continued commitment to Ireland over that 40 years – making Apple a very deserving recipient of this inaugural award. Having established in Cork in 1980 as its first operation in Europe, with 60 employees, the company has grown to become the

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valued employer of some 6,000 people. The impact of Apple’s investment and innovation extends far beyond its own campus to the hundreds of companies and merchants across the country who benefit from Apple’s presence in Ireland.” An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar spoke of Apple’s role in Ireland’s success as a centre of excellence for technology, saying, “Only four years after it was founded, Apple opened a factory in Hollyhill in Cork, employing 60 people. Today Apple is Cork’s largest employer with 6,000 people of over 100 different nationalities and is a global operation. During this period, Ireland has become the tech capital of Europe. We succeeded by looking to the future, opening our country to trade and competition. “As a country we continue to look to the future. With Global Ireland 2025, we are doubling our footprint across the globe, opening new embassies and consulates, expanding some of the ones we currently have, and investing in agencies like IDA Ireland, so we can attract investment from outside our traditional target markets. We are particularly focused on attracting investment to locations outside of Dublin. “This inaugural award recognises the contribution Apple has made to Ireland over the past 40 years, and it reminds us of all that can be achieved.” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO praised the Irish team for their commitment to the company and its customers. “Ireland has been a

second home for Apple for 40 years and this honour is even more special for us because it recognises the contributions of our incredible team here who work tirelessly to serve our customers around the country, and around the world. I believe deeply that our most important work together is still ahead of us, and I’m grateful to the people of Ireland for their commitment to openness, to innovation and to the cooperation that will make possible the next generation of world-changing ideas.”

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12/02/2020 10:49

HONOURING Celebrating relationships

IDAIRELAND.COM

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12/02/2020 10:50

HONOURING Celebrating relationships

Martin Shanahan CEO IDA Ireland

Tim Cook’s address to the audience I accept this award on Apple’s behalf... as a symbol of our unshakeable commitment to, and investment in, this place we have called home for 40 years, almost as long as Apple itself has existed. We chose Cork to be our first operation outside of Cupertino and our gateway to our European customers for good reason. It sits at a geopolitical, economic and cultural crossroads, where the winds of innovation and opportunity blow freely. While getting ready for this trip, I went back and watched a 1980 RTÉ interview between Apple’s founder Steve Jobs and Pat Kenny. Steve was 25 then, Pat not much older. And Pat asked him, with no small hint of scepticism, ‘Do you actually believe that every home is going to have its own personal computer within the next few years?’ You know, we can laugh now. But it was a fair question then. We have always had our doubters. But nobody ever went far wrong by betting on the people of Cork to achieve the impossible. As the saying goes, Tús maith, leath na hoibre. A good start is half, the work. It is no exaggeration to say that Cork gave Apple the sure foundation that made us the company we are today. Those first 60 employees took a chance on an idea that seemed a little crazy in 1980. Today we have nearly 6,000 employees across Ireland. In Cork, our employees are made up of 104 nationalities. And they tell the story of Ireland’s welcoming and inclusive culture, it’s commitment to attracting and developing the top talent, and its resolute belief that we can do great things when we do them together. And as we look forward to our next decades together, Apple could not be more grateful for your partnership and your leadership. 18

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IDAIRELAND.COM

12/02/2020 10:50

HONOURING Celebrating relationships

Martin Shanahan spoke with Tim Cook about Ireland’s role in Apple’s success.

Why does a small country like Ireland matter to Apple? The history of Apple in Ireland shows that Ireland is not internally fixated but focused on its place in the world and connecting, and for a company like Apple that is run functionally, our organisation itself doesn’t produce the products that make the heart sing. It’s the connections that do. It’s the fact that we can work with 105 or 104 nationalities of people because great diversity produces the best results. And there’s not a place in the world that’s better at that than Ireland. That is the truth. The team here is just awesome. No doubt people might expect me to ask you about the European Commission decision in relation to tax, have you any comments to make in relation to this? First of all, we think taxes are critical and, in fact, we’re the largest tax payer in the world and we do so willingly. The situation with the Commission is that they have a different perspective on who we should pay them to, and the way that we look at it, and I believe this is the way Ireland looks at it as well, and it’s certainly the way the US Government looks at it, is that we have paid them per the law. We followed the law and paid them accordingly. It’s very complex to know how to tax a

multinational, is the reality of it, because where a small business does all of their stuff generally in one country, a multinational might manufacture in one country, service in another, sell in another, do R&D in another. Somebody has to decide, how do you apportion the profits and therefore, the tax payments? I think this is a really reasonable subject for people to debate on a forward basis and I think reasonable people can have different points of view and I think the place for that to happen is at a worldwide level, because you can bet that each country is going to have a different point of view, and each company, and companies shouldn’t have anything to do with this. It should just be, follow the law. And so, the OECD, I think, is the place for this. We supported OECD process of deciding in the future how the profits are split up, and so forth, and we desperately want it to be fair. In terms of going backwards, this is where the issue comes in with the Commission. We believe that law should not be retrofitted. That the law is the law, and the law can change going forward, but it shouldn’t change going backward, and so that is at the heart of the case, if you just make it very simple. It is before the court now, and we have great faith in the justice system so, we’ll see how that all comes out. You have 6,000 people employed in Ireland, what’s your impression of the talent here? A+. I am thrilled, we’re thrilled to be here, and I think the reason is, the educational system has been good. You have spoken about diversity and inclusion. Is that something which just makes good business sense or is that more personal for you? It’s both, it is personal, and it does make good business. The good business sense is that we found, and I think other companies are finding the same thing, is that your results are better, the more diverse you are. You create better products if you have people that have a different lens and a different life experience. I’m so thrilled Cork is one of our most diverse sites, with 104 nationalities represented. But it is also personal because I’ve always believed since I was a kid that the world would be so much better if everyone just treated each other with dignity and respect. IDAIRELAND.COM

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Extract taken from Q&A session.

What about your first visit to Ireland made an impression upon you and what has changed in the intervening period? My very first trip to Ireland was in early 1998 and Apple was not doing well. It was a very difficult time. I had just joined the company, Steve had recently come back to the company, had named a new executive team and we were in a mode of survival. So that’s the setting for my first trip to Ireland. I came knowing that we needed to dramatically reduce the cost of operations. I remember thinking going into the meeting, ‘I’m not sure we can stay.’ It was that dire. I then remember exiting the meeting thinking, ‘we must stay,’ because I saw in the people there a work ethic, an openness, a deep knowledge and expertise that was unparalleled. I had one thing in my mind coming and left with something else. It hasn’t changed from that first trip, at the end of that meeting. The thing that has made Apple in Ireland are the people, it’s people and relationships.

12/02/2020 10:51

PROFILE The Disruptor

The Disruptor Raja Puthenchira Raman EU DIRECTOR OF SALES & SERVICE, W AY F A I R

AT A GLANCE

E S TA B L I S H E D I N

2002 16,000+

EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE

W ayfai r is o n e of th e wo r ld ’s larg e st on lin e r e tailer s of fur n itu r e an d h o me war es.

SALES & SERVICE E M P L O Y E E S G L O B A L LY

3,200+ 19.1 million 14 million $8.6 bil ion CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE

“The team in Galway has been a huge driver of Wayfair’s growth across the region.”

How is Wayfair disrupting the traditional approach to selling homewares? Wayfair is one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home, with more than 14 million items across home furnishings and decor. Wayfair has a 100 per cent in-house customer service team – including a growing hub in Galway and virtual teams across each province in Ireland – that helps reinvent the way people shop for their homes. Wayfair has completely changed the game in shopping for the home with advances in technology and innovation, making it easier than ever for shoppers to find exactly what they want across a worldclass selection of furniture and decor. From product discovery and selection, to purchase and delivery, all of Wayfair’s success is driven by its people: it’s a dynamic environment where our best-inclass talent moves fast, solves hard problems and consistently innovates to deliver for our customers. One example of this is our in-house developed technology platforms that ensure both a seamless customer experience and empowers employees in handling customer queries. 20

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How is the Irish operation helping you to stay ahead of your competitors? Galway has been a hub for our exceptional sales and service team in Europe for more than eleven years, and the team here has been a huge driver of Wayfair’s growth across the region. We’ve had tremendous support from the Irish government through IDA Ireland to help expand this Best-In-Class team over the years, and demonstrate that Wayfair is a compelling environment to attract top talent. We foster a collaborative, entrepreneurial approach where we encourage employees to be problem-solvers and handle issues independently. This combined with a wide range of competitive benefits and roles across several functions, from customer service, finance, supplier operations, recruitment, as well as our remote virtual roles, has positioned Wayfair Galway as a strong employer of choice in the region. What is next for Wayfair in Ireland? We’re demonstrating our commitment to the region by continuing to expand our team in Ireland as our business grows. We’re looking to hire an additional 225 roles to our virtual team globally before the end of the year. The virtual team has allowed us to tap into all of Ireland and provide new employment opportunities to a wider range of highly qualified candidates. These virtual employees share the same benefits as all Wayfair employees but with additional flexibility to work from home.

PRODUCT OFFERING

REVENUE

(SEPT 18-19)

What is success to you? Success means a strong team that feels empowered by the work they do each day. We’re focused on growing and developing our exceptional talent in Europe to deliver consistent, excellent customer service to our growing customer base here. We’re dedicated to giving our employees a strong path for growth, mobility within the company across various teams and levels, and the freedom to offer ideas for improvement to perfect the customer experience. wayfair.co.uk 5 GOLDEN RULES FOR BUSINESS • •

• • •

Keep the customer experience top of mind every step of the way. Differentiate from competitors by cultivating and developing a strong, talented team. Use data as the core foundation for efficient problem solving. Encourage entrepreneurship and innovation at all levels. Ensure scalability across every initiative.

IDAIRELAND.COM

12/02/2020 10:54

DISRUPTING

Researchers at Tenable Ireland are leading the charge against cyber threats in the everchanging landscape of our online economy. Thomas Parsons, Head of Tenable in Ireland, explains.

Thomas Parsons

WORDS BY

Front line defense

Cybersecurity

R G A N I S AT I O N S O F A L L S I Z ES H AV E E M B R A C E D D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N TO C R E AT E N E W B U S I N ES S M O D E L S A N D EC O SYS T E M S , D E L I V E R N E W P R O D U CTS AND SERVICES , AND OPERATE MORE EFFICIENTLY IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY.

New digital compute platforms and development shifts such as cloud, mobile, SaaS and DevOps have made it possible to move from concept to capability on a daily basis. Physical devices and systems of all types – from corporate conference systems to power grids – are now network-connected and programmable, creating even more opportunities for digital transformation. However, as with life, this connectivity and functionality isn’t without risks.

INCREASED THREAT LANDSCAPE While technology has revolutionised the workplace, in tandem, cyber threats have also materialised. We’ve seen corporate defences

fall with malware that encrypts data or causes systems to fail. Vast databases have been discovered with personal information exposed. Websites are knocked offline or payment systems compromised to steal card details. Today’s reality is that cyber risk is business risk, which means cybersecurity is a critical business function and needs to be treated as such. It’s part and parcel of doing business today and getting it wrong can be extremely costly and damaging. It’s not just about protecting customer data, although that’s obviously a key element, but also the systems that organisations rely upon for critical business functions. Traditional ways of tracking systems and vulnerabilities with spreadsheets are IDAIRELAND.COM

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DISRUPTING Cybersecurity

insufficient when it comes to addressing today’s dynamic threat landscape. In addition, security professionals are not the only ones who must be aware of the risks facing their environments. Given the potential impact of any damage, executive leaders and company boards also need to understand where their organisation is exposed and to what extent.

DATA-DRIVEN INTELLIGENCE When it comes to security, business leaders want clear, concise answers that explain how much risk the company is exposed to; if there are critical assets within the company that need immediate attention, and how the business compares with others in the industry as well as the general corporate population. Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) need to demonstrate a holistic cybersecurity approach and help the board understand how to view and quantify cyber risk, right alongside every other business risk. To produce these concise answers, a datadriven analytical approach is required. After all, there are many different sources of cybersecurity information and threat data that are needed to properly explain the current threat landscape. Cyber exposure is an emerging discipline for managing and measuring cyber risk in the digital era. It translates raw vulnerability data into business insights to help security teams prioritise and focus remediation based on business risk. Tenable has built one of the industry’s largest dedicated research teams to do just that – bringing together deep vulnerability expertise with human intelligence, much of which is based out of our EMEA HQ in Ireland. The Irish site opened in 2017 and houses Development, Tenable Research, Support and Renewals teams and other related functions. As defenders, we need to have a wealth of experience and knowledge to draw upon in order to outpace the attackers. The Tenable Research team bridges experiences as varied as cybersecurity, insurance, academia, and even professional poker playing, bringing unique perspectives to assessing risk using data while under pressure and in dynamic environments. We rely on this expertise to share with the community and help our customers to find and fix vulnerabilities faster and more accurately. Our data scientists collect over 150 different aspects of data on each of the 130,000+ 22

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“The Tenable Research team bridges experiences as varied as cybersecurity, insurance, academia, and even professional poker playing, bringing unique perspectives to assessing risk using data while under pressure and in dynamic environments.”

vulnerabilities Tenable tracks, which can range from threat intelligence, to vulnerability data, to information from exploit kits and frameworks, to data gleaned from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology’s National Vulnerability Database (NIST NVD). Other information can come from tracking discussions on vulnerabilities in social media and blog posts, security DID YOU KNOW? vendor advisories, technical reports and malware scans. Earlier this year, Tenable’s research team The work these teams do builds discovered a vulnerability in the Slack on the Common Vulnerability Scoring Desktop Application for Windows that could System (CVSS) rating by not only have allowed an attacker to send a crafted determining how severe a hyperlink via a Slack message that, once vulnerability is, but predicting the clicked, changes the document download likelihood bad actors are to leverage it in the wild. location path to an attacker-owned file share. By exploiting the flaw, an attacker can not only steal future documents downloaded RATING RISK within Slack, but they can also manipulate Using new, cutting-edge technology, them, such as injecting malicious code that they’ve developed a proprietary would compromise the victim’s machine machine-learning algorithm that once opened. analyses the collected data to identify “The digital economy and global which vulnerabilities have the highest distributed workforce have brought new likelihood of exploitation. These are technologies to market with the ultimate given a Vulnerability Priority Rating (VPR), which automatically indicates goal of seamless connectivity,” said the remediation priority for each. For Renaud Deraison, Co-founder and Chief example, a vulnerability currently Technology Officer, Tenable. “But it’s being exploited on a widely deployed critical that organisations realise this service would have a significantly emerging technology is potentially higher rating than a vulnerability for vulnerable and part of their expanding which no working exploit has been attack surface. Tenable Research observed. The VPR is a dynamic value continues to work with vendors such as and changes with the threat Slack to disclose our discoveries to ensure landscape. VPR dramatically reduces consumers and organisations are secure.” the number of critical and high vulnerabilities – allowing organisations to focus first on the vulnerabilities that pose the greatest business risk. The team has also developed another unique, machine learning algorithm that helps enterprises and CISOs prioritise their assets based on indicators of business value and impact to the firm. Unlike VPR, which is an absolute value, the Asset Criticality Ranking (ACR) is a subjective measurement, modifiable by the user. ACR automates asset-criticality assessment by using metadata collected from the environment and applying a rules-based approach that relies on three

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DISRUPTING Cybersecurity

“The team has also developed another unique, machinelearning algorithm that helps enterprises and CISOs prioritise their assets based on indicators of business value and impact to the firm.”

key pillars: internet exposure, device type, and device functionality. With ACR, the research team has built in a feature that allows for customer feedback when it comes to ranking an asset. The reason is simple: users know their applications and assets best, and can determine if a particular component needs more or less attention. A lower-criticality asset usually has less impact under threat. For example, IT management, proxy servers and mail servers tend to have high criticality. Meanwhile, IP telephones and printers typically have medium or low criticality.

PLUGIN POWER Tenable also has a team of reverse engineers and vulnerability researchers that leverage their deep vulnerability expertise to ensure organisations and consumers are secure. As information about new vulnerabilities is discovered and released into the public domain, Tenable Research designs ABOVE: Thomas programmes to detect them. These Parsons, Head of programmes are named plugins and are Tenable in Ireland written in the Nessus Attack Scripting RIGHT: Tenable Language (NASL). The plugins contain Dublin vulnerability information, a simplified set of remediation actions and the algorithm to test for the presence of the security issue. Over the years, the team has published 136,761 plugins, covering 53,445 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures IDs and 30,317 Bugtraq IDs. Members of Tenable Research are focused on transforming vulnerability data into strategic insights. They have published a number of papers, including The Attacker’s Advantage, which explores who has the first-mover advantage – cybercriminals or security teams. The paper examined the difference in time between when an exploit is publicly available for a given vulnerability and the first time that security teams actually assess their systems. Having analysed the 50 most prevalent critical and high-severity vulnerabilities from just under 200,000 vulnerability assessment scans over a three-month period, the team found that all too often the attackers have the advantage. On average, they have a seven-day head start on defenders.

AT A L G ANCE

E S TA B L I S H E D I N

2002 1,000+ EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE

CUSTOMERS WORLDWIDE

27,000+ FORTUNE 500 CUSTOMERS

50%+ GLOBAL 2000 CUSTOMERS

25%+

ZERO-DAY DISCOVERIES We are also the first and only vulnerability management vendor to surpass 100 zero-day discoveries in a single year. Some of the team’s most notable discoveries this year include a vulnerability in Slack that could be used for corporate espionage or file manipulation, and flaws in Verizon routers that left millions of consumers exposed. We firmly believe that the more zero-days we find and disclose, the fewer there are for bad actors to covertly leverage. We’re committed to working alongside both vendors and the entire security community to identify, disclose and patch vulnerable technology to help keep everyone more secure. Taking a data-driven, risk-based approach that is underpinned by human intelligence is a game changer when it comes to managing and measuring cyber risk. The work we’re doing in Ireland is empowering organisations to translate their technical data into business insights, by leveraging the power of machine learning and data science, to provide the most holistic view of their cyber exposure. Using this intelligence, both CISOs and business leaders understand one another and more importantly understand what is needed to drive improvements and optimise security investments that ultimately reduces the risk to the business. IDAIRELAND.COM

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12/02/2020 10:57

REWARDING Excellent investment

Award-winning investment The 2019 Invest In Ireland Awards recognised the contribution and leadership of the foreign direct investment sector in Ireland.

H E I N V ES T I N I R E L A N D AWA R D S R E WA R D E XC E L L E N C E I N T H E I N WA R D F O R E I G N D I R ECT I N V ES T M E N T S ECTO R I N T H E R E P U B L I C O F I R E L A N D , A N D T H I S Y E A R ’ S C E R E M O N Y R EC O G N I S E D D ES E R V I N G W I N N E R S A C R O S S E I G H T C AT EG O R I ES , I N C LU D I N G R & D , R EG I O N A L I N V ES T M E N T, S TA F F U P S K I L L I N G , C S R , D I V E R S I T Y, E M E R G I N G I N V ES T M E N T A N D S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y. B EC K M A N C O U LT E R I R E L A N D P I C K E D U P T H E G R A N D P R I X AWA R D A N D WA S A L S O N A M E D W I N N E R I N T H E R EG I O N A L I N V ES T M E N T C AT EG O RY A N D C O M M I T M E N T TO S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y C AT EG O R I ES . Speaking at the gala awards event, which took place at The Intercontinental Hotel Dublin in November, Martin Shanahan, CEO IDA Ireland said, “The Invest In Ireland Awards are a celebration of FDI companies in Ireland and acknowledgment of leadership in those companies. The contribution of FDI to the economy is fundamental to supporting the health, education and welfare of our citizens. I would like to congratulate all recipients of the awards.” The awards are partnered by IDA Ireland, CPL Resources PLC, Independent News and Media, Vistra Ireland and William Fry Solicitors. investinirelandawards.ie

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IDAIRELAND.COM

14/02/2020 10:40

REWARDING Excellent investment

T H E I N V ES T I N I R E L A N D AWA R D W I N N E R S 2 0 1 9 FDI HERO 2019

Catherine Duffy, Northern Trust

The FDI Hero Award recognises an individual who has, across the course of their career, made an outstanding contribution to the Inward Investment Sector in Ireland.

C O M M I T M E N T TO S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

Beckman Coulter Ireland

This award recognises the contribution of foreign-owned organisations towards sustainability and sustainable development in the Republic of Ireland. E XC E L L E N C E I N R EG I O N A L I N V ES T M E N T & GRAND PRIX 2019

Beckman Coulter Ireland

A key platform for a successful FDI strategy is balanced investment across the country. This category rewards excellence in FDI projects that take place outside of the two major FDI hubs in the Republic of Ireland (Dublin City and Cork City).

Winner of Lifetime Achievement â&#x20AC;&#x201C; FDI Hero Award in the 2019 Invest in Ireland Awards is Catherine Duffy Senior Vice President Northern Trust (L-R) Mary Buckley Executive Director IDA Ireland, Martin Shanahan CEO IDA Ireland, Catherine Duffy Senior Vice President Northern Trust, Dr Orlaigh Quinn Secretary General Dept Business Enterprise & Innovation

Winners of Grand Prix, Commitment to Sustainability and Excellence in Regional Investment Awards are Beckman Coulter Ireland. (L-R) Karen Kelly Senior HR Manager Beckman Coulter, Orlaith Lawler Senior Director / Site Lead Beckman Coulter, Martin Shanahan CEO IDA Ireland, Bryan Tobin EH&S Manager Beckman Coulter

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REWARDING Excellent investment

C S R I N I T I AT I V E

West Pharma

Organisations do not exist in a vacuum and integration with the community in which they operate is crucial. This category recognises CSR projects undertaken by inward investment companies in the Republic of Ireland.

Winners of CSR Initiative Award in the 2019 Invest in Ireland Awards are West Pharma (L-R) Sinéad Donnelly Executive Assistant West, Donal O’Donovan Business Editor @Independent_ie and Emma Kilgallon Human Resource Manager West

U S E O F R & D AWA R D

Fidelity Investments

This award recognises the contribution of foreign-owned organisations involved in research and development in the Republic of Ireland.

Winners of Use of R&D Award in the 2019 Invest in Ireland Awards are Fidelity Investments. (L-R) Conor McDonnell Chief Administrative Officer Fidelity Investments Ireland, Neil Squires Partner Vistra Group Ireland and Fintan O’Malley Senior Project Manager Fidelity Investments Ireland

O R G A N I S AT I O N A L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

Sanofi

Many inward-investing organisations pivot from their original strategy to adapt to changing business conditions and to take advantage of new and emerging opportunities. This category honours the best of these. Winners of Organisational Transformation Award in the 2019 Invest in Ireland Awards are Sanofi (L-R) Aaron Morris Analytical Sciences Manager Sanofi Waterford, Andrew McIntyre Inward Investment Partner William Fry Law and James O’Meara Analytical Sciences Team Lead Sanofi Waterford

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REWARDING Excellent investment

E M E R G I N G B U S I N ES S I N V ES T M E N T

ConsenSys

This award honours the outstanding inward investment made by a dynamic, high growth, early stage company with the potential to grow exponentially and create a large number of jobs.

Below: Winners of Emerging Business Investment of the Year Award in the 2019 Invest in Ireland Awards are ConsenSys (L-R) Aislinn Kelly Senior Product Designer ConsenSys, Claire Fitzpatrick Strategic Director ConsenSys, Sean McGrath Programme Manager ConsenSys, Lory Kehoe Managing Director ConsenSys, John Callahan Senior Consultant ConsenSys, Peter Squires Partner VistraGroup Ireland, Eoin Connolly Technology Director ConsenSys, Kean Gilbert Solutions Consultant ConsenSys, Oisin Kyne Product Manager ConsenSys and Shane McGovern DevOps C Â onsenSys

C O M M I T M E N T TO D I V E R S I T Y AWA R D

VMware International Ltd

Diversity is a key component of any successful organisation and this category highlights the best examples of diversity programmes in FDI companies in the Republic of Ireland.

Winners of Commitment to Diversity Award in the 2019 Invest in Ireland Awards are VMware International (L-R) Sarah Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Donnell Senior Manager DMT Strategy & Operations VMware and Caitriona Erdpohl HR Management Partner VMware

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EVOLVING New IDA Ireland HQ

Gráinne Rothery talks to Martin Shanahan as IDA Ireland looks to the future from a different perspective: its new global headquarters in Dublin city centre, Three Park Place. WORDS BY Gráinne Rothery

he panoramic view from IDA Ireland’s brand new offices at Three Park Place is of a modern Dublin skyline punctuated by cranes – 50 to be exact, half of the total number in the capital at the moment. It is a fitting reflection of the extent of construction activity around the country and the inextricable link between IDA Ireland and the contracting industry. Walking into the reception area of the agency’s new global headquarters on the eighth floor, you would be forgiven for thinking you were in one of its hightech multinational client’s offices. There is an immediate sense of style,

New Moves sophistication and quality. “Everything we have done with the building was with the aim of giving our clients an experience and to allow us to do business as efficiently and effectively as we can,” says IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan when we meet in the ‘Binchy Room’, named after writer Maeve Binchy. Indeed all of the rooms are named after Irish writers, artists and musicians, a nice touch which clients are taken with so far. Having been based at Wilton Park House for 35 years, IDA Ireland relocated to Three Park Place in mid-September on time and on budget having pursued a strong focus on value for money for the Exchequer during the process. The 35-

year lease on Wilton Park House expired on 31 October 2019. “This move was one of necessity, not choice, as it wasn’t possible to renew our existing lease. Following a thorough and competitive tendering process, Three Park Place was selected with a lease of 25 years,” Shanahan explains. Striving to ensure economies of scale for the Exchequer at every opportunity with this move, IDA Ireland is also facilitating and accommodating the relocation of three other State agencies to Three Park Place – Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and the Marine Institute.

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EVOLVING New IDA Ireland HQ

“The new location at Three Park Place will provide IDA Ireland with an excellent location from which to market to global investors and will enable us to bring the organisation through the next phase of growth.” IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan

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EVOLVING New IDA Ireland HQ

About The New Space:

The building stretches over 170,000 sq. ft with the state agency occupying six floors, and the remaining three floors occupied by three other state agencies (see page 28). In keeping with modern work practises, the headquarters favours an open-plan design where agile and remote working is encouraged. The agency enjoyed 35 years at its previous address, Wilton Place, and IDA Ireland Executive Director Mary Buckley believes the new building provides the agency with an excellent location from which to market to global investors.

Three Park Place Green Credentials:

Sustainable building innovations include: Highest quality building envelope insulation values; Proprietary phase change material to Thermal Storage units to maximize efficiencies; LED lighting throughout with ‘Dali’ lighting control systems; Rain water harvesting; 65º Celsius / High Efficiency Gas Fired Water Heaters; CHP plant to generate renewable energy; Photovoltaic panels on roof linked to landlord board.

Article courtesy Irish Building Magazine (Issue 4 2019) Irishbuildingmagazine.ie

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PROFILE The Transformer

The Transformer Martin Gurren CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR AND DUBLIN SITE LEADER, AUTODESK

Au tod esk cr eate s softwa r e fo r the manufa c tu r in g , ar ch ite c tu r e, building, co n str u c tion , med ia a n d entertainmen t in d u str ies.

AT A L G ANCE

E S TA B L I S H E D I N

1982 100+ 10,000+ + 4 million 100 million+ $2.57 bil ion OFFICES WORLDWIDE

EMPLOYEES WORLDWIDE

ACTIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS

“Dublin is a multi-cultural, creative and open-minded city, which fits really well with our culture.” What are the disrupters facing your industry? Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you’ve ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper or used a smartphone, chances are you’ve experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Today we have a global population of 7.7 billion with 3.5 billion living in cities. Over the next 30 years, it’s expected to grow to nearly 10 billion people – two-thirds of which will live in cities. We will need to build new housing and supporting infrastructure to meet this growing population, as well as maintain, improve and protect our current built environment. We recently partnered with a firm called Statista to calculate what was needed to meet this demand. As an industry, we’re going to have to build 13,000 buildings every day, and enough roads and rail to wrap around the earth 30 times every year. As we plan for the inevitability of designing and building more, we need to balance this with the reality of using less. The workforce is changing, with new skills needed in the digital world and many existing workers retiring during this time. Our natural resources are diminishing, and industry must

lower its impact on the environment, creating less waste and using less energy. To solve this fundamental capacity issue, we must rethink the way we design, make and build. This is the biggest design opportunity we have ever had. How are you approaching these opportunities? We cannot meet these future demands without technology. Automation provides the opportunity to do this better. We automate how things are designed in the digital world and made in the physical world. We help architects simulate how the buildings they design will perform before they’re built, and site workers construct them so they continue to perform after they’re built. For example, prefabrication and Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) are proven methods of speeding up design and construction processes. Innovations in generative design, machine learning and robots will have a broader, more significant role in helping design and construction teams solve the skills labour gap, and deliver safer, more resilient and sustainable buildings and infrastructure. How is the Irish talent pool helping to transform Autodesk’s global ambitions? The Dublin office is the hub for Autodesk EMEA and home to functions ranging from engineering and software localisation, to technical support, client services and inbound sales. Collaborating with our colleagues worldwide are finance and operations, facilities, HR, and recruitment teams.

CUSTOMERS

REVENUE

In addition, we are growing a new team of marketing and business development representatives for construction solutions, supporting the EMEA business. We selected Dublin to host Autodesk’s EMEA headquarters because of its global business environment, access to multilingual talent and quality of life for employees. The success of our team in Ireland is reaffirmed by our recent expansion announcement. We have opened another floor in our offices in 1 Windmill Lane, with the potential to double our capacity to up to 400 staff over the coming years. How has Ireland changed as a place to work and grow a business? Ireland has become a much more international place to work. There’s been growth in service-focused industries due to the educated and digitally-focused workforce. There’s also a real strength in talent and diversity. Dublin is a multi-cultural, creative and open-minded city, which fits really well with our culture. autodesk.eu IDAIRELAND.COM

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