In the Chair with Sean Casey, EY

In the Chair with newly appointed EY Consulting Partner, Sean Casey

To begin, tell us about your career to date.

I started my career as an Engineer in ESB in the early 90’s and now 25+ years on I have (nearly) a lifetime of Energy, Utilities and management experience. I moved from ESB to Bord Gais Eireann in 2008 and became Managing Director of Gas Networks Ireland in 2010. When Ervia was formed in 2013 I took up the role of Chief Operating Officer for the group and in 2017 served as Ervia’s Interim Group Chief Executive Officer. With somewhat of a career pivot I joined EY in 2018. I am a Partner in our Consulting Business and have two main roles - I lead our consulting team here in the Cork region and I also head up the firm’s Energy and Assets practice across Ireland.

Describe your company, the work that it does and what is unique to your organisation?

EY is a global professional services firm, with operations in more than 150 countries. Our client offerings sit across four service lines – Assurance, Consulting, Strategy and Transactions, and Tax. Our Consulting service line, with more than 70,000 people around the globe, aims to build a better working world by transforming businesses through the power of people, technology and innovation. Our local Consulting practice employs over 500 skilled professionals, with a diverse set of skills, supporting clients across Energy & Assets, Financial Services, Government & Public Services and the Private Sector.

What is unique to EY is the way in which we deliver these services. Our approach is really client-centric, we seek to partner with our clients to create impact and to deliver long-term sustainable value for them.

What is your business goal for the future?

As a leader of our Consulting practice here in Cork my goal is to continue to expand our local practice; supporting a diverse range of clients to drive growth and improvements within their organisations and across the broader ecosystem. We have a fantastic Consulting team in Cork, with experienced professionals in Business Consulting, Technology Consulting and People Advisory Services – I am passionate about enabling their continued development, growing our business by bringing in fresh talent and expanding our reach by supporting new clients and taking on new challenges. The working world is in the midst of significant transformation, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and Cork is uniquely positioned to take advantage. My aim is for our team to be at the centre of the transformation; working with our clients to embrace the changes and drive our local economy - ensuring Cork is firmly positioned on the economic map.

Are there any changes you would like to see in the energy sector?

The energy sector globally is experiencing unprecedented change. Government policies on decarbonisation, advances in technologies (renewables, digital, energy storage, etc) and changing customer demands are fundamentally transforming the sector. Ireland is at the forefront of this change. We as a country are leading the way in terms of renewables. We have a really ambitious Climate Action Plan with the overall goal of reducing our carbon emissions by 50% to 2030. Achieving these targets in that timeframe is a massive challenge and requires everybody – Government, Regulators Utility Companies, Investors and the public to work together in a way that we may not have done in the past.

What is your company doing to promote sustainable initiatives and practices?

EY was the first professional services firm to announce a bid for carbon neutrality. We introduced a number of measures across all offices such as the basic keep cups, compost bins etc as well as educating staff on the importance of using these effectively. Pre-COVID we had substantially reduced our airmiles and car travel, introduced sustainable procurement practices and purchased renewable energy to power our offices. We have also supported reforestation projects in an attempt to off-set our remaining carbon footprint. From a client and CSR perspective, our well-established Climate Change and Sustainability Practice has supported clients on their sustainability journeys and our EY Ripples programme has (on a pro-bono basis) helped scale over 100 enterprises focused on socio-environmental issues.

What was the best career advice you got along the way?

1) There are two pieces of advice that have really stuck with me throughout my career:

2) Be open to new challenges and opportunities – they won’t keep coming your way and Build a great team and look after them – you deliver through your people

If you had to choose another career tomorrow, what would it be and why?

As a young fella I fancied myself as a golfer (some would say I still do) so I would have to say Professional Golfer.