The top 50 Irish/Irish-American global technology leaders – surnames A-C:
Conor Allen, director at Cowen & Company
Conor Allen is a director at Cowen & Company, a leading diversified financial services company. His is involved in a number of trading technology focused initiatives within Cowen.
Prior to Cowen, Allen served as global head of research and development at NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology division of NYSE Euronext and was instrumental in the creation, development and launching of the Data Fabric: a multi-transport shared memory middleware originally developed at Wombat Financial Software.
Allen holds a BEng in aeronautical engineering and an MSc in computer science from Queen’s University of Belfast.
George Bailey, chief transformation officer and group executive of Sony Corporation
George Bailey runs Sony Corporation’s transformation program and global IS function, and is on the board of a Sony subsidiary. He works across Sony’s electronics and entertainment companies.
Previously, Bailey worked as general manager of IBM’s Microelectronics division, ran IBM’s Global Electronics Business and led the integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) consulting business into IBM’s Business Consulting Services division. He also initiated the Go! India program.
Bailey has also held leadership roles at PwC, including head of Innovation and Global Practice Leader of the Change Integration business, which he co-founded and grew to a $1 billion business.
He has a MA in human resource management from Pepperdine University, and a MBA from Drucker School of Management at Claremont College.
Kevin Barrett, senior vice-president and chief information officer, Elan Corporation plc
Kevin Barrett is responsible for Elan’s global IT strategy, policies, standards and operations.
In addition to his information technology responsibilities, Barrett is also responsible for Global Business Process Re-Engineering. In 2003, he led the implementation of a Global IT Management Control System for Elan certified to ISO 9001, ISO 20000-1, ISO 27001 and ISO 38500.
Barrett joined Elan in 1996 and held IT management positions of increasing responsibility at Elan locations in Ireland and the U.S.
A systems analyst by training, Barrett held a number of senior technical and design positions at Wang Laboratories VARs in Ireland.
A native of Ireland, he now resides in the Silicon Valley area.
Craig Barrett, ITLG chairman and former Intel CEO
Craig R. Barrett served as chairman of the board of Intel Corporation from May 2005 to May 2009.
He became Intel’s fourth president in May 1997 and chief executive officer in 1998.
Barrett was elected to Intel’s board of directors in 1992 and served as chief operating officer from 1993 to 1997.
He began his tenure at Intel as a Technology Development manager in 1974.
Prior to joining Intel, Barrett was an associate professor at Stanford University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Read our interview with Craig Barrett.
Shane Buckley, senior vice-president and general manager, Commercial Business Unit, NETGEAR
Shane Buckley is the senior vice-president and general manager of NETGEAR’s Commercial Business Unit and is responsible for sales, marketing and product strategy for NETGEAR’s business lines of products worldwide.
Previously, Buckley worked as president and CEO of Rohati Systems, a leader in cloud-based access management solutions.
Prior to his role at Rohati, Buckley served as chief operating officer of Nevis Networks, a leader in secure switching and access control.
He has also held the positions of vice-president, WW Enterprise at Juniper Networks, president international at Peribit Networks, a leader in WAN Optimization, and EMEA vice-president at 3Com Corp.
Buckley is a graduate of engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland.
Chris Buddin, vice-president, Global Clean Technology and Renewables group, Goldman Sachs
Chris Buddin joined Goldman Sachs in 2011 in the San Francisco office.
Prior to joining the firm, Buddin worked at Credit Suisse in the Technology Group from 2000 to 2011. While there, he was one of the founding members of the global alternative energy group and was the head of the Clean Technology practice.
Over the past 12 years, Buddin has advised companies on more than $50 billion through IPOs, follow-ons, private placements, debt and M&A. He has advised companies such as BioAmber, Bloom Energy, Codexis, KiOR, Silver Spring Networks and Solazyme in the clean-tech sector and Cisco Systems, CommVault Systems, Fusion-io, NXP and Sun Microsystems in technology.
Buddin earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University.
James Carroll, senior vice-president, Global Product Development, Yahoo!
James Carroll manages Yahoo!’s global R&D centers in China, India, Taiwan and the Middle East as senior vice-president of the Global Product Development Group at Yahoo!
Carroll is also responsible for the international delivery of all Yahoo! products and services worldwide.
He is a 20-year industry veteran and has worked in a variety of technical and management positions throughout his career.
Before joining Yahoo!, Carroll worked for Microsoft, where he was responsible for the international rollout of the Windows and MSN product lines.
Carroll has extensive experience and knowledge in software development and international operations, and is considered a leader in global R&D.
Liam Casey, founder and chief executive officer of PCH International
Liam Casey founded PCH in Cork, Ireland, in 1996.
Widely recognized as a thought leader on international trade and business in China, Casey’s entrepreneurial flair and talent for spotting new opportunities has revolutionized international commerce and disrupted traditional supply chain models, contributing to the success of many of the world’s largest technology brands.
Casey’s vision has dramatically shortened the time-to-market for the latest products on the market.
He has been awarded Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year – Ireland accolade in 2007 and received admission as a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors in June 2011.
Liz Clifford, human resources director, Hewlett-Packard
Liz Clifford is a director of HR with Hewlett-Packard, responsible for providing a range of HR Strategic Business Partner support to the World Wide Controllership and Treasury Organizations.
She joined the company in June 1999 as an HR manager in Ireland, and worked in a number of EMEA HR management roles prior to taking on her current assignment in 2009.
Before joining Hewlett-Packard, Clifford worked as manager of the Accounting Division of SkillsGroup Ltd, a recruitment consultancy providing consulting and recruitment services to multinational companies establishing shared services centres in Dublin, Ireland. Prior to joining SkillsGroup, Clifford held various sales and marketing assignments in the services sectors, in both Limerick and Dublin.
Clifford holds a bachelor of business Studies (BBS) degree from the University of Limerick. She relocated to the Bay Area in California in 2011 with her husband and two daughters.
Terry Clune, founder, owner and CEO, Taxback.com
Terry Clune is the founder, owner and CEO of Taxback.com and its subsidiary and affiliated companies.
A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Clune generated the Taxback.com business concept while working in Germany as a student. He found himself paying about 50-60pc tax in Germany and so he gave up his construction job and started figuring out how to get that tax back.
Back in Ireland, Clune used college computers at night to process tax-refund applications for his friends and other students. The service became a hit and when Clune graduated he employed three people and opened a small office in Dublin.
Clune now heads up a wholly Irish-owned company with 27 offices in 20 countries and clients in more than 200 countries. In the last 13 years, Taxback.com has built strategic partnerships with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Visa Europe, Concur and 3GSM.
In 2011, Clune participated on the judging panel of the HSBC European Business Awards and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, and has also been part of the Irish government-led Irish Global Economic Forum.
Locally, he is a member of Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce and the southeast FUSE Initiative, led by Enterprise Ireland.
John Collison, co-founder of Stripe
John Collison is originally from Limerick, Ireland.
He is a co-founder of Stripe, a web-payments company based in San Francisco, Calif.
Previously, he co-founded Auctomatic, which Live Current Media acquired for $5 million in 2008.
Collison has studied physics at Harvard University.
Adele Cooper, director of Global Business Partnerships, Facebook
Adele Cooper is a director of Global Business Partnerships at Facebook, based in London. In this role, she develops and drives key, strategic brand partnerships globally.
Prior to her current role at Facebook, Cooper served as director of Global Customer Marketing and Communications for Facebook, based in Palo Alto, Calif., where she oversaw all outbound marketing and communications to Facebook’s advertising clients and agency partners globally.
Previously, Cooper spent six years at Google, where she was director of Global Customer Marketing. In her early years at Google, she was director for Online Sales & Operations for the UK, Irish and Benelux markets, based at the company’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin.
Prior to joining Google, Cooper spent several years in business development at a number of different technology ventures. She began her career in finance and business planning at Disney Interactive (the multi-media division of The Walt Disney Company), based in both the US and France.
Cooper has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Read our interview with Adele Cooper.
Dennis Crowley, co-founder of foursquare
Dennis Crowley is the co-founder of foursquare, a service that combines social networks, location awareness and game mechanics to encourage people explore the world around them.
Previously, Crowley founded dodgeball.com, one of the first mobile social services in the U.S. that Google acquired in 2005.
Crowley has been named one of Fortune‘s “40 Under 40” (2010, 2011), a member of Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment” (2011) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). He is currently an adjunct professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program.
Crowley holds a master’s degree from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and a bachelor’s degree from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.
Sean Cunningham, director, Strategic Investments, Intel Capital
Sean Cunningham has spent more than 25 years managing, investing and building companies in the high-tech industry.
Cunningham joined Intel in 1994 and has held management roles in sales and marketing. He spent three years as an entrepreneur with Intel start-up companies funded by Intel New Business Investment group. He has been making equity investments with Intel Capital since 2000, and is now director of Strategic Investments, responsible for enterprise and internet security technology investments for Intel.
Cunningham also serves as the Intel Capital Board of Director Observer on Agiliance, Credant Technologies, Crossbeam Systems, Mocana, SS8 Networks and Workshare. He has also been investment director and BoD Observer for Zone Labs, Musicmatch, Trymedia, Cloakware, Lockdown Networks, SignaCert, TriCipher and Accertify.
Prior to Intel, Cunningham held marketing and service management roles for more than five years at Sequent Computers and finance management and marketing positions for seven years at ISC Systems.
Cunningham has a BBA in finance and management and a MBA, both from Gonzaga University.
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