The Irish Tech News Podcast

We catch up with Dara Keogh to learn more about GeoDirectory their innovative work in Ireland, and the challenges and opportunities they have faced since the global pandemic. Dara Keogh is the CEO of GeoDirectory, a cutting edge technology company. GeoDirectory provides a unique and definitive database of all 2.2 million residential and business addresses in the Republic of Ireland. Key to Dara’s role is the development of easy to use, intuitive services that help organisations capitalise on one their most important assets, namely their own data. An MBA graduate of UCD, Dara rose through the ranks of An Post where he served in a number of sales and marketing management roles, before taking up the helm at GeoDirectory in 2007. Dara, who is regular speaker at business and tech conferences, specialises in innovation, data management, location mapping and address management. With a keen interest in marketing and consumer behaviour, Dara applies his knowledge to service improvements and continual upgrades for the business, crucial in such a fast paced sector  Dara uses his leadership skills to empower his team to help grow GeoDirectory’s client base and to manage a wide range of complex data projects. Helping clients increase their revenues through clever applications of data provides him with the greatest job satisfaction. Jointly established by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland, GeoDirectory is Ireland's truest source of complete, accurate address and location information services. Set up over 20 years ago to create a directory of all the residential and commercial addresses in Ireland, Geodirectorys database currently contains 1.9 million buildings and over 2.2 million addresses in the Republic of Ireland. Using a team of data scientists and technology experts, GeoDirectory has created and now manages a definitive reference dictionary of addresses for all 1.9 million buildings that receive post in the Republic of Ireland, assigning them with precise postal and geographic addresses, ensuring location accuracy of 1 square meter for all. The combination of An Post’s intimate knowledge of every building in every village, town and city in the Republic of Ireland with the unmatched technology and geographical expertise of OSI, ensures GeoDirectory has the most powerful and sophisticated address database in Ireland. Through this, GeoDirectory has developed an extensive business data toolkit that is used by businesses of all sizes, in all sectors and industries, from delivering pizzas to ensuring emergency services reach their intended location and a whole host of services in between. With customers ranging from Government departments to private organisations, put the power of Ireland’s most comprehensive and accurate database to work for your business.  Some of our core data services below:  GeoAddress   GeoAddress Checked  GeoAddress Fixed For more information, visit our website at www.geodirectory.ie

People are often led to believe that wind and solar energy are effective replacements for fossil fuels on their own. This is not the case, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an effective additional system for producing clean energy. Rachel talks with Craig Golinowski about California’s energy crisis, and how it arose from having an energy demand much higher than the supply. Craig discusses the mechanics and market for CCS and also highlights the importance of understanding energy. Craig is the President and Managing Partner at JOG Capital, he has 18 years of experience in the financial and oil and gas industry and has been active in the private equity fund management since 2007. Before working at JOG, Craig worked as an investment banker with RBC Capital Markets, where he focused on equity finance and mergers and acquisitions for domestic and international oil and gas, oil sands and energy service companies. Rachel is a Journalism student at Coventry University, currently interning with Irish Tech News – which marks the start of a partnership between the two institutions. Rachel’s main interests are politics and conflict, human rights, animal welfare and the environment.

The team here at ITN has to remain mobile and diverse in order to engage a wider and loyal audience.  Every few months we bring in new interns who bring fresh perspective and values that help stir up and re-energise the team as a whole.  For the month of July we welcome Ebony to our team.  Learn more about what she brings and find out more about her in this podcast. Ebony Ximines-Parke Ebony is a Journalism postgrad at the University of  Roehampton. After completing her degree in Creative Writing, she wanted  to specialise in Journalism to write stories that she felt needed new angles. She also wanted to highlight the voices that don’t get enough space. Ebony also is a TikTok content creator that works with hair care and hair accessory brands. She also is a women’s empowerment event coordinator. The events are run quarterly and specifically for giving a space for women to come and learn, heal and empower each other. If you would like to see more, please check her TikTok: @jamjamjamillah And her Instagram: @nesiasworkshops

Waterland launched a year ago in Ireland. It’s an independent private equity investment group that was set up 21 years ago in Holland. They have also recently launched a €2.5bn pan-European fund with no set geographical allocations. Ireland is one of its key targets over the coming months.  They’ve recently appointed Laura Dillion to lead the Irish operation and she hopes to support many businesses here in Ireland.  Ronan talks to Laura Dillon, Head of Ireland at Waterland Private Equity about this and more. Laura talks about her background, what Waterland does, what sectors Waterland invest in, the criteria they look for before they invest, the tech areas they are interested in, how she has coped with Covid, remote working. Laura also talks about the digital transformation taking place the Irish entrepreneurial spirit compared to to other countries, and her passion for sailing. More about Laura Dillon: Laura Dillon is a Principal at Waterland in Dublin, Ireland and is leading the Waterland Irish Team. Prior to joining Waterland, Laura was a Principal at Riverside Europe Partners in London, UK. Prior to this, Laura co-founded and was CEO at DSI Distribution Solutions Ireland Ltd, a leading healthcare distribution company in the Irish market. Laura started her career as a Strategy Consultant with McKinsey & Company and she has also worked for Intelligent Finance (internet bank of HBOS Plc) as their Strategy Manager, for WorldRemit as their Chief of Staff and a Senior Associate at Apax Partners. Laura holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School, USA and a Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland. In 1992 Laura won silver at the Optimist world championships, the largest sailing class in the world. Four years later she took bronze at the youth world championships and became the only female sailor to win the Irish Helmsman's Championships in its 60-year history. Laura has also used what she has learnt in sailing in the business world.

While banking should be a borderless experience, in reality, it is far from it. Immigrant communities for example, face a list of challenges from language barriers to lack of credit history and high wire fees. In 2018 alone, US immigrants spent over US$1 trillion, with international students contributing $42 billion to that sum. The market is ripe for change. In this episode of #OneVision, Theo and Bradley chat with Ken Lian, Co-founder & CEO of Cheese Financial, the first banking solution designed for immigrants in the U.S. that does not require a social security number or credit history. Cheese also features a social component, with cash back that empowers consumers to support Asian owned businesses and restaurants. In the age of deep social divide, we were inspired by Ken’s passion and drive to make a positive impact. And we hope you will too.

On 30 June, Philip Colbert will unveil LOBSTEROPOLIS CITY, his first fully digital exhibition, opening within the ‘metaverse’ of Decentraland – seeing the artist’s lobster universe evolve into its latest iteration. Curated by globally renowned art auctioneer and dealer Simon de Pury at the Lobster Land Museum, the exhibition includes a series of NFT works available exclusively with NFT platform Super Rare. These include Colbert’s iconic past works Cryptofixtion and Lobster Fountain, alongside new unseen NFT works. This marks the most ambitious and largest-scale single artist venture to be seen in Decentraland to date. To visit LOBSTEROPOLIS CITY, head here and create your avatar: https://play.decentraland.org/?position=-103%2C147  Tune to to hear all about Philip's obsession with lobsters - "I became an artist when I became a lobster." Your host is Jillian Godsil, award winning journalist, broadcaster and author. Her latest book is available at https://persons-of-interest.io/

It was a great pleasure to chat to Cillian Murphy recently about his latest news and updates on his analog missions.  We touched on a few areas that he's been working on and what his plans are for the future.  We'll be thinking of him as he awaits news from ESA! Cillian Murphy Cillian is an astrophysicist who grew up travelling the world. Today he holds a Masters' degree in Space Science and Technology, speaks 4  languages and has experience working in both the biofuels and space industries. He has worked with the European Space Agency and aspires to  become an astronaut.

Equinix recently announced the findings of its annual global study. Findings of the study included: 62% of businesses in Ireland have rearchitected their IT infrastructure to meet new remote and hybrid working demands, with tech budgets increasing to accelerate digital transformation. 75% of digital leaders in Ireland believe there will be long-term changes to where and how people work within their organisation. 49% of companies in Ireland still intend to expand into new regions, countries or metros, despite the disruption experienced as a result of COVID-19. Ronan talks to Maurice Mortell, Managing Director Ireland and Emerging Markets Equinix, about this and more. Maurice talks about the findings of its annual global study, how Ireland compared to other countries, hot desks, remote working, cloud computing and broadband. Maurice also talks about sustainability, climate neutral data centre pact, legacy infrastructure, and green bonds. More about Maurice: Maurice overseas the Equinix business in Ireland, playing a key role in the Equinix Ireland strategy and expansion and Executive Council Member, Host in Ireland. Maurice also sits on the Equinix executive management team for EMEA. Prior to this, Maurice was appointed as the Country Manager for Ireland with Telecity Group in August 2011 and was also selected as the VP of Emerging Markets in January 2014. Prior to his role within Telecity, Maurice was the CEO of Irish data centre operator, Data Electronics for over 10 years. As CEO, Maurice set the vision and strategy for the company, driving consistent business growth during his leadership tenure. With over 20 years’ experience in the data centre sector, Maurice has been a key figure in the rise of the data-centre industry in Ireland and is highly regarded as a thought leader on Ireland’s potential to be a global digital hub.

David Savage is Associate Vice President, UK & Ireland for Geotab,  the world’s largest commercial telematics company. In this role, David leads the operational, commercial and organisational activities of the region. He has accountability for the delivery of Geotab’s overall strategy and realisation of the company’s ambitious growth targets in support of its wider European growth focus. With more than 15 years experience within operations and transport management, David has a proven ability in helping businesses to scale sustainably. Prior to joining Geotab, he held the role of UK General Manager at FreeNow (formerly MyTaxi and Hailo), Europe’s leading e-hailing app. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrdavidsavage Jamil Hasan is a Generation X Author and experienced data intelligence technology builder with two decades of experience leading data-based teams at Fortune 100 companies, including AIG, Prudential Financial, and Ingersoll Rand. Jamil believes that skill and experience, not just age, is the most important factor required to build and lead corporate organizations. His unique story, as someone on the ground floor of the 2008 financial crisis and his role to help repay the $180 billion AIG bailout, enabled him to come face-to-face with many of the societal ills facing Generation X today and their causes. As the result of his experience, Jamil has developed a path forward for his fellow Gen Xers to restore his generation’s financial standing in society today and to rebuild the American Dream for Generation X.

Pradeep Goel is the Chief Executive Officer of Solve.Care, a global healthcare company that redefines care coordination, improves access to care, empowers consumers with information, reduces benefit administration costs, and helps reduce fraud and waste in healthcare around the world. Pradeep has more than 25 years of healthcare experience, developing groundbreaking software for the insurance industry, and co-founding four healthcare IT businesses where he has served in a number of management roles. Jamil Hasan is a Generation X Author and experienced data intelligence technology builder with two decades of experience leading data-based teams at Fortune 100 companies, including AIG, Prudential Financial, and Ingersoll Rand. Jamil believes that skill and experience, not just age, is the most important factor required to build and lead corporate organizations. His unique story, as someone on the ground floor of the 2008 financial crisis and his role to help repay the $180 billion AIG bailout, enabled him to come face-to-face with many of the societal ills facing Generation X today and their causes. As the result of his experience, Jamil has developed a path forward for his fellow Gen Xers to restore his generation’s financial standing in society today and to rebuild the American Dream for Generation X.