Valley's Green elite link up to help new Irish tech wave

Senior leaders are helping each other and raising Ireland's tech profile, writes Karlin Lillingtonin Silicon Valley

IT'S A sunny day in Sunnyvale, one of the central cities in the elongated region known as Silicon Valley, and three Irish-born Valley technology executives arrive into a meeting room at handheld-maker Palm's headquarters and immediately start slagging one another.

One is an Intel vice-president, one is a senior vice-president at Palm and a venture capitalist, and the third is the chief executive of one of the hot young start-up companies in the Valley, but there's little formality and much good-natured banter. It's a very Irish form of socialising, which the group hope can be captured and put to more serious work on behalf of Ireland Inc.

The three - Conrad Burke, chief executive of solar energy start-up InnovaLight, Rory McInerney, Intel digital enterprise group vice-president, and John Hartnett, senior vice-president for global markets at Palm Inc and partner in Atlantic Bridge Ventures - are co-founders of the recently formed Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG, www.itlg.org), along with Johnny Gilmore, vice-president of operations at Sling Media, and Barry O'Sullivan, senior vice-president of Cisco's voice technology group.

When you look at the Irish in the US and the Irish in Silicon Valley, quite a few people have risen through the ranks, but "we were all individuals, not a unit", says Hartnett. "I was surprised no one had met up collectively and it seemed like a good idea."

Just how atomised Irish-born technology executives are hit home with Hartnett when the chief executive of Palm asked if he knew McInerney at Intel, and it turned out they had never met, even though they grew up within a few miles of each other.

"Our CEO introduced us. There's something wrong right there," laughs Hartnett.

While there are more informal social networking groups within the region, and an Irish social network group in San Francisco with a business development focus, nothing existed to connect the growing number of influential senior executives who feel they can help each other as well as help up-and-coming Irish companies find their way in the US, offer useful contacts, advise Irish organisations and the government, and generally raise the profile of Irish technology companies in places like Silicon Valley.

They recently held a well-attended major fundraiser at Stanford University, where they honoured Intel chief executive Craig Barrett and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin and gave several Irish companies in the Valley awards.

Promoted by a full-page advertisement in the San Jose Mercury News newspaper, such an event allowed Irish executives to get "the Irish technology story" out to other executives within their own big companies, says McInerney.

At his table, he had 10 Intel executives who didn't know much about Ireland until that evening, he says. "That has a soft benefit that a government doesn't have access to."

The Valley works on networks, he adds. But then, why wasn't such a group formed in the past? Most of the Valley's Irish executives left Ireland pre-Celtic Tiger, and developed their American careers over the past two decades, only reaching executive levels within the recent past, he notes.

"Until five to seven years ago, I wasn't at a level where I could make this kind of contribution," says McInerney, and the others nod in agreement. They say they wanted the group to be an executives group in order to tap into those who could be most influential.

"I think we're at a point in our careers where we want to give something back," says Burke. "Ireland's been very good to me and I have a great career based on my education and experience there. But it's a changed country, and now is a transitional point for Ireland, where the next wave of challenges need to be addressed. If we can influence, impact or contribute here, that's what we want to do."

Burke notes the difficulties many Irish start-ups experience trying to find venture capital in Ireland, and trying to gain entry into the US, for example - areas in which ITLG executives have a wealth of experience.

One of the challenges for the Irish tech crowd is the lingering "shillelagh and shamrocks" view of Ireland and the Irish, and that's where McInerney feels the ITLG can make a difference with Americans.

"We're in a different world," he says. "We have such a great history in the US, though, that it's somewhat eclipsing our future. We need to stand up and be counted as a technology leadership country."

ITLG's advisory board is full of prominent names: Rory O'Connor, Apple's chief information officer; Iona co-founder Chris Horn; John O'Grady, executive vice-president, Kodak; and Tony Redmond, chief technology officer, HP, among others, and general membership is growing.

"Plant a flag for Ireland, and the heads started popping up - execs and CEOs - asking, can I be a part of this," says Hartnett. They hope to develop a roster of networking meetings, events and seminars, both serious and social. But not just in the Valley.

"Technology isn't only in Silicon Valley. Having a critical mass in Silicon Valley is important, but we're not limited to the Valley," says McInerney.

Adds Hartnett: "We want to make sure ITLG is global."

"One of the challenges for the Irish tech crowd is the lingering "shillelagh and shamrocks" view of Ireland and

the Irish