The early entrepreneur

Sri Lankan-born Raomal Perera of mobile payments firm Valista is one of Ireland's prominent technology veterans and serial entrepreneurs.

Perera was working as an engineer in the UK technology sector when he met his Irish future wife. After they married and returned to Ireland, he became a founder of pioneering Irish software company Isocor in the early 1900s. Isocor was an e-mail applications company that created one of the key elements of the internet's e-mail handling architecture. It was sold with a valuation of $450 million (€307 million) to US company Critical Path.

Before long Perera was back with a new company, Network365, focused on the then-emerging area of mobile payments and transactions. Valista was formed in 2003 after the merger of Network365 and US payments company iPIN.

Perera was invited to be one of 40 global experts on the World Economic Forum's technology panel a few years ago, and Valista has received the Best Mobile Application Developer Award from the GSM Association twice among other awards and was chosen as "Most Innovative Company 2006" at the International Business Awards known as "The Stevies".

Customers today include AOL, Orange, Vodafone, 3, France Telecom and Taito.

Perera has long been clear in his opinions on where Irish policy should be on encouraging immigration. Speaking before the 2002 general election, he said the government should actively "position Ireland as a centre of excellence for next-generation technology. The Government should continue to create a society that attracts high-calibre engineers from different cultures," he said.

"Look at Silicon Valley - it is a melting pot of smart engineers from all over the world helping to create the world's best software. Ireland could be home to a centre of excellence for next-generation technology if the Government continues to promote and support a multicultural society and the influx of foreign expertise."

Raomal Perera, founder, chief executive, Valista