An Irishman with a strong background in finance and the global IT industry has been selected to head up Google’s EMEA operations, siliconrepublic.com has learned.
Qualified chartered accountant and University College Dublin graduate John Herlihy has spent more than 10 years overseas working for major technology brands in Asia, the US and Europe.
Herlihy joins Google after two years in a joint role as chief financial officer and chief operations officer at Stuttgart-headquartered mobile payments software firm Encorus.
Prior to working at Encorus, Herlihy was a senior vice-president and general manager of Epiphany covering EMEA. Earlier he worked for Adobe Systems, Oracle and KPMG.
According to a well-placed source, Herlihy will effectively be Google’s main man outside the US and will assume the role in March.
Google, one of the world’s fastest-growing companies, raised US$4.35bn when it floated on the New York Stock Exchange in August.
Two years ago the internet search giant chose Dublin as the site for its European headquarters with plans to create 200 jobs within three years. The company already employs 150 people in sales, marketing, human resources, legal and financial roles.
The company is one of a growing cluster of global internet brands coming to Ireland to establish major operations. Only last week portal player Yahoo! signalled its intent to establish a major 400-job European operation.
By John Kennedy
