Irish Govt appoints Michael McGrath as interim CIO

20 Feb 2014

Michael McGrath, a technology leader from the private sector, has been appointed interim CIO for the Irish Government.

He replaces outgoing CIO Bill McCluggage who is leaving the post this month for personal reasons.

McGrath joins the Office of Government CIO (OGCIO) from his position as executive VP of IT at ICON plc, where he was a member of the executive management team reporting to the CEO.

ICON plc is a US$1.2bn Irish-headquartered company and the number four global provider of outsourced drug development services to the pharmaceutical industry.

He previously worked as head of Group IT and director of IT for Europe in the same organisation.

Prior to joining ICON, McGrath held key senior IT roles in GE Capital and Woodchester Bank, as well as ESBI Computing Ltd.

McGrath holds a BSc. in Information Technology from Dublin City University, is a Sigma Six Black Belt and is a member of the Irish Computer Society (ICS).

Earlier this week we reporte the Irish Government’s Office of the CIO has signed a €3.3m memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft to handle security issues that could affect four critical State departments when support for Windows XP ends in April.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

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