Storage and software technology giant EMC, which has been in Ireland almost 20 years and is on its way to employing 2,000 people in Cork, has appointed an Irishman who heads up a Fortune 500 company to its board of directors.
EMC, which employs 1,600 people in Ovens, Cork, and earlier this year announced plans to create a further 369 jobs at its VMWare virtualisation software division, was established in 1969 by an Irish-American family, the Egans, and today has revenues in excess of US$11.9bn (2006 revenues).
The company this week revealed that an Irishman, Edmund “Ted” F. Kelly is to join its board of directors.
Kelly has built up a formidable track record as a businessman in the US and today is chairman, president and CEO of Liberty Mutual Group. As of early 2007 Liberty Mutual was number 95 on the Fortune 500 list of the largest American corporations and had consolidated assets of $85.5bn and $23.5bn in annual consolidated revenue.
Kelly graduated from Queen’s University in Belfast and obtained his PhD in mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He has been on the board of directors of Liberty Mutual since 1992 and is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
He also sits on the boards of the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay, the Boston Private Industry Council, the American Ireland Fund, the Insurance Information Institute and various other community and education boards in the US.
“As part of the company’s on-going search process, the EMC Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and the EMC Board of Directors chose Ted after thorough discussions with numerous highly qualified candidates,” EMC chief executive Joe Tucci said.
“An active Fortune 500 CEO, Ted brings a wealth of complex management, worldwide operational and financial expertise to EMC’s strong board. We look forward to his significant contributions toward making EMC an even more successful and dynamic global leader for our shareholders, employees and customers,” Tucci added.
By John Kennedy
