Former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, along with Irish executives who hold C-level management positions at top Silicon Valley tech companies, will return to Ireland for a week in November to hold a series of workshops and meetings.
The third annual “Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland” event, which is scheduled for 15 – 17 November 2010, will be jointly hosted by NUI Galway and the University of Limerick.
The Irish Technology Leaders Group (ITLG) is a group of Irish and American senior executives in Silicon Valley who are committed to ensuring that Ireland remains not only attractive for mobile investment by US technology giants but also that Irish entrepreneurs can grow global businesses.
The 600-strong network consists of seasoned Silicon Valley executives such as: John Hartnett, CEO of G24 Innovations and formerly of Palm; Rory McInerney, vice-president of Intel; John Gilmore, CEO of Sling Media; Barry O’Sullivan, senior vice-president of Cisco; and Conrad Burke, president and CEO of Innovalight.
Last year, Siliconrepublic learned that the ITLG is in the process of creating its own US$100m venture capital fund and in March the organisation opened its own innovation centre for Irish start-ups in Silicon Valley.
During the week in November, experts from the fields of venture capital, advanced materials technology, clean tech energy, and information technology from Silicon Valley, California, will meet with selected Irish companies in a series of development workshops.
The 2010 University Innovation Challenge Award will be awarded by Batt O’Keeffe, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to the most innovative start-up company idea submitted from an Irish university.
The 2010 gala dinner, sponsored by Shannon Development, will take place on Wednesday, 17 November. This year’s guest speaker will be former chairman of Intel Corporation and ITLG chairman Dr Craig Barrett.
“We are delighted to be hosting the third ITLG event in Limerick and Galway this year,” said Hartnett, founder of the ITLG.
“We are planning a very exciting and productive week with Irish entrepreneurs,” he added. Welcoming the announcement, Prof Brian Fitzgerald, vice-president research at the University of Limerick, commented: “UL and NUI Galway are very focused on translational research and see this partnership with ITLG and Shannon Development as an excellent model of collaborative open innovation in relation to commercialisation of our research, and very much in keeping with enacting the smart economy.”
