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INNOVATION
February/March 2013 www.esb.ie/em
ESBI appoints two new business development managers
As ESB International's business development plans continue at pace, two new managers have been appointed to international positions.
ESBI
Paul Farrell has been appointed as ESBI Country Manager for Africa and Paraic McGrath has been appointed as ESBI Manager for Asia. Both managers will report directly to ESBI Business Development Manager Seán Atkinson.
Paul recently relocated to South Africa to take up a position as ESBI Country Manager for Africa and will be based in Johannesburg. He will facilitate the relocation of the current temporary office in South Africa to a new office that will support the growing number of services being offered to ESBI's clients in South Africa.
PARAIC MCGRATH
Manager for Asia, ESB International
In Asia, Paraic McGrath has taken up his position as ESBI's Manager for the Asia region. Paraic is now exploring further business development opportunities for ESB International in the Asian market.
Paraic is a member of the Global Irish Network, Chairman of the Asian Gulf GAA Board and Director of the not-for-profit Farmleigh Fellowship. He is highly networked individual. He worked most recently for an Irish software company helping to start and build their business in Asia before joining ESBI in December last year. Paraic trained as a primary school teacher in St Patricks College, Drumcondra, and he left Ireland in 1990 to teach on the JET Program in Kyoto, Japan. He started a career as an Fx Swaps Trader in 1991 and worked in Tokyo, London, Sydney and, finally, in Singapore where he has lived since 2003.
Extensive opportunities exist for ESBI to work with the South African electricity utility Eskom, and we are currently involved in a project to relocate the Acacia OCGT generation plant. The South Africa team advised Eskom on a number of areas, including gas strategy and compatible units for transmission and distribution (T&D) projects. Eskom has submitted a further request for ESBI to become involved with its generation excellence programme.
PAUL FARRELL
Country Manager Africa, ESB International
Paul has worked in ESB and ESBI since 1997 in various senior roles in project management and in station management in Moneypoint and Poolbeg. Prior to joining ESBI, Paul worked in various engineering and management positions with ESKOM in South Africa. He achieved the level of Chief Engineer and Engineering Manager of Matimba Power Station and also worked for a year in Botswana as Power Plant Manager for the Botswana Power Corporation.
Paul studied in London where he qualified as an Engineer and worked in the Engineering Department of London Transport for seven years.
Appreciation
It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our esteemed colleague and friend Sreejith Lal, following a short illness, on Tuesday December 18th.
Lal worked with ESBI Bahrain from December 2003 as a Senior High Voltage Substations Engineer. He was a tireless worker for ESBI and much praised by the client for his diligence to duty. Lal was well respected by his colleagues in Bahrain and will be sadly missed by all. Lal, who came from India, was 44 years old and is survived by his father, brother and only son.
May his soul rest in peace.
Focusing on Cleantech and strengthening ties with IDA
ESBI
THE ESB CLEANTECH fund is in operation for over three years now and has investments in 10 companies that are providing 270 jobs in Ireland. Its objective is to leverage the learning and knowledge transfer to the benefit of ESB's business units. It does this in a number of ways, including through the Technology Committee, which has representatives from all of the businesses as well as corporate centre. It also runs a series of workshops to perform analysis and promote discussion about emerging sectors of potential strategic interest to ESB such as the recent step change reduction in the cost of solar energy. In December, it organised a ‘Cleantech and Renewables’ seminar with IDA's Cleantech team led by IDA CEO Barry O'Leary. The focus was on sharing ESB's knowledge in key areas of the emerging low carbon economy to assist IDA's team to promote Ireland as a desirable destination for Foreign Direct Investment. Head of ESB Innovation John McSweeney opened proceedings with a warm welcome and spoke about developing closer ties between ESB and IDA to foster economic growth in the fast growing sectors of renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy management in Ireland. The seminar was run over a half-day in ESB's conference centre and was a great success leading directly to a number of follow up opportunities for both IDA and ESB.
Also in December 2012, the Fund Adviser changed its name from ‘Novusmodus’ to ‘Greencoat Capital’. The rebranding reflects the planned expansion of the adviser's services.
The services provided to ESB remain unchanged and any new adviser activities will be supported by additional resources.
The new web address is www.greencoat-capital.com.
ESB INTERNATIONAL HOSTS ANNUAL CONFERENCE
ESB International's annual conference was held in Croke Park on Friday December 14th
ESBI
The annual event is a gathering of ESBI staff to take a retrospective look at the successes and achievements of the past year, while looking forward to the objectives and challenges of the year to come. Exhibition stands from Ocean Energy, ESB ecars, Corporate Strategy and Electric Ireland were present, which acknowledged that ESBI is part of the wider ESB Group.
ESBI Managing Director Ollie Brogan opened the conference by emphasising the importance of everyone's contribution to the success of ESBI, saying, “In effect, every one of us is a brand ambassador for ESBI.”
Ollie said, “The success of ESBI depends heavily on how our brand is perceived across a range of measures, including the quality of our work, our client portfolio and our customer service and that everybody's contribution is fundamental to this success.”
At the event, Chief Executive Pat O'Doherty presented the new Corporate Strategy for ESB. He outlined the milestones the company has already achieved and the challenges facing ESB and he presented the vision through the ESB strategy 2025 Roadmap.
Head of Innovation, John McSweeney, presented on the new Innovation directorate, of which ESB international is a part. John spoke about the exciting development that this presented for the company and ESB's commitment to pioneering emerging energy technologies and smart infrastructure. The importance, roles and functions for each area of the Innovation directorate were outlined, including ESB International, Ocean Energy, Telecoms, ESB NovusModus, ESB ecars and the Fibre to the Building Project.
MC for the Conference was Engineering Manager Donal Phelan who gave a presentation of the year's achievements encompassing work done, projects successfully carried out, contracts won and other highlights such as sporting, charity, delegation visits and events of the year were displayed.
There were four, varied presentations given by ESBI staff highlighting different perspectives of working life within ESB International, as well as outlining some of the exciting aspects of working abroad. ESBI was privileged to have Irish Paralympic hand-cyclist Mark Rohan as a guest speaker. While being interviewed by Ollie Brogan, Mark spoke about his great achievement this summer, winning two gold medals in the men's 16km road time-trial and in the men's 48km road race at the London Paralympics. Mark outlined his personal experiences and how, by using his strong mental resolve, he overcame adversity and ultimately became victorious on multiple levels.
ESBI STAFF PRESENTATIONS
• HV Cables Senior Consultant Robert Donaghy' presented on ‘ESB Networks and International Projects’ encompassed the many challenges and successes the Cork Harbour Project in Aghada and of the Tanzania-Zanzibar 132kV Interconnector project.
• Power Plant Engineering Consultant John McLoughlin presented on his experiences living and working in Romania during ESBI's work on Brazi, the Romania's largest ever power project.
• Country Manager for Turkey Hakan Karaalioglu spoke on ‘Turkey: The Cradle of Civilisation’, outlining some of the Turkey's rich history, it's culture and addressing many of the misconceptions and little known facts about the region.
• Power Plant Engineering Consultant Annraoi Caffrey offered an insight into his travels and adventures while working in South Africa.
Ollie closed the proceedings by thanking all ESBI staff for their great efforts and commitment to the company in 2012. He highlighted the hard work put in by the Annual Conference Committee who helped shape the successful event. Finally, he thanked Mark Rohan for sharing his experiences with the audience.
