Jim O'Hara, general manager, Intel Ireland
9th March 2010
There is need for indigenous business growth.
Much of the future growth that the country will rely on will be defined by start-up companies rather than by large established corporations. Ireland has enjoyed much growth and success in the past as a result of foreign direct investment, but this is unlikely to shape our future prosperity.
What we must now focus on is the potential for future growth from indigenous development and the associated wealth and benefit that will come from entrepreneurship within the country. As Craig Barrett, retired CEO/chairman of the board, Intel, recently said, entrepreneurship not only creates wealth but in turn also puts pressure on established corporations to advance faster and grow.
Therefore, the environment that we create for entrepreneurship is key. Some of the factors in that environment will be tangible and relate to aspects such as tax rates, the level of digital infrastructure available, and the administrative ease of establishing a new company.
There are, however, factors of the environment that are intangible and therefore can be harder to control.
These include our society’s intolerance of failure, the attitude towards entrepreneurship and the level of risk adversity displayed in a society.
It is crucial that as many of these factors as possible are met to support new business. We need also to ensure we not only look to new business start-ups in the wider environment but that we encourage internal entrepreneurship within existing companies, which will generate new ideas and growth.
Jim O'Hara's biography
Jim O’Hara is vice-president, Technology Manufacturing Group, Intel Corporation and Intel Ireland general manager.
He took over the role of Intel Ireland general manager in April 2002 and is responsible for Intel’s manufacturing operations in Ireland and for the site’s strategic direction, management leadership and development, and government and community relations.
O’Hara joined Intel in 1991 as part of the Fab 10 start-up team. He became plant manager for Fab 10 in 1996 and subsequently managed both Fab 10 and Fab 14, now known as Ireland Fab Operations.
Prior to joining Intel, O’Hara worked in Digital Equipment Corporation for 17 years, the last five of which were based in their corporate headquarters in Massachusetts.
A past president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, he is a board member of the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School at UCD and Business in the Community Ireland. He is also a council member of IRCSET (Irish Research Council for Science Engineering and Technology).
In 2009, O’Hara was appointed to the board of Enterprise Ireland by An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD. He holds an honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the National University of Ireland.
