March 2013: Martin Murphy, managing director, Hewlett Packard (HP) Ireland

Barry O’Connor, managing partner, MERC Partners; Kieran Duff, partner, MERC Partners; Martin Murphy, managing director, Hewlett Packard Ireland.

Hewlett Packard continues to invest in Ireland, generating employment in the technology and construction industries.

Technology giant Hewlett Packard (HP) has announced that up to 150 construction workers will be employed to build a new facility on its site at Ballybrit in Galway.

The new 8,000sqm building will have the capacity to accommodate up to 700 staff to support software development, cloud innovation and business services for HP worldwide. Martin Murphy, managing director of HP Ireland said the decision to construct a new facility in Galway was an exciting and important development.

Because

HP Ireland employs around 4,500 people, with facilities in Leixlip, Dublin, Galway and Belfast. It operates in more than 170 countries around the world and brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure.

“This investment in Ballybrit is an endorsement of Galway as a strategic location of choice for HP and affirms the company’s ongoing commitment to its operations in this country,” Murphy said.

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny reiterated the point by saying that the project would provide a much-needed boost to the construction industry.“HP has been a valued business partner in Ireland throughout the years and this new investment will see HP and Ireland remain at the forefront of software research and cloud computing technology,” Kenny said.

CV

Martin Murphy is managing director of Hewlett Packard (HP) Ireland and is responsible for driving HP’s business growth in the Irish market. In recent years, HP Ireland has achieved record growth and is now the largest IT and services provider in Ireland.

In June 2000, Murphy was appointed to the role, having joined the company’s consulting organisation in 1986. In 1995 he was made sales director and presided over year-on-year double digit growth across all product lines in both the North and South of Ireland during the 1990s.

Since then, he has successfully steered the Irish operation through the Compaq merger, one of the largest in the history of the State.

In addition, Murphy has spearheaded various other global acquisitions locally, including the acquisition in 2008 of Electronic Data Systems, representing one of the biggest acquisitions ever made by a global ICT company and in 2006 of Mercury Interactive Corporation, a leading IT Management Software and services company. Murphy has also managed the acquisitions of Synstar and Schlumberger Business Continuity Services, significantly boosting HP Ireland’s capability in the services market.

In addition to Murphy’s commitments as managing director of HP Ireland, he serves on the board of the UCD Smurfit School and the Institute of Directors. He holds a Degree in Engineering and Maths and a Masters Degree in Electronic Engineering from Trinity College Dublin (TCD). Murphy was appointed as the independent Chair of the Steering Group which has responsibility for overseeing the implementation of the National Internship Scheme in June 2011.