By Business & Finance 
Cathriona Hallahan, managing director, Microsoft Ireland
Microsoft today confirmed that a development has commenced at a new state-of-the-art campus in Leopardstown, Co. Dublin, as the company celebrates 30 years in Ireland.
The new campus will be home to Microsoft’s team of 1,200 employees in Ireland and represents an investment of €134m.
All of Microsoft’s operations will be positioned at one facility for the first time in Ireland, with teams representing finance, operations, sales, R&D, development and engineering.
The campus, being built by BAM Contractors, will deliver intelligent cloud platforms to assist with the company’s business support and will utilise the latest cloud technologies across its operations.
Minister Bruton TD, Ministers for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, commented: “Microsoft was one of the first US companies to choose Ireland as a location for its EMEA operations. And its decision in recent years to locate its European Data Centre in Ireland is very welcome and been a great boost to the area. Microsoft’s leadership in areas such as cloud services and its prioritisation of security and privacy for users’ data is something that we welcome. Its approach to these areas and the leadership shown from Ireland is contributing to Ireland’s enhanced reputation abroad as a location of choice for the ICT industry.”
Eric Boustouller, corporate vice President, Microsoft Western Europe, said: “In 30 years, we have grown our Irish footprint from a small manufacturing operation with 100 employees to an EMEA Centre of Excellence with 1,200 highly skilled team members. We anticipate our new campus will be a place of innovation and collaboration, critical to supporting our company’s vision to help every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more. The support of the Irish Government, its agencies, the business community and the local community have been instrumental in bringing us to this point, and we look forward to a continued strategic cooperation for many years to come. ”
Cathriona Hallahan of Microsoft Ireland added: “This campus is all about the future – it’s about helping our people to come together in an environment that is conducive to learning and which will serve as a test-bed for new ideas. We think the campus will change perceptions of what a ‘workplace’ is – from its nature-rich setting to the cutting-edge technology that is informing its design. Our team members will enjoy a totally new experience, while our customers will see the benefits in the level of invention generated in the solutions we provide.”
