Paul Rellis, managing director, Microsoft Ireland
9th March 2010
There's a large appetite for entrepreneurship.
The appetite is large for entrepreneurship, it needs to be. There are only a couple of things that are going to create 100,000 jobs or 50,000 jobs for the country for the next 10–20 years, and I think entrepreneurship is one of those dynamics that can create that scale of jobs and business.
The appetite is huge not just from regulators but from people themselves. There are many attributes of entrepreneurship, it isn’t all about hi-tech stuff or people in white coats. Actually, it is less about the ‘R’ in R&D and more about the ‘D’ for development; about taking great ideas and what science has already discovered for us and developing business models, developing ways of selling but using great technology to do that. Hopefully that’s going to be the focus in the future.
I think we definitely have to open up the markets using the Enterprise Ireland-type models that are there today.
I think though that something at a different scale is needed. Before you get into funding entrepreneurs I think we need to go back and reset how we educate people to be entrepreneurs, ethically and morally, and how we teach them about working with people all over the world, partnering with people in different cultures, about communicating to different cultures.
There’s a whole educational need around business and entrepreneurship that can be added to the natural flair that Irish people have for selling and connecting with people.
Paul Rellis' biography
Paul Rellis was appointed managing director of Microsoft Ireland in December 2007 and is responsible for Microsoft Corporation’s business in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and also represents Microsoft on all strategic policy and communications issues in Ireland.
Prior to being appointed MD, Rellis was the managing director for Microsoft’s European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Operations Centre, based in Sandyford, Co Dublin, where he was responsible for services across 131 countries. Previously, he held the position of finance director for Microsoft Operations in EMEA and Asia-Pacific.
He joined Microsoft in January 2000 from The Coca-Cola Company, where he held a variety of senior positions in finance, marketing and operations.
Rellis was president of the American Chamber of Commerce in 2008 and continues to be a board member of the organisation. He is also a member of the governing body of IBEC, is a member of the board of the IMI and of the National Digital Research Centre. He also chair of the Joint Implementation Group set up by the Department of Education under the €150-million plan for ‘Smart Schools’.
He is also the chair of the steering group that is looking at the development of a new national strategy for higher education in Ireland.
