Graham Byrne, head of Ireland and Scotland business, Promethean
26th July 2010
Richie Baneham’s success with Avatar is a great example of how Irish talent can be exported globally. One of the issues is how we can harness these opportunities for Ireland. The top 10 roles that exist now didn’t exist 10 years ago. We have to accept that the world has changed, at a pace not seen before. Our education system and everything associated with it has to change at a rapid pace if we wish to keep up.
If you did a quantitative analysis in this space you’re looking at a healthy salary and every organisation in that digital space that is looking for your services. I think if someone put that question to me five years ago I’d have a completely different career in mind for them.
We have to be really mindful that these kids have to be able to change, innovate and be creative if they’re going to be prepared for the opportunities. They don’t have the same luxury you and I had going to school where we had a clear view of the career opportunities.
Those opportunities are changing at such a rapid pace now, they have to have a mindset that they need to change at an equally fast pace to be competitive in the jobs market. Actual innovation and creativity, the same rules apply.
Graham Byrne's biography
Graham Byrne is the head of Promethean’s businesses in Ireland and Scotland.
He took over the role of Head of Ireland in February 2009 and assumed leadership of the Scottish business in December 2009.
He has overall responsibility for developing and implementing market and channel strategies with a view to strengthening Promethean’s ActivClassroom market position.
A key focus has been building Promethean’s educator support capabilities, and enhancing its strong links with government, teacher and parent communities. Graham has been deeply involved in developing innovative partnerships with fund raisers designed to help schools to finance interactive classroom systems, and with educational publishers to create localised interactive curriculum resources.
Byrne was born in 1973. He began his career in sales with Cable in Wireless, working in a number of senior sales roles, before moving to Global Crossing Financial Markets in London as global account director, responsible for managing its global matrix sales teams. Byrne then joined MCI Worldcom (Verizon) in a similar capacity.
On returning to Dublin, Byrne embarked on a number of entrepreneurial ventures, including founding and selling a retail group and acquiring Ashfield, the second level and IT education group.
Byrne studied commerce in UCD before completing his MBA at the Smurfit Business School in 1996.
