MID-WEST BUSINESS COMMUNITY GATHERS AT DELL EMC TO HEAR FROM BUSINESS LEADER DENIS BROSNAN

150 members of the Mid-West business community took part in the first of a series of leadership discussions at the Dell EMC Campus in Limerick as part of the Limerick Chamber Regional Leaders’ Programme. The programme is being delivered by Limerick Chamber in collaboration with Dell EMC and University of Limerick. The audience heard from Denis Brosnan, former CEO, Kerry Group who spoke to the group about leadership insights and challenges he has overcome during his career.

Today was the first of five leadership talks that will take place at Dell EMC’s Limerick Campus over the coming year. Each of these leadership talks are private sessions for the 150 participants signed up to the programme. In between the bi-monthly leadership talks, the 150 participants will participate in smaller groups with a mentor. This will be a senior leader from the region who will work with them to develop their leadership skills. Each group will receive a new mentor every two months, ensuring that they are exposed to many different leadership styles drawn from a broad range of sectors.

Speaking today Timmy O’Dwyer, Vice President, Global Parts Operations and Limerick Site Leader for Dell EMC: “Dell EMC is delighted to be working with Limerick Chamber on this exciting programme to support the growth and development ambitions of the mid-west region. Since the launch in January we have received such positive feedback from the initiative. The details of the remaining events for the coming year will be announced soon but I know I speak for everyone attending today in saying that we’re delighted to have Denis Brosnan speaking at the inaugural event.”

Denis Brosnan is one of Ireland’s leading and most respected business men. He was the founder, chief executive and, until 2003, chairman of Kerry Group Plc. where he was the driving force behind the transformation of Kerry Co-op into a global food and ingredients Group. Since that time he has held a series of leadership positions including chairing Horse Racing Ireland for a period and currently chairing the €250 million ‘Limerick 2030 – An Economic and Spatial Plan for Limerick’.

Addressing the audience, Brosnan said: “I’m delighted to be with you all this afternoon. I think this is a great initiative being run by Limerick Chamber with the support of Dell EMC and University of Limerick. One of the key pieces of advice I received at an early stage of my career was to always listen and learn from others and equally take the time to give back and share both your successes and failures. A programme like the Regional Leaders’ Programme is a great vehicle for this and I hope you’ll learn something from me today and from all the mentors you engage with over the course of the coming year.”

“If I was to provide you with two other pieces of advice it would be to embrace failure and engage with your employees. To be truly successful we all need to experience some level of failure and I have no doubt the respect of the employees working with you is essential in order to be successful.”Dave Griffin, Dell EMC; Dr James Ring, Limerick Chamber, Denis Brosnan and Dr. Philip O’Regan, University of Limerick.

Mr Brosnan delivered an hour long talk to the attendees with an open questions and answers session at the end.

Dr. Philip O’Regan, University of Limerick said: “UL is delighted to be working with Limerick Chamber and Dell EMC in delivering such a significant mentoring programme to business leaders in the region. The purpose is to instil in those taking part a sense of ambition, teamwork and strategic focus and Denis Brosnan has emphasised exactly these qualities in a wonderful presentation that drew on his unrivalled business experience. The huge turnout and the enthusiasm of those taking part suggests that this series has struck a chord with business leaders in the region.”

Dr James Ring, CEO, Limerick Chamber, said: “We’re delighted to be back at Dell EMC today for the first in the series of events this year and to kick off the programme with such a prominent businessman like Denis Brosnan. We’ve a great group of people signed up for the Regional Leaders’ Programme and with the support of Dell EMC and the University of Limerick we’re looking forward to developing a pipeline of future leaders for the Mid-West region.”