{"id":449831,"date":"2026-05-15T07:25:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/449831\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:25:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:25:27","slug":"ronan-kelly-to-take-over-as-chief-executive-of-digital-infrastructure-ireland-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/449831\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronan Kelly to take over as chief executive of Digital Infrastructure Ireland \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tech industry veteran Ronan Kelly is to take over as chief executive of data centre<\/a> lobby group Digital Infrastructure Ireland (DII) in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

DII represents businesses involved in data-centre operation, construction and servicing, including those that work increasingly outside the Republic.<\/p>\n

The organisation is expected to confirm on Friday it has appointed Kelly as its new chief executive to succeed founder Gary Connolly, who stepped down recently and has told the board of his intention to leave in September. Michelle Wallace has been working as interim chief executive.<\/p>\n

Kelly is to take up the role on July 1st. He has worked in technology for 30 years and joins from Allpoints Fibre Networks, where he is managing director and previously served as chief technology officer.<\/p>\n

Dublin native Kelly was a three-time president of the Fibre to the Home Council of Europe. He has master of business administration and a master of science degrees from Technological University Dublin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Could we be heading toward a world recession if Trump can\u2019t broker a deal with Iran?<\/p>\n

Kelly takes up the role as the industry here grapples with challenges, including the introduction of rules demanding that new data centres getting connected to the national grid be capable of supplying electricity.<\/p>\n

Artificial intelligence<\/a> (AI) development is driving a boom in data centre construction globally, particularly in the US, where it is estimated that tech companies have borrowed more than $700 billion (\u20ac599 billion) to fund the new technology.<\/p>\n

\"DigitalDigital Infrastructure Ireland founder Gary Connolly. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Kelly pledged that DII would focus on creating the conditions needed to allow the Republic compete for the \u201cnext wave of digital infrastructure investment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a more positive policy direction for digital infrastructure in Ireland and commend recent Government actions that help bring greater momentum and sense of clarity after years of uncertainty,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0What the world can learn from Ireland\u2019s battle to power data centres<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, significant work remains if Ireland is to fully realise the opportunity ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Republic has built a globally recognised industry that is building and designing projects around the world, Kelly said.<\/p>\n

DII chairman Maurice Mortell said the State had an opportunity to regain its position as a leading destination for data centres.<\/p>\n

\u201cRonan\u2019s leadership will be critical as we work with our partners to realise that opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tech industry veteran Ronan Kelly is to take over as chief executive of data centre lobby group Digital…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[218,5691,615,61,60,43,62500],"class_list":["post-449831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-data-centres","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-technological-university-dublin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}