Eddie O'Connor (businessman)

Eddie O'Connor is an Irish businessman who is co-founder and Chairman of Mainstream Renewable Power, a renewable energy group.

O'Connor holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (1970) and a Master's in Industrial Engineering (1976) both from University College Dublin and has a doctorate in Business Administration from the International Management Centres, Europe. After completing his bachelor's degree, he joined the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland, where he held several managerial positions, until he left in 1987 to become Chief Executive Officer at Bord na Móna.

He then became founder and Chief Executive of Airtricity, the Irish wind farm development company from 1997 until January 2008. When Airtricity was sold to E.ON and Scottish & Southern Energy in 2008 for approximately €2 billion, he left to set up Mainstream Renewable Power.[1] He is reported to have earned €50 million from the transaction [2] Mainstream Renewable Power's core business is to develop, build and operate renewable energy plants in collaboration with strategic partners. The company employs over 100 staff and has offices in Berlin, Cape Town, Singapore, Dublin, Glasgow, London, Santiago and Toronto.[1] O'Connor is acknowledged as the driving force behind the European Offshore Supergrid. This vision and activity will, when built, guarantee European energy self-sufficiency as well as producing carbon free electricity.

Honours

He is an honorary Director of the European Wind Energy Association.[3][4] In 2003, O'Connor was named World Energy Policy Leader by Scientific American magazine. In September 2009, he was presented with the first ever Leadership award at the annual Ernst & Young Global Renewable Energy Awards.[5] In June 2008, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Science from University College Dublin. In January 2014, he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Science from University of Hull. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of Imperial College London's Energy Futures Lab.[6]

O'Connor was one of several high profile investors announced by Plymouth Argyle F.C. in July 2010.[7]

  • Mainstream Renewable Power Biography
  • Eddie O'Connor's Blog

References
  1. "{title}". Archived from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
  2. Enviro-Solutions, Neil Flynn for. "EnviroSolutions - Daily News". www.enviro-solutions.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
  3. "The Times & The Sunday Times".
  4. "Business News – Latest Headlines on CNN Business - CNN". CNN. Archived from the original on 2008-02-19. Retrieved 2008-04-06.
  5. Kingdom, Elsevier Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, OX5 1GB, United. "Eddie O'Connor wins Leadership award at Ernst & Young Global Renewable Energy Awards for offshore energy commitment - Renewable Energy Focus". www.renewableenergyfocus.com. Archived from the original on 2010-03-24. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
  6. "Energy Futures Lab - Imperial College London". www3.imperial.ac.uk.
  7. Scott, Matt (26 July 2010). "Plymouth Argyle's new investors revealed". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2018-10-27.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.