The following role models and experts have agreed to support the initiative:

• Colm Lyon – Realex Payments
• Rob Corbet – Arthur Cox
• Damian Mulley –Mulley Communications
• Pat Phelan – Max Roam
• Dylan Collins – Colt Games
• Ray Nolan – Worky.com and Hostel World
• Breon Corcoran – Paddy Power
• Fergus Burns – nooked.com and Web2Ireland

Colm Lyon, Realex Payments

Colm Lyon is Founder and Managing Director of Realex Payments. He is highly regarded as one of the foremost innovation leaders in the online payment processing business. His career has spanned almost twenty five years in payment related businesses, starting with fourteen years in the financial service sector.

He founded Realex Payments in 2000 and since then the business has grown rapidly to a position of inspired leadership in the online payment processing business. The payment exchange concept, which he conceived has proven to be the market winning approach in that it offers a strategic solution which addresses the core issues. Today Realex Payments process in excess of €6bn for 3,000 businesses.

Colm is a regular industry speaker. In 2005 he was acclaimed and rewarded for his leadership when he was a finalist of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. As an industry figure he was Director and Chairman of the Irish Internet Association for over four years - during which time the association significantly enhanced its position. He was invited (2008) by Enterprise Ireland to participate in the Steering Group to devise the strategy for the Irish Software Sector. He is a graduate of University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Management Science Degree.


Rob Corbet, Arthur Cox

Rob Corbet is a partner in Arthur Cox www.arthurcox.com solicitors. His practice is primarily focused on technological innovation where he has a depth of experience representing Internet businesses across a broad range of industries. His clients include some of the largest ebusiness operators internationally and domestically while he also maintains an active practice in respect of younger high-potential IT and ebusiness companies. He has been consistently ranked as a Band 1 adviser on IT, IP and data protection issues by independent international ranking organisations such as Chambers Europe and The Legal 500 EMEA. He is the founding editor of Data Protection Ireland, a long-standing member of the Irish Internet Association Legal Working Group www.iia.ie and a member of the Data Protection Working Group of the Association of Compliance Officers www.acoi.ie.


Damien Mulley, Mulley Communications

Damien Mulley owns Cork based Mulley Communications and teaches organisations and enterprises how to communicate amongst themselves and with the greater world. He is also the organiser of the Irish Blog Awards and Irish Web Awards ran broadband lobby group IrelandOffline for a number of years. Through TuesdayPush.com he encourages Irish companies to evangelise each other. He brings experience in online marketing, PR and event management to the Internet Growth Alliance.


Pat Phelan, Cubic Telecom

Pat Phelan is the founder and President of Cubic Telecom, a well known disruptor in telephony circles and one of the leading voices of Voice 2.0. Pat has developed a number of unique products for the USA, UK and Irish markets including MAXroam, and is a board member of Global Roaming, a NASDAQ listed company (OTCBB:GRDB)

Pat has been involved in the telecoms arena for over 10 years and has deep experience in both the US and European markets. His first step into the market was the building of the first callshop and internet café software, a successful product still in use today by over 100 internet cafés worldwide. Pat launched Ireland’s first independently owned phones cards in 1999 and continues to trade in this market in a numbers of countries, with the business hitting 5-7 million minutes termination per month.

Over the past three years Pat has run back end on a number of incredibly successful products, including one which sells to this day onboard Ryanair.
He now sees himself as a telecoms disruptor and a champion of the underdog against the ruling telecomms companies. He lives in Cork, Ireland but spends almost three months per year on the West Coast of the USA. His numerous contacts at telecom’s highest levels in the USA and Europe enable him to flirt between the boardroom and the coalface.


Dylan Collins, CEO Jolt Online Gaming

Dylan is the CEO of Jolt Online Gaming, a leading online games publisher focused on North America and the UK. Jolt is the publisher of several hugely popular browser games including Legends of Zork (www.legendsofzork.com), Utopia Kingdoms (www.utopiakingdoms.com) and the upcoming Playboy Manager (www.playboymanager.com). Founded in early 2008, the company acquired the Jolt name (one of the oldest games brands on the Internet) shortly after. It has also acquired several smaller gaming brands.

Prior to launching Jolt, Collins was CEO of DemonWare, the leading online games technology company, which powered multiplayer gaming for some of the biggest companies in the world including Ubisoft, Sega, Activision and THQ. DemonWare was acquired by Activision Blizzard.


Ray Nolan – Hostel World and worky.com

A serial I.T. entrepreneur, Ray Nolan has been instrumental in the success of a number of companies in the Irish technology sector. He founded Raven Computing (subsequently Coretime Ltd) in 1989 to develop bespoke software solutions for the legal, and hospitality sectors, before subsequently developing a leading time and billing management system. He sold Coretime Ltd, to Sage in 2004.

In 1999 Ray founded Web Reservations International (WRI) when he identified an opportunity to introduce online bookings to the hostel industry. As CEO, Ray grew Hostelworld.com to become a leading brand in the online travel space, with contracts in 160 countries and annual transaction value nearing $500m.  Hostelworld is Ireland’s most profitable and highest trafficked dotcom, with approximately ten million visitors per month. Nolan stepped down in 2008 to begin working on his latest enterprise, but remains on the board.

Ray recently launched his latest Internet venture Worky.com which aims to change the way people hire and get hired.   [Nolan was named as Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the year in 2003 and IIA Net Visionary in 2006.]

Breon Corcoran – Paddy Power

Breon Corcoran is the Managing Director - Non Retail and Development of Paddy Power. He joined the Group in April 2001 with responsibility for development of the non-retail business. In May 2006, his role was expanded to include responsibility for new business development, strategy and acquisitions. He currently also is Chairman of Sportsbet, Paddy Power’s recent investment in Australia.

He previously worked with J.P.Morgan and Bankers Trust. He is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin with an MBA from INSEAD. He was appointed to the PLC Board in August 2004.

Fergus Burns – nooked.com and Web2Ireland