Space: A New Frontier for Ireland?

The importance of space for the global communications, finance, technology and daily life continues to grow. In this context, commercial organisations are increasingly developing upon the new opportunities which commercial space flight now provides. This panel discusses how Ireland, with its advanced technology sector and capabilities, could be well-placed to develop its space industry and make the most of this emerging sector.

About the Speakers:

Neale Richmond TD is Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for Business, Employment and Retail, a position which he has held since January 2023. Prior to his role as Minister of State, he was elected as a TD for Dublin Rathdown in the 2020 General Election. In April 2016, he was elected to Seanad Eireann, on the Labour Panel, where he was the Fine Gael Spokesperson on European Affairs and Chair of the Seanad Special Select Committee on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU.

Sinéad O’Sullivan leads strategy at Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness with Prof. Michael Porter. Additionally, she is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology. Formerly a Research Fellow at MIT’s College of Computing and MIT Sloan as well as a Human Spaceflight mission designer for NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, her work focuses on the intersection of technology, innovation, geopolitics, and defense. She is on the Board of the European Space Policy Institute and has advised over $1 billion of space technology investment and M&A transactions.

Rory Fitzpatrick is CEO of National Space Centre, a world-class carrier-grade commercial teleport and centre for space research and development. A 20-year veteran of the satellite communications industry, Rory is a strong proponent of Ireland’s enterprise culture and the ability of the Irish space sector to stimulate economic growth and lead development of space technologies with both space and terrestrial applications.

Peter Smyth is Commercial Director at Tyndall, responsible for industry engagement strategy and operations, and based at the national institute's Dublin office. He is a Chief Executive of thirty years' experience in the business of technology, translating customer needs into commercial return. Before joining Tyndall, he was founder and CEO of a number of technology start-ups and was an executive of technology IP firm Ceva at the time of its IPO (NASDAQ:CEVA, previously Parthus). An Electronic Engineering graduate of Dublin City University, Peter has held senior sales and product management positions while living in Ireland, the UK, the US and Germany.