THE ENTREPRENEUR
THEACCIDENTALENTREPRENEUR
For someone who never saw himself as an entrepreneur, Howard Beggs (MBA 99) has established Helix Healthcare as one of the top 10 software businesses in Ireland. He spoke to Jim Aughney (BComm 76)
H 22 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
OWARD Beggs, chief executive of healthcare software group Helix Health, describes himself as “an accidental entrepreneur’’ because he didn’t set out in his early career to build a top 10 Irish software business. “I suppose what happened in my career goes for a lot of people,” he
says. “You often end up where you haven’t envisaged. Opportunities can come out of anywhere.’’ Beggs started out in the business world as a paid employee in the
Jefferson Smurfit Group, following in the footsteps of his grandfather who was a compositor in the printing division of that company, Richview Browne & Nolan. Having joined straight after his Leaving Certificate, Beggs had quickly moved into its computing division and a career in sales and marketing. “I joined Smurfit in 1987 and soon got involved in selling PCs after IBM launched the first personal computer,” he explains. “There were rich opportunities as we were first choice supplier of PCs to the whole of the Smurfit Group.” After five years, Beggs moved to Honeywell Bull and gained further experience of selling information technology through the business-to-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56