IN BRIEF
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AIRBNB PICKS DUBLIN FOR EUROPEAN HUB
Airbnb, the San Francisco-headquartered online marketplace for short-term lettings, is setting up its European hub in Dublin.
The company’s CEO and co-founder
Brian Chesky announced the news recently in a blog post. “I’ve just returned from a trip to Dublin and I’m excited to announce that we’ve selected this vibrant, historic city as our European home,” he said. According to Chesky, Europe is now the company’s largest market. “We have offices in seven major cities around the region. In addition to these offices, it’s become clear that we need to establish a regional home to bring our European teams and community together.” He said the Dublin office will be home
to Airbnb’s ‘hospitality innovation lab’, which will focus on innovating on the customer experience. “Our focus will be how to empower our hosts to provide excellent hospitality,” he explained. It will also be home to Airbnb’s European customer experience team. Chesky said Airbnb chose Dublin
because the city has “hospitality in its DNA”. “Dublin is known the world over for its
warm welcome. The city has a reputation for being one of the most hospitable and friendliest places in the world. Dublin is also an emerging technology epicenter in Europe, and one of its most international cities, with nearly every language represented,” he added.
Dik Vos, chief executive officer, SQS Group and Phil Codd, managing director, SQS Ireland SQS EXPANDING OPERATIONS
AT TWO IRISH SITES SQS is expanding its Irish operations, with 75 new jobs to be created over the next three years. The Cologne-headquartered software quality company currently employs 200 people in its Dublin and Belfast operations. Since setting up in Ireland in 2002, employment numbers have increased by an average of 20pc a year. Fifty of the new jobs will be created in Dublin, with the other 25 located in the
Belfast office. The company is seeking to fill up to 30 skilled positions before the end of this year. The new positions are for software quality engineers, software testing managers, business analysts, performance engineers and software test analysts. SQS Ireland has also recently officially opened new expanded 4,000 sq ft modern office facilities in Dublin’s emerging technology hub in the Docklands. The new offices have a state-of-the-art training centre, IP-based high speed communications facilities and fit-for-purpose customer hosting services. “Our continued expansion in Ireland is a strong reflection of the growth of
the IT industry and the increasingly important role that independent software testing and quality control plays in the successful rollout and ongoing operations of IT systems,” said Dik Vos, CEO of SQS Group. “There is no doubt that recruitment of such specialist roles remains a challenge. However, working closely with Ireland’s third-level colleges and initiatives such as the SQS graduate intake programme have proved very successful and will remain a key part of our recruitment strategy, providing valuable training and investment in developing key skill sets to support businesses in the Irish economy to the required SQS quality standards.”
QUALCOMM OPENS GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY DELIVERY CENTRE The opening ceremony was attended by
Peggy Johnson, executive vice-president, Qualcomm Technologies
Opening its new global technology delivery centre in Cork recently, wireless technology company Qualcomm revealed that it is in discussions with IDA Ireland about potentially establishing a security and encryption R&D centre through Qualcomm Mobile and Computing (QMC). The technology delivery centre, meanwhile, will support Qualcomm’s global operations teams in the delivery of best-in-class IT solutions.
several Qualcomm executives, including Peggy Johnson, executive vice-president, Qualcomm Technologies, and president, global market development. “Ireland’s successful track record with world-leading technology companies, availability of highly-skilled, technical talent along with a pro-business environment, all played a significant part in Qualcomm’s decision to locate in Cork,” she said.
Issue 7 Autumn/Winter 2013 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 7
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