I recently completed my first quarter as the CEO of Kirby Group Engineering. We are an Irish firm with operations across Ireland, the UK, mainland Europe, and South Africa. Sixty years since our foundation, Kirby employs over 1,800 people and recorded a turnover of more than €700m in 2024.

Kirby provides full mechanical and electrical contracting services as well as specialist high-voltage (HV) and medium-voltage (MV) design and construction services to clients across a number of different sectors including data centers, life sciences, industrial, and power and renewables.

In the 18 years since I joined the firm, I’ve worked in a series of roles including project manager, business unit manager, and group operations manager. This experience has allowed me to build up a detailed knowledge of the business. I have been learning and developing my skills every day, and this education is a key asset for me now as I navigate the role of chief executive officer.

I passionately believe that supporting workers to reach their full potential is key to achieving that same goal for the organization, and education is a vital element of that. That’s why, about ten years ago, I gathered senior colleagues, and together we devised the “Kirby Way” program.

The vision was of a fully online database that would act as a signpost, allowing every key project team member to refer to it at any stage, backed up with structured training modules provided by senior management, including myself and then CEO, Mark Flanagan.

This milestone program provides openness around responsibilities and promotes transparent communication. It has built efficient pathways for workers to follow in completing tasks, and it’s constantly evolving. It thrives and evolves on feedback from the users. We’ve put an in-depth structure of coaches and mentors in place to support our colleagues, and it has been hugely successful to date.

From the firm’s point of view, one of the great benefits of the program is that no matter where the project is – whether in Ireland, the UK, mainland Europe, or South Africa – we know colleagues are working in the same manner with the same approach, and we can offer clients the same guarantees around quality and delivery.

That pays off again when we bid for new projects; clients know what they’re getting. It also aligns with the approach of some of our biggest clients – they are process-driven and appreciate that we understand the value of that.

The Kirby Way is an education system that runs throughout the organization, but it’s just one of several we have in place, including our leading apprentice, graduate, and female bursary programs. Nurturing our existing talent and recruiting the right people are key ingredients in developing a healthy talent pipeline for the future.

One of our newest programs is designed to identify high-potentials within our existing engineering and construction teams along with new recruits. Our HR team recognized a long time ago that increasingly, people don’t just want any job. The priorities now are planning a career in the future and finding an employer who will support that.

Colleagues who enter the high-potential program enjoy a personal development plan that’s guided at each stage by line managers. It provides one day per month of structured development, which can take various forms, including management training or professional development. It also includes the development of a 24-month timeline, supported by full managerial guidance and the benefit of our bespoke talent development program. Senior recruits are also allocated an executive coach to help them reach their full potential.

This portfolio of education and training programs is of vital importance as Kirby encounters emerging trends in the working landscape. Our HR team is acutely aware of the much-talked-about shortage of suitable talent for the development of data centers, as well as changing demands from workforce entrants more generally. We’re confident that the combination of exciting, leading-edge client projects and our determination to make roles work for the right people – even some from outside the engineering and construction sectors – is giving Kirby the edge in a highly competitive talent market.

As CEO, one of my earliest tasks was determining my priorities for my time in the role. The most obvious is learning and development. My experience is a great example of what can be achieved through continuous education, and it’s replicated across the organization. Several members of our senior management team began their careers as Kirby apprentices and have had the benefit of experience and training over many years to become leaders of an organization that has thrived, in part thanks to a workforce supported to reach their full potential.

Investing in people is at the heart of what Kirby is all about, and I’m looking forward to continuing that approach to the benefit of my colleagues, the company and our valued clients every day during my term in my new role.