The firm which is managing the Government's flagship €250 million plan to develop a Digital Hub in Dublin has appointed a new chief executive, Mr Philip Flynn.
The board of Digital Media Development Ltd has approved the appointment and it is expected it will be formally announced within the next week.
Mr Flynn, who currently works as chief operating officer of software firm Orbiscom, will lead the major urban regeneration project in the Liberties area of Dublin. It is understood his package is in the €100,000-€130,000 per annum range.
Mr Flynn replaces former civil servant Mr Paddy Teahon, who previously held the position of executive chairman of the project.
Mr Teahon resigned in September shortly after he joined the board of the firm Insignia Richard Ellis Gunne, which undertook consultancy work for the Digital Hub.
A major challenge which Mr Flynn will face is to attract millions of euro of investment from a range of digital media firms into the area to create jobs.
The Digital Hub, which was a pet project of the Taoiseach before being taken on by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, should create 500,000 sq ft of development in the Liberties.
Development work on some parts of the project has already begun, but the main elements of refurbishment and building on the historic seven-acre site will start in early 2004. Digital Media Development shortlisted four developers to tender for the contract to develop the former Guinness site last week. It is estimated the winning bidder will invest about €130 million in the project.
Mr Flynn is currently working for the payments software firm Orbiscom, where he was appointed chief operating officer in August 2001. In this position, Mr Flynn, played a key role in managing the firm's growth in the European, Middle Eastern and African and Asian Pacific regions.
Before he joined Orbiscom, Mr Flynn worked as vice president and managing director of Visio International, based in Dublin. Visio was a graphics software publisher which was acquired by Microsoft for about $1.5 billion.
Before this role, Mr Flynn worked for 11 years with Digital Equipment Corporation.
Meanwhile, a Bill which will establish Digital Media Development as a statutory State agency to oversee the development of the Digital Hub is expected to become law shortly.
At the reading of the Bill in the Seanad recently, the Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, said the venture would ultimately be judged on the success of the projects involved.
"It is true to say that this is a risk; it's a risk in that not everything that will be researched and developed by people for the companies involved and indeed on behalf of universities, or whatever, not everything will come to fruition." But any outside expertise that had been looked at "will tell us that the way this country is going in that respect is the correct way".
