Technology giant Cisco has tapped senior employees at rival Nortel Networks to staff its new Galway operation. John Collinsreports.

The Irish Timeshas learned that around one-quarter of staff employed at Cisco's research and development (R&D) centre in the city have come from rival networking company Nortel, which also has a significant research facility in the city.

Although Cisco would not confirm it, among those making the move is Nortel's top-ranking executive and its head of R&D in Galway, Mike Conroy, who will head Cisco's new R&D centre.

Dave Silke, Nortel's head of marketing for Europe, admitted that a number of staff including Mr Conroy had left to join Cisco, but would not confirm the numbers involved. Sources in the technology industry in Galway suggest the number could be as high as 14, including Mr Conroy.

Cisco would not say how many people are currently employed in Galway but it is believed to be in the region of 40. When the centre was announced last November, Cisco said it would take on 50 skilled graduates initially and would grow to 200 staff over the next three years.

Mr Silke said he welcomed Cisco to Galway and Nortel did not have any issue with IDA Ireland encouraging its rival to set up in the city.

"It highlights the importance of Galway as a location for R&D and attracts talent to the region," said Mr Silke. "There are plenty of other examples of clusters of similar companies which show they can co-exist. There is no reason why that can't happen in Galway," Mr Silke said

He added that Nortel had promoted an internal executive, David Quane, who is Nortel's chief information officer for Europe, to take on Mr Conroy's former role of site lead in Galway.

An external candidate had been recruited to take on Mr Conroy's R&D role.

Nortel employs about 300 people in Galway directly and through contractors. Mr Silke said that the company was currently recruiting, but this had been planned before the defections to Cisco.

Canadian-headquartered Nortel and US-headquartered Cisco compete in a number of areas in the enterprise market for networking hardware and software.

Nortel has been performing poorly in recent years and has been forced to restate financial results following a series of accounting irregularities uncovered at the firm. Earlier this year, the company announced it was shedding another 2,900 jobs globally.