A New Life: High-flying corporate jobs could not compete with a desire for initiative. Lorna Siggins reports.
There's a certain prestige and status attached to some business cards which can be hard to relinquish. Dr Jack Nagle (43) from Mallow, Co Cork, has had several in his time, as "the man" from British Petroleum (BP), from General Electric and from Boston Scientific. Yet five years ago, he made what he describes as a life "altering" decision to quit corporate life and to start up on his own.
"Altering" may be an understatement, for he has also switched careers - moving from electrical engineering into healthcare. There was no obvious link, but like a salmon returning to its native river to spawn, he decided to return to what was very familiar at home in Mallow, Co Cork.
It was there that his father had "endured life" - Nagle's words - as a family general practitioner (GP) and consultant anaesthetist.
"There were six of us children, and I remember that we could never leave the house," Nagle says.
"And my father was never there for a whole Christmas day. His main dispensary was at Killavullen, just outside Mallow, but he had several others in the area and he worked as anaesthetist at Mallow General Hospital. He was constantly on duty."
Nagle did think about medicine as a career for himself, but his dad, Dr TJ Nagle, "steered his son away", he says.
He registered at University College Cork (UCC) and graduated with first class honours in electrical engineering, specialising in microelectronics at the Cork-based national microelectronics centre.
On the back of this, his "first lucky break" was to secure a post at General Electric's research centre in Wembley, Britain.
It was there that he met Jo, now his wife, who was also working as a research scientist.
He studied for a doctorate at the University of Cardiff, started a family with Jo, and they all moved to Spain when he began work with BP as manager with responsibility for manufacturing solar cells.
He then became project director for supply to the largest European solar cell project.
On transfer back to Britain with BP Solar, he was involved in extensive travel to international manufacturing plants. It proved to be an education in cross-cultural communication; sometimes the only way to secure vital materials was over long discussions with a large bottle of vodka - which, he adds, he would do his best to sip.
Through BP, he also acquired an MBA from Cranfield University, studying over two years while maintaining the day job.
He didn't realise it at the time, but the transition to healthcare began when he was head-hunted to work with Boston Scientific as engineering director at a start-up plant in Cork.
His main responsibility involved establishing a 200,000sq ft facility, equipped to manufacture a wide range of miniature medical devices for treatment of brain and heart diseases.
He and his family moved to his home town of Mallow - a welcome relief after seven houses in six years with BP. He spent six years with Boston Scientific, "enjoyed the lifestyle of a senior executive in the corporate world", and developed a passion for horses. In 2001, the Government published its policy for primary healthcare.
"At this stage, I had a unique set of skills, I had travelled, and everywhere I went I was involved in start-ups. So it seemed that the time was right to do my own."
He drew up his business plan, spent some six months talking to GPs and others in the healthcare area and "dived in". Enterprise Ireland provided funding for a feasibility study, but the seed capital was his own, with one other investor.
The result was Alpha Healthcare in 2003, offering a complete management system and suite of tools for GPs which would help to streamline administration, establish primary care centres where appropriate, and ease "the significant burden associated with an increasingly complex job".
"We do a very personalised and private service, where we go in and look at a general practice and see how we can improve it in co-operation with those involved," Nagle says.
"Very often you might have four doctors in a practice, each one with a different way of doing things, and that can be very hard on administrative staff.
"There's nothing we don't tackle, but we don't get involved at all in the whole area of doctor-patient relationships and patient confidentiality."
His company built up its client base in Munster, and has developed three new primary care centres which are "flagship" initiatives. The plan is to roll the model out nationally, and then perhaps look at Britain. He has worked closely with the Health Service Executive (HSE), and has built up a significant client base.
He believes acquiring an MBA was a key factor in handling change. "It transformed everything I was doing, and instilled a desire to initiate something myself," Nagle says.
"There was a buzz about being the BP man in town, but I get more of a buzz now out of meeting people in the medical area which is so central to all our lives, and I love problem solving.
"When I began Alpha we had nothing, and now we are well known, respected and good at what we do."