Liam Cronin

Liam is CEO of the RDI Hub which is a world-class centre for design-led, digital innovation located in Ireland’s South West. The RDI Hub is a not-for-profit Public Private Partnership with Fexco, Kerry County Council and Munster Technological University. Situated in Killorglin, Co Kerry, it is a €21 million investment, led by Fexco, that has transformed Kerry into a globally connected technology innovation, enterprise, and skills hotspot.  It is also one of the main hubs for the National Digital Research Centre, the national startup accelerator programme for globally ambitious tech entrepreneurs in Ireland.  It is supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise & Innovation’s Regional Enterprise Development Fund administered by Enterprise Ireland, which has played a significant role in the hub’s development. The RDI Hub has a keen focus on training and upskilling, enabling a multitude of startups, corporates and SMEs in the Southwest to grow & scale through dedicated workshops and programmes such as Sales strategy, Creative Problem Solving for teams, Leadership, Embracing AI for Marketing & more. The core proposition at the RDI hub is about creating new products, services and jobs in the region. In order to achieve this, they provide a range of services & supports to encourage people to join the ecosystem, become part of the RDI hub community, and come together to create a co-innovation space where startups, corporates and SMEs can work together and thrive.

Liam previously worked in Trinity College Dublin’s ADAPT Research Centre where he was Associate Director of Commercialisation.  In that position, Liam successfully attracted and developed partnerships with new industry collaborators across a range of industry sectors including FinTech, connected health, automotive, agritech and traditional ICT sectors, in Europe, the US and Asia (Japan and China). Prior to the ADAPT Centre, Liam worked for 25 years across Microsoft business units in Ireland and Western Europe, including sales and marketing, education, product development and Internationalisation / globalisation. Liam is a member of the High Potential Enterprise Ireland Startup Mentoring panel, specialising in supporting start-up’s with product / market fit, customer discovery, competitive analysis, fund-raising efforts and accelerator applications.