Catapult Conference - London 2007 Speakers
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 Dr. Christopher J. Horn Vice Chairman of the Board, Co-Founder Dr. Horn was an electronics graduate in 1978, and received his PhD in Computer Science in 1983. From 1984 until 1994, he was a lecturer in the Computer Science Department at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was involved in many pan-European IT research projects involving distributed computing. He also worked in Brussels , Belgium for the European Commission, and was an integral part of the ten-year "Esprit" program designed to improve the continent's technology industry. Dr Horn is a former member of the Board of Trinity College Dublin. Dr. Horn is currently vice chairman of the board and co-founder of IONA Technologies (established 1991) Dublin , Ireland . He was the initial developer of Orbix® and held the joint offices of IONA's president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board from IONA 's inception until May 2000. Dr. Horn served as the chairman of the board of IONA from May 2000 to May 2003 when he re-assumed the CEO position, a post he held until his appointment to vice-chairman in April 2005. Dr. Horn has been a non-executive director of a number of privately held software companies and business associations and advisor to a number of venture capital firms. He is a former Director of Science Foundation Ireland, a former chair of the "Expert Group on Future Skills", Ireland's Educational Technology Investment Fund, and former chair of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce eCity working group; and a former chairman of the Irish Management Institute. Dr Horn regularly contributes to debate on Ireland 's high-tech industry and is a member of the Information & Communications Technology (ICT) working group at IBEC and was the founding chairman of the Ireland China Association. He is currently the non-executive chairman of Sli Siar, a Beijing based consultancy firm specialising in bi-lateral trade between China and western companies; the non-executive chairman of Cloudsmith, a US based company formed in July 2006 to offer novel services to the global software development community; and the non-executive chairman of LeCayla, an Irish company providing billing and metering software for Software As A Service (SaaS) based businesses. He is also non-executive chairman of the CTVR programme, a major telecommunications research programme working on software radio, dynamic spectrum management and gigabit Ethernet photonics. Dr. Horn has been involved with a number of charities and is currently the chairman of UNICEF Ireland. He is also currently the Vice President of Engineers Ireland, the Irish body for professional and chartered engineers. In 2001 he received an honorary Doctor of Science from Trinity College Dublin and became an honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers of Ireland. Dr Horn also received the Gold Medal for Industry from the Industry and Commerce Committee of the Royal Dublin Society in the same year. Back to Catapult Speakers page |