LIAM O KELLY

Former CEO, AirSpeed Telecom

Liam O Kelly was the founder and CEO of AirSpeed Telecom, the leading provider of integrated wireless and fibre managed telecommunication services to businesses in Ireland. The company, which employs circa 60 people, delivers reliable, secure and scalable connectivity up to multi-Gigabit level, as well as managed voice, data, UC, cloud and security services regardless of the location of the business.

Established in 2003, the company has grown to provide high performance telecommunications products and services to a multiple of enterprise, public sector and SMBs such as Zurich, Dairygold,
Verizon, BT, Eir, Rusal, Kostal, Keelings Group, RTÉ, TG4, HEANet, OPW, NCSS (BreastCheck), Chill.ie, Irish Distillers and Vhi Healthcare.

Prior to establishing AirSpeed Telecom, Liam was a broadcast engineer and had set up a number of business ventures, most notably Viscom, a company which built TV stations and broadcast studios.
With new radio technologies emerging he could see that these had the real potential to offer an alternative telecommunications system that would deliver uncontended business broadband, high bandwidth leased lines and reliable internet services to businesses all over Ireland – including business located in remote regions along the west coast of Ireland. Seeing the opportunity, he sold his share in Viscom and set up AirSpeed Telecom.

Since 2006, AirSpeed Telecom achieved in excess of 40% growth in revenue per annum. The company has won a number of awards including the Deloitte Fast 50 Technology award (runner up in the European Fast 500) and more recently Project of the Year (SMB) category at the 2014 Tech
Excellence Awards in recognition of the establishment of Claremorris in Co. Mayo as Ireland’s ‘First Fibre Town’. Liam was awarded the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ title at the 2014
European Business Awards.

In November 2014, a consortium led by US private equity group, Granahan McCourt Capital invested in a majority shareholding in AirSpeed Telecom. Liam continued as CEO of the company until they acquired the remaining shareholding and he exited the business in November 2016. Today Liam provides consultancy, due diligence and bespoke project management for a range of companies and financial institutions.