© Kelvin Boyes / PressEye

Barry O'Leary, newly appointed CEO of Ireland's inward investment promotion agency, IDA Ireland, has been both an eyewitness to and an active participant in the economic development of modern Ireland. He took charge of the agency at the start of the year, having joined it more than 30 years ago. The transformation of the Irish industrial landscape in that time has, to a significant degree, reshaped Ireland itself.

O'Leary's elevation to a post with a high public profile has been well received. "Barry is universally popular in the industry and within the IDA, and has a long history of showing leadership," says Thomas Lynch, IDA board member as well as chair and CEO of Dublin-based drug developer, Amarin. "I think Barry articulates the message and advantages of 'Team Ireland' really well."

The softly spoken Dubliner originally planned to stay in the organization for only two or three years, rather than three decades. "My explanation for that is that half of that time was outside the country," O'Leary jokes. He had two stints in Germany, totaling 15 years, including a period as IDA director of Europe. Unlike many expats, notes Lynch, he immersed himself in the local culture and became a fluent German speaker during this time.

The IDA Ireland career path is not unlike that of a diplomat, with overseas postings interspersed with periods back at the head office. O'Leary, an industrial engineer by training, doesn't like to push the diplomacy analogy too far. Winning projects that bring foreign investment into Ireland is the name of the game. "We have a strong competitive culture. We do not like it when we lose." His old game of squash offers the preferred metaphor: "Even when you were two sets down and behind in the third, it didn't stop you clawing back and fighting," he says.

The actual projects O'Leary and his organization are fighting for have changed dramatically over time. Three decades ago, the country's industrial base mainly comprised traditional homegrown firms with limited capabilities and multinational branch plants, many of which were located in IDA advance factories, which were prebuilt units located on the edges of small-town Ireland. These operations were the remote outposts of large corporations. They focused on performing a limited set of tasks as cheaply and efficiently as possible. The country wasn't in a position to be very choosy about overseas investment. "Back then, it was a case of chasing what you could and taking what was available," recalls O'Leary.

Some of those companies, inevitably, have moved on. Although Ireland still offers a competitive corporation tax rate of 12.5%, it is no longer a low-cost location. Operations that were largely motivated by cost considerations have migrated to Eastern Europe and to Asia. Other facilities, however, including many in the pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors, have evolved considerably, to the point where they are now fully integrated units within their respective corporate structures, with significant levels of management responsibility and technological sophistication.

In April, for example, Eli Lilly unveiled a project to develop a center of excellence in biologics manufacturing based at University College Dublin and several other colleges. The project will involve Lilly's Biologics Research and Development Organization in Indianapolis, Ind., and the IDA Ireland-backed National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training. This will support Lilly's new initiative to locate all production and process development for monoclonal antibodies at its site in Dunderrow, near Kinsale in County Cork. The facility originally was established in 1981.

GlaxoSmithKline, meanwhile, has entered large-scale drug discovery alliances with University College Cork for irritable bowel syndrome, and with Trinity College Dublin and the National University of Ireland, Galway, for Alzheimer's disease. Wyeth also has an Alzheimer's collaboration with the Dublin university, while Smith & Nephew has entered into a tissue-engineering project in osteoarthritis with the Regenerative Medicine Institute at Galway.

IDA Ireland is continuing to compete for inward investment projects in small-molecule pharmaceutical manufacturing, a longtime strength, but it has added a major thrust in biologics manufacturing as well. This has yielded several notable wins, including projects initiated by Wyeth, Centocor, Merck, and Pfizer. O'Leary has been helming that effort since his return to Dublin in late 2002. "He really has taken on the mantle of pushing Ireland as a location for life sciences," says Matt Moran, director of PharmaChemical Ireland. "He's well thought of in the industry, really well respected."

O'Leary's big challenge is to ensure that IDA Ireland can continue to do its business at a time of rapid change, both within the country and within sectors that the agency targets. Ireland is now selling itself on its ability to deliver on high-quality, high-value projects, and its recent, massive investment in research and development has become an important part of that sales pitch. "I think everyone would recognize that Ireland as a country is coming from behind," says O'Leary, "but at one hell of a pace."