Park Place Technologies continues to invest in Ireland

The world should know that Ireland is a wonderful place to do business

Park Place continues to invest in Ireland, choosing to locate our EMEA Operations Centre in Cork.  We currently employ more than 30 people, from system administrators to advanced engineers, and we are always looking for new talent, from those beginning their career to those with decades of experience.

“When you have had the type of growth and acquisition activity that we have, you need to make sure you have the structure and operations to support that, particularly in Europe,” said Jennifer Deutsch, Chief Marketing Officer at Park Place.

Park Place scouted five possible locations around Europe including in the Netherlands, before deciding to set up in Cork. Several key factors made Cork the destination of choice. Deutsch references IDA Ireland’s “incredibly impactful and helpful” role in making two visits to Park Place’s Global Headquarters in Cleveland, US, to outline a plan for helping the company to source office space and get established in Ireland.

The second critical element was the availability of skilled people in the Cork area. “The universities are doing an unbelievable job in educating students to work for organisations like Park Place Technologies. Finding the right people and the talent was huge. We’ve since met with University College Cork (UCC) and they’ve asked us what skill set we will need moving forward.  They’re willing to build curriculums to develop future candidates,” Deutsch said.

One of Park Place’s acquisitions during 2018 was the acquisition of Ireland based Origina Technology Services, the hardware services division of Origina. According to Deutsch, the Origina Technology Services deal was about giving the company a foothold in Ireland’s fast-growing data centre market. The decision to locate in Cork was a coincidence but Park Place made the right move twice over.

As Executive Vice President, Global Service Delivery, Nicola Buckley, a native of Cork, Ireland, is responsible for Global Service Operations delivery including the Global Support Center and Advanced Engineering divisions. Nicola is focused on developing expert technical teams supported by next generation technology capabilities.

Park Place Technologies maintains a strong presence at Ireland’s top trade shows, such as Procurex in Dublin, and gives back to the local Irish community, by encouraging our employees in Cork, to actively volunteer with CoderDojo.  We have also initiated an ongoing intern program working with I WISH (Inspiring Women In STEM), where we have committed to sending two Irish STEM students to the United States every summer for a two-week internship at our Global Headquarters in Cleveland.

Announced in February 2019 by Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, An Tánaiste Simon Coveney, the STEM competition was hosted by Park Place Technologies in partnership with I Wish.  The competition was open to all college students aged 18 and over who had previously attended an I Wish event.

“The world should know that Ireland is a wonderful place to do business. It goes above and beyond to make people feel welcome and create partnerships,” Deutsch said.