Pat Ryan, Abtran, Honoured with 2010 Genesis Alumni Award

Growing Our Own Success!

Cork Institute of Technology & Minister Martin to honour Pat Ryan, Abtran with 2010 Genesis Enterprise Programme Alumni Award.

At the keynote Genesis Showcase & Awards Ceremony in Cork Institute of Technology next Monday evening (29th March), Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin will present Pat Ryan of Cork based Abtran with the 2010 Genesis Enterprise Programme Alumni Award. Ryan is co-founder and client services director of Abtran, Ireland’s leading business process services provider which today employs over 1,000 people. He is a 1998 graduate of the highly regarded Genesis Enterprise Programme.

Over the last 12 years, the Genesis Enterprise Programme has been enabling potential entrepreneurs to start up innovative, knowledge-intensive businesses in the South West region of Ireland with the objective of helping them to develop into highly successful companies capable of competing in global markets. The Genesis Alumni Award is presented annually and pays tribute to an Alumnus of Genesis who has made substantial achievements in their commercial field or has contributed in a significant way to the economic development of knowledge based businesses in the region.

12 years ago, Pat Ryan decided to leave a multinational to start his own business. That decision led him to create Abtran with co-founders Michael and Gerard Fitzgerald, a company that has become Ireland’s largest indigenous business process outsourcer with projected turnover in excess of €40 million in 2010.

At the start of that path, Pat participated in the 1998 Genesis Enterprise Programme. According to Denise Kennedy, Genesis Programme Manager, “Pat is recognised in this year’s Award as an example of how an Irish business can be started and organically grown into an international company, in partnership with co-founders, with a clear focus on profitability and a commitment to reinvest in Research & Development, thereby achieving global competitive advantage against lower cost economies. Along the way, Pat has always been extremely generous in his encouragement and help to other founders in new start ups in the region”.

Pat graduated from Cork Institute of Technology in 1992 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He also completed an MSc in International Business in 2005 under the Enterprise Ireland programme with Trinity to develop the managerial competencies necessary for competitive success in international business. Pat started his career in 1992 on the FÁS Overseas Graduate Programme in ALPS Electric Japan, a Global Japanese contract Research, Development and Manufacturing organisation. Based in Japan for 4 years working with key clients such as Sony, Toshiba and Citizen, from product development right through to product launch and after-sales support, Pat came back to Ireland in 1992 instilled by a culture that tolerates nothing less than excellent customer service, vigorous attention to detail and relentless continuous improvement.

Pat continued working with Alps Electric in Millstreet until 1998, when he decided to leave to start his own business. At the time, he had several ideas and wasn’t sure which direction to take. His first step was to apply to the Genesis Enterprise Programme which offered him an opportunity to test the commercial feasibility of his ideas. According to Pat, “The Genesis Programme strongly augmented my engineering education by opening my eyes to the elements of running a business, strategically thinking about growing the business, and most critically, the importance of sales”.

The key wisdom that Pat would now offer to other new start-ups is that “Genesis also made it clear to me that to be successful you have to build partnerships and it is a very difficult thing to grow a business on your own. When I started on the Genesis programme, it was just me alone. During the year of participating on the programme, I met Michael Fitzgerald who is now Managing Director in Abtran. At that time, Michael also ran a small company with about 7 or 8 people. We started working together and in 2000, we decided to amalgamate our two companies and that is how Abtran came about.  In the current business, there are 4 major shareholders, including myself, each bringing different competencies to the company and I believe that’s why we’ve been able to grow the business so successfully over the last 10 years".

Applications for the new 2010/11 Genesis Enterprise Programme, which commences in May 2010, can be made online at www.gep.ie. For an informal and confidential discussion of your business idea and eligibility, please contact Denise Kennedy, Programme Manager, at 021.4928907 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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