Key Biographies

Shay Walsh is Managing Director of BT Ireland, responsible for business and wholesale sales, network operations and the company’s data centre infrastructure in the Republic of Ireland. Shay, a 20-year veteran of the BT business, was appointed to the role in October 2015.

Shay joined Esat Telecom as an engineer in 1995, and following BT’s acquisition of the company in 2000, held several leadership roles within the business. In 2000, he became Director of Network Services, responsible for the design, build and operation of all voice, data, IP and transmission networks, and one year later, took on European responsibilities as Head of Network Operations for BT Global Services.

In 2003, Shay led the bid team for the outsource of Hutchison Whampoa's 3G mobile, and went on to become General Manager of the H3G roll out, acquiring, designing, building, and operating H3G Ireland's 3G network.

In 2005, Shay became Director of Services, and in late 2006 was appointed Managing Director of Wholesale. Under his leadership, wholesale revenues grew by 40% and profit by 300%.

In 2011, Shay assumed the role of Managing Director of Business Sales, an all-island sales division with a turnover of £368 million, covering major accounts, enterprise, government and SME.

Prior to joining BT, Shay held positions at ESB, Galileo and Dataport.

Shay holds an honours degree in Electronic Engineering from DCU, and is an MBA graduate from the Smurfit Business School at UCD.  Based in Castleknock, Dublin, he is married to the actress Eunice McMenamin and has three children. Shay is a passionate Dublin GAA football supporter, rugby fan and cyclist.

Alex Crossan is Managing Director of Networks for BT on the island of Ireland.

Since joining BT in 1977, Alex has held a wide range of roles in Sales, Computing, Billing, Customer Service and Networks.

Prior to taking up his current role, Alex led the Field Engineering team in Northern Ireland where he managed significant operational and cost transformation programmes. Key achievements include the deployment of Next Generation Access infrastructure across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Alex is married with five children- three sons and two daughters. He is a keen football fan and enjoys spending time with his family.

Peter is currently the Director of Wholesale and Strategy for BT Ireland. Peter has worked for BT (and formerly Esat) for 17 years in various technical sales and product management roles.

Peter holds an Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering from DCU and a Masters in Business Telecommunications with distinction from UCL, University of London.

Sarah Manning is currently the acting HR Director for BT Ireland. She joined BT in 2006 and since then has held various roles as HR Business Partner working with each of the divisions within BT Ireland. She has also been the people/HR lead on a number of successful large projects including managed services deals with both O2 and Vodafone.

Sarah studied at DCU and completed her honours degree in Business in 2001, specialising in Human Resource Management. She subsequently completed a postgraduate diploma in Employment Law. She is particularly passionate about Leadership and Employee Engagement. As a graduate, she began her career in HR with Mercury Engineering. She has previously also held HR Manager roles with Smart Telecom and Eircom.

Sarah lives in Clontarf, Dublin and is married to David. They have 3 young children, twin girls, Ava May & Lily Rose, and a boy, Dylan.

Ruth Murphy is Chief Counsel for BT Ireland. She joined BT in 2004 and has supported the business in her role as commercial lawyer advising on some of our most strategically important deals, including our wholesale contract with Sky, our 999 ECAS contract and most recently the BDUK deal with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland.

A law graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Ruth was admitted as a solicitor in 1999.

Prior to joining BT, Ruth was a lawyer with Eversheds in Dublin, where her primary role was to advise technology clients on a range of commercial and contractual matters. Ruth is married to David and has two children, Jack and Tom.

Brian is a Chartered Accountant and graduate in Law with over 20 years' experience in fast-moving and high-tech blue chip companies.  Most recently, he was Finance Director of MBNL, the very successful joint venture established between Three and EE to share their mobile networks in the UK.  In that role, Brian worked closely with BT on the implementation of a high-speed ethernet backhaul network which was critical to the success of both the shared network and the launch of 4G by EE and Three.

Prior to joining MBNL, Brian was Finance Director of Three and he has previously held senior finance and operational roles at Sky, Diageo and Coca-Cola.   

Brian is of Irish descent and whilst being brought up in Bahrain and England, he has spent a lot of time in Ireland and has a large network of relatives living on the island. He is married with two children (9 and 7) and he enjoys sailing, skiing, running and swimming in his spare time.

Niall Powderly is the solutions director for BT Ireland with responsibility for the design, delivery and in life managed services for the company’s portfolio of networked & ICT services. Niall leads a team of over 500 ICT professionals who support business and wholesale customers across the island of Ireland.  

Niall joined BT in 2004 and since then has led the IT infrastructure specialist sales team and the enterprise sales channel, as well as the IT training solutions business. An experienced leader with over 20 years at a senior management level in the ICT industry, Niall has a proven track record in delivery excellence in both sales and operations management.