THE HIGH corporate tax rate in the US is a disincentive for large US corporations to manufacture there, Dr Craig Barrett, the former chairman and chief executive of Intel told a gathering of Irish technology executives in California on Tuesday.
“Executives have a duty to do their best for their shareholders and, if they generate cash overseas they will invest it overseas rather than pay the penalty of repatriating it,” said Dr Barrett.
Dr Barrett, who oversaw much of Intel’s $7 billion investment in its Irish manufacturing facility, now acts as chairman of the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG), which held its annual awards dinner in Silicon Valley last night.
Urging the Irish and US governments to embrace innovation as the way to revitalise their economies, Dr Barrett said it was an issue that needed to be debated at a national level.
“Innovation is the future, not getting $75 to screw lug nuts on a set of wheels,” said Dr Barrett.
SkillPages, the social network which enables people to find people with skills they need or to sell their own services, won the ITLG/ Irish Times Technology Company of the Year Award at an event at Stanford University last night.
Intelesens, a Belfast-based developer of wearable monitors for use in the healthcare sector, won the Most Promising Technology Award.
SkillPages was founded in 2008 by Iain Mac Donald, who previously headed up telecoms company Perlico, and Michael Gallagher, an experienced telecoms and financial services executive.
Mr Mac Donald said SkillPages now had 570,000 users, having added half a million since the site ended its test period in mid-January.
“We are ahead of our plan to get one million users by December, and we are now estimating we’ll have a multiple of that,” said Mr Mac Donald. “Our ambition is to grow a significant business out of Ireland that will not be out of place alongside global players like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn.”
Last year, SkillPages raised $4 million for international expansion, with funding coming from Mr Mac Donald, businessman Michael Smurfit and veteran technology investor Dr Jim Mountjoy.
Mr Mac Donald said SkillPages, which recently changed its name from Weedle, has had particular success in Singapore, California, Massachusetts and Britain.
