Simon O’Keeffe

Since I returned home from the US when my children reached school age, I’ve lived in my family home near the sea in Schull, West Cork. I am a keen sailor and an erratic golfer and I am very interested in the area’s rich heritage, ancient and historical.

SOK-201207-2After school at Glenstal Abbey, I came away from University College Cork (UCC) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in marketing. My post-graduate studies include a Post-graduate Diploma in International Selling from DIT and UCC’s Executive MBA as well as the Advanced Leadership Programme delivered by the Timoney Institute. I also have had the benefit of Nike’s STEP or Strategic Education and Training Programme and of rigorous management training at RJR (No52 on the Fortune 500 while I worked there) and at Nobel Industrier.

Before returning to Ireland, I spent two years working in Oregon, USA for Nike Inc. Before that, I spent seven years in Germany, where I worked for RJR Tobacco GmbH, for Nobel’s Consumer Goods division and for Nike International. I am fluent in German and deeply familiar with German culture and practice. In all, I have spent four years working in the US in Oregon and Virginia. I have helped many owner-managed companies to establish and accelerate businesses in Ireland and overseas. I have years of ‘on the road’ sales experience,In for Nike in Germany and in the US, for Kompass in Ireland and for Advanced Innovations in the UK, Canada and Israel.


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