He attended the independent Catholic Blackrock College in Blackrock, Dublin.
He moved to the United Kingdom in 1987. He had worked with Banque Nationale de Paris, now known as Banque Nationale de Paris Paribas, from 1987 and with Waste Management International in 1994, and NFC in 1996. Telefónica United Kingdom
He joined O2 in 2001 as deputy to the Chief Financial Officer, becoming Chief Financial Officer in February 2005.
O2 was bought by Telefónica in November 2005 for £18bn.
British Telecom had de-merged Cellnet in November 2001. He became Chief Executive of Telefónica United Kingdom (O2) on 1 January 2008.
He is also Chairman of Tesco Mobile, a joint venture between Telefónica and Tesco. He is based in Slough.
In 2008, O2 United Kingdom had an exclusive offer for the iPhone 3G. When he started, O2 had around 100,000 broadband customers in the United Kingdom, having bought Be Un Limited in 2006 for £50m.
Appointed non-executive director of Guardian Media Group (GMG) in 2013.