Senior business leaders join us for an insightful interview with Eddie O’Connor, then Executive Chairman of Mainstream and widely acknowledged as a global leader in the renewable energy sector. We explore his thoughts on the future of the sector, as well as:

• how close he came to losing Mainstream
• why culture is the trickiest thing to deal with of all.
• the importance of purpose in your business life
• how to develop resilience
• how to treat those that are delivering for you (and those that are not!) 
• his remaining ambitions – ‘I’d like to electrify Africa’. 

A Chemical Engineer, Eddie began his career with ESB and subsequently became CEO of Bord na Mona turning around a business losing more than 20 m to deliver profitability of 5 m+ pa. As founder of Airtricity in 1997 Eddie led Ireland’s first global Renewable Energy company to a 1.8 bn acquisition by E.ON and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) in 2008. He established Mainstream in 2008 and as CEO built a truly global business, with a portfolio of projects of 9,000 MW, in Europe, The Americas, Africa Asia. Appointed Executive Chairman of Mainstream in 2017, Eddie achieved global recognition as one of the most innovative and successful Renewable Energy Industry leaders.