11 March 2020
By Bryan Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
The Cork and Boston based firm Horizon8 has announced the expansion of its European Headquarters in Cork.
Horizon8 has expanded its core team of experts with the recruitment of Shane O’ Neill, Principal Solutions Architect, and Ciaran Corkery, Principal Solutions Consultant. Horizon8 is the European and North American arm of technology services company HengTian which was created in 2004 as a strategic partnership between Boston based State Street, and Hangzhou based Insigma Technology and Zhejiang University.
Managing Director of Horizon8 Europe, Patrick Horgan, commenting on the expansion said: “We are delighted to welcome Shane and Ciaran to our senior management team here in Cork city. With their unmatched expertise and experience, they are already proving to be incredible assets both to the company and to our clients. Being based in Cork, we are surrounded by a diverse talent pool, and I look forward to growing the team in this thriving technology and growing Financial Services hub. We also look forward to growing Horizon8’s footprint in Europe and across the globe with the further expansion of our headquarters and the growth of our team.”
Shane O’ Neill, Principal Solutions Architect at Horizon8, said: “I am excited to be a part of the incredible team here at Horizon8. I will be looking after Business Development and Client Relationships for the Company. My aim is to provide high levels of client satisfaction by designing and proposing innovative solutions that deliver sustained value for their business. We are leveraging and expanding the Horizon8 suite of proprietary technologies and I am very pleased to be a driving force behind the development of these innovative solutions.”
Shane is an experienced IT and business executive in the Financial Services sector, having held a number of C-level roles during his 7 years within the Fairfax Financial Holdings group; including CIO of ffh Management Services, IT strategy director and most recently a mergers and acquisitions director focusing on the Insurance sector. Shane began his career in Technology Consulting, working for 10 years with Accenture, specializing as an Oracle solutions architect.
Ciaran Corkery, the Principal Solutions Consultant at Horizon8, said: “I am thrilled to be working with Horizon8’s varied client base across Europe, ensuring their needs and expectations are met by our existing solutions as well as working with them to refine our strategic product and services roadmap ensuring it meets the future needs of the market. This approach to Business Development and Client Servicing that I work in alongside Shane in is a real differentiator for us in the market. We at Horizon8 have at our disposal highly advanced technological solutions that will enhance the way in which our clients deal with compliance, digital identity, traceability and digital assets.”
Ciaran has a background in IT program delivery and is a client relationship professional with more than 6 years of client-site delivery and relationship management experience working on some of the largest IT programs in the country. Prior to joining Horizon8, Ciaran worked for Accenture Technology as a delivery and client relationship manager specialized in custom payments and debt collection software as well as large scale enterprise resource planning software with a focus on financial shared services.
About Horizon8
Horizon8 is the European and North American arm of technology services company HengTian and they provide a broad range of consultancy services and build tech solutions for clients. HengTian was formed as a joint venture between State Street and Insigma Technology from China. Horizon8 applies world-leading scientific expertise, along with extensive industry experience, to deliver solutions tailored to the unique needs of the North American and European markets. Since its inception, Horizon8 has developed a suite of capabilities and solutions across professional services, data analytics, AML & KYC, AI and blockchain technology, working with clients across a multitude of sectors.
