Dr Christopher J Horn

BA BAI PhD DSc CEng FIEI Chartered Engineer. Co-founder, CEO, Chairman and Vice-Chairman of IONA Technologies, established in 1991. He was the initial developer of Orbix® and held the joint offices of IONA's president, chief executive officer and chairman from IONA's inception until May 2000.

Dr Horn was an electronic engineering graduate in 1978 and received his PhD in Computer Science in 1983. From 1984 until 1994, he was a lecturer in the Computer Science Department at TCD, where he was involved in many pan-European IT research projects. He also worked in Brussels for the European Commission, and was an integral part of the ten-year "Esprit" program designed to improve Europe’s technology industry.

Dr Horn is a former member of the Board of TCD and has been a non-executive director of a number of privately held software companies and business associations and advisor to a number of venture capital firms. He is a former Director of Science Foundation Ireland, a former chair of the "Expert Group on Future Skills", a former chairman of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce eCity working group and a former chairman of the Irish Management Institute.

Dr Horn regularly contributes to debate on Ireland's high-tech industry, and was a member of the ICT working group at IBEC and was the founding chairman of the Ireland China Association. Dr Horn was also chairman of UNICEF Ireland until 2009. He currently serves as chairman of Cloudsmith (a cloud computing company); of Gridstore (a grid storage company); China Crest (a Beijing based consultancy firm); CTVR (an SFI and IDA co-funded CSET); and the Science Gallery (an outreach initiative). In 2001 he received an honorary Doctor of Science from TCD, became a Fellow of Engineers Ireland and received the RDS Gold Medal for Industry.