Gary Coburn

Gary Coburn has 30 years’ experience in the IT industry, and over this time he has led organisations in Ireland, the UK and across Europe and the Middle East.

Gary spent the initial 9 years of his career working in sales roles in some of the leading global manufacturers of IT equipment and built a successful sales track record with those companies in the Irish market. He joined Horizon Technology Group in 1992, then a small Irish company specialising in the supply of IT solutions in the Irish market.

Over the following 16 years, Gary went on to become CEO of Horizon and played a central role in developing the company into a successful multinational IT services organisation, which included the successful completion of a number of company acquisitions and disposals. Horizon was floated on the Dublin and London stock exchanges in 1999.

In 2008 Gary led the sale of Horizon Technology Group plc to Avnet Technology Solutions, a US Fortune 500 company and a leading global IT solutions distributor. For the following 3 years Gary remained with Avnet as Senior Vice President, EMEA.

Gary graduated in 1983 from NUI Galway with an honors degree in Electronic Engineering and also in 1984, with a post-graduate diploma in Manufacturing Technology. In 2006 Gary was selected to be one of the first Irish technology CEO’s to complete the inaugural ‘Leadership4Growth’ program in Stanford University Graduate School of Business, which was sponsored by Enterprise Ireland.