User:SeoR/sandbox/Chris Horn (businessperson)

Christopher J. Horn is a British-born Irish academic and businessperson, co-founder and CEO of Ireland's first NASDAQ company, IONA Technologies, once one of the world's top five software companies by revenue. Horn also led fundraising for, and became founding chairperson of, Dublin's Science Gallery and its international spinoff projects. Horn, an electronics engineer and holder of a PhD in computer science, has also written extensively on technology and business innovation, and on privacy, including for The Irish Times. A former president and Fellow of Engineers Ireland, Horn was awarded an honorary doctorate by Trinity College Dublin, and a Gold Medal of the Royal Dublin Society. He has been chairperson or member of multiple commercial and voluntary boards, including those of Trinity College Dublin and Science Foundation Ireland.

Early life and education
Christopher J. Horn was born in the UK and his family moved to Bray, County Wicklow when he was very young. He grew up in Blackrock, Dublin, attending the local Newpark Comprehensive School. His first job was as an attendant at the Butlin's Mosney holiday camp north of Dublin.

He took his first degrees in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), graduating with BA and BAI (Engineering) in 1978, with a specialism in electronic engineering. He continued study at Trinity, completing a PhD in Computing and Control Science and Technology in 1983, the thesis for which, entitled Dada - the language and its implementation, was published in 1984.

Career
Horn was hired as a junior lecturer at TCD in 1979, working on a new BA moderatorship in Computer Science. After completion of his PhD, he worked for a year as a consultant for Chaco, which later became part of Baltimore Technologies, as a contracted civil servant at the European Commission principal offices in Brussels, dealing with the ESPRIT programme. He then continued as a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at TCD, where he worked full-time until 1991.

In 1991, Horn, Sean Baker and Annrai O’Toole, all academics in the Department of Computer Science at TCD, put in 1,000 Irish pounds each to found IONA Technologies, to produce object-oriented middleware. The company received limited support from Trinity College, including an office in a TCD innovation centre on Pearse Street. Horn took up the roles of CEO and lead architect for at least one major product. The agreement with Trinity College did allow for him and one of his colleagues to work part-time for 2-3 years after launching IONA. The firm focused on object-oriented middleware software, and its main product, Orbix, was successful. The company, which did not raise angel or venture capital, but did have some IDA Ireland support, grew, and, after accepting a minority investment from Sun Microsystems, was able to float on the NASDAQ, achieving the fifth largest debut on that exchange to date. At peak the company reached a market valuation of 1.75 billion USD. Horn stepped down from the CEO role in 2000, but remained as a non-executive director; he returned to the CEO role from 2003 to 2005, after the "dotcom crash". Having cashed in shares previously, Horn, who was vice-chairperson from 2005 onwards, received a further payout of around 7 million euro when the company was finally sold in 2008 (it was dissolved in 2017).

Horn invested in a search and advertising technology provider, Sophia (sold to Boxfish), Nomos Software and a data storage enterprise, Gridstore (later Hypergrid), among others. He also worked with private equity outfit Atlantic Bridge, eventually joining as a partner and advisor. He also served as a non-executive director on the boards two billing software companies, Sepro Telecom and LeCayla, and on a cloud-based dev-ops outfit, Cloudsmith, which he earlier co-founded.

Voluntary and public service roles
Horn was elected as president of Engineers Ireland in 2008, and set out a clear business plan for his one-year term, reporting on progress against this during the year, attending or hosting 88 events.

He has been a member of the Board of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and of the board of TCD's Trinity Foundation, as well as that of Science Foundation Ireland

He chaired the fundraising committee for the proposed Science Gallery, and later its first governing board from launch in 2008, and then the board of Science Gallery International, until 2019. He also chaired the Irish Management Institute (IMI), and was the founding chairperson of the Ireland China Business Association and UNICEF Ireland, and was a member of multiple other boards and award committees.

Recognition
Horn received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin in 2001, and was elected as a Fellow of Engineers Ireland, as well as being awarded the Gold Medal for Industry of the Royal Dublin Society. Horn was also awarded an Innovation Award from TCD in 2006, and a Whitaker Award from the Irish Academy of Management in 2019.

Publication
Aside from his columns for The Irish Times, and blog, Horn edited a book, Professor John Byrne: Reminiscences: Father of Computing in Ireland about a pioneering TCD professor and researcher in computer science.

Personal life
Horn is married to Susie Horn, and they have four adult children, two boys and two girls. Horn has lived in Shankill for many years, in a modest home even after IONA floated, but eventually moving to a Georgian house in 1999.