I joined Elsevier in Oct 1989 after completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer systems. When I left college I had no intention of working in a conventional sense and had aspirations of becoming a professional rugby league player. 

Since joining Elsevier I have worked in many different areas. My first role was in IT and initially I was the only IT person in the Shannon site. Those were the days when all the Elsevier sites did their own thing and global systems had not been invented. One could have an idea, build an application to make the idea possible and enhance the application over time. Back in those early days Shannon was only a Journal Production site and outsourcing had not begun. I developed typesetting, pre-editing, and copy editing and call tracking systems.  So in a way it was like serving an apprenticeship. 

As IT began to become more centralised it was time to evolve. I was never a typical IT person and was probably more interested in the strategies of the business than some of the traditional IT roles. 

I became a Local Application Manager which exposed me to many different global departments and new concepts and ideas.  

In 2001 I was promoted to Operations manager where I got the opportunity to work on many global projects with the senior operations teams and in 2004 became Managing Director of Elsevier Ireland.  

In June ’09 a new global department was established within Operations, “Operational Excellence and Support” (OES) which I now manage. Managing a global group brings different challenges to managing a local group. OES works with the different Operation departments. The main objective of the department is to support the roll-out of Operational Excellence throughout Operations.

Operations are a very close group and we all support/advise each other. I am fortunate to have had the opportunities to work with most of the operations departments and have learned a tremendous amount from my colleagues over the years. 

One of the transitions I have made from the early days is moving from a position where one has limited responsibilities and does everything oneself to a role where one has a wide range of responsibilities and the focus has changed to managing a large group of people and doing much less oneself! 

Change, innovation and entrepreneurship are an integral part of the culture in Shannon. We continually strive to work smarter not harder and use innovation to become more efficient. 

I thoroughly enjoy my role with Elsevier and am one of those people who just loves coming to work.  At present I travel on average about once every 3 weeks. This is an element of my role that I also enjoy and feel honoured to have had the opportunities to visits so many fantastic places. 

I am marrIed to Ann and have four children, Jack, Oisin, Orla and Maeve.  

Brendan Curtin