Michael’s life has been shaped by energy and infrastructure. Growing up in the shadow of the peat-fired power station in Lanesboro, County Longford, from those very early years, his working life and education have been dedicated to advancing technologies in the engineering, power and renewables industry.

A trained civil engineer, Michael Murray now has overall responsibility for Kirby’s Power and Renewables business, as well as Group Business Development across Ireland, mainland Europe and the UK. Working closely with our CEO Henry McCann, he is heavily involved in developing the business unit’s strategic direction and aligning it with Kirby’s objectives and purpose.

Michael has a longstanding connection with Kirby. In 2010, he joined to lead the UK business as Managing Director, growing the division with offices in London and Glasgow, across the data centre, pharmaceutical and life sciences, and power sectors. After four years with us, he ran a company in the energy and renewables space back in Ireland. He rejoined us in 2021.

Our Power and Renewables business continues to go from strength to strength. We support our clients through longstanding framework agreements and serve our existing and new data centre and life sciences clients with substation design and build services. More recently, our expansion into delivering battery energy storage systems (BESS) projects – complementing our solar and wind projects – has seen Kirby take a leadership position in the renewable energy and utility grid connection sector.

People with purpose: Leading and developing a world-class team

“Our success is down to our talented team and putting people first,” Michael states. “And a huge part of my role is ensuring our clients’ expectations are consistently exceeded and our teams are empowered and supported to execute projects at the leading edge of engineering,” he explains.

As we speak, Michael is heading to our Inverurie office in Scotland to support our team delivering complex projects for SSE Networks and Scottish Power.

Through his role, he and his team are playing a significant role in the energy transition and the decarbonisation of the grid. “The energy landscape is ever changing and evolving, and our work puts our team front and centre at a pivotal point in history,” Michael says.

The Inverurie office (near Aberdeen) is one of several across the UK and Ireland that are working on utility grid transmission and distribution projects for solar, battery storage and onshore wind projects. Alongside our Glasgow and Irish offices, the teams are responsible for a growing market which in the past couple of years has doubled in turnover.

“Our Power and Renewables business is and has been a cornerstone of Kirby’s core offering for over 25 years. We have worked hard to build a skillset that offers real value to our clients here in Ireland and internationally. This requires a focus on continual training and development for our teams, which has always been a factor of life at Kirby. We don’t stand still here; we’re always learning and taking the next step towards what we can achieve together. We are always committed to finding new, more efficient and greener ways to achieve our goals and those of our clients,” he adds.

Journey to Kirby

“I am originally from County Longford, and I was surrounded by farming and Lough Ree, with the Lanesboro ESB peat power station and Bord Na Móna the big employers in the area. I grew up on a farm and was fortunate to get student summer work with Bord na Móna from milling and harvesting the peat on the bogs, to fixing rail lines for the trains to transport the peat to the power station, with plenty of time spent in their workshops. It was those early experiences that inspired me to go to university to complete a civil engineering degree in Belfast. I wasn’t sure what the best career path to be taking was at that time,” says Michael, who spent a one-year placement in the construction industry in Australia as a project manager as part of his degree qualification.

“That year helped form who I am now. It was a great opportunity to travel and see the world from a different perspective. I’d encourage anyone to explore opportunities abroad as part of their development, it’s a unique experience that can accelerate your thinking and career, with plenty of challenges overcome along the way.”

With a passion for business and a curiosity for learning, Michael’s roles varied from a part-time telesales job selling Dell computers in his final year of university, to seven years at KONE, initially as a Project Manager and then becoming their National Sales and Engineering Director. A role as a director for a construction company followed, where he completed a part-time MBA, before he joined Kirby to support their expansion plans in the UK.

Making connections

Other recent project awards are securing Kirby’s reputation in the sector.

Kirby was recently awarded a large battery storage project in Nottingham, UK. Michael explains, “We have built a reputation for world-class delivery in this space and will continue to develop, innovate and lead as the world looks to net zero. It’s a really exciting sector that offers you the chance to remain at the leading edge and be an integral part of the renewables ecosystem. In my own career, I have seen huge leaps in technological advancements from peat power to wind, solar and BESS. I truly believe we are powering change every day at Kirby, and I feel very privileged to be working with such talented people. A place where we live by our core values. Values that are at the centre of everything that we do and form the basis of our Kirby culture.”