Welcome to this end of year special edition of our 5 Minutes with Blueface series.
This week we met Gavan Smyth, our CEO at Blueface. Gavan became part of the Blueface family in October 2020, and with him, brought a wealth of knowledge and experience in Networking, Telecommunications, Electronics Technologies and even some guitar skills from the 1990s.
Gavan was born in Dublin and is married to his wife Lisa and enjoys living in a house full of girls, with their two young daughters. Having spent 3-years working in Amsterdam, Gavan has settled back into Dublin living since 2019.
What’s your Professional Background?
I had settled on becoming a sensational Radio DJ once I left school, however, I soon realised the bright lights of the media weren’t for me, so I went on to study business. This led me to the start of my career in Fujitsu Services as a Sales Executive.
I then went on to set up Allied Telesis operation in Ireland, a Japanese company that manufactures networking and telecoms equipment. From there, I spent 9 years leading and growing Virgin Media Business Ireland and most recently I moved to Liberty Global in Amsterdam , delivering B2B products, Go to Market, Customer Value Propositions, and Digital Marketing strategies to 10 country operations across Europe.
All this has brought me to where I am today, as the newly appointed CEO of Blueface and I couldn’t be happier to be a part of the company at this pinnacle time.
Why Blueface?
I really do believe that Blueface is one of the most agile and cutting-edge unified communication businesses across the globe. I have watched the organisation grow from strength to strength over the last number of years.
When I heard of the opportunity to join Blueface I was very excited. I had known the business and Alan Foy, who offered great insights into Blueface, the strategy and the culture.
Since joining in October, I have really seen the essence of Blueface, which is the team culture, collaboration, innovation and state of the art product. Although mostly done in a virtual space, the welcome I have received across the team has been amazing, and I have witnessed so much collaboration across the teams.
Something We Didn’t Know about Gavan Smyth?
I was once in a band in the mid-1990s called “The Looms”. I was a guitarist, and we played many gigs in Dublin, and one or two of our songs even got some air time. I have heard a rumour that there are some VHS recordings with terrible sound floating around the internet, but sadly you won’t find us on YouTube, before our time I reckon!
If You Could Have Anyone’s Job at Blueface, Who Would it be?
This is a tough one, as I feel like every team has so many exciting projects ongoing at the moment. That said, the coding enthusiast in me would love to join the engineering team! I’m by no means an expert, but I really enjoy creating code and apps. I taught my eldest daughter’s class on how to code a simple Tic Tac Toe App, that was a lot of fun!
How Would You Describe Blueface’s Culture and Values?
First and foremost, I see the culture to be very entrepreneurial and adventurous, no one is afraid to take chances or risk new ideas, which is key to this industry.
Blueface’s people are very welcoming, and it is a truly inclusive space. At its core, the culture is very agile, and we can make the right decisions, fast.
Finally, I would have to say that department collaboration is a massive part of what makes Blueface such a success. I am witnessing some really great teamwork, especially with some of the larger projects we are undertaking, with different departments working together to create incredible results.
Advice for Anyone Considering Working at Blueface?
Do it! Blueface is a great company to work for. The culture, leading-edge product and service we have developed and the incredibly talented team accelerates business velocity and delivers innovative solutions to enhance our customer value proposition.
Covid has had little or no impact on the pace of our business, and we have continued to provide outstanding unified communications solutions to our customers and partners across the globe. This year has been a fantastic achievement for Blueface, and I’m sure next year will bring continued growth and expansion.
Best Moment in 2020?
For me personally, it’s joining Blueface. I think I have joined the business in one of our most successful years to date. The Comcast acquisition in January, as well as onboarding over 80 people remotely in the last 10-months, this is an incredible achievement. I am really looking forward to 2021, and with all the good news regarding the COVID-19 vaccine, hopefully, we can all be together in the Blueface HQ as soon as it’s safe to do so.
For the remaining weeks of this year, I am looking forward to Christmas in Dublin. Watching my daughters enjoy the whole Christmas experience and embracing the Christmas morning madness that comes with all the presents!
Interested in joining the team? We’re hiring across all departments! Visit the Blueface Careers page to learn more.
