John Kearns is the Chief Executive of Partas - a position he has held since 2000. His qualifications are in financial services, where he was sales manager for one of the country’s largest financial services groups. That career was interrupted by the explosive success of one of his many entrepreneurial sidelines when he conceived of and produced a concept album called ‘Faith of our Fathers’. In a matter of a few short weeks it became the fastest and largest selling album in Irish music history. From that he became an entrepreneur in the music business and has been responsible for some of the most successful recording and live events in Ireland over the last ten years achieving multi platinum status. The success of those projects also spread to the US and Australia where his they have enjoyed popular acclaim.

Since then John has fulfilled further ambitions by gaining a first-class MBA in Entrepreneurship and having a book published telling the story behind his music business projects – ‘Extraordinary Venture’. He has been a key player in many and various European projects and has also completed a study in the US with Boston College looking at the development of micro-business in the US and Ireland. He serves as an Economic Development representative with the South Dublin County Council and is currently Chairman of the South Dublin County Enterprise Board.

jkearns@partas.ie