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Michael Guinee is a native of Mallow, County Cork. After graduating from UCC with a Bachelor of Engineering, Michael – or Mick, as he is better known – completed a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering in UCD. He worked for a short time with the ESB before moving to General Electric to work for ECCO, a GE company in Dundalk. However, being a Munster man at heart, when presented with the opportunity to move to Shannon in 1981, he took it, and two years later, he was appointed Managing Director of GE subsidiary Ei Company. (A little-known fact – Ei stands for Emerald Isle!)  

In 1986, Mick was informed of GE’s plans to close the facility in Shannon. Even though it was a viable business, it was not part of the future strategic vision of Jack Welch, GE’s legendary CEO at the time. Mick managed to delay GE’s public announcement about the closure so that he could negotiate a management buyout. Without the benefit of state support, Mick worked with Dr Mike Byrne and Jim Duignan to conclude the buyout, and Ei Company became Ei Electronics in 1988. Amazingly, Mike Byrne remained with Mick at Ei Electronics over the next three decades until his retirement in 2020 and Jim Duignan still works with the company. Mick recently retired as CEO but remains on as chairperson. 

Mick Guinee’s motivation for the management buyout was to save jobs and nurture a skilled workforce in the Shannon region. Recession in Ireland and the Mid-West region in the mid to late 1980s did not offer many prospects for the few hundred people employed in Ei at that time. GE was honourable – it paid everyone a generous redundancy – and Mick reemployed the workforce in the new Ei Electronics company the following week. It was a risk – the company could have lasted six weeks or six months. Yet here we are 37 years later, and Ei Electronics is one of Ireland’s largest and most successful indigenous manufacturing and exporting companies. At the time of the management buyout, Mick wrote a letter to Ei staff formally advising them of the buyout from GE and his confidence that “together the team could build a successful indigenous Irish-owned company, trading on international markets”. During what was a very challenging period of recession and emigration in 1980s Ireland, this vision has proven to be prophetic.  

Back in the 1970s, the management at Ei Company in Ireland had secured Shannon as the location of global R&D for the smoke alarm business. While there was expertise and engineering knowledge in Shannon at the time of the buyout, there was no regulation for smoke alarms, which was a significant risk for the new company. However, Mick Guinee had the foresight to realise that regulation would follow. Sure enough, in the early 1990s – initially in the UK and Ireland and later in many European countries – regulations were introduced, and the business began to grow. Now employing over 1,250 people and exporting to over 30 countries worldwide, the company is a global leader in the design and manufacture of fire and carbon monoxide detection products for the residential sector. 

Mick Guinee’s contribution to the success of Ei Electronics was not just the identification of a business opportunity. Crucially, he was ahead of his time in introducing new management and engineering practices at the company. For example, having observed the use of Kaizen – a Japanese term for continuous improvement – by Black & Decker in the USA, he introduced a Lean Manufacturing management philosophy to Ei Electronics in 1996. This was an important factor in the success of the company. Today, almost every manufacturing company in the country has implemented some form of Lean Manufacturing.  

Mick Guinee’s commitment to maintaining manufacturing in Shannon led to the Shannon facility being uniquely vertically integrated, to the extent that it now accounts for 100% of the company’s global manufacturing, including complex components that would be outsourced in most organisations. This is more evidence of Mick’s commitment to maintaining employment and key technical skills in the region. Ei’s core sensor technology is at the forefront of emerging cloud-based ‘connected home’ and Internet of Things developments. Furthermore, Mick is a strong supporter of developing engineering skills in the Mid-West – he established the Ei Women in Engineering Scholarship in 51���� in 2019. Ei’s graduate programme recruits engineering and science graduates annually and supports UL’s cooperative education programme.  

With a turnover of €425 million in 2024, Ei Electronics is an exemplar Irish manufacturing and exporting company and a global leader in its field. One of the largest employers in the Mid-West, Ei continues to buck the trend and has built a reputation for delivering market-leading innovations on a world stage. Under Mick Guinee’s leadership, long service has become a key feature at Ei. It is estimated that since its inception, over 17,000 people have worked at Ei. Today, more than 20 nationalities are represented in the workforce, and it is not unusual for three generations of the same family to work at the company. 

However, there is another side of Mick Guinee that we honour today. As well as being an outstanding supporter of engineering and economic growth in the Mid-West, Mick has developed a unique reputation for giving back to the community. He has made significant contributions to education, sport, arts and culture, health and welfare, and communities across the region. He set up the Michael Guinee Charitable Foundation to support his philanthropic pursuits into the future. His work in engineering, sustainability, business and community development has been recognised on multiple occasions by both Ennis and Limerick chambers of commerce. Today, it is fitting that 51���� recognises and honours Mick Guinee’s immense legacy as an engineer, employer, entrepreneur, innovator and philanthropist by conferring him with this honorary degree. 

Chancellor, I present to you Michael Guinee and ask that you confer upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering.