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Meet the Team

David Smith

David Smith

CEO - Head of UK / Ireland

 David has over 30 years’ experience in the Communications sector...

David Smith

David has over 30 years’ experience in the Communications sector, initially with Lloyds Banking group then with Honda Europe working with Steve Walker at Direct Voice & Data (DVD) in the late 1990’s.  

An MBO opportunity resulted in David and Steve  becoming the majority shareholders in the stand alone business (Convergent Ireland).

Convergent supplied and supported a wide range of clients from small local businesses to Citigroup (6,500 users) and Micros Fidelio (2,000+ users over several countries in Europe). Convergent continued to grow and operate successfully until its sale in 2005.

In 2006 David joined forces Gordon Currie and created Clear Connections, a business based in Dublin providing solutions to a wide range of clients initially in Ireland, expanding its client base from SME to large corporates, and then a renewing of ties with Steve Walker in 2012 in the UK.

A key factor in the success of the business and the securing of key accounts was the introduction of a Managed Service offering which reduced costs, improved service levels and simplified management of multi-site, multi-vendor telecoms estates. Clear have developed their base including their own cloud hosted Telecommunications products; a strategic tie up with Colt Technology Services resulted in a pan European Solution capability for Voice and Data.

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Brian Murphy

Brian Murphy

Director - Ireland

Brian has over 15 years’ experience in the Telecommunications Sector in Ireland...

Brian Murphy

Brian has over 15 years’ experience in Telecommunications Sector in Ireland. He began his journey in the Telecoms industry with Convergent Systems Ireland, delivering solution designs to a wide range of Clients in Ireland.

Following the sale of Convergent Systems in 2005 Brian moved along with David Smith to Clear Connections. At Clear Connections Brian has taken on increased responsibilities in the enlarged organisation In November 2012 Brian became a Director of the company with responsibilities for designing larger client solutions, as well as delivery and maintenance. These solutions ranged from small end solutions for both fixed line and VoIP through to larger, complex Call centres.

Through our flexible approach to the service sector the Irish business continues to grow, Brian has increased both client and revenue numbers and strategic partnerships over the past number of years.

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SteveWalker

Steve Walker

Head of Systems UK & Ireland

Steve has vast experience in the telecoms sector...

Steve Walker

Steve has vast experience in the telecoms sector having been in the industry for over 30 years.  Steve founded his own company (Direct Voice & Data Ltd) to address the burgeoning call centre market.  The business grew rapidly, gaining recognition and awards for customer service and product innovation and winning clients. 

In 2000, Steve was a semi-finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year awards and later that year sold his business to an LSE listed Plc.

In 2001, he along with David Smith, bought the Irish operation from the Plc and run successfully until its sale in 2005.  This included many high end prestigious clients from Citigroup (6,500 users) in UK, Ireland, US and Scandinavia through to localised support clients on a range of Communication systems.

On completion of the Irish Business sales Steve then became MD of IP Integration, an MBO from Cable & Wireless which during his 6 years at the helm, the business doubled in size and won many prestigious clients including The Co-operative, Ladbrokes, Belron (Autoglass) and several NHS Trusts. 

In 2012, Steve reunited with Dave Smith who had established a Telecoms business (Clear Connections) in Ireland.  The success of that business has enabled Clear Connections to expand into the UK Market and in 2013 offices were established in the UK and strategic partnership with Colt Technology services.

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Edgaras Skuodas

Head of Engineering

Edgaras holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering...

Edgaras Skuodas

Edgaras holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering and has trained in both the IT and telecommunications fields. Edgaras created a wide range of  Solutions for Clear since 2008. He built the Cloud platform that has capability of supporting many many clients on the Colt Backbone.

This ranges from smaller clients with around 5 people to 10,000’s of users.

Edgaras also overseas other members of the technical team since 2015 and is an integral part of the Clear Management team.

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Ciaran Coakley

Ciaran Coakley

Operations Director

Ciaran Coakley

Ciaran has a BSc in Computer Science and over 20 years' experience delivering and supporting on-premise and cloud hosted IT and telecommunications systems. Ciaran has worked in various sectors across London, Australia and Ireland, including in the telecoms, travel, construction and government sectors.

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Barbara McGrath

Non-Executive Director

Barbara McGrath

Barbara has over thirty years experience in the recruitment industry in Ireland and the UK.

She is a former President and now an Honorary Fellow of the ERF.  She is also a former Chair of The Sales Institute of Ireland now the (Executive Institute).

Barbara is the former CEO of The Brightwater Group (retired in 2023).  Under Barbara's leadership, the Group successfully completed an MBO in 2018 and went on to add three additional companies to the group -  Mentors, Alternatives and Raretec.

Barbara is delighted to join Clear (Connections & Clear Ideas) as a Non-Executive Director and is very much looking forward to being a part of their vision and strategy to advance their robust AI offerings to the global market.

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Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly

Office Manager

Antonio Anjos

Antonio Anjos

Engineer

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Liam Coakley

Engineer

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Chiedozie Okoro

Engineer

Daniel Bencke

Daniel Bencke

DevOps Engineer

Tarik Carvalho

Tarik Carvalho

DevOps Engineer

Our Values and Mission

In what is undoubtedly a complex and technical sector our philosophy at Clear Connections is simple: we are focussed on building and developing a sustainable business which can form long term, mutually beneficial relationships with our clients, suppliers, partners and colleagues. With a premium on honesty and integrity we deliver value added solutions and best in class service to our clients.

We are  continually evolving especially with the advent of mobile voice and data solutions that are either on premise or in the cloud. Clear provides a total package to provide competitive advantage through cost savings and delivery in mobile convergent/unified communications.

Clear Connections will continue to be at the leading edge for the delivery of these innovative and business enabling services.

Connections in the Cloud... and Beyond

We operate in a Pan European environment bringing connections to the Cloud and delivering our own Telephony Solution to customers. Clear Connections work in partnership with our clients and key network providers to bring Business 2 Business solutions to multiple different sectors, from Pharmaceuticals to Leisure, Banking to Engineering, all under one banner.

Our voice platform sits on the Colt backbone delivering millions of high quality calls daily.

Our vast expertise means we have dealt with simple through to complex solutions in for many clients this ever changing environment… While always trying to ensure competitive pricing.

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Customer Case Studies

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American Holidays

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Brightwater

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Brown Sugar

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KN Networks

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