Dr Gerard Culley, Director of IT Services, UCC.

Dr Gerard Culley has been the Director of Information Technology Services at University College Cork (UCC) since 2012. He leads UCC’s digital transformation and oversees the delivery of IT services to the university community. As a member of the University Leadership Team, Dr Culley is dedicated to achieving UCC’s strategic goals and implementing its Digital Master Plan. He formed the IT Steering Committee in 2015 and, in 2023, took on the role of chair for UCC's Professional Services Leadership Forum. 

Dr Culley began his career in higher education in 2008 as the Head of IT at Cork Institute of Technology, now Munster Technological University (MTU). Before this, he spent 15 years working in IT infrastructure and cybersecurity at Tyco, Microsoft, Heineken, and Musgrave. During this time, he spent five years working in Amsterdam as a SAP consultant and Cyber Security Officer at Heineken. 

Since 2016, Dr Culley has been a board member of HEAnet, the national shared IT services company, and chaired its Audit and Risk Committee from 2022 - 2023. He earned his doctorate from the University of Bath in 2016, writing a thesis on cloud computing and its implications for higher education. Actively engaged in research, he has supervised two student research projects.  He is an ISC2 certified IT Security professional and is very interested and active in looking to protect and insulate the higher education sector from cyber threats. 

A Cork native, Gerard is an active participant in his local community, Whitechurch, and is a keen supporter of Whitechurch and Rockbán GAA.