Sara Byrne, Chief Design Officer

Started with KTL in 2007

When I started, KTL was based in a small office in Maynooth. The ‘kitchen’ was a kettle on top of an old cupboard in the corner of the office.

I’d come from a large multi-national organisation with a fully staffed canteen - a salad selection, freshly prepared stir fries, and Starbucks coffee - and I remember driving home after my first day and wondering what I had walked into.

I planned to stay a year at the max. But here we are, 16 years later, and I haven’t budged.

There is a genuine understanding that what makes KTL a success is its people, and that makes the atmosphere here second to none. The belief that nothing is impossible is not only reflected in how we work for clients, but also internally.

We like to promote within, so helping our employees embrace further education and therefore take up new roles within the organisation benefits everyone.

That ethos is part of why I’m still here. I’ve seen so many individuals come into KTL and develop from junior positions into senior managers, and I want to continue to build a company that offers great opportunities for people and enables them to innovate.

I’ve been with KTL for a number of milestones: The 2010 expansion into the UK and inception of our relationship with Huawei; the Telefonica enterprise project – our first time KTL completing transmission design, which laid foundations for a successful 2013 bid for Netshare Tx services.

In 2016, we began working directly for EE, completing transmission services and later beginning build works on the ESN programme, and in 2018, KTL started providing acquisition services, which supported bids for MBNL Acquisition, Design and Build works.

There have also been landmark in-house changes – CRM system, a stock management system and the field force app, which improved processes and helped make us an industry leader.

Looking to the future, I want to see us maintain our staff focus, continue to grow and find increasingly innovative solutions for clients, and put even more of a focus on the environment. KTL will play a role in contributing to ‘Net Zero’ targets by 2030, and that will be a major part of how we evolve.

To find out more about KTL’s 25th Anniversary, go to: https://www.ktl.ie/25th-anniversary