EY chief Frank O’Keeffe: ‘We are well on our way to becoming a billion euro business’

“This view is great but upstairs will knock your socks off,” says EY managing partner Frank O’Keeffe as he takes in the views of Dublin on a mild and sunny morning from the rooftop of its new headquarters at Wilton Park, alongside the Grand Canal.He’s not wrong, though my socks survive the blast. “Just look at the view,” he purrs. The nearby Aviva Stadium looms large on one side, Liberty Hall can be seen on another and there are wonderful views in the distance of the Dublin mountains and the bay. READ MOREThe rooftop has a few levels, with a small amphitheatre for outdoor gatherings, some neatly clipped lawns and a forest of colourful shrubs and trees. It’s a statement investment by EY. So much so that O’Keeffe won’t disclose how many millions were spent on fit-out costs, only that it was delivered “on budget and on time”. Two of the floors are an acre each in size, and the new HQ can accommodate 3,500 “colleagues and about 600 external guests” at any one time, O’Keeffe says. On the ground floor, it has three meeting rooms that are available for use by the near 670 alumni of its successful and high profile EY Entrepreneur of the Year programme. EY Ire'and's new headquarters in Wilton Place, Dublin. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times Totalling almost 18,000sq m, EY's new Dublin offices are about 50 per cent bigger than its previous location in the city. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times Totalling just under 18,000sq m (190,000 sq ft) of plush office space, it is about 50 per cent bigger than its previous, dated properties in the capital. EY is very much in growth mode. When O’Keeffe took over as managing partner in 2018, the Big Four accounting firm had annual revenues of about €250 million on the island of Ireland. In the year to the end of June 2025, its fee income was €850 million. O’Keeffe won’t be drawn on the figure for the year to the end of June 2026 but it’s expected to nudge €900 million. “Business is good,” he says. “We are well on our way to reaching our strategic objective of becoming a billion euro turnover business over the next number of years. “We changed our strategy last year because we were watching the world change, from a geopolitical perspective, from a technology and AI perspective and from a national versus global perspective. “So we changed our strategy around IQ and EQ, all around behaviours. We have digitalised all of our business. “We have pivoted around how we go to market. We make sure we have an industry lens and a sector lens in everything we do, not just a service lens.”Frank O’Keeffe: 'I wake up every morning with lots of energy.' Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times He describes how EY goes to “market together” with its alliance partners, namechecking Microsoft, SAP, Service Now and Snowflake. “We became the Microsoft partner of the year for their full ecosystem. We did the exact same with SAP. We also decided that we would export a lot of our capability in Ireland into other [EY] member firms where they needed our support and our help.”He cites the Nordic countries and the US as examples of where some of its key staff are deployed to work on projects for big clients of sister firms.He says the Irish firm has spent a “significant amount of money” on training and upskilling its staff so it can deliver for clients. This all feeds into a plan to achieve turnover of €1.3 billion by 2031, whichwould represent growth of about €400 million over the period.[ More than half of Irish business leaders worried over ‘sophisticated cyber attacks’ by AIOpens in new window ]O’Keeffe estimates that EY is the largest Big Four firm in the market, some 40 per cent bigger than KPMG, in second place. EY employs 5,600 staff on the island (it has 157 equity partners), with 4,400 in the Republic and 3,500 allocated to Dublin. About 2,000 of its staff were not born in Ireland and some 100 nationalities are represented at the firm.Which brings us to the impact of artificial intelligence on EY’s business, specifically the potential impact on its graduate programme and overall headcount. “An awful lot of this has yet to be determined and figured out,” says O’Keeffe, while adding that the firm has the largest AI and data analytics practice of any professional services firm on the island, with a team of 350 people. Within EY, he says it has “embedded AI tooling in our own methodologies in how we actually perform our work on behalf of clients”.“In our insurance business, we’ve got very specific tools. You could even go into journal entry testing or predictive analytics and sample sizing right through to diligence and corporate finance and also into tax. They are all our own tools.”When search engines came out, people said there will be no need for professional services. [AI] is no different and there will be winners and losers ... things will change but we will continue to grow— Frank O’KeeffeIt is also using Microsoft Copilot and Anthropic’s Claude on a day-to-day basis. “We have nearly one and a half thousand technology consultants that you could tag to being AI ... but everybody else is using AI tools and processes and licenses to make sure that we do the most effective roles to support our clients. And we believe we’re ahead of the our competition.”Amid tales of hallucination, does he trust the accuracy of AI tools?“We have very rigorous quality control measures when it comes to anything that we produce for the external marketplace. Everything gets reviewed by a human ... we work together as teams to ensure we’re using the technology in the right way and that we’ve got the right processes and controls and oversight in place to ensure we can stand over everything we deliver into the market.”[ PwC published ‘thought leadership’ reports marred by AI hallucinationsOpens in new window ]He acknowledges that mistakes can and probably will happen, adding that the firm needs to remain “vigilant” in terms of the quality of information it uses and disseminates. He says EY took on 400 new graduates in September across the island, a “very similar number” to a year ago. “And we’re currently assessing the business need for 2027.”He’s not convinced that AI will replace graduates in huge numbers. “We’ve always invested in the next generation of talent an we’ll continue to do that as a significant employer of graduates.”He says today’s graduates have a head start in terms of their abilities on digitalisation, AI and technology, meaning they could rise up the ranks more quickly than would have been the case in the past. Will the graduate number always be around the 400 mark?“Nobody can give you that answer. It has yet to be determined. The market is shifting, the way of work is shifting and we have to determine what that will look like over the next number of years.” [ Graduate recruitment slowdown by firms like KPMG in UK sends shiver down spine of south Co DublinOpens in new window ]Looking out five years, will EY still have 5,600 staff? “At least, he says. “But I also think the ways of working will change and what our people will be doing will be different. If you remember, when the search engines came out, people said there will be no need for professional services. This is no different and there will be winners and losers ... things will change but we will continue to grow.”O’Keeffe is a glass-half-full person and is confident on the future growth prospects for the Irish economy. EY provides audit or advisory services to many of the big multinationals that operate here. Does he worry that the recent corporation tax windfalls are at risk by one or more of the tech or pharma giants pulling out?“That’s something that the Government and the IDA need to be really conscious of,” he says. “They need to stay really close to all of the individual companies and they need to explain the attractiveness of Ireland.“The Government is very pro-business but they need to stay close to what are the issues that those corporation face globally.”[ Ireland’s corporate tax advantage is over. So what’s the plan?Opens in new window ]He also makes the point that Ireland needs to be seen as a welcoming place for senior executives and other “talent” that those same multinationals employ here. “We need to make clear that we’re a welcoming country with humility, which has brilliant talent. Only six generations ago our people had to be leave this island because there was nothing here for our talent.“Now we have an opportunity to ... bring people from around the world to Ireland. But we cannot do that if we show any signs of xenophobia within our country, and we’ve seen it in pockets, especially in 2025.”Is the Government right to tighten the rules on immigration?“We have to be very mindful of people who have already committed to building their lives here and naturalising themselves. We have to be very clever on who comes here for the benefit of the country. That’s a tricky balance for the Government, no doubt. But we need to attract high-end jobs so that we have the best talent coming to the country, because they will also share their experiences and help others develop and grow to that level of talent. We need to make sure that we’re not losing our ability ... to bring the right people that this country needs to continue its success in the years ahead.”12/10/2026 Business … Frank O’Keeffe, managing partner EY, the new EY headquarters in Wilton Place, Dublin. Photo: Bryan O’Brien / The Irish Times Unlike most of its rivals, there is no term mandate in place for EY managing partners. O’Keeffe has been in situ for eight years now. Does he intend to see the new five-year strategy plan through?“I hope so. I have all the energy in the world but that will be determined by my fellow partners. The time has flown by and we’ve had so much change from Brexit to Covid to wars, you name it. “I wake up every morning with lots of energy and still believe I’ll be doing it [the job] tomorrow, next year and hopefully the year after.” CVName: Frank O’Keeffe.Age: 53.Job: Managing Partner, EY Ireland.Family: Married to Susan, four children.Hobbies: Golf, GAA, rugby.Something you might expect: “Passionate about the interconnected forces of people, business, technology and the geopolitics shaping our world.” Something that might surprise: “For all the seriousness of my day job, I don’t take myself too seriously and I’m usually happiest when there’s a bit of fun and laughter around.”Leadership style: “I’d describe it as open, collaborative and straightforward. I try to give people the trust and space to be at their best. I’m a big believer in listening, staying curious and bringing people with me. And I’ve always thought a bit of humour helps, particularly when things get challenging.”