Paul Reid (born 3 December 1964) is an Irish former public servant, who served as

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a government ...

of the

Health Service Executive The Health Service Executive (HSE) ( ga, Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte) is the publicly funded healthcare system in Ireland, responsible for the provision of health and personal social services. It came into operation on 1 January 2005 ...

, the national health service coordinating body, from April 2019 to October 2022. He previously was

chief executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Fingal County Council Fingal County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of Fingal, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that comprised the former Dublin County Council before its abolit ...

from 2014 to 2019, and before that worked in Ireland's

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform ( ga, An Roinn Caiteachais Phoiblí agus Athchóirithe) is a department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. The department was established i ...

and an international development charity, after a 25-year career with telecom service provider

Eircom Eircom Limited, trading as Eir ( ; stylised eir), is a large fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications company in Ireland. The now privatised company, which is currently incorporated in Jersey, traces its origins to the Ireland's former ...

and its predecessors.

Life

Early life

Reid was born on 3 December 1964 and raised in

Finglas Finglas (; ) is a northwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It lies close to Junction 5 of the M50 motorway, and the N2 road. Nearby suburbs include Glasnevin and Ballymun; Dublin Airport is to the north. Finglas lies mainly in the posta ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. He left school at age 16 with an intermediate certificate (inter cert). At age 21, Reid was an active member of the

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

political party the Worker's Party. He received a nomination to run for election but pulled out at the last minute.

Career

At age 16, Reid began his first job as a trainee installer at the

Department of Posts and Telegraphs The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs ( ga, Aire Poist agus Telegrafa) was the holder of a position in the Government of Ireland (and, earlier, in the Executive Council of the Irish Free State). From 1924 until 1984 – when it was abolished � ...

. The job involved connecting landline telephones to homes and businesses, climbing telephone poles on the roadside to run lines. In 2005, Reid began his second job working for

as an underground cable jointer and later qualified as a

technician A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Specialisation The term technician covers many different speciali ...

. By the time he left Eircom in 2010, he was executive director of networks and operations. Studying at night, he took a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in human resources and industrial relations at the

National College of Ireland National College of Ireland (NCI) or ''Coláiste Náisiúnta na hÉireann'' (''CNÉ'') in Irish is a not-for-profit, state-aided third-level education institution in Dublin. It was founded in 1951 as a joint venture between Irish Jesuits and ...

, and later a

Masters in Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. From 2010 to 2011, he was head of corporate affairs with international development charity

Trócaire Trócaire (, meaning "compassion") is the official overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland. History The roots of the charity lie in Pope Paul VI's 1967 encyclical ''Populorum Progressio'',

, where he worked on an agenda to strengthen the governance of the organisation and on the improvements in HR, finance, risk management and communications. From 2011 to 2014, Reid joined the

as the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

. In this role, he had a leading role in the development, implementation and oversight of the government's reform programme across the civil and public service. His big project was to secure a saving of €1 billion in the second round of public service pay cuts, leading to the Haddington Road Agreement, a difficult proposition as

ASTI Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

rejected its findings. In 2014, he was appointed

. Following an open competition by the Public Appointment Service, Reid was appointed to the position of Director-General at the

on 2 April 2019. In his role he leads over 117,000 staff who deliver a wide range of health services across Ireland. He has said that his vision for the health service is to focus on long term planning by implementing Sláintecare and delivering effective and safe services within available resources. Reid tweeted on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

that he left his position as Chief Executive of Fingal County Council on the same day he was appointed Director-General at the HSE. On 27 June 2022, Reid announced that he would be stepping down from his position as Director-General of the

at the end of the year "to spend time with his family". He stepped down on 3 October 2022 and was replaced by Chief Financial Officer Stephen Mulvany on an interim basis until a permanent replacement was found.

Personal life

Reid is married with one son and resides in both Carrick on Shannon, County Leitrim and Finglas. He describes himself "as not a big reader" and enjoys listening to radio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reid, Paul People from Finglas Alumni of the National College of Ireland Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Health Service Executive people Living people 1964 births