Ryan O’Hare – Keypath Education

Keypather Ryan O’Hare (Image: Keypath)

Ryan hails from Newcastle, County Down leads one of Asia’s fastest-growing education businesses.

Graduating from Ulster University before moving to Australia, Ryan was named ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2019 at the Australian Irish Business Awards. Here is his and Keypath’s story:

Company Description📝

Keypath is a leading global EdTech company that partners with Universities and education institutions to deliver market-led, online higher education programs. Our university partner programs attract students looking to upskill or reskill. This helps them prepare for the future of work in an increasingly knowledge-based economy facing significant skills shortages.

We have over 700 Keypathers located around the world, and we support over 40 Universities to deliver over 200 degree programs online to tens of thousands of students worldwide.

Company Location 🗺️

Keypath has locations and employees worldwide, but our Australian HQ is in Melbourne. That said we’re now largely a remote-first business as a result of COVID, and are very fortunate to say we have employees currently living in every State and territory in Australia.

Company Stage 🚀

We were listed as a public company on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 2021.

Company Origin🧑‍🍳

Our Australian business was founded in early 2014 (approaching our 10th anniversary soon!) from humble beginnings (my kitchen desk). Within 6 months we’d signed our first University partner in Australia and started hiring people from there.

We moved into our first office space in late 2014 and began recruiting students for our first university partner programs in early 2015. Fast-forward to today and we are the largest business of our kind in Australia servicing ¼ of the Universities in Australia with over 300 employees.

What Does it Mean to be an Irish Founder Abroad? ☘️

A lot. I’m an immensely fortunate and proud Irish-Australian, and trace everything I’ve achieved back to the attributes that bind both countries; great relationships and friendly, welcoming people along with a supportive, have-a-go nature.

“There’s been such a growth of fantastic tech-led businesses out of Ireland in the ex-pat community over the last 5 years which shows how well we punch above our weight, but also the fierce, driven talent that comes from such a small but driven Island of people.”

Ryan O’Hare

If it was possible, what’s one bit of advice you would tell yourself when you first emigrated?✈️

Pick your AFL team wisely. You’re either set for a lifetime of misery or joy. In my case with Essendon, it’s unfortunately been the latter.

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