| Norman Crowley | |
| Birth Place: | Clonakilty |
| Citizenship: | Irish |
| Education: | Clonakilty Community College |
| Occupation: | Entrepreneur |
| Years Active: | 1995-present |
| Organization: | CoolPlanet |
Norman Crowley is an entrepreneur from County Cork, Ireland. Through the 1990s and 2010s, he built and sold several unique technology businesses. However, it is his interest in climate change mitigation that has defined his career. In 2009, he created an energy project consultancy called Crowley Carbon, which has since grown into a group of environmental technology companies called CoolPlanet.
He was born in Clonakilty, County Cork,[1] and attended Clonakilty Community College. He grew up on his family's farm, where his father, taught him how to weld. He learned to write computer code in his late teens,[2] [3] and established his first business in 1995.[4]
"We always loved technology growing up and what happened over time is that it morphed from a welding business to a technology business. This was around the mid-90s and we started to build a software/hardware business".[3]
The business known as Trinity Commerce [2] was an eCommerce service company based in Dublin. In 1999, he sold the 51% majority stake for €12 million to Eircom, who outbid Esat Digifone in what became a bidding war between the two telecommunications companies.[2] [3]
Crowley served as the chief executive of Inspired Broadcast Networks.[5] The company created and supplied touchscreen terminals that primarily appeared in pubs. The machines hosted digital vending services such as mobile phone and utility prepayment services alongside audiovisual media and the UK government's Internet portal gov.uk. The terminals were the start of a network of wi-fi hotspots known as The Cloud.[6] [7] He nearly sold Inspired Broadcast Networks to the Icelandic investment bank FL Group for a reported $1 billion US Dollars. However, in December 2007, the deal fell through when Iceland's financial crisis became apparent. Later, a private equity firm bought the company for $500 million.[2] In 2009 he started Crowley Carbon, a business that helps organisations reduce their carbon emissions, using a combination of software, professional services and projects.[8] The business has since expanded into a group of environmental technology companies named CoolPlanet that service large companies internationally.[1]
With its engineering projects paused in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Crowley restructured CoolPlanet around its systems management software.[9] The internet-of-things (IoT) software, originally named Carbon Control Centre or C3,[2] monitors its customers' energy, water and other resource usage in cooling, heating, and compressor systems and highlights inefficiencies.[1] [9]
His classic car electric classic car company AVA is based in Powerscourt House, Enniskerry. One of AVA's first projects was an electric-powered replica of Tara Browne's 1965 AC Cobra, famous for its psychedelic-livery by Doug Binder and Dudley Edwards.[10] [11] [12]
The company also builds vehicle control units for vehicles used in the mining industry.[1] Its partners for this project are Climatech Zero, an Australian energy transition specialist to reduce carbon emissions in the mining industry. Under the agreement, CoolPlanet liecenses software to Climatech Zero for converting diesel-powered land cruiser-type vehicles to electric in Australia and New Zealand.[13] In 2012, he received a nomination for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.[14]