WEALTH August 2, 2026 0 Comments

Inside Steve MacNicholas’ Playbook: How Ekco’s CEO Is Turning Market Challenges into Unstoppable Growth

Ever wonder what it takes to lead a cutting-edge cyber security company in a world that’s changing at warp speed? Meet Steve MacNicholas, the dynamic CEO of Ekco — a powerhouse in IT managed services and cyber security. From his early days hustling in small businesses and engineering roles, Steve’s journey has been shaped by rubbing shoulders with visionary leaders like Denis O’Brien and Anne O’Leary, absorbing lessons that made his leadership style as disruptive as it is collaborative and energetic. But here’s the kicker: Ekco isn’t just about tech; it’s about people, agility, and pushing boundaries — growing from a tight-knit crew of engineers into a 1,000-strong, AI-driven force across three territories.

Steve’s not afraid to pivot, embracing diverse talents and crazy rapid innovation — like taking the whole team on an AI boot camp just to stay ahead of the curve. And when it comes to tough calls? He’s all about decisiveness, steering clear of ambiguity or indecision. Whether it’s selling a startup to Vodafone or launching AI products for small businesses, Steve’s mindset? Relentless growth powered by smart investment, strong leadership, and an unwavering hunger for transformation. Curious to see how this visionary CEO navigates uncertainty, drives innovation, and plans to double down on growth? You’re about to get the inside scoop.

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Steve MacNicholas is CEO of Ekco, a provider of IT managed services and cyber security

Who or what has most influenced your leadership style?

For the first 15 years of my career, I worked in small business. I graduated as an engineer, but a small business is great because you get to see the four corners of the room. Ultimately, what that means is you get to work really closely with finance teams, with sales teams, with operations teams, and you learn about how a business actually functions, which is absolutely key in any sort of leadership role.

I worked with two great people over the years, Denis O’Brien and Anne O’Leary. Two very different leadership styles, but I learned a huge amount from both.

How would you describe your leadership in three words?

Disruptive but collaborative and energetic.

How has your approach to leadership evolved over the years?

When we started Interfusion, it was one accountant and seven engineers. I was one of the engineers, so we were basically all cut from the same cloth. It was very much a very narrow team, you know. And that was fine at that point in time. Ekco today is much more diverse. It’s about people skills and different personalities that challenge the senior leadership team and different ways of working. It’s really important to get a much broader view of skills around the leadership table. And that’s probably been my primary change over the course of my career, to really value that and invest in that leadership and development. I spent the last two days with the leadership team and we’re talking about sending ourselves on an AI boot camp. We have to continue to invest in that community and so learning and development all the way up is really important.

What’s the best leadership advice you’ve ever received?

The best leadership advice I’ve ever received is to build and develop your organisations and structure around what the business needs. A lot of times we map people into roles or we look at a team that we have and we stay within that safe space. To be a challenger, to be innovative, you really do need to look for different types of skills and bring that into organisational development, because that’s ultimately where winning will come from.

How do you handle managing up?

I approach it by really trying to understand what audience you’re talking to. So if you’re a business leader in a smaller business, and you’ve got a functional boss, ultimately that conversation is going to be about the role and what that business does. I report to the board of directors for Ekco, which actually is the investment community. We’re owned by a private equity firm, Corten Capital. We’ve made 30 acquisitions. We’re a business with 1,000 people. So what I have to do is understand the language, understand their pressures and understand what information they require.

What kind of workplace culture do you aim to foster?

So the workplace culture I would aim to foster is all about change and innovation. It’s different ways of working. I mean, you know, Ekco is a technical company. We’re a cyber security company, our job is to protect companies’ digital assets with AI. You have to be very transformative in your business. So Ekco is a landscape that changes in terms of our growth. In seven years, we’ve grown to 1,000 people. So having the right kind of mindset around adapting and being agile is really, really important.

What’s your approach to making tough decisions?

You have to make the tough decision, just execute it. There’s no place for ambiguity. There’s no place for stalling. Ultimately, as a leader, you just need to make the decision, own the decision. Sometimes you’ll get it right, sometimes we get it wrong. But ultimately, there’s nothing worse than stalling on decisions and driving uncertainty into your leadership team or into the broader business community.

What’s been your proudest moment?

When you sell your first business. We sold Interfusion Networks after 10 years to Vodafone, obviously a massive company, back in 2011. That’s a special moment. We built that from a startup. However, what we’re building now in Ekco is really special. As I said, [it’s a] business that started in 2017, a cyber company with IT-managed services. We operate across three territories. Last year we broke€200 million turnover, €100m of that was in Ireland. We employ 1,000 people. But that’s a kind of a self-pinching moment. So it’s a special time for us in Ekco right now.

What advice would you give to other business leaders navigating uncertain economic conditions?

I would say you’ve got to go back to some of the basics. Cash flow, managing cash and building up cash reserves is absolutely paramount [when navigating] any sort of uncertainty in the marketplace. Something that we don’t probably do a lot in the business, we don’t invest time into our financiers. An investor community like I would have, which includes traditional investors or private equity, and indeed your bank, they need to know what you’re doing, how you’re doing, just broader [information] than financial, so it is worthwhile investing time into that. You have to invest in AI. You need to spend time adopting AI. You need to invest in training for your people and evolve that, because your business processes are going to change. Ultimately, AI is about driving efficiency in your organisation, which is going to make you more competitive. So that’s absolutely critical.

Steve McNicholas — MacNicholas previously worked with Denis O’Brien. Photo: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

What are your plans for the next couple of months?

Our plans are to keep growing the business. And double-digit grow this the magic number. We’re launching an AI suite of products out to the small business market, and indeed, some of the mid-market. We’ve got to continue to invest in our leadership and our development. So we’re running company-wide management training at the moment to really embrace the changes that are coming in the world. I think we’re [at] a key pivotal point within industry. So it’s a very, very busy time. Obviously we’ll try and throw an acquisition in at the same time, given that’s our core DNA.