The Big Interview

Bus Eireann chief executive: ‘cultural mindshift needed to get people out of cars’

Stephen Kent says that weaning people away from cars and on to public transport is his main ambition

Stephen Kent, chief executive, Bus Eireann: ‘In 2019, we set record passenger numbers, it was huge. Covid came, and all that business collapsed.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Bus Éireann is very much a household name, but it is not the first major Irish brand that Stephen Kent, its chief executive, has worked for.

Kent spent just over five years as a brand director for Waterford Crystal, spending much of his time working on the John Rocha glassware collection. In 2007, he moved to C&C, the drinks group, where he worked on the Bulmers brand and on the internationalisation of the cider, which ...