| Born | 5 January 1977 Dublin, Ireland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 110 kg (17 st 5 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Castleknock College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| University | Trinity College Dublin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aidan McCullen (born 5 January 1977) is an Irish businessman, broadcaster and former Ireland national rugby union team player. McCullen hosts The Innovation Show, a weekly podcast featuring interviews with people involved in innovation, strategy and leadership. [1] He is also the founder of the "Reinvention Summit", an annual innovation and transformation event held in Dublin. [2] McCullen is married to former Miss Ireland model Niamh Redmond. They have two sons. [3]
McCullen started playing rugby at Castleknock College after moving to Dublin from County Meath. He represented Leinster at schools level and captained both the Leinster under-19 and under-20 teams before progressing to the Ireland U21 side. [4]
In 1998, after playing for Ireland U21s, McCullen spent a season with US Dax in the French first division before returning to Ireland to join Lansdowne Football Club in the All-Ireland League. [4] He signed for Leinster Rugby in 2001 as Irish rugby shifted its focus from the All-Ireland League to the emerging Celtic League. That year he also represented the Ireland Sevens in the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens. [5]
McCullen made 60 appearances for Leinster and earned a senior international cap for Ireland in a match against Samoa on 20 June 2003. [6] [7]
In 2005, he signed for Toulouse. The French newspaper La Dépêche described him as a "bonne pioche" (a "good pick") for the club. [8] Although he broke into the starting team and played 16 games for Toulouse over a period of 6 months, a knee injury limited his time at the club. [6] He joined London Irish in 2006, remaining with that club until 2008. [6]
McCullen later returned to Ireland and served as a player-coach with Lansdowne from the 2008/2009 season. [6]
For several years, McCullen also worked as a rugby commentator with Setanta Sports (later Eir Sport).[ citation needed ]
As of 2013, McCullen was "head of digital" at Communicorp. [9] He was involved in developing the digital infrastructure at the organisation and promoted the concept of "Radio You Can Read", an early multimedia extension of the Newstalk 106–108 brand. [10]
In January 2016, McCullen joined RTÉ as "head of innovation partnerships and funding". [11] He later worked with the business think-tank Katawave. [12] He wrote Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisations and Life, a business and management book published by Wiley in 2021. [13]
He is a consultant, [3] a speaker at international events, [14] and lectures in Trinity College Business School. [15] He is also a non-executive board director for National Broadband Ireland [16] and the Rise Global Foundation. [17] McCullen is the founder of the "Reinvention Summit", an annual event focused on organisational reinvention and innovation, held in Dublin. [2]
McCullen also hosts The Innovation Show, a weekly podcast programme published online and broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra. [1] In 2025, he received the "Thinkers50 Innovation Award" for his work on the podcast. [18] [19]