Aidan McCullen


Aidan McCullen is a businessman and retired Ireland national rugby union team player. He played as a back rower, principally at blindside flanker but also as an openside, no.8 and occasionally in the second row. He played for the Ireland national rugby sevens team in a number of competitions, including Hong Kong Sevens and the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens.

Rugby career

McCullen started playing rugby at Castleknock College after moving to Dublin from County Meath. McCullen played for Leinster at schools, under 19s and under 20s before representing Ireland at under 21 level.
In 1998 after playing for Ireland under 21s he played a season for US Dax in the French first division before joining Lansdowne Football Club in the All-Ireland League.
McCullen then joined Leinster Rugby in 2001 as Ireland moved away from the All-Ireland League and towards the Celtic league. That season he also played for Ireland sevens in the 2001 Rugby World Cup Sevens. He had 60 caps for Leinster and gained an international 15s cap for the game between Ireland and Samoa on 20 June 2003. His international career was halted by injury, before he was signed by Toulouse. McCullen was in the starting Toulouse team, but his time at Toulouse was once again thwarted by injury. He then joined London Irish until 2008. McCullen returned to Ireland and coached his club side Lansdowne back to division one as a forwards player/coach.
McCullen commentates for Setanta Sports covering the French Top 14 and schools rugby.

Business career

McCullen set up and developed the digital infrastructure for the Communicorp Group. As "head of digital at Communicorp", he promoted the concept of "Radio You Can Read", which was an iPad magazine for the radio station Newstalk 106-108.
McCullen was recruited by Ireland's national broadcaster RTÉ as "Head of Innovation Partnerships and Funding" in January 2016.
He presents a weekly radio show called "The Innovation Show", which focuses on themes like innovation, digital disruption, social media, virtual reality, and the Internet of Things. The show is published online, and was broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra on Saturday afternoons.
In 2017, McCullen reportedly joined the "business think tank" Katawave.