The Friday Interview:There aren't that many Irish people who can say they've been presented with an Emmy, television's equivalent of the Oscars, by legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin. But it will be a surprise to many that the man who had the privilege this week was David O'Meara, chief executive of software company Havok, which was recognised by the US National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its work on computer games. Not that the man himself is surprised.

"I wouldn't say we were surprised to win because it is a reflection of our achievements to date," says O'Meara. "I think it's deserved."

The Emmy is just the latest plaudit for Havok, which has become one of Ireland's most internationally successful software players since it was spun out of Trinity College Dublin back in 1998.

Computer science lecturers Steve Collins and Hugh Reynolds had the vision to create a physics engine which could be used in a variety of applications from games to industrial modelling. At its most basic, a physics engine adds realism to a virtual world such as a game by ensuring objects in that world interact according to the physical rules of the real world. For example, if a game player's character bumps into a chair, that chair will fall over.

O'Meara was drafted in by the Havok board in 2002 and returned from Chicago to Dublin to run the company. His experience prior to that was primarily in telecoms and enterprise software - a far cry from the casual world of computer games, where the engineering geeks are king. It was even further from his first job after graduating from Trinity with an economics degree: drafting speeches for the Government.

"Havok was typical of a lot of Irish companies at that stage," says O'Meara, recalling the time when he joined the firm. "It was a company with a concept and what I had to do was bring the business model to that concept and bring the business disciplines to succeed in a global marketplace."

Havok was trying to sell into a number of markets but O'Meara ruthlessly focused the business on entertainment in North America and dropped everything else. He also announced lay-offs, paring back the company to just 25 people.

"Half the staff were moved to San Francisco and they were there within two months," says O'Meara. He felt this was essential to convince the big names in the games industry that Havok was a viable company that would be able to support them, not just in the development of their next title, but for years to come.

With the founders' background in academia, O'Meara and the senior management he hired concentrated on the business discipline that was needed to make the original idea fly. Cash collection, for example, has been tightly managed. "At the end of last year we had no debtors," O'Meara says proudly. "Anyone who wants a licence pays us in advance."

During O'Meara's time as chief executive, the price Havok commands for its software has risen from about $30,000 (€20,450) per game to between $100,000 and $300,000. O'Meara also points out that no game has been delayed because of Havok.

The combination of strong technology and management enabled Havok to sign up leading names such as Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft and Pandemic Studios. In the past year alone, Havok's engine was used in bestselling games such as Halo 3, Assassin's Creed and Guitar Hero III.

O'Meara and his crew have also made headway in the film industry, with the company's special-effects software used in Poseidon, Troy, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. O'Meara is particularly proud of the "Burly Brawl" fight sequence in The Matrix Reloaded, where Keanu Reeves's Neo character fights 100 Agent Smiths - created using Havok technology.

Such success for an Irish company not surprisingly attracted suitors, but O'Meara says he was not willing to sell to just anyone.

A number of offers were rebuffed before the company accepted an offer from Intel last year for a reported $110 million, giving a nice exit to backers including Trinity Venture Capital, Bank of Scotland (Ireland), Enterprise Ireland and technology entrepreneur Jim Mountjoy.

"We didn't want one of the [ game] publishers giving the venture capitalists an exit, even though I was brought in by the VCs five years ago," says O'Meara. "We really wanted to get as close as possible to a non-partisan player."

O'Meara says Intel's interest in Havok was to grow the market for high-end hardware - PCs and consoles - that its chips would power. O'Meara says Intel chief executive Paul Otellini was closely involved in the negotiations and it was made clear that Havok would remain an independent entity.

"We are not part of Intel," says O'Meara. "We have a board which is made up of Intel people and the board meets five or six times a year."

For the Dublin-headquartered company, Intel brings several advantages.

"We have been very hesitant about selling in China because of protection of intellectual property [ IP]," says O'Meara. "Intel has Fab plants under construction there so it is a major player in the Chinese market. We feel, rightly or wrongly, that Intel has more clout with our IP than we would have alone."

Havok opened an office in Tokyo recently and 15 per cent of company revenues came from Asia last year - up from almost zero 18 months ago.

O'Meara also believes Intel can help open doors into other industries where Havok's technology could be applied, such as crowd and traffic management. "Once you create a physical world, you can make predictions about what will happen in it," he says.

Havok employs 100 staff, with about 30 based in its office at the Digital Hub in Dublin. The only limiting factor on future growth is the ability to hire talented people. Last year the company hired 15 engineers to work in Ireland, of whom just one was Irish.

O'Meara is also critical of the high cost of doing business here. The company pays more per square foot in the Digital Hub than it does for a "triple-A" office in the financial services district of San Francisco.

Despite this, O'Meara has no plans to uproot the company. "At heart we have always been an Irish company," he says. "Ireland has been good to us. We will hire as many good Irish engineers as we can find."

On The Record

Name:David O'Meara

Age:54

Job:Chief executive of software company Havok

Lives:Dublin

Family:Two grown-up daughters

Why he is in the news:Havok was awarded a technical Emmy at an awards ceremony in Las Vegas this week

Something you might expect:He stays up late playing video games and watching films

Something you might not expect:He swims four or five times a week and is fascinated by the history of ancient Rome