When Alastair Blair assumed the reins of Accenture’s Irish operation in September 2014, the country’s economic fortunes were beginning to reverse. The Irish recovery was fragile but real, driven by an unprecedented influx of foreign capital and the continued expansion of tech multinationals and pharmaceutical giants. Slowly, surely, the demons of the financial crash were being exorcised. Blair had a ringside seat in that crisis. He served as head of Accenture’s UK banking practice between 2010 and 2012, followed by a two-year stint as managing director of its financial services division in both the UK and Ireland. In both roles,…