In 2001, Peter McKenna was on the corporate fast track at Smurfit in the publishing business. But a conversation with mentor Paddy Wright planted the seed for a dramatic career pivot as stadium director of Croke Park. When he took over, the stadium was under construction and loss-making. Last year, it had annual revenues of €132 million and paid a €16 million dividend to the GAA.
McKenna still serves as stadium director but he is also in charge of the GAA’s commercial arrangements and corporate partnerships.
In this episode of Sports Matters, he talks about making the stadium as a financial contributor to the GAA, the decision to take control of the association’s streaming service, and the lessons from his career.
Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
Born in Canada to Iranian parents, Ali Niknam made his name and his fortune in IT in the Netherlands. During the financial crash, however, he decided to launch his own challenger bank, and over the course of the next decade, pumped more than €100 million of his own money into scaling bunq across 30 countries.
Last month, the company closed one of Europe’s largest Series A funding when it raised €193 from Pollen Street Capital in a deal that valued Bunq at €1.6 billion. As part of the transaction, Bunq also acquired Capitalflow, the Irish alternative lender that has advanced €650m to SMEs.
In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, Niknam talks about what attracted him to both Capitalflow and Pollen Street, and outlines his ambitious plans for growth in the Irish lending market. Niknam also talks how over regulation is stymieing market dynamics in the banking sector and benefiting the incumbents.
He talks about his personal motivations for launching a bank, how he brought it to profitability, and what separates bunq from the string of other challenger banks that have emerged in recent years.
Emran Feroz, an Austrian-Afghan journalist, provides context for what has been happening in Afghanistan. It is an explanation of the mess, as Emran sees it, the US made of Afghanistan and why Joe Biden’s talk of the Afghan people not having the will to fight ignored so much that happened in the past 20 years.
The soldier dying were cannon fodder, he says, who were asked to fight while corruption was rife among so many others in Afghanistan. It is a conversation which places the Taliban in context while also stressing that it is an illusion to believe that they have changed.
Prior to the pandemic, Noel Anderson was forecasting the best ever year for The Bridge 1850 and Lemon & Duke, the two Dublin pubs he co-owns with a number of prominent rugby players. However, since the first lockdown, the publican has been battling on all fronts.
Despite having taken out insurance specifically for Covid-19, FBD refused to cover his claim, and he ended up as one of four test cases against the insurer. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he talks about the negotiations with FBD prior to the case, the strain of the lengthy action and why the case, which has implications for more than 1,100 pubs, is far from over.
He also talks about the future of the city centre and reveals that while he is upbeat on hospitality, he is increasingly concerned about the lack of staff. Finally, Anderson shares his own journey - why he dropped out of college to take a bar job, before working his way up the ladder.
The past week has thrown more information at us about the accelerating climate change crisis than we can perhaps handle. To make sense of it – and figure out what to do next – John Reynolds, who has covered some of the most innovative Irish businesses in this space for The Currency, suggested a podcast with our Chief Economics Writer Stephen Kinsella, Innovation and Disruption Columnist Sinéad O'Sullivan and Senior Correspondent Thomas Hubert. This is how the discussion went.
Jacob Claflin spent his career traveling in the payments industry, both between companies and countries. In 2016, he decided he was finished working for somebody else, and founded Cambrist, an Irish fintech specialising in streamlining cross border payments. Now, the American-born chief executive has his eyes set on international expansion.
In this podcast with Devin Sean Martin, Claflin talks about his own entrepreneurial journey, and how a trip around Europe changed his life. From winning customers to securing finance, he talks about his battle to get his start-up off the ground and explains the impact of Covid on his business.
John Connell's 'The Cow Book' was a critical and popular success. The second part of the trilogy 'The Running Book' examines the interior life of the runner and its similarities to that of a writer. Running also keeps Connell in the present and in this interview with Dion Fanning he talks about success, solitude and the reason that people need to keep talking about mental health.
Thomas Ennis believes that the city centre will rebound strongly as restrictions ease and vaccinations increase – it is why the retailer opened yet another city centre convenience store just last week. In a podcast with Ian Kehoe, the Dublin businessman, who has a network of 12 stores in the heart of Dublin, explains the rationale for his optimism, but also outlines his fears about the rise in crime in Dublin. Ennis also reveals how he built a chain of seven Spar stores, three Maxol petrol stations, a post office and a Fudi outlet from scratch, and talks about navigating the group through the crisis. He also reflects on his own business philosophy, the future of retail and why he would not like to have worked for himself in the early days of his career.
Fabien Peyaud pitched the idea of Herdwatch to his employer, farm employment co-op FRS, a decade ago. Investing in a cloud-based farm management app was a gamble at the time, but the product is now a market leader across the UK and Ireland and preparing to launch on the continent. With ever-growing compliance obligations and major environmental challenges for agriculture, the French-born chief executive expects the Co Tipperary firm to hit 50 employees this year.
As managing partner of KPMG, Seamus Hand is at the coalface of Irish business, working with both multinationals and domestic companies. In this podcast with Ian Kehoe, he explains why Ireland is taking the right approach to corporate tax reform and gives his outlook on the future of the office in a post-pandemic world. The accountant also talks about the future of aviation and retail, and reveals why he is concerned that the recovery could be hampered by businesses being unable to access the right pool of talent.
Jenni Timony started her first catering company at the age of 18 and grew it to turn over €3.5 million with 35 staff – only to face liquidation during the 2008 crash. By contrast, the more recent Covid-19 crisis has been positive for her new business, FitPink. Timony’s brand of comfortable activewear has been surfing the wave of online shopping and lockdown fashion. She tells Thomas Hubert about the lessons she learned from her first venture, her plans for expansion and why she never considered locating her business anywhere but in Donegal.
