Ed Guiney, co-founder and CEO of Element Pictures, has spent his career blending creative instinct with strategic acumen to shape one of Europe’s most influential film and television production companies. From early days making student shorts at Trinity College Dublin to producing globally acclaimed works like Room, The Favourite, and Normal People, Guiney’s journey is rooted in a deep love of storytelling and a clear understanding of how to bring it to market.
In this episode of Arts Matters, Guiney tells Alison Cowzer that he sees intellectual property ownership as the cornerstone of a sustainable industry and is a strong advocate for supporting emerging writers through initiatives like the Story House festival. While others speculate on the impact of AI, Guiney remains confident in the irreplaceable value of human creativity.
Last weekend, some of the biggest football clubs in the world made an attempt to seize control of the game. Where did it all go wrong? Sean Keyes, Stephen Kinsella and Dion Fanning discuss the Super League, the lessons they could have taken from history, why it failed and how there might have been a more successful version of the same idea if the club owners had made a better effort of taking on the status quo.
Having begun his career as a management consultant with McKinsey, Patrick Coveney has spent more than a decade running Greencore. In a revealing interview with Alison Cowzer, Coveney talks about personal ambition, Brexit and his own future with the food giant. He also talks about scaling an Irish business globally, dynastic politics and his views on the Irish response to the crisis.
When the Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu announced her candidacy for the Seanad by-election, it exposed further fault lines within the Green Party. She tells Cáit Caden why she decided to run, even though she believes she cannot win, and her future in the party. Chu also discussed tensions in her party and her views on the contentious topic of CETA. Since Chu has entered public office, she has been a driver for integration and diversity. She talks about what she believes should be done, especially in education, to promote integration and her thoughts on the higher level in Irish requirement to become a primary school teacher.
Bernie Madoff's death this week brought back memories of one of the most far-reaching Ponzi schemes in financial history. Diana Henriques's book The Wizard of Lies told his story. She interviewed Madoff and, even in securing that interview, she experienced in a small way what it was like to trust Madoff and for him to betray that trust. In this podcast, she talked about how Madoff did that and how his Ponzi scheme appealed to people's anxiety rather than their greed.
Sean Keyes asks The Currency’s senior correspondent Thomas Hubert and chief economics writer Stephen Kinsella to unpick Joe Biden’s proposal for corporation tax reform: Why does US tax law matter so much to Ireland? How do American multinationals react to changes in the tax code? How likely is the new US president’s plan to be implemented, and how would its combined impact with ongoing international talks at the OECD affect the Irish economy? The answers are less clear-cut than you might think.
Warren Deutrom is CEO of Cricket Ireland. The past 15 years have contained many glorious moments for Irish cricket but now the game's ruling body in Ireland is looking to appeal to those who understand cricket, those who don't and those who may know that its history in Ireland is a long one. But first, like every sport, they have to try to get back playing in Covid times
One year ago, Suzanne Rigby and Mark Hooper’s business, which focused on display advertising in pubs, evaporated overnight. Within one month, they turned around and launched Clickandcollection.com, a service allowing restaurants to manage online orders for meal kits and takeaway menus. Now joined by John O’Connor, they want to expand beyond their customer base of 250 businesses – including internationally. The three entrepreneurs join Thomas Hubert to discuss their experience and their plans.
Having risen the ranks at JP Morgan and HSBC, Sligo native Deirdre McGettrick assumed she would eventually take a job with one of the companies that she advised. Instead, based on her experience of furnishing her own house, she became an unlikely entrepreneur in 2019. Today, Ufurnish.com is the UK’s largest home furnishing and comparison website. The company has just appointed Pat McCann, the founder of hotel group Dalata, as chair, and is currently in the process of raising up to £10 million to fuel expansion. In this podcast with Cait Caden, McGettrick talks about her journey from investment banking to running a start-up and outlines the company’s ambitious plans for the future.
Lisa Fallon just wants to do her job. As a female head coach in men's football that hasn't always been as easy as it should have been. She is now first team head coach at Galway United but as a child, she didn't know what opportunities were available to her. But her talent and coaching ability ensured that she would take them.
Longford native Anne-Marie Tomchak has worked for Mashable and was digital director of British Vogue. Now, she has launched the sustainable fashion business ShareJoy. The venture was founded to nurture and support young people during the pandemic following the loss of 23-year-old Irish woman Arwen Sullivan. It launched on ‘Blue Monday’ in January 2021 to highlight ShareJoy’s core value of promoting mental health awareness. In this podcast, she talks about the phone call she will never forget that inspired her to create ShareJoy, her career in the media and why what she is doing now is not so different from journalism.
