Ireland
I am the Chairman & Chief Executive of IBI Corporate Finance, Ireland’s largest and most successful corporate financial advisory firm. In 2023 I led the sale of the business to DC Advisory, a subsidiary of Daiwa Securities. Having started in IBI in 1989, I was made director in 1999, co-Managing Director in 2008 and Chief Executive in 2011. In 2018, I was part of the management team which successfully bought the company, which was recently named as Ireland’s M&A advisor of the year by MergerMarket. In my career, I have advised on many of the most significant corporate transactions in recent Irish history. These range from the purchase of Topaz debt from IBRC and restructuring of equity holdings on behalf of Denis O'Brien to the merger of Avonmore Foods plc and Waterford Foods plc to form Glanbia plc and the recapitalisations of Bank of Ireland Group from 2009 - 2013 which involved numerous multi-billion Euro share issuances. I advised on the takeovers of Smurfit Group and Jury's Hotel Group and the merger of Paddy Power and Betfair to form Flutter plc. I have also advised many State and semi-state agencies, including Dublin Airport Authority, Bord Gáis, Aer Lingus, VHI, SFADCo, Coillte as well as the European Commission. I am a fellow of the Securities and Investment Institute and graduated with first class honours BComm and MBA degrees from University College Dublin.