Examiner boss gives up helm

Alan Crosbie has the bearing of a man who is proud of his heritage. He exudes the quiet natural confidence of a man who knows a thing or two about old money. Solidly built, not unduly tall, when he talks of his childhood passion for rugby, it's not difficult to imagine Crosbie the boy in the thick of a scrum wearing the colours of his school, Clongowes.

Now 46, Mr Crosbie can still be seen on the rugby pitch, coaching children. He is also passionate about yacht racing. He may get more time for both, as a result of an announcement by the Irish Examiner earlier this month.

Mr Crosbie is stepping down as chief executive of Examiner Publications. He will be appointed non-executive chairman of Thomas Crosbie Holdings and Examiner Publications (Cork) in May 2001. He is taking over these positions from his father, George Crosbie and his father's cousin, Ted Crosbie.

It will be the first time in the 160-year history of Examiner Publications that a Crosbie will not be at the helm. The new chief executive, Padraig Mallon joined the newspaper group in 1996 as classified advertising manager. He was appointed head of advertising in 1997.

"Hopefully I'm handing over a happy ship," says Mr Crosbie. "There will be challenges of course. There is no better man than Padraig Mallon to take them on."

As the eldest son, Mr Crosbie was always aware that one day he would run the newspaper. He doesn't believe any of his seven siblings were envious of this fact. Nor, much later, did his parents object to his book, Don't Leave It To The Children, or the decision to hand over the management to a non-family member.

"The most effective way to run a business or to do anything is with a team of people. I don't think that families are necessarily the best teams to work together," he says.

There was never any doubt that he would become part of the Examiner team: "When I was four or five and people asked me what I was going to do and when other kids were saying airline pilots and firemen I was going to go into the Examiner and that was it."

Having left school at 17, Crosbie spent three years learning about business. A programme was set out for him, starting at Guinness, Dublin, in management services, followed by a period as an under-brewer at Park Royal, their London headquarters. Next was a post with Irish Marketing Surveys where he did field research on collating and the design of questionnaires. Mr Crosbie then worked at Arks Advertising as accounts executive. The programme concluded in advertising and telesales with the Sacramento Bee newspaper in the United States.

In 1976 Crosbie returned to Ireland, beginning a process of working his way up the ladder in the Examiner. Following a brief period with the Courier Mail in Brisbane, Australia in 1980, Mr Crosbie continued his progress with the Examiner group, culminating in his appointment as chief executive in 1993. When he took over, the flagship newspaper, the Cork Examiner was only just profitable and owed £5 million (€6.35 million). In 2000 the profit was in excess of £6 million and it is debt free.

In an attempt to establish the paper as a national publication, Crosbie and his team changed the name to The Examiner in 1996. In 2000, the title was amended again to the Irish Examiner in a bid to enhance its competitiveness beyond its traditional strongholds. Mr Crosbie believes this aim has been achieved.

"I'm the type of person who doesn't like to go back," he says. "Once I've achieved something, that's it. I close the door and move on to something else."

The changes were not achieved without some feathers being ruffled. But he insists: "When you change the culture of an organisation, there are always people, perfectly good honest people who are casualties of those changes. I believe that any changes that we made were made with dignity. I consider peoples dignity to be of immense importance."

Mr Crosbie and his wife Mary - "the most important person in my life" - have just celebrated their 13th wedding anniversary. The Crosbies live in Kinsale, Co Cork. The eldest of their five children, named Alan after his father is known as Polo. Aged 12, he shares his father's interest in sport, as does Darragh who is two years younger. He describes Polo as "extrovert", Darragh as "self confident".

Paige, his eight-year-old daughter, is a "drama queen" while, next, is their son Kim who, at six, has considerable charm, according to his father. The youngest is Rob (2) who is the centre of the family. He was born with Downs Syndrome and shortly after his birth, needed to have open-heart surgery. His father, who does not describe himself as religious, did a lot of praying that year. Rob made a good recovery.

"One of the things about people with Downs Syndrome is that they have to learn things that other people do naturally. Things like walking, talking, have to actually be taught to them. Mary is well ahead of me in how to do this. I want to catch up. For example, speech therapists say it helps if a child with Downs Syndrome can learn sign language, as a kind of tool for developing their verbal language. I need to learn this myself, to help Rob. I would also like to spend time teaching him to do things like sailing - I think it would be a great benefit, later on."

Mr Crosbie is happy talking about religion. He lived with Mary for five years before they were married. As they wanted to get married outside their parish they sought permission from the priest who wanted them to stop living together, attend confession and do a pre-marriage course two months before the wedding. Mr Crosbie's argument was that the five years of living together was the perfect pre-marriage course.

A compromise was reached whereby they agreed to the confession and promised to sleep in separate rooms. "We did sleep in separate rooms," he says, without hiding a smile.

Mr Crosbie has a hearty laugh and the look of a man satisfied with his world. He has arguably "delivered" for the newspaper group. But then his ability to deliver goes well beyond business.

"My last three children were born at home. I delivered Paige myself. It was probably my greatest achievement and I'm very proud of that."

Mr Crosbie hopes now to spend more time with his family. He also wants to organise yacht races, attend a rugby coaching course and take up scuba diving. And of course, he'll still be in business, his board positions continuing his involvement with the Examiner group.

"I love the newspaper business and I want to keep my hand in with the business side. I'm pulling out of the day-to-day running. That's what ties you down. I will have more time to visit all of the newspapers in the group, including the Newry Democrat and the Down Democrat which have recently been purchased. I am looking forward to working more closely with Anthony Dinan, the managing director of Thomas Crosbie Holdings."

Mr Crosbie has been inundated with requests for advice about family businesses since the publication of Don't Leave It To The Children.

"Either by accident or design I have developed an expertise in advising on family businesses. I find I'm asked more frequently to speak at conferences, seminars and indeed overseas universities on the topic and because I enjoy it, this is something I'd like to develop. Of course, I'm also developing an expertise on how to step down early. Maybe I'll run courses on that."

Mr Crosbie is the first member of his family to preside over the handover of the management of Examiner Publications to a non-family member. Strange behaviour for an expert on specifically family business.

"Being a member of a family doesn't give you a God-given right to run the family business," he says. And smiles.