Profiles: Harry Cassidy & John Mulholland

HARRY CASSIDY:Harry Cassidy (55), who ran Custom House Capital (CHC) as chief executive until his resignation in July, was previously a senior executive at Guinness Mahon, a private bank run by the late Des Traynor.

Mr Cassidy began his career in financial services in 1974. He worked with IBI and Bank of Ireland Asset Management before joining Guinness Mahon as head of its investment division in 1995.

In 2000, Mr Cassidy left Guinness Mahon, where he was head of private banking, to set up investment manager CHC Asset Management under an existing firm, Custom House Capital.

Mr Cassidy was joined at CHC by John Whyte, also a former executive of Guinness Mahon who later became an executive director of CHC and head of private clients at the company.

Mr Cassidy subsequently took over CHC, reinventing the firm as a provider of wealth management services with a focus on pensions.

Much of the investment by the firm was centred around property, particularly in Germany.

Mr Cassidy was a qualified tax consultant and a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

He was paid an annual salary of €430,000 by CHC, while his colleague, Mr Whyte, received pay of €133,000 a year.

The company operated from a Georgian building on Merrion Square in Dublin.

Records at the Companies Registration Office show that Mr Cassidy, who has an address in Ballinteer, Co Dublin, is also a director of SolarPrint Ltd, an energy technology company based in Sandyford.

JOHN MULHOLLAND

John Mulholland (60) has a background in the pensions industry and has been involved in the financial services business for three decades. He is also a qualified barrister.

Mr Cassidy and Mr Mulholland started off together in business in 1999. Mr Mulholland also owned a separate pension planning company, European Pensioneer Trustee Company, which he set up in 1982 and ran with his wife, Ruth Woods. This company was housed in the same building as CHC on Dublin’s Merrion Square.

Mr Cassidy told the Central Bank inspectors appointed to CHC in July that Mr Mulholland did not have “executive responsibilities” at CHC and “wouldn’t be aware of the extent of these issues”.

He also said Mr Mulholland was a friend of solicitor John Caldwell, who was investigated by the Mahon tribunal into planning corruption.

“He is not a friend of mine,” Mr Cassidy said of Mr Caldwell. “He is a contact of John’s.”

Mr Mulholland has been involved in numerous other companies over the years. Most of them are in the financial services sector, although he was also a director of a leisure company based in Blessington, Co Wicklow, and an internet investment company incorporated in 2000 but dissolved two years later.

In 2006, he set up another company, Mulholland Life and Pensions, with members of his family.

He has an address in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, according to the Companies Registration Office.