WILD GEESE/Patrick Shelley LVMH commercial:development directorAFTER 12 years in Paris, this is Patrick Shelley's last day in the city. The morning after we meet, he is due to fly to Moscow to take up a senior role at Moët Hennessy's operation in Russia, a prospect that clearly excites him.
His new home won’t be entirely unfamiliar. In a career that has brought him from the German meat business to commodities trading in London to selling premium champagne brands in France, three of the most memorable years were spent in Moscow during the dizzying post-communist days of the mid-1990s.
“The thing I really liked about Russia was that it was so fast-moving at that time,” Tipperary-born Shelley recalls over coffee in a Parisian hotel.
“One year in Ireland or France was equivalent to a month in Russia in terms of the speed of things.”
He had originally gone to Moscow to open an office for a British commodities firm, but after six months a head-hunter came knocking to ask him if he’d join a food supplier that wanted to set up an office in the city.
He started with crates for chairs and ended up three years later with a staff of 20 and a turnover of $22 million (€17 million).
The bureaucracy may have been a hindrance, the rules of the game somewhat novel (he once, literally, had a gun put to his head in a meeting), and the payment systems unique (“In one case I was offered six helicopters as part-payment. Obviously I turned it down”). But the business potential was boundless. “It completely shifted the goalposts in terms of how you see business and what kind of targets you set,” he says.
Shelley studied politics, German and Spanish at UCC and graduated with no firm idea of what he wanted to do. In hindsight, he’s glad he didn’t. “It can be a positive point for young people, when they’re leaving college – you need to take a risk, run with it,” he remarks.
He had spent a year at school in Switzerland and did a work placement in Germany, so his attention was turned outwards from an early stage.
“I wanted something international – I was really attracted to the idea of international wheeling-dealing. I loved the films – not the glamorous side of it, but the cultural experience of it. So I was thinking of a career in international business.”
His first stop was London, where he learned about commodity trading on the job before suggesting to his boss that they really should think about opening an office in Russia. “He said, ‘Will you go out and open it?’, so I said ‘Fine’. And a few weeks later, I was on a plane.”
Moscow’s energy was intoxicating, but also exhausting, so when the luxury goods group Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton offered him a job, the deal was that he’d work from their Paris offices.
In his time in the French capital, Shelley has had overall responsibility for Hennessy cognac in central and eastern Europe; Moët Chandon champagne in Asia; and most recently he served as international director of Ruinart champagne. He speaks contentedly of how Ruinart is one of the fastest-growing brands in Moët Hennessy’s portfolio and one of the few that was unaffected by the economic crisis – a fact he attributes to its not having panicked by lowering prices.
“If you’ve spent decades or even hundreds of years building a brand image, getting consumers to understand that brand’s heritage and origins, telling everyone it’s premium, if you start discounting that brand, it doesn’t stack up. The consumer will see through you. That happens quite regularly.”
Shelley speaks two foreign languages (French and German) fluently and another (Russian) to a high standard. He feels being Irish has worked greatly to his advantage. Irish people are flexible and adaptable, he says, and they’re avid risk-takers. “I think in ways that the Irish abroad get to master their adaptability and flexibility in doing business and integrating into different situations much more so than they do within Ireland . . . I can see more self-confidence in the Irish abroad than I do at home.”
Asked how he might advise today’s young graduates, Shelley stresses the importance of an international focus. Languages are useful, but so, too, is any sort of overseas experience, whether from travelling or working abroad. And then there’s passion.
“You need to have a passion for what you do, and I feel very fortunate that, since going to university, I’ve had this sort of passion pushing me forward. I think that’s what makes the difference. The people you meet along the way spot very quickly if you have that passion. People love talking to people who love what they’re doing.”
True enough – an hour’s conversation with Shelley on the eve of his flight to Moscow passes in an instant. “I’m really thrilled about the opportunity,” he says before leaving. The post, as commercial development director, is a highly visible one. “I do a good job, the world is my oyster,” he jokes. “And if I don’t do a good job, there’s only one person to blame.”
