Formative influence in Irish banking and business development

For nearly 50 years, Donal S.A

For nearly 50 years, Donal S.A. (Don) Carroll, who died on September 13th aged 72, was a formative influence in financial, banking and business development in Ireland.

He was governor of Bank of Ireland from 1964-1970 and again from 1982-1985. For many years he was chairman and managing director of Carroll Industries, which included the tobacco manufacturer, P J Carroll & Co, a firm founded by his great-grandfather. Don Carroll was born in Cork on December 26th, 1927 to John Donal, the county medical officer, and Sheila (nee Flynn). His father died when he was three months old and when his mother remarried a bank official in 1932, he moved to Dublin. He was educated at Dominican Convent in Wicklow, where he became a boarder when he was aged seven. This was followed by a year in Blackrock College and then to Glenstal, which he attended throughout the second World War. "Glenstal gave me two things: first, an individual identification with everybody who was there, monks and students . . . the second thing was that it was so beautifully situated that it developed in me a great love for the countryside . . . Glenstal was a seat of the liberal ethic," he recalled later to Ivor Kenny for his book, In Good Company.

He went to Trinity College, Dublin to read economics, but quickly switched to chartered accountancy with Stokes Brothers and Pim, qualifying in 1952.

While at school and college, he played cricket and rugby, two sports which he believed taught him the value and effectiveness of teamwork.

READ MORE

While P J Carroll was in essence a family firm, his entry into its employ was anything but automatic. His "senior uncle", James Carroll, had told him to get a qualification when he wanted to join after leaving school; he applied again after qualifying as an accountant. "I went into Carrolls quite clear that I had not been accepted in the company as a member of the family," he recalled.

P J Carroll was not going well, there was hardly any work in the factory and management-employee relations were not good. Don Carroll developed a good incentive scheme and took time to explain it to the workers. He believed it was always better to reach an understanding if you could see the other person's point of view and avoid stubborn confrontation. Sales improved, profits increased but finance was still hard to obtain. This was the period when he first came face-to-face with the top management of Bank of Ireland. Co-opted to the board of P J Carroll in 1955, he was offered a directorship of the bank the next year, following his successful negotiations on finance. This was the beginning of his parallel careers in banking and business. He was just 29.

By 1961, he had become chairman and managing director of P J Carroll and was on the board of the Carreras Tobacco Group, later to become Rothmans International. Throughout the 1960s, P J Carroll was reorganised and developed. He formed an association with Carreras, established a marketing headquarters in Dublin and a new factory was opened in Dundalk in 1970. P J Carroll captured almost half the Irish tobacco market.

In 1962, Don Carroll was appointed deputy governor of Bank of Ireland and two years later he began the first of two terms as governor. He was chairman of the Irish Banks' Standing Committee from 1964-1970 and became a director of the Central Bank in 1970.

In 1964, he brought in McKinsey consultants from America to survey the disparate Irish banking situation. New structures and rationalisation followed: links were forged with American banks, the Investment Bank of Ireland was formed and the National Bank and Bank of Ireland merged.

It was during these years that Don Carroll first came to discuss with Dr Ken Whitaker the need to reform banking policies in Ireland: their work together led to the establishment of a full-powers Central Bank of Ireland, so that the capital of Irish banks no longer was on deposit with the British Treasury. The Central Bank was also established as the Government's banker, whereas before that it had been the job of Bank of Ireland, which then went on to develop as a commercial entity. In 1971, Don Carroll was appointed chairman of a new bank in London, the Lloyds and Bolsa International Bank. He moved to London, after retiring from P J Carroll. He was deputy chairman of Carreras and was on the board of Dunlop Holdings. "One of the things I was beginning to see out of all of this was that issues which had appeared to me to be simply Irish problems were in reality universal problems," he recalled.

In 1973, when Lloyds assumed full control of the bank, he relinquished the position and returned to Ireland, while remaining a director of Lloyds main banking company.

On his return to the family business, he had to confront a whole new market situation: there was a decline in the sale of cigarettes and it was apparent that the company needed to move into other areas. An attempted link with Fieldcrest, the US towel manufacturer, was a disaster and Fieldcrest pulled out. Further diversification followed in the 1980s into fish farming, marketing and venture capital, with mixed success. He retired from P J Carroll in 1990.

Don Carroll was president of An Taisce in 1977, a founder of Co-operation North, a member of the Commission on Taxation and the Higher Education Authority. An honorary Doctorate in Laws was conferred on him by Trinity College in 1969. He served as a governor of The Irish Times Trust Ltd from September 1974 to June 1980. Don Carroll is survived by his wife Monica, son Jonathan and daughter Jane.

Donal Shemus Allingham (Don) Carroll: born 1927; died, September 2000