Seán Melly
Born: February 21st, 1964
Died: July 17th, 2022
Seán Melly, who has died aged 58, was a telecommunications entrepreneur, a business investor and mentor, and a lecturer in Trinity College.
The eldest of three, he was born in London to Marie, a nurse and John, an electrician, who were both from Co Sligo. They moved back to Ireland about 15 years after his birth and settled in the Dún Laoghaire area. He attended Harold Boys’ School in Dalkey and Clonkeen College in Blackrock, but it was his choice of university that proved to be a pivotal moment. After briefly considering architecture, he switched to business at Trinity College Dublin.
In the 2013 book Trinity Tales, edited by Katy McGuinness, he recalled how he was the first in his family to go to university and said it was an intimidating place, and a total change from his world. He did not have “two pennies to rub together” and would check the noticeboard under the Front Gate every day at the beginning of each term to see if his grant had arrived.
Among his lecturers were Mary Robinson, Kader Asmal and David Norris. In his final year at the university, he met a young Irish-American student Heidi Haenschke who would later become his wife and mother to his three oldest children. Melly had three other children from two other relationships
He liked to say that he left Trinity College Dublin with a business degree, lifelong friends and a world of possibilities. He went on to complete a Masters in Finance in UCD and was hired by Citicorp, the investment banking division of Citibank. He spent the following decade working in banking and finance in London and New York. Employers included the Canadian Belzberg family, and Irish financier Dermot Desmond.
By 1995 he was ready to become his own boss. In a 2011 interview for Trinity Today, he told journalist Simon Carswell how he had noticed that it was five times more expensive to make a call from Dublin to New York than from New York to Dublin. After reading a US article about someone who had set up a telephone call back system, he came up with a plan to offer cheaper US call rates to companies operating from Ireland, by using technology to route the calls through New York.
With his wife Heidi, he started TCL Telecom in their New York apartment in 1995 before relocating to Dublin. Investors included businessmen Bernard Somers and Liam Booth, and US telecommunications group WorldCom which took a 30 per cent share in 1996. WorldCom bought the company for a reputed IR£17 million in 1997. At that stage, it had some 700 corporate clients and offices in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
He then looked towards eastern Europe where fellow entrepreneur Enda O’Coineen was working. The Czech-based businessman recalled how he had been looking for someone to partner with when he first encountered Melly. “I met a few people in that field but Seán stood out by far,” he recalled. “He was a mover and shaker, a great entrepreneur and very focused.”
Melly set up telecoms company eTel in 1999 and then took a stake in Enda O’Coineen’s Globix telecoms company before eventually buying it outright. By 2004, eTel had a firm foothold in five central and east European countries, and a workforce of 300. It was sold to Telekom Austria for some €100 million in 2007.
After that, he set up private investment company, Powerscourt Capital, and invested in a range of start-ups. Solar AdTek was one such company. Its chief executive Eoin O’Broin said the company approached Melly in late 2015 seeking investment. “And we secured this in early 2016, with his help.” He said Melly had been instrumental in the company’s early success “and he will be sadly missed as a hands-on adviser and friend”.
Trinity College had helped kick-start Melly’s business career, so it was fitting that he returned to it as an adviser, fundraiser and lecturer. Andrew Burke, Dean of Trinity Business School said the businessman joined Trinity Business School’s advisory board at its foundation in 2005 and served as its chairman for more than a decade. “He was a driving force in advancing the interests of Trinity Business School, in particular the construction of the new Business School, which he was delighted to see through to fruition in 2019.”
Melly taught corporate finance as an adjunct professor on the school’s MBA programme where Prof Burke said he was known for his “uncompromising and rigorous real-world teaching approach”. He was also a member of the Provost’s Council.
He ran for the Seanad on the Trinity panel in 2016, campaigning on the basis that he would be a voice for business in the Seanad and would help create an enterprise-friendly economic environment. However, his flirtation with politics was a brief one. The seats were won by David Norris, Ivana Bacik and Lynn Ruane and he returned to his day job.
His family said money was not the motivating factor in his drive to succeed. It was about achieving something and helping others benefit from his business knowledge.
Outside work, he was a familiar sight in Dalkey and Killiney as he walked Gigi, his large Newfoundland dog around the neighbourhood. He enjoyed a morning swim when possible and was an enthusiastic cyclist. His fellow cyclists formed a guard of honour at his funeral and escorted him to the Forty Foot for one last time.
He combined cycling with charity work by fundraising for causes such as the Irish Hospice Foundation. Enda O’Coineen said Melly was hugely successful in business but “he put a lot back in, which was admirable ... we are all travelling the journey of life and we will be judged on what we leave behind and I think he leaves a very fine legacy”.
Businessman and former neighbour Michael Maye described him as “a great man of energy, vision and integrity ... tough, fair, decent and a good sense of humour”.
The Irish Hospice Foundation remembered him as a dynamic force when he fundraised and promoted their cycle challenges. He became ill with cancer three and a half years ago and friends said he showed great fortitude in dealing with his illness. He was in the care of Wicklow Hospice when he died.
Seán Melly is survived by his children Clara, Virginia, Eva, Sophie, Gabrielle and Max, his mother Marie and siblings Deirdre and Kieran.