What business-person do you most admire?
Michael O’Leary.
How do you unwind?
On a beach.
How much money is in your wallet?
Just a digital wallet with two CleverCards in it: a Business Expense CleverCard with a €5,000 limit, and a €1,500 CleverCard I got tax-free under the Small Benefit Exemption. I like to practise what we preach.
The last book you read?
Ryanair: The Full Story.
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What is the best business advice you’ve ever been given?
Never lose invested money; protect the downside. Everyone works hard for the best upside, which will be whatever it will be.
Who is the most famous person in your contacts list?
I’m fortunate that a good number of CleverCards’ investors are names you’d recognise; some famous in Ireland, several globally famous in their industries. I’ll let them stay in the contacts list rather than the headline.
How do you manage your work-life balance?
I work very long days and, truthfully, plenty of weekends too. So, bank holidays and the spring and summer breaks are sacrosanct family time.
The last film you watched?
The Rafa Nadal documentary on Netflix.
What’s your most memorable holiday?
White-water rafting down the Zambezi river.
What social media do you use?
Mainly LinkedIn.
If money were no object, what would your fantasy purchase be?
Time.
What is the first website you look at every morning?
The Irish Times.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
A bit of both, honestly. I’ve a personal trainer who knocks on the door early three or four mornings a week, so the choice is made for me.
If you were taoiseach for a day, what would you do?
Make a serious, sustained investment in the small business economy. SMEs employ around two-thirds of Irish workers, yet so much of the country’s tax base now rests on a handful of multinationals. The top 10 alone pay roughly half our corporation tax. That’s a lot of eggs in very few baskets. We’re a nation of talented entrepreneurs, and with the right support far more of them could scale from small to serious. The medium- and long-term return on that is obvious.
What person do you most admire?
My wife. It takes serious determination and resilience to start and scale a business, impossible without a great team, both at work and at home. She’s the latter.
What’s your favourite place in Dublin and why?
Walking out of the arrivals hall Dublin Airport.
Anything you would like to plug?
CleverCards, of course. We turn employee rewards and benefits into a digital Mastercard that businesses can issue in seconds, including tax-free perks under the Small Benefit Exemption. If you run a family business and you, your spouse, your children and any other employees are not availing of €1,500 tax free CleverCards Mastercards, we should talk.
