The Lighter Side

What business person do you most admire?

Colm Lyon of Fire.

What is your guilty pleasure?

A Coke float.

How do you unwind?

Through sport – swimming, cycling and running.

How much money is in your wallet?

€70 for emergencies – I’d rather pay by card.

What is the best business advice you’ve ever been given?

Employ people that can do things you can’t and let them get on with the job.

Who is the most famous person in your contacts list?

Denis O’Brien.

How do you manage your work/life balance?

Luckily, I have a great team which enables me to work a normal day and be home for dinner with my four daughters and my wife, everyday.

The last book you read?

Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight.

The last film you watched?

Instant Family.

What is your favourite possession?

Currently it’s my Cervelo P5X TT bike.

What’s your most memorable holiday ever?

Last October, I brought my four grown-up daughters and my wife to Disney in Florida and we had the best time, previous to that it was the Maldives with my wife for our 25th anniversary.

What social media do you use?

Pretty much them all, including Snapchat and Instagram – you get drawn in when you still have a teenager in the house. Keeps me relevant though!

If money were not object, what would your fantasy purchase be?

A Bugatti Veyron.

What is the first website you look at every morning?

Bank of Ireland – as a businessman it’s extremely important to stay on top of the cash in the business.

Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Early bird.

If you were Taoiseach for a day what would you do?

Replace every minister with a business person and put in consequences for overspending and make them accountable.

What person do you most admire?

Every small business owner that wakes up every day and takes a risk just by being in business. They are my heroes.

What’s your favourite place in Dublin and why?

Has to be my own house, because it’s a real home. Besides that, it would be the RDS or Aviva watching Leinster or Ireland.

Anything you would like to plug?

Knowing how important cash is to a business, I cannot emphasise enough how important having a proper accounting system like Big Red Cloud is to a business. Obviously, people will say I’m biased, but take it from someone that nearly failed due to incomplete accounts a long time ago. It led me to develop a simple and easy-to-use accounting system that anyone can use!