Stephen Vernon: ‘You almost always get back as much as you put in’

For Stephen Vernon, chairman of the hugely successful real estate company Green Property, and this year’s Community Foundation for Ireland Philanthropist of the Year, getting involved in charity projects and initiatives is a source of immense satisfaction

Stephen Vernon at home in Dublin City. The John Pollard Foundation, set up in 2017, allows him to invest in companies with the intention of using all the funds put in, and earned, for selected projects. Picture: Clare Keogh

A swish of red sprints between the trees before leaping and clearing the garden wall in Ranelagh. Stephen Vernon gasps, excited to see the urban fox dart away as the sun dips in the evening sky. “That’s a new one, I think. We had another guy who’d pop in, but this one looks younger and in better shape,” he says.

These moments of natural beauty are precious to Vernon, who’s also something of an amateur ...