Tales from the top: speaking to Irish bosses

From the reluctant leader to the family successor, chief executives share common qualities and concerns – but how do Ireland’s bosses maintain the delicate balancing of being at the top?

Marian O’Gorman of the Kilkenny Group ‘It’s important to be genuine with people, to have empathy and to respect them’
Colm Foster, director of executive education at the Irish Management Institute

Brendan Mooney never thought he would ascend to chief executive. Mooney had been working at Kainos, the Belfast-based software firm, for ten years when its founding managing director, Frank Graham, started eyeing up a successor.

“He asked me, ‘Would you like the top job? If you don’t, who would you work for out of your colleagues?’ I said I’d fancy doing it, but I ...