The Big Interview | Business Post

The Big Interview

‘The European energy market is experiencing shocks like never before’ – Dave Kirwan, Bord Gáis

The managing director of the largest gas company in Ireland is looking to a future of indigenously sourced energy. But in the short term, the outlook is grim, with soaring energy costs being the biggest driver of inflation

The Big Interview

‘What’s the breaking point? How long can we absorb these increases?’ – Ciara Troy, food entrepreneur

The Dublin-based founder of Oishii Foods built her successful Japanese cuisine company from scratch, but is concerned now about the impact of inflation on her growing business

The Big Interview

‘You are more than able for this role, and we want you to want this role’ – Gemma Freeman of Dentons

The insolvency lawyer has risen to the top of a male-dominated profession – and credits the strongly pro-female atmosphere at her firm, Dentons, for much of that

The Big Interview

‘Corporate culture has torn the soul out of its own gifting’ – Jonathan Legge, &Open

The company’s ‘human-centric’ gifting services for multinationals, which is now switching its focus to include small and medium-sized businesses as well, all started as a result of a mix-up over a gift when its co-founder hosted a family on Airbnb

The Big Interview

‘In times of crisis, you want to be in control of your destiny’ – Gary Morrison of Hostelworld

Travel restrictions led to losses of €17.3 million for Dublin-headquartered Hostelworld in 2021 but now, with business almost back to pre-pandemic levels, its chief executive Gary Morrison is looking to the future and to other markets such as the over-35 solo traveller

The Big Interview

Jack Teeling: ‘When I was growing up, Irish whiskey was not seen as a cool thing’

With business recovering well after the Covid dip, the managing director of Teeling Whiskey is optimistic about an industry that has ‘totally changed’

The Big Interview: ‘The sector has learned lessons from the past. We're in a very different position as an industry to the financial crash of 2008’ – Cecilia Ronan, chief executive of Citibank Europe

Cecilia Ronan sees a thriving future where data analytics and emerging tech will be just as important as accountancy

The Big Interview: Conor Sheahan – ‘I’ve had more than one client who's no longer with us because the burden of the debt became too much. That's a really serious thing’

The chief executive of CKS Finance has helped the firm to make its name in debt resolution on behalf of its clients, most notably last year’s settlement between AIB and the Belfry investors. But it has also moved into corporate finance in a big way

The Big Interview: ‘We say no to people. If someone wants something from us that we can’t give, we won’t work with them’ – Andrew Lynch, co-founder, Huckletree

The co-founder and chief operating officer of co-working outfit Huckletree is focused on propelling his company to the forefront of the start-up world, as he looks ahead to opening a second office in Dublin city centre

The big interview: ‘Drone delivery will be a big part of the future for our business. It’s already moving in that direction’ – Scott Bush, chief executive of Domino’s Ireland

For Scott Bush, his role as chief executive of Domino’s Ireland is the culmination of a 15-year dream after a visit here in 2007 started him on the way to where he is today

The big interview: ‘To work on a project like this is a real privilege’ – Adriaan Bartels of Cashel Palace Hotel

The Kenyan-born hotelier and former manager of the Cliff House hotel in Ardmore says he has found a dream project in the soon-to-open revamped Cashel Palace hotel

The Big Interview: Alan Leamy of Perigord -“I made the decision that our family business wasn’t going to become a statistic of second-generation failures”

The chief executive of Perigord started off as an apprentice in his father’s colour separation business, ferrying images across the Atlantic for the covers of National Geographic, Time and Life. Since then, he’s steered what started as a family business successfully through numerous changes of direction

The Big Interview: Kris Rudeegraap of Sendoso – ‘We invented the category of gifting software’

The chief executive and co-founder of gifting firm Sendoso is living the dream in San Rafael, California. The company, which was inspired by a barking dog, has its 50-strong EMEA headquarters in Dublin and is now valued at $700 million

‘Investors see a lack of confidence as weakness. They don’t see it as humility outside Ireland’ – The Big Interview: Allan Beechinor and Niamh Parker

The husband and wife team who founded Cork-based artificial intelligence firm Altada say they’re in it for the long haul, and have their eyes on the big prize of becoming a decacorn

‘Too many people are in Irish whiskey to make a ton of money, we’re not’ - The Big Interview: Peter Mulryan of Blackwater Distillery

Peter Mulryan, chief executive of Blackwater Distillery in Ballyduff, Co Waterford, played his part in Ireland’s gin boom. Now, the company is set to launch its first whiskey and has just raised €2.2m from investors, among them Dolf Stockhausen, the Swiss-German millionaire scientist

‘March 13, 2020 was the day our whole Jack & Jill calendar of events disappeared overnight’ - The Big Interview: Carmel Doyle

The chief executive of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation came into the charity after a career in the PR industry. Her determination and flexibility in both these fields are helping her cope with the pandemic’s impact on fundraising events

‘People in Ireland are very responsive to need, but there are many with great potential to engage in a more strategic way’ – The Big Interview with Caitriona Fottrell

Last year, the Ireland Funds president and chief executive found herself taking charge of a global organisation whose gala dinners in Boston and New York were on hold. Since then, it’s been a bumpy but rewarding ride

‘I told them we should make our own product, create our own brand, make our own supplements’ - The Big Interview with Daithí O’Connor, founder of Revive Active

Daithí O’Connor has been running Revive Active since he told a group of doctors, molecular biologists and specialists in nutrition that instead of importing vitamins from the US, they could establish their own brand of products here

The Big Interview: ‘Multinationals are looking at their global payroll operations and they see they need to be agile’

Fidelma McGuirk, founder of Payslip, says many multinationals learned the hard way during Covid-19 that running payroll ‘in a siloed way’, country by country, leaves them vulnerable – and her company aims to change that

The Big Interview: Shane Scully, Eagle Street Partners

Shane Scully decided to start his own property development company with his former Glenveagh colleague Justin Bickle during lockdown. In less than a year, Eagle Street has committed €150 million in invested capital to office, hospitality and residential development projects in Britain and Ireland