Three must be a magic number for Barry O'Leary, the former chief executive of IDA Ireland who left the agency in August, where he was replaced by Martin Shanahan. O'Leary remained stubbornly tight-lipped all year about his post-IDA plans. But this week, he broke cover with three reasons to be cheerful.
First up, there is the honorary doctorate he received on Thursday from UCD. O’Leary, who is known for being reserved but sounded genuinely chuffed about it all, was presented with his scroll following a graduation of business students in the early evening.
Speaking beforehand, O’Leary said he believed the event was on in the university’s O’Reilly Hall (as in Sir Anthony). Mind you, the official conferrals rota on UCD’s website had it listed for the O’Brien Science Centre (as in Denis, O’Reilly’s nemesis until Dinny bested him).
Hopefully O’Leary found the right spot, whichever of the warring tycoons’ buildings was the venue. How clever of UCD to keep a foot in both those camps, by the way.
O’Leary’s second bit of news was that he has picked up a number of interesting, and no doubt lucrative, directorships. How many? Three, of course.
He has joined the board of the Oaktree Capital-backed property company Targeted Investment Opportunities.
His fellow directors include John Mulcahy, the former senior Nama executive director, and Jim Bennett of the Bennett construction group that works closely with the US giant Oaktree. Justin Bickle, the UK chief executive of Oaktree, is also on the Tio board.
Tio is apparently seeking opportunities in student accommodation, retirement homes and serviced apartments.
One of its sub-funds, in which Nama has invested, is also focused on development in the South Docks area of Dublin. Or Silicon Docks, if you prefer. This is the bailiwick of several of O'Leary's old IDA clients, such as Google and Facebook. It's always nice to know the neighbours.
O'Leary has also joined the board of Zurich Insurance, the Irish-registered underwriter for all of the Swiss giant's European business. The IDA client company has gross written premiums of about €10 billion and employs more than 1,000 staff in Ireland, and about 12,000 overall. Zurich is based out in Blackrock, on the southside of the city, handy for O'Leary at least.
The third board seat he is due to take up is the Irish arm of M+W, the German construction management giant. O’Leary spent the best part of two decades working for IDA in Germany, part of it as country head before he returned to Ireland in 2002, so he should be well versed in their ways.
Another excuse for jollity for O’Leary this week is that it is his birthday: 64 years young on Friday.
