Mr Leslie Buckley joined Esat Telecom's board in 1996 as the company prepared to float on the Nasdaq screen-based stock market in the US. He was the firm's acting chief executive during this crucial period when Esat Digifone, the mobile business in which it had a 49.5 per cent stake, was introduced. Along with corporate financier Mr Paul Connolly he was and remains a key adviser to Mr O'Brien.
Originally from Cork and a graduate of University College Cork, Mr Buckley previously worked for Smurfit Group and Agra Trading before setting up his own consultancy in 1990 that specialised in restructuring companies.
The experience he garnered reorganising Waterford Crystal and leading a task force to formulate a survival plan for CIE in the early 1990s will prove useful if he and Mr O'Brien succeed in their bid for Eircom's fixed line business.
In 1994 he was appointed acting chief executive of Irish Steel and oversaw the rationalisation that led to its sale to Ispat International.
Mr Buckley remained a director of Esat Telecom after the appointment of a full-time chief executive. When the firm was sold to British Telecom earlier this year for €2.4 billion (£1.89 billion) his shares and share options were worth just over £5.7 million. He resigned as an Esat director only last month.
He has become involved in other investments with Mr O'Brien since the Esat sale, including several Internet businesses. The pair are also bidding for mobile licences in the Caribbean.
Their most high-profile venture is e-Power, which is trying to break into the recently deregulated electricity market and claims 83 corporate customers.
