Quinlan Private founder Derek Quinlan was in reflective mode when he addressed a lunch in Dublin yesterday hosted by the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants.

The packed hall was told that, although he had been happy while working as a Revenue Commissioner and later as an accountant in private practice, Mr Quinlan had nevertheless felt restless for something different.

The title of a book he'd seen, but not bought, in a bookshop some years previously, How to Get What You Want, had remained in his mind, he said.

Consideration of the issue led him to the conclusion that he had a "desire for personal freedom" or to "do my own thing". He decided he wanted to be in business and would have to build on the skills he had, he said.

He became convinced that there was a gap in the market in property and, in 1989, he established what he said was Ireland's first independent private client advisory group. It had one telephone and one principal and he sat there "waiting for the phone to ring".

"People say to me now that you must have had great courage but, if I had, it did not feel like that at the time," he said.

What he felt was more anxiety than courage, he said, but nevertheless he was convinced he had spotted an opportunity in the market.

Through the 1990s, Mr Quinlan said, the firm grew to become the leader in the Irish property market. Although he had started small, he had always thought big, and was "as focused on the top line, the revenue line, as on the bottom line".

From deals of just over £1 million, the firm's activities grew to deals of tens of millions of euro and more.

In 2003, Quinlan Private was involved in a single transaction worth €200 million, a transaction he believes remains the "largest private equity deal ever undertaken in Dublin".

(This was a reference to an equity and debt-financed, unit-linked life assurance fund that invested in two property funds managed by Deutsche Bank. The properties concerned are located around the world.)

The growth in its business in Ireland gave the firm a platform from which to expand abroad. Quinlan Private now operates on both sides of the Atlantic and has assets under management that are "significantly in excess of €5 billion".

The firm employs 100 professionals from "New York to Warsaw", Mr Quinlan said. A firm such as this is "not made like instant coffee but is brewed with care".