Gerald P Dempsey:GERALD P DEMPSEY, who has died aged 81, was a former chief executive of ancillary activities at Aer Lingus. He played a leading role in the airline's diversification into businesses related to its core air transport business.
By 1984, two years before he retired, Aer Lingus/Aerlínte Éireann had an interest in 103 companies – 60 wholly owned subsidiaries, six subsidiaries involving minority interests, 31 associates and six others.
Diversification began in 1960 with the acquisition of an interest in Irish Intercontinental Hotels. Dempsey saw the move as a necessary investment in tourist infrastructure – “we wanted quality beds” – as there had been no significant hotel construction since before the second World War.
In 1973 Aer Lingus acquired an interest in Sunbound, a wholesale travel agency, and followed this with the takeover of a similar operator Blueskies. Dempsey explained that it was a market-related move involving the takeover of businesses that otherwise would have failed. The move led to criticisms of State involvement in a sensitive area of private enterprise, the more so as the airline continued to operate charters on a normal contract basis for other tour companies.
Aer Lingus’s view was that it was entitled to maintain an interest in the distribution of its product to the ultimate consumer – the holiday-maker, and that virtually every other European airline was doing the same.
With the acquisition of Sunbound and Blueskies, Aer Lingus was able to establish a position in the sun charter business free from the instability inherent in annual negotiations with a small number of wholesalers.
February 1973 saw the opening of the 850-bed London Tara Hotel, with Dempsey as chairman of the company. It was decided to develop a golf course in Britain and a holiday resort in Tenerife. Both projects prompted much criticism, including from the airline’s staff, but it gradually abated.
In 1975 Aer Lingus secured a controlling interest in the Dunfey chain of 20 hotels in the US, later adding two further hotels in New York and the Commodore Hotel in Paris.
By the 1980s Aer Lingus was involved in aviation services, hotels, leisure and catering and financial services. As these activities grew from 1972 to 1982, revenue from them leaped from £8 million to £142 million and net profit from under £1 million to almost £12 million.
In 1985 Dempsey said of the ancillary activities programme: “There are many lessons to be learned, but the most outstanding is that publicly owned State companies can and should engender a spirit of enterprise which will flourish if the State leaves the board to make commercial decisions and the board in turn encourages management to be risk takers.”
However, diversification did not survive the 1990s and all ancillary activities have ceased.
Born in Dublin in 1928, Gerald P Dempsey was one of two children of Patrick J Dempsey, former secretary of the ESB, and his wife Nora (née Murphy). He was educated at Willow Park, Co Dublin, and Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick.
He continued his studies at University College Dublin, where he graduated with a BA degree, obtaining first class honours in economics. Having qualified as a chartered accountant in 1953 he joined Aer Lingus as internal auditor the following year.
In 1959 he became general accountant; in 1960, assistant chief accountant; and chief accountant in the following year. In 1968 he was appointed assistant general manager (finance); and in 1972, general manager (finance).
He was appointed deputy chief executive of the airline in 1972, and later that year took up the new post of chief executive-ancillary activities. He was also chairman of Aer Lingus’s principal subsidiary companies in the US, UK and France, and was a director of Guinness Peat Aviation.
For a time he was a lecturer in the commerce faculty of UCD. A former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, he was a member of the US Chamber of Commerce in Ireland. He was actively involved in the Ireland Fund.
Directorships included Waterford Glass, Omni Hotels and Gilbeys Ireland, and he was chairman of GC and C Brands.
He was Business Finance Man of the Year 1979.
A member and former captain of Dún Laoghaire golf club, he was also a member of Portmarnock golf club, Fitzwilliam lawn tennis club and the Royal Irish Yacht Club.
Predeceased in 2002 by his wife Pat (née McNally), he is survived by his sons Eugene and Kieran, daughters Clodagh and Denise and sister Joan.
Gerald Patrick (Gerry) Dempsey: born November 29th, 1928; died June 28th, 2010