Business Leaders The Innovators Class Acts

John O’Farrell

BE 1979

John O’Farrell is a partner in Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm with $2.7bn under management, investing in the technology sector with a focus on software, cloud computing, enterprise software and services. Early investments included Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb and Skype. Following significant investment in collaboration software company Slack, O’Farrell joined the board in 2019.

Lukas Decker

MSc 2012

Lukas Decker’s start-up, Coindrum, has been selected for the Retailtec Hub programme in Munich, which is facilitated by German electronics retail giant MediaMarktSaturn and Plug and Play, an early-stage investor that backed Google, Paypal and Dropbox. Coindrum offers a simple concept that converts loose change and unwanted foreign currency into duty free vouchers to be spent at airport retail stores, benefiting customers, airport authority, and retailers. Decker has plans to expand globally in the future.

Enda Gunnell

BComm 1989

CEO at Pinergy, the smart-metering electricity supplier, Enda Gunnell announced that it is providing 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable energy sources including wind, solar and hydro power and will continue to do so. This development positions Pinergy as Ireland’s first and only specialist smart energy provider to supply all of its electricity to its customers from renewable sources. As the official partner of Munster Rugby, the company has also recently announced that both Thomond Park and Irish Independent Park are to be powered by electricity from renewable energy sources.

Joe Barrett

BComm 1987, MBA 1992

In March 2019, Applegreen PLC, the Irish forecourt operator announced reaching annual sales of €2bn. Its COO Joe Barrett, who joined the company shortly after it was established in 1992, was this year appointed chair of Retail Excellence. Applegreen, whose activities are focused in Ireland, the UK and the US, employs 10,700, with 5,000 based in Ireland.

Stephen Cluskey

Prof Cert 2005

Mobility Mojo won the United Nations Zero Project for Innovative Practice 2018. Co-founded by CEO Stephen Cluskey, Mobility Mojo is an independent global rating system for hotel accessibility, designed to give a snapshot of the accessible features in hotels on a tech platform in an attractive, standardised way. Cluskey is also a TED Talk speaker.

James Meyler

BComm 1999

James Meyler is CEO at ORIX Aviation Group and CEO of ORIX Aviation Hong Kong. The growing company has a portfolio of more than 200 aircraft worth $10bn (€8.7bn), leased to about 70 airlines globally. Including aircraft sales and lease income, annual turnover is well in excess of $1bn (€880m). In its last financial year, ORIX Aviation bought, sold or leased over 100 aircraft valued in excess of $4bn (€3.5bn). Year on year, over the last ten years, their growth has been spectacular with $30bn (€26.3bn) in executed deals.

David Mcredmond

BA 1983, MA 1986

In 2019, An Post launched a €5m brand refresh and adopted the use of zero-emission electric vehicles. CEO David McRedmond joined An Post in 2016 and has overseen profit growth at the company, from €8.4m in 2017 to €40m in 2018. McRedmond has also initiated an expansion of An Post’s services and a consolidation of its post office network, which is the largest retail chain in the Republic. He also launched An Post’s entry into the mortgage market. McRedmond was The Irish Times’ Business Person of the Month in March 2019.

Jane Marshall

BA 1974

Last year, solicitor Jane Marshall became chair of the board of The Investor Compensation Company. As non-executive director of State Street Fund Services (Ireland) and adjunct professor of company law at UCC, Marshall’s career in insolvency law includes many firsts: first Irish practitioner elected to the American College of Bankruptcy, first Irish president of Insol Europe, the association of European insolvency practitioners and co-author of Corporate Insolvency and Rescue.

Sean Loughman

BE 1987

In May 2019, Sean Loughman was appointed chief information officer at Bus Éireann. Loughman previously worked at AIB, Eir and Ericsson. On his appointment, he said: “I am delighted to be joining Bus Éireann and looking forward to making a significant contribution to the development of the company”. Bus Éireann has seen a significant financial recovery in the last year, since its loss of €6.8m in 2017, reaching a profit of €1.6m before exceptional costs.

Geraldine Gibson

HDip 2003, MBA 2004

Geraldine Gibson is the founder and CEO of AQ Metrics, which has raised €3m in fresh funding from investors. The regulatory technology, or “regtech”, company built a software platform for risk and regulatory reporting to help financial firms track and manage compliance. In January 2019, AQ secured the go-ahead from the Central Bank of Ireland to provide a reporting tool for the EU’s new financial regulations – MiFID II.

Murphy Choy

MSc 2010

Dr Murphy Choy was awarded the 2019 Singapore Alumnus of the Year Award in April, presented to him by UCD at a ceremony in Singapore. Dr Choy, who has a masters in Finance from UCD, and experience as a programmer and analyst, is director of operations and technology at leading Singapore-based global firm SSON Analytics, the largest community of shared services and outsourcing professionals in the world.

Gerry Stone

BA Psychology 1990

New York-based managing director of Bank of America, Gerry Stone was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster in November 2018, for his leadership in promoting equality in the workplace – in particular, LGBTQ rights
– and for his leadership in financial services and technology. A technology and operations leader with more than 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry and international banking, Stone has previously worked at global firms Merrill and Lloyds Bank.

Katharine Jensen

MBA 2009

In December 2018, Katharine Jensen was promoted to the role of executive director and head of corporate social responsibility at Vertex Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Vertex Pharmaceuticals. She now leads the company’s ten-year, $500m corporate giving commitment. Jensen previously worked at Abbvie and Abbott Laboratories, creating philanthropic initiatives. Vertex recorded a $857m profit in March 2019.

John O’Farrell

Lukas Decker

Enda Gunnell

Joe Barrett

Stephen Cluskey

James Meyler

David Mcredmond

Jane Marshall

Sean Loughman

Geraldine Gibson

Murphy Choy

Gerry Stone

Katharine Jensen

John O’Farrell

BE 1979

Lukas Decker

MSc 2012

Enda Gunnell

BComm 1989

Joe Barrett

BComm 1987, MBA 1992

Stephen Cluskey

Prof Cert 2005

James Meyler

BComm 1999

David Mcredmond

BA 1983, MA 1986

Jane Marshall

BA 1974

Sean Loughman

BE 1987

Geraldine Gibson

HDip 2003, MBA 2004

Murphy Choy

MSc 2010

Gerry Stone

BA Psychology 1990

Katharine Jensen

MBA 2009

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