Dermot Desmond

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Dermot Desmond (born 1950) is regarded as one of Ireland's most successful entrepreneurs. He is estimated to be worth €1.419 bn and is ranked 5th on the Irish Rich List and 746 among 'The World's Richest People'. ^[1] Desmond was born into modest circumstances in Cork, in Ireland. At the age of 6, the family uprooted from the area and moved to Dublin's northside. Desmond was educated at Scoil Mhuire, Marino and later studied at Good Counsel College in New Ross.

Contents 1 Career 2 Business 3 London City Airport 4 Trivia 5 References

[edit] Career

Desmond left school in 1968 and shortly afterwards took up a junior position with Citibank in Dublin. He moved on and accepted positions first in the Investment Bank of Ireland and then as a banking consultant for Price Waterhouse Coopers. In 1979 he was contracted by the World Bank and transferred to Kabul, Afghanistan. His time there was short lived as the bank withdrew it's staff shortly afterwards following the Soviet invasion. In 1981, he founded the Irish stockbroking company National City Brokers (NCB). He is credited with being the inspiration behind the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).

[edit] Business

Desmond's past and present business interests and investment holdings include;

• London City Airport
• Sandy Lane Hotel
• eLearning company Intuition
• BETDAQ betting exchange
• GIS software house eSpatial
• Bottin (International) Investments Ltd. [1]
• International Investment Underwriters (IIU)
• Daon
• Baltimore Technologies
• Barchester Healthcare
• Greencore
• Reitumu Bank
• Celtic FC

[edit] London City Airport

Desmond purchased London City Airport from the Mowlem group for £23.5m in 1995. The investment was considered a large risk as London's Docklands was in recession and Canary Wharf was in receivership. The airport has since become one of the more profitable in the UK. Desmond sold London City Airport in October 2006 for a reported £750 million (€1.2 billion) to a consortium consisting of insurer AIG, GE Capital and Credit Suisse.

[edit] Trivia

• Known as "the Kaiser"

[edit] References