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Kyran McLaughlin (75), one of the biggest shareholders in stockbroker Davy, stepped down from his role as head of capital markets at the firm in 2018, to be succeeded by AIB CEO Bernard Byrne. Once dubbed the most powerful man in Irish stockbroking, he is to remain as deputy chairman of the company. McLaughlin’s son last year stepped down from his own role as head of private banking at AIB to help manage his father’s private wealth, it was reported. McLaughlin’s stake in Davy is estimated to be worth well in excess of €50m and he remains a director of a plethora of Irish companies, including Ryanair, where, prior to becoming a director in 2001, he was a key adviser to the company on its 1997 flotation. During a more recent turbulent period for the Ryanair board, McLaughlin survived a challenge to his seat but some investors made it clear that they had an issue with directors staying on for too long a period.

Serial entrepreneur Mark Roden’s (59) company Ding is showing no sign of slowing its expansion in the lucrative mobile phone top up market in which it has as many as 500,000 users per month. In 2019, it announced that it would open a London office but that this would not be at the expense of its busy global hub in Dublin, where it said it would also add jobs. Roden started the company — which has revenues of $500m (€440m) a year — based on a conversation he had with an Indian waiter in Dubai 14 years ago. He had stepped away from the day-to-day running for a while but took a firm hold of the reins again last year, with plans to raise over €50m for expansion. From Dublin, Roden dropped out of dentistry in Trinity after a year and went to work for Denis O’Brien, helping start up Esat. He is also an angel investor and peer-to-peer lender.