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WRI Board of Directors
Fintan Drury - Chairman
Fintan joined the board of WRI in January 2008.
He is the Chairman of PLATINUM ONE, Ireland's only full service sports, sponsorship and event management agency.
A former news and current affairs journalist with RTE, Fintan set up Drury Communications in 1989 and grew the company into the market leader in corporate communications in Ireland prior to selling it in 1999.
Fintan is also Chairman of Paddy Power plc, a director of Anglo Irish Bank Corporation plc and a former Chairman of the RTE Authority.
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Feargal Mooney - Chief Executive Officer
Feargal was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in February 2008, having served as Chief Operations Officer since joining WRI in 2002. He brings with him a wealth of strategic, operational and financial expertise.
Prior to joining WRI Feargal was responsible for financial planning and analysis at Baltimore Technologies, and previously held the position of Financial Analyst at Pfizer Inc. in New York.
Feargal holds an MSc in Investment and Treasury from Dublin City University and a Bachelor of Commerce from University College Galway. He is also an Associate of the Society of Investment Analysts in Ireland and a member of the CFA Institute.
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Mari Hurley - Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary
Mari Hurley joined the Group in May 2007 and is the Chief Financial Officer. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland having trained and qualified in Arthur Andersen in Dublin.
Prior to joining the Group, she was Finance Director of Sherry FitzGerald Group, Ireland’s largest real estate advisory company and previously worked at Bear Stearns Bank plc.
She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Cork and Masters of Accounting from University College Dublin. She completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2006. She was appointed to the Board in July 2007. |
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Ray Nolan - Founder
Ray founded WRI in 1999 when he identified an opportunity to introduce online bookings to the hostel industry, a sector which had previously been ignored by mainstream online travel companies. As CEO, Ray grew Hostelworld.com to become a leading brand in the online travel space.
A serial I.T. entrepreneur, Ray has been instrumental in the success of a number of companies in the Irish technology sector. He founded Raven Computing (subsequently Coretime Ltd) in 1989 to develop bespoke software solutions for the legal, and hospitality sectors, before subsequently developing a leading time and billing management system. He sold Coretime Ltd, to Sage in 2004.
Awards for Ray include Ernst and Young Emerging Entrepreneur of the year 2003, and IIA Net Visionary 2006.
In February 2008 Ray stepped down as CEO but remains on the Board of Directors.
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Paddy Holahan – Non-Executive Director
Paddy was elected to the board of WRI in May 2002.
He is founder and CEO of NewBay Software Ltd, a leading developer of community software for mobile operators. The company was founded in November 2002 and received an investment of $4m from Benchmark Capital in 2003. Its customers include T-Mobile USA, O2, Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse.
Paddy previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Marketing at Baltimore Technologies (London: BLM) from 1996 to 2001 where he was instrumental in developing the company’s business, technical and marketing strategy. During his tenure at Baltimore, the company grew from a small private company to a public company valued at over $10 billion with 1,400 employees and annual sales of over $100m.
Prior to Baltimore, he was CEO and co-founder of East Cost Software, Ltd a leading software development and publishing company specializing in PC utility software.
Paddy holds a first class honours degree in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin. He sits on the board of directors of Propylon Ltd (a leading e-government systems integrator) and Ciscero Networks (a startup VoIP systems company).
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Brian Dunne – Non-Executive Director
Brian Dunne is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ACE Aviation Holdings Inc.
Prior to joining ACE Brian was Chief Financial Officer and a Director of Aer Lingus and played a key role in transforming Aer Lingus into a profitable low fare carrier through various initiatives such as the successful cost reduction program and European fleet transformation. Before joining Aer Lingus Brian worked for Aurther Anderson for 14 years where he held a variety of roles ultimately as a partner in the business consulting practice.
Brian is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from University College Dublin, Ireland
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Tom Kennedy - Non-Executive Director & Founder
Tom is a hostel industry veteran and served as President of the Hostels Division of WRI until August 2005. Tom has years of budget, independent, and youth travel sector experience, having built a very successful hostel and backpacking business. He joined forces with Ray to help commercialise the WRI business model and roll the concept out to the hostel and budget sector worldwide.
Tom brings to the board extensive experience, knowledge and understanding of the hostel industry.
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Mark Opzoomer – Non-Executive Director
Mark Opzoomer is a founding partner and CEO of Bond Capital Partners, a late stage structured finance company. Previously, he was Managing Director of Yahoo Europe, Deputy MD of Hodder Headline plc and Commercial Director of Sega Europe and Virgin Communications.
Mark has 24 years of corporate operating and deal making experience and has lead a large number of business turnarounds with revenues ranging from start-ups to billion dollars, delivering significant shareholder returns. He is currently a board member of Rambler Media Group plc, Newbay Software Limited and was formerly a non-executive director of Autonomy Corporation plc.
Mark holds an MBA from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PWC and earned a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada.
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Scott Collins - Non-Executive
Director
Scott joined WRI’s board of directors in March 2004.
He is a General Partner with Summit Partners, a leading private equity and venture capital firm that has raised nearly $9 billion (US) in capital and has invested in more than 285 companies. They have offices in Boston, Palo Alto and London. Scott joined Summit Partners in 1996 where he worked in the Boston office before moving to the UK where he became Managing Director of Summit Partners Limited, the firm’s London office which he established in 2001. He has served on the board of directors of numerous companies in the technology, communications, healthcare and other growth industries, including Actix Limited, Dorn Technology Group, Inc.; Elumen Solutions, Inc.; Hatcher Associates, Inc; Jamba! AG; Newmarket International, Inc.; PriceInteractive, Inc.; SafeBoot Holdings BV; and World Wide Technology Holding Co., Inc.
Before joining Summit Partners, Scott worked at McKinsey & Company where he conducted strategic business consulting assignments for corporate clients. He has also served in a variety of government positions, including at the White House, U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Transportation.
Scott earned an A.B. degree in economics, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
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