Our annual distinguished speaker for 2016 was the wonderful Patrick Kennedy. The arc of Patrick’s Kennedy career is upwards bending towards innovation and calculated risk-taking. The milestones will be well-known to many financial executives, familiar too. UCD, Chartered accountant with KPMG, strategic consultant with McKinsey, and then into industry, with Greencore rising to CFO.
To anyone with even a passing interest in Irish business, his successes at Paddy Power are well documented case studies in dynamism, growth and achievement but it’s what happens next that perhaps makes the story more compelling still.
He left Paddy Power at a time of his own choosing and he is presently the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ireland and Chairman of Cartrawler. His insights into such subjects as scaling a business, approaching calculated risk, moving from CFO to CEO and building a career on your own terms is fascinating.
Feedback from our invited guests:
Thanks for the invitation to this morning’s event. I found Patrick Kennedy’s words of wisdom very interesting, particularly his views on the need to hire good people. Thanks again. Kind regards,
Michael (Binchy), VP Group Internal Audit, Smurfit Kappa Group
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Thanks again for this morning. You did a great job and it all went very well. Congrats!
David (Manifold), Corporate Development Director, Aer Lingus
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Great event this morning! Thanks a million. Looking forward to the next one...Regards,
Shane (Tyrrell), FD, eir
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Thanks a million for this morning’s event – it was great to see so many faces that I knew. It was also great to hear from Paddy, a true Irish success story but since our college days, I was never in doubt that he would succeed at the highest level. Well done to you also on hosting your first event with Peoplesource. Take care.
Rory (Mason), MD, Gillen Markets
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Just a quick line to say many thanks for organising a great event yesterday with Patrick Kennedy. The event was very slick and you should consider a role as a chat show host in the future. Forget about Miriam – you were in the Graham Norton zone! Speak soon.
Ronan (Lynch), CFO, Mercury Engineering
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Just a short note to say thank you very much for the invitation to last Wednesday's PeopleSource Distinguished Speaker event. As was not unexpected, I was hugely impressed by Patrick Kennedy. He came across to me as a smart unassuming successful guy. I also met some interesting people, such as Stephen Mackaral and Bill Kenny, from WorkAir. Finally, well done on the interview, a great job. It all felt very relaxed, entertaining and most importantly, enjoyable. Kind regards,
Seán Hogan, CFO
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Thanks for the invite on Wednesday it was really good to see you and I thought the event went really well. Patrick is a very interesting character and it was also good to meet a few new faces. Good luck with the business and hope to talk to you soon. Kind regards
Andrew (Bulmer), Head of Finance, SIG Ireland
