Denis O'Brien
| Denis O'Brien | |
|---|---|
| Born |
19 April 1958 County Cork,Ireland |
| Residence | Belmont, 21 Shrewsbury Road, Dublin 4 |
| Education | Politics, history and logic Corporate finance |
| Alma mater |
University College Dublin Boston College |
| Occupation | Billionaire Chairman of DOB Group and DOB Investments |
| Agent | James Morrissey |
| Net worth | US$5.8 billion (February 2016) |
Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish businessman who was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and is also Ireland's richest native-born citizen.
O'Brien studied politics, history and logic at University College Dublin, graduating in 1977. After winning a scholarship from Boston College while attending UCD, he completed an MBA in corporate finance there in 1982. UCD gave him an honorary doctorate in 2006.
O'Brien owns Communicorp, a media holding company which operates across Europe, particularly in Ireland where it dominates national radio (apart from RTÉ) including stations like Newstalk and Today FM. The New York Times has described him as "the biggest player in Ireland's media landscape" and notes that "his Independent News & Media group controls the Irish Independent as well as the Irish Daily Star, the Sunday Independent, the Sunday World, Dublin's Evening Herald and regional newspapers," through his minority shareholding in the group. According to Fintan O'Toole, O'Brien has "been allowed to take effective control of the largest Irish newspaper group and of two of [Ireland's] three national talk radio stations." O'Brien also owns telecoms provider Digicel, which operates in 31 markets across the Caribbean, Central America and Oceania.
O'Brien set up and chaired the Esat Digifone consortium which acquired a mobile phone licence in the 1990s. The Moriarty Tribunal found almost beyond doubt that O'Brien's was awarded this contract due to payments he made to Michael Lowry, the then communications minister, who unduly influenced the bidding process. This contract formed the basis of O'Brien's fortune. O'Brien established Communicorp in 1989, with the company currently owning 42 radio stations in eight European countries. In 1999, he founded the international commercial aircraft company Aergo Capital – registered in Dublin, with offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Santiago and Singapore. In 2001, he founded telecoms provider Digicel in Jamaica. He also owned Topaz Energy from 2013 until early 2016 and has a "significant interest" in Sterling Energy.
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