“Chamelon Cushnahan” as one prominent Belfast businessman described him this week, sums up one of the figures at the heart of revelations around the sale of the National Asset Management Agency’s portfolio in the North.
Frank Cushnahan, a former member of Nama's Northern Ireland advisory committee, has held more than 30 corporate appointments and scores of high-level public sector positions in the North.
In a statement issued by his solicitor Frank Cushnahan said he “firmly denies any wrongdoing and will fully co-operate with any police investigation.”
The statement continued : “He will not be making any further comment to the press at this time. He is however reserving his right to take appropriate legal action in order to protect his reputation.”
Mr Cushnahan began his career in banking, but his “impressive” ability, as a former colleague attested, to “read, evaluate and execute” any business proposition soon put him in demand.
What Cushnahan may have lacked in charm, according to some who worked with him, was more than compensated for by his “keen astuteness” and his adaptability to any business environment.
This helped him move from one key private sector appointment to another across a wide spectrum of industries.
Cushnahan glided from textiles, where he had a spell as chairman of Lamont Holdings, once one of the North's few publicly quoted companies, to some of the earliest tech-related companies in the North, from Irlandus Circuits to Amphion Semiconductor.
No sentimentality
Always very aware of his own worth, according to former associates, he viewed “business as business” – sentimentality never got in the way.
Cushnahan was involved as a corporate financier in the earliest days of the Northern Ireland Science Park for a three-year period up to 2003, and worked with the University of Ulster Foundation in Coleraine from 2009 to 2013.
The breadth of his corporate appointments reflects his high prominence in the business community over a long period.
His connections were not just in one sector, as illustrated by his spell with Delta Print and Packing from 1984 to 1999, to off-licence group Wineflair and the Red Sky Group (where his role as chairman was heavily criticised by the North's public accounts committee).
The high point of his public profile would have been his tenure as chairman of the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, but since he left the role in 2006 he has been somewhat less visible to the public.
His influence, however, did not diminish over the years; instead it came to focus more on the public sector.
Cushnahan was appointed to a succession of influential positions in one of the highest political offices in the North – the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Key objectives
One of the key objectives of this office is to provide “a central source of information, co-ordination and advice to departments on Executive, Assembly, and legislative procedures”.
It aims to co-ordinate and review “the programme for government; driving the more efficient and sustainable use of capital assets across Government; and ensuring the structure of public administration is efficient, effective and sustainable”. This office is at the heart of government in the Northern Ireland.
Cushnahan was a director of the office and also chairman of its key audit and corporate governance committee. He also sat on various panels.
He must have appeared the perfect person to represent the North's best interests when it came to Nama's portfolio in the North – or at least that is what former finance minister Sammy Wilson appears to have thought.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland, this is how Cushnahan came to be on the Nama advisory committee in the first place.
The spokesperson said after Nama established the committee to advise the board on its strategy for the management of Northern Ireland assets, Wilson met then Irish finance minister Brian Lenihan in November 2009.
Wilson later wrote to Lenihan taking up his offer to put forward names of individuals who might be suitable for the committee. “Ultimately, however, the advisory committee was appointed by, and reported, to the Nama board, not this department,” the spokesperson said.
In a statement issued by his solicitor, Frank Cushnahan said he “firmly denies any wrongdoing and will fully co-operate with any police investigation.”
The statement continued :”He will not be making any further comment to the press at this time. He is however reserving his right to take appropriate legal action in order to protect his reputation.”
