SOME GOOD news this week for Irish venture capital executive Barry Maloney.
The Balderton boss has had a tricky few months, what with Setanta’s demise in the UK and Payzone’s ongoing financial woes, but he managed, nevertheless, to make the cut for the Guardian newspaper’s annual top 100 list of the most influential people in the media.
Maloney, who has a home in London, was a new entry at number 90 this year – others included Tory leader David Cameron, Twitter boss Evan Williams and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
This placed Maloney ahead of ITV chairman Michael Grade and the BBC’s controversial presenter Jonathan Ross.
The Irishman is credited with having “made a fortune out of Bebo and the database management company MySQL” and with managing a total fund of $1.9 billion.
The list was topped by Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
It won’t compensate for the millions lost on Balderton’s investments in Setanta and Payzone, but in the current economic climate it’s wise to take your comfort wherever you can find it.
