INTERVIEW/SHANE O'NEILL, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, LIBERTY GLOBAL:OVER THE past 20 years, and without any fuss or fanfare, Dubliner Shane O'Neill has carved out a successful and lucrative career on the global stage as an investment banker and cable TV deal-maker.
He did so largely outside the gaze of the Irish media, but that could be about to change with O’Neill’s decision to step forward as a backer of the “We Belong” campaign for a Yes vote in the second Lisbon Treaty referendum.
Like it or not, O’Neill, the chief strategy officer with Colorado-based cable TV giant Liberty Global, will be in the line of fire of those on the No side and could find himself sucked into a messy debate that leaves many people cold.
So why step forward? “One of the key conclusions when you looked at the last referendum was the complete absence of civic society groups,” he explains from an adviser’s office overlooking St Stephen’s Green. “Libertas had an absolutely clear run.
“I believe pretty passionately about achieving a Yes vote this time around. I only have to draw on my own personal experience. It was in late 2005 that I went to the Liberty board and advocated investment in Ireland and we bought Chorus and NTL. We have now invested about €1 billion in Ireland.
“At the time, when I was making the case to the board, a key attraction was that Ireland was in the EU; that this was a euro-denominated investment. The idea of now having to go back to the board and explain to them the implications of a No vote to Lisbon would be a nightmare.
“Board members in corporate America don’t have the time or the interest to understand what the implications of EU law are and what our status is. They just want certainty. So it’s very important from that perspective and for FDI , both existing and in future, that there’s clarity around our status in Europe.”
The No side, of course, might argue that this is scaremongering. Ireland, after all, will still be a member of the EU and the euro-zone area. What’s wrong with the status quo?
“That’s what everybody says but I think it’s naive to assume that a No vote would not have a negative impact on FDI going forward because of the uncertainty it would create.”
O’Neill – who lives with his family in London but has a vote here – didn’t cast a ballot in the first referendum. He was “out of the country”. “I would have voted Yes,” he says without hesitation.
He rejects the suggestion that, given he lives in London with his family and presumably pays his taxes there, he shouldn’t be lecturing people here on how to vote on Lisbon.
“I reject the notion that you have to live here to have an opinion on this,” he says, calmly. “I’m a proud Irishman from top to toe.”
He’s also a board member of the NTMA, which manages Ireland’s national debt, and will be attending, at his own expense, the Farmleigh brainstorming event that will hopefully result in the great and good of Irish business coming up with useful proposals for the Government on how to regenerate the economy.
O’Neill’s wife Sheelagh, who is a board member with the Arts Council here, will also be voting on Lisbon. “She’s her own woman,” is all he will say on how she might cast her ballot.
Another rejection of Lisbon might see the Liberty board place its Irish investment into a “riskier bucket”, O’Neill says. “We stubbed our toe in Argentina when the currency was devalued so we’ve seen this type of thing before.”
O’Neill hitched his wagon to We Belong because it was a “very young and dynamic team”.
“The people working on the campaign are in their 20s. They are very focused on this core 24- to 40-year-old demographic who voted No the last time and they are new school campaign, not old school. They’re using Facebook and social networking to interact with people. There’s something exciting and innovative in that.”
In a peculiar way, O’Neill believes the rejection last year might have been good for the country. “It forced our Government to seek clarity on five key issues . We now have legal clarity on those.”
O’Neill has chipped in €6,300 to the We Belong campaign, the maximum donation allowed. It’s a drop in the ocean for the millionaire. The campaign is also backed by entrepreneur Bill Cullen, actress Mary McEvoy and former Munster rugby player Mick Galwey.
Born in Cork but raised in Dublin, O’Neill graduated in law at Trinity before turning to accountancy, qualifying with Stokes Kennedy Crowley (now KPMG).
It was 1987 and jobs were in short supply in Ireland so he headed for Australia, cold-calling every conceivable investment bank looking for work. Macquarie gave him the nod and he spent four years there before joining Goldman Sachs, working in New York, Sydney and London for the firm.
Why investment banking? “The honest answer is money,” he concedes.
He cashed in his chips at Goldman Sachs in 1999, joining Liberty Global, a listed company where further riches awaited him.
The decision to switch, he says, was prompted by being “yanked” from a family holiday in Spain to do a pitch in Dublin for drinks group CC. “It just completely disrupted the holiday and I thought I’ve got to change this. I was just jaded from investment banking.”
O’Neill’s current role involves him overseeing Liberty’s strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions and corporate development activities. He is also in charge of Chellomedia, a Liberty Europe-based media content company.
Liberty has 16 million TV customers in Europe, Japan, Chile and Australia, employs 22,000 staff and has revenues of $11 billion.
This includes UPC Ireland, which owns Chorus and NTL. After years spent trying to fix poor service levels and a massive investment in a creaking network, O’Neill says its triple-play offering of TV, broadband and telephone has gained traction.
In the second quarter of this year, UPC Ireland achieved “operating cash flow” of €26 million on revenue of €61.9 million.
“That was 13 per cent up on the previous year,” he said. “The business here is going well and we’re reinvesting a lot of that cash flow into the network.”
Ireland, he says, is a “keeper” for Liberty. “The growth opportunity is good; the regulatory environment is transparent.”
As for his own career, after a decade with Liberty is O’Neill getting itchy feet?
“I really enjoy the job. There’s something about the cable TV industry that’s very interesting. I’ll stick around as long as they [Liberty] want me to.”
ON THE RECORD
Name: Shane O'Neill
Age: 48
Family: Married with three children
Homes: London, Dublin and Dingle
Hobbies: Football (Leeds United fan), ski-ing and surfing
Something we might expect: He enjoys watching TV
Something that might surprise: He collects vintage guitars. "If I see one in a second-hand shop and think it's decent, then I'll buy it"
