Youghal Man Reaches Business And Finance Summit
By Christy Parker
Youghal readers with a taste for the political and economic may henceforth discern a local tang while feasting their eyes on Business and Finance magazine. Returning to Dublin from a recent weekend at home, John Walsh was offered the just-vacated editor’s chair by B and F owner, Ian Hyland. Faster than you could say, ‘Iseq Index’, the Friar Street man accepted. “I was very pleasantly surprised,” says the 37 year-old, who had been deputy editor since 2006.
The second eldest of five children and a keen hill walker, John is the son of Tom and Maura Walsh, whose 40th wedding anniversary he had been celebrating the weekend prior to his elevation.
John describes his political leanings as, “right of centre and his new job is a contrasting appointment for the great grand-nephew of another Tom Walsh, a Youghal seaman who arrived in Brisbane, Australia in 1893. Tom’s is another story but he would marry Adela Pankhurst, daughter of the famous British women’s rights campaigner Emmeline. The couple subsequently helped found the Australian Communist Party, though they later denounced Communism.
Like his ancestor, John’s point of arrival was not particularly apparent at his departure. Following Youghal CBS, he took a Ba in Geography and Social Science at UCC, then a Masters in International Politics at the University of Limerick in 1997. However, during his UCC years, he did a course in media studies, choosing a path that hinted at a later highway. “That sparked my interest in the media,” he recalls. “It demonstrated it’s different perspectives, left and right views and so on.”
So far so wiser but he still wasn’t sure what he wanted to be -or even could be- when he grew up. “The Irish economy was taking off but the demand was for technical graduates like accountants and computer engineers. My general education qualifications offered few openings.” He left for London.
Lovely London -he had scarcely left Gatwick when he acquired a job as a trainee journalist with highly reputable business publication, Incisive Media. They financed a post-graduate course in journalism where he “learned the basics -shorthand, news and feature writing and production. I also trained under David Keefe, who had had 25 years experience with Reuters,” he adds.
He had boarded an upward bound escalator. Two years with Incisive media preceded a similar term with Bridge, a news distribution service that, shortly after his arrival, was taken over by Reuters. His role covered UK and European economics and necessitated contacting senior international politicians and business figures on foot of say, a Bank of England announcement. Well, someone had to do it….
At Bridge, he worked adjacent to a journalist writing on energy issues and soon developed an interest in same (the issue that is, not the journalist!). When a position covering OPEC arose at another firm, Argus Media, his own considerable energy saw him hotfoot it to their door. Argus is a major independent provider of market, price and business intelligence for global energy industries. They added John to their workforce.
The new energy scribe was only warming up. In 2004, his contacts helped him break a hot story involving the forced resignation of Shell CEO. Channel 4, Radio, 4 Sky news -everyone except CRY!- were dialling his number. Oil was hitting turmoil and he spent a lot of time in their studios thereafter. He found broadcasting “no substitution for the print medium” though and following an offer from Business and Finance, he left for Dublin in February 2005. He became deputy editor 20 months later.
Business and Finance was established in 1964. It enjoys a 13,000 circulation, with estimated readership of 60,000. It cites its role as “to inform, educate, evaluate and recognise excellence in business practice and business leaders.” Polls indicate it reaches 100% of Ireland’s Top 1,000 chief executives, 40% of all Irish business CEO’s and 31% of all business people in Ireland.
Given this high-powered readership, its influential effect on Irish life may be considerable. “We did a huge analysis on Transport 21, the government’s capital investment framework for Ireland’s transport system from 2006 to 2015,” John illustrates. “Likewise, the Financial Spacial Strategy on the country’s economic black spots and possible solutions.”
While the magazine was voted PPAI (Periodical Publishers Association of Ireland) 2006 Magazine of the Year, John Walsh understands that its longevity and status are two-sided blades. “One must constantly evolve,” he declares. Recognising the developing economic significance outside the Pale, he wants to steer the magazine further into the rural industrial waters of the provinces. “Dublin remains the economic hub but we have to acknowledge the growth beyond it, including in Cork,” he affirms.
In his view, Ireland’s economic movement, in contrast to 1997, is hitched to the wagon of “the knowledge economy -financial services, information technology and life sciences like pharmaceuticals. And I think we are going in the right direction,” he adds. He dismisses the notion that yawning economic potholes lie up the road. “People focus too much on the construction economy, but there is a vibrant non-construction sector here. I also think the second generation of Irish prosperity is more confident and more entrepreneurial than the first one.”
He would hope other contrasts would emerge also. He returned from London to witness the undignified response of the original ‘nouveau riche’ Irish to prosperity, i.e. rampant overindulgence with complimentary puking, violence and vulgarity (not that it has disappeared either.) “I think people couldn’t adjust. I’ve seen wealth on Chelsea’s King’s Road but everything they do is about themselves, not putting on a show for others.”
A keen Cork hurling fan, his professional take on the recent dispute is pragmatic. “No business can survive if it has a top-down approach as the County Board seems towards its players. There needs to be more fluidity and rotation within the Board too. Right now it needs to be overhauled.”
So with his tickets for the next 200 Cork games now probably in jeopardy, he may find himself with more time to spend on Youghal beach or hillsides, where he likes to contemplate or forget political permutations. Pressed on the town’s prospects, he feels that “assembly type factories can’t afford to survive in Ireland now, but the new research and development companies tend to locate in large urban areas near airports and universities and so on. Youghal is at a disadvantage there so it has to carve out a niche for itself. The focus on heritage sounds interesting and self-dependent.” Much like the man himself really.
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Well done to John Walsh on his new job appointment, its a well deserved break.