Founded in 1981, Fexco is Ireland’s most successful multinational financial and business solutions provider, operating in 29 countries and processing over €3bn in transactions annually. Yet, at heart, it is a family-owned business, proudly headquartered in Killorglin, Co Kerry, that values on curiosity, wellness and community impact.

After almost 20 years working in the traditional banking sector, Anna Savage joined Fexco as Group CFO and immediately noticed the differences in the structures and culture that a family-owned business can bring. Anna was able to understand exactly why the company was set up, what the vision for the company is, and therefore what drives all of the decision making. That has empowered Anna to “make value added decisions for the company, but yet kept the ethos and the values that they see strong in place.”

In this episode of The EY Podcast: CEO Outlook Series, Anna Savage, Group CFO of Fexco, joins host Jonathon Healy to talk about leading the finance function of one of Ireland’s most iconic family businesses, innovating for the future while securing the present, and making a positive impact on the local community.

They also discuss:

· The Fexco story and its evolution from a local foreign exchange service to a global financial services player.

· How strategic and carefully-nurtured partnerships have helped Fexco to scale internationally

· Fexco’s investment into AI and how it is leading to the creation of new types of roles

· The critical importance of cybersecurity and Fexco’s ‘three-pronged approach’ to achieving it

· The company’s target is to double, not just the value of the company over five years, but also its impact to the local community

· What Anna has learned about work-life balance, resilience and dealing with the unexpected

From the age of sixteen, Anne McCormack knew that she wanted to be a CEO. Having played golf at a high level throughout her childhood, Anne became concerned about the numbers of her peers that were leaving the sport, and realised that the only way to effect change was to hold a leadership position within the sport’s representative organisation. This realisation was the first step in Anne’s long and successful career in sports administration and leadership.

After several years working at a high level in golf administration, including the role of COO of Golf Ireland, Anne was appointed CEO of Hockey Ireland in 2023. With a strong belief in the power of sport and the positive impact that she can have in this role, Anne’s vision for hockey includes raising its visibility and profile, increasing diversity and inclusion among the player base, and expanding the sport’s revenue streams.

In this episode of The EY Podcast: CEO Outlook Series, Anne McCormack, CEO of Hockey Ireland, joins host Richard Curran to talk about her belief in the positive power of sport, her vision for the future of hockey, and why hard work trumps natural talent.

They also discuss:

· The importance of learning from and collaborating with other sports organisations, such as the GAA

· The power of role models for increasing female participation in sport

· What hitting bad golf shots has taught Anne about being an effective leader

· Why understanding people’s fear is key to getting them to buy in to your vision

· The entrepreneurs and leaders that Anne most admires

It was a complaint about the quality of a mobile phone that ultimately set Barry Napier on the path to becoming one of Ireland’s most successful technology entrepreneurs. The owner of the company to which Barry complained liked him, and offered him a job, and so began a lucrative career within the technology industry. But it was in 2011, when Barry discovered Cubic Telecom, that everything changed, and after a twelve-year, rollercoaster journey at the helm of the company, Barry has just sold a majority stake in the business to Softbank, valuing it at over $1 billion.

Cubic Telecom connects cars, tractors, motorbikes and trucks to online services, using 90 mobile network operator deals in over 190 countries around the world – “we can touch a car in Brazil from Dublin and we can fix problems.” The company connects over 480,000 cars every month and its technology is currently in around 10% of all cars globally. Yet Barry has ambitions to grow that to 40% on the back of Softbank’s investment.

In this episode of The EY Podcast: CEO Outlook series, Barry Napier of Cubic Telecom shares the incredible story of how a small Irish company became a major player in a global ecosystem, securing a majority-stake investment from the world’s largest tech-focused investment fund. In conversation with Richard Curran, Napier reveals the personal sacrifices he made while building the company, what he has learned along the way, and what comes next... “it's only 51%. So there's still a bit of the story to go. So keep an eye out. I think it'll be a bit of fun.”

They also discuss:

· Barry’s colourful career before Cubic, including the story of buying the Irish operations of an international company, BrightPoint, building its turnover to €155m, and then selling the assets to DCC.

· Meeting Elon Musk and partnering up with Tesla.

· The “really hard” process of going out to raise significant investment for Cubic Telecom and what he learned from the experience.

· How Covid caused revenues to collapse by 80% overnight – but also how the company avoided making any staff redundant and also creating an innovative new revenue model.

· The first thing he bought himself just after earning a reported 100m.

· Convincing Qualcomm, the biggest chip manufacturer in the world, to invest in Cubic in 2011.

· How early investors made 32 times their initial investment, more than they would have earned by investing in Apple.