Graduate and entrepreneur Brian Conlon honoured at INVENT Awards  

12 October 2015

Northern Ireland Science Park CONNECT, supported by Bank of Ireland UK, has presented its highest honour – the prestigious 2015 Innovation Founder Award – to Newry man Brian Conlon.

The 1987 BSc Accounting graduate has grown his grassroots financial technology business, with a starting capital of just £5,000, into a major plc with earnings of £83.2m and a workforce of over 1,200.

The prestigious INVENT Innovation Founder Award recognises individuals who have achieved distinction for founding or advancing a Northern Ireland knowledge-based business or organisation. Former recipients include Dr William Wright, co-founder of Wrights Group (2014), Dr Peter FitzGerald (2013) who founded Randox Laboratories in 1982 and Tom Eakin (2012) who set up TG Eakin Ltd in 1974 as a medical device manufacturer.

Speaking about his Award, Brian Conlon said: “I’m honoured to accept this award on behalf of everyone in Northern Ireland who has helped make First Derivatives a success.

“My company was founded with the idea that the best innovations can come from Northern Ireland, because the most talented people are in this country. I’ve never doubted that our Newry base has been instrumental in our success. We’ve always focused on being cutting-edge and pushing frontiers in banking and financial services. With a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work, any innovator in Northern Ireland can follow this path.”

Brian Conlon’s career includes spells at KPMG, Morgan Stanley and then SunGuard before he returned to Northern Ireland to set up First Derivatives. He received an Honorary Degree from Queen’s in 2012 for services to business and commerce.

Congratulating Brian Conlon on his latest accolade, Julie Ann O’Hare Director of Business Banking, Bank of Ireland UK, said: “As one of Northern Ireland’s three Plc companies we are proud to have been bankers to First Derivatives from its early stages right through to public listing and acquisition strategy. Its success story resonates with so many of the core attributes required for creating commercial value and delivering economic growth in Northern Ireland. Their success has been fuelled by ambition to build a world-leading business, investing in the talent needed to realise potential and the continued desire to innovate, to find new ways of doing things.”

Steve Orr, Director of NISP CONNECT, said: “Brian Conlon is the consummate entrepreneur, with tenacity matching the world’s most successful people. The fact that he came back to Northern Ireland after meeting great success in London tells a story in itself.

First Derivatives’ story exemplifies Northern Ireland’s culture of business incubation, something that we work tirelessly to foster at the Science Park.”

First Derivatives began in 1996 in a spare bedroom in the family home in Newry with a £5,000 loan from the local Credit Union. Last year, the company posted earnings of £83.2m, a 19 per cent compound annual growth rate. With a global workforce numbers more than 1,200. Based in Newry, First Derivatives deals with some of the largest financial institutions in the world.

Photo (L-R): Steve Orr (Northern Ireland Science Park), Julie Ann O’Hare (Bank of Ireland UK), Brian Conlon and Ian Sheppard (Head of Business & Corporate Banking at Bank of Ireland UK)

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