SEÁN FITZPATRICK’S resignation from Anglo Irish Bank on Thursday grabbed all the headlines, but he wasn’t the only director to fall on his sword.
Former McKinsey Ireland chief Lar Bradshaw also took his leave after it emerged that he had taken out a joint loan with Mr FitzPatrick, which was temporarily transferred to Irish Nationwide Building Society before its September 30th year-end.
This had the effect of hiding the loan from shareholders in the bank’s annual report.
The size of this joint loan was not revealed and Mr FitzPatrick said Mr Bradshaw had “no knowledge” of the temporary transfer of the funds.
Born in Dublin in 1960, Bradshaw spent 20 years with the blue chip management consulting firm McKinsey, working overseas and latterly as managing director of its Irish operation, which he founded.
He holds a Master’s in Business Administration degree from IMD in Switzerland.
Records at the Companies Registration Office show that he holds 12 directorships here, although that included Anglo.
He is listed as executive chairman of Cove Capital.
Bradshaw and FitzPatrick not only served together on the board of Anglo, which Bradshaw joined in 2004 – they were also both board members of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, which had a multi-billion budget to redevelop 1,300 acres in the faded docks area.
The pair were also co-investors in a number of projects, including Fresh Mortgages, the Irish sub-prime lender that suspended its new loans in November. Most of their investments have not been publicised.
It did emerge, however, that Bradshaw invested in the Derek Quinlan-led group that backed the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin.
On May 3rd, 1997, Bradshaw was appointed as chairman of the fledgling DDDA by John Bruton’s coalition government, a position he held for 10 years. He was said at the time to have no political affiliations.
At the time of his appointment, The Irish Times quoted a source as saying that Bradshaw was chosen to head the DDDA because of his “relative youth, expertise and incredible vision”.
Their dual memberships of the Anglo and DDDA boards drew criticism from various quarters, given the bank’s involvement in funding projects in the area.
In particular, the DDDA was a large investor along with Bernard McNamara and others in a vehicle called Becbay that paid €412 million to buy the former Irish Glass site in Ringsend.
That transaction was funded by Anglo.
Small in stature, Bradshaw was described by one senior financier as a “good man for building relationships and making introductions, but not one for detailed negotiations”.
One source said he successfully built relationships with the existing local communities in the Docklands, who found their daily lives disrupted enormously by the major construction work that has taken place over the past decade.
“He was able to play the role of the ‘real Dub’ even though he was groomed by McKinsey,” said one source. “It was a neat trick.”
Following his resignation from Anglo, and the questions that remain about the circumstances of his joint loan, Bradshaw will need all of his skills of persuasion if he is to rebuild his reputation.
