Entrepreneur in full flight

Friday Interview: Domhnal Slattery's love affair with aviationbegan when he was just a nipper, working with his dad supplyingfresh fruit and veg to the kitchens at Shannon airport. "I rememberthe smell of the kerosene distinctly and the smell of the vapour,"he says. "I've always had this gra for the business."

His passion for the industry saw him spend the guts of 15 yearsin aircraft leasing, including time as one of Tony Ryan'slieutenants at GPA.

His latest project is JetBird, a Dublin-based, low-cost executivejet airline he hopes to launch in 2009. It could be the Ryanair ofits sector.

Slowly, but surely, the pieces of the JetBird jigsaw are fallinginto place. Up to 100 new Phenom aircraft have been secured fromBrazilian manufacturer Embraer. Dane Stefan Vilner, an experiencedairline executive, has been recruited to head the business and a[euro]45 million fundraising is well under way at Claret Capital,Slattery's private equity vehicle.

The plan is to operate executive jets between Europe's mainfinancial centres (Dublin won't feature on the timetable althoughthe airline with carry the Irish EI registration tag) at about halfthe [euro]5,000 an hour cost of current operators, which includeNetJets, the group backed by legendary financier Warren Buffet.

"We're very excited about the potential for this business,"Slattery says. "It's well on track...now we just have to execute itflawlessly."

If the business model works, Slattery says a stock marketflotation in 2013 is possible. "I'd be disappointed if it didn'tachieve an equity value of [euro]1 billion at the time of the IPO."

JetBird is just one of a number of portfolio investments thatSlattery has on the boil. He's also nurturing Blue Ocean Wireless, afledgling business offering low-cost mobile phone calls to workerstravelling the high seas on cargo ships.

Claret Capital is also planning an assault on the real estatemarket in the United States.

That is to say nothing of a string of other investments byClaret, or Slattery's involvement as a founder of the Clare People,a local newspaper in his native county. He's also dipping his toesin the music business, setting up Savvi Entertainment to promote newtalent.

It's a wide and diverse mix and Slattery is only too aware of theneed to stay focused.

"We don't want to be known as deal junkies," he says, leaningback in the leather chair in his compact yet well-furnished homeoffice. "We are hugely cognisant of that potential perception."

Slattery is 40 years old and one of a new breed of young buckexecutives in Irish business.

He worked in pirate radio and as a night-time DJ to help fund hisway through University College Galway. When he graduated in 1989, hewas one of just a handful in his class to remain here. On leavingcollege, Slattery applied to GPA and, after a couple of rejections,got his foot in the door.

It was a time before e-mail and the internet and Slattery wouldstart at 6am each day in the mail room, sorting through faxes from14 machines and placing them in the pigeon holes of executives.

The Clareman worked his way up the ladder at GPA. After thecollapse of the group's stock market flotation, the Shannon-basedcompany was taken over by General Electric and Slattery was postedto Miami in 1994 to head up its South America activities. In mid-1994, he set up his own aircraft leasing business, InternationalAviation Management Group, which, by 2001, was doing $1 billionworth of aircraft financing transactions in that year alone.

Slattery was now firmly on the radar and Royal Bank of Scotlandpaid about [euro]25 million to buy the business that year. "Thelesson I learned from that was that if you have an aspiration, do itearly," he says. "The older you get, the more difficult it is to doand the more cautious you get."

The timing of the sale to RBS couldn't have been better. The 9/11 attacks were just four months away, after which the airlineindustry took a nosedive. At a time when many rivals wereretrenching, RBS decided to grow its aircraft leasing businessaggressively, with Slattery at the controls.

He spent three years helping to make the business the third-largest aircraft leasing company in the world. In 2004, he decidedto jump off the carousel and take a sabbatical. "I think it wasprobably the riskiest move of my career," he recalls.

The first six months were spent "smelling the roses" but afterthat it became a struggle to fill the day. "By the second six monthsI was worried that I was going to get too used to this and mightn'tbe able to get back into the mainstream."

Then the opportunity to launch the Clare People came along.Slattery and Sean Lyne invested about [euro]2 million in the projectand, while it has yet to turn a profit, the tabloid has been a hitlocally since its launch in 2005 with 12,000 sales a week.

He went on to form Claret Capital as a vehicle for wealthyindividuals to invest their money. Senator Feargal Quinn and familyare among his clients.

Like many who soldiered with Tony Ryan, Slattery speaks warmlyabout his former mentor. "He would be one of my heroes. He alwayswanted you to be the best, he demanded it of people around him andyou either bought into it or you got out of the place. I've a lot tothank him for."

In addition to his impressive family home on Ailesbury Road,Slattery also owns a property in his native Ennis, where he and hisfamily go at the beginning of June for a three-month break. He usesthat time "to re-energise and to think about new ideas".

Another interest is Orbis, a New York-based charity that operatesa flying hospital to cure blindness in the Third World and in whichhe is heavily involved. "There are 125 million people in the worldwho are visually impaired and 90 per cent of them don't need to be.The work that Orbis is doing is very important and it's an importantpart of my pysche," he says.

In just a few years, Slattery has built Claret Capital to a stagewhere it has equity investments of [euro]350 million. He'd like totreble that figure by 2010. By then, it might be time for anothersabbatical. "Every seven to eight years I'd like to take six to 12months away from the day-to-day business world," he says. "Just totake a step back."

ON THE RECORD

Name: Domhnal Slattery.

Age: 40.

Family: Married to Elaine with four daughters.

Lives: Has homes in Dublin and Ennis.

Position: Founder and managing partner of Claret Capital.

Something you might expect: He is a member of Doonbeg golf clubin Co Clare.

Something that might surprise: He plans to record an album laterthis year of his top 10 favourite tunes with a group he managescalled Travega.

Hobbies: Has a passion for rugby and music and collects wine,art and watches.