61: Garry Walsh, Chairman and Founding Partner at planow.ai
After formative years at Deloitte, DCC, Nestlé, Uniq, and Northern Foods—where he oversaw multi-site operations and delivered dramatic turnarounds—Garry was appointed CEO of Mezzan Holding in 2011, becoming the first non-family member to lead the Kuwait-based conglomerate. Mezzan Holding is one of the Gulf region’s leading diversified conglomerates, with deep roots in food, healthcare, and consumer sectors. Built on over 70 years of legacy, Mezzan is recognized for trusted brands, operational discipline, and its regional footprint across 7 countries.
Over his 14 years tenure, Garry guided Mezzan through an ambitious growth phase: spearheading its IPO, refocusing on core segments like food and pharmaceuticals, executing acquisitions and disposals, and establishing independent governance in a traditionally family-led enterprise. Now serving as a strategic advisor and non-executive board member in various enterprises, Garry continues to shape strategic initiatives in the region, while also pursuing ventures like Planow.ai—a retail analytics startup tackling real-time inventory insights.
This is the 61st episode in the Davy podcast series ‘Everyday Business with Aidan Donnelly’ with special guest Garry Walsh, Chairman and Founding Partner at planow.ai.
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60: Ger Corbett, CEO of Sandyford Business District
Sandyford Business District (SBD) is a Business Improvement District representing 1,000 companies, covering industries like IT and Communication, MedTech, Fintech, Energy tech, Automotive tech, Education and Childcare, Hospitality, Retail and Leisure. It is home to marquee names like Mastercard, Microsoft, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Meta, Google, BNP Paribas, AIB, Avant Money and Cubic Telecom among a host of other companies, and works closely with government, local authorities and industry leaders to advocate for infrastructure and investment.
Ger Corbett has a wealth of experience and insight into business advocacy, infrastructure and planning development, and investment and policy promotion. As CEO since 2022, he guides SBD’s strategic focus- to serve as a cutting-edge example of collaborative improvement for businesses and their surrounding communities alike, and to position the district as a leading European business destination.
This is the 60th episode in the Davy podcast series ‘Everyday Business with Aidan Donnelly’ with special guest Ger Corbett, CEO of Sandyford Business District.
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59: Marc O’Dwyer, Founder and Entrepreneur
After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc O’Dwyer began his sales career at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic, before succumbing to his entrepreneurial spirit in 1992 when he set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses.
In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within six weeks, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP, and in 2008, IIS was bought in an MBO.
He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, which has been a huge success with a customer retention rate of 94% and unparalleled customer support. Marc sold both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud in April 2025 at which stage the companies had supported over 75,000 businesses.
This is the 59th episode in the Davy podcast series ‘Everyday Business with Aidan Donnelly’ with special guest Marc O’Dwyer, Founder and Entrepreneur.
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58: Niall Cogley, MD at Cogley Media
Hard as it might be taking over from your dad to run a family business, it must be even more difficult to follow in his footsteps to a senior position in another company or corporation – but that is what Niall Cogley did when he became Head of Sport for RTE.
Then in 2004 he left the state broadcaster to become co-founder and CEO of Setanta Sports Ireland, a position he held for 6 years before accepting the role of director of broadcasting for TV3, after a brief stint with Sports & Broadcasting Solutions (SBS), an international sports consultancy and brokerage business.
Finally in 2017 he went out on his own again with the establishment of Cogley Media which works with sports broadcasters and rightsholders - specialising in large and small scale productions as well as broadcast strategy, rights acquisition, exploitation, activation & delivery.
This is the 58th episode in the Davy podcast series ‘Everyday Business with Aidan Donnelly’ with special guest Niall Cogley, MD at Cogley Media.
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57: John Travers, Author and former Corporate Executive
When John Travers completed his Engineering degree he began working with Shell International, operating a major oil asset in the Netherlands. He subsequently went on to work at Shell Technology Ventures, commercialising new technologies for the global energy market.
Next there was a stint with McKinsey working closely with CEOs, company boards and governments in multinational oil majors, before breaking out on his own as founding CEO of Alternative Energy Resources, which became a leading alternative energy company in Ireland. AER grew to supply sustainable biofuels to more retail networks in Ireland than any other company. He declined a takeover offer from DCC and led the company to an alternative exit, providing 16 times return to initial shareholders.
He started a second business, Aer-Bio, to provide biotechnology solutions to the biofuels, industrial chemicals and nutraceuticals markets, and this company was bought by Cellulac plc in a share deal. Next, he stepped back into the multinational sector as founding managing director of DCC New Energy, a division focused on solar, wind, geothermal and bioenergy.
Then his career took a very unusual turn…. But I wont spoil the surprise on that just yet!
This is the 57th episode in the Davy podcast series ‘Everyday Business with Aidan Donnelly’ with special guest John Travers, Author and former Corporate Executive.
In this podcast, Aidan Donnelly is in discussion with numerous guests to get insights into their journey, their highs and lows, their management styles, and the lessons they have learned along the way. Most of Aidan’s time has been spent focusing on the financials of these companies but what is more fascinating to him is how companies operate, how the entrepreneurs started them, and the business people/managements who run them.
But as with most things, a work/life balance is essential, so it won’t just be about the professional developments they have made through the years, but also the personal ones.
Aidan Donnelly, Head of Equities at Davy, has been working in, analysing, and investing in companies for decades. He has 27 years’ investment management experience. He joined Davy in 2005 and has worked as an analyst/fund manager for a range of global equity funds and is now responsible for the direct equity offering at Davy.
There will be a new episode released every two weeks, so please like, share and subscribe if you like what you hear!
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