45 Facts About Denis O'Brien

Denis O'Brien was born on 19 April 1958 and is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel.

Denis O'Brien was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for a period of several years.

In 2021, Denis O'Brien sold his stake in Communicorp and the Pacific operations of Digicel.

Denis O'Brien engages in various philanthropic activities, including being on the board of Concern Worldwide, founding the Iris Denis O'Brien Foundation and establishing a fellowship at Boston College.

In 2019, Denis O'Brien earned the Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Irish-US Council.

Denis O'Brien was born on 19 April 1958 in the city of Cork.

Denis O'Brien was the only boy among four children, and grew up in the Ballsbridge area of Dublin.

Denis O'Brien's father created a medical supply company and later a horse nutrition business.

Denis O'Brien attended The High School in Rathgar, where he was once suspended for three months, until the school asked him back to participate in a rugby championship.

In 1977, Denis O'Brien received a BA in politics, history and logic at University College Dublin.

Denis O'Brien has spent most of his career in the communications technology and mass media industries.

Denis O'Brien has been a part owner of energy, aerospace, and industrial service companies.

Denis O'Brien was until early 2021 the owner of Communicorp, a media holding company operating across Europe.

Denis O'Brien started the company in Ireland in 1989, where it has owned independent radio stations like Newstalk and Today FM.

Denis O'Brien expanded to markets in Eastern European countries, later selling some of its stations to local operators.

In 1991, Denis O'Brien formed a telecommunications consortium called Esat Telecom to compete with the state-owned Telecom Eireann.

Denis O'Brien clashed with the company's board, especially former owner Tony O'Reilly, who stepped down from his position as CEO in 2009 and sold most of his INM shares in 2014.

In 2015, Paul Meagher, a solicitor for Denis O'Brien, reportedly called INM solicitor Simon McAleese in 2012 to block a story related to environment minister Phil Hogan.

In 2001, Denis O'Brien founded Digicel, a telecom company that operates in the Caribbean, Central America, and Asia Pacific.

Denis O'Brien has attended the World Economic Forum's annual winter meeting in Davos, Switzerland, alongside other billionaires like Bill Gates and George Soros.

In 2000, Denis O'Brien became a director of the Bank of Ireland, and in September 2005, he was named a deputy governor of the bank.

Denis O'Brien reportedly resigned due to increased demands related to his international business interests.

In 2018, Denis O'Brien was named Honorary Life President of the FAI.

In 1998, Denis O'Brien purchased Planal SA, the holding company for the Quinta do Lago golf resort in Algarve, Portugal.

Sam Smyth, a radio show host that aired on one of Denis O'Brien's networks, claimed he was fired as a result of his reporting on the Moriarty Tribunal.

In 2012, Denis O'Brien threatened to sue journalist and broadcaster Vincent Browne over statements in Browne's articles that Denis O'Brien claimed were defamatory.

In February 2013, Denis O'Brien sued the Irish Daily Mail for defamation over his numerous appearances in RTE news reports on the relief effort after the Haiti earthquake.

Lawyers for Denis O'Brien demanded that a reprint of the story be removed from Broadsheet.

In 2019, Denis O'Brien began an action for defamation against the Sunday Business Post over articles published in the newspaper in March 2015.

The articles, which centred around a confidential PricewaterhouseCoopers report given to the government in November 2008 on the exposure of Ireland's banks in 2008, identified Denis O'Brien as being among the 22 biggest borrowers from Irish banks in 2008.

Denis O'Brien claimed the articles defamed him and injured his reputation and alleged malicious publication.

Denis O'Brien claimed that he had previously received verbal confirmation for a loan extension from former IBRC CEO Mike Aynsley, but Aynsley's position was terminated when the bank went into liquidation.

On 16 June 2015, Denis O'Brien sued the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the Government of Ireland and the Attorney General over remarks made by Murphy and Sinn Fein TD Pearse Doherty about his banking affairs in the Dail Eireann.

Denis O'Brien alleged that the remarks were a breach of parliamentary privilege that violated his constitutional rights and his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Denis O'Brien defended the injunction in an Irish Times op-ed piece, stating that he had been shocked that somebody took confidential files from a bank, altered them, and then leaked them to the press.

Denis O'Brien claimed to have been vilified by enemies, competitors, politicians, and others for trying to defend his privacy.

Denis O'Brien received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from his alma mater, UCD, in 2006.

In June 2000, Denis O'Brien set up the Iris Denis O'Brien Foundation, named after his mother, through which he coordinates many of his philanthropic efforts, and has supported multiple charities and campaign groups, including the human rights group Front Line Defenders.

Denis O'Brien supported the 2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games, for which he was the chairman of the Games Organising Committee and later the Chairman of the Council of Patrons.

In 2004, Denis O'Brien helped to establish the Digicel Foundation, which has funded thousands of projects in the Caribbean and Pacific.

In 2010, Denis O'Brien was named a goodwill ambassador for the city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, by Mayor Jean Yves Jason, who cited Denis O'Brien's help with disaster recovery efforts after the earthquake.

In 2012, Denis O'Brien received a Clinton Global Citizen Award from former US President Bill Clinton, in large part due to his disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

Denis O'Brien contributed to building 50 primary and secondary schools in the 18 months following the earthquake.

In 2015, Denis O'Brien established a fully-funded fellowship for Irish students to receive an MBA degree from Boston College.

Some time after his purchase of Quinta do Lago in 1998, but before Esat Telecom's sale to BT in 2000, Denis O'Brien sold his home in Dublin and established a primary residence in Portugal.