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INTERVIEW

(Photo of TERRY NEILL)

TERRY NEILL M.A. (1969) is a member of the Trinity Foundation Board and the Advisory Board of the Long Room Hub. He is a maths/physics graduate of Trinity and has an MBA from London Business School, where he has been a governor since 2001. He spent his career with Andersen Consulting/Accenture and was chairman of the global board of Andersen Worldwide. He is a board member of Bank of Ireland plc and CRH plc, and is Chairman of Camerata Ireland.

CROSSING BOUNDARIES

WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF TRINITY?

I was born and grew up in Northern Ireland, but my days in Trinity meant Dublin become my home. Joe Lee talks about “a sense of place”. Despite 20 years in Chicago and London, Dublin was home. I see ‘crossing boundaries’ as a powerful theme. The move to Dublin was perhaps my first ‘crossing’. After nearly 20 years in Chicago and London, we are now delighted to be back.

Trinity set the scene. I was fortunate to be an Entrance Scholar and had rooms in Trinity for my first two years, a great asset for making friends! Despite the best efforts of Nobel Prize winner Professor Ernest Walton, my maths/physics degree was modest – too many enjoyable distractions! Physics and maths bring models, concepts, and structured ways of thinking. I would not swap the underpinning they provided for my business life. Sport loomed large – First XI cricket, 3B level rugby, becoming a Knight of the Campanile. Most importantly, I met Marjorie who, despite many provocations, has stayed married to me for nearly 40 years. Trinity was smaller – 3,000 undergraduates. My network of friends crossed many faculties and many political – and religious – persuasions.

I was fortunate to be accepted by London Business School as one of a handful of immediate postgraduates to join the MBA class, which mainly comprised of men (sadly they were all men) who already had significant business experience. Thus I benefited from a terrific combination of top class academics and a class of pragmatic ‘real world’ business people.

HOW DID TRINITY HELP WITH YOUR CAREER?

I was a treasurer on Trinity Week – my introduction to accounting! Many aspects of Trinity life meant a broadening of perspective and sport re-enforced the importance of teamwork. I embarked on a privileged 31-year career with Andersen Consulting/Accenture. I worked with many fine people of great personal integrity, lived in Dublin, Chicago and London, spent too much time on aeroplanes (and crossed a great many national boundaries!), built a worldwide network of friends, helped invent whole new areas of professional practice, worked through the maturing of the information services industry, saw the importance of deep knowledge to support people dealing with profound change, and chaired the board of a global company. I even launched Andersen Consulting/Accenture’s foray into the world of golf sponsorship, getting 18 holes with Jack Nicklaus!

WHERE DO OUTSIDE INTERESTS SUCH AS MUSIC FIT?

In 2003, Barry Douglas asked me to cross another boundary – to become chairman of his orchestra, Camerata Ireland. Barry had two priorities – to create an Irish orchestra to match the best in the world, and to provide challenge and opportunity for the cream of Ireland’s most talented young musicians. Five years of spectacular progress, and regular access to ‘lovely noise’.

HOW DID YOU BECOME INVOLVED WITH THE LONG ROOM HUB? AND WHY ARE THE HUMANITIES IMPORTANT?

In 2007, another force of nature, Jane Ohlmeyer Ph.D., M.A. (j.o.) (1991) asked me to help in the shaping of plans for the Long Room Hub – to cross a boundary into the humanities. I must have behaved myself, because I was delighted when Jane and Loretta Glucksman asked me to join the Advisory Board of the Hub.

“History is bunk” said Henry Ford. What absolute tosh! Padding along on my treadmill a few weeks ago, I watched a History Channel programme on the Emperor Trajan – one of Rome’s most successful and popular emperors. Late in his career, he decided to invade the land that is modern-day Iraq. The might of the Roman legions easily won the invading battles. They settled in. In the ensuing months, the Parthians formed insurgency groups all over the country. They wore down the Roman garrisons and Trajan withdrew as he saw the costs dramatically outweighing the benefits. Perhaps if a historian had been at George Bush’s table with a perspective on 100AD, or the British experience of the 1920s, we might live in a somewhat different world.

The value systems and thought processes – what is loosely called the culture – of companies and countries (Continued on page 33...) Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68