Profile: Entrepreneur Dr George G. Moore
By Margaret E. Ward

When Louth business tycoon George Moore was just a boy in Pearse Park, Dundalk a local priest was inspired by a Cooley legend to launch a hurling competition. In the epic Táin Bó Cuailgne the Irish warrior Cúchulainn, who was then a boy called Setanta, set out from his home by hitting his sliotar before him and then running ahead at great speed to catch it.

In 1961, the first Poc Fada distance hurling competition took place over a 5 km course in the Cooley Mountains. Contestants then, as now, must hit the sliotar as far as possible and the person who finishes the course in the fewest pucks wins.

Growing up with legendary competitions like that, perhaps it’s no surprise that Dr. George G. Moore’s life has gone further, faster, than anyone in Dundalk might reasonably have expected.

Although the 60-year old entrepreneur now spends most of his days working as Chairman and Chief Executive of his Washington-DC based marketing software company TargusInfo, overseeing his investment in The Belleek Group and dabbling in a few angel investments, his wee county origins are still important to him.

The scholarship kid
Dr Moore came from humble beginnings. “We owned nothing and had nothing so we had only one way to go,” he says.

As a young man, he worked hard at school and says academic scholarships played a key part in shaping his future. “If I did not have that I’d probably be a bank teller in Dundalk. It was significant. I was a scholarship kid all growing up. I was in a grammar school and won a scholarship to UCD.”

At University College Dublin, he studied economics and commerce and he was mentored by Professor Tony Cunningham and John Teeling [Cooley Distillery]. Thanks to another scholarship, this time to George Washington University, Moore found himself in America’s political power centre, Washington, DC. Although the 1970s were one of the most turbulent times in American history, the newly married young Irishman kept his head down and quickly completed a PhD.

After graduation, he and his wife Angela sought their fortune on the west coast. He worked for California Analysis Centers Inc (CACI) International, a good training ground for entrepreneurs.

In 1983, he started at National Decision Systems (NDS) in San Diego, a marketing software company. The innovative company did extremely well and seven years later Dr. Moore sold it to Equifax for more than $100m.

Shaping an empire: from software to pottery
Twenty-one years on, Dr. Moore’s business interests range from high-tech software to traditional pottery reflecting both the new and old images of Ireland abroad.

How did it all come about? The proceeds of the sale of NDS became Dr Moore’s springboard into a number of businesses. It was also fortuitous for struggling County Fermanagh-based Belleek Pottery Limited. Moore was already running a new software company but he was never one to shy away from a challenge. Besides, he thought he could turn Belleek around quickly and flip it for a profit. He bought the legendary pottery producer for an estimated $6.1 million.

Since then, Belleek has rebranded from the ornamental porcelain with shamrocks displayed by your granny to everyday pottery through its Belleek Living range. The company, which is overseen by a Fermanagh-based executive team, has also expanded to more than 10 times its original size.

Things are ramping up at Belleek in 2011 with a new US-based sales and distribution operation just outside Washington DC in northern Virginia. The Belleek Group, which comprises Belleek Pottery, Galway Crystal and Aynsley China, has estimated sales turnover of $5 million a year. The company is projecting a15 per cent growth in sales over the next three years.

TargusInfo is also once again expanding its headquarters and offerings in Vienna, Virginia. Although Moore sold a percentage of Targus to a private equity firm a few years ago he remains in charge and seems to have little taste for selling it and running it as a public company. “I’m gonna run it the way I think it should be run. If shareholders want to run it they should choose a different CEO.”

Looking for the next big idea
His advice for anyone looking to start their own company? “When I started my own companies, I never took on debt. I always used customer money. Before you go, find customers who will buy your product or service. Do not rely on ‘build it and they will come’. Too many times people have an idea, go to VC, built the company then try to find the customer. I would say idea and customer first.”

Meanwhile, the self-confessed explorer keeps looking for new things to play with or fix. “For me, there are shades of grey between working and relaxing. I have a number of investments that I really enjoy.”
His latest business baby, called Eades, is a single malt whiskey producer based in Charlottesville, Virginia. “We’re producing a scotch style boutique whisky in the US. It will mirror the styles of Scotland and Ireland,” says Moore.

There’s no place like home
Dr Moore had a few landmark events earlier this year: he turned 60 and became a grandfather. His two daughters and one son have all completed their education; the youngest just graduated with a degree in medicine from UCD.

The family has been in the US for the last four decades but Carlingford, where they have a second home, remains the place they choose when they want a break.

“For the last 30 years, we’ve always come back to Ireland. We come five or six times a year for a couple of weeks. The US is home ─ it’s where our kids live ─ but when we come home to Ireland I’m not sure we ever left,” he said.

Cúchulainn would be proud.

***
[Sidebar 1]
A day in the life
Rising time:
Moore is both an early bird and a night owl. “I’m up at 6.15am. I like to get up and get going. I’m in the office by 8am.

Turning off the lights:
“On average, I like to go to bed at 11pm…I sleep seven to eight hours if I can get them.”

On the way to work:
He might use his iPad to read the newspapers

Relaxation:
Swimming in a pool or walking in the mountains

Reading material:
Moore likes popular novels by detail-oriented authors such as Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum and Bill Flynn.

Something you might expect:
He has a knack for anything mechanical and likes to figure out how it all works.

Something that might surprise you:
Moore is developing a single malt scotch whiskey business in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Favourite quote…
“Do what you love and love what you do” If you don’t like what you’re doing, do something else.

Advice for students:
Study the hard sciences if you can. “In all developed economies we’ve seen a trend of graduates going into business and law. We need to make sure there is a balance between hard science and business. The cross-over between those two disciplines is where all economies have grown.”

[Sidebar 2]
By the numbers…
TargusInfo, a privately held company, had an estimated value of €200 million in 2005. The company employs close to 500 people in 13 offices.

Belleek was purchased for around $6.1 million in 1990. Today the combined Belleek Group has estimated sales of $5 million a year.

Personal net worth. According to The Sunday Independent Rich List 2011, Dr George Moore has estimated wealth of €153 million – up €5 million on last year, placing him at number 60 on the list.

Awards
In 2007, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary CBE in recognition of his contribution to Northern Ireland’s economy and his international work supporting Ireland.

He has also been awarded the influential Irish America magazine’s “US Top 100 in Business: 1991-2006″ and University College Dublin’s “Outstanding Alumnus 1991 Award”.

Scholarship funds

In 2009, Moore announced a €100,000 third-level scholarship fund over five years for qualifying students at his alma mater, De la Salle secondary school in Dundalk.

He’s notoriously private but one of Ireland’s best known broadcasters. He works six days a week and spends the seventh day reading or watching classic films. He’s a self-declared geek and bookworm but is considered one of Ireland’s sexiest men.

This Saturday, I’ll be at the Dalkey Book Festival www.dalkeybookfestival.ie interviewing the man behind the microphone… Ryan Tubridy.

We all know him as a broadcaster but few of us know the archive-loving, fact-digging, Kennedy-obsessed man that lies within. At 3pm on June 18th I’ll be chatting to him at the Dalkey Heritage Centre in the style of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” and trying to find out more about Ryan Tubridy, author and archive nerd.

We’ll cover his early life, the first book he ever read, his passion for history, his writing process and we’ll ask him the big question: why on earth would someone who is at the top of his career and works six or seven days a week bother to write a book?

Come join us for a laugh.

The men stand around wear ill-fitting hairpieces and dresses. The women do, too. Then a burly fellow pounds the ground with a big stick like Moses parting the Red Sea. The crowds in the hallway move aside to make way for… the judge.

The tipstaff and criers who lead judges of the Supreme, High and Circuit courts from their chambers to the courtroom create an impressive spectacle. They represent a tradition dating back to the founding of the Four Courts in 1796.

Back then, they had a more practical purpose.Tipstaffs carry a wooden or metal staff with a crown on the top. In the past, the crown was removed to reveal arrest warrants stored within the hollow shaft. It’s a quaint and fairly harmless tradition. However, another old-fashioned legal practice isn’t quite so charming or practical.

Legalese is causing great harm to our ability to communicate with one another.

Pomp and circumstance

Irish solicitors seem stuck in the 18th century, even when communicating with clients. It’s all pomp and circumstance. Legal letters, terms of engagement contracts, websites, marketing materials and even emails are sprinkled with Latin phrases, heretofores and thereins.

What legal practitioners don’t seem to notice is the way it makes clients feel and the barrier it creates between them. If a client does not understand a document they may feel stupid, ashamed or angry. This is not a great way to build client relationships.

The Lisbon Treaty is a classic example of legalese gone mad and we all know how the public felt about it the first time around. Here’s a sample: “Under the principle of subsidiarity, in areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the Union shall act only if and insofar as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, either at central level or at regional and local level, but can rather, by reason of the scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Union level. The institutions of the Union shall apply the principle of subsidiarity as laid down in the Protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. National Parliaments ensure compliance with the principle of subsidiarity in accordance with the procedure set out in that Protocol.” Lisbon Treaty, Article 3b, Paragraph 3

Last month, Secretary-General of the European Commission, Catherine Day, said legal language was necessary for the Lisbon Treaty. “It needs to be actionable later on in court” she told the Pat Kenny radio programme.

While it’s true that laws are written more for legislators than for members of the public, Plain English legislation is becoming the international norm. That makes good sense. Laws are written to help govern the people. If you can’t understand a proposed law how can you be expected to obey it or to debate for, or against, it before it is passed?

Misunderstandings and misinformation

During the first Lisbon treaty campaign the government did little to explain the document’s significance or counteract the emotive posters of the No campaign.  Maybe they didn’t know how?

The civil service has its own legalese dialect and our Taoiseach Brian Cowen is undoubtedly one of its native speakers. He’s from a political family so the poor guy probably grew up with civil-service-speak in his house.

Can you image the scene? His parents, when instructing the nanny to get the child some fresh air, may have said: “Going forward, the perambulations of the offspring will heretofore be undertaken with a childcare advocate in attendance. Said advocate will ensure the client obtains a measure of the appropriate levels of the two hydrogen-one oxygen combination as prescribed by parental recommendations.”

This communication style is highly infectious and trickles down to the government’s communications with Joe Public, their client. Even government bodies that are designed to represent and defend the people’s rights find themselves using phrases like “fettering their responsibility” without knowing why. They’ve been brainwashed with the jargon since they took their civil service exams.

What a feeling

When government officials, solicitors and business people use gobbledegook to communicate with their customers they are not doing their job. Professional jargon is often convoluted, elitist and weakens the writer’s intended message.

Client communications say something about the writer and the organisation. A jargon filled letter can provoke strong emotions in the reader. If the language is inappropriate to its audience, the reader may think the company is dishonest, incompetent or hiding something. Reputation is everything and clear communications ensure a lasting, and lucrative, customer relationship.

Legalese fits modern society about as well as those wigs fit barristers. It’s time to cast this tradition aside.

Margaret E. Ward is managing director of Clear Ink and a writing skills trainer for the legal profession. Blog: margaretward.ie

Western society has hang-ups about ageing, and older people are often invisible or ignored.

Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke, one of the more senior members in the Dáil, was being asked for her advice to older people running for politics last Monday.

Thankfully, O’Rourke did not have a “senior moment”, the American expression for forgetfulness or a momentary blanking of the mind, as she replied. The political veteran – whose BER energy rating, if she were a house, would be just fine – replied that her genetic make-up meant she was not a delicate person and had lots of energy.

Obviously, the RTÉ reporter did not ask the question with any malice, but the throwaway comment reflects Irish society’s casually expressed, but deeply ingrained, views of the aged. We assume that anyone over 50 is slowing down, putting on a robe and slippers, obsessing about health problems, the weather, Daniel O’Donnell and preparing to die.

These ideas translate directly into the workplace and society. The third-highest number of complaints to the Equality Tribunal last year – 82, up from 41 in 2007 – involved age discrimination. This bias may range from something as subtle as refusing an employee’s training course request because they might not be around much longer to outright abuse due to the person’s age.

Some of Ireland’s best thinkers – business leaders, entrepreneurs and politicians – are over 55. Can you imagine Dermot Desmond, Martin Naughton, Margaret Heffernan, Feargal Quinn or Jackie Healy-Rae willingly packing it in because they’d reached a certain birthday?

Western society has hang-ups about ageing, and older people are often invisible or ignored. How often do you see the over-55s represented in the media, advertising or entertainment industries?

By contrast, Asian society is renowned for its reverence for older people. RTÉ’s Margaret Ward, who has been stationed in China for a few years, told me older people there are quite visible and active in society, since they retire quite early. “You see them in parks a lot, doing tai chi, playing cards and mahjong, doing ballroom dancing, group sing-songs and using public gym equipment.”

So, where do our beliefs come from? We’ve probably been overly influenced by advertising research. Marketing executives believe older people are more set in their ways so they are less likely to spend money, change brands or try something new. The golden demographic – 18- to 34-year-olds – are lusted after for their spendthrift ways.

As the recession deepens, however, marketers are changing their views. The New York Times reported last month that there is an increasing interest in marketing goods and services to consumers aged 50 and older. “Among those aiming more at the older demographic are giants like Chrysler, Kraft Foods, L’Oréal, Procter Gamble and [retailer] Target,” the paper said.

It’s not altruistic; they’re just following the money. Baby boomers have entered their later years and they’re not dropping like flies. Life expectancy in Ireland is increasing. According to the Central Statistics Office, men’s life expectancy is 76.8 years (up 1.7 years) and women’s life expectancy is 81.6 years (up 1.3 years) in the most recent data.

There are probably more “active retired” individuals than the widely characterised sick, doddery pensioners waiting for the Grim Reaper. Although Ireland has one of the EU’s younger populations, with just 11.5 per cent of us over 65, this is set to rise to 26 per cent by 2011.

Seniors are having their moment. During the medical card protests last autumn, one campaigner said: “They underestimated the generation that marched for civil rights in the 1960s, marched for tax reform in the 1980s and march in the noughties for the right to a decent health service.”

Eighty per cent of all older people voted in the last election, and a new political party has been formed. John Wolfe (71) launched the Seniors’ Solidarity Party this week to lobby on issues of concern for the over-50s and their families.

We’re all 21 in our heads, and most people over 55 do not feel old. New website EveryMonday.ie, which I edit, found that 80 per cent of 500 people over the age of 55 who were surveyed believed 80 years of age, not 65, was old. So, 80 is the new old and there’s a lot of living to be done in our last 30 years.

It’s time we all question our attitudes and ask: what role do older people play in our society, in our businesses and in our personal lives?

Margaret E Ward is a journalist, blogger and managing director of Clear Ink

The reason you should take note is that the number of advertisements are dwindling. When this happens, it has the potential to weaken our democracy and to further diminish our standing in the international business community. This is not as far-fetched as it might sound.

Media outlets traditionally obtain the bulk of their income from advertising. The retail price, subscription or licence fee only goes a small way to covering expenses. When a sharp decline in advertising occurs, as it has over the past couple of years, media companies need to cut costs and, ultimately, staffing levels.

Many Irish newspapers and radio stations have announced voluntary redundancies for journalists and, in the last week, a dozen or so staff members from TV3 were laid off. Big deal, right? Lots of people are losing their jobs.In a healthy democracy, journalists should act as a check and balance on the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. In addition to reporting the events of the day, they have a duty to investigate potential wrongdoing by those in power – in business, government and society.

Good investigative journalists are moral watchdogs with a sensitive nose for corruption, graft, cronyism, abuse of influence and power and much more.

Even so, investigations take time and lots of money. Traditionally, newspapers broke many of the big stories and radio and TV stations followed up on them. Recently – as newspapers’ advertising revenue dried up – the appetite for expensive investigative series (and potential legal actions) has diminished.

Over the past few years, television programmes like Prime Time and special RTÉ news reports by Charlie Bird and George Lee have filled some of the void. These TV investigations are no longer a certainty now that the editorial independence of the national broadcaster has been called in to question.

RTÉ’s strange apology for running a news item on the satirical painting of King Brian (sorry, the Taoiseach) in the National Gallery raises a very big issue. If RTÉ caved in on a simple thing like a painting then what other news items, or investigations, will they axe?

Print, broadcast and online media face several other problems when trying to meet their watchdog brief. Redundancies and layoffs mean many of their senior staff will leave – taking their long memories and years of experience with them.

Journalism is now a freelance world. Staff journalists are the exception rather than the rule at many newspapers and radio stations. This is the biggest threat of all to an independent, effective media. The rise in freelance journalism directly impacts on investigative reports. The Huffington Post, America’s famous blog turned internet newspaper, is so concerned about it that it launched an investigative report fund on Monday. The €1.75 million initiative, designed to fund freelance and staff journalists’ investigative reports, is asking for ideas and CVs.

Founder Arianna Huffington said layoffs at newspapers were hurting investigative journalism at a time the nation’s institutions need to be watched closely.

The same applies in Ireland. Print freelancers can only make a living if they crank out a high volume of well written articles. The rate for freelance work has not improved much in the last 10 years, so it’s really a numbers game. If you were a freelance journalist, would you take the risk of investigating and reporting a scandal?

Staff positions for talented freelance journalists are as rare as hen’s teeth so freelancers would be fools not to ask themselves a few questions: will I be paid for all the time I spend on this investigation? What happens if the scandal leads to a lawsuit in which I am named? Will this potential outcome impact on my ability to earn a living as a journalist?

Freelancers have less protection from legal action, or loss of income, than staffers if they publish a story that someone finds unfavourable.

Ireland’s international reputation is in tatters thanks to strange goings on in business, government and regulatory circles. Now, more than ever, we need a strong investigative media committed to shining a light in all those dark places. Who dares to fund it?