Celebrity Interview - Susan & Fergal Kelly
Dynamic duo in the fast lane
Susan & Fergal Kelly Dynamic duo in the fast lane
ANNABEL MILNES-SMITH TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO THE COSTA DEL SOL'S GOLDEN COUPLE, HIGH FLYING ENTREPRENEURS SUSAN AND FERGAL KELLY.
On a glorious sunny day on the Costa del Sol I raced to Estepona's Crowne Plaza Hotel to catch Fergal and Susan Kelly before they jetted off on another business assignment.
I was somewhat nervous to meet a couple who have made such an impact, not only on the Coast but also globally. I need not have worried. They immediately put me at ease, and within a short time I discovered two charming people with great humility about their rise to the top of their respective professions.
I have to say that, on first meeting her a couple of months ago, Susan blew my mind away. Not only is she a true inspiration with her business acumen but being able to retire at the age of 37... need I say more. Now she has sunk her teeth back into business with the launch of Brown Cow, the new flagship salons behind the Fake Bake empire.
So how did her career start? "It began when I set up the first call centre in Ireland, having worked in one myself in New York. Given that it was an unknown entity in Europe the first two years were a real struggle, but through sheer determination and hard work it grew into one of the largest over a period of nine years. The call centre became the biggest avenue to buy concert tickets."
For several years Susan had the fourth largest monopoly in Ireland; anyone who wanted to buy tickets for any event north or south of the border had to go directly through her ticketline service. She then sold it to the Sitel Corporation, which at the time was the first deal of its kind done in Ireland.
"I then worked as the vice president for global business development for the Sitel corporation, based in Brussels, and pursued hobbies such as learning how to fly Cessna 150s and 172s. I even brought a restaurant on the basis that I could swan in and out of it and generally enjoy what I perceived to be a nice hobby!
"Although it was incredibly successful, and patronised by celebrities such as the Corrs and U2, as most restaurateurs would know, they are nothing but a headache and certainly not what I had imagined. I sold it 18 months later. There followed a three-year stint in Madrid before moving to the Costa del Sol."
Susan, having had a frenetic and highly successful business career as well as being appointed to countless boards - including membership of both the Trinity College NBA advisory board and the Irish Direct Marketing Association - came to the conclusion that, despite her passions and achievements in her home country, she was far from ready to hang up her Jimmy Choos. "I was climbing the walls with boredom and spending a lot of the time on the beach by myself. I realised that if I didn't do something I was going to go insane."
This is where her company Brown Cow - the newly launched fake bake salons and supplier of leading spray tan and babe tool products - was born.
Where did it all start?
"Whilst I was on the beach I was looking at all these bronzed and beautiful people around me and I thought if I was to stay in this sun for a year, I was never going to have a tan like that. I just get freckles and go red and that is the end of it. I used to think 'cow', amongst other expletives, and then it developed into 'brown cows' and that is literally where the idea came from. I thought wouldn't it be great to have a specialist tanning salon that was globally known as a strong brand so that no matter where I travelled to all I had to do was look for a Brown Cow salon and be assured of the perfect tan without the endless sunbathing.
"The idea started to develop in my mind and I started thinking, why are there no branded tanning salons? Think about Starbucks and you think coffee. Think about tan and that is Brown Cow. If a global branded salon was going to be a serious player I knew it would have to be in partnership with the biggest brand. I sought out the leader in fake tanning, which is Fake Bake, and met its owner Sandra McClumpha. I explained that in addition to selling the Fake Bake products to salons, why not have a whole chain of salons which were specifically designed for the ultimate tanning experience, all branded Brown Cow, and then start franchising it around the world? The more I spoke to her, the more I thought she would be a brilliant business partner, because she is a very sharp lady. We then struck a deal so we both co-funded the idea on a fifty/fifty basis and it has grown from there."
Back to your younger days, give me an insight into your upbringing...
"I am one of six children. I was born and reared in Dublin. I had a very traditional Irish childhood where mother is at home. There is nothing like an Irish mammy and mine is an exceptional one. Not only did she rear the six of us but she has also been the main woman in our children's lives with her and my father's unending love and support. They are without doubt my rock and my sanctuary when times are tough.
What were you like at school?
"Absent. I was absolutely dreadful. I found school very frustrating and boring and to be honest I hated it. I went to Notre Dame and the head nun said I would never amount to anything as I had the concentration span of a peanut and a total disregard for rules and structure.
"In fact later on in life I began to understand why school had been so unpleasant when it became very apparent that I couldn't grasp structured learning like most people and that a lot of things didn't make sense. For example, even now geography makes absolutely no sense to me. I have no idea from a geographical point of view where in the world I am."
Now onto Fergal Kelly, who has recently been promoted from chief technology officer for Vodafone in Spain (having previously had that role in Ireland for 12 years) to director of radio within Global Networks Worldwide. He is responsible for all of the radio technology and where they invest it globally.
From a journalist's point of view - where technology is not a field I could claim any intelligence in - this means that wherever your mobile works to its full capacity, it is down to Vodafone's communications guru Fergal. He was one of the original team of people who set up Vodafone in Spain, or Airtel as it was then.
As Fergal explains, "I am just the guy from head office who comes to help, as they say." I could see he vastly understates his contribution.
So where exactly did it all start?
"My very first interest in telecommunications came from the fact that, as a relatively small kid at 10 years old, I started fixing and tricking around with radios and then got an interest in amateur radio in a geeky kind of way. I was too young to get a licence so I had to take the youngest ever amateur licence test. I ended up teaching that course in my local school by the age of 16. That led me into engineering and a specialism in telecommunication and radio networks, which in turn drew me into the mobile telephone industry.
How did you rise so fast up the ranks?
"It's not something I ever planned. I suppose it must have been a fair mix of luck and being good at what I did. I could bridge the technology and commercial topics, which seems to have come out as a useful trait throughout my career. I was 28 years old when I was appointed to the board of Eircell, our business in Ireland, now Vodafone Ireland, and - at some 20 years younger than any other board member - that was certainly interesting."
I see that Vodafone has recently taken on lead sponsorship for the Mercedes McLaren Formula 1 racing team... Have you seen them in action yet?
"I am a keen follower of Formula 1 and indeed my team has always been Mercedes McLaren so I was delighted, first of all when we got Fernando Alonso onto the team and even more so when Vodafone took on this sponsorship. We had the whole Mercedes McLaren team over here to launch the new season's car in Valencia and of course we've just had the Barcelona Grand Prix. Tradition dictates that the drivers come to the Paddock Club (where we entertain some customers) before the race and also when they get to the podium, so we've been lucky enough to see and hear from them several times this year."
Your wife Susan is now the driving force behind Fake Bake. Have you ever had one?
"Like many men, cosmetics and myself are further afield than my wife would like. A variety of their products have been applied to me whilst I was asleep, when my wife says I am at my most cooperative! I was an unwitting guinea pig. You can tell by my current pink suntan colour and poor reaction to sun that if I turned brown people would think I was dirty."
How did you meet?
"We met through a close friend of ours in Dublin and neither of us expected at first to be married, indeed even to each other. But the more we were together the more we just felt very compatible. We're very, very different people in many ways but we have a good harmony and I adore her."
You are both high-flying entrepreneurs and powerful characters... Do you ever clash?
"Clash is the wrong word. We both have our views on how to approach any business problem. Generally I just do what Susan says! Mainly our challenge, rather than clashing, is in trying to fit in all of our business and travel commitments whilst making time for each other. Some weeks I can be in five or six different countries. It is just fabulous to be able to get down here. So our main bug-bear is accommodating our schedules."
How do you switch off?
"I like cars and love watching Formula 1 and go to as many of them as I can. We hope to get to Monte Carlo, Indianapolis and the Shanghai Grand Prix this year, if all goes well."
Fergal, as I later gleaned from Susan, has a passion for cars, particularly Mercedes. He travelled to South Africa specifically to buy a 1967 Mercedes Pagoda and is awaiting a delivery of a new high performance AMG-Mercedes, among others which she collectively describes as "silver" and "driven excessively fast", admitting that she's not good with car model names.
How did you start working out of Spain for Vodafone?
"When I joined the corporate side of the business I was given the choice of working in either Düsseldorf or Newbury. I made a case, because I was constantly travelling, that there was no point in moving to either of these places, as I would be abandoning my family in an unfamiliar place. They agreed and here I am. Ever since then several of my Vodafone colleagues have been green to the gills. When they overcome the jealousy I then explain it. It's quite simple: I opted to move here."
Why do you love Spain?
"When you wake up every day and see a blue sky, you feel an awfully lot more enthusiastic, positive and energetic. That's a key part of it. Life is much easier here and the pace slower. The downside is that you have people wandering around in February and March wearing swimming togs and shorts and I do always wonder why. I then have to remind myself that we are living in a holiday destination."
Fergal and Susan have two boys who are undoubtedly following in their ambitious parents' footsteps, albeit tentatively. Wesley is the eldest and 19. He went to boarding school and now hopes to go to university in October.
"We hope he will too," says Fergal. "He has a very keen interest in sailing and golf. He was a qualified sailing instructor at the age of 14 and in golf he has a mentionable handicap. As a parent you wonder why you get school reports saying he was 'missing' from class in a boarding school, and looking at his handicap I have my suspicions. The dean, it seems, is a keen golfer too, so that probably confirms it.
So he takes after you?
"To a degree, I would say yes!"
What were you like at school?
"I guess I was a relatively good student and it was the time when physical punishment was being abolished and was replaced by the tongue. I can remember coming to metaphorical blows with more than one teacher when they were trying to humiliate pupils and I felt this was an injustice and stepped in. This was because I had a reasonable degree of academic ability. I enjoyed it a lot and then went on to Trinity College in Dublin where I came out with a degree in engineering. Later on I went on to England where I gained a masters degree in telecommunications and information systems."
Fergal is undoubtedly a key contributor to the global success of Vodafone and, with Susan setting herself a goal of five years for Brown Cow to be the biggest franchising brand in the world, we will surely see this dynamic entrepreneurial duo enter the hallowed list of The Times newspaper's Top 500 Rich List. Watch this space!
