By Business & Finance 
Gary Connolly, managing director of iCubed, takes the Business & Finance 60-second challenge.
Q. What was your first job? I worked as a pricing analyst in the treasury department of National Irish Bank in late 1990s. Q. What would you regard as your biggest achievement to date? Setting up iCubed in 2010 and selling it to Davy in 2014. Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? It wasn’t a personal lesson, but Richard Russell (of Dow Theory fame) opened my eyes to the power of compounding. I was quite the spender up to that point. Q. If you could step into the shoes of one businessperson for a day, who would it be and why? Warren Buffett. 86 years of investment experience in those shoes. Unlikely 24 hours would be enough to glean anything useful, but it would be a great high-stool story. Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff? Incentives are the driving force behind everything we do, so they need to be aligned with client outcomes. The incentive for me is building a business in promoting better investment outcomes for clients. It’s a journey without a finish line. Q. How do you relax? I love classical music – mostly listening. Sometimes I try to play the piano, which I took up a few years ago. Q. In three words and less, how do you define success? Simple – not easy. Q. What’s your motto? Quidquid latine dictum sit altum sonatur (whatever is said in Latin sounds profound!). Q. What are your business aspirations? I’m selling a service, not a product, so the scalability of iCubed is limited to the extent that we find good likeminded people. I’d like for iCubed to be seen as the go-to resource for financial advisers and their clients considering any investment decision. Q. What’s your favourite quote? “You can’t have a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant, it just doesn’t work like that.” The aforementioned Warren Buffett on the virtue of patience when it comes to financial markets.
Incentives are the driving force behind everything we do, so they need to be aligned with client outcomes
INVESTMENT AUTHORITY
Gary Connolly is managing director of iCubed, a Dublin-based consultancy firm that promotes better investment outcomes through a collaborative approach to investing.
Having previously worked in fund management and treasury with Setanta Asset Management, Merrion Fund Management and Citadel, Gary started his own business in 2010.
iCubed joined the Davy Group in 2014. Almost three years later, iCubed continues to provide investment support to financial brokers in Ireland.
