By Business & Finance 
Pictured: Noel McCluskey, Finastra’s Country Manager for Ireland
Noel McCluskey is Finastra’s new Country Manager for Ireland. He previously spent 10 years with Bank of Ireland across Corporate & Retail Divisions before spending five years at Oracle in Sales & Strategy. Noel lives in Dublin with his wife and three young children.
What was your first job?
Whilst in school I worked part time in the stock room of Dixons electrical store. I used to get a few nice tips for carrying TVs out to people’s cars for them!
What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date?
On a professional level, changing career sector – moving from banking to the technology space – was a challenge I’m glad I took on. It has opened up an exciting and growing new industry to me.
In three words or less, how do you define success?
Better than yesterday.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
“So many people are happy to do the bare minimum. If you go anywhere above that, you’ll stand out a mile.” Wise words I learned on the graduate programme at Bank of Ireland. This has always served me well in many walks of life.
How do you motivate yourself and your staff?
I believe that finding the right ‘why’ is a key driver of people. It in itself will sustain motivation for most tasks being undertaken: ‘Why’ is this worth doing to the best of your ability?
The ‘why’ will vary from person to person but if you spend the time and show genuine interest, you’ll find it. Aside from that I try to ensure the work environment is a place where people feel valued, trusted and confident to be the best version of themselves.
How do you relax?
I coach my kids’ football team, which relaxes me, even if not the kids involved!
I am getting back into golf again and enjoy cycling with a good podcast.
What’s your motto?
“Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t”.
What are your aspirations for the future of the business?
Ultimately, I want to help drive the transformation and modernisation of the Irish banking sector, enabling it to support more people to do more business.
It’s an exciting time for Finastra in Ireland. As one of the world’s largest financial technology companies, we have many projects with local banks underway. Moreover, our open developer platform, FusionFabric.cloud, is enabling Irish fintechs to develop and deploy apps on top of our core solutions. They can also monetise their ideas through our FusionStore, which has the potential to reach our 8,500+ global bank and financial institution customers.
