Denis O'Brien

Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish businessman. He was born in County Cork. An Arts graduate of University College Dublin, O'Brien received an MBA in corporate finance from Boston College in 1982, and was later given an honorary doctorate by University College Dublin.

O'Brien has involvement with various communications companies at national and international level. He set up and chaired the Esat Digifone consortium which won a mobile phone licence in the 1990s in what would become controversial circumstances despite claims to this day that theirs was the best bid. The Moriarty Tribunal found that in its opinion it was almost beyond doubt that his winning of the contract was due to payments he made to Michael Lowry, the then communications minister, who unduly influenced the bidding process.

The conduct of the tribunal has been criticised by Irish Times columnist John Waters for its propensity to accept gossip as fact. It was the winning of this contract that formed the basis of his fortune. He established Digicel, a major telecoms provider in the Caribbean. O'Brien formed Communicorp Group Ltd in 1989, with the company currently owning 42 radio stations in 8 European countries, including Ireland's Newstalk, Today FM, Dublin's 98 (formerly 98FM), Spin 1038 and Spin South West.

In addition, O'Brien has founded the international commercial aircraft company Aergo Capital Limited - registered in Dublin, with offices in Nairobi, Singapore, Santiago and Johannesburg. He is a leading shareholder in both Sterling Energy and in Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media (IN&M). After the sale of Esat, he moved to Portugal where he owns the Quinta do Lago golf complex and is now a resident of Malta.