TONY Ryan’s greatest gifts were, perhaps, his sweeping creativity, boundless energy and indomitable spirit. He brought these qualities to bear on far more than the entrepre- neurial businesses associated with his name. A driven, restless man, he had a rare capacity to constantly re- new and develop himself. He soaked up ideas and knowledge from every- one who interested him. These were many. While basically shy and hard to get to know, he made enduring friendships. His overlapping circles of friends embraced an eclectic col- lection — carpenters, stonemasons, businessmen, journalists, architects, painters, poets, writers, chancers, lawyers, aircraft designers, horse trainers, cattle breeders, politicians, university presidents, economists, farmers to mention some.
JS (CMe Toer-Nucabe lo Avan elem sD uCmOMeDAVarcatOne bal Irish entrepreneur of our time. Starting from a small office in Shan- non in 1975, he built up GPA — or Guinness Peat Aviation as it is still known in the industry — into the largest aircraft leasing and aviation trading business in the world. He roamed the continents, managing an immensely complex business from a foolscap notepad in a battered os- trich-skin briefcase stuffed with air- line tickets and wads of currencies. It was in that period that his nature was best revealed.
He had a profound sense of his identity. He never lost touch with
his background or friends. Born in Thurles, he attended the local Chris- tian Brothers’ School and after that, life was to be his university. He was especially proud of his parents. His father, Martin (for whom he endowed and named the Marine Institute at University NUIG), was a railway man who died young. His mother, Elizabeth O’Donnell, was a gracious lady who drilled into him that suc- cess was usually five per cent brain- power and 95 per cent horsepower. A ride on the footplate of a steam en- gine from Thurles to Limerick Junc- tion as a boy with his father triggered his obsession with travel.
He got a counter job with Aer Lin- gus in Shannon when he left school. That was when air travel was privi- leged and Aer Lingus, apart from being the national airline, was ef- fectively a university that produced some remarkable graduates. While he got as far as being Station Man- ager at JFK, his lack of academic qualifications and blunt style meant he was not going to make it to the top in the environment of the time.
It was a stint in Thailand in the ear- ly 1970s (managing the wet-lease of an Aer Lingus B747-100 grounded in one of the industry’s cyclical reces- sions) that gave him his chance and imbued him with the Asian commit- ment to hard work and achievement. He foresaw the emergence of aircraft leasing as a new way to provide the huge financing requirements of air- lines and persuaded his employer to join forces with him and merchant
bank, Guinness & Mahon to start GPA. Air Canada, General Electric and major Japanese and other finan- cial institutions followed as inves- tors. Tony had positioned himself as a substantial founding shareholder and led GPA to global leadership, re- sulting in the 10-fold growth of air- craft leasing from three per cent to 33 per cent over two decades.
Starting in the 1980s, he pioneered the introduction of Western aircraft in China and Russia. In these early and suspicious days, both countries put up foreign businessmen (espe- cially those who might be related to defence industries) in State guest houses — usually two to a room (so they might entertain their hosts with interesting conversations) — and not very comfortable. Tony soldi- ered impatiently through them. The China campaign began around 1978; by Christmas 1990, GPA was finally found to be a sufficiently trusty ‘old friend’ to do business with. Within 30 months, it had contracted more than 40 Western aircraft on lease there. Today China is one of the larg- est buyers of aircraft. Although Rus- sia also took its first Western aircraft
on lease from GPA around the same time, the uptake was much slower.
By the late ’80s, he had assembled around him a team of able young men and women who captured mar- kets in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Central and Latin America, Mexico, the Baltics, the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe. The foolscap notepad was succeeded by a sophisticated “Trading Floor’ with three gigantic screens which dis- played every aspect of the company’s operations for a searching review at precisely 08.30 every day. (The rare latecomer was wise to assume the pose of a man at Mass in Connemara — stay at the door and listen).
Tony read people like a prospector reads a landscape and his discovery rate was high. He picked some of the brightest and the best, pushed them way beyond the horizons they had set for themselves and rewarded them handsomely. He pioneered employee profit sharing and share- holder participation — something for which he never received recogni- tion. Although he appeared slight, he was strongly built, with piercing blue eyes that could switch from war to seduction in a blink. He was hugely imaginative and inspiring and gath- ered around him a corps of fiercely loyal and talented managers whose backgrounds ranged from physics to politics, dairy engineering to diplo- macy, accountancy to archaeology.
He had a simple approach to cor- porate structure and management; the form was pyramidal and he was
at the top. Theorists might disagree, but there was no denying his natural leadership and extraordinary level of success. He had a reputation for being an ogre to work for; it was largely but not entirely undeserved. He was demanding all the time and unreasonable for much if it. He set Himalayan goals, then led, enthused, cajoled or bullied the team to achieve them. Conquest, he liked to say, was the only available alternative. Enter- prise, achievement and commitment were rewarded. Failure and mistakes were tolerated so long as they were neither reckless nor negligent. Sloth and stupidity earned a very public wirebrushing. But few grudges sur- vived the ritual Friday pint in Durty Nelly’s, or other hostelries in later days as the company grew.
He loved the society of women (es- pecially if they were feisty and beau- tiful) and the company and curiosity of children. The former affection gave rise to the odd problem. The latter provided him with great joy and fulfilment, especially as his 10 grandchildren began to arrive. There were barbecues at Kilboy, his Tip- perary home, and annual family days at the Adare Country Fair where our children ran wild and made life-long friends. He delighted in surprising his small guests; a matinee treat at ‘The Chocolate Factory’ in a Dublin cinema was followed by an after- noon visit to the real thing. Fishing expeditions and treasure hunts were favourites.
Tony was essentially a builder