Damian Ryan
Sunday July 06 2008
DAMIAN Ryan was one of the first people in Ireland to recognise how the internet would change the nature of publishing and the media in the mid-Nineties.
His career began selling advertising for Insurance Ireland in 1984, where he worked for two years before moving to London. There he really learned his craft in publishing, working for organisations such as media giant Emap.
"I discovered that coming up with new ideas and with solutions in the media space, in publishing, outdoor and event management, was my forte," he says.
He came back home in 1991 and started his first publishing company the following year, which he sold to publisher Michael Hogan five years later.
"That was my first lesson in mergers and acquisitions," he says. "At the time I was completely obsessed with media and the marketing industry. It's all I really know."
He then launched Dot.ie magazine, which "knitted the media and the internet together," and two years later sold his publishing and events business to fund the launch of Ican, Ireland's most successful online advertising agency, which was later bought by Communicorp.
After a five-year stint in 2000 as a consultant to clients such as the Irish Government and Nokia, which also saw him embark on, and manage, the sale of several more media ventures, he took a degree in journalism.
Along with a friend, Calvin Jones, he has just written Understanding Digital Marketing, which will be publisher Kogan Page's flagship book at the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair next year.
He now divides his time between Dublin and London as a partner with leading media and marketing M&A firm Results International.
- John Reynolds
