Cathal Friel is a seasoned serial entrepreneur with a long‐running and successful history in business. Cathal is Managing Director of Raglan Capital and serves as Chairman and co‐founder of Poolbeg Pharma plc. Poolbeg was established as a spin-off from hVIVO plc (formerly Open Orphan plc), another company that Cathal co-founded and where he currently serves as Chairman. Cathal also co‐founded Amryt Pharma plc which IPO’d on the London Stock Exchange in 2016 and was successfully sold to Chiesi Farmaceutici for $1.48bn in April 2023. Prior to that, he was co‐founder and Chairman of Fastnet Oil & Gas plc, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2011.
Cathal began his working career a little earlier than most by having to step in to help run the family business in 1981 at the relatively young age of 16 due to a family illness. He went on to complete his education by taking night classes and received an MBA from the University of Ulster in 1990. Cathal then spent the following five years lecturing on a part‐time basis on International Marketing and Business Planning at the University of Ulster whilst in tandem running his own technology services business. In 2001, Cathal was part of the team that successfully established Merrion Stockbrokers in Dublin. Following Merrion’s successful trade sale in 2006, he founded Raglan Capital which is renowned for building in‐house companies that are quickly listed on the public stock markets and are scaled rapidly post‐IPO generally via M&A transactions. Cathal was a finalist in the international category of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.