He then qualified as a lawyer and became a popular figure in legal circles, giving a colleague a signed jersey of Brazil’s World Cup winning team to display in his lounge room and representing football manager Roddy Collins in his dispute with his former employers, the FAI.
Mr Looney received international publicity in 1998 when the then Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and US President Bill Clinton signed an e-commerce deal using technology developed by his company Baltimore Technologies. “He was a very easy gentleman to get along with,” former minister Dermot Ahern said in a eulogy on RIP.ie.
Rooney’s career in business has seen him rise to the ranks of a world-famous, multi-award winning businessman, but he has always been down to earth, whether in business, sport or law. But he is arguably best known for the rise and fall of Baltimore Technologies, which once traded on the stock market at nearly £137 (€160) a share before plummeting to 14 pence and then changing hands before being delisted from the stock market in 2005.
Rooney started out working for Quay Financial Software, owned by businessman and investor Dermot Desmond. After the company was sold, he moved to Desmond’s underwriting firm IIU, based at IFSC in Dublin, where he was asked to look into the developing field of encryption for financial transactions (payments security).
Desmond told Ivor Kenny for the latter book. AchieversHe recounts how, in 1996, Rooney “discovered” Professor Michael Purser of Trinity College Dublin, who was running a small company called Baltimore that specialized in the field. They took options on the company, invested heavily, brought in professional management, and eventually merged it with a much larger, UK-based, publicly listed company called Zelgo. Rooney became chief executive of the venture, kept its Irish name, and grew its workforce from just six people to more than 400 at its peak.
The combination of the company’s technology, the dot-com bubble and the Celtic Tiger propelled its shares to unprecedented highs in Ireland, giving it a market capitalization of $13 billion and making him a paper billionaire. The company was listed on London’s prestigious FTSE 100 and Nasdaq exchanges, and was worth more than Bank of Ireland and British Airways.
Mr. Rooney won numerous awards and was a celebrity in business circles in Dublin, London and Silicon Valley, where investors and employees stopped to tell stories of buying houses and cars with the profits.
But Desmond said he foresaw that biometric authentication – using a fingerprint or eye to verify identity – would pose a threat to the Baltimore-based technology, and sold some of his holdings as the stock price rose.
“It looked like Baltimore was going to take over the world, but I didn’t believe it until it happened,” Desmond told Kenny.
“I sold (Baltimore shares) five times and each time the price went up. Of course the newspapers grabbed hold of it and the consensus was that Desmond had no idea and everyone else was right. I began to think maybe I’d been wrong.”
At the height of his success in the summer of 2000, Rooney made £5.8 million from selling some of his shares, the same year he was named Businessman and Entrepreneur of the Year.
When the bubble burst 12 months later, shares fell 90% to 14p despite the company having more than £20 million in cash. He stepped down as chairman in late 2001. His comments in an RTÉ documentary about his adventures were: Raging Bullswere the lyrics of Edith Piaf’s song, “Je ne regrette rien.”
“Rooney had a certain headstrong charm, daring and hunger for success,” Donal Lynch wrote in 2006. Sunday Independent.
“He was like the Irish Icarus – headstrong and ambitious, he flew too high, too fast and paid the price. But as we look at the wreckage left behind when he crashed, we should at least acknowledge that he failed because he dared.”
Fran Rooney at the old Lansdowne Road Stadium in Dublin in 2004. Photo: Sportsfile
Rooney grew up in Cabra, north of Dublin, and was a Leeds United supporter as a youth before joining Home Farm football club and later playing for Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic and Bohemians, and also managed the Republic of Ireland women’s national team from 1986 to 1991.
After being appointed FAI CEO in 2003, he admitted: “It was a labour of love. I loved football from an early age and I wanted to give something back.”
He attended Westland Law CBS, whose alumni include footballers Jackie Carey and Ray Tracey, and was named Law Person of the Year in 2004.
After leaving school he joined the civil service and trained as an accountant at night. He also gained a degree in administrative science and transferred to An Post, then worked as a systems analyst for the GPO. He left the civil service to work for the National Irish Bank, where he became general manager, and then spent a year as managing director of VAT processing company Meridian. He was then scouted by Gerry Giblin to join Dermot Desmond’s Quay Financial Software.
After Baltimore’s rollercoaster ride in 2001, he took a keen interest in the disaster in Saipan during Ireland’s appearance at the 2002 World Cup and Roy Keane’s tantrums and withdrawal from the tournament.
Following the Genesis report on the structure of the FAI, he was hailed and appointed as its first CEO.
But that only lasted 18 months, with one commentator saying Rooney was “in an organisation he couldn’t manage”.
At his funeral Mass on Friday, mementos of his sporting career were carried at the altar, including a signed Ireland football and the black belt in kickboxing he earned at the age of 50. Rooney also served as director or chairman of several companies, including mobile streaming service Vimeo and broadband provider Ice.
He qualified as a lawyer in 2008 at the age of 52.
“My real ambition in life has always been law,” he said at the time. He studied at night for three years while working full time for a technology company founded by his family, and kept his studies secret from everyone except close friends and family.
His close friend Declan Flynn said at his funeral that he had asked Rooney what he would do as a hobby when he made money and retired, to which he replied: “I’d study law.” “Just a hobby,” Flynn said.
Mr Rooney’s daughter Yvonne said at the funeral that his “incredible vision and leadership” in business and sport were “an essential part of his character”, adding that his later career as a lawyer combined his “sharp intellect and deep sense of justice”.
Mr Rooney, who lived in Castleknock, Dublin, died last Monday.
He is survived by his ex-wife Mary, his partner Jackie and his children Yvonne, Dave and Laura.
