Finbarr Bradley is an educator who works outside conventional institutional structures. He designs and manages dynamic learning communities at a number of private and public organisations driven by the conviction that culture, conversation, meaning and imagination, are at the heart of the innovative process.
He held professorships at several Irish and overseas universities. He was Professor of Finance at Dublin City University (DCU) and first Director of the MSc in Investment and Treasury degree, a key qualification in the Irish financial services industry. He developed an innovative Irish-medium degree in finance, computing and enterprise at DCU and was first Director of Fiontar, a center he set up to foster a strong entrepreneurial spirit among students. He is the former chairman of zamano, a telecommunications company founded by former Fiontar students whose IPO is listed on the London and Dublin Stock Exchanges.
He was a Professor in the Economics Department at NUI Maynooth where he set up and ran an interdisciplinary degree that linked finance and venture management with the sciences and engineering. He also set up a postgraduate degree targeted at executives in the public, private and community sectors. He was the key faculty member responsible for the setting up of the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) jointly with Intel in 2006.
During 2006/2007, he was a Visiting Professor of Finance at the UCD Smurfit School, teaching Corporate Finance on the MBS and Executive MBA degree programmes. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, Fordham University and NYU in the US and at the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland. He is currently a member of the Governing Board of St. Patrick’s College of Education, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
He worked as an engineer with the General Electric company in the US, Korea and Ireland. He was Chairman of the 2003 Adjudication Panel appointed by the Council of Directors of the Institutes of Technology to determine grant support under the NDP-funded Enterprise Platform Programme. He was Co-Chair of the US Financial Management Association (FMA) European Conference held in Dublin in 2003. He is a former director of a hedge fund listed on the Irish stock market. He was a member of the judging panel for the 2010 All-Ireland Marketing Awards.
He has published in, among others, the Journal of Portfolio Management, Journal of International Finance & Accounting, The Irish Banking Review, Banking Ireland, Studies, Administration, Comhar, Feasta, Sustainable Development, Irish Educational Studies and The Irish Review. His 2008 book on innovation, learning and sense of place in a globalising Ireland, Capitalising on Culture, Competing on Difference, co-authored with James Kennelly, Skidmore College, New York, was published by Blackhall Publishing and launched by An Taoiseach Brian Cowen, TD. A book of essays on Ireland’s economic crisis from the 2009 MacGill Summer School, co-edited with Joe Mulholland, was published by Carysfort Press and launched by Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, TD.
He has an electrical engineering degree from University College Cork (UCC), an MBA from Syracuse University, New York and a PhD in international finance from the Stern School of Business, New York University (NYU).