Michael Walsh BCL, CIFDI
Executive Chair, Zodia Markets Ireland
Michael Aidan Walsh BCL, CIFDI has over thirty years’ experience across Asset Management, Financial Markets, Digital Assets, Derivatives, Prime Brokerage, and Governance. His positions include Managing Director, CEO, Chair, iNED, Founder, and Advisor.
Tell us more about your background
I am Chair (Central Bank PCF1 and PCF3) of a Standard Chartered Bank subsidiary that provides institutional access to digital asset markets. I have more than thirty years’ experience in Dublin, London, Paris, and New York across Asset Management, Financial Markets, Digital Assets, Derivatives, Prime Brokerage, and Governance as Managing Director, CEO, Chair, iNED, Founder, and Advisor. I am also a member of the Global Irish Economic Forum / The Global Irish Network, IOD, IOB, and CIFDI.
What is the one characteristic that you believe every leader should possess?
Composure. It helps us to make rational and informed decisions under pressure while inspiring confidence in others. Composure is balanced and respectful, and grace is an under-appreciated virtue.
What is the most important lesson, from your personal or business life, that has guided you the most in being a business leader?
Be as open as you can, share what you can, and meet problems early. Get up to the net and volley decisively rather than letting the ball bounce.
Is there someone who has had a major impact on you as a leader? Why and how did this person impact your life?
Peter Sutherland ( the ultimate Chair) taught me that we can be raised up by our gravity, that we differentiate ourselves not by making good or bad decisions but what we learn from them and, most importantly, that multicultural homogeneity is essential to an open economy.
What are the biggest business challenges or/and opportunities that you have seen over your career to date? And how did you help to overcome or/and optimise these?
Having changed career from Law to Financial Markets during Big Bang I have experienced volatile economic cycles, booms, and busts from 1988’s bank collapses through massive EU driven stimulus and standard of living uplift for Ireland in the 1990s, the 2008 financial crisis, and the recent Covid19 pandemic, all of which have had fundamental human and economic impact. The lesson learned is that we, in the fortunate affluent West, are a resilient species in a fairly robust macro-economic era and that strong fundamentals re-assert themselves over time. The challenge remains treating all people fairly and I wish I had the solution other than purely the power of one and, I hope, leading by example.
How do you think business leaders can best prepare for the future?
With a voracious appetite for knowledge and challenge. We must ask every new employee at every level to fearlessly question the way we do things now and to bring technical and behavioural innovation to all our processes.
What do you hope to gain from your membership with the IoD?
Ongoing education, sharing of intellectual capital, and a like-minded community dedicated to improving governance. If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
What advice would you offer to new or aspiring directors in Ireland?
Don’t be a “rent-a-NED” which is an unfortunate phenomenon in some other jurisdictions. Seek only roles where you can exercise and satisfy your deep curiosity and where you can be additive to all stake holders including your regulator, and not just the shareholders. Play to your regulatory and career strengths, you owe it to those you are there to protect, and to yourself.
