HE'S NOT A BILLIONAIRE, BUT THEN MONEY'S NOT HIS only concern, and that partly explains his success as an entrepreneur. As well as pungent views on Europe, Declan Ganley has a plan to rescue the world from its dependency on oil and wishes he had more lives in which to transform whole industries. He's never had fewer than two businesses on the go, and if he sold up tomorrow his net worth would be in the region of €300m - not bad for a 37-year-old whose biggest enterprises are yet to come, and who just a couple of decades ago was serving beer in a London pub, recently off the boat from Ireland. ...a letter ... dated August 2005, signed by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. She requested Ganley's help in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Ganley duly obliged, deploying a specialised disaster communications network developed by his latest company, Rivada Networks... Ganley's wife Delia is a first-generation Italian/Polish immigrant from Staten Island, just off the southern tip of Manhattan, and her brother-in-law was one of just two firefighters who survived from a crew of 14 on that fateful day in September, 2001... How was it, Ganley later asked himself, that a commercially driven TV broadcaster and a fistful of cell phones had beaten the emergency services to the chase?
...a letter ... dated August 2005, signed by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.
She requested Ganley's help in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Ganley duly obliged, deploying a specialised disaster communications network developed by his latest company, Rivada Networks...
Ganley's wife Delia is a first-generation Italian/Polish immigrant from Staten Island, just off the southern tip of Manhattan, and her brother-in-law was one of just two firefighters who survived from a crew of 14 on that fateful day in September, 2001...
How was it, Ganley later asked himself, that a commercially driven TV broadcaster and a fistful of cell phones had beaten the emergency services to the chase?
Maybe it was because Giuliani thought to make his rich friends richer by installing his emergency centre in WTC 7?
Rivada, which stands for "radio interoperable voice and data applications", was the result. Put simply, he has turned the old walkie-talkie into a sophisticated communications device suitable for rapid field deployment following disasters as well as everyday use. Late in 2001, Ganley drew together a management team from his previous telco ventures, and two years later Rivada had a sophisticated product and a ream of patents protecting the intellectual property... The intellectual property consists of what Ganley calls "the membrane around an amalgam of existing elements", the whole as opposed to the parts, which employed numerous experts and took some serious investment by Ganley, who owns 80% of the equity, the rest reserved for senior management.
Late in 2001, Ganley drew together a management team from his previous telco ventures, and two years later Rivada had a sophisticated product and a ream of patents protecting the intellectual property...
The intellectual property consists of what Ganley calls "the membrane around an amalgam of existing elements", the whole as opposed to the parts, which employed numerous experts and took some serious investment by Ganley, who owns 80% of the equity, the rest reserved for senior management.
Membrane around an amalgam of existing elements? Like a robber's bag?
Getting multiple public agencies to agree to a new generation of technology while tapping Federal funds? Impossible without 9/11, and almost impossible after it... ...The Rivada case study can be summarised in two lessons for would-be entrepreneurs: first, that to get the really big guys to sit up and take notice, by which we mean President Bush and his security advisers, make yourself utterly relevant to the biggest question of the day. Just as Ganley turned to metal importing as the Soviet Union cracked up, this time he turned to security in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. The second lesson is the "how to" of "making yourself utterly relevant", which in this case meant getting giant people on your board. Think John Kelly, recently retired President of Bell Textron, the global defence powerhouse, and Admiral James Loy, former head of the US Coast Guard and Acting Secretary for Homeland Security, plus three-star Marine General Dennis McCarthy, Former Head of all US Marine Forces in the continental US.
...The Rivada case study can be summarised in two lessons for would-be entrepreneurs: first, that to get the really big guys to sit up and take notice, by which we mean President Bush and his security advisers, make yourself utterly relevant to the biggest question of the day. Just as Ganley turned to metal importing as the Soviet Union cracked up, this time he turned to security in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
The second lesson is the "how to" of "making yourself utterly relevant", which in this case meant getting giant people on your board. Think John Kelly, recently retired President of Bell Textron, the global defence powerhouse, and Admiral James Loy, former head of the US Coast Guard and Acting Secretary for Homeland Security, plus three-star Marine General Dennis McCarthy, Former Head of all US Marine Forces in the continental US.
No comment. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
BASHING BRUSSELS Europe today is run by "an unaccountable Brussels elite" who no longer pay attention to their true constituency, the people. This does not mean that Ganley is a Eurosceptic in favour of a return to narrow nationalism. Rather, he supports a far more radical notion of Europe "coming together in the face of history or facing a dismal future". By this he means that Europe must quickly move beyond national politics into a genuinely pan-European entity with pan-European political representation and an elected president. He sees national political party infrastructure as the ultimate "legacy system" and has already begun to quietly rally like-minded Europeans around a low-key, pan-European organisation called Libertas "that might morph into a powerfully funded pro-business, pro-free trade, pro-accountability, anti-corruption European political party". If you google Libertas, however, you get a high-class lesbian shopping site.
Europe today is run by "an unaccountable Brussels elite" who no longer pay attention to their true constituency, the people. This does not mean that Ganley is a Eurosceptic in favour of a return to narrow nationalism. Rather, he supports a far more radical notion of Europe "coming together in the face of history or facing a dismal future". By this he means that Europe must quickly move beyond national politics into a genuinely pan-European entity with pan-European political representation and an elected president.
He sees national political party infrastructure as the ultimate "legacy system" and has already begun to quietly rally like-minded Europeans around a low-key, pan-European organisation called Libertas "that might morph into a powerfully funded pro-business, pro-free trade, pro-accountability, anti-corruption European political party". If you google Libertas, however, you get a high-class lesbian shopping site.
I argued earlier that neoliberals aren't really Eurosceptics, and are scary people, this is a prime example. Look how he argues further, where the scary stuff and the positive integrationist stuff is interwinded:
His message to the business community is to pay far greater attention to Brussels and to politically engage rather than merely moaning from the sidelines: "It's a little bit like someone who goes to watch a hurling match, brings his blanket and picnic basket and all of a sudden realises he is sitting in the middle of the pitch. You either get up and play or you get clobbered." (Business and Finance, 6 May, 2004) ..."All of these goings on [how the President of the European Council is selected rather than elected] in Europe point to a current flaw in our European system of democracy whose structures are failing us through a combination of self interest, incompatibility with the modern world and inability to adapt. These failing structures are the embodiment of `old Europe'. "Like the creaking analogue telephone systems of earlier decades, Europe's system of nationally structured political parties has now become a legacy system. You can tweak and push the system harder, you can give it a fresh coat of paint and add new parts, but what lies underneath is no longer capable of delivering the high performance that a new generation of Europeans need in this new century and millennium. The overhaul required may be considered by some to be radical. The old `analogue' system must be left behind to wither away over time. European politics needs to go `digital'." (Draft for a letter, undated)
..."All of these goings on [how the President of the European Council is selected rather than elected] in Europe point to a current flaw in our European system of democracy whose structures are failing us through a combination of self interest, incompatibility with the modern world and inability to adapt. These failing structures are the embodiment of `old Europe'.
"Like the creaking analogue telephone systems of earlier decades, Europe's system of nationally structured political parties has now become a legacy system. You can tweak and push the system harder, you can give it a fresh coat of paint and add new parts, but what lies underneath is no longer capable of delivering the high performance that a new generation of Europeans need in this new century and millennium. The overhaul required may be considered by some to be radical. The old `analogue' system must be left behind to wither away over time. European politics needs to go `digital'." (Draft for a letter, undated)
I failed to decode what flowery telcoms image means.
Ganley says the "Brussels elite" fails entrepreneurs: "They are not risk-takers; they don't know what it is to take risks. Why as entrepreneurs would we ever expect them to do anything for us, why do they listen to people when they come in and say: `What we need is national champions,' and they say: `That's an interesting idea.' I mean, Christ! Europe is made up of grey men, three-pension people." (Interview with CNBCEB, November 2005)
LOL, the current Brussels elite as pro-national-champions... *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
In the above, it is noteworthy that Ganley seems to advocate Europe-wide parties (if I read his flowery language right). *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
CNBC European Business » VIEWPOINT
The Libertas Institute proposes such a new departure in the establishment of a European Energy Innovation Fund which will award licenses and matching funding to a limited number of new, carbon-neutral entrants to the energy market with the best proposals for the production of electricity, transport fuels and heating judged on criteria including technological innovation, cost to consumers and fastest and most efficient rollout. The fund could be endowed with a portion of the proceeds of the European member state auctions of CO2 emissions allowances, through a supply-side tariff on consumption of oil and gas or a combination of both... An independent panel would assess the submissions for funding from new entrants to the energy market, which would attract matching funding from private equity and debt sources. Conditional, time-limited licenses to produce different forms of energy, together with funding, would be awarded to successful entrants.
An independent panel would assess the submissions for funding from new entrants to the energy market, which would attract matching funding from private equity and debt sources. Conditional, time-limited licenses to produce different forms of energy, together with funding, would be awarded to successful entrants.
Renewables are adequately financeable with existing support mechanisms. What might be needed is a streamlining of the various public entities that have to give their opinion on any given project (ie coordination of the permitting process), and promises not to tinker with support mechanism for long enough that investors can trust the framework in place and base their decisions on it. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
To me, this seems like a call for corporate welfare in the crudest sense: the nurturing of some start-ups into future big private companies on public money based on green criteria. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
