CEO Stories: Cathal Friel, self-made entrepreneur who 'rules with an iron fist'
Cathal Friel is a founder and managing director of Raglan Capital. He is also an executive chairman of Open Orphan. Friel is a self-made entrepreneur who has come from a family of ten in Donegal, north-west Ireland. At 16, Friel was forced out of school to help with a busted family business, sacrificing his formal education. Yet later in life he managed to get a degree, and then an MBA, studying at night. He became one of the few lecturers in the UK and Northern Ireland without an A-or O-level. Now, Friel is torn between London, Paris, and Breda, he spends most of his life away from the family. He calls himself a financial entrepreneur who ‘rules with an iron fist’.