{{short description|Irish academic and serial entrepreneur}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Use Irish English|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox academic |name = John Teeling |image = |image_size = |alt = |caption = |birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1946|1}}<ref name="Dir_IrWhComp"/> |birth_place = Dublin, Ireland |education = |alma_mater = University College Dublin (B.Comm., M. Econ. Sci.), University of Pennsylvania (MBA), Harvard University (DBS) |discipline = Business administration, finance |thesis_title = The Evolution of Offshore Investment<ref name="Thesis_HVD">{{cite book |last1=Teeling |first1=John J. |title=The Evolution of Offshore Investment |date=1975 |publisher=Harvard University (Graduate School of Business Administration) |location=Boston, MA |pages=1–494 |url=https://hollis.harvard.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=01HVD_ALMA211936936410003941&context=L&vid=HVD2&lang=en_US |accessdate=5 October 2020 |quote=Thesis—Harvard University. Graduate School of Business Administration.}}</ref> |thesis_year = 1975 |sub_discipline = |workplaces = University College Dublin |known_for = Renewal of the Irish whiskey industry |spouse = Deirdre Teeling |children = 3, including Emma Teeling }}
'''John James Teeling''' (born January 1946) is an Irish academic and businessperson, notable for the wide range of businesses he has developed or overhauled over several decades. In particular, he broke the Irish Distillers monopoly which existed in the Irish whiskey industry, by launching the Cooley Distillery, and reopened the 1757-founded Kilbeggan Distillery after a 50-year hiatus.<ref name="AFR">{{cite news |last1=Allan |first1=M. Carrie |title=Irish whiskey is back from the abyss – and booming. Here's why. |url=https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/irish-whiskey-is-back-from-the-abyss--and-booming-heres-why-20180309-h0x8hd |accessdate=30 October 2020 |work=The Australian Financial Review |date=16 March 2018 |quote=So did John Teeling, who in the late 1980s, after years of planning and work, ended Irish Distillers' longtime monopoly when he launched Cooley Distillery.}}</ref><ref name="Charleston Mercury">{{cite web |last1=Offringa |first1=Hans |last2=Whiskey Couple |first2=The |title=Teeling — an Irish whiskey fairy tale |url=https://www.charlestonmercury.com/single-post/2019/03/06/Teeling-%E2%80%94-an-Irish-whiskey-fairy-tale |website=Charleston Mercury |date=6 March 2019 |accessdate=30 October 2020}}</ref><ref name="JTeeling_profile_WhMag">{{cite web |last1=Mulryan |first1=Peter |title=The King of Cooley |url=https://whiskymag.com/story/the-king-of-cooley |website=whiskymag.com |publisher=Whisky Magazine |accessdate=5 October 2020}}</ref> He is also notable for having brought ten companies to public listing on the London Stock Exchange, the most of any Irish person.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/><ref name="JTeeling_profile_14">{{cite news |last1=Lynch |first1=Donal |title=Ireland's top whiskey magnate is looking for diamonds in the rough |url=https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/irelands-top-whiskey-magnate-is-looking-for-diamonds-in-the-rough-30301076.html |accessdate=5 October 2020 |work=Irish Independent |date=24 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="StJ_125_2">{{cite book |title=St. Joseph's Anniversary Book (1888–2013) |date=2015 |publisher=St. Joseph’s C.B.S Secondary School |location=Fairview, Dublin, Ireland |edition=2nd |chapter=John Teeling}}</ref> Teeling lectured at University College Dublin's business school for over 20 years. He authored a number of educational texts, for primary school and college.<ref name="WorldcatSrch_JJT">{{cite web |title=J. J. Teeling |url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3ATeeling%2C+J.+J.&qt=hot_author |website=Worldcat (Union Catalogue) |accessdate=30 October 2020}}</ref>
==Early life and education== John James Teeling was born in January 1946,<ref name="Dir_IrWhComp">{{cite web |title=The Irish Whiskey Company Limited – Directors |url=https://ie.globaldatabase.com/company/the-irish-whiskey-company-limited |website=ie.globaldatabase.com |publisher=ultimately the Companies Registration Office (Ireland) |accessdate=4 October 2020}}</ref> the eldest of the four children of James "Jimmy" B. Teeling (died 1960)<ref name="Father_DNtce">{{cite news |title=Teeling (Dublin), Oct. 2, 1960 (suddenly) .. James B. |work=Irish Independent |date=3 October 1960 |location=Dublin, Ireland |page=9 |quote=.. at his residence, 18 Hollybrook Road, Clontarf .. beloved husband of Emily Teeling, and late of the Royal Liver Friendly Society ...}}</ref> and Emma "Emily" Teeling (née Kinsella, died 2005) of Hollybrook Road in Clontarf, a suburb of Dublin, where he grew up.<ref name="EmmaT_DNt_2005">{{cite news |title=Teeling (nee Kinsella) (Clontarf, Dublin and Gorey) – July 31, 2005 .. 84th year .. Emma |url=https://notices.irishtimes.com/death/teeling/2370451 |accessdate=22 October 2020 |work=Irish Times |date=1 August 2005 |quote=wife of the late Jimmy and beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother; deeply regretted by John, Jim, Barry and Mary}}</ref> His father was a Royal Liver Assurance agent, and Teeling has said that his family were neither rich nor poor, but were the first on their street to buy a television and a car.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> His father also ran a small legal money-lending business, and John Teeling helped with this from the age of 12. With his father dying suddenly at home when John was 14, his mother assumed management of the money-lending business, with John taking certain responsibilities within it<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/> while also working as a van boy for IR£1.50 a week,<ref name="JTeeling_MiningWklyProfile_15"/> and completing school at St Joseph's CBS, Fairview.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_12">{{cite news |last1=Daly |first1=Linda |title=Fame and fortune: John Teeling |url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/fame-and-fortune-john-teeling-lhn50dvxfth |access-date=5 October 2020 |work=The Sunday Times |date=4 February 2012}}</ref>
After school, Teeling secured a job in the Irish Electricity Supply Board (ESB) but he did not feel he fitted the organisation<ref name="OutsideLeadership">{{cite book |last1=O'Riordan |first1=Chris |last2=Kelliher |first2=Felicity |last3=Flood |first3=Patrick C. |last4=Higgs |first4=Malcolm |title=Outsider Leadership: Insights and Interviews from Business Leaders |date=7 March 2019 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319974637 |pages=115– |chapter=Outside in and Out and in as a Serial Entrepreneur |edition=1st}}</ref> and instead won and took up a Dublin Corporation scholarship to University College Dublin (UCD), where he qualified with a Bachelors of Commerce, and then a Masters in Economic Science.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/> After graduation from UCD, he secured further scholarship funding, from the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick,<ref name="OutsideLeadership"/> to attend the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/> where he took an MBA.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_12"/> In 1970, again securing scholarship support, this time from the Ford Foundation, he began to attend Harvard University, where, having studied the collapse of the Irish whiskey industry from accounting for 60% of world whiskey sales to holding a market share of under 2%, he completed a Doctorate in Business Studies in 1975. From an early stage he also performed private share dealings based on the Benjamin Graham model,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/> over the early 1970s making what was described as a "small fortune",<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> and continuing with significant share dealing until the mid-1980s.<ref name="GT_JTeeling">{{cite web |title=Agrifood: InFocus with Dr. John Teeling |url=https://www.grantthornton.ie/insights/blogs/infocus-with-dr.-john-teeling/ |website=Grant Thornton |accessdate=18 October 2020 |date=13 November 2017}}</ref>
==Career== ===Academia=== Teeling accepted a lecturing post at UCD in 1969,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_12"/> at IR£19 a week.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> He taught at the university, in areas including Commerce and Business Administration, until 1988, when the demands of his business interests intervened.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/> During this period he also authored or co-authored a number of educational works.<ref name="Folens_TMines">{{cite book |last1=Teeling (text) |first1=John |last2=Jay (illustrations) |first2=Peter |title=Tara Mines (Irish Environmental Library Series, No. 28) |date=1977 |publisher=Folens |location=Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland}}</ref>
===Minerals and other investments=== In the early stage of his work as a lecturer in finance and business at UCD, in 1969, Teeling was asked to provide some consultancy for Northgate Exploration, owners of the Tynagh Mine in County Galway, then the largest in Ireland<ref name="MBAssocI50">{{cite book |last1=Dillon |first1=Frank |title=Celebrating 50 Years (MBA Association of Ireland 50th Anniversary) |date=2017 |publisher=MBA Association of Ireland |location=Dublin, Ireland |pages=16–19 |edition=1st |chapter=The Distilled Wisdom of John Teeling}}</ref> and then David Boyd Barrett asked him to take a consultant role with the new Tara Mines in County Meath, working from offices in Clontarf.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> In addition to geological and other physical surveys, Teeling analysed placenames in Ireland to locate traditional areas where metals had been sourced historically.<ref name="StJ_125_2"/>
Teeling and various partners including Donal Kinsella also invested in a range of non-mining businesses. His policy was to buy in on value investing principles – he summarised his approach as attacking "moribund public companies with under-used assets" – rationalising or selling main business elements, and selling off, for example, unneeded properties. By 1986 the companies he had bought into and re-structured included large textile manufacturers Seafield Gentex and Glen Abbey<ref name="ST_2011"/> (in total Teeling worked with seven textile companies<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/>), Irish Wire Products, Irish Oil and Cake Mills, Irish Pharmaceuticals, and Dublin Gas.<ref name="ST_2011"/><ref name="UCDProf_JTProfile_Indo99"/> In the case of Dublin Gas, Teeling and Donal Kinsella bought-in, in the hope that gas might be discovered in recoverable quantities off the Dublin coast, and also with the idea of drawing fibre optic cables through the gas pipe network; Teeling exited soon after by selling his shares to Irish Life at a profit.<ref name="DubGas_2006updt">{{cite news |last1=Caffrey |first1=Una |title=Calling time on Dublin Gas – 20 years on |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/calling-time-on-dublin-gas-20-years-on-1.1018114 |accessdate=19 October 2020 |work=Irish Times |date=17 June 2006}}</ref> For most of the period Teeling worked part-time at UCD but he did take a break from lecturing for two years to work on Seafield Gentex.<ref name="UCDProf_JTProfile_Indo99"/><ref name="ST_2011">{{cite news |last1=Paul |first1=Mark |title=He's still right on the money |url=https://www.thetimes.com/world/ireland-world/article/hes-still-right-on-the-money-ld3v62wt7rj |access-date=21 October 2020 |work=Sunday Times |date=23 January 2011 |location=London, UK}}</ref> Although firmly declining investment in property at a personal level,<ref name="UCDProf_JTProfile_Indo99"/> owning only his home and one neighbouring house, Teeling was chairman of a property company, Countyglen, for several years.<ref name="Exam_2012_JT">{{cite news |last1=Fitzgerald |first1=Kyran |title=The only lie detector in exploration is a drill hole |url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/business/arid-20214238.html |accessdate=20 October 2020 |work=Examiner |date=17 November 2012 |quote=... has founded nine stock exchange-listed companies ... Many thought Mr Teeling was insane when he took on the might of Irish Distillers, the then monopoly producer. ...believes that whiskey is a great business from an Irish perspective: “The value added is 15 times. .. Most of the value-added stays in Ireland.”}}</ref>
In 1983 Teeling launched Minquest, an exploration investor which took shares in, and drove reforms of, a number of Irish mineral and hydrocarbon operations, including Kenmare Resources, Ovoca and Irish Marine Oil. The company's licences were eventually sold to Conroy and Teeling described the venture as so profitable that it was hard to repeat, saying "I should have quit after Minquest but I now wanted to set up and manage..."<ref name="UCDProf_JTProfile_Indo99">{{cite news |last1=Aughney |first1=Jim |title=UCD professor gives firms a whole new lease on life |url=https://www.independent.ie/business/ucd-professor-gives-firms-a-whole-new-lease-on-life-26130325.html |accessdate=22 October 2020 |work=Irish Independent |date=30 December 1999}}</ref> He later set up African Gold, and when he sold that, managed a spin-off, West African Gold, and Botswana Diamonds, which in turn established a diamond-prospecting joint venture with Alrosa.<ref name="Botswana Diamonds">{{cite news |title=Alrosa Identifies Possible Kimberlites in Botswana |url=https://gemkonnect.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/alrosa-identifies-possible-kimberlites-in-botswana/ |accessdate=15 November 2020 |work=Gem Konnect |date=30 June 2014}}</ref> Other projects included Pan Andean Resources, Persian Gold, Clontarf Energy, Petrel Resources,<ref name="GT_JTeeling"/><ref name="JTeeling_MiningWklyProfile_15">{{cite news |last1=Solomons |first1=Ilan |title=John Teeling |url=https://www.miningweekly.com/print-version/john-teeling-2015-06-19 |accessdate=6 October 2020 |work=Mining Weekly |publisher=Creamer Media |date=19 June 2015}}</ref> and Connemara Mining (later Arkle Resources).<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10"/><ref name="JTeeling_profile_12"/> He pursued opportunities in Ireland, Bolivia, Iran, Zimbabwe, Botswana,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> and other countries.
He operates his businesses from a rented office building originally held by David Boyd Barrett, on the coast in Clontarf, near his home;<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> it has been described as "spartan" and he describes his approach as "I don't do overheads".<ref name="JTeeling_profile_10">{{cite news |last1=Molloy |first1=Thomas |title=Nothing by half-measures for one of the nation's brightest sparks |url=https://www.independent.ie/business/nothing-by-half-measures-for-one-of-the-nations-brightest-sparks-26631316.html |accessdate=5 October 2020 |work=Irish Independent |date=11 February 2010}}</ref> He disclaims deep understanding of IT but has described biotechnology and DNA, an area in which his daughter, academic Emma Teeling, works, as "the Internet of the future".<ref name="UCDProf_JTProfile_Indo99"/> While mostly overseeing his ventures as chairman or executive chairman, and delegating routine management, Teeling has sometimes worked as managing director. As of July 2020, he has assumed the position of acting CEO at Arkle Resources plc., following the abrupt departure of the previous CEO.<ref name="Arkle_actingCEO">{{cite news |last1=Hamilton |first1=Peter |title=Arkle Resources CEO departs with 'immediate effect' |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/markets/arkle-resources-ceo-departs-with-immediate-effect-1.4316539 |accessdate=18 October 2020 |work=Irish Times |date=29 July 2020 |quote=Non-executive chairman John Teeling has taken the role of acting chief executive.}}</ref>
===Distilling=== ====Cooley==== Teeling was a long-term believer in the potential of the Irish whiskey market, stating that it has a gross return level on the order of 15 times base costs.<ref name="Exam_2012_JT"/> He explored the possibilities of whiskey distilling in the early 1970s while studying for a doctorate at Harvard, and wrote two related papers in 1971.<ref name="AcadPprs_whiskey">{{cite web |last1=Clarke |first1=Jim |title=An Interview with John Teeling of the Cooley Distillery, Ireland |url=https://www.starchefs.com/wine/features/html/cooley_distillery_interview.shtml |website=starchefs.com |accessdate=24 October 2020}}</ref> In 1987, Teeling founded the Cooley Distillery, on the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth, taking over a disused State spirit factory, operated by Ceimici Teoranta. The project, which broke a monopoly in Irish whiskey production held by Irish Distillers,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_WhMag"/> took 11 years to reach annual profitability, and 15 years to make an accumulated surplus. He also took over Locke's Distillery in Kilbeggan, disused since the 1950s, and after a period operating simply as a maturing location,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_WhMag"/> it resumed full-scale production, as Kilbeggan Distillery, from 2007.<ref name="KilbegganProdn">{{cite web |title=Kilbeggan Distillery – Ireland's oldest licensed distillery |url=https://www.allaroundireland.ie/kilbeggan-distillery/ |website=AllAroundIreland |accessdate=30 October 2020 |date=26 March 2020 |quote=On 19th March 2007, 250 years after the first licence was granted, distillation once again started at the distillery.}}</ref>
Shortly after the previous monopoly whiskey manufacturer Irish Distillers was bought out by Pernod Ricard in 1988, it offered to buy Cooley for IR£24.5{{nbsp}}million, with an openly stated plan to close the business and raze the distillery. The offer, which would have provided a profitable payback to Cooley's investors, was blocked by Irish competition authorities, and subsequent financial challenges required Teeling to urgently secure stock advance sales and other financings, including further substantial personal investment. Teeling commented that there were in all three critical moments in the business's history when urgent financing was needed. The first distilling was completed in 1989, and after several years in casks, that first whiskey was released under the Tyrconnell brand in 1994.<ref name="MBAssocI50"/> Initially targeting markets in Spain and Portugal, the company found new potential in post-Soviet markets.<ref name="DdlkArgus_2012">{{cite news |title=Your business: John Teeling |url=https://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/lifestyle/your-business-26961978.html |work=(Dundalk) Argus |publisher=Independent News and Media |date=28 March 2012 |quote=I saw grain .. grown and sold for €300 a tonne when it could be sold, as whiskey, for a multiple ... by 1993 the firm was running short of cash ... with the fall of the former Soviet Union and the Russians desire for whiskey ... people praise .. his illuminating foresight in predicting the demise of Soviet Russia. He said: 'I didn't see that, or the opening up of China and other .. at all. We thought Portugal and Spain would be the main markets for Cooley ...}}</ref> A sale to CL Financial almost materialised for €33{{nbsp}}million in 2002,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_WhMag"/> and it was also almost sold to William Grant & Sons,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_WhMag"/> before finally being bought for €72.8{{nbsp}}million by Beam in 2012.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_12"/> Teeling commented that the aftermath of the sale was the first time he had been out of debt since before his marriage, probably since he was 17, having had loans for expenses related to his education and business ventures.<ref name="Sunday Times 2012">{{cite news |last1=Daly |first1=Linda |title=Fame and Fortune: John Teeling |url=https://www.thetimes.com/business-money/companies/article/fame-and-fortune-john-teeling-lhn50dvxfth |access-date=16 November 2020 |work=Sunday Times |date=4 February 2012 |quote=After [the sale of] Cooley Distillery was closed on January 16, my wife asked if this was the first time since we were married that I wasn’t in debt.}}</ref>
====After Cooley==== Teeling bought the former Harp Brewery in Dundalk, County Louth, in 2013, after the brewing operation had been moved to St James's Gate in Dublin by Diageo. The venture was started with his Irish Whiskey Company,<ref name="StJ_125_2"/><ref name="Dir_IrWhComp"/> and this was bought out by another Teeling family enterprise, Great Northern Distillery Ltd., in a deal which valued the enterprise, at this early stage, at over €120 million.<ref name="GND_IWC_2019">{{cite news |last1=Whyte |first1=Barry J |title=Teeling's Great Northern Distillery valued at €122.6 million after deal |url=https://www.businesspost.ie/more-business/teelings-great-northern-distillery-valued-at-1226-million-after-deal-1ec1466d |accessdate=21 October 2020 |work=Sunday Business Post |date=20 October 2019 |quote=Great Northern Distillery .. and the Irish Whiskey Company. GND has now acquired IWC’s part of the site in .. deal that involved issuing €3 million worth of new shares to reflect the value of IWC’s share of the site. The value .. means that GND is now valued at €122.6 million.}}</ref> The business trades as Great Northern Distillery and primarily sells to own brands or private labels and others needing a supply of bulk whiskey; as of 2017, it was producing over 6 million litres annually.<ref name="MBAssocI50"/> Teeling also invested in a 7% shareholding in his sons' Teeling Whiskey Company in 2012, alongside a similar investment by his wife; this company later went on to open the first new distillery in Dublin in 125 years, the Teeling Distillery.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/><ref name="TWC">{{cite book |last1=O'Gorman (Prof) |first1=Colm |last2=Brophy |first2=Martina |last3=Clinton |first3=Eric |title=Teeling Whiskey Company: A Tradition of Family Entrepreneurship and Whiskey Distilling |date=August 2015 |page=7 |url=https://www.dcu.ie/sites/default/files/centre_for_family_business/teelings_whiskey_case_study_-_2015.pdf |publisher=Dublin City University (Centre for Family Business |quote=...In 2012, company shares totalling €1.3 million were sold to Teeling family members with share ownership split between...: Jack (43%), Stephen (37%), their parents, John and Deirdre (7% each), and their sister, Emma (6%). TWC is a self-funded entity aside from asset-based loans for inventory...}}</ref>
===Public profile=== Teeling is a high-profile figure in Irish business, regularly quoted in the media. He also performs talks and speeches at business group meetings and other events.<ref name="StJ_125_2"/>
==Publications== Teeling has written or co-authored a number of academic texts, one for primary school, the remainder for tertiary studies:<ref name="WorldcatSrch_JJT"/> * Financial Management (1971, 2nd edition 1976), with MacCormac, M.J. * International Business: A Selected Bibliography (1973) * Tara Mines (Dublin, Ireland, 1977: text – Teeling, John and illustrations – Jay, John) <ref name="Folens_TMines"/> * Business Organisation (1979) * Modern Irish Business (1985)
==Personal life== Teeling married Deirdre Teeling in 1971; they have three children and have lived throughout in the same house on Seafield Road in Clontarf. He also bought the neighbouring house to prevent any development there. Deirdre Teeling is an educationalist, who worked for many years as a guidance counsellor in second-level Mercy College in nearby Coolock.<ref name="Deirdre Teeling">{{cite book |title=Mercy College Coolock Newsletter Summer 2011 |date=2011 |publisher=Mercy College Coolock |location=Dublin, Ireland |pages=2–4 |quote="Mercy College... 32 years... started in 1979 as a newly qualified Guidance Counsellor}}</ref> Emma, Jack, and Stephen, and several grandchildren. Of the children, Emma Teeling is a zoologist, genomicist and evolutionary biologist, and a professor at UCD, while Jack and Stephen worked at Cooley Distillery,<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> and then went on to set up their own distillery project, the first new distillery in Dublin in 125 years.<ref name="TWC_D_125">{{cite news |title=Teeling distillery to be first in Dublin for 125 years |url=http://www.bimireland.ie/2014/01/29/teeling-distillery-to-be-first-in-dublin-for-125-years/ |accessdate=22 October 2020 |work=BIM Ireland (magazine) |date=29 January 2014}}</ref>
John Teeling is a teetotaler.<ref name="JTeeling_profile_WhMag"/> He continued to play rugby union football into his 70s;<ref name="JTeeling_profile_14"/> he also follows cricket.<ref name="JTeeling_MiningWklyProfile_15"/> His brother Jim (James), who died in 2014,<ref name="Brother_DNt">{{cite news |title=Teeling, James: Acknowledgement Notice |url=https://notices.irishtimes.com/acknowledgement/teeling-james/42037104 |accessdate=22 October 2020 |work=Irish Times |date=5 June 2015 |quote=TEELING James (Clontarf) Died December 11, 2014}}</ref> taught Business Studies in the secondary school they had attended, St Joseph's, Fairview, to which John Teeling has contributed with scholarships and funding for after-school classes.<ref name="StJ_125_2"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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Category:1946 births Category:People from Clontarf, Dublin Category:Irish company founders Category:Irish chief executives Category:People educated at St Joseph's, Fairview Category:Alumni of University College Dublin Category:Wharton School alumni Category:Academics of University College Dublin Category:Harvard Business School alumni Category:Living people