Faced with deciding what to do when he left school, Fergal Mullen made the snap decision to study electronic engineering. It seemed like a good idea at the time but in fact Mullen’s calling lay elsewhere as he quickly discovered when an athletics scholarship saw him transfer from what was then Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) – now TU Dublin – to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he combined engineering with business studies and a passion for distance running.
“Going to Brown was my ‘get lucky moment’. The curriculum was liberal arts based and as I was a bit bored with all the engineering stuff I started exploring subjects within the business studies curriculum such as economics and organisational behaviour and absolutely loved it,” says Mullen, who credits Irish Olympian athlete John Treacy for encouraging him to move Stateside and helping him get enrolled at Brown.
“I met John at a race – he won, I came second – and we hit it off immediately and are still friends,” says Mullen. “John took me to meet the coach at Brown, reeled off my times and left. I started there in September 1986.”
Going to live in the US wasn’t a big upheaval for Mullen as he had been there before on a J1 working as a golf caddie by day and gigging at night, playing Irish traditional music.
“Studying at Brown opened so many doors for me, and somewhere along the line I came across private equity and venture capital. I didn’t jump into this field immediately but it’s where I have spent the last 26 years of my career,” says Mullen.
From Brown, Mullen joined US-based consulting firm Cambridge Technology Partners and spent 11 years there, rising to the rank of senior vice-president sales for the company in Europe. “I got large exposure to business in Cambridge at a very young age,” says Mullen. “We went public in 1993 and I wrote the IPO prospectus.
“We took the business from zero to $700 billion in revenues with 56 offices around the world. This equipped me with a broad set of business skills and experience in scaling, which I was then able to bring to my career in venture capital.”
In 2012, Mullen – who has an MBA from Harvard and is a former board member of the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School in Dublin – cofounded the technology-focused investment firm Highland Europe, which employs 35 people and has offices in Geneva and London.
Highland invests in growth stage, product-led companies predominantly in software and consumer-facing internet businesses. Its sweet spot is companies turning over €10 million who are looking to raise €20-€80 million to accelerate their expansion.
“We have 70-plus companies in our portfolio with over €3 billion in assets under management,” says Mullen, who adds that Highland fishes in a competitive pool against some of the biggest names in international investment, including those from Silicon Valley.
The companies Highland invests in tend to be at the leading edge of their sectors and, to date, Highland has invested in and exited 29 ventures in areas such as mobile marketing, fraud prevention, software for waste and recycling, workplace scheduling software and online loan comparison.
The company is a former investor in Limerick-based AMCS, which was sold last year, and more recently Highland has become an investor in 9 Fin, a Belfast-based debt market intelligence company.
“I’ve been hit by the luck truck more than once in my life,” says Mullen. “My first break was going to Brown and then to Cambridge, where the challenges and level of seniority entrusted to me were significant. I launched my first corporate fund there. It was $30 million, and we got a return of 10 times. That’s pretty extraordinary but I should point out that 1997 was the best year ever in the history of venture capital. You’d have to have been a turkey not to have made money at that time.
“At Highland Europe, we are 10 equal partners in the business and invest all over Europe. Each partner in the firm has five or six boards they sit on related to investments they’ve made, and we are about to raise our sixth fund, which will be €1 billion plus.
“Our investment decisions are based on consensus. We’re a ridiculously collaborative organisation with no fiefdoms, no office politics and no bullshit. We’re all completely equal and, if at any point I’m not delivering, my partners are perfectly entitled to ask me to move on.
“As investors, our hallmark is to back companies we believe can grow and scale a business. We’re not the kind of people who will come in and break up a team. We get behind them and support them to grow and achieve their full potential.”
Mullen lives about four kilometres from Geneva, “in a lovely quiet area with the lake and the mountains to enjoy. I divide my time between travelling, the office in Geneva and our office in London, where I spend three days every other week.”
Mullen still runs to keep fit and is quietly modest about the fact that he’s one of an elite group of athletes who have run seven marathons in seven consecutive days on seven continents. His efforts raised more than €1 million for a children’s cancer charity.
Apart from running, he relaxes by skiing and golfing and he also volunteers with Human Rights Watch in Geneva, where he is chairman of the Swiss branch.