Michael Kelly
Chief Executive Officer
Michael Kelly's selection as Ireland's Ernst & Young Technology Entrepreneur of the Year 2001 was in recognition of the vision and technological innovation that he has brought to the financial services industry over the last 20 years.
Michael, a Computer Applications Graduate of Dublin City University, began his career in 1984 with FBD Computer Services, a subsidiary of FBD Insurance. Within three years, Michael established his first company, RIKEL, with the objective to offer software solutions and services to large businesses in Ireland. Following two years of successful trading, under very arduous and poor economic conditions in Ireland, Michael decided to wind up RIKEL and move to the UK where he felt there was much more opportunity. There he joined Paxus, an Australian insurance package software provider that was building a customer base within the UK and Ireland.
During his five years with Paxus, Michael held senior positions in development, implementation and business development and was responsible for building up the company's business within markets such as Scandinavia, Benelux and Central and Eastern Europe. He grew and expanded the company's business with leading multi-national insurance and bancassurance companies, including ABN AMRO, ING, ABB, Fortis, Danica, Sun Alliance and Rabobank (Interpolis).
In September 1993, Michael founded Managed Solutions Corporation (MSC) to provide software solutions, consulting and project management services to the international insurance and bancassurance industry. From the outset, he financed the significant R&D effort required to develop a new generation of process and rules driven enterprise insurance and bancassurance software. From 1995, he financed and built a team within MSC to develop a new generation of enterprise insurance and banking software. By 1999, MSC had fully transformed from pure consulting services to become a successful software product solutions company. In line with this transformation, MSC was re-branded as FINEOS Corporation, the insurance and banking enterprise software solutions business.
Today, FINEOS is realizing Michael's vision of delivering enterprise component solutions for Sales, Service and Administration within the retail banking and insurance markets. FINEOS enterprise solutions are deployed within insurance and banking organizations throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Michael is a member of the Irish Software Association's Advisory Board and is also serving as a member of the Irish Government's Select Committee for the Asia Pacific markets. He is a well-renowned author and speaker on financial services technology, and has been published in a wide range of business and technology journals. He has also addressed a number of high profile industry gatherings and has spoken on a variety of subjects, including benefits management using technology in insurance and banking, e-business in financial services, enterprise business and technology solutions strategy, and the benefits of outsourcing IT systems renewal.
Michael has worked and lived in Ireland, England, Denmark and Holland and has travelled globally in his position as founder and CEO of FINEOS Corporation.
