Who we are

When Flender was founded in 2015, it was clear to us that Irish businesses did not have access to the finance they needed to grow, while investors were making poor returns on their money. We had a great idea — bring them together in a safe and efficient way, and help them support each other. That's what we are doing, and this is the team behind it.

Executive Team

Graham Byrne

Chief Executive Officer

Graham has over 20 years of experience across financial services and non-bank lending dealing directly with Irish SMEs. In 2005, Graham started Bibby Financial Services Ireland (BFS). In that period up to 2013, BFS Ireland provided over 200m in funding, serviced over 500 customers, and was responsible for maintaining and creating over 5,000 jobs. BFS Ireland was award-winning in the industry and won the business of the year 2012 and 2013. Graham then took up the Chief Commercial Officer role for the European region tasked with restructuring 14 operating companies to increase customer service delivery and increase the availability of credit to EU SME’s. Graham successfully started new businesses in Czech, Slovakia, and the Netherlands. The business grew to reach 2,500 clients providing over 900m of funding to clients. Graham is also chairman of the Small firms association (SFA) and is on the board of IBEC.

Padraig O'Driscoll

Chief Financial Officer

Padraig has over 25 years experience of operating in senior financial roles across the financial services industry. Before joining Flender in August 2022, he spent two years at Revolut Payments Ireland Ltd as Head of Finance and latterly CFO, where he was a key lead in building out the Irish business. Padraig has held senior roles at Barclays (2008-2020) as Head of Finance and Head of Business Performance, NCB Stockbrokers, Irish Life and BP Oil. He’s a Chartered Accountant and is MBA & QFA qualified.

Koshy Cherian

Chief Technology Officer

Koshy has 20 years of experience as a Solution Architect, Solution Design, Technical Architect, Middleware Integration Specialist, Solution Consultant, Project Management and Business Process Management/Analyst, Technical Analyst, Developer across Banking and Healthcare Domain.

Team Leaders

Almina Kapetanovic

Senior Credit Analyst & Team Lead

With more than nine years of experience within the SME/Corporate and Retail Banking sector, Almina brings expertise in credit analysis with particular focus on SMEs spread over a wide variety of business sectors. Almina holds a Masters in Financial Management and she is fully QFA qualified. She is also ACCA part-qualified and is working on completing this professional qualification.

Paul Kinane

Head of Sales

Paul, who has over 12 years of business development and account management experience, joined Flender in November 2018 as a business development manager. Paul has prior expertise in the financial services industry, where he worked with AIB Merchant Services to develop new customer relationships and generate new business for SME and Mid Corporate clients in order to assist them in achieving the required business growth. Since joining the sales team in 2018, Paul has successfully added new distribution channels and developed the Flender brand into Ireland's top-recognized P2P SME lending platform. Paul assumed the position of head of sales in November 2021.

Eoghan Boyle

Financial Controller

Eoghan joined Flender in August 2021 and is a qualified accountant with 7+ years experience in finance and project management. Prior to joining Flender, Eoghan specialised in integrating new acquisitions and implementing best practice financial controls for DCC Plc.

Flender Team

Patrick Dolan

Accountant

Patrick joined Flender in July 2022 and has 4 years’ experience working in financial services. Prior to joining Flender, Patrick spent 3 years working as a Trainee Accountant in the audit department of a medium sized accountancy firm in Dublin. He has previous experience working in business analysis within the banking sector and is currently pursing ACCA qualification.

Emma Mc Gettigan

Sales Administrator

Emma joined Flender in April 2022. Emma's main role is to support the Sales and Credit Team with administration tasks such as preparation of applications, campaigns, gathering documents, liaison with clients, data analysis and report writing. Emma comes with over ten years experience in sales administration and customer service roles.

Thomas Farrell

Credit Analyst

Thomas joined Flender in September 2021 and he has over two years of experience in the financial sector. Before joining Flender, Thomas worked as a trainee accountant, where he gained valuable experience dealing with SME clients. Thomas earned a first class honours degree from his BBS (Honours) in Finance and Economics course. He has proven experience in assessment of creditworthiness of Irish SMEs alongside a wide background in financial information analysis, including financial statements and management accounts. Thomas is currently undertaking his QFA exams.

MingHsuan Huang, User Experience Developer, Flender - Fast Flexible Finance

Daniel Lyons

Account Manager

Daniel has over 7 years of experience across the banking and financial services industry with a specific focus on business development, B2B sales, loan origination, and strategic account management. Throughout his career, he has worked excellently as a part of a team and as a leader. In his role with Flender, Daniel is responsible for the preparation of credit applications for review in advance of the full credit assessment. Working closely with the Head of Sales and head of Credit on new ideas, incentives, and recommendations to improve company performance in order to remain competitive and provide the best SME funding solution across Ireland.

Jin Lim, Full Stack Developer, Flender - Fast Flexible Finance

Jin Lim

Senior Full Stack Developer

Jin is a Senior full-stack Web Application Developer and Software Developer with many years on different platforms. He has a BSc. in Information Technology from the College of Computing Technology in Dublin and has also a background in sound engineering. He is driven, self-motivated, and constantly experimenting with new technologies and techniques.

Board of Directors

Gerry Jennings

Chairman

Gerry is a very experienced financier, property and business investor. His background is in banking where he spent more than 25 years working at senior level in business, corporate and property finance. Following his banking career he joined Jaguar capital as a director overseeing an International property portfolio and executing transactions in excess of €2.Billion.

Graham Byrne

Chief Executive Officer

Graham has over 20 years of experience across financial services and non-bank lending dealing directly with Irish SMEs. In 2005, Graham started Bibby Financial Services Ireland (BFS). In that period up to 2013, BFS Ireland provided over 200m in funding, serviced over 500 customers, and was responsible for maintaining and creating over 5,000 jobs. BFS Ireland was award-winning in the industry and won the business of the year 2012 and 2013. Graham then took up the Chief Commercial Officer role for the European region tasked with restructuring 14 operating companies to increase customer service delivery and increase the availability of credit to EU SME’s. Graham successfully started new businesses in Czech, Slovakia, and the Netherlands. The business grew to reach 2,500 clients providing over 900m of funding to clients. Graham is also chairman of the Small firms association (SFA) and is on the board of IBEC.


Our Awards
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Flender in the media