“If you put your mind to something and do it properly, then you can achieve great things.”
That was the message to Cardiff Business Club from Tony Mahoney, who addressed the audience at the club’s latest dinner.
Tony, originally from Merthyr Tydfil, is now chairman of Malta-based businesses St Julian’s Advisory and St Julian’s Maritime Finance and IT group Computime Limited. He is also co-chair of the Wales-Malta initiative, a not-for-profit group which aims to build economic, cultural, tourism, sports, research and education collaboration between Wales and Malta.
He told the audience at Sophia Gardens about his experiences in growing businesses, managing risk, and transforming organisations across a career which includes:
- Leading HSBC UK, overseeing 31,000 employees during one of the bank’s most successful periods.
- Serving as Deputy CEO for continental Europe, managing HSBC operations across multiple nations.
- Driving a two-year transformation project as CEO of BankDhofar in Oman, one of the country’s largest companies.
- Founding St. Julian’s Advisory Ltd, where he now leads strategic advisory projects on mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs.
A former Royal Marines reservist, he joined HSBC – then the Midland Bank – becoming its youngest manager of a flagship branch when he took over in Queen Street, Cardiff, at the age of 26.
He reflected on how that early success taught him much about the art of delegation, saying:
“It's so easy to find yourself as the only person left in the office at six o'clock or seven o'clock, everybody else is going home, and you're still working away.
“I've always had the best possible team I could find around me. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that my team is always much better than I am, which means I'm comfortable in delegating to them, and they're very comfortable in being delegated to.”
Tony told the audience how working around the world had brought a host of unusual experiences, including having his effigy burned in Freedom Square in Malta when he first worked there, to having to navigate simultaneous dinner invitations by presidents whose countries were at war. Understanding the culture of the country you are working in or doing business with is the key, he said.
“There's no job that's too big – anything can be taken on with the right degree of confidence and skills and the right people,” said Tony.
The next event in the club’s calendar will be a dinner with Tim Vaughan, renowned racehorse trainer and founder of Tim Vaughan Racing, on Wednesday May 14 2025, at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, from 6pm to 9.30pm.
Tickets are available here: https://cardiffbusinessclub.org/event/tim-vaughan-tim-vaughan-racing/
