Now he's selling mobile phone subscriptions for the Irish unit of its telecoms subsidiary 3. Back at home, Finnegan has effectively seen his career shift from the Far East to Dunmore East and from mineral water to Motorolas but he hasn't found the move a jarring one.

He likes sailing, when his schedule permits, and is enjoying re-acquainting himself with the Irish Sea. Re-adjusting to GMT also makes it easier for Tottenham fan Finnegan to catch Spurs matches on television. As for the move into telecoms, he says in most respects it's no different than his previous positions in the group.

?Really this is just about delivering an offer to the consumer." His stint at the head of Hutchison's beverage division saw the company acquire a small mineral water company, Powwow. Hutchison invested in sales and marketing, expanded distribution and grew the brand before selling it for 560m to Nestle . . . and making a substantial profit in the process, according to Finnegan.

Prior to that he had overseen the growth and eventual disposal to Unilever of an ice-cream business owned by Hutchison in China, again beaming up a nice return to the mother ship.

He sees the Irish mobile company as a similar project, a consumer brand in need of investment dollars and elbow grease. That's not intended to infer that Hutchison has any immediate plans to sell 3 Ireland, he adds. ?At the moment we're just concentrating on building our business and we are not interested in any sale". Elsewhere in Europe, Hutchison, whose multi-billion euro interests also include international ports and commercial property, said it was readying its 3 Italy for a stock market flotation last year.

?Then it slipped to this year, " said sceptical analyst Adam Walkden of London's VisionGain consulting. ?Now it's on indefinite hold."

Indeed their effort has gotten off to a rocky start across Europe. In Italy and the UK, where the company has 80% of its subscribers, it experienced a host of problems.

?They tried to differentiate by offering the lowest price for voice calls, " said Walkden. ?They acquired subscribers as a result but not as fast as they'd like, and now they're trying to offer more paid-for data services."

Any talk of an exit strategy for Ireland, however, is more than premature. The company launched 'Ireland's newest mobile network' without much fanfare last year. It promised cheap voice and text message packages, music and internet using its high-speed third generation (3G) mobile network. And the perhaps slightly vague ?cool video stuff".

It offers free content, including Premiership football highlights, that other operators . . . such as Vodafone . . . charge their customers for. 3's strategy here is to entice customers with good deals on the mobile services they take for granted . . . voice and texts . . . and encourage them to explore the brave new world of 3G with the free multimedia content and mobile internet services. The company then hopes to generate revenues from paid-for 3G services, such as music downloads. Here the company saw a ray of hope in the UK, where downloads alone placed 'Crazy' atop the singles chart earlier this month. 3 claimed that 20% of those downloads were made on its network.

Since its Irish launch, however, 3 seems to have switched its profile to 'silent'. Market leaders O2 and Vodafone have been pushing their own high-speed data services and multi-media content.

Following its takeover by Eircom, Meteor has been on the warpath, slashing prices, bombarding the airwaves with a bright and breezy new advertising campaign and boosting its market share from 9% to 13.4%.

Meanwhile, 3 has been noticeable mainly by its absence. It has been quiet on the advertising front and has yet to roll out its retail network, though it has distribution deals with Carphone Warehouse and electronics chain 3G. The company has also held back on launching pre-paid mobile services, which are used by over 70% of Irish mobile phone owners, and it does not have price plans for business customers. As a result, Finnegan says, 3 is currently operating ?in 10% of the market".

The company's strategy, or seeming lack thereof, has become one of the favoured subjects of idle gossip and speculation in the Irish telecoms industry. Since its launch, 3 has regularly been rumoured to be on the brink of a sale (Finnegan denies it has received an approach) and its rivals privately hint that their newest competitor has struggled to attract customers. Not true, says Finnegan. On the contrary, he says, 3 has been out-selling O2, Vodafone and Meteor by a significant factor" on contract phones. We're extremely pleased with the take-up of the service. We're very encouraged, " he says. He refuses to give any figures that might support that statement, however. I'm not going to be drawn into a discussion on numbers at this point".

Hutchison is notoriously tight-lipped about the financial performance of its privately-held subsidiaries and Finnegan will not break the company's vow of omerta. Instead he talks in general terms about 3's plans to make ?substantial" further investments in its network and ?significant" investments in sales and marketing over the course of the year.

The one figure the company is happy to divulge is the extent of its spend in Ireland to date, which now runs to 300m.

The company has invested a lot of money and plans to spend a lot more before it sees a return on its investment in 3 Ireland, Finnegan says. We wouldn't have done that if we weren't happy with what we saw".

He agrees that 3 has been quiet since its Irish debut last year . . . which he refers to as a soft launch" . . . but insists there is much more to come. In Ireland we're at a very young stage of development.

There's still a jump to be done".

Finnegan says the company wants to make sure it has all the ducks in a row" before it makes a full-blooded charge at the mobile market. Clearly we've invested money and everyone wants to get a return on investment. We're not looking to do that in the short-term. . . it's a marathon, not a sprint." He points out that it is still in the process of rolling out its 3G network. At present 3's customers can make and receive calls and text messages throughout Ireland but are restricted in their access to 3G services such as music downloads and football highlights clips. It has hit 75% population coverage" and is currently filling in the gaps.

Finnegan is also looking to beef up its distribution network. The company hopes to have its first 10 mobile phone shops open by the end of the year and will be rolling out 3 stores across Ireland as quickly as it can find suitable locations. We expect to be in every city and town across the country in due course." The launch of pre-paid services will certainly" happen this year, he says, but he declines to be more specific.

When the pre-paid launch happens 3 will start making a lot more noise. Certainly we'll be making people more aware of our offers". Finnegan plans to start aggressively promoting the brand, cranking up the advertising spend and adding a number of sponsorship arrangements to the marketing mix to increase its visibility.

Again few specific details are forthcoming but he is confident that both consumers and competitors will sit up and take notice when 3 takes the gloves off. By the end of the year, 3 will be firmly established in people's minds as the obvious choice for Irish people as a mobile network".

In the longer term Finnegan says he has an even loftier goal for the brand. I'll be happy when people can't envisage life without 3". And when asked when exactly might be, he smiles as he delivers the characteristically vague reply: It won't be tomorrow but might be the next day".

THE MAN & HIS COMPANY ROBERT FINNEGAN

Age: 44 Family: Married with four children
Background: Qualified accountant before being recruited by Hutchison Whampoa. Was chief executive of several subsidiaries, including Sentrio Technologies, prior to joining 3.

Hobbies: Sailing and football. Was a trainee with a well-known side in England.

3 IRELAND

Parent: Hutchison Whampoa
Background: Hong Kong-based conglomerate controlled by billionaire Canning Fok. One of the world's largest port and shipping companies, its interests include hotels, retail and telecommunications.

Financial Information: Turnover of 25bn in 2005 and reported a profit of 1.5bn.