I'm originally from Malaysia and when I came to Ireland he was my first boss. Prior to that I'd never worked anywhere before and I had great trepidation of working for this redheaded Irishman! He had a firm called Smyth Lawlor in those days. Picture me coming from abroad, a young guy, just 19-and-a-half years old, to a country that was totally alien to me and meeting this red-haired Irish man and signing a five year training contract with him.

How did he mentor you?

I was his first employee and he took a keen interest in my development. It gave him great pride when I did well.

If I succeeded he felt as if he had succeeded. He was a Monaghan man and we did a lot of work in Monaghan at the time, and on the journey up and down we would discuss many things. He was well-read and openminded. He taught me about life in Ireland and he taught me about work. He had a great passion for new things and he was so interested in me - where I came from and about my family. He used to say that to succeed in business you had to be genuinely interested in people. And he's still interested in people. He currently doing a master's in sociology. Whatever he did, he did with enthusiasm and passion, and that's something I learned from.

So he encouraged you?

He would always say to me that the world was my oyster.

He would always ask me to aim as high as possible. It was unbelievable encouragement. As a young foreigner coming into the country it gave me tremendous confidence. When I started on my own he still continued to be my mentor. He has an ability to motivate people and release the potential in them. He never sees their limitations - he's always looking for the potential. And that was something that I found very invigorating.

What would you say were his main qualities as a leader?

He's a very kind and genuine man and his people skills were excellent. In the 1980s he joined my firm and I became his boss. He was a specialist on family business in our firm, and he's written a book on the subject. He became a facilitator for family businesses in Ireland, which never had a service like that before. He dealt with matters of the heart rather than financial issues. He would say that it's matters of the heart that kill businesses and not the finances. That kind of insight is uncommon in the business world.

In conversation with Patrick Freyne