neil wilson
from Fintry paper boy to software millionaire...
Neil Wilson is one of Scotland's most successful businessmen -
and exports. The founder and chief executive of Dublin-based
software company Datalex, leading global supplier of software
to the airline and travel industry, he was listed 804 in the
Sunday Times Rich List 2001. Already a mature student when
he graduated from the University of Dundee in computer
science and physics in 1980, he went on to specialise in
digital electronics at Heriot Watt then worked for Ferranti in
Scotland and Raytheon Data Systems in Amsterdam before
forming his own consultancy specialising in customer software
development. In 1985 Datalex was founded in Howth, a fishing
village outside Dublin, with assistance from the Irish state
enterprise agency IDA Ireland. Today Datalex has some 450
employees supplying customers including Air Canada,
American Airlines, British Airways and Lufthansa.
Core products range from Internet booking engines to
workstation software. Fittingly, Neil agreed to an e-interview
for GC Magazine.
What is your abiding memory of your student years here?
The nightmare and stress of my finals.
If you returned to Dundee what is the first place you would visit?
I was born in Hill Street at the bottom of the Law Hill. During my
childhood we lived in Hill Street, Hillbank Road, between Ann Street
and Alexander Street, The Nethergate and Fincraig Street in Fintry.
The common theme running through all of these locations is one of
demolition. I spent many happy years in the back yards of
Alexander Street climbing and jumping around on the old
air raid shelters. Saturday mornings were for roaming around in the
old Overgate and in the arcade in Shore Terrace. Summers in the
Den o' Mains and catching minnows and gubbers in the Dichty Burn.
The planners did for all of these during the 50s and 60s and took the
life and soul from the city. I am rarely back in Dundee but I do like to
walk up the Law Hill and remember what Dundee used to be.
What was your honours year project?
I constructed a rudimentary PC from single board parts and used it
to analyse data coming from the Landsat satellite.
You were a mature student - how did that affect your experiences?
Living and commuting from Forfar meant I had limited exposure to
most of student social life. I was four or five years older than
everyone in my class and tended to socialise with friends in Forfar.
I did play a lot of squash.
It must have been at a time when Sinclair ZX Spectrum was being
made in Dundee? They say that's why Dundee has produced so many
computer whizzes - the place was awash in buckshee spectrums -
was that your experience?
I never owned one. I initially started out to study maths but, being
a mature student, I always paid a lot of attention to the way the
employment market was heading. Computational science, as it was then,
seemed to offer many more opportunities than maths and combined with
physics, gave me excellent credentials for post-university employment.
Having said that, I was always more interested in the business of
computing than in the technology itself.
After Ferranti and Raytheon Data Systems you formed your own
consultancy. How difficult was that jump from employee to entrepreneur?
I was always an uncomfortable employee. I only stayed at Ferranti long
enough to give me sufficient experience to get started. With Raytheon,
I was an outside contractor/consultant and during my time with them
in Amsterdam I built up a pool of 20 or so consultants whom I would
place with various employers around The Netherlands.
My 'first job' was as a 10-year old delivering papers on Sunday mornings
around Fintry housing estate. I graduated to an early morning milk round
at the age of 14 and developed a strong Presbyterian work ethic from an
early age.
What is the best piece of advice you would give to today's budding
entrepreneurs?
I never give anyone advice other than my wife on the golf course. In that case
it is not well received and I have learned from bitter experience to shut up
and focus on my own game. Having said that, I would say that hard work and
a gambler's instinct were the crucial elements in my own case.
What does it mean to you to be in the Sunday Times Rich List?
It is entirely meaningless and merely serves to give one's children an
inflated and misplaced sense of importance. Lists of relative wealth
are symptomatic of the vulgarity that is so much a part of our lives.
What do you spend your leisure time on? (Assuming you have some)
I am married to Sandra and we have 4 children. Frederick (20) is an art
student, Amber (18) is preparing to sit her leaving certificate and has
applied to study psychology at Dundee University, Vogue (16) her junior
certificate, and Alexander (7) climbs trees and makes Lego. All of us play
golf and family holidays are always spent by the coast and near a golf
course. Last year we went to Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, this year we will
go to Biarritz on the French Atlantic coast. Sandra and I like to take short
weekend breaks and we would go to places like Gleneagles or Turnberry.
We normally take a family skiing holiday in the US immediately after
Christmas, either Vail or Vermont.
Can you give three adjectives that you'd apply to yourself?
Difficult, generous, argumentative.
What are you planning next?
Having spent most of my professional career in technology I enjoy my
part-time involvement in the property business. I am partners with a
local builder where I live on the Howth peninsula, 10 miles north of
Dublin city. We buy and refurbish old houses and have a reasonable
portfolio around Dublin.
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