Helen Doody is the Head of Abbey Capital (U.S.) LLC and an Abbey Capital (U.S.) LLC board director. Abbey Capital is an alternative investment manager. She and her team are responsible for business development and investor relations in North America, working with many of the largest private banks, institutions, and pension consultants.
Helen was born in Dublin to parents John and Clare McDonald and has five siblings. She graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree and Dublin City University with a Certificate in Investment Management.
Helen moved to the U.S. with her husband, Derek Doody, in 2006. They have three sons, Gavin, JJ, and Christian, and live in Connecticut. Helen, who volunteers in her children’s school and church, has coached her son’s basketball team for the past two years and helps out with various charitable causes.
Tell me about Abbey Capital.
Abbey Capital is an investment manager specializing in liquid alternative strategies. Founded in 2000, the firm currently manages (as of October 31, 2024) approximately $7.5bn.
We are a community of thoughtful individuals with the conviction that the funds we manage can make a difference to investors’ portfolios.
We are experts in what we do. The funds we manage have been trusted by global investors since 2000. We seek to diversify portfolios and mitigate against downside risks with funds that are constructed with a focus on compounding returns over time.
At Abbey Capital, we believe we can make a difference.
What organizations within the Irish American community are you involved with?
I have been on the North American advisory board of the UCD Michael Smurfit Business School in the U.S. for the past couple of years. I’ve also been on the American Ireland Fund’s New York Gala Committee. The team at Enterprise Ireland has been kind enough to invite me to several events they arrange during the year that I attend if my schedule permits.
What does your Irish heritage mean to you and how does it help your business?
I am so proud of Ireland and to be Irish. We have a rich history of character, persistence, and humanity. Heritage means connections, relationships, family, music, literature, and spirituality.
Abbey Capital is an Irish business, and that is incredibly beneficial for us. It helps us stand out from our peers in the U.S. marketplace.
The majority of investment firms a U.S. wealth advisor, pension consultant or investment board engage with, are U.S. providers, so being Irish is different.
It’s not uncommon for a meeting or presentation to begin with the other person quickly telling you about their Irish ancestry or the Irish golf courses they played! Being Irish helps us to connect with so many, as there is such a massive Irish diaspora in the U.S. They are extremely warm to us, helping us to engage in building relationships and in the asset management or wealth business, like in most companies, trust matters and relationships help with that.
What advice would you give someone starting their career today?
Pursue what interests you, and keep challenging yourself on what provides meaning and creates value and that you enjoy. I encourage someone who is starting out and has the option to work with others in an office environment to be in there as much as possible, to listen, and to go the extra mile. Building relationships is essential, and this is done more effectively in person. Make the effort to seek advice from those more senior to you – you will most likely gain some pearls of wisdom and have supporters within the company.
Why did you choose the financial sector, and how did your UCD and Dublin City University studies prepare you for that world?
In Secondary school (high school), I really liked the business studies classes I took, so I chose them at UCD for my third-level studies. It was a great choice, as it’s well-rounded and gives exposure to many areas of business. Some I really enjoyed and often found easy, and others not so much! My time at DCU was post-graduate. I took those classes at night while employed at ABN Amro as a junior equity analyst supporting several sector analysts in Pan-European Equities.
I chose business because I always wanted to run my own business. I adored playing “Shop” when I was a kid. I remember selling biscuits (cookies) to my older sisters who were studying for exams and making a tidy profit but not doing so well with the onion sandwiches – learning a valuable lesson that although onions were cheap, they weren’t necessarily desirable.
How did your job at Abbey come about?
Experience and relationships are the short answer.
It was a fortunate one for me, and hopefully for Abbey Capital too. It’s been the most fulfilling part of my career to date.
Before starting my journey with Abbey Capital in 2008, I had almost 10 years of experience in financial services, working for the stockbroker ABN Amro in Dublin, first in equity research and then moving into trading.
ABN Amro moved me to London to become a market maker in FTSE 250 stocks in 2002 and I left there in 2004 to move back to Dublin. In Dublin, I once again worked in trading for Anglo Irish Bank. This was my first time working in Wealth Management rather than investment banking or asset management, and it was an experience I really enjoyed. In 2006, my fiancé, now husband Derek, got the opportunity to relocate to Connecticut for two years with Bank of Ireland, and we both jumped at the chance to start our married life with an adventure. The benefit of being the spouse meant that when my visa came through, I had the ability to work with any employer. Meanwhile, as I waited for the visa and networked for an equity trading role, I started a small travel to Ireland business to keep me occupied. I began working for a U.S. Hedge Fund as their European trader, working two a.m. to mid day each day, so the offer to join Abbey Capital and work daylight hours was very welcome.
I had a connection to the founder of Abbey Capital, Tony Gannon, through my family. Abbey Capital’s CEO Mick Swift had previously hired my husband Derek at the Bank of Ireland, and Aodhagan Hurley, another member of the team in Ireland, was in my class at UCD. It goes back to my earlier comments on Irish heritage and the connections and relationships that stem from that – this was a true example of that!
Abbey Capital wanted to build its presence in the U.S. market, and my experience in trading markets, my small foray with creating a U.S. business, the existing relationship, and the understanding we had for each other was the jumping off point to grow the business from about $700m in Assets under Management to $7.5bn today.
Is working for Abbey Capital the most fulfilling part of your career?
Yes. The answer is two-fold. One is the daily connection to the team in Ireland – the firm is headquartered in Dublin, and the second part is that I enjoy building relationships, engaging people on their investment portfolios, and helping them achieve their financial goals. Showing them the importance of diversifiers and that a different source of return to traditional equities and bonds can be helpful when those markets struggle.
In the first ten years of my work in financial markets, I experienced the dot-com correction and, subsequently, the global financial crisis in 2008. This was impactful firsthand knowledge in realizing the importance of diversification, especially coming from an equities background.
You coach your son’s basketball team. How did that come about? Is basketball a passion of yours?
Basketball was the part of my secondary school experience that I enjoyed the most. We played daily at school and participated in Loretto Schools Leagues and South Dublin and All-Ireland competitions.
Thanks to our mutual basketball coach, Ed Randolph, I met my husband, Derek, while attending a basketball camp in my early teens. Ed moved to Ireland in the 80s from Florida and has been a considerable part of South Dublin basketball from the ’90s to today, greatly influencing the lives of so many kids and teens.
I was a teen in the early 90s, coinciding with the Michael Jordan era – a very exciting time in American Sports with the Bulls/Pistons/Celtics, and even Knicks rivalry. Jordan’s hard work, tenacity, and creativity were inspiring.
I coached my son’s team for the past two years and enjoyed it a lot. My own son was a bit more challenging, since he thought if his Mum was the coach, he’d be getting the ball whenever he wanted, and it didn’t work like that!
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