David Horgan, chairman and co-founder of Clontarf Energy and co-founder of several resource companies, has died at the age of 66.
As well as Clontarf Energy, Mr Horgan was a co-founder and chairman of Petrel Resources, a co-founder and director of Botswana Diamonds and founder chairman of Greenore Gold.
He was born in Belfast, had his primary education in Dublin and his secondary school education in British Colombia. He received a first-class honours law graduate from Cambridge in England and obtained a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
His early professional career was overseas with the Boston Consulting Group. He returned to Ireland in 1991 to pursue his interest in the Natural Resources sector.
After a short period with Goffs, he joined Kenmare Resources where he became Commercial Director until 1992 when he joined John Teeling and Jim Finn with their stable of resource companies based in Clontarf, in Dublin.
In a joint statement, John Teeling and Jim Finn, said the death of David Horgan is a deep personal loss to each of them.
"In over three decades together we have created, financed, managed and listed a series of early-stage exploration ventures in a variety of natural resources," they said.
"He revelled in high stakes, high risk resources exploration. He was fearless travelling in dangerous territories, traipsing across swamps or exploring long abandoned mines. He spoke eight languages. After ten days or so in a new country he could converse with locals in their own language and actively participate in local culture and traditions," they stated.
"Early-stage exploration is very high risk. Our small group had some successes operating gold mines in Zimbabwe, selling off oil licences in Peru and discovering a diamond mine in Botswana," the statement from John Teeling and Jim Finn said.
Following the loss of David, Clontarf Energy said its Board will consider how it is best structured going forward and will update as and when appropriate.
A statement from Petrel Resources said it is intended that Jim Finn will join the company's board, adding that a further announcement will be made shortly.
