Owen O Byrne

Owen has a degree in Theoretical Physics from Trinity College Dublin, and began his professional career as a freelance IT Solutions contractor. While developing the Ulster Bank corporate website, he met Colm Lyon, and together they founded Realex Payments in 2000. He was responsible for the initial build of the card payments platform, and led the re-architecture and design of the platform in 2010. As Product Architect at Realex Payments, he delivered highly successful payment solutions for corporates such as Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic and the AA. In 2009, Colm founded Fire Financial Services in collaboration with Owen, and since the sale of Realex to Global Payments, Owen is now the Head of Product and is responsible for the core propositions, design, roadmap and roll out of new product to personal and business customers, as well as white label solutions for other Financial Institutions and platforms. Owen enjoys finding opportunities at the intersection of payments innovation and payment regulation, and believes the Payment Services Directives provide a wealth of potential to be explored.