Our Team

• Dermot Desmond, Founder. Dermot is a leading Irish entrepreneur. He founded Ireland's International Financial Services Centre, is a majority owner of Celtic Football Club and owns GBET, Daon and over 50 other technology companies. He is also the owner and developer of Sandy Lane Resort in Barbados. Dermot founded GBET in 1999 and continues to drive the development of the business as Chairman.
• Brian O'Sullivan, Chairman. Brian holds a BE (Mechanical Engineering), University College, Dublin (1985) and an MBA from Boston College (1990). He worked as an engineer with GE from 1985 to 1988, was an executive with Bank of Boston from 1988 to 1990 and was Associate Director of DCC plc from 1990 to 1996. He has been a Director of International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) since 1996. His roles in IIU have included being CEO of GBET from 2002 to 2014, managing the $500m acquisition and redevelopment of the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados and managing the 2010 acquisition of 50% interest in Canouan Island Resort.
• Donal Plunkett, CEO. A founding member of GBET and formerly Chief Technology Officer, Donal is responsible for the management and operation of GBET's mission critical technology and systems, and the delivery of new and innovative technology to support GBET's Exchange and Broker network. Donal has over twenty years' experience in a variety of senior technology roles, specializing in high availability solutions for internet and online businesses. Donal holds an MBA from University College Dublin and a BSc from Dublin City University.
• Mark Sweetnam, Director of Engineering. Mark holds a BA, BAI (first class honors) in Computer Engineering from Trinity College, Dublin (1984). He worked as a Consulting IT Architect with IBM from 1984 to 2003 where he designed high-throughput transactional systems for banking and securities customers internationally. He has been Director of Engineering with GBET since 2003 and was responsible for the design and implementation of GBET's proprietary technology platform.
• Darren Cullen, CFO. Darren holds a B.Comm. and Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting from UCD and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1998. He has twenty years corporate finance, financial management and accounting experience. His most recent roles included Corporate Finance Director with BDO where he worked from 2002 to 2011 and as a Portfolio Manager with NAMA from 2011 to 2015. Darren joined International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) in 2015 where he manages a number of portfolio investments. He was appointed to his role with GBE in June 2015.
• Jeff Franklin, President, US Operations. After a successful career representing some of the United States top jockeys, including Gary Stevens, Jose Santos, and Patrick Valenzuela, Jeff became President of Youbet.com in 2004, the United States’ largest ADW. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Executive Manager for XpressBet, a division of The Stronach Group. Jeff joined GBET in January, 2015, after serving (3) years with The New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA).