Career
Ryanair was believed to be the main source of his wealth in later life: the company is now one of the biggest airlines in Europe and is valued at over 10 billion dollars as of 2012. Ryan held honorary doctorates from several universities, including Trinity College, Dublin, the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Limerick. Born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ryan worked for Aer Lingus, before going on to found their aircraft leasing arm, wet-leasing out their aircraft in the quieter winter months.
In 1975, with Aer Lingus and the Guinness Peat Group, he founded Guinness Peat Aviation (later Grade Point Average Group), an aircraft leasing company, with a $50,000 investment.
Grade Point Average grew to be the world"s biggest aircraft lessor, worth $4 billion at its peak. But its value dramatically collapsed in 1992 after the cancellation of its planned IPO. Ryan made €55m from the sale of AerFi (the successor to Grade Point Average) in 2000.
Ryan was a tax exile who lived in Monte Carlo, but also owned a stud farm near his home in Dolla County Tipperary. He was the 7th wealthiest individual from Ireland in the Sunday Times Rich List 2007 with over €1.5bn(£1bn).
Ryan over the years helped nurture two successful business protégés – Denis O"Brien and Michael O"Leary – both of whom became multi-millionaires.
Ryan was an active and innovative funder of university education in Ireland. He donated a marine science institute to National University of Ireland Galway in 1993 which was named the Martin Ryan Marine Science Institute in honour of his father. He showed interest in marine science and aquaculture development in the west of Ireland.
He also funded The Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship at the Citywest park, that is run by Dublin City University.
In 2001, Ryan acquired Castleton Farm near Lexington, Kentucky from the Van Lennep Family Trust. Ryan renamed it Castleton Lyons and undertook renovations to the property while returning to its original roots as a thoroughbred operation.
At the time of his death he owned 16% of Tiger Airways, a discount carrier based in Singapore which was founded in December 2003. Ryan, who lived at Lyons Demesne in Ardclough, County Kildare, died on 3 October 2007, aged 71, following an 18-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
He had other homes in London, Castleton Lyons stud in Kentucky, Château Lascombes near Bordeaux and on Ibiza.