Colm Lyon is the founder and CEO of Fire Financial Services Limited and also founder and former CEO of Realex Payments. Colm started Realex Payments which was acquired by Global Payments in a deal valued at €115m. Colm is a previous chair of the Irish Internet Association, founder of the Internet Growth Alliance. In June 2015 Colm was appointed to the International Financial Services Industry Advisory Group as part of the Irish Government’s IFS 2020 Strategy, where he contributed to the action plan to create an additional 10,000 jobs.  He is a founding director and appointed chair for the Fintech and Payments Association of Ireland. Colm is a graduate of UCD and has spent further time in Harvard and Stanford Business Schools.