Eddie Jordan – Keynote Speaker

Eddie Jordan is a former motorsport team boss, former racing driver, entrepreneur, and was BBC F1 lead analyst until 2015. In February 2016, Jordan joined the cast of Top Gear as a presenter.

He was the founder and owner of Jordan Grand Prix, a Formula One constructor, which operated from 1991 to 2005. It remains one of only 5 teams to have won multiple Grands Prix in the past 25 years. Ernst & Young ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in 2001, he has a reputation for being one of the sport’s most maverick senior figures. A host of drivers owe their breaks to Jordan as a champion of young talent, including Grand Prix winners: Hill, Mansell, Schumacher, and Senna. Since 2009 Jordan has played a leading role in the BAFTA winning BBC coverage of Formula 1.

As a former racing driver, Jordan began his career winning the Irish Kart Championship in 1971. He moved to Formula Atlantic, won three races in 1977, and won the Irish Formula Atlantic Championship in 1978. Jordan and Stefan Johansson raced in British Formula Three in 1979, under the name “Team Ireland”. The same year, Jordan drove in one Formula Two race and did some testing for McLaren.

At the end of 1979, Jordan founded his first team, Eddie Jordan Racing. In 1989 the Jordan F3000 team dominated the season and Jordan driver Jean Alesi won the championship. He established Jordan Grand Prix in 1990 and entered F1. Throughout the 1990’s Jordan was the only team to really break the monopoly on F1 success held by Ferrari, Williams and McLaren. Rubens Barrichello secured the team’s first pole position and podium in 1994. At the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix, Damon Hill and Ralf Schumacher’s finish in first and second place made history, as Jordan Grand Prix became the first team in the sport to win its maiden F1 race with a 1-2. In 1999 Heinz-Harald Frentzen won the French and Italian Grands Prix for Jordan, and finished third in the World Championship. The team also won the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2003 with Giancarlo Fisichella. Jordan sold Jordan Grand Prix in 2005.

Jordan has many varied and diverse business interests including property, publishing/radio, private equity and other investments. He is a current member of the Advisory Board to Citi Private Bank. He is also a renowned supporter of charities, including CLIC Sargent and Amber, and has been recently involved with the Special Olympics. He speaks at business functions throughout the World, drawing on his vast experience.

Jordan received an honorary OBE in 2012, and has also been awarded two prestigious awards in Ireland: the James Joyce Award from the Literary and Historical Society of the University College Dublin, and the Gold Medal of Honarary Patronage of the University Philosophical Society of Trinity College Dublin, to honour his contribution to motoracing and his charity work over the years. He wrote an autobiography, “An Independent Man”, which was published in 2007.

He also loves rock and roll music, and he plays the drums. Until 2007 his band’s name was V10.