Thornsett Group

De coup de Coeur en coup de Coeur

Eoghan Quinn works from the heart. “I was always looking for a job which I enjoyed” he confesses in perfect French, coloured by an irresistible Irish accent. It started with two years in a hotel in Dublin. “It’s amusing, notes the commercial director of Thornsett Group in Belgium. 23 years later, I have just opened a hotel in Brussels. The circle has closed”.
Circles to be closed. There remain others. After the hotel it was the turn of the bank. “A good career, at the time”. Although it didn’t stop him leaving four years later. Closed that door, sold his car, bought a motorbike and headed in the direction of Paris. “To do something else”. Something else was to be a barman. In an Irish pub of course, Kitty O’Sheas. A pub group that was to bring him to Brussels in 1990: they were in need of staff here in their bar close to Schuman roundabout. “I had a great time for 7 years, we partied a lot, but I was looking for something more”.
Returning to economics, studying at night, via an English university. He left the bar to join the European Commission. “I entered as a temporary agent in the financial sector”. But sitting behind a desk not being his cup of tea, Eoghan Quinn multiplies his activities. One of these is event management. “We organized Brussels first English speaking stand up comedy shows”. A concept repeated every two months. Another activity was real estate. “I met some Irish people, at a funeral, wishing to invest here. I started looking for property for them, mainly houses to transform into apartments to let”.
Real estate was the winner. Eoghan Quinn doesn’t renew his contract with the Commission and goes into real estate full time. “In 2005 I was introduced to Thornsett, a group founded in London by two Irish brothers. At that time real estate was thriving and a number of investors were looking to Eastern Europe. Thornsett Group however was looking for a more stable market place and weren’t just interested in investing their cash and leaving. They decided on Brussels. In 2010 they are still busy here and looking for more projects. “I adore this work, every day is different!”
No question of leaving. The man has fallen in love with Brussels – « a multicultural city, not too stressful and a gastronomic delight! » – that’s Brussels – he met the future mother of his two daughters here, through his rugby club. All that remains for him is to assume the strange paradox: being Irish and living on avenue Winston Churchill.