Niall Cribben

To begin, could you tell us a little about yourself, your professional journey and the experiences and interests that have shaped who you are today?

I am Managing Director and Head of Valuation Advisory Services at Kroll Ireland, where I advise companies, investors and boards on complex valuation and financial advisory matters. As a Chartered Accountant, I have built my career across audit, restructuring and valuation advisory. This has given me the opportunity to work with businesses through some of the most defining stages of their lifecycle - from periods of high growth and significant investment to financial distress, transactions and major strategic change. Today, I lead Kroll’s Valuation Advisory practice in Ireland, specialising in the valuation of businesses, investments, shares and intangible assets. I advise a broad range of clients, including private equity, private debt and alternative investment managers, as well as Irish and international corporates.

Alongside my professional career, I co-founded Climb For A Cause Ireland, an initiative that brings people together through ambitious mountain challenges to raise significant funds and awareness for charities across Ireland. The initiative is rooted in something deeply personal for me. Following the loss of my sister, Fiona, to cancer, I wanted to channel that experience into something positive. The mountains became a way to honour her memory, carry forward her legacy and make a meaningful difference to the lives of others. 

What began with my own connection to adventure has grown into a wider movement centred on purpose, challenge and collective action. In September 2026, our team will take on Mont Blanc. We will then turn our attention to our most ambitious challenge yet: bringing together 100 leaders from 100 companies to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in October 2027, with the collective goal of raising more than €1 million for charity. For me, the mountains represent much more than a physical challenge. They provide an opportunity to bring people together, encourage them to push beyond what they believe is possible and use the privilege of one life to create something that lasts.

Having advised organisations on complex valuation and strategic matters throughout your career, what distinguishes the leaders and boards that navigate periods of uncertainty particularly well?

One thing my career has taught me is that there is rarely a single “right” answer, particularly during periods of uncertainty. Valuation sits at the intersection of financial analysis, judgement and an understanding of what is actually happening within a business and its market. I’ve been fortunate to advise organisations and investors through transactions, significant periods of growth, restructuring, disputes and considerable market uncertainty. Across all of those situations, you begin to see some common characteristics in the leaders who navigate them particularly well.

The best leaders I’ve encountered don’t pretend to have all the answers. They surround themselves with good people, listen carefully, challenge their own assumptions and, importantly, are prepared to make decisions even when they don’t have perfect information. They also remain focused on the fundamentals. Markets can move quickly; sentiment can change almost overnight and short-term pressures can easily dominate decision-making. Strong leaders are able to step back from that noise, distinguish between short-term price movements and long-term value, and remain focused on what genuinely drives the business.

I also think the strongest boards are prepared to have uncomfortable conversations early. Problems rarely improve because nobody talks about them. Being honest about where you are today - even when the answer isn’t particularly comfortable - gives you a much better chance of making the right decisions about where you go tomorrow.

Having started my career in audit and subsequently spent six years in restructuring before moving into valuation, I’ve seen plenty of situations where things haven’t gone according to plan. If there is one lesson I’ve taken from those experiences, it’s that the best leaders combine good judgement with humility, resilience, and adaptability. They have a strategy and a clear direction, but they’re not afraid to change course when the facts change.

What prompted you to establish Climb For A Cause? What would you most like people to understand about its work and the difference their support can make?

Climb For A Cause is very personal to me. My sister Fiona passed away from cancer, and watching someone you love to go through that changes your perspective on what really matters. Fiona showed incredible strength and courage throughout her journey and initially Climb For A Cause was about trying to take something incredibly difficult and create something positive from it. But the more people who have become involved, the more I’ve realised that we all have a Fiona in our lives.

For some, it is someone they have lost. For others, it is someone going through an incredibly difficult time in their lives. It might be a family member, a friend or simply a life experience that has fundamentally changed their perspective. We all carry something with us, and I think that is part of what makes Climb For A Cause so powerful.

Fiona may have been the catalyst for me, but this initiative isn't about one person or one story. It is about giving people an opportunity to think about who or what matters to them and then channelling that into something positive for somebody else. Mountains became the vehicle for doing that. There is something incredibly powerful about taking yourself outside your comfort zone, putting one foot in front of another when things become difficult and doing it alongside people who are there for something much bigger than themselves.

What began as a personal challenge has developed into something I could never have imagined. We’ve brought together people from across the Irish business and financial community to take on expeditions while raising money, awareness and, hopefully, creating a sense of collective purpose.

Our next challenge takes place from 12-23 September 2026, when our Climb For A Cause team will head to the Alps to take on Gran Paradiso and Mont Blanc. It will be a significant physical and mental challenge, but ultimately the mountains are simply the vehicle. The real purpose is what happens because people choose to climb them.

Then, in October 2027, we are going considerably bigger. Our ambition for Climb For A Cause Ireland 2027 is to bring together 100 leaders from 100 companies to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, united behind one goal: to collectively raise more than €1 million for charity.

There is something incredibly powerful about 100 leaders stepping away from boardrooms and businesses, leaving titles and hierarchy behind and taking on the same challenge together for a shared purpose. Everyone will arrive on that mountain with their own story, their own motivation and, in many cases, their own “Fiona”. And importantly, you don't have to climb a mountain to be part of it. Every donation, introduction, company that gets involved and person who shares the story helps. If we can take the difficult experiences that inevitably touch all of our lives and collectively turn them into something positive that changes lives for others, then that is a summit worth reaching. For me, that is what Climb For A Cause is really about.

Has your experience of undertaking challenging expeditions influenced how you approach leadership, resilience or decision-making in your professional life?

Absolutely - although I suspect my colleagues occasionally wish I’d stop comparing business problems to mountains! The biggest lesson is probably that very little worth achieving happens in one giant leap. On a difficult expedition, looking constantly at the summit can actually be overwhelming. You concentrate on the next section, the next hour or sometimes simply the next step. Business can be remarkably similar.

I’ve also learned that resilience isn’t about being the toughest person in the room. On a mountain, everyone will have a difficult moment at some stage. The strongest teams are the ones where people notice when somebody is struggling, adjust the pace and help each other through it. That has reinforced something I believe strongly about leadership: your job isn’t always to be at the front. Sometimes leadership means dropping back and helping someone else move forward.

Mountains are also wonderful at removing hierarchy. Job titles don’t mean very much when you’re exhausted, cold and halfway up a mountain! You see people’s character, humour, vulnerability and determination in a completely different way. 

Perhaps most importantly, expeditions have given me perspective. In valuation, we deal with complex problems where significant financial decisions can depend on our advice. Those decisions deserve enormous care and attention. But the experiences I’ve had outside work - particularly losing Fiona and subsequently undertaking these challenges - have also taught me not to confuse something being important with it being the most important thing in life. That perspective has probably made me a better adviser and, hopefully, a better person and a better leader.

As a member of IoD Ireland, what value have you gained from being part of its director community?

What I particularly value about IoD Ireland membership is the opportunity to connect with people who bring different experiences and perspectives to leadership, governance and decision-making. In my own work, I advise businesses, investors and boards across a wide range of sectors, so it is valuable to hear how other directors and senior leaders are approaching the challenges facing their organisations.

The events, insights and opportunities to learn from fellow members help me remain connected to the issues occupying board agendas. They also provide space to step outside the demands of day-to-day work, test your thinking and consider how you can continue to develop as a leader and adviser.

There is also real value in being part of a community that believes responsible leadership extends beyond commercial success. Climb For A Cause demonstrates what can happen when people from across the business community bring their networks, energy and influence together behind a shared purpose. 

What do you want your story or legacy to look like?

This is probably the question that increasingly matters most to me. We spend a huge amount of our lives building careers, businesses and professional reputations. Those things matter, and I’m incredibly proud of my career and the people I work alongside. But ultimately, I don’t think any of us will measure our lives by the number of transactions we completed, valuations we delivered, meetings we attended or emails we answered. The question I increasingly ask myself is: what do you want your story or legacy to look like? For me, I hope it is about more than professional achievement.

I’d like my children and the people closest to me to look back and feel that I tried to use whatever opportunities, relationships and influence I had to help other people. And I’d love Climb For A Cause to become something far bigger than any individual - a community of people prepared to challenge themselves in order to make life a little better for somebody else.

There’s a parallel with leadership here too. Your legacy as a leader isn’t your title. It’s the people you helped, the opportunities you created, the example you set and hopefully the difference you made along the way. None of us gets to choose how long our story will be. But we do have some say in what we put on the pages. That is a big part of what drives me.

A call to Ireland’s business leaders: what can business leader do to support? 

We’re currently building the team for Climb For A Cause Ireland 2027, and our ambition is deliberately bold: 100 leaders. One summit. More than €1 million for charity. In October 2027, those 100 leaders will travel together to Tanzania and take on Mount Kilimanjaro. We want people from different industries, backgrounds and organisations across Ireland to be part of it. You don’t need to be a mountaineer - you need to be prepared to commit, train, fundraise, support the people around you and take on something genuinely outside your comfort zone. So I’ll finish with the same question: What do you want your story or legacy to look like? If Kilimanjaro might become a small part of that story - or if you know a leader or organisation that should be represented among our 100 - I would genuinely love to hear from you.

Please get in touch and learn more about joining us for Climb For A Cause Ireland 2027.

100 Leaders. One Summit. A Better World.