From pilot dreams to aircraft leasing, Leanne Brolly brings a spotlight to her industry

“I moved up to Dublin in 2011 to start my course in DCU and I haven’t gone home at all. I worked every summer during college, I just loved the city,” says Brolly.

Brolly’s career started when she studied a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Finance and then went on to complete a Masters in Finance, specialising in capital markets in DCU, but it wasn’t really her dream. She had always wanted to be a pilot. “I was filling out my CEO, it was just after the economic recession, I wanted to be a pilot and my dad said ‘you can’t do that, it’s way too expensive to pay for the cadet program’, he advised me to go for a job that had surety, something that definitely wouldn’t be hit by a recession – I think everyone from Ireland was some way affected materially by the 2009 recession, so I decided to do accountancy,” she says.

And her dreams of being a pilot? “I just love flying. I remember very distinctly from our very first family holiday abroad, me counting down the days to get to go on a plane, I was super excited,” she says. “I applied for the Aer Lingus program, they do a cadetship program every year – I applied for it twice and kept failing, so it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Now she works in aircraft leasing and flies to meetings around the world so, while she is not actively flying the plane, she is getting more of her fair share of airmiles and plane talk. Was it an intentional move after the cadet programme declines? It was not, but sometimes fate just deals you the hand you need, just at the right time.
Brolly spent five years with AIB.“My portfolio was a mixed bag, it was retailers, oil and fuel distributors, chatting with the likes of Circle K, Apple Green, and then also aircraft leasing companies, so this is where their craft leasing bit came in,” she says. “I just really accelerated there and I had a very deep experience there.”

“I assisted on writing aviation finance policy, with my manager who led it, so I just got a real taste for aircraft leasing because I didn’t know about it until then either, so it was different,” she explains. Unfortunately, during COVID the policy for lending to aircraft leasing companies was closed off.

During COVID, Brolly had interviewed for a position in Genesis, but given the state of the airline industry at the time, the position was put on hold, but as fate would have it, when it was opened again, she was the one who got the call-up. Fast forward to 2025, where she is now VP of Risk at Genesis.

“Genesis primarily only does commercial aircraft and has been around since 2014, we’re backed by Barings, a MassMutual fund. And we are also partly owned by ISIF (Irish Strategic Investment Fund) as well. Today, globally 52% of all the aircraft in the world is leased to airlines,” she says.

Going on to explain the business of aircraft leasing to this ignorant interviewer, she says – “We take on the risk of holding the asset and we lease it to them then to collect it – we also collect a premium, but then that means that they have flexibility in their fleet. If you buy up front, that means you have it for the entire life of their craft, which could be 20 to 25 years, whereas if you can lease it, you might only lease it for six years or eight years, depending on the lease you want.”

“COVID was an example where airlines could give aircraft back and they could stop those up-front costs,” she adds. Also, if you’re a startup, you don’t have 50 million to invest in your assets to make money.”

According to Ogier, Ireland is the leading centre for aircraft leasing globally and has a high-growth sector of international financial services, representing $100 billion of assets. More than 60% of the world’s leased aircraft are managed from Ireland. The industry is built on more than 40 years of experience, since the founding of Guinness Peat Aviation in 1975.

“I love that it’s an Irish indigenous industry, but it’s global, right? So it’s something that supports the global economy. I also love travelling. I love everything about planes,” she says about her passion for the industry.

Where does her work ethic come from? “The hard-working bit, my dad built into us, making my sister and I get up and help with the cows. I definitely think my dad getting us up at six o’clock to milk the cows, and then back out again at six p.m. to milk cows was definitely the hard work we needed put into us,” she explains.

Winning the Emerging Management Professional of the Year Award at the IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards came as a huge surprise to Brolly. She admits to shaking all the way through her speech, and her post-win interview being a complete blur. But now, having had time to process the evening, she’s proud to shine the spotlight on her industry. “It was that recognition from an industry, rather than a company, that just really took me aback. For the whole week after the IMAGE awards, I was receiving flowers and messages saying well done and well deserved,” she says.

Bringing aircraft leasing to the forefront, as an industry where women’s careers can thrive, is important to Brolly, as “there’s so few women involved in aircraft leasing.” Hopefully, with successful role models like Brolly, things will start to change.

Leanne Brolly will join us for Beyond the Awards: Stories of Success and Impact, an inspiring evening of insight, celebration, and connection bringing together some of Ireland’s most exceptional female business leaders – the winners of the 2025 IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards. Find out more here and book your tickets below.

Get tickets