BORN in Lanarkshire, Scotland on September 30th 1948, Craig McKinney came to Ireland in 1970 to work with his brother Jack at Hamilton Leasing. The two brothers left Hamilton some years later following an unsuccessful attempt to buy-out the company from its British owners and set up a rival leasing company, Woodchester Investments PLC in 1977. Woodchester specialised in financing office equipment and cars, and despite a slow start, within a decade they were making profits of over £36 million.

Under the stewardship of Craig and Jack, Woodchester Investments acquired a number of strategic acquisitions amongst which were Bowmaker Bank, Trinity Bank, Mercantile Credit and UDT/First Southern Bank. In 1985 they moved into the UK finance and leasing market and Woodchester became one of the largest quoted financial institutions in Ireland.