When people visit the Tara Capital website, one of the first questions they ask is: "Why Tara?"
It's a fair question.
Most financial firms are named after founders, locations, initials or marketing exercises conducted by branding agencies.
Tara Capital is none of those things.
The truth is that the name carries layers of meaning accumulated over a lifetime.
Some were inherited.
Some were discovered.
And some arrived unexpectedly on the banks of a river in central India.
The Tara Brooch
My parents were Irish, and when I was growing up my sister competed in Irish dancing competitions.
An important part of the traditional costume was the Tara Brooch, worn on the shoulder.
My mother spent years searching for them.
Long before I ever thought about starting a business, investing in markets or writing about macroeconomics, the name Tara was already part of family life.
The original Tara Brooch is one of Ireland's greatest treasures, dating from the 8th century and housed today in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Its craftsmanship remains extraordinary more than 1,300 years after it was made.
When I eventually came to design the Tara Capital logo, I realised that the circular form and pin structure of the brooch represented something more than visual inspiration.
It represented heritage, continuity and connection.
What began as a logo design became a reminder of family.
The Hill of Tara
The second layer lies in Irish history.
The Hill of Tara in County Meath was the seat of the High Kings of Ireland and one of the most important ceremonial sites in Irish history.
For generations, Tara has symbolised leadership, memory and identity.
The name carries history.
And it carries a connection to where my family came from.
Tara the Elephant
Then there is the part of the story that nobody expects.
Many years ago I spent time at Kipling Camp near Kanha National Park in central India.
Kanha was one of the inspirations for Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, but what I remember most is not the tigers.
It is an elephant called Tara.
Every afternoon I would accompany Tara to the river for her bath alongside her mahout.
There was only one problem.
I was frequently late.
And Tara knew it.
If I failed to appear on time, she would trumpet loudly to let everybody know. It became our routine.
Looking back, that small detail probably tells you everything you need to know about her character.
It is also one of those memories that stays with you forever.
A Remarkable Connection
What made the experience even more special was that Tara was already famous.
I had read Travels on My Elephant, Mark Shand's award-winning account of riding Tara approximately 800 miles across India.
Shand, adventurer, conservationist and brother of Queen Camilla, purchased Tara in Orissa in 1988 and documented their journey across India in what became one of the best-known travel books of its generation.
Following that journey, Tara lived at Kipling Camp, where I came to know her.
So the elephant that used to summon me to her afternoon bath had already crossed India, become the subject of a bestselling book and played a role in one of the world's best-known elephant conservation stories.
Life occasionally produces connections that no branding consultant could ever invent.
Building Tara Capital
When I eventually came to build Tara Capital, I realised the name already existed.
The Tara Brooch connected family, heritage and craftsmanship.
The Hill of Tara connected history and identity.
Tara the elephant connected adventure, memory and conservation.
And in Sanskrit, Tara means "star".
A guide.
A point of navigation.
A way of finding direction.
That seemed an appropriate symbol for a business built around helping people make sense of an increasingly complex world.
More Than a Name
Today Tara Capital focuses on macroeconomics, digital assets, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
But beneath the research, dashboards and articles sits something much older.
A memory of my mother searching for a brooch.
A connection to Ireland.
An elephant waiting impatiently by a river.
Looking back, I didn't create the name Tara Capital.
It had been following me for most of my life.
Some brands are created.
Others are found.
Tara Capital belongs firmly in the second category.