Teenage tech boss with a big plan of attack

He hails from Waterford and is in third year in De La Salle College. He is doing his Junior Certificate and needs to study. He plays a lot of football, mostly with a local club called Villa. Two years ago he was named U13 player of the year. He has two younger siblings and he hangs out with pals at the weekend.

But Jordan is not your average 14-year-old. He is already CEO of his own company, Casey Games, and is the youngest ever Apple app developer in Europe.

He has travelled all over the world giving talks on his business and is involved at serious level in giving advice to the European Commission.

Jordan Casey is the teenage prodigy everyone wants to meet and when you do, it is a really pleasant surprise; for Jordan is one of the most grounded young men anyone could have the good fortune to talk with.

If you think it is tough being a CEO in a recession, try being a teenage CEO in a recession - without access to finance. Confirmation money is the best option for seed capital and bedtime is early on school nights.

Often entrepreneurs complain they have to do everything to get their ideas off the ground including putting out the bins, but how would you cope if you were too young to drive, too young to fly unaccompanied and too young to even be a director in your own company?

Last year, Jordan gave a talk in California where he addressed some of the issues of being of teenage CEO, imparting his advice to CEOs of LinkedIn, Amazon, Netflix and others. There are issues not understood by adults and are compounded by age. The only positive is that time will solve most of Jordan's obstacles.

Jordan began at an early age. At nine he took an interest in computers but rather than holing up in his room to play endless games, he bought books on programming and watched videos on YouTube.

His parents had no idea that he had crossed the border into developer territory. At a parent teacher meeting in his primary school, his sixth-class teacher broke the news to them that Jordan was programming games - not playing them.

Still the penny did not really drop. Jordan had taught himself how to programme in Adobe Flash ActionScript. He took the classic Space Invaders game and made an app version called Alien Ball Vs Humans - but he needed a Mac to write for Apple.

He begged for a Mac but money was tight and the need not perceived: he was just an 11-year-old looking for a new toy. In a moment of inspiration Jordan set up a faux account purporting to belong to an Apple executive. He sent an email to his parents from this fictitious American executive which outlined in strong terms the advantages of owning a Mac.

Mission achieved, his parents conceded, buying the computer. Jordan successfully ported the game to the Apple platform and became the youngest developer in Europe. His game was commercially successful and he repaid his parents - but they only discovered his creative deception five months ago when Jordan was giving an interview and let this little bombshell drop.

"If I'd been a potential professional footballer, I'd have gotten new trainers," he argues. "I needed the tools to work with."

He adds that his parents are not cross with him. They totally support his work, especially now they understand what he is doing. It was hard being an 11-year-old entrepreneur. It's easier being a 14-year-old one.

The past three years have been a huge difference in Jordan's career. After the success of Alien Ball Vs Humans he was featured in an online news report in 2012. This was read by a JWT executive who wanted to bring Jordan to Cannes to speak at a major conference.

"They rang on Friday evening when Mum and Dad were out," said Jordan. "The conference was the following week. When my parents came in they thought I was joking but we were on the plane five days later."

Jordan admits he was nervous speaking in public but the format was like a live interview. "They asked questions and I answered them," he says modestly.

There is a spark to Jordan on stage and this was picked up by a Brazilian ad agency who engaged him to write a game for Save the Day, which he did.

Since then he has spoken across the world, as far away as India. He has spoken at the Dublin WebSummit and is a keynote speaker again this November with a panel of young entrepreneurs. He has written other games, collaborated with other developers, created virtual worlds, is a keen advocate of social entrepreneurship, appeared on Junior Dragons' Den and is in the midst of developing an impressive teacher resource called TeachWare.

This last project began life as a resource for teachers and Jordan interviewed staff at his school to find out what they needed to manage their pupils but it has since turned into a major, full-time resource aimed at schools - from principals to individual teachers. He hopes it will be a commercial success.

What sets Jordan apart from his peers is not necessarily his vision, but his practicality. He talks about failures and how he has learnt from them.

He talks about collaboration and practices it with peers. He talks about influences in his life, including the support from his parents, and where he wants to be in three years' time.

He studies for his exams, he has plans for business next year in TY but he will also finish his schooling - his mother's work in Business in the Community influencing him here. But when he finishes school, he would like to move to London, his favourite city, join an accelerated hub and work with other young people.

But first, he is putting his head down and studying for the Junior Cert. As for his younger siblings, do they keep his feet on the ground?

"Well, they think I am a bit mad, but isn't that normal in any family?"

Remember the name. Jordan Casey will go a long way.