Business News

Irish business leaders promote two-way business between US and Ireland

By Business & Finance
13 March 2017
Ireland Day NYSE 2017
Pictured (L-R) at the Ireland Day Leadership Breakfast at the New York Stock Exchange: Paul Connolly, chairman; Business & Finance; Reece Smyth, Chargé d’Affaires, US Embassy Ireland; Congressman Richard Neal; Congressman Brendan Boyle; Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland; and Ian Hyland, president, Ireland INC

Ireland INC, a private sector platform that aims to advance economic development between Ireland and its closest trading partners, hosted the seventh annual Ireland Day at the New York Stock Exchange today. 

The Ireland Day Leadership Breakfast offers an unrivalled platform for economic engagement and thought leadership exchanges to develop clear strategies that build on the economic and cultural ties between Ireland and the US.

The theme of this year’s Ireland Day focused on the new era of opportunity that awaits the Irish-US business partnership following the economic and political uncertainty of late. Over the last seven years, Ireland INC has promoted increased economic ties between Ireland and the US, and the 2017 Ireland Day Leadership Breakfast represented its highest calibre business gathering to date. 

The event featured a series of C-suite international business roundtable discussions and was attended by a unique group of global business and political leaders.

The summit hosted more than 100 executives from leading US and Irish corporations including Fortune 500 companies, venture capital firms, entrepreneurial start-ups, policy makers, as well as financial and sciences organisations from the US, Ireland and around the world.

Participants and Speakers at the Leadership Breakfast event included Paul Marchant (CEO Primark), Congressman Richard Neal, Congressman Brendan Boyle, Anne Heraty (CEO, Cpl and president, Ibec), Martin Shanahan (CEO, IDA Ireland), Terence O’Rourke (chairman, Enterprise Ireland), Mark Redmond (American Chamber of Commerce Ireland), Thomas Farley (CEO, NYSE) and US Embassy Dublin Chargé d’Affaires Reece Smyth. 

Ireland INC chairman Ian Hyland said: “This year’s Ireland Day US Leadership Breakfast and the NYSE communicates the strong two-way street and balanced economic relationship between the US and Ireland in the context of Irish companies continuing to significantly invest across the United States in businesses and over 200,000 jobs both directly and indirectly”.

Previous speakers at Ireland Day include Wilbur Ross, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, Senator George Mitchell, Denis O’Brien, Gary McGann, Congressman Pete King, former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, to name but a few.