By Business & Finance 
Jessica Brannigan, Commerical Real Estate Associate, Matheson; Christian Kinnear, Managing Director EMEA, HubSpot; and Karen Reynolds, Partner, Matheson
This Thursday, 15 February, marks the 2018 edition of the Business & Finance FDI 100 at the Hibernian Club, Stephen’s Green, where industry leaders celebrate the best foreign direct investment companies in the country.
The 2018 event will see Microsoft Ireland’s Managing Director Cathriona Hallahan attend as keynote speaker.
Last year’s event took place at The Merrion and saw Managing Director EMEA of HubSpot Christian Kinnear as special honouree for the night.
At the event, some of Ireland’s top business leaders gave their insights and knowledge into what Ireland has to offer for FDI companies and how important it is to celebrate an event such as this.
Karen Reynolds, Partner at Matheson, gave her account of how important FDI is to Ireland: “Ireland is currently home to 1,200 international companies, which provide 300,000 to the Irish economy, and that figure continues to rise.”
JP Hughes, Chief Commercial Officer at Friends First, said there are a number of advantages that Ireland can offer for FDI and multinational companies: “As multinationals become more international, and less dependent on their own domestic markets, and all the while those domestic markets, particularly the US, are becoming more and more protectionist and insular in nature, the greater the need will be for those international companies to invest further monies into their international bases.”
Jack Butler, Chief Operating Officer, MRP says that Ireland has so many attributes to offer: “There’s just a dynamic here in Ireland; north of Ireland, south of Ireland, the overall island has a dynamic that is very powerful. It’s easier to attract talent, it’s easier to attract clients to come visit us and also excite the team about what we’re doing for Northern Ireland as well as Ireland as a whole.”
Check out the video from last year below and the photo gallery here.
