By Business & Finance 
Pictured (L-R): Ian Hyland, publisher, Business & Finance; Christian Kinnear, managing director EMEA, HubSpot; and JP Hughes, CCO, Friends First
HubSpot’s Christian Kinnear was special honouree at the launch of the Business & Finance FDI 100, an annually updated index highlighting and honouring the decisions of multinationals and their leaders to invest in Ireland.
With a spotlight on job creation, innovation, thought leadership and the most vital contributions to the Irish economy, the Business & Finance FDI 100 represents some of the most extensive profiling of Ireland’s largest multinationals.
Managing director EMEA at HubSpot Christian Kinnear was the special honouree on the night held at The Merrion in Dublin, while chief commercial officer at Friends First Life Assurance JP Hughes also addressed the prestigious audience.
Overall, 2016 was a record year for FDI in Ireland, as evidenced by the IDA’s results for the 12-month period – which recorded the highest level of employment in its client companies in history, with 199,877 people employed in inward-investment companies.
It is also estimated that for every ten jobs created by an FDI company there are seven knock-on jobs created in the wider economy.
A record number of 244 investments were secured over the course of 2016, up from 213 the previous year, with international services, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, and financial services all showing significant employment increases during the year.
Looking ahead, while FDI investments were previously expected to drop off somewhat in 2017, and the effects of the Trump administration may prove deleterious to the Irish-American FDI relationship, Brexit will likely provide a temporary upswing, at least in this area of the economy.
