Bright future for US-Irish special business relationship, says AmCham leader 

Paul Sweetman, CEO designate of American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, looks at positive signs for future US-Irish trade 

Members of the Kennedy and Lemass families gather at an American Chamber event hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Iveagh House, to mark 60 years since Taoiseach Sean Lemass welcomed US President John F Kennedy to Ireland in June, 1963, cementing the strong US-Irish relationship that continues to flourish today. At the event are US Ambassador to Ireland, Claire Cronin, Stephen Kennedy Smith, nephew of JFK, Sean Haughey TD, grandson of Sean Lemass, Maura Healy, Governor of Massachusetts. Picture: Conor McCabe

Paul Sweetman is the incoming chief executive of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, the representative body of almost 1,000 US businesses operating in Ireland, including some of the country’s biggest employers in tech, financial services, medtech and pharma. He will succeed Mark Redmond, who has been a decade in the role.

 “The American Chamber is recognised as Ireland’s leading international business representative organisation, and I am very much looking forward to the challenge of the job,” he said. “It is all about competitiveness to me, and while Ireland is a strong and attractive location, competitiveness is that spinning plate we have to constantly tend to. My role will be to work across multiple sectors to maintain the positive competitive advantages we have, and to build and improve upon them in any way we can.”