Everyone knows that the Irish-American connection is strong. Cleveland has a great relationship with our Irish partners, as evidenced by the recent visit by The American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland and Enterprise Ireland to Cleveland on August 8th.
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish Governmental Agency that supports Irish companies expanding to global markets. The American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland represents the 700 American firms in Ireland and trade from the $446 billion in U.S. investment in Ireland.
Mr. Redmond, Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland and Mr. O’Rourke, Chairman of Enterprise Ireland came to Cleveland as part of a multi-city visit to meet with companies and evaluate markets. Cleveland-native Mr. Edward Crawford was just named United States Ambassador to Ireland, and so the trip here was particularly meaningful to our guests.
In collaboration with the Irish Network of Cleveland and TeamNEO, Global Cleveland helped arrange a packed day of meetings. To begin, the group met with ParkOhio, Ambassador Crawford’s company, Eaton Corporation, JumpStart, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, and RelateCare-a rapidly growing Irish company in Cleveland. They had an early afternoon stop at the Irish Cultural Garden where Councilman Blaine Griffin welcomed our guests to Cleveland and commemorated the great history between us. The evening ended with a reception in the Red Room where representatives of these firms were able to mix and mingle. City Council President Kevin Kelly was in attendance along with Councilmen Kerry McCormick, Martin Keane, and Brian Kazy-all of Irish descent. President Kelly presented Mr. O’Rourke and Mr. Redmond with a Welcoming Scroll each which honored our partnership and welcomed them and their business to Cleveland.
The purpose of the visit to CLE is for the AmCham to launch a “How to Invest in the U.S.” guide, – Mindy McLaughlin from Team NEO and Mark Owens of the Irish Network of Cleveland helped with area introductions. Together we showed how strong our Irish-related/business assets are in Cleveland. It was meant as a ‘plant a seed’ type visit for future visits by Irish companies who have expressed an interest in expanding/investing in the Cleveland area, but Messers O’Rourke and Redmond seemed very pleased with their visits, so we expect to bear more fruit in the months and years to come.
On behalf of Global Cleveland, we would like to thank The Irish Network of Cleveland, TeamNEO, IDA Ireland Enterprise, IBM, Cohen &Co, American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, Eaton Corporation, Jumpstart, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, RelateCare, and Cleveland City Hall for such an amazing day.
