Enterprise minister Leo Varadkar is embarking on an IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland investment and trade mission to the West Coast of the US today.
The Tánaiste will be accompanied by IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan and Enterprise Ireland CEO Leo Clancy.
The minister will meet with some of IDA’s largest existing clients in Seattle, Silicon Valley and San Francisco, where he will also be joined by a number of Enterprise Ireland clients.
The delegation will also meet with potential clients where senior executives from IDA Ireland will detail the advantages of locating in Ireland to service the European marketplace.
The Tánaiste will also officially open the new Enterprise Ireland office, which is now located in Ireland House San Francisco.
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Varadkar commented: “The companies we are meeting collectively employ over 30,000 people across Ireland. We do not and cannot take this commitment for granted.
“We’ve a full agenda, visiting Seattle, LA and San Francisco, focusing on technology companies investing in Ireland, as well as several meetings with indigenous Irish companies, hopefully opening up opportunities for them to grow and invest in America, creating jobs both in the US and at home.
“This trade mission is about attracting jobs and investment to every part of Ireland and I’m looking forward to what I hope will be a very fruitful trip.”
Key sectors of focus for Enterprise Ireland during the mission include Cyber Security, Life Sciences and ICT.
The agency has organised a cybersecurity roundtable session involving EI clients and leading US cyber security companies.
Meetings with EI clients and US-based companies, including Intuition, Starcircle, Utmost, and Taoglas.
According to IDA data, in 2021 a total of 58 investments were secured from West Coast companies, accounting for one-quarter of the total number of investments into Ireland last year.
There are close to 250 West Coast headquartered companies operating in Ireland, employing in excess of 69,000 people – one quarter of total employment by IDA clients.
As part of the mission, the minister will also present IDA Ireland’s Special Recognition Award to Google CEO, Sundar Pichai at Google’s Sunnyvale Campus in California. The company has over 8,000 employees in Ireland.
