“I put on a tie for you, it’s the first time I’ve worn one in about two years,” says a smartly dressed Michael Smurfit as we sit down to chat aboard the Lady Ann Magee, a luxury yacht moored in Monaco that he calls home.
I’ve come bearing a gift: a handsome trophy for Distinguished Leadership, which he has received as part of the eighth Irish Times Business Awards, run in association with Bank of Ireland.
“I’m most grateful for this ... it means a lot to me. At this age of my life it is very unexpected.”
The award is in recognition of decades of success as a businessman and entrepreneur. He is best remembered for building the Clonskeagh-based Smurfit packaging group into a major multinational enterprise. Ireland’s first.
Michael Smurfit on his yacht, the Lady Ann Magee, which is named after his mother. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times
Smurfit Westrock, as it is now known, is run by his son Tony Smurfit and is the biggest player in its industry globally.
But Smurfit snr has invested in many other businesses over the years, some of them with family connections.
“I’ve made far more money outside of Smurfits than I did in Smurfits, backing people. Denis O’Brien, for example, Dermot Desmond, John Magnier. We were all in business together and doing things together.”
How much did he make?
“Enough,” he says with a broad smile, as the yacht gently bobs in the water on the quayside near the train station in Monaco.
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