Enterprise Ireland Opens Atlanta Office in Time for St. Patrick’s Day 

In what officials joked was the “worst-kept secret” of the St. Patrick’s Day season, Enterprise Ireland on Friday officially unveiled in Atlanta its eighth U.S. office, just in time for the holiday. 

The agency, which helps Irish companies grow abroad, has been eyeing a presence in the city for many years, and top officials said the opening was long overdue for a city that has become a magnet for Irish firms and a key destination for Irish officials visiting the U.S. 

Global Atlanta learned first of plans to open the outpost here while covering Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ meeting with Irish sports tech and fintech companies in Dublin last August, organized by Invest Atlanta with help from Enterprise Ireland at the Guinness Enterprise Centre.

The new office, located at 999 Peachtree Street in Midtown, bolsters “Team Ireland” in Atlanta, which already includes the Consulate General of Ireland (launched in 2010) and IDA Ireland, the country’s investment recruitment agency.

For Minister Dara Calleary, who presided over the opening, it was the third straight year of targeted engagement with Atlanta. He visited the city on an official delegation in late 2023, then welcomed the Georgia Tech football team (and a related group of academic, government and business leaders) to Dublin last August. 

“This is a statement that we have come a long way in terms of Ireland and Georgia and that we intend to keep on that road,” Mr. Calleary told Global Atlanta of the EI opening. 

He was careful to note that its focus will span beyond Georgia, a state where Irish companies like Kerry Group, CRH Americas, Stripe, Fineos and others employ 10,000 people.

“We’re really setting it up as kind of an anchor spot in terms of the Southeast,” said Mr. Calleary, who after Ireland’s recent elections now serves as Minister for Social Protection and for Rural and Community Development (he headed up trade promotion and digital industry until January). 

The new Irish government, he emphasized, is continuing with a strategy of deepening its relationships with the Southeast, a region on the rise when it comes to demographic trends, political sway and economic dynamism.

Perhaps more importantly for Ireland, Mr. Calleary and other Irish officials have seen an alignment of values — hard work, commitment to innovation and a sense of pleasant welcome — that makes Irish companies feel right at home. 

Six months into his role heading up Ireland’s diplomatic mission to the Southeast, Consul General Frank Groome said he’s seen evidence of strong people-to-people links. 

“I can see the vibrancy’s there, the connection, the willingness to do business, and this is a real tangible example of Ireland’s commitment to do business in this region,” Mr. Groome said. 

Growing Ireland by putting down roots abroad

For Kevin Sherry, Enterprise Ireland’s new interim CEO, the Atlanta office shows the agency’s dual commitment to helping Irish firms embed themselves in target markets even as they grow at home. 

This is not an oxymoron as some may suspect, he said, especially in Ireland, where a home market of 5 million people means that newly founded companies are often “born global”— created with the intent to tap new markets. 

“The companies that operate here choose to put down roots here,” Mr. Sherry said. “They embed themselves and get better traction with their customers. That also delivers jobs back in Ireland.” 

He provided the example of Aerogen, an Irish provider of aerosol drug delivery systems credited with saving some 2 million lives. Aerogen spends $70 million on clinical trials in the United States and employs more than 100 people here, Mr. Sherry said. In January, the company announced a €300 million expansion in Galway.

“The reality of it is: You can call them an Irish company; you call them a U.S. company. They’re a global company,” Mr. Sherry said.

To use a local example, he mentioned Smurfit WestRock, the paper and packaging giant formed from the 2024 merger of the Irish firm Smurfit Kappa with Atlanta-based WestRock. The combined company has 2,500 employees and 25 sites in Georgia alone.

Mr. Sherry added that Enterprise Ireland works with its client companies — some 900 currently — to understand their growth plans, then puts them in touch with relevant EI offices to provide on-the-ground expertise and connections. It will point companies in life sciences, fintech, sports tech and digital media to Atlanta.

“We don’t make the decision for them — what we do is help them to get the necessary information so that they make informed decisions, and obviously, then we will provide support,” Mr. Sherry told Global Atlanta.

Over the last 18 months, he estimates that Enterprise Ireland has helped about 80 companies get established in the U.S., and a new five-year strategy announced this month lays out plans to support 1,000 new Irish startups and 1,700 exporting companies, including 150 that employ more than 250 people. 

Mr. Sherry added that while some EI offices already incorporate hot-desking for EI companies, one proposal this year is to expand that to full incubator space (offices) within some U.S. outposts.

One form of support that sets Enterprise Ireland apart from other government organizations is its equity investments, often at the seed or Series A stage. It’s now the largest venture fund in Europe by deal flow, if not by capital deployed.

Some of those companies have found their way to Atlanta, including fintech software firm Keeper Solutions and sports tech innovator Orreco, which was just included in the 2025 Comcast SportsTech Accelerator cohort.

The local team

A two-person team in Atlanta (at least initially) will join EI’s global network, working in concert with the strong Irish community in Atlanta and around the Southeast. 

Anderson Graves, an Atlanta native and University of Georgia graduate, will lead the office. She returns to the state after nearly a decade in New York, most recently serving as senior vice president for consumer retail and technology outreach at Enterprise Ireland, where she has worked more than four years. 

“Obviously no one had to sell me on the ‘why Atlanta’ piece,” Ms. Graves told Global Atlanta. “It already has such a very special place in my heart, so it’s such an honor and privilege to be here serving Enterprise Ireland and helping more Irish companies grow in my home market.”

An unquestioned alliance 

As is customary with St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, the ribbon-cutting ceremony was packed with gestures of bonhomie at a time when U.S. relations with Europe have grown sour.

Mr. Calleary, who noted that the U.S. and Ireland marked a century of diplomatic relations last year, said that for its part, Ireland is not questioning the transatlantic alliance. 

Irish business has weathered a financial crisis, Brexit, COVID-19 and the effects of war in Ukraine, he said, hinting that the country can withstand a trade dispute. 

“Irish business is resilient, it’s adaptable. We evolve, and I think Georgia business is the same,” he said.  

The minister added that the presence in Ireland of Georgia Tech, where he spoke again Thursday, and Georgia Southern, which has a campus in Wexford, are “game changers” for the Georgia-Ireland relationship, underpinning the mutually beneficial expansion of trade and investment connections. 

During the trip, Mr. Calleary also spoke to the Georgia Legislature, which now includes an Ireland Caucus that saw some 25 members go to Ireland last year for the Georgia Tech football game.

The minister’s itinerary also included opening the Atlanta St. Patrick’s Day Parade, visiting the Carter Center, and joining the local Hibernian Society to lay a wreath at Atlanta City Hall to honor Father O’Reilly, who helped save Atlanta from burning during the Civil War.

Mr. Calleary then traveled to Savannah for its parade, meeting with Mayor Van Johnson and enjoying dinner with delegations from Wexford and Limerick.