Business Leader

“If there were 20 Irish American business leaders like Mike Roarty, as prepared to help Ireland as he is, we’d cut our unemployment by half,” one Irish diplomat said of Mike Roarty. 

Roarty, who recently retired as head of corporate marketing for Anheuser-Busch, was the mastermind behind the ten-years-old Budweiser Derby, one of Ireland’s social events of the year and the richest horse race in Europe. 

Roarty is president of the Ireland United States Council for Commerce and Industry, a non profit organization established in 1963 to provide a platform for representatives from business and governments in both countries to develop links. 

Roarty is tireless in his commitment – he is also involved with Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang, which operates summer camps for seriously ill children in Connecticut and County Kildare in Ireland. 

Roarty was honored by the citizens of Dublin when asked to lead the 1994 St. Patrick’s Day Parade. 

He is a graduate of the University of Detroit, and his parents came from Counties Mayo and Donegal.