According to U.S. Census Bureau data, Maricopa County is home to the second largest total population of people with Irish heritage in the nation, with more than 400,000 residents tracing their roots to the Emerald Isle. Four of the Valley’s municipalities have Sister Cities in the Republic of Ireland — Phoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler — but the relationship between Arizona and the island nation is deeper than a shared cultural connection. That’s why Anne-Marie Tierney Le Roux, divisional manager for technology at IDA Ireland — the Irish government’s foreign direct investment agency — visited Phoenix in April to study the region’s successful semiconductor ecosystem.  

AZRE magazine sat down with Tierney Le Roux to hear why she came to the Valley and what her biggest takeaway from the visit. The following responses have been edited for clarity and length.  

AZRE: What sort of work does IDA Ireland do?  

Anne-Marie Tierney Le Roux: IDA Ireland is short for the Investment Development Agency of the Irish government. We’ve been around for 77 years and was formed with a mandate to diversify the Irish economy away from a reliance on the indigenous [domestic] sector. The very first company to come to Ireland was IBM in 1956, so we have a long heritage of U.S. — over the last seven decades, 72% of investment has come from the U.S. 

Our focus is to help companies find a home in Ireland by being a combination of a fact finder, honest broker and introduction agency.  

AZRE: What brings you out to the desert?  

Anne-Marie Tierney Le Roux: I head up our global technology and consumer business at IDA Ireland, and I also sit in our executive leadership team. My colleagues and I are here to understand more about the “secret sauce” Arizona has — apart from the temperature and land mass. We hold the state up as the location that had the vision and infrastructure that won the TSMC investment.

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AZRE: Did you uncover any insights from your time here?  

Anne-Marie Tierney Le Roux: We met with the Arizona Commerce Authority, city leaders, ASU, the community colleges, Intel and TSMC — all the people involved in the long-term vision for Arizona.  

I’ve been hugely impressed by what I’ve seen to be honest. The conversations with educational institutions gave me a lot of food for thought on how important growing the workforce is for not just attracting companies like TSMC but retaining them. The tailored courses and micro credentials coming out of ASU and the community colleges are great for upskilling existing workers or bringing in new talent. 

AZRE: Was there anything you saw that wouldn’t quite work back in Ireland? 

Anne-Marie Tierney Le Roux: Scale is a big one. More than 5 million people live in Greater Phoenix, while the population of Ireland is just under 6 million. So, we’re not really comparing apples and pears, but at the same time, we punch above our weight in terms of what we have to offer as a country.  

That’s why we were able to attract Intel, ON Semi and Microchip Technology — it doesn’t happen by accident. We’re planning to have the land, infrastructure and energy available to ensure Ireland wins [the next big semiconductor project]. 

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AZRE: Any other thoughts about your time in Arizona you’d like to share?  

Anne-Marie Tierney Le Roux: I would like to say thank you to the people we met who were so warm, fun and welcoming to our delegation. We learned a lot, like how memorable it is to meet a mayor who’s wearing a cowboy hat and boots.  

We’ll have to work out what the Irish equivalent is — perhaps an Aran jumper and tweed hat.