Michael Smurfit

Smurfit was born in St Helens, England, and educated at Clongowes Wood College, County Kildare, Ireland. He left school while a teenager and joined his father's company, Jefferson Smurfit & Sons Ltd, in 1955. In 1967, he was appointed joint managing director and was made deputy chairman in 1969. He was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the Jefferson Smurfit Group in 1977, a position he held until his retirement as CEO in November 2002.

At Jefferson Smurfit Group, Smurfit led the early expansion of the Group in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. He followed this with a series of acquisitions in the US, Latin America and Continental Europe. As chairman, Smurfit oversaw the merger of the Smurfit Group with Kappa Packaging BV to form Smurfit Kappa, with the merged company employing 42,000 employees in 33 countries on 5 continents. His share of the merged company was 4.9%. He is also a director of Ballymore International, a property development and investment group, and has investments in other small companies.

He owned the K Club in County Kildare, which was sold for €70 million in November 2019.

He has two daughters and four sons and lives in Monte Carlo. His son Tony is the current CEO of Smurfit Kappa. He is Victoria Smurfit's uncle. His son, Alexander Smurfit, is a businessman residing in Monaco.

He was appointed as a Knight Commander of the Royal Order of Francis I in November 2002 at a ceremony in Dublin in recognition his of contribution to charitable and humanitarian endeavour.