 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.