 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, creating in the process Ireland's first international company and a global leader in paper-based packaging.