‘American Idol’ Richardson bows out at AmCham lunch

So it was goodbye from Joanne Richardson at the American Chamber of Commerce's annual Thanksgiving lunch at the Four Seasons hotel in Dublin yesterday. The outgoing chief executive is leaving the US multinational lobby group for pastures new after 12 years in charge, to be replaced by the Irish Tax Institute's Mark Redmond.

Before scoffing their turkey and pumpkin pie, the assembled throng were shown a couple of videos on the big screen. The first was of the AmCham’s year in review, which included various clips of Richardson meeting half the members of Government, as well as pictures featuring her from newspaper articles about the chamber.

The second video was a review of Richardson’s dozen years at the helm, which also included various clips of Richardson meeting an assortment of politicians. She really did socialise for Ireland in that job, or perhaps America.

It also had tributes to her from the likes of Facebook's Colm Long and Douglas Bonnar, an AmCham past president. A caricature of Richardson then appeared on the screen, under the heading 'American Idol'.

Follow that, Mr Redmond . . .