Raymond Gabriel O'Rourke (born January 1947) is an Irish businessman, the chairman and CEO of the construction multinational Laing O'Rourke. O'Rourke was born in January 1947. A native of

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim, County Leitr ...

, Ireland, he was raised in Corraleehan, near

Ballinamore Ballinamore (, meaning "mouth of the big ford") is a small town in the south-east of County Leitrim in Ireland. Etymology , corrupted ''Bellanamore'', means "town at the mouth of the big ford", so named because it was a main crossing (ford) o ...

. He runs the privately owned Laing O'Rourke with his brother Des (born 1950), and owns 55% of the company. O'Rourke "started as a 'pony boy' carrying muck out from under London as the Victoria Line was being constructed." His estimated net worth was €800 million as of 2015. O'Rourke purchased the construction company Swift Structures, owned by his brothers-in-law, Jim and Matt Halligan from County Mayo. He then called in the receivers. His son, Cathal, works for Laing O'Rourke, and in March 2023 was appointed the company's chief operating officer. In June 2024, it was announced that Cathal would succeed his father as Laing O'Rourke CEO from the beginning of July 2024.

Honours

O'Rourke has honorary doctorates from the

Dublin Institute of Technology Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT, ) was a major third-level institution in Dublin, Ireland. On 1 January 2019 DIT was dissolved and its functions were transferred to the Technological University Dublin, as TU Dublin City Campus. The insti ...

, and

Queen's University, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

. In 2011, he was made a Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

References

1947 births Living people Irish businesspeople in real estate Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Date of birth missing (living people) Businesspeople from County Leitrim 20th-century Irish businesspeople 21st-century Irish businesspeople People from Ballinamore Businesspeople awarded knighthoods {{Ireland-business-bio-stub