Martin Rafferty, the former chairman of United Drug, has died, aged 88. Mr Rafferty began working for the pharmaceutical distribution company in 1973 and was its chairman for more than 30 years.
The businessman, who was born in Glenamaddy, Co Galway, was also managing director of Allied Irish Investment Bank (AIIB), the former investment banking arm of AIB, a role he was appointed to in 1968.
Alongside another AIIB executive, Mr Rafferty acquired building supplies group Brooks Thomas in 1973 and formed the Brooks Watson Group, which later became the retail and wholesale group BWG.
After he left AIIB, he took on a number of non-executive directorships, serving as chairman of companies such as building materials group Readymix and Allianz-Irish Life Holdings. He also had stints as a director of Jefferson Smurfit Group (now Smurfit Kappa), Ulster Bank and Greencore.
In the State sector, he was appointed chairman of inward-investment agency IDA in 1992, while in the same decade he served on the board of the then publicly owned Aer Lingus.
But his longest business association was with United Drug, having put together a management buyout of the company in 1985, and overseen its growth in subsequent decades before retiring in 2005.
Mr Rafferty was married for 60 years to his wife, Betty, who predeceased him, and they are survived by their five sons.
