Chairman of Goldman Sachs International since 1995 . . . a position that earned him £125m when Goldman floated in 1999 and made him, on the last count, the 45th wealthiest man in these islands . . . and of BP since 1997, Sutherland was also recently appointed UN special representative for migration by secretary general Kofi Annan.

Like his Goldman Sachs colleague Hank Paulsen, recently appointed US treasury secretary by George W Bush, Sutherland has long been known to hold the view that the responsibilities of business go beyond maximising shareholder returns, though he hasn't fared badly on that score, either.

Last Friday morning he was in the ornate atrium of Dublin City Hall to present Ahmadjan Madmarov (pictured right), a human rights campaigner for 30 years in the former Soviet central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, with an award from the Denis O'Brien-sponsored charity Frontline.

Merely travelling to Ireland to receive the award put Madmarov under threat, says Sutherland, who hopes his presence will help focus attention on the issue. Are Ireland and the EU doing enough?

"I think they're trying. I'm not trying to raise the issue of the [proposed and rejected EU] constitution, but it would have given Europe a coherent and integrated foreign and development policy. It would have been integrated under a foreign minister which would have given focus. I think of the EU as a propagator of soft power as opposed to hard power, in a very effective way."

He says Ireland barely recognises its own outsized influence on the world stage when it comes to human rights and development issues.

"We don't give ourselves enough credit for the fact that our NGOs and our missionaries, which we've also largely forgotten, have and continue to give Ireland a real presence on human rights and global poverty."

He is keen to point out that business has a role to play in the area of human rights.

"Multinationals . . . those that function in areas where there are abuses of human rights . . . have a particular responsibility by example on these issues. Many corporations now for the first time have at main board level an ethics committee that deals with complicated issues but which are vital, like corruption, and are compliant with human rights standards in their area of activity and in the activities in protecting the rights of their employees."

Sutherland was also voted chairman of the board of the London School of Economics. But his role at oil giant BP drew fire from some students . . . he insists a small group . . . who initially refused to recognise his appointment, citing what they said were issues with BP's record on worker rights and the environment. The announcement was postponed so Sutherland could deal with a spill on BP's Alaskan pipeline. But Sutherland will brook no criticism on that score.

"I'm not worried about BP's record, " he says. "I think we've got enough awards in that regard."

He says Irish business could play a role in the area of human rights through groups like Frontline, but that few Irish companies operate in countries in which human rights are directly an issue.

"How many indigenous Irish companies are there with operations in countries where human rights are under threat? Very few. But those that are clearly can."

Still, he makes it plain that there are limits to what can be expected of business.

"At the end of the day business isn't government. Government has to make the changes."

Sutherland's new UN role has made him focus on the issue of international migration.

"There are 200 million economic migrants in the world today, " he says. He argues that the economic benefits of migration in speeding development back in the countries of migrants' origin is underappreciated.

"Total amount of remittance sent by migrants to developing countries far exceeds foreign direct investment (FDI) or overseas development aid given to countries. So it's far more important as an economic issue relating to human security in developing countries than anything else.

There are some amazing statistics here."

Sutherland cites China as perhaps the most important example. He says that 70% of all FDI into China actually comes not from multinational companies but from the Chinese diaspora, sending some 50bn a year into China.

By making migration an issue about economics and development, rather than human rights, Sutherland says he has a better chance of winning the support of OECD countries this September at a UN conference he will head on the issue.

Ruthless pragmatism and intelligence at the service of a greater good: a far better model of the Celtic Tiger Man, perhaps, than some Irish men in the news last week.

CURRICULUM VITAE PETER SUTHERLAND Born: Dublin, 1946.
Educated: Gonzaga and UCD.
Career: Senior counsel (also admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court); Attorney General of Ireland, 1981; director general of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade; founder director of the World Trade Organisation; chairman, Goldman Sachs International (1995 to present);chairman, BP (1997 to present); chairman, Trilateral Commission (Europe); UN special representative for migration