Bilderberg, that infamously secretive annual meeting of some of the most influential people in global politics and commerce, gets underway today and there will be a trio of Irish businessmen behind the closed doors in Chantilly, Virginia.

While the discussions that go on at the gathering are never divulged, Bilderberg's official website helpfully lists each year's attendees, as well as the key topics which will be broached – top of the list being "The Trump Administration: A progress report".

Making his third Bilderberg appearance will be Mullingar's own Michael O'Leary. The Ryanair boss has attended the last two meetings and will be the only figure from the airline industry present.

Joining him will be Gene Murtagh, chief executive of Cavan-based insulation and building materials giant Kingspan.

The group turned a profit of €341m last year, off the back of revenue leaping 12% and past the €3bn mark for the first time.

Speaking to Newstalk last August, Murtagh outlined how its strong ties to the global tech sector was benefitting business:

"We've been working in partnership with companies like Facebook, like Microsoft in other parts of the world, and they're investing substantial amounts here.

"As, of course, will Apple be in the new data centre in Athenry. So we'd expect to be working with all of those businesses."

Completing the trio is the youngest of the bunch.

Patrick Collison (pictured below, left), who runs soaring online payments platform Stripe with his younger brother John, will be one of the few millennials in the conference room at the age of 28.

In March, the Limerick-born, San Francisco-based siblings joined the Forbes Rich List elite for the first time.

The pair landed in joint 1,795th place out of 2,043 billionaires with an estimated fortune of $1.1bn (€1.02bn) each. The 26-year-old John was the youngest self-made billionaire on the list.

While John won't be accompanying him, Patrick will be able to enjoy the company of perennial attendee Henry Kissinger, right-wing tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, IMF head Christine Lagarde and more than 120 other movers and shakers from 21 countries across Europe and North America.

In previous years, Garret FitzGerald, Michael Noonan, Simon Coveney and Michael McDowell have all flown the Irish flag (quietly) at the closed summit.