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Business 100 Profiles  Frank
H. McCourt Jr.
McCourt Company & LA Dodgers
Frank McCourt is president and CEO of The McCourt Company, a Boston real
estate development business specializing in commercial building properties.
He is also the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball organization.
Frank’s great-grandfather founded The McCourt construction company
in 1893, and it has remained in the family ever since. In 1977 Frank’s
father, who was also called Frank, founded The McCourt Company, a spin-off
of the original construction business.
Frank is not the first in his family to own a major league franchise,
as his grandfather was part-owner of the Boston Braves. He previously
attempted to purchase the Red Sox and the Angels and is a lifelong baseball
fan and Red Sox season ticket holder.
He is on the Board of Regents at Georgetown University, where he graduated
in 1975. He also sits on a number of civic boards, including the Greater
Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, and
the Make a Wish Foundation. Frank and his wife Jamie were married in 1979
and have four sons.
 Declan
Kelly
FD-US
In his role as President and CEO of FD/US, Declan Kelly oversees the
company’s operations in New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and
Washington, D.C. Declan is a senior advisor to several multi-national
corporations, governments and representative organizations. He
specializes in crisis management assignments and corporate
communications and has extensive international M&A experience both in
the U.S. and in Europe. He is also chairman of FD Ireland, a business he
founded.
Declan received the 2005 Alumni Award for Business and Commerce from the
National University of Ireland, Galway. He is also a member of the
Advisory Board of Glucksman Ireland House at New York University.
He sits on the board of directors of The American Ireland Fund and
Cooperation Ireland. Born and reared just outside Nenagh, County
Tipperary, Kelly is married to Julia and lives in Manhattan. In
September 2006, Financial Dynamics was acquired by the business
consulting firm FTI for $260 million.
 Christopher
G. Kennedy
Merchandise Mart
Christopher Kennedy, son of the late Senator Robert Kennedy, is the
president of Merchandise Mart Properties Inc (MMPI). MMPI manages a wide
variety of office space and sponsors numerous trade shows throughout the
year. MMPI is a division of the Vornado Realty Trust, which purchased it
from the Kennedy family in 1998.
Christopher joined the company as a research analyst in 1987, becoming a
vice president in 1991 and executive vice president in 1994. He was
appointed president in 2000.
Christopher is also involved in numerous nonprofit groups, and is on the
board of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He belongs to the
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of Chicago.
The Kennedy family has roots in County Wexford. Married with four
children, Katherine, Christopher Jr., Sarah, and Clare, Christopher
earned his bachelor’s degree at Boston College, and a master’s in
management from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at
Northwestern.
Thomas
C. Kennedy
Vanguard Car Rental Group Inc.
Thomas C. Kennedy is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial
Officer of Vanguard Car Rental Group, Inc., a position he has held for
the last four years. Prior to joining Vanguard, Thomas served in various
positions at Northwest Airlines, Inc, including Senior Vice President
and Controller, 2003; Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis
from 2000 to 2002; and several other financial positions since he
started with the company in 1992.
Thomas holds a B.A. in economics from Tulane University and an M.B.A
from Harvard University. In 2003, he was recognized by Treasury and Risk
Management magazine as one of 40 under 40 financial professionals. He
resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he serves on the metropolitan board of
the Y.M.C.A.
A fourth-generation Irish-American whose family hails from Counties
Roscommon, Kildare, Galway, and Cork, Thomas says of his heritage, “As
an Irish-American I am proud of the struggles my ancestors overcame and
the hard work they endured to provide the opportunities for my
multi-cultural family.”
 Donald
R. Keough
Allen & Company
Following his retirement as president, COO and director of the
Coca-Cola Company in 1993, Donald Keough became chairman of the board of
Allen & Company Incorporated, a New York investment banking firm.
In 2004, Coca-Cola re-elected Donald to the post of director, making a
change in its retirement policy. Donald has been a crucial member of the
company since 1950. He also serves on the boards of IAC/InterActive
Corp., Global Yankee Holdings, Convera Corporation, and Berkshire
Hathaway, Inc.
Donald has received honorary doctorates from the University of Notre
Dame, his alma mater Creighton University, Emory University, Trinity
College, Dublin, University College Dublin, and Clarke University.
Notre Dame’s highest honor, the Laetare Medal, was presented to Donald
in 1993. In 1995, he established the Keough Institute of Irish Studies
at Notre Dame. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts &
Sciences in 2002, and inducted into the Junior Achievement National
Business Hall of Fame in 2003.
 Alan
G. Lafley,
Procter & Gamble Company
As the Chairman, President and CEO of Procter and Gamble, Alan Lafley
oversees the largest consumer company in the world. Under Alan’s
leadership sales have grown from 40 billion to over 68 billion. Alan
received a B.A. degree from Hamilton College in 1969 and an M.B.A. from
Harvard University in 1977, at which time he joined Procter and Gamble.
He is also a director of General Electric Company, and Dell, Inc. He
serves on the Board of Trustees at Hamilton College and is a member of
the Lauder Institute Board of Governors, the Business Roundtable and the
Business Council.
Chief Executive magazine named Alan “CEO of the Year,” for 2006.
Alan, who was Irish America’s Keynote Speaker for its 2005 Business 100
Awards Luncheon in New York City, is a second-generation Irish-American
who traces his roots to County Cork. He cites the influence of his Irish
grandmother, Catherine “Kitty” Irwin, as of huge importance during his
childhood in Keene, New Hampshire.
Alan lives in Cincinnati with his wife Margaret.
 MacDara
Lynch
Pfizer
MacDara Lynch is the Vice President/Team Leader of
Pfizer’s Global Contract Manufacturing Division. He joined Pfizer in
1972 in Ringaskiddy, Cork and over the years has worked in various roles
in Belgium, Indonesia, and Nebraska. In 2000, MacDara transferred to
Brooklyn as Site Leader for the manufacturing facility and in 2003 he
was appointed as Vice President/ Team Leader of Pfizer’s Global
Manufacturing Division, United States East/Canada Region before assuming
his current position in 2007.
Born in Bandon, County Cork, MacDara graduated from University
College Cork in 1972 with a B.Sc. Degree in Chemistry. Throughout his
travels, he has always been active in the local community. He served as
Honorary Irish Consul in Indonesia for two years and serves on Brooklyn
Legal Services Corporation A’s Board of Directors. He is also a member
of the board of directors of the Ireland - U.S. Council. MacDara and his
wife Ita have three children and one granddaughter and live in
Connecticut. He says being Irish “helps to refocus on what is really
important in life.”
 Joanna
Maguire
Lockheed Martin Systems Company
Joanna Maguire is executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space
Systems Company and also an officer of Lockheed Martin Corporation. In
this role, she is responsible for the business operations and activities
of approximately 18,000 company employees. Joanna, who was named to
Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women,” list for 2007, earned her Bachelor's
degree in electrical engineering from Michigan State University and a
master’s degree in engineering from the University of California at Los
Angeles.
A graduate of the executive program in management at UCLA’s Anderson
School of Management, Joanna also completed the Harvard Program for
Senior Executives in National and International Security.
Joanna, who serves as a director on the boards of Space Foundation and
INROADS, Inc., is also a member of American Institute of the Aeronautics
and Astronautics and the Society of Women.
She is a first-generation Irish-American whose father, Michael F.
Maguire, was born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal.
 James
F. McCann
1-800-Flowers.com
When Jim McCann founded 1-800-Flowers in 1976, people told him
that he couldn’t change customers’ purchase behaviors. Luckily, Jim did
not listen to them, or he would not now be president and CEO of a
company with annual revenues of almost $1 billion. Jim started his
company with a single flower shop over 30 years ago in addition to his
regular job as a social worker. He eventually expanded it to a regional
chain in the New York area.
1-800-Flowers.com was one of the first online retailers. Customers can
send a wide variety of floral products around the block or around the
world by clicking a mouse on a personal computer, walking into one of
its stores, or by dialing 1-800-FLOWERS.
Jim is a third-generation Irish-American with roots in Counties Armagh
and Limerick. He credits his love of storytelling to his Irish heritage,
and has three books to his name including, Stop and Sell the Roses,
published in 1998. His most recent book, A Year Full of Flowers, was
co-authored with his sister Julie Mulligan. Jim is married with three
children.
 Norman
McClelland
Shamrock Foods Company
Norman McClelland took his father’s small dairy in Tucson, Arizona and
transformed it into Shamrock Foods Company – the largest dairy in the
Southwest and the seventh largest food distribution company in the U.S.
As one of the largest employers in Arizona, Shamrock Foods is a
significant contributor to the community by supporting more than 80
non-profit organizations – many of which are education-focused – and
donating more than 80,000 pounds of food per month. After 85 years of
successful business growth, Norm is proud of the family company’s
ability to thrive as one of the top five privately held Arizona-based
companies. He, himself, serves as a role model for the philosophy he
instills in his company, by actively supporting many charitable,
business and community organizations including the University of
Arizona, Barrow Neurological Foundation, Goldwater Institute, Thomas J.
Pappus Elementary, Arizona State University, and the Irish Cultural &
Learning Center. In homage to his Ulster roots, Norm is leading the
charge to create an 11,000-square-foot state-of-the-art library at the
Phoenix Irish Cultural Center.
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