Brian O’Neill
Chairman and Founder
The O’Neill Group
Employees: 40
Revenue: N/A
Brian O’Neill’s personal motto — “All and Everything” — is fitting. In his career he has founded three companies with huge success. TeleSpectrum Worldwide has been traded on the NASDAQ since 1996 and provides teleservices and direct marketing services to JC Penney and AT&T among other Fortune 500 Companies. CRW Financial, also traded on the NASDAQ, is a holding company for diverse corporate investments.
With these two companies, O’Neill has completed Philadelphia’s largest initial public offering, raising more than $185 million per year. As chairman of The O’Neill Group since founding it in 1988, O’Neill has seen the company develop more than 4,000,000 square feet of office and industrial space in the Northeast, with sales of approximately $180,000,000 million in real estate in the last 22 months.
Recognized as one of the most gifted entrepreneurs in the region, in the 1991 “40 under 40” list, O’Neill has contributed to his community, raising money for charitable organizations, including St. Edmond’s Home for Children. He is a recipient of the Roman Catholic Award and the City of Philadelphia Tribute from Ed Rendel. A member of the Irish American Partnership, O’Neill traces his second-generation Irish lineage to County Tyrone. He lives in Villanova, Pennsylvania with his wife and five children.
Sean B. O’Neill
President and COO
Grand Circle Corporation
Net Sales: $300 million (U.S.)
Employees: 500
Born in Dublin, Ireland and educated at Galway College, Galway, Ireland, Sean B. O’Neill holds his B.S. in Hotel Administration and boasts over 19 years’ experience in the travel industries.
As a technical management expert, he was the chief information systems officer and senior vice president at the ITT Sheraton Corporation, where he was responsible for the company’s global information systems and Data Center, including strategic planning, architecture, network design, and hardware and software management.
At Grand Circle Corporation, a leading provider of foreign travel for Americans, O’Neill is responsible for the central operations of the company, including strategic technology initiatives for global operations and the company’s worldwide technology infrastructure.
Grand Circle Corporation is distinguished not only for offering high impact travel experiences, but also for supporting projects throughout the world that strengthen communities and protect the environment through the Grand Circle Foundation, a nonprofit organization created in 1992.
O’Neill lives with his wife and their three children in Boston, where Grand Circle Corporation is based. His father’s family comes from Waterford and his mother’s family is from Tipperary.
Patrick Purcell
President &Publisher
Boston Herald
Revenue: N/A
Employees: 750
Owner and publisher of the Boston Herald, Patrick Purcell has vast experience in the world of publishing. In 1980, he joined News Corporation as associate publisher of the Village Voice. In 1984, he was appointed president and publisher of the Boston Herald (which he has owned since February 1994) and three years later, he assumed the responsibility as publisher of the New York Post.
In 1990, Purcell was named president of News America/Newspapers, which was responsible for the Boston Herald and San Antonio Express News. Three years later, he was appointed president and CEO of News America Publishing with responsibility for TV Guide, Mirabella magazine and News America’s freestanding inserts: he remained publisher of the Boston Herald and New York Post. A native of New York, Purcell earned a B.B.A. from St. John’s University and an M.B.A. from Hofstra University.
Purcell is the East Coast president of the American Ireland Fund. His father came from Co. Waterford, and Purcell is married with four children and two grandsons.
James E. Quinn
Vice Chairman
Tiffany &Co.
Revenue: $1.2 billion
Employees: 4,500
James E. Quinn is vice chairman of Tiffany &Co., the internationally renowned jeweler and specialty retailer. Appointed to his current position in January 1998, he is responsible for retail, corporate and direct marketing sales worldwide. He was named to Tiffany’s board of directors in 1995.
Quinn joined Tiffany in 1986 as vice president, corporate sales. He was promoted to senior vice president, corporate division four years later and to executive vice president in 1992.
A second-generation Irish American, Quinn is a member of the North American advisory board for University College Dublin. He also serves on the board of directors of Bank of New York Hamilton Funds, Mutual of America Capital Management and the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District. He is a trustee of the Museum of the City of New York and the Montclair Art Museum, and serves on the advisory committee for the Business Council for the United Nations.
Quinn earned a B.A. degree in communications from Hofstra University and an M.B.A. from Pace University. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two children. He traces his Irish roots back to Dublin and Mullingar on his father’s side and Listowel and Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry on his mother’s side.
William F. Quinn
President, AMR Investment Services, Inc.
AMR Corp.
Revenue: $150 million
Employees: 300
William F. Quinn has served as president of AMR Investment Services since the firm was created in 1986. AMR Investments manages approximately $21 billion in pension assets, short-term cash assets on behalf of its affiliate American Airlines, and outside clients including the $7.5 billion American AAdvantage Funds. Quinn also serves as president and trustee of the Funds, which he was responsible for founding. American Airlines has a reservation center in Dublin.
Quinn joined Sky Chefs, an American Airlines subsidiary, in 1974, where he held several key financial positions. He served as an executive for one of the company’s affiliates, Americana Hotels, during 1978. He was named assistant treasurer for American in 1979 and assumed the responsibility of overseeing the company’s pension funds in 1980.
Prior to joining American, Quinn worked for Arthur Young and Co. in New York from 1969 to 1974. During that time, he became a certified public accountant in New York State. He holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Fordham University.
Active in corporate and civic circles, Quinn is the founder of the Dallas/Fort Worth Pension Sponsors Group and a member of the Financial Executives Institute’s Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets (CIEBA). He also serves as chairman of the board of directors of the American Airlines Employees Federal Credit Union; a director of Crescent Real Estate Equities, Inc.; a director of the United Way of Tarrant County; and a director of the Cancer Research Foundation of North Texas. He is on the advisory board of ARCO Investment Management, Southern Methodist University’s endowment fund and a number of private investment partnerships.
A second-generation Irish American, Quinn traces his roots back to Counties Galway and Kerry. He and his wife Doreen have four children. A native of Flushing, New York, he and his family reside in Arlington, Texas.♦
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