Charles Feeney
Chief Executive Officer
Medallion Hotels
Revenue: N/A
Employees: N/A
A native and resident of New Jersey, Charles “Chuck” Feeney has shown a considerable commitment by dedicating energy and time to helping the peace process in Ireland. He was one of four Irish Americans involved in bringing about the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires.
A member of the Irish-American Economic Board, he is actively promoting investment opportunities and the creation of more jobs in the Border counties and in Northern Ireland.
Feeney is a graduate of Cornell University, and his business activities include investments in real estate, retailing, energy, hotels and information technology.
His years of anonymous support to a host of charities and educational trusts were finally made public after the sale of Duty Free Shops, the chain Feeney cofounded with Robert Miller. Low-key and retiring, Feeney once told the New York Times that he had given away so many of his millions because “nobody can wear two pairs of shoes at one time.”
Much of his giving was directed towards Irish universities – $15 million went to the University of Limerick and $10 million to Trinity College, Dublin. Feeney traces his Irish roots back to County Fermanagh.
Neal F. Finnegan
Chairman &CEO
USTrust
Revenue: $5.9 billion
Employees: 2,000
Neal F. Finnegan is chairman and chief executive officer of USTrust, a banking company headquartered in Boston, and president and chief executive officer of UST Corp., its parent holding company.
Finnegan began his career in banking in 1961 at Shawmut Bank of Boston. Over the next 19 years, he served at Shawmut in a variety of capacities, culminating in the position of senior vice president in charge of commercial banking. He left Shawmut in 1980 to become president and chief executive officer of Worcester Bancorp, then the largest banking company in central Massachusetts. He returned to Shawmut three years later as vice chairman.
In 1986, he moved to New York to serve as president and chief operating officer of the Bowery Savings Bank. In 1988, he was appointed executive vice president at Bankers Trust Company of New York. He returned to New England in 1993 as chief executive officer of UST Corp and USTrust.
Finnegan earned his undergraduate degree in finance from Northeastern University in 1961 and an MBA from Babson College in 1969.
Active in many Boston-area organizations, Finnegan is chairman of both the Northeastern University board of trustees and the Massachusetts Community and Banking Council. He also serves as a director for the Metropolitan Housing Partnership and the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. In addition he is a trustee of WGBH and Catholic Charities and the Massachusetts Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Finnegan is a second-generation Irish American – his paternal grandparents are from the Castlerea area of County Roscommon and his maternal grandmother is from County Kerry.
Gale Fitzgerald
Chairman &CEO
CTG, Inc.
Revenue: $500 million
Employees: 6,000
A 25-year veteran of the information technology (IT) industry, Gale Fitzgerald joined CTG (Computer Task Group) in 1991 as senior vice president of the company’s Northeast region. She quickly rose to the top of the company and in 1994 was promoted to chairman and CEO.
Throughout her tenure at CTG, Fitzgerald has focused on “key clients,” the Fortune 500 companies that turn to CTG as a “strategic partner.” With a client list streamlined from 1,000 to 450 companies under Fitzgerald’s leadership, CTG is a top provider of IT solutions that increase their clients’ competitiveness on the market.
CTG was named one of the 100 best places to work by Computerworld magazine, and with 30 years’ experience in the trade and over 6,000 employees, CTG has earned its reputation as a progressive employer.
Fitzgerald began her career in the IT industry at IBM where she helped build the success that IBM knows today in the professional services division as the vice president for professional services.
A graduate of Connecticut College, she now lives with her husband and son in Buffalo, New York, where CTG is headquartered. She is a third-generation Irish American on her mother’s side.
Raymond N. Fitzgerald
President &CEO
Atlantic Aviation
Revenue: $100 million
Employees: 550
Raymond N. Fitzgerald’s policy as president and chief executive officer of Atlantic Aviation is quite simple. “Basically it begins with the `Golden Rule,'” he explains. “Treating others with the respect you’d like them to show you.” One outgrowth of this philosophy is what Fitzgerald calls “town meetings,” exchanges that encourage staff to share candidly, squelch rumors, seek help and help others. “All doors should be open,” he points out.
Fitzgerald brings plenty of aviation experience to his position. Prior to his work with Atlantic Aviation he was senior vice president of AMR Combs, Inc.’s eastern division and general manager of their Bradley International Airport FBO.
A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he served as an aircraft carrier pilot and military fighter pilot from 1961 to 1983. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law.
Fitzgerald is a third-generation Irish American with ancestral ties to Counties Mayo and Cork, and a former member of the John Boyle O’Reilly Club. While studying at the USNA he arranged with the National Farmers’ Association to work on two farms in Ireland. He has since returned to Ireland several times.
Fitzgerald is married with five children.♦
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