George D. Dalton
Chairman
Fiserv, Inc.
Revenue: $1.5 billion
Employees: 13,000
A well-known and highly respected business leader in the financial industry, George Dalton has spent over 40 years in financial data processing. Fiserv was born in 1984, when Dalton merged his company, First Data Processing (FDP) with Sunshine State Systems’ data processing service.
Since its inception the company has grown at a tremendous pace, with revenues increasing from $21 million in 1984 to $1.2 billion in 1998. Under Dalton’s leadership Fiserv has grown from two data centers and less than 300 employees, to an international location in over 85 cities with more than 13,000 employees. The company has also achieved the position of the leading industry provider of data processing, item processing, IRA processing and clearing services to banks, savings institutions, credit unions, broker/dealers, financial intermediaries and mortgage banks.
Among Dalton’s numerous awards are Wisconsin Business Leader of the Year (1994), presented by The Harvard Business School Alumni Club and The Milwaukee Journal; Marketing Executive of the Year (1994) from Sales and Marketing Executives of Milwaukee; and the Baird Award for Management Excellence (1991), co-sponsored by the Executive MBA Alumni Association of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Dalton serves as board member for several companies, including APAC, AIR, Inc. and Wisconsin Wireless. He also serves on the boards of directors of several local organizations including Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Discovery World, Milwaukee Public Museum and Milwaukee Repertory Theater. He is vice chairman of the Wisconsin Humane Society.
Dalton is a third-generation Irish American, who traces his roots on his father’s side to Dublin. He is married with six grown children.
John T. Dillon
Chairman &CEO
International Paper
Revenue: $20 billion plus
Employees: 80,000
John Dillon is chairman and chief executive officer of International Paper, having previously served as the company’s president and chief operating officer.
Prior to April 1996, Dillon was executive vice president of packaging, responsible for the company’s industrial and consumer packaging businesses, as well as its corporate engineering and technology staffs. He was also in charge of International Paper’ s operations in Asia and served on the board of directors of Carter Holt Harvey, a New Zealand paper and forest products company. In 1991 he was elected to International Paper’s board of directors.
Dillon received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Hartford in 1965 and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business in 1971.
His professional affiliations include membership on the board of directors of Caterpillar, Inc. He serves on the boards of the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, the National Council on Economic Education, and the Business Roundtable Construction Task Force. He is also a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Trade Policy and Negotiations, vice chairman of the American Forest &Paper Association and a member of the Business Council.
He grew up in rural upstate New York, where his grandfather, a native of Clones, County Monaghan, settled when he came to the U.S.
Roy E. Disney
Vice Chairman of the Board
The Walt Disney Company
Revenue: $23 billion
Employees: 100,000
The wonderful world of Disney has been going strong for almost 75 years and Walt’s nephew, Roy E. Disney, has been involved in that world for nearly 50 of those years, since he worked on the TV series Dragnet in 1953.
He worked as a film editor, producer and director and in 1984 he was appointed vice chairman of the company founded as Wait Disney Productions by his father Roy and uncle Wait. He also heads the studio’s expanded animation department.
Disney is a principal investor in Trefoil Capital Partners and chairman of Shamrock Holdings, a wholly-owned family enterprise which he set up in 1978. He has also been involved with The American Ireland Fund for some years.
The Disney ancestors were a French Huguenot family, originally named d’Isigny, who settled in Ireland in the 18th century. Disney maintains strong links to his Irish background, owning a castle in West Cork.
An English graduate of Pomona College, Disney was born in Los Angeles. He is married to Patty Dailey, also an Irish American, and they have four children and ten grandchildren.
Peter R. Dolan
Senior Vice President, Strategy and
Organizational Effectiveness
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
Revenue: $18.3 billion
Employees: 55,000
Peter R. Dolan is corporate senior vice president of strategy and organizational effectiveness at Bristol-Myers Squibb, a newly-created position he was asked to fill by company chairman Charles Heimbold.
This new position perfectly complements Dolan’s long history of line management responsibilities. As the head of corporate strategy, he leads the BMS Strategy Council and directs overall company efforts in strategic planning and the consideration of new business strategy alternatives. As member of the BMS management committee, Dolan reports directly to the chairman and CEO. Bristol-Myers Squibb has several subsidiaries in Ireland, one in Shannon and three in Co. Dublin.
Dolan assumed these responsibilities after managing all four of the Bristol-Myers Squibb businesses: consumer products, nutritionals, medical devices and pharmaceuticals. He joined Bristol-Myers in 1988 as vice president of marketing in the products division. Prior to his tenure at BMS, he served in a range of product management and marketing positions with General Foods.
Outside of the office, Dolan is an overseer of the Tufts Medical School and a member of the American Cancer Society’s CEO advisory board. He is also the co-author of a guidebook on the country’s top ten business schools. He earned a B.A. from Tufts University and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business.
An avid athlete, this third-generation Irish American runs marathons, is a long-distance cyclist, scuba diver, skier and tennis player. He lives in Larchmont, New York with his wife and two children. He has Irish ancestry on both sides of his family and traces his roots back to County Galway.♦
Leave a Reply