James W. Keyes
Executive Vice President &
Chief Operating Officer
7-Eleven, Inc.
Revenue: $7.35 billion
Employees: 30, 325 worldwide
James W. Keyes was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of 7-Eleven, Inc. in 1998. His responsibilities include company store operations, merchandising (including sales and marketing), logistics, information systems and human resources. He also serves on me company’s board of directors.
Keyes joined 7-Eleven in 1985 and served in a variety of executive positions including vice president of finance and planning, and senior vice president of finance, before he was named executive vice president and chief financial officer in 1996. In that capacity, he was responsible for six departments including finance, management information, planning and audit.
Born in Grafton, Massachusetts, Keyes earned a B.A. at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He later earned a Master’s in Business Administration at Columbia University.
A third-generation Irish American, Keyes traces his roots on his mother’s side back to Cork.
John J. Kilcullen
Chairman &CEO
IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.
Revenue: $141.5 million
Employees: 450 +
With the humility we Irish like to think is part of our character, John Kilcullen’s personal motto is “Share the vision, share the rewards, share the spotlight.” As the creator of the immensely popular…For Dummies… series, he has certainly seen his share of rewards. Upholding Kilcullen’s credo of turning “I can’t” into “I can,” the…For Dummies series, IDG Books’ flagship brand, has revolutionized how-to publishing by making complex topics accessible, easy and fun for more than 60 million people worldwide.
Under Kilcullen’s leadership as chairman and CEO, IDG Books has enjoyed eight consecutive years of strong growth, with net revenue reaching $141 million in 1998, the same year the company went public. Following a vision to provide lifelong learning in print and online, the company has a diverse brand portfolio, multiple Internet sites and partnerships with major information technology, Internet and e-commerce companies like AOL, Amazon.com, Excite and Netscape. IDG Books also has a subsidiary in Ireland, IDG Europe.
Kilcullen has received numerous awards including the Advertising Age “Marketing 100” for creative marketing and the Ernst &Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award. He has been profiled in Investor’s Business Daily, The New York Times, People magazine and USA Today. Television appearances include CNBC and CNN.
Before joining IDG Books Worldwide, Kilcullen spent nine years in various sales and marketing management positions with the publishing industry leaders Prentice-Hall, the Bantam/Doubleday/Dell Publishing Group and computer book publisher Que.
A first-generation Irish American with roots in Counties Mayo and Sligo, Kilcullen graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree in Communications from Fordham College in New York. He is currently on the advisory board of visitors of Fordham College and Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, where he attended high school.
Kilcullen is chairman and director of IDG Books subsidiaries IDGB Australia and Transquest Publishers Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. He is also on the advisory committee of allbusiness.com, an Internet start-up company, and sits on the boards of finart.com and Webidg.
Patrick J. Lynch
Senior Vice President &Chief Financial Officer
Texaco, Inc.
Revenue: $31.7 billion
Employees: 16,000
To reach oil, Texaco, Inc. drills almost as deep as Mount Everest is high! Together with their joint venture partners Shell and Saudi Refining, Inc., they are the largest gasoline marketers in the U.S. Responsible for exploring. finding, producing and selling crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas, they have operations in more than 150 countries. They also produce electricity or alternate forms of energy for power and manufacturing.
In 1961 Patrick Lynch joined Texaco in the comptroller’s department in New York as a traveling auditor, and was appointed assistant manager of that department in 1967. He worked his way up from manager of international accounting to vice president of Texaco Inc. He was named president of both Texaco Europe and the Latin America/West Africa Division in 1994 before assuming his current position in January 1997.
He has oversight responsibilities for the company’s financial planning and commodities management units.
Lynch is a member of the boards of directors of Caltrex Corporation — Texaco’s 50-50 downstream joint venture with Chevron — and the American Petroleum Institute, where he also serves as the chairman of the general committee on finance. A member of both the council of financial executives for the Conference Board and the CFO Advisory Council for the Financial Executives Institute, he also serves as a trustee for his alma mater, Iona College in New Rochelle.
A second-generation Irish American, he traces his ancestors on his father’s side to Valencia, Co. Kerry and on his mother’s side to Dublin. Lynch is married with three children.
Thomas C. Lynch
President &COO
CompuCom Systems, Inc.
Revenue: $4 billion
Employees: 6,000
Thomas Lynch was appointed president and chief operating officer of CompuCom in July, 1999. Previously he served as executive vice president and COO. His responsibilities included developing strategic initiatives and solving key business problems by coordinating the efforts of the executives in the direct lines of business.
In doing so he was directly responsible for maintaining CompuCom’s focus on its core business while looking ahead to achieve competitive advantages in the industry. He also managed CompuCom’s nationwide sales force, which includes specialized units for government/educational/medical markets, large strategic accounts and international markets.
Lynch joined CompuCom in 1998 after serving three years with Safeguard Scientifics as senior vice president of operations. His responsibilities included the analysis, due diligence and integration of new portfolio companies in the Safeguard partnership.
Prior to Safeguard, Lynch served 31 years in the U.S. Navy and retired with the rank of Rear Admiral. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he also served as superintendent of the Academy from 1991-’94, and director of the Navy Staff (1994-’95).
Lynch also has an M.S. degree from George Washington University. A second-generation Irish American, he traces his roots on his father’s side back to County Cork. He is married with three children.♦
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