Eileen McDonnell is the chairman and CEO of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, a position she has held since 2013. She is a graduate of Molloy College and went on to complete her M.B.A. in finance and investments at Adelphi University. She received an honorary doctorate from Molloy College in 2011. In 2017, Eileen was the recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the greater Philadelphia region.

Eileen is a native New Yorker and is a second-generation Irish American with ancestry from counties Clare, Leitrim, Mayo, and Sligo. She takes inspiration from her heritage, saying her grandparents’ “courage and optimism embodies the spirit of the Irish which I’m proud to have inherited.” Eileen belongs to a number of organizations, including the Irish American Business Chamber and Network. She has also been honored as one of Crain’s New York Business 40 under 40. Eileen has also been awarded the honor of being inducted into the Business Excellence Institute Excellence Hall of Fame in Dublin.