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Business 100 Profiles  Kevin
P. Ryan
Alley Corp.
Kevin Ryan is CEO of Alley Corp., a New York-based startup advisory network
that includes Music Nation, Panther Express, Silicon Alley Insider and
ShopWiki. Previously, from 1996-2005, first as President and later CEO,
Kevin helped build DoubleClick from a startup of 20 people to a very profitable
global leader with more than 1500 employees.
During his tenure, Silicon Alley Reporter named DoubleClick “New
York Company of the Year” and he was named one of the “50
Most Influential Business People” by Crain's New York Business.
Kevin was also an early investor and board member of HotJobs, which was
sold to Yahoo! in 2002. He is on the board of Human Rights Watch and is
a member of the Insead International Council, Yale International Council
and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Born in Milwaukee, Kevin, a fourth-generation Irish-American, traces
his Irish roots to Counties Clare and Cork.
He received a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from INSEAD, and
is married with three children.
 Patrick
G. Ryan
Aon Corporation
As Aon’s chairman and CEO, Patrick Ryan has watched his company
become the world’s largest reinsurance broker. Aon has 55,000 employees
in more than 125 countries.
The company’s name: Aon, is Gaelic for one and it isn’t
its only Irish link. Patrick has roots in Tipperary, and Aon has established
reinsurance and risk management operations in Dublin’s International
Financial Services Center, and has made substantial acquisitions of Irish-based
companies operating in its sector.
Named one of America’s top ten corporate directors in 1998, Patrick
counts among his many honors being named Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s
2001 Man of the Year, and receiving the Order of Lincoln Medallion, Chicago’s
highest award. In 2003, he was honored by the Ireland-U.S. Council at
a dinner in New York.
Patrick is chairman of the board of trustees of Northwestern University,
his alma mater. He and his wife, Shirley, with whom he founded the Pathways
Center for Children and the Pathways Awareness Foundation, have three
sons.
 Sheila
A. Ryan
Cambridge Associates
Sheila Ryan is a Senior Consultant at Cambridge Associates where she
advises Endowments, Foundations and Family Offices on their venture capital,
private equity and hard asset investment programs.
Prior to her present position, Sheila was a director at Intel Capital
where she made venture capital and private equity investments that had
a strategic interest for Intel Corporation. During her tenure at Intel
Capital, Sheila completed over 50 transactions including their largest
deal, a $600 million investment in Clearwire.
Sheila earned her BA in Economics from Stanford University, graduating
with distinction. While there, she played varsity soccer and was a member
of the sailing team. She is a first-generation Irish-American and spent
many summers growing up with her extended family in Ireland.
Her mother, Kathleen, is from Longford and her father, Patrick, is from
Dublin. She resides in Brookline, Massachusetts with her husband Tony
Lyons and her two children. She is active with local charities and is
an Overseer at the Boston Children’s Museum.
 Thomas
Shannon
T-Bird Restaurant Group, Inc.
In 1992, Tom Shannon formed the T-Bird Restaurant Group to develop the
Outback Steakhouse concept in California. Today, the group has 62 Outback
Steakhouse restaurants and continues to grow. The California Restaurant
Association Educational Foundation named Shannon “Restaurateur of
the Year 2002.”
Tom, whose Irish grandparents settled in the Boston Harbor area in 1899,
was born in Somerville, Massachusetts. He attended the University of Florida
on a football/baseball scholarship and graduated with a double degree
in Marketing and Management. He was named Most Valuable Player in the
1962 Gator Bowl, and inducted into the University of Florida’s Hall
of Fame.
Tom serves on the Outback Steakhouse Foundation executive committee,
and as the Outback Pro-Am Tournament Chairman he helps raise over $600,000
annually for children’s charities in the Tampa area. In 2004, Tom
received the “Spirit of Life Award” presented by the City
of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute, and in
2006, he joined the roster of distinguished Americans when he was presented
with the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor award.
 Margaret
M. Smyth
United Technologies
Margaret Smyth recently joined United Technologies as its Vice President
and Controller. In this role, she is responsible for many of the global
finance functions for this $50 billion plus, Dow 30 diversified company
that provides high technology products and services to the building and
aerospace industries.
Prior to her current position Margaret was Vice President and Chief Accounting
Officer of 3M
and a senior partner at two leading global accounting and professional
services firms in New York City.
Margaret earned her undergraduate degree in economics from Fordham University,
and her master’s degree in accounting from NYU Leonard N. Stern
School of Business, graduating summa cum laude from both.
She currently serves as a Director for the following not-for-profit organizations:
Concern Worldwide (U.S.) , Fordham University, Archdiocese of St. Paul
and Minneapolis, and Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
A second-generation Irish-American and an Irish citizen, Margaret is married
and has two sons.
 Brian
W. Stack
CIE Tours International
Brian W. Stack was recently named Managing Director of CIE Tours International
and is responsible for the worldwide operations of CIE Tours. In the 17
years he spent as head of CIE Tours International in North America, the
company has grown to be Ireland’s leading tour operator.
Prior to that, Brian worked as vice president of Marketing at the Ocean
Reef Club and in 1989 he founded Stack International, a New York-based
specialist marketing service for the hotel and travel industry before
joining CIE in 1990.
His awards include “Man of the Year” from the Incentive Travel
Industry, and “International Executive of the Year” by the
World Congress on Marketing and Incentive Travel. He has also served a
two-year term as President of SITE (Society of Incentive Travel Executives).
A native of Dublin, Brian was the first Irishman as well as the first
European to join the society.
He is vice president and board member of the Ireland-US Council, and
a director of the Irish American Cultural Institute. Brian is married
to Ann-Marie and has two grown children.
 Ted
M. Sullivan
KPMG LLP
Ted Maurice Sullivan is a managing director at KPMG LLP, and serves some
of the firm’s largest advisory clients in the Southeast. KPMG LLP,
the audit, tax and advisory firm (www.us.kpmg.com),
is the U.S. member firm of KPMG International. Since joining KPMG in 1999,
Ted has worked in the advisory practice, primarily servicing telecommunications
and media clients.
He currently leads a team of senior client service executives in the
Southeast region. Ted traces his mother’s ancestors to County Tyrone,
and his father’s to County Cork. He is a founding member of the
Metro Atlanta Police Emerald Society and has served as the Georgia president
of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
He has served twice as parade chairman of the Atlanta St. Patrick’s
Day Parade and was the parade’s honorary Grand Marshal in 2005.
Ted visits Ireland every year to reconnect with friends in Navan, Cork,
and the North of Ireland, where he has participated in various political
forums. He holds a B.S. in Finance from Troy University. He and his wife
Sara reside in Atlanta.
 Dennis
Swanson
Fox Television Stations Group
Dennis Swanson became President of Station Operations, Fox Television
Stations Group in 2005. In this role he helps manage the 35 Fox owned-and-operated
stations across the country. Before working for Fox, he was the executive
vice president and COO of the Viacom Television Stations Group.
In his previous capacity, as head of WNBC Channel 4 in New York, Dennis
was named "Broadcaster of the Year” by Broadcasting & Cable,
an industry trade publication. Swanson has received recognition throughout
his career, including the George Foster Peabody Award and the Ellis Island
Medal of Honor. He was recently re-elected chairman of the board of trustees
of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a member
of the Ireland-US Council.
Born in California, Dennis was raised in Springfield, Illinois, and
earned an MS from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He traces
his Irish ancestry to County Mayo. His great-grandfather emigrated during
the famine in 1848. Dennis is married with three children and nine grandchildren.
 Anne
Sweeney
ABC Cable Networks Group
Being named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business”
by Fortune magazine and one of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful
Women,” by Forbes, comes naturally to Anne Sweeney. As co-chairman
of Media Networks, The Walt Disney Co., and president of the Disney-ABC
Television Group, Sweeney has risen through the ranks of television with
one success after another.
She has presided over a quadrupling of Disney Channel subscribers, and
the launch of the successful SOAPnet and Toon Disney channels. In 2004
she was awarded the Cable Television Public Affairs Association’s
President’s Award.
Anne, who earned a B.A. from the College of New Rochelle and a Ed.M. from
Harvard, traces her Irish roots to counties Meath, Kerry and Mayo.
Active in both industry and community organizations, she was elected
a director of the International Council of the National Academy of Television
Arts and Sciences in March 2001. This past October Anne was inducted into
the Cable Hall of Fame, and also received the Committee of 200’s
Luminary Award.
Anne and husband, Philip Millier, live with their two children in Los
Angeles.
 Dawn
Sweeney
National Restaurant Association
As president and chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association,
Dawn Sweeney leads the chief business association for the restaurant industry,
which represents nearly a million restaurant and foodservice outlets and
approximately 12.8 million employees.
Prior to that, Dawn was president and CEO of AARP Services and was responsible
for generating more than $700 million in annual revenue to support AARP’s
mission. She recently received a Bravo Women Business Achievement Award
from Washington SmartCEO magazine and also featured in Profiles in Diversity
Journal as a “Woman Worth Watching in 2006.” Also in 2006,
Washington Business Journal named her one of its “Women Who Mean
Business.”
Dawn, a second-generation Irish-American, has roots on her father’s
side in Cork and Belfast and on her mother’s in Clifden, County
Galway. A member of the Save the Children board, Dawn, who has B.S. and
M.B.A. degrees, recalls that “my grandfather would tell me about
his youth in Ireland, and I remember bursting with pride that I was Irish.
To this day, my favorite holiday is St. Patrick’s Day.” A
native of Maine, she is married with one child.
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