An indication of how far the Irish have come in corporate America could be seen by the number of stretch limousines parked outside the historic 21 Club in Manhattan on Tuesday.
The bimonthly magazine, Irish America, celebrated its annual Business 100 awards with a November/December issue featuring Mark McGuire of the St Louis Cardinals on the front cover. Ms Patricia Harty, editor-in-chief, noted that he and baseball are the symbols of success in America. The man who hit 70 home-runs last season showed Irish Americans everywhere that "he could keep his eye on the ball", she said.
Headlining this year's list of prominent Irish American business people were Mr William Flynn, chairman of Mutual of America, Mr Michael Foley, president and CEO of Heineken USA, Mr Christopher Galvin, CEO of Motorola, Mr James P. Kelly, chairman and CEO of United Parcel Service, Ms Katherine Williams, vice-president and treasurer of Coors Brewing, Mr John C. Malone, CEO of Telecommunications Inc. and Mr Scott McNealy, chairman, president and CEO of Sun Microsystems.
This year's list included 17 women, up from six last year and the two top counties of origin of the 100 nominees were Cork and Mayo. The event was also attended by Ms Jean Kennedy Smith, former US ambassador to Ireland and Mr Gary McMichael, head of the Ulster Democratic Party.
The Northern Ireland Economic Affairs minister, Mr Adam Ingram, presented Mr George Moore, chairman and CEO of Targus Information Corp with an award for his work in Northern Ireland since he bought Belleek Giftware, Galway Irish Crystal and Aynsley China.
"He's a great examplar of what can be done," said Mr Ingram. "We need the small and large business sector in Northern Ireland. The Good Friday Peace Agreement can't succeed unless we have economic prosperity."
Mr Enda Connolly, director of the Industrial Development Authority's North American operation, presented the next award to Mr John Coughran, executive vice-chairman of MBNA, the second largest credit card issuer in America with 10 per cent of the market.
MBNA set up its second European project in Dublin in March this year.
