The top 50 Irish Americans on Wall Street were honoured at a reception in New York last night.
Irish America magazine, founded by publisher Mr Niall O'Dowd, has celebrated Irish and Irish American talent in the financial world for the past three years. "This list has grown immeasurably from year one," he said.
This year's award winners - who were honoured at a function at the Windows on the World restaurant - includes Mr Christopher M. "Kip" Condron, chairman and CEO of the Dreyfus Corp who gave the keynote address. Mr Condron is also president and chief operating officer of Mellon Bank Corp and a director of The American Ireland Fund.
Another recipient, Mr Peter Lynch, vice chairman of Fidelity Management and Research Co, is perhaps best known for appearing in quirky Fidelity advertisements on television. But Mr Lynch is the most successful money manager in the history of Wall Street and under his leadership, the Fidelity Magellan Fund grew 2,800 per cent over 13 years to become the world's biggest and best performing fund with in excess of $14 billion under management.
Other winners include Ms Patricia Dunn, global chief executive of Barclays Global Investors, who has been dubbed one of Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business"; Mr David Komansky, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co., who began his career as a financial consultant with the bank in 1968; and Ms Bridget Macaskill, president and CEO of Oppenheimer Funds, who heads up one of the US's leading money management companies.
This year's Wall Street 50 list includes six women - the most to date. All those honoured get a mention and short biography in the August/September 2000 issue of Irish America magazine. About 37 of the 50 attended last night's reception. Mr Sean O'hUiginn, Irish Ambassador to the United States was there, as was Mr Bernie Cahill, chairman of the sponsor, Aer Lingus.
