The Ambassador's Award Recipient QVC Accepting on Behalf of QVC
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SPONSORSHIP PACKET The Ambassador’s Award Recipient QVC Accepting on behalf of QVC: Jane Treacy, QVC Program Host The Ambassador Award, named in honor of the Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, is presented annually to honor a company that has furthered the goals of the Irish American Business Chamber by developing business between Ireland and the United States. Anne Anderson is the current Ambassador of Ireland to the United States. QVC was founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel, an entrepreneur who saw an opportunity to create a new and engaging shopping experience through television broadcasts. He named the company QVC to represent its three guiding principles: Quality, Value, and Convenience. Today, QVC is the world’s leading video and eCommerce retailer, offering a curated collection of desirable brands to millions of customers around the globe each day through broadcast, Internet, and mobile sales platforms. QVC is the world’s top multimedia shopping company in terms of viewers and revenue and ranks among the top online mass merchandise retailers. QVC is available in 300 million homes worldwide through its broadcast programming in the U.S., Japan, Germany, U.K., Italy, Austria, Ireland and a joint venture in China. QVC has shipped more than 169 million products in 2013 to these markets. Based outside of Philadelphia in West Chester, PA, QVC has 17,000 employees worldwide. The company has state-of-the-art broadcast and eCommerce operations at its corporate headquarters, known as “Studio Park,” as well as studios in all of its global markets. QVC aired its first Irish goods show back in 1989. Their two Irish programming events – St. Patrick’s Day and Rose of Tralee in September – are extremely popular QVC events. In 2013, QVC had 19 hours of programming devoted to St. Patrick’s Day, which featured entertainment segments filmed in Ireland, and a live performance by Keith Harkin of Celtic Thunder. QVC has had more than 130 Irish vendors throughout the years, and has sold more than 6 million units of “Irish” branded product to date. Top Irish brands include: Waterford, Kilronan, Fragrances of Ireland, Killarney Crystal, Irish Dresden, Connemara Marble, Boyne Valley Weavers, and Aran Craft. One of the original QVC program hosts, Jane Treacy began her broadcasting career at CNN while still in college at Kutztown University. Jane worked as a producer and program host throughout her career with stations in Scranton, PA and Providence, Rhode Island. In 1986, she returned to Pennsylvania to host Real to Reel for WPHL–TV in Philadelphia and joined QVC later that year. Previous recipients of the Ambassador’s Award include: SAP, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Shire Pharmaceuticals, ARAMARK, The Vanguard Group, ICON Plc, Amicus Therapeutics, Cross Atlantic Capital Partners, GMAC, ICT Group, Wyeth, and Siemens. 2015 Ambassador, Taoiseach, and Uachtarán Awards Sponsorship Form The Taoiseach Award Recipient Frank Reynolds, Chairman & CEO, PixarBio The Taoiseach Award is presented to a member of Irish descent who has, by example, shown exceptional business leadership and compassion. The Taoiseach Award takes its name from the original Irish title meaning Chieftain or Leader. Today, An Taoiseach is the Prime Minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, T.D. Frank Reynolds is Chairman and CEO of PixarBio Corporation. His own spinal cord injury in 1992 drove him to co-found InVivo Therapeutics, and more recently PixarBio Corp with Bob Langer of MIT’s Langer Lab. He is a co-inventor on over 50 pending or issued patent applications utilizing biomaterials for central and peripheral nervous systems and for GMP manufacturing of biomaterials. In 2008, Frank led the first team to ever restore functional walking in non-human primates after paralysis and the results were published in the “Journal of Neuroscience: Methods.” In 2011, Mr. Reynolds received the American Spinal Injury Association’s 2011 David F. Apple Award for excellence in spinal cord injury research. Frank took InVivo public and retired with a market cap over $500M. In 2013, with his leadership and innovative discoveries, InVivo Therapeutics was approved by the US FDA to begin first-in-man human studies for spinal cord injury and the study is under way. In March 2014, the US National Spinal Cord Injury Association awarded Frank with a Life Time Achievement Award. Mr Reynolds has received many prestigious Irish awards including the “Irish Small Business 50,” the “Irish Top 40 under 40” and the Irish Education 100 awards. In May 2010 Frank also received the “Top 50 Life Science Award” from The President of Ireland Mary McAleese. Frank is an alumnus of Rider University, Chestnut Hill College, Temple University, University of Penn School of Engineering, The Wharton School, Harvard, MIT and Saint Joseph’s University. He has been a member of IABCN since 1998 and has served on the Board of Directors since 2002. Previous Taoiseach Award recipients include: Denis P. O’Brien, James and Frances Maguire, Daniel J. Hilferty, Rev. Timothy R. Lannon S.J., Henry J. “Harry” McHugh, John and Joan Mullen, James and Jacqueline Delaney, and Father John McNamee. The Uachtarán Award Recipient CBS 3 and The CW Philly Accepting on behalf of CBS 3 and The CW Philly: Jon Hitchcock, GM of CBS 3 and The CW Philly The Uachtarán Award is named in honor of the President of Ireland, or Uachtaran na hEireann, in Irish. In the 1990s, Mary Robinson, the seventh President of Ireland, transformed the role of the President by developing a new sense of Ireland’s economic, political, and cultural links with other countries and cultures, especially those of the Irish Diaspora. Michael Higgins, the ninth and current President of Ireland and the former Minister for arts, culture, and the Gaeltacht in the 1990s, has excelled in this cultural and economic “building bridges” role. Since 2004, CBS 3 (KYW-TV) and The CW Philly 57 (WPSG-TV) have proudly brought area viewers the St. Patrick’s Day Parade – the second oldest parade in the country and the largest and oldest in the Philadelphia area. The Parade will be broadcast live on The CW Philly, then rebroadcast on CBS 3 on St. Patrick’s Day. The parade will also be streamed live onwww.cbsphilly.com. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade was also previously televised on CBS 3 from 1988-93. KYW-TV was also the founding media sponsor of The Irish Memorial, spearheading the fundraising effort to bring the sculpture – artist Glenna Goodacre’s salute to America’s Irish Immigrants – to its planned site of Penns Landing where so many immigrants disembarked. In addition, the station hosts a VIP reception in partnership with the St. Patrick’s Day Observance Association for the parade season each year at the studio which kicks off a multitude of other major events in the Irish community. Jon Hitchcock has been President and General Manager of CBS’s Philadelphia local TV duopoly, KYW-TV (CBS 3) and WPSG-TV (The CW Philly 57), since April, 2009. He is a past Chairman of the Connecticut Broadcast Association and served on the board for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences 2015 Ambassador, Taoiseach, and Uachtarán Awards Sponsorship Form for New England. Hitchcock has held board positions with Connecticut’s Regional Leadership Counsel, Yale New Haven Hospital, American Red Cross, ABC, and the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. He currently serves on the boards of the Police Athletic League of Philadelphia, Ronald McDonald House Charities, the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters and the Philadelphia Ad Club. Previous Uachtarán Award recipients include: Ann Claffey Baiada, Sister Marguerite O’Beirne, OSF, Timothy Chambers, James and Sarah Hasson, and Norbert J. McGettigan, Sr. Ambassador of Ireland to the United States Her Excellency Anne Anderson Ambassador Anne Anderson became Ireland’s first woman Ambassador to the United States in August 2013. Prior to her Washington appointment, she was Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Her previous postings, among others, include: Permanent Representative of Ireland to the United Nations, New York; Ambassador to France (concurrently non-resident Ambassador to Monaco); and Permanent Representative of Ireland to the European Union, Brussels. During her Washington assignment, Ambassador Anderson is focus on further strengthening Ireland- U.S. economic, trade, and investment links; highlighting Ireland’s interests in relation to reform of U.S. immigration legislation; supporting U.S. interest and engagement on key issues still to be fully addressed in Northern Ireland; and further deepening the vibrant cultural connections between Ireland and the U.S. Ambassador Anderson has undertaken a wide range of responsibilities in her assignments to date. Highlights of her multilateral work have included chairing the UN Commission on Human Rights (1999) and heading the Irish team in Brussels during Ireland’s EU Presidency in 2004; she was awarded European Voice “Diplomat of the Year” in recognition of her Presidency role. During her New York assignment, she oversaw a review of the UN Peace-Building Machinery and was tasked by the President of the General Assembly with facilitating preparations for UN Special Event on the Millennium Development Goals. Ambassador Anderson’s particular focus at the UN was on development/human rights/gender equality issues. From her assignment in Brussels, she retains a keen interest in EU Affairs. A strong believer in public diplomacy, Ambassador Anderson has been active – particularly throughout her assignment in New York – as a lecturer, moderator, and panelist in academic and think tank settings including Fordham, Columbia, International Peace Institute, UN Association of New York, and Academic Council of the United Nations. Ambassador Anderson was born in Ireland (Clonmel, Co. Tipperary). She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Politics from University College, Dublin and entered the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1972.