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2012 Irish Small Biz 50 Nominees, S-U

Name: St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee 

Age: 251 years

Place of birth: New York City

Business: Operating New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Established: March 17th 1762

Employees: None. All volunteers

Website: NYCStPatricksParade.Org

Where you live: NYC

The most important thing for a successful business: Explore new ideas and embrace new technologies to see where they will lead you; while at the same time, make sure they do not change the core values of the organization. This allows you to build efficiencies, while leading to more exposure and in turn revenue generation.

The New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the city’s greatest and oldest traditions. The Parade marched for the first time fourteen Years before the establishment of the United States, this on March 17, 1762. Approximately $4.5 billion is spent on St Patrick’s Day in the U.S. according to research by BigInsight, and a quarter of that $4.5 billion is spent in Tri-State area, thanks to the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee who has organized the Parade for the past 250 years. The revenue generated by the Parade is so large that it is the second largest tax generation period for the City of New York after Back Friday and Cyber Monday. “The impact on New York is around $250 million in tax revenue, estimates Hilary Beirne, executive secretary of the parade”, in the article “The Real Cost of Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day” published March 14th 2012 on Bloomberg. This revenue is generated largely due to the efforts of the committee for the city, at no cost to the tax payers. Under the Chairmanship of John Dunleavy, this “not for profit” 501(c)(3) organization annually manages to raise the necessary funds from the general public (in excess of $800,000) for the Parade while receiving no public funding. On March 17th, in addition to running the logistics of the largest Parade in the world, the committee is responsible for the production of a four hour live television/webcast from Fifth Ave. During the year, the committee host many fund raising events including two receptions, a gala, and various press announcements. The Grand Marshal announcement is attended by over 500 annually; is one of the largest press announcement in New Year and a must to attend event in the calendar of prominent Irish Americans. In 2011 the committee published a book celebrating 250 years of Irish Heritage and Culture in New York City. The Parade is recognized by the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange (now owned by NYSE) for the past 8 years for its endeavors and contribution towards the financial stability of the city and the employment it creates as a result of the influx of over 200,000 marching participants and two million spectators. The Grand Marshal and committee members ring the open bell at the Stock exchange the week of March 17th in reorganization of this and as the “kick off” to the celebrations at the exchange for St Patrick’s Day. The ring of the bell is watched world wide by 150 million daily. What is truly remarkable about this organization and warrants it recognition in “The Irish Small Business in that the organization is run by a small group of very dedicated volunteers from many different fields of endeavors. St. Patrick’s Day Parade Inc. OFFICERS John T. Dunleavy Chairman, Dr. John L. Lahey Vice Chairman, Hilary Beirne Executive/Corres. Sec’y, Catherine Mitchell Miceli Recording Secretary-,Francis McGreal Jr. Controller, Rosemary Lombard Treasurer, Michael H. Cassels Sergeant-At-Arms. DIRECTORS; John J. O’Connor – President, Timothy Ahern, Francis X. Comerford, John Fitzsimons, Thomas W. Gleason, Patrick Johnson, Denis P. Kelleher, Brian A. Leeney, Kevin G. Nelson, Timothy Rooney. TRUSTEES; Brian Andersson, LTC Jim Gonyo, Garrett Doyle, Paul Hurley, Lawrence King, James Lombard, Eugene McCarthy, James O’Connor, Tommy Smyth, Dennis Swanson.


Name: Marcus Spillane

Age: 38

Place of birth: Cork, Ireland

Business: Deal Events, Inc.

First established: Summer 2011

Employees: 2

Website: http://www.dealevents.com

Where you live: Cork/Brooklyn

First job: Trainee Accountant

What it taught me: Great grounding in business, got to see many different types of industry and saw how it all fits together.

Family: Retired parents living in Ireland but traveling the world. One sister who lives in Australia – a doctor – hence my parents traveling!

Best advice anyone ever gave you: Don’t take life too seriously – enjoy it and remember that it is about the journey and not the destination.

Best advice you could give someone starting out: Surround yourself with people who support you. Not “Yes” men but people who are genuinely interested in helping you.

The most important thing for a business success is: Drive and Self Belief. Partnering with others. Very, very difficult to do something entirely on your own.

Marcus is co-founder of DealEvents.com a NY based Internet business in the daily deal space. He is a Chartered Accountant with 10 years experience in M&A. He is co-founder and director of Capstone Intelligent Solutions Limited – a unified communications solutions provider based in Dublin, Ireland. Marcus was co-founder and managing director of Mercier Private Equity, an Irish based investment firm focused on investments in owner managed and family owned businesses. He is a director (formerly with a hands-on management role as Group FD) of the McArdle Group, a UK heavy civil engineering business since its acquisition by Mercier Private Equity in 2008. He formerly worked in the M&A Group of Deloitte in New York.


Name: Joseph Strazza

Place of birth: Verona, NJ

Business: WinMill Software, Inc.

First established: 1994

Employees: Approx. 65

Website: www.winmill.com

Where you live: NY, NY

First job: Selling pumpkins door to door by wagon

What it taught me: Identify a need and fill it. Distribution and convenience are viable commodities.

Family: Irish Catholic – mostly in New York. I am one of four (3rd). Two boys and two girls.

Best advice anyone ever gave you: When you get what you want stop talking and leave as fast as possible (or hang up).

Best advice you could give someone starting out: Your four most important business relationships: attorney, banker, accountant, and insurance agent, in that order. Make sure they are good and do not skimp.

The most important thing for a business success is: Without question you must stay healthy. If you do not do that nothing else matters.

Since 1994, WinMill Software has been delivering technology solutions with unparalleled service. From strategic management consulting to high-end application development, from designing and deploying broadband wireless solutions to securing applications and networks, we have helped thousands of clients use technology to gain strategic advantage over their competitors. WinMill supports the entire technology lifecycle, from strategic planning through analysis, design, development, quality assurance, implementation, post-production support, auditing and risk management. Our commitment to knowledge transfer maximizes our clients’ existing skills and dramatically lowers the cost of ownership. Our associates are among the brightest and most qualified minds in the industry. Through rigorous training in technology, industry and professionalism, we focus their natural talent and passionate commitment to learning to devise creative solutions to your most challenging business problems. We are continually growing our skills by mastering new technologies to meet the ever evolving needs of our clients. Imagine world-class service, without the price tag. Renowned technical expertise, without the attitude. One-stop shopping for your technology needs, without the service dilution.


Name: John Toland

Business Name: DOT-Irish

Belfast native John Toland is no stranger to America, having forged a path across the United States with a series of exciting start-ups. His latest venture, Dot-Irish is set to transform Ireland’s impact on the world wide web by opening up the domain address Dot-Irish.

Backed by some of the most prominent names in Irish America, Dot-Irish will allow companies, organizations and individuals to promote brand Irish in everything they do.

Expect tourism.irish, sport.irish, hospitality.irish, hotels.irish and business.irish to be snapped up if the bid for authorization which goes before the world internet governing body, ICANN, this year is successful. However, some people aren’t content to wait until the new ‘Top Level Domain’ goes live: over 3,000 pre-registrations have already been made.

“Web addresses such as www.connect.irish, mail@yourname.irish or www.technology.irish can become innovative tools for the more than 75 million individuals and companies worldwide who identify themselves as Irish to communicate and connect with friends, family or customers,” says John.

You can find out more about dot-Irish at http://dotirish.com.

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