• 9:30am – Registration and Brunch

• 11:00am – Shotgun Start

• 5:00pm – Cocktails, Dinner and Auction

2017 Honoree
Gerry Boyle

Principal, Commodore Construction

Gerry Boyle was born and raised in County Tyrone, Ireland, the second oldest in a family of four. He attended the University of Ulster, in Belfast where he studied electrical engineering. He immigrated to New York in 1986 and began working in the construction industry.

In 1995 Gerry co-founded Commodore Construction along with his business partner Eilish Loughran, Commodore has grown into one of the largest specialty contractor’s in the New York area, having worked on such projects as Yankee, Mets and Metlife Stadiums, Barclays Arena, Madison Square Garden and the transformation and re-development of Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. Currently Commodore is working on the revitalization of LaGuardia Airport and health care facilities for NYU, Columbia Presbyterian, Memorial Sloan Kettering and Northwell Health.

In 2010 he founded Commodore Maintenance a New York based civil and infrastructure contractor. Currently Commodore Maintenance has contracts for work on all the major NYC bridges including the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and 59th Street (Ed Koch) Bridge.

Gerry is currently the Chairman of the board of the Irish Arts Center which is currently embarking on a new $60 Million center located on the West Side of Manhattan. He is a strong supporter of various charities including Saint Dominic’s, Boy Scouts of America and St. Francis Food Pantry.

The Ireland Funds Lifetime Achievement Award
John T. Sharkey

Founding member of The Ireland Funds WineGeese Society, long standing donor, Board member of The Ireland Funds America

The Ireland Funds is pleased to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to John Sharkey, a true stalwart of The Ireland Funds who has been involved since almost the beginning. Throughout this time, he has remained committed to the mission of The Ireland Funds, particularly Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

John Sharkey is Chairman of Kane, Saunders & Smart. In 1986, he joined a newly-created group of seasoned executives at MCI COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION to assist in designing and implementing a Corporate Accounts Division to market their high-end Telecommunication/Technology products which included MCI Mail – the Internet email service created by MCI executive Vinton Cerf, who with partner Robert Kahn created the Internet protocol “TCP/IP”. Company revenues quickly grew from $2 billion to $37 billion annually over that decade, with Sharkey retiring in 2000 upon the completion of the MCI and WorldCom merger. Prior to MCI, he was with the “Tex Thornton Whiz Kids” LITTON INDUSTRIES, Beverly Hills, and then the GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, and CONTROL DATA CORPORATION, and then ROLM CORPORATION in Silicon Valley.

Founding member of The Ireland Funds WineGeese Society, long-standing donor, Board member of The Ireland Funds America. He is a Board member at Belfast’s FLAX TRUST and at GLUCKSMAN HOUSE at New York University. Sharkey also serves on the ‘CO-OPERATION IRELAND’ board, Belfast.

A recipient of numerous accolades, Sharkey has been awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honour, the HeartShare Services ‘Man of the Year’, the Lou Gehrig Humanitarian Award for ‘the Communication Independence for the neurologically Impaired’, and the St Patrick’s Home Humanitarian Award. The grandson of Tyrone and Roscommon natives, Sharkey was born in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen.

In 1999, the Smurfit Business School at University College Dublin announced Ireland’s first ‘Chair in Electronic Commerce’ named in Sharkey’s honor. He and his wife Helen reside on Sutton Place in Manhattan, and near their children and granddaughter in Lido Beach, NY. John and Helen are at the heart of the fellowship of The Ireland Funds.

COME FOR THE GOLF, STAY FOR THE MISSION.