b'1 Why I Give2by b i l lm ck i e r na nBeginning with this issue of Connect magazine, we bring you Why I Give, featuring the perspectives of some of our most generousdonors and what compels them to be involved and invested in The Ireland Funds.1 bill mckiernanis a Board DirectorofThe American Ireland Fund. Bill McKiernan is president of WSM Capital, LLC, a private equity firm he founded to invest in paymentand other technology companies. Before founding WSM Capital, Bill founded CyberSource Corporation in 1994 and served as its Chairman and CEO for 16 years. CyberSource is one of the largest payment processors of Internet transactions with over 300,000 customersprocessingtransactionsworthover$100billionperyear.InJuly2010,CyberSourcewasacquiredbyVisa,Incfor$2 billion.Mr. McKiernan serves on the Board of Trustees of Boston College and is Chairman of the Boston College West CoastTechnology Council. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, a non-profit cancer research foundation. 1Bill establishedthe ireland funds business plan competition which is modeled on a similar initiative run at Harvard Business School. The annual competition nurtures creativity and hones entrepreneurial skills amongst recent graduates and post-graduate students. Jordan Campbell, Programmes Manager, The Ireland Funds; Bill McKiernan; Alexandra Milne, winner of the 2014 Ireland Funds Business Plan Competition; Padraic Brennan and Julie-Ann OHare. connect2015 | 52'