Speech at the Bay Area Business Awards
San Francisco, 28th October 2015
A dhaoine uaisle agus a chairde,
Is mór an pléisiúir dom bheith anseo inniu.
It is a great pleasure to be here today at the 70th anniversary dinner of the Bay Area Council. I congratulate you on what you have achieved as a business association, and for representing your members’ interests across the Bay Area tirelessly and effectively throughout those seventy years.
However, what is even more impressive is the generous spirit of community which lies at the heart of all those achievements. Indeed, it is your ability to look beyond the horizons of the business world to the real impact that local business can have as part of the life of your neighbouring citizens that truly defines the ethos on which the Bay Area Council was founded.
In a healthy and functioning society the business world must be a contributing part of the community. The range and breadth of the initiatives undertaken by the Bay Area Council to ensure a better quality of life for all those living in the Bay Area is impressive, encompassing as it does projects in housing, education, healthcare and gender equality. These initiatives are an inspirational example of the positive social impact that can be achieved when businesses operate in a generous spirit of ethical philanthropy by actively engaging with the community for the benefit of all.
Tonight you celebrate the life and contribution of two outstanding individuals who, throughout their remarkable lives, have exemplified the very best values of the social contract between business and society.
I am delighted to be here on this special evening when Chuck Feeney and Mark Benioff are invited to join your Hall of Fame, joining an illustrious group of people who have worked to make the world a better place.
I had the pleasure, three years ago, of awarding Chuck Feeney, a great Irish-American, my own Presidential Distinguished Service Award for his extraordinary commitment to the education sector and to the wider spheres of research and civil society throughout the island of Ireland. Chuck’s commitment to the people of Ireland has had a deep and lasting effect, not only on the lives of tens of thousands of young Irish people, but on our country as a whole.
During our long journey towards peace and reconciliation Chuck’s contribution was also immense. The Irish people remain deeply appreciative of his quiet and generous work in moving the process forward, while also providing funding for important reconciliation and regeneration projects.
His is a munificence which has extended far beyond Irish shores and has seen the Atlantic Philanthropies Foundation become one of the largest charitable donors to civil society and academic institutions here in the United States, in Ireland and in other countries around the world. His philanthropy has allowed for critique and it has encouraged transformation.
Chuck is a man we are very proud to claim as one of our own, and I have no doubt that here in the United States you are equally proud of his outstanding generosity, vision and untiring dedication to creating a better world. The full legacy of Atlantic’s global impact is still to be accounted for, but I’m sure that it will speak of a humanitarian vision realised to an extraordinary degree.
I am also delighted this evening to recognise and celebrate the exceptional philanthropic spirit of Marc Benioff, who has given back so much to society by committing, from the day he started his hugely successful company Salesforce, a fixed portion of that company’s products, equity and employee hours to charitable causes. His generosity and vision is a remarkable example of corporate philanthropy, reminding us of all that can be achieved when a generous will is harnessed to transformative thinking and an ability to not only imagine, but aim to realise, a better world. Like Chuck Feeney, Marc Benioff is a citizen and business man of whom his fellow citizens can be deeply proud.
Before I conclude may I say how delighted I am that the Council will be organising a trade and investment mission to Ireland in 2016. Our citizens have in common a strength for research, creativity and innovation and I very much look forward to the sharing of ideas and connections for the future that such a visit can generate.
Having come through a profound economic crisis, Ireland has now moved on to being, at the moment, Europe’s fastest growing economy. Ireland’s vitality and energy chimes very well indeed with that of the Bay Area – our strengths align and are mutually reinforcing. We have the youngest population in Europe and over one in four of our students in higher education are pursuing degrees in areas directly relevant to your sectors including science and engineering, while there is dramatic growth being recorded in graduate output in the technology field.
As our economy continues to grow and flourish and it is my firm belief that we can all take inspiration from the uplifting examples of the lives and careers of Chuck Feeney and Marc Benioff and from the ethos of the Bay Area Council, who have shown how generous and active participation by successful businesspeople can have such profound benefits for all of society.
May I conclude by wishing you all every success and thanking you for the generous welcome you have extended to myself and Sabina. It has been a great pleasure to join you tonight and we congratulate you on reaching your seventieth anniversary.
Gura fada buan sibh agus go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.