Interview by Brad Balfour
Portrait by Thomas Lau

Grown from the unofficial gatherings of a handful of Irish insurers at the Old Stand Bar, the Irish Business Organization has become a 500 member-strong networking organization for Irish and Irish-Americans in the tri-state area. The IBO meets monthly at the Shelburne Hotel in midtown Manhattan; its board members include Joe Murphy, CEO and head of Country Bank, and Nora Kelly, an Emmy award-winning senior producer with Channel 13. When Jennifer Confrey got involved with the IBO she had no idea she would be transforming the organization to what it is today. At 30, Confrey is the youngest president in the history of the IBO. Born in Matawan, New Jersey, educated at Springfield College in Massachusetts, she moved to New York in 1992 and soon found herself transforming her degree in health adminstration through her IBO work into a position as a senior technology recuiter for Met Life. Now she has business experience beyond her expectations. --Brad Balfour

What draws you to the Irish culture?

The Irish have so much to offer and there are so many wonderful Irish success stories that are untold. Ireland is now the number one producer of software. The country has been an untapped resource for so long and the rest of the world is just realizing it.

How has the IBO evolved?

The IBO started out strictly for Irish-born insurers, a group of Irish men trying to promote the industry. In the late '70s it opened up to other businesses and it wasn't until the late '80s, early '90s that it opened up to Irish Americans; it used to be only the Irish born. When I joined five years ago we had about 150 members and today we have just over 500.

Most of that growth has taken place over the last three years. Adrian Flannely of Irishradio.com did alot to open the IBO to Irish Americans. A lot of our recognition comes from the fact that we were so small and now we're just booming. We've done a number of events to promote business amongst the Irish that have put us on the map. We did our first trade show three years ago. The second one took place in a toy center and was opened up by Irish President Mary McAleese. When you have the President of Ireland come to an event it puts you on the map. Last November we had a meeting where our guest of honor was Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. We've taken on a different profile in the last few years.

How did you get involved?

In my previous life I was in fund raising and I worked for the New York Office for Concern World Wide which is an Irish third world relief agency. They send volunteers overseas so I needed to get to know Irish New York. It's an Irish organization that is very well known in Ireland and well respected within the UN but I needed to promote it to the Irish in New York so Ijoined the IBO.

I was a member for two years and then I ran for office, I was first vice-president for '98-'99 and this past year I became president. I made a career change during that time; I worked for Concerned for two years and then a fellow member of the IBO, Jonathan Watkins, a technology recruiter at Bank of New York, told me they were talking about technology recruiting. I had never tried it before and he told me he thought I'd make a great recruiter so he put me on to several people that he knew.

He said to me, "If you can sell third world relief to a bunch of New Yorkers than you can recruit people." So I actually have been doing technology recruiting for MetLife for the past three years now. That whole career change came from contacts from IBO.

How do you see the IBO expanding?

We're going to continue to grow our networking meetings. We have a monthly meeting but now we've changed that to add smaller forums where we have networking breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Whereas the general meeting is 150 people a month, the networking breakfast or lunch gets about 15 or 17 so it allows for more intimate networking. Recently we had our first vening event. Our "Midsummer's Night Networking Party." was the first time we decided to have a gathering for no other reason than networking. It was just a social evening. Now we're going to try to do that quarterly because we think it was so successful.

Is there something unique about the way the Irish identify with their heritage?

There is a uniqueness in how the Irish come together, although I don't know if I could pinpoint it. I suppose a large part of that comes from the Irish American community. We're always struggling for a sense of roots and identity even though we're American. For myself the one thing that is apparent is how strong my Irish roots are in how I was raised. My sense of humor, my appreciation for literature, there's certain things that you can identify with that you don't even realize.

Is this work harder or easier because it's with an Irish group rather than with non-irish organizations?

It's hard at times but it's also easier because everyone supports each other. It certainly has the sense of community. At the end of the day it's always about helping one another and that always shines through within the organization.

It can be harder because, as I've said, an Irishman will always tell you what's on his mind. You can debate until the cows come home but at the end of the day, you have to make a decision. One of my focuses is to really open up our speaker forums to include more than Irish success stories.

This could offer a dating function... Has it ever come up?

Yes, it's been rumored. We also have rumors of wanting to start a gossip column in the news wire. It's never happened because we're a business organization first. People come for jobs and business. We have a lot of things happen in the IBO but we haven't had two people meet and get married as of yet.

Are you married?

I'm single but don't let this becme an personal ad please!

All joking aside, Women have been involved with the IBO for a while. I'm not the first female or Irish-American president. Siobhan Hennessey was born in the States and moved back to Ireland when she was three...

Any big events on the horizon?

We have our gala ball coming up which is our largest fundraiser of the year, on Oct. 20, 2000. We honor our businessman of the year; this year it's Michael Poley now CEO of Aer Lingus and who had been head of Heineken in the States.

And the long-term future of the IBO?

The Irish are no longer the romantic poets of the world; They are the CEOs, the successful businessmen; they are developing cutting edge technology and doing all sorts of exciting things beyond the arts. There are a tremendous amount of Irish and Irish-Americans in New York that we haven't yet met. They probably don't even know about us. Thanks for giving us another opportunity to get the message out.