Governor John G. Rowland keynote speaker at Fairfield University School of Business Awards | Press Releases

Charles F. Dolan and Terrence Murray to be honored

Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland will present the keynote address at Fairfield University's first annual Insignis Awards for Visionary Leadership and Distinguished Achievement in Business ceremony on Tuesday, March 30, at 7:30 p.m. in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Receiving the Insignis Awards will be Charles F. Dolan, chairman and founder of Cablevision Systems Corporation, and Terrence Murray, chairman and chief executive officer of Fleet Financial Group.

The Insignis Award recognizes outstanding business leaders for their fulfillment of the Jesuit concept of the "insignis," to distinguish oneself in a remarkable or extraordinary way. The award will be conferred for the first time as the School of Business marks two major milestones - its new home in the state-of-the-art academic building (formerly the Conference Center at Fairfield) and the School's accreditation by AACSB-The International Association for Management Education.

Charles F. Dolanp

As founder and chairman of Cablevision Systems Corporation, Charles F. Dolan heads one of the nation's leading telecommunications and entertainment companies. Cablevision's expanded services, including competitive local commercial and residential telephone service and high-speed Internet access service, are made possible by state-of-the-art fiber-optic coaxial cable networks. Rainbow Media holdings, Inc., a Cablevision subsidiary, offers a wide range of national, regional and local programming networks, including American Movie Classics (AMS), Bravo, MSG Network, News 12 Network and the new MSG Metro Channels, reaching an aggregate of 200 million subscribers worldwide.

In addition, Cablevision enjoys a firm position in New York's entertainment industry as the controlling owner of the Madison Square Garden L.P., which includes the arena complex as well as the NBA New York Knicks and the NHL New York Rangers; and as owners of Radio City Entertainment, through which it holds a 25-year lease on New York's Radio City Music Hall.

Mr. Dolan was born in Cleveland where he spent his childhood. The son of an inventor, he served in the Air Force and studied at John Carroll University. Working with his wife Helen in their Cleveland home, Mr. Dolan edited and produced short film reels of sports events for syndication to television stations. Eventually, he sold the business, joined the acquiring firm and moved to New York.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Dolan established Teleguide, Inc., which provided information services via cable to New York City hotels. In the mid '60s, he founded Sterling Manhattan Cable, the first urban cable television company in the nation, bringing New York professional sports teams, cultural programming and movies into New York City homes. By the early 1970s, Mr. Dolan had founded Home Box Office, which he sold to Time Life Inc., and then he organized Cablevision Systems Corporation on Long Island in 1973.

Mr. Dolan is a trustee of Fairfield University, managing director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and a member of the Board of Governors of St. Francis Hospital.

Mr. Dolan and his wife, Helen Ann, reside on Long Island. They have six children, three of whom are in management at Cablevision.

Terrence Murray

Terrence Murray is chairman and chief executive officer of Fleet Financial Group, which he joined in 1962. Named president of Fleet Financial Group and the bank in 1978, and then chairman, president and chief executive officer in 1982, he has led the transformation of one of the nation's earliest banks from the smallest state in the Union to one of the nation's largest bank holding companies, with $104 billion in assets, 35,000 employees, and operations throughout the country.

Mr. Murray began his career in banking via the real estate business. After graduating from Harvard University, he and his wife Suzanne purchased a couple of triple deckers and rented them out. He did the banking with the then-Industrial National Bank, while Suzanne kept the books. This hands-on experience in the real estate business made him an attractive prospective employee to Industrial National, which hired him as a loan officer in the real estate lending area. From these beginnings, he learned banking from the ground up. One of the oldest banks in the country, Industrial National Bank of Rhode Island became Fleet Financial Group.

Under Mr. Murray's bold and visionary direction, Fleet has been at the forefront of sweeping changes in the consolidating and diversifying of the financial services industry. Now the largest bank in New England, Fleet has banking operations throughout the Northeast, and national businesses such as mortgage banking, discount brokerage and commercial finance.

In 1998, a year of financial volatility around the globe, Fleet achieved record earnings of $1.58 billion, the result of visionary strategy of geographic and business diversification and years of experience. As Fleet has grown, so too has its commitment to its communities, with philanthropic giving totaling $13 million in 1998 alone.

A director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, as well as a former member of the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve System, Mr. Murray is a member of the Business Roundtable where he serves as a member of its Federal Budget and Government Regulations task force.

In addition, Mr. Murray is currently a director of the Allmerica Financial Corporation, A.T. Cross Company, and the CVS Corporation. He serves on the Committee for University Resources and the Visiting Committee on Economics at Harvard, is a trustee emeritus of Brown University, a member of the Board of Overseers of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and a director of Jobs for Massachusetts.

Mr. Murray holds several honorary degrees, including from Suffolk University, Providence College and the University of Rhode Island. He received Humanitarian Awards from the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine and the Fogarty Foundation.

Mr. Murray and his wife, Suzanne, have five children.

Governor John Rowland

Governor John Rowland was elected to his second term as Governor in 1998, with the highest plurality in state history. A native of Waterbury, he won election in 1980 to the Connecticut State Legislature where he served until 1984 when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives.

As Governor, he has worked to improve the state's overall business climate by giving a one/third reduction in the corporation tax. The state has regained more than 75 percent of the jobs lost in the recession of the early 1990s and since 1995, Connecticut has run budget surpluses totaling $906 million. Last summer Connecticut taxpayers received tax rebate checks for the first time in state history.

Under his leadership, Connecticut enacted some of the toughest welfare reforms in the nation, including work requirements and a 21-month time limit on benefits, reducing the welfare rolls to their lowest in almost a decade.

Governor Rowland also proposed the HUSKY Plan (Healthcare for UninSured Kids and Youth), implemented in 1998, to provide health insurance to an estimated 90,000 uninsured Connecticut children

Most recently the Governor has worked to bring the New England Patriots football team to Hartford as a means of reviving the state capitol's business climate.

Governor Rowland has been honored with the Malcolm Baldridge and Ella Grasso awards and was the first Governor to receive the Excellence in State Government award. He received a Yale University Chubb Fellowship and honorary degrees from Teikyo Post College, the University of Hartford and the University of New Haven.

A graduate of Holy Cross High School in Waterbury and Villanova University, Governor Rowland and his wife, Patricia, reside in the Governor's Residence in Hartford and have five children.