Tri-County to Honor Three Distinguished Leaders at Awards Dinner

Tri-County Scholarship Fund (TCSF) will host its 38th Annual Awards Dinner on Monday, October 28, 2019 at the Hanover Marriott where it will honor three New Jersey leaders.

To be honored at the 38th Annual Awards Dinner are:

• Ray and Cathy Donovan, and the Donovan Family, longtime supporters of educational opportunities for the poor in New Jersey, Making a Difference Award

• Eric Andersen, Co-President of Aon, Hall of Fame Award

• Douglas L. Kennedy, CEO of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Leadership Award

All three honorees believe in and support the TCSF mission to provide partial scholarships for many of the state’s most financially disadvantaged children, enabling them to attend accredited K-12 values-based, private and parochial schools. The Awards Dinner is the largest fundraiser for the New Jersey non-profit which has provided over $28 million for over 32,000 scholarships since its inception in 1981.

“We are delighted to honor the extraordinary success of these distinguished individuals and especially to recognize their contributions to the needy children in our state,” explained Prudence Pigott, President of Tri-County Scholarship Fund. “Our honorees’ accomplishments in their industries and in serving the community exemplify everything we want our scholarship recipients to follow in their own educational journeys, in the workforce, and in giving back to their own communities.”

Hall of Fame Award: Eric Andersen is Co-President of Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement, and health solutions. Andersen oversees the Reinsurance Solutions and Retirement Solutions businesses, and leads Aon’s activities in Europe, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Andersen also serves on Aon’s Executive Committee and co-leads the Aon Operating Committee with Co-President Michael O’Connor. Andersen joined Aon in 1997. In his over 20-year career with Aon, Andersen previously served as CEO of Aon Benfield, the world’s leading reinsurance intermediary, and as CEO of New York-based Aon Risk Solutions, where he led Aon’s largest unit of 14,000 employees throughout North America and Latin America.

Andersen has an MBA from Fordham University and a B.A. from Colgate University. Serving on the board of Covenant House in New Jersey, Andersen has worked to help homeless, at-risk, and run-away youth. He and his wife, Pam have five children and live in Madison.

Making A Difference Award: Ray and Cathy Donovan have a five-decade history of commitment to education of the underprivileged primarily through Catholic education in New Jersey’s inner cities. They have created educational opportunity for dozens of students through elementary and high school, by providing financial assistance and by assisting teachers in the classroom at such schools as St. Ann’s of Newark, St. Joseph the Carpenter School, in Roselle, Seton Hall Prep, Delbarton School, Union Catholic in Scotch Plains, and Oak Knoll School in Summit. Their current focus is to provide scholarships to needy students through Tri-County Scholarship Fund.

The couple’s philanthropic passions have included the Shrine of St. Joseph’s in Stirling, run by the Sister Servants of Jesus order of nuns from Poland. This is where the Donovans also built the first-in-the-country 911 memorial, a bell tower named “The Tower of Remembrance,” constructed of retrieved pieces of the twin towers.

Ray Donovan served as US Secretary of Labor in the White House cabinet of President Ronald Reagan from 1981-1985. Donovan co-founded Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club in 1965. The 3-course club in Bedminster has been expanded and renovated in recent years by Ray and Cathy’s sons, Ken and Keith, and by their daughter Mary Ellen Stewart. The couple’s children and grandchildren are continuing the tradition Ray and Cathy established by supporting education, primarily through Tri-County Scholarship Fund. Ken and his wife, Kris Donovan serve on the TCSF Board of Trustees.

Leadership Award: Douglas L. Kennedy is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, leading the bank’s wealth, lending and deposit lines of business, along with its branding, human capital, operations and technology functions, to deliver on Peapack-Gladstone Bank’s private banking style of client service and product solutions.

Kennedy has over 40 years of experience in the banking industry. He is a known leader in the financial services field, with a proven track record of building and repositioning businesses. Prior to Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Kennedy was the president of the NJ Market for Capital One Bank and North Fork Bank. Over the years, he has held key executive level positions at Fleet Bank, Summit Bancorp and Bank of America.

Kennedy’s dedication to the communities where he lives and works is a value emphasized throughout the Bank. In 2019, Peapack-Gladstone Bank was recognized by American Banker for the second year in a row as a “Best Bank to Work For.”

Doug challenges his employees to live by a set of strategic core principles that put clients, each other, and the community above all else. He encourages both corporate and individual responsibility, and proactive reinvestment in communities with the greatest needs. Consistent with his own long time support of Tri-County Scholarship Fund, Kennedy, values volunteerism and generously gives to local organizations that are important to the fabric of everyday life, especially to encourage opportunities for the underprivileged.

Kennedy holds a BS in Economics and an MBA in Finance, both from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. He sits on Sacred Heart’s Board of Trustees and is also a member of Montclair State University’s Board of Trustees. Doug serves on the Boards of the NJBankers Association and New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and was named to the NJBIZ “Power 50 Banking” list.

Those wishing to attend TCSF’s 38th Annual Awards Dinner can purchase tickets or sponsorships at tcsfund.org/annual-dinner. Tribute ads in the evening’s printed program are due by October 9. For further information, contact Tri-County Scholarship Fund at 973-984-9600.