Major Irish business leader Dómhnal Slattery and award-winning writer Colm Tóibín will be honored at Glucksman Ireland House NYU's  2020 Gala.

The annual event will be held on Tuesday, February 25 from 6:30-10:00 p.m. at NYU’s Kimmel Center for University Life.

Loretta Brennan Glucksman will present Slattery with the Lewis L. Glucksman Award for Leadership in recognition of his immense achievements over three decades, most especially for establishing Avolon as a global leader in aircraft leasing. The Lewis L. Glucksman Award for Leadership is awarded in memory of the co-founder of Glucksman Ireland House, whose career in finance and philanthropy is relived constantly through the teaching, learning, and research fostered in the House.

The Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters will be presented to Mr. Tóibín in recognition of his outstanding literary accomplishments on the international stage. Marie Heaney, writer and the widow of late Seamus, will travel from Ireland for the event. The Seamus Heaney Award for Arts and Letters is given in memory of the late Nobel Laureate, who was a great champion of Glucksman Ireland House and an honored guest at the 2013 Glucksman Ireland House Gala.

Dómhnal Slattery

Dómhnal Slattery is an aircraft leasing pioneer and the founding CEO of Avolon. Established in 2010, in what was one of the world’s largest private equity funded start-ups, Avolon has rapidly grown to become a $30 billion company and the world’s third-largest aircraft lessor.

Dómhnal has now founded and scaled two of the world’s top five aircraft lessors, an industry in which Ireland is the proven global leader. Recognized as one of Ireland’s leading entrepreneurs, Dómhnal is a passionate voice in seeking to position Ireland as a global center of excellence for innovation. He is committed to investing in initiatives both inside and outside of the aviation sector with a proven track record for supporting the arts.

Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín is the author of nine novels, including The Blackwater Lightship; The Master (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize); and Brooklyn (the Costa Book Award Winner), which led to a movie of the same name featuring Saoirse Ronan.

He has also authored two story collections, and Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know, an examination of the fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University. Three times shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.

Tickets begin at $1,000 per person. For more information and to purchase a seat please email ireland.gala@nyu.edu.

Read more: Derry Girls movie? Show creator Lisa McGee says she’s interested