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The Rooney Fellow's work for Heinz
North America and the Pittsburgh Steelers while in Pittsburgh.
The Pittsburgh Steelers
The Pittsburgh Steelers are the fifth oldest franchise
in the NFL, they were founded on July 8th 1933
by Arthur Joseph Rooney, although originally named the Pittsburgh
Pirates he changed the name after buying the team for $2500
because of the city’s steel industry.
One of the great pioneers of the sports world, Art,
or “the Chief” was born on the 27th of January
1901 in Coultersville, PA. The oldest of Daniel and Margaret
Rooney’s nine children, he grew up in old Allegheny, now
know as Pittsburgh’s North Side, not far from the Three
Rivers stadium or the New Heinz Field.
By the mid-1960’s Art had turned much of the
running to his business over to his eldest son, Dan. After
working in every area of the business since 1955, Daniel
M. Rooney was named president of the Steelers in 1975. Now
in his 45th year with the Steelers, he is one
of the most active NFL owners and one of Pittsburgh’s most
involved executives in civic affairs.
Among his community activities, Dan Rooney is a
board member for The United Way of America, The American Ireland
Fund, The American Diabetes Association, Presbyterian University
Hospital, The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, and
Duquesne University.
Working for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Rooney
Fellows get the chance to see how a game day operates and
how a marketing department operates for a NFL club. Most
of the time the Rooney fellows get the chance to work only
with the marketing department. But soon they will be allowed
to work in the South Side facility where they’ll help with
customer relations, accounts, payroll, and also working
as the receptionist.
From most of the interviews and communication with
the pervious Rooney fellows, they have found that they enjoyed
working with the Steelers a lot more than anything. This maybe
because the Steelers are a family owned business and the people
there are extremely friendly and understanding that the Rooney
Fellows are not knowledgeable on American Football.
Heinz
North America History
Henry John Heinz first opened Heinz in 1869, his
first product was a horseradish packaged in a clear see though
bottle. This was so that his customers could see that their horseradish
was of good quality and standard. It was popular at the time for
producers to use a filler so they got the most of their own horseradish
i.e. leaves, wood fiber and turnip filler.
But then in the banking panic of 1875 his over extended
young enterprise was forced into bankruptcy. But with the
help of his bother John and cousin Frederick he started over again
later that year, with a brand new product – tomato ketchup and
later on with more interesting products like red and green pepper
sauce, apple butter, tomato soup, pickled onions, pickled cauliflower
etc. The American dinner table was getting better along with Henry’s
ledger.
Ten years later Henry sailed over with his family
to England where they open their first overseas office near the
tower of London, and later a factory in Peckham. After a while
the public began to think that Heinz was a British company and
even became Purveyor to the Queen.
When Howard Heinz took over in 1919, after his father
had died, they had 25 factories and 200 smaller facilities ranging
from pickle salting stations to bottling plants and a seed farm.
All of the overseas investments where started from scratch and
this continued until 1958 when H. J. Heinz II bought a food processor
in the Netherlands. And later Heinz purchased companies all over
Europe, Mexico and even back in the US.
By 1972 Heinz had reached its billion-dollar mark
and by that time the president was R. Burt Gookin who seen it
was time to reorganise the company under an international management
team. He appointed Anthony J. F. O'Reilly, 35, who had been doing
well as managing director of the company's United Kingdom operations.
Dr O’Reilly became president and CEO in 1979 and
led Heinz into difficult markets such as South Africa, Russia,
the Czech Republic, Hungary, South Korea, China, India, Egypt,
Botswana and Zimbabwe.
William R. Johnston took over the reins as president
in 1996 and nowadays it is an enterprise in over 110 countries
with leading brands on six continents with names as Ore-Ida, Smart
Ones, Bagel Bites, Plasmon, Wattie's, San Marco, Farley's, Bio
Dieterba, John West, Petit Navire, Greenseas, Classico, Wyler's,
UFC, Orlando, ABC, Honig, Hak, DeRuijter, Olivine. Heinz also
uses the famous names Weight Watchers, Boston Market, T.G.I. Friday's,
Jack Daniel's and Linda McCartney under license.
Working
at Heinz today
Working in the marketing research department of
a global organisation’s headquarters is an experience few
people in Northern Ireland would ever hope to achieve, and
with the Rooney Fellowship it is made possible.The Rooney
Fellows make a marketing analysis project for Heinz that
will be submitted to the Newry Institute in April. The project
is usually about marketing and research on products, and
the promotional opportunities there might be.
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