US award winning businesswoman with strong Longford links to feature on RTÉ's Nationwide tonight

Joan, the founder and chairman of Warden Brooks, was presented with the 2022 Enterprising Women Legacy Award.

New York City native and graduate of the American University in Washington, DC, Joan started her company in 1978 at the age of 28, a giant leap of faith encouraged by her father.

She set a goal of reaching a million dollars in sales by her 30th birthday and surpassed that goal her first year in business.

Her first order was from the legendary investment house of EF Hutton for $75,000 to create a corporate gift programme. The order was paid in advance because Joan knew that there was no chance a bank would ever give her a line of credit. The growth of her company was immediate and astronomical.

Warden Brooks responded with every product that the burgeoning market required.

The most iconic is the classic canvas duffle bag with woven ribbon handles, still a staple on Wall Street. Known as the Banker Bag, it is made today to exactly the same specifications as it was in 1978 when Joan first designed it.

Joan crossed paths with Monica Smiley, the publisher of Enterprising Women, through their memberships in the Women Presidents Organisation.

Joan agreed to design the very first tote bag for the inaugural Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Conference 20 years ago and has been providing her luxury tote bags for the conference ever since.

When Joan retired in 2019, her only child, Caroline, took over the business, fostering the same spirit of innovation and excellence in product design and manufacturing.

Caroline’s husband Brian Lynn, joined the team in 2020 as they continue to grow and expand globally.

Joan is really proud of her Longford heritage and she will feature on an edition of Nationwide, filmed at The Killian Homeplace cottages she restored so beautifully in Fermoyle this evening, Wednesday, November 9.

Joan’s great-great grandfather, Luke Killian, was born there in 1799.

She first saw the long abandoned and derelict property in 1977. Later she had an opportunity to purchase the three cottages and 60 acres of farmland.

She spent 13 years painstakingly restoring the cottages, an act of love and a tribute to the legacy of the Killian family.

With a strong connection to the University of Notre Dame - her father and his two brothers were graduates - Joan has endowed the Thomas F. Gallagher Sr. Scholarship at Notre Dame.

Since 2013, the Notre Dame Dublin summer interns have spent their first weekend at The Killian Homeplace as their introduction to life in rural Ireland.

Joan and her husband of 20 years, Christopher Clark, reside in Connecticut next door to their grandchildren Keira, Thomas and Rory, with their Border Collie puppy, Lucy.