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Summer 2003

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Upon reaching the speaker’s podium in a Bartley Hall lecture room, the executive vice president, chief operating officer, general counsel and secretary of TDK U.S.A. Corporation, Francis J. Sweeney A&S ’73 paused for a brief moment. With the TDK emblem flashing across the power-point screen in back of him, Sweeney began a brief overview of his company’s leading role in the field of intellectual property law.

The numbers speak for themselves. TDK is the world’s leading manufacturer of magnetic recording heads for hard disk drives, magnetic and optical recording media and major producer of ferrite products, coils, ceramic and electronic components and semiconductor technology. In addition to providing specialist advice on intellectual property law, Sweeney also oversees the TDK U.S.A. branches of accounting, finance, human resources, law, public relations and tax functions.

As the TDK emblem flashed across his power-point, Sweeney epitomized the successful alumnus returning to his alma mater.

The only thing is, he never really left.

While career and marriage led to Sweeney to New York City and suburban Connecticut, he returned to Villanova often, as his brother James ’81 and then daughter Kathleen ’99 attended the University. The night before his presentation, he visited and ate dinner with his son Patrick ’07.

Sweeney’s legacy at Villanova, however, is not limited to family members continuing the Wildcat tradition. It continues each year in the form of the annual telethon, which serves as one of the University’s largest fundraising endeavors.

Sweeney, with the Rev. George Riley ’58, O.S.A, special assistant to the president, and a classmate Bill Brennan ’73, started the telethon in 1972. At the time, Riley was recently appointed as the director of the Alumni Annual Fund, faced with an alumni base of 29,342.
The annual giving program had just been transferred to the aegis under the Development Office’s 10 different fundraising programs.

From 1972-73, Sweeney accompanied Riley on more than two dozen trips across the country in order to create and raise support for a strong alumni base. “Things were crazy…it was right in the middle of Vietnam,” Riley said. “We started it cold turkey, just making phone calls from different cities and traveling across the country trying to find more names of a very transitory and young alumni constituency.”

In tumultuous years that included anti-war protests, riots and demonstrations, Riley and Sweeney averaged four cities a week, ranging from Chicago to San Juan. Despite this traveling, Sweeney managed to balance the academic and social life of a full time University student quite effectively. He was co-valedictorian in 1973.

“Frank Sweeney is my hero,” Riley said.

Sweeney, however, referred to his telethon efforts more modestly, tying it together with his current panel on copyright law. “The telethon was a chance to help [Riley] out and give something back to the University, even while we were there,” Sweeney said. “Any chance you have to give back, you should just look for the opportunity. This panel became an opportunity after all these years and I’m just tickled pink to be able to give something back.”

The international property rights panel may become Sweeney’s most current lasting legacy at Villanova. “It would be awfully nice if this could be the Villanova forum and Villanova becomes known for this,” Sweeney said. “The beauty of tying in three different colleges of the University really makes it cohesive.”

The forum, coordinated by Sweeney and business professor Dr. Peggy Chaudhry, included several of Sweeney connections, including the president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance and the corporate vice president for Worldwide Government Affairs and Public Policy for Levi Strauss & Co.

Prior to joining TDK, Sweeney served as senior counsel with the Hertz Corporation and earlier in his career worked in sales and marketing for National Airlines, Inc. He holds a law degree from Fordham University.