Broadcast Journalists Dick Brennan and Marie Hickey to Serve as Emcees at Eighth Annual Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation Dinner

Event Draws Strong Support From Corporate Restructuring & Finance Community

NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation, a scholarship program that has provided more than $1.2 million in grants to enable children of firefighters and other victims of the September 11 attacks and other fires and disasters to afford higher education, today announced that broadcast journalists Dick Brennan of Fox 5 News and Marie Hickey of EXTRA have agreed to serve as the Masters of Ceremonies at the Foundation's eighth annual dinner.  The event will be held on Monday, March 22, 2010 at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

The Foundation also announced today that the annual dinner, chaired by Jonathan S. Henes, a partner in the Restructuring Group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, has received strong financial support from the corporate restructuring and finance community, including law firms, financial advisory firms and turnaround consultants.

The Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation began in response to a terrible tragedy -- the loss of Michael Lynch, a son, brother, fiance, uncle and New York City firefighter, who sacrificed his own life on September 11 in an effort to save others.  Facing the ultimate loss, the Lynch family saw an opportunity to help finance the education of young people as a living tribute to the human spirit and the family's collective resolve to respond to adversity with courage, strength, compassion and hope.  The goal of the Foundation is to provide the means to help change the world, one person at a time, by building a vision for the future where the students of today become tomorrow's stewards of peace and freedom.

The emcees at this year's annual dinner are a husband-and-wife team:

• Dick Brennan is the political reporter for New York City television station Fox 5. From City Hall to Albany, from Trenton to the White House, from elections to inaugurations, Brennan has provided award-winning political coverage for Fox 5. In 2005 he earned an Emmy award for his coverage of the Republican National Convention in New York City. He spent weeks on the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans reporting the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, and he spent months at Ground Zero after September 11, 2001. A native of Little Neck, Queens, Brennan attended St. Anastasia's School in Douglaston, Archbishop Molloy High School in Jamaica, and Fordham University in the Bronx.
• Marie Hickey is the New York bureau chief for the syndicated television show EXTRA. In this role, she develops new franchises, works with sponsors on integration and branding, handles development, and maintains and nurtures contacts in the entertainment industry.  A native New Yorker, she began her television career in local news, working her way up from production assistant to Vice President and News Director for Fox's flagship station. An Emmy winner for outstanding news feature, Hickey is a graduate of Fordham University.

"We are delighted that Dick and Marie have so graciously agreed to serve as emcees for the upcoming Foundation Dinner," said Jack Lynch, Michael's father. "They have strong and deep roots in the community and are widely recognized for their incredible generosity and support for worthy causes like the Lynch Foundation."

Strong Support from the Corporate Restructuring & Finance Community

Among the law firms, financial advisors, investment firms and turnaround firms that have already committed their support for the upcoming Lynch Foundation dinner are: Kirkland & Ellis, AlixPartners, Alvarez & Marsal, BlackRock, The BMC Group, Centerview Partners, Chilmark Partners, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, Epiq Systems, FTI Consulting, Kekst and Company, Kurtzman Carson Consultants, Lazard, Loughlin Meghji + Company, Miller Buckfire & Co., Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, Rothschild, certain partners of Perella Weinberg Partners, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, and Togut Segal & Segal.

"The tremendous outpouring of financial support from the restructuring community for this worthy cause is particularly welcome at a time when the cost of a higher education can feel out of reach for so many deserving people," Henes said. "The funds raised in connection with the dinner directly benefit the children of the men and women of the New York City fire department who risk their lives every day to assure that our lives are safe."

Details about the Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation and the Annual Dinner on March 22, 2010 are available online at www.mlynch.org.

SOURCE The Michael Lynch Memorial Foundation