MANHATTAN - Putnam County will be well represented on St. Patrick’s Day in the Big Apple this year when Michael Gibbons will lead the marchers up Fifth Avenue as the parade’s grand marshal.

Gibbons is currently president of the Ireland-U.S. Council—an organization dedicated to promoting business bonds and commercial connections between Ireland and America.

Gibbons and his wife, Cynthia, reside at the Sedgewood Club in Kent—a place called home for more than 30 years. After growing up in the Bronx, the son of Irish immigrants, Gibbons graduated from St. Francis College in Brooklyn and served in the Navy.

He joined Estee Lauder, Inc., the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of quality cosmetics products in 1967 working his way up the corporate ladder before retiring as president and general manager of Estee Lauder in 2007.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade Chairman John Dunleavy expressed delight that Gibbons had been selected this year: “Mike is a man who is beloved in New York’s Irish-American community. He has devoted a huge amount of his considerable energy and charisma to building enduring ties between Ireland and America. We know that his selection will be a widely popular one.”

Gibbons told the Courier that he was “absolutely thrilled” to have been chosen as grand marshal. “As a little boy I attended the parade each year with my parents. While in grade school we marched every St. Patrick’s Day. I can’t wait to rekindle old friendships with people who I haven’t seen in years. This is a wonderful honor not only for me but for my entire family.”

The parade attracts more than 300,000 marchers each year consisting of many great marching bands, bagpipers and high school and college bands from all over the world. The occasion is televised live nationwide and is viewed by millions of households from Dublin, Ireland to Dublin, Ohio and from Carmel, New York to Carmel, California.