VETERAN FINANCIAL EXECUTIVE DENNIS J. DIRKS JOINS MANHATTAN COLLEGE’S BOARD OF TRUSTEES

RIVERDALE, N.Y. – East Northport, N.Y., resident Dennis J. Dirks, former president of The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., has recently been elected to Manhattan College’s board of trustees.

After retiring in 2003 from The Depository Trust, Dirks was recruited to join the advisory board at Fidelity Mutual Funds. One year later, the seasoned financial executive was elected as an independent trustee representing fund shareholders on the company’s board.

Dirks started his financial career in 1969, shortly after graduating from the College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature. He landed his first job at the New York Stock Exchange as an assistant compliance coordinator. In 1970, he joined M.E. Goldstein & Co. as an office manager and cashier. Two years later, Dirks moved to The Depository Trust Company (DTC), where he held various systems and marketing responsibilities.

From 1979 to 1994, Dirks served in numerous roles within the company, including vice president, senior vice president and executive vice president. While he was the executive vice president of securities processing, the company’s volumes and assets skyrocketed from $300 billion to $7.7 trillion.

In 1994, DTC appointed Dirks executive vice president and chief information officer. He managed the assimilation of the depository operations of the Chicago Stock Exchange into DTC. He was later named chief operating officer of The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., which became the holding company as the result of the DTC-National Securities Clearing Corp. merger. He also at the time served as president and chief operating officer of DTC.

Dirks completed an MBA in computer science from Bernard Baruch College in 1974 and attended the Harvard Business School’s program in management development in 1980. He is a member of the Association for the Help of Retarded Children and the securities operations division of the Securities Industry Association, where he is a frequent guest speaker.

Dirks joins Peter K. Sweeney, vice president at Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Kenneth A. Rathgeber, executive vice president and head of risk oversight at Fidelity Investments, as the newest members of the College’s board of trustees. They were elected in July.

Manhattan College, founded in 1853, is an independent, Catholic, coeducational institution of higher learning offering more than 40 major programs of study in the areas of arts, business, education, engineering and science, as well as graduate programs in education and engineering.