Andrew McKelvey (October 13, 1934 – November 27, 2008) was an American business mogul and chairman and chief executive of

Monster Worldwide Monster Worldwide, Inc. is an American provider of employment services, the largest of which is Monster.com. Through online media sites and services, the company delivers targeted audiences to advertisers. In 2010, these operating segments re ...

. He was a billionaire and a

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

through the McKelvey Foundation.

Personal life

McKelvey was born in New York City to Dr. Augustus and Elizabeth (née Gates) McKelvey. Andrew McKelvey graduated from Westminster College in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The Westminster College campus center is named in his honor.

Career

After graduating from college, McKelvey operated a movie theater and served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. After leaving the Army, he headed to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in the mid-1950s, where he hoped he could take advantage of the lag in social trends reaching that part of the world. While there, he began a

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to selec ...

business that became one of that country's largest.Lohr, Steve
"Andrew J. McKelvey, 74, Builder of Monster.com, Dies"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', November 28, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2008. He returned to the United States in the early 1960s, and took a job with an ad agency on Madison Avenue, promoting products including Vaseline Hair Tonic. At another agency, Meltzer, Aron & Lemen, he managed an account of a client that advertised in the

Yellow Pages The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for ...

, which triggered the idea of pursuing the opportunity of advertising in telephone directories. In 1967, he founded Telephone Marketing Programs (TMP) as an ad agency focusing on the Yellow Pages ad agency, and built the firm up through a series of acquisitions. The business expanded into help-wanted agencies in the 1990s, which provided his introduction into commerce online. In negotiating to purchase Adion, a help-wanted ad agency run by Jeff Taylor, he learned about the firm's Web site, known as the Monster Board. He purchased Adion in 1995 and eventually bought into the Internet strategy. He further solidified the prominence of Monster.com by acquiring rivals Online Career Center and FlipDog.com. Telephone Marketing Programs (TMP) was later known as TMP Worldwide, and eventually becoming

. By 2007, the firm had more than 5,000 employees in 36 countries and had revenue of $1.35 billion.via ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

''
"Andrew McKelvey, founder of Monster.com, dies at 74"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', November 29, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2008.

Philanthropy and Boards

As a billionaire philanthropist, McKelvey contributed $25 million to establish the Andrew J. McKelvey Lung Transplant Center at

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

to support the research of Dr. E. Clinton Lawrence, who had treated him for a lung-scarring ailment. McKelvey helped organize the Families of Freedom fund after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

, headed by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and

Bob Dole Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his te ...

, which raised more than $100 million to be used toward college scholarships for the children of the attack's victims. He established the McKelvey Foundation in 2000 to fund college scholarships for high school students with an interest in entrepreneurship. He donated $3 million to fund what is now the Andrew J. McKelvey Lower School at New York City's

Hewitt School The Hewitt School is an all-girls independent K-12 school in New York City, New York. The school serves girls in three divisions: Lower School (K-4), Middle School (5-8), and Upper School (9-12). History Caroline D. Hewitt founded the Hewitt Sch ...

. McKelvey was a board member of Handgun Control, Inc. and in 2000, founded the

Americans for Gun Safety Foundation Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many dual citizens, expatriates, and permanent residents Permanent residency i ...

Controversy

McKelvey left Monster Worldwide in 2006 after questions were raised regarding his involvement in the company's backdating of stock options. McKelvey repaid $8 million to the firm and gave up the majority of his voting shares, relinquishing his super-voting B shares and converting them into A shares, reducing his voting control in the firm from approximately 31% to 7%. He also made a payment of approximately $276,000 to the

Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, which acknowledged that he had not been a beneficiary of the backdated options. Federal authorities had begun the investigation after an article in ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' raised questions about what the paper called "a series of improbably well-timed stock-option grants to senior executives".Bander, James
"McKelvey Admits Monster Backdating"
''

'', January 24, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2008.

Death

McKelvey died in New York City at age 74 on November 27, 2008, of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

References

External links

Monster.com official websiteMcKelvey Foundation official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McKelvey, Andrew 1934 births 2008 deaths Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Westminster College (Pennsylvania) alumni Deaths from pancreatic cancer Monster.com 20th-century American philanthropists