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Kate Reddy
Irish Wit

Published in Utah Business

by Helen Langan

The first thing you're likely to notice about Kate Reddy, the co-owner and co-president of McKinnon-Mulherin, Inc., is her sense of humor. She's funny in a subtle, self-depreciating way—you might call it her Irish wit. She was raised in a devout Irish-Catholic family on Tipperary Hill, a predominantly Irish neighborhood in Syracuse, in New York's West End. She attended St. Patrick's Catholic School where she remembers, "we always had St. Patrick's Day off—as it should be."

Reddy has come a long way since her days on Tipperary Hill. After earning a bachelor's degree in English from SUNY Brockport and an MFA from Columbia University, she began her professional career working at Antaeus magazine and The Ecco Press in New York City as a copy editor.

In 1987 she and her husband moved to Utah. "We had visited Utah on ski vacations for many years and just fell in love with the powder snow we couldn't get in New York," Reddy recalls. During her first decade in Utah she worked as a writer, editor, and resource and project manager for companies such as Wasatch Education Systems, Intel and Franklin Covey.

Ten years later, Reddy and Shauna Bona, a long-time colleague, decided to join forces and create McKinnon-Mulherin Inc., an information design company. Their work involves creating computer- and Web-based training courses; technical publications; employee manuals; federal and commercial proposals; Web sites; and coaching, training, and user guides.

"We read what we could about starting a business and asked [business owners] for advice, and although no one told us the truth [about the difficulty of the process], we continued on and we’re still here eight years later," Reddy says.

Although not obvious, McKinnon-Mulherin was named after the founders. McKinnon is Bona's mother's birth name and Mulherin is Reddy's birth name. "We figure it either sounds like a law firm or an Irish pub," Reddy says.

McKinnon-Mulherin clients include Evans and Sutherland, IBM, Intel, Iomega, Utah Education Network, Warner-Robins Air Force Base, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and Deseret Generation and Transmission.

Since its founding, the company has seen steady growth, as has Reddy’s reputation as a leader among women business owners. Reddy is an active member of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and is currently president-elect for the Salt Lake Chapter.

Most recently, Reddy was selected from a nation wide pool of nominees to receive one of NAWBO’s highest honors: the Unsung Hero Award. In June she traveled to Orlando, Fla. for the ceremony and was honored before 800 of her fellow women business owners from around the country. "I felt kind of silly receiving the Unsung Hero Award," she says. "The award is for people who don’t get enough recognition; but they're always thanking me. I felt like I really didn’t deserve it."

The community work Reddy is engaged in tells a different story. In addition to her involvement with the local NAWBO chapter, Reddy volunteers at least once a week at People Helping People, an organization that helps single mothers find work. She's also a member of the Utah Women's Alliance for Building Community (UWABC), the Salt Lake Chamber, and the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).

In addition to running her company, Reddy enjoys many of the activities Salt Lake has to offer including summer concerts, poetry readings, and films. After spending nearly 20 years away from her native New York, Reddy says, "While I sometimes miss the pizza and living close to an ocean, my husband and I love the mountains and we’ve gotten used to not waiting in line."

Helen Langan is the associate director of communications at Westminster College and a Salt Lake-based freelance writer.