The January 4, 1899, telegram from G. Marconi to Alexander Graham Bell bears John Mackay’s name in two prominent places—as president of both the Commercial Cable Company and the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, two of the largest telegraph companies in the world. Mr. Mackay was a corporate titan, incomparably wealthy, and was known as amiable, well-liked and highly regarded, as well as aggressive and deliberate.

The route Mackay took to the top of the corporate world was not foreseeable or direct. The Irish-born immigrant arrived in New York as a child. He was only 11 years old when his father died. Dropping out of school to support his mother and sister, Mackay apprenticed as a ship’s carpenter, working with tools and honing a variety of skills that would later become useful in the Comstock Lode.