5 Borough Business Breakfast - Queens - 1010Wins

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Where:

Terrace on the Park - Queens
When: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Time: 7:30am-10:00am
Host: Juliet Papa - 1010 WINS

The most recognized and trusted news brand in New York is about to put its 44 years of experience, connections, and unmatched resources behind a dynamic new series of events for New York City's small business owners!
 
The 5-Borough Business Breakfast will offer a series of unique networking and information filled mornings specifically targeting the needs of the local business owner and local business community. 

Photos:  5 Borough Business Breakfast Series
Video:  Mayor Bloomberg at the 5 Borough Business Breakfast

The breakfast will bring together business, community, and political leaders from that Borough who can offer specific solutions for the local business owner. 

Robert Walsh:  Commissioner of NYC Small Business Services - Addressing City Services Issues: Taking advantage of the city’s cost-free services through NYC Business Solutions, to help businesses start, operate and expand; navigating the city’s codes, introducing New York City Business Express.

Robert W. Walsh was appointed Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS) by Mayor Bloomberg in January 2002.  During his tenure, he has redefined how the City serves and responds to the needs of the City’s 220,000 small businesses.

SBS has invigorated the City's 64 Business Improvement Districtsâ€" the largest network of BIDs in the country â€" which collectively invest more than $98 million dollars in the maintenance, development and promotion of commercial districts throughout the City. Under Walsh’s leadership, SBS enhanced the delivery of services to New York City’s small businesses.  Through NYC Business Solutions, SBS provides businesses with business planning assistance, business courses, help accessing financing, hiring and training employees, selling to the government, and accessing incentives.  To make starting, operating and expanding a business simple and easy, SBS launched online tools through NYC Business Express.  SBS has also energized the City’s promotion and support of minority- and women-owned businesses. 

Since Mayor Bloomberg merged the City’s adult workforce development programs with SBS in July 2003, Walsh has led the effort to link workforce and economic development by meeting the needs of both businesses and jobseekers.  Under his leadership, SBS has increased the number of Workforce1 Career Centers from three to eight and implemented data-driven performance management, resulting in an increase in the number of placements made by the Career Centers each quarter from just 127 in 2004 to more than 6,800 during the last quarter.  SBS also overhauled the City’s training voucher program by focusing on training provider accountability and tightly linking training opportunities to jobs. The Workforce1 Career Centers have achieved 66,000 job placements since 2004 and aim to place New Yorkers in 20,000 jobs in 2009.

Prior to his appointment, Walsh spent five years in North Carolina as President of Charlotte Center City Partners, an organization dedicated to improving and growing Charlotte’s central business district.  From 1989 to April 1997, he led the Union Square Partnership, where he played a key role in the neighborhood's revitalization.  During the 1980's, he worked in the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch.  He began his career in public service as a New York City Urban Fellow, a program he later directed.  Commissioner Walsh holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Fordham University.

Howard Glickberg - Co-Owner of Fairway Market

Howard Glickberg proudly continues in the tradition of high quality food at good prices, established by his grandfather Nathan Glickberg, the founder of Fairway Market.

Howard, who co-owns all Fairway Markets with partners, David Sneddon and Harold Seybert, has, for more than 30 years, invested in the high standards of excellence with 'no shortcuts' philosophy - a trademark of Fairway - that has contributed to its great success.

While his father, Leo, worked in the first Fairway on W. 74th Street and Broadway, Howard, did not enter the grocery business full-time until 1974 - six years after he graduated from C.W. Post College. He did, however, work in the store part-time during college, spending a good deal of time in produce and getting a strong feel for the work ethic, the knowledge and family pride his dad - a very tough taskmaster - had.

When the store was sold in 1969, Howard took his business degree and became a stockbroker who worked part-time at Citarella's - keeping his hand in the food business during this period in his life. Meanwhile, the new Fairway owners had made drastic changes, diminishing the quality and upping the prices - a formula for failure. In 1975, Howard and his new partners - two tomato distributors - who had done business with Fairway for many years, bought it back. They worked 100 hour weeks, seven days a week, adding specialty items, expanding the space and emphasizing fresh fruit and vegetables that is at the core of all Fairway Markets.

For the next 20 years, Howard and his dedicated team helped to make Fairway Market an icon in New York City and the food store with the highest volume per square foot of any in the country. When he decided to open a store in Harlem he ignored anyone who said he was crazy, believing that high quality merchandise at the best prices is what every consumer wants. He was right and the Fairway Uptown was welcomed into its neighborhood in 1995, where it continues to thrive.

In 2001, the Plainview Long Island store opened and is now the highest volume food store on Long Island doing five times the volume done by the A&P previously on the site. Howard, who says his strengths are in overall operations, has earned accolades and awards along the way including Entrepreneur of the Year in 1996 from Deluitte & Touche, Business of the Year by the Westside Chamber of Commerce in 1997, and with his partners, named to the Top 50 Influential Businessman in NYC by Crain's in 1997.

Alan Suna - CEO Silvercup Studios
Alan was a founder of Silvercup Studios, when, in 1983, the vacant former Silvercup Bakery was converted into a film and television production facility.  Beginning with one studio, the facility eventually grew into nineteen studios in two distinct facilities in Long Island City, New York.  Home to The Sopranos and the Sex & the City TV series, Silvercup currently provides facilities to series from four different networks: 30 Rock (NBC); Gossip Girl (CW); Ugly Betty (ABC); White Collar (USA). Among the many feature films that have been shot at Silvercup have been: Julie and Julia, The Devil Wears Prada, What Happens in Vegas, No Reservations, Uptown Girls, Birth, Two Weeks Notice, When Harry Met Sally, and each of the two Sex and the City feature films. Additionally, over hundreds of commercials have been produced each year including national campaigns for Wendy’s, Old Navy, The Olive Garden and Victoria’s Secret.

Alan and his brother Stuart also develop housing in New York City. Currently they have one 76 unit project under construction in Queens with a much larger mixed use project, Silvercup West, in the pre-development phase. The brothers have also developed affordable housing projects in all of NYC’s boroughs except Staten Island.

In 2002 Alan, together with his brother, Stuart, won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Media & Entertainment for the New York Region.

Alan, a Queens native, is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Queens Museum and is overseeing its expansion, which will result in a museum almost twice its current size.  He actively participates in film and television industry-related ventures, having served on the Board of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) and the New York Production Alliance (NYPA).  Alan has served on both the Governor’s Film and Television Advisory Board and on the Advisory Board to the Mayor’s Office of Film, Television and Broadcasting.

Alan received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and has also completed post graduate studies in architecture, business and real estate development at M.I.T., Harvard and Columbia Universities.  Prior to his development of Silvercup Studios, he worked for the architectural firms of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in Washington, D.C. and Hoskins, Scott, Taylor and Partners in Boston, MA.

Steve Chen - EVP Crystal Window and Door Systems
Steve has overall responsibility for the operations of Crystal Window & Door Systems and its aluminum extrusion subsidiary. With his primary focus on sales and marketing efforts, he directs large-scale projects, from proposal and estimation through production and delivery, through his experienced staff of professionals. Steve also guides corporate issues such as finance, accounting, production, product research and development, strategic marketing and advertising initiatives, branch office operations, the sales administration processes, and sales strategies for Crystal Extrusion Systems. Recently, Glass Magazine spotlighted Steve as one of the industry’s youngest top executives nationwide, and the 1,200-member Queens Chamber of Commerce recognized Steve as one of Queens’ Top 10 Business Executives Under 40.

Approaching thirty, Steve has already acquired a significant background in window manufacturing and installation. He grew up in the business, as a child accompanying his father to customer business meetings or helping out at the factory on Saturdays. Through high school and college, Steve worked each summer wherever he was needed, on the factory floor making windows, helping in accounting or with computer systems, even loading trucks. This enabled him to see many aspects of the operations directly, gaining critical first-hand experience.

Born in Taiwan, Steve came to the U.S. with his parents at age seven. He attended New York City public schools and graduated with a degree in economics from Penn State University. After college, Steve joined First Union Asset Management as leader of a team of investment account managers. There he was responsible for portfolio accounting, working with pension and investment plan brokers and their customers, and honing his skills in client relations. He rejoined Crystal as a project manager in 2003, gaining experience in marketing, sales, accounting, product design, aluminum extrusion and manufacturing processes, before assuming his current role over the entire window and door operation. Steve has also attended the renowned executive business program at Dartmouth’s Tucks Business School.

Steve is actively involved with local and regional business and trade organizations, including the Northeast Window & Door Association, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the College Point Board of Trade. He is on the Board of Directors for Queens Theatre in the Park and the Asian Advisory Board for Flushing Savings Bank. Steve continues Crystal’s tradition of philanthropy, supporting many local higher education and cultural institution programs, as well as reading initiatives at College Point public schools. The Queens Library Foundation honored Steve in 2006 for his support of children’s educational programs in the community.

Steve’s appointment to his current role marks the leadership transition from the founding generation, his father Thomas Chen, to the next generation. With his senior management team of seasoned industry professionals and experienced Crystal managers, Steve is strengthening environmentally responsible practices throughout the company and focusing on Crystal’s core products and markets for long term company growth.

Dolores Hofman - Program Manager - Queens Air Services Development Office
Dolores Hofman started her aviation career with Pan American World Airways; in 1972, she became the first female at Kennedy Airport licensed to operate a forklift.  She began to rise through the ranks of the Cargo, Material and Personnel Departments, holding positions of increased responsibility.  In 1989, she left her recruiting position at Pan Am to run Evergreen Airlines’ Personnel Department at Kennedy Airport.

In October 1991, Dolores assumed her present position as Program Manager of the Queens Air Services Development Office (ASDO), where she matches aviation purchasing needs of Kennedy and LaGuardia airports with those local business enterprises that are most impacted by these two airports.  (She’s better known as the “Airport Matchmaker.”)  The program is funded by the Port Authority of NY & NJ and administered by the Aviation Development Council.

During Dolores’ tenure in the aviation industry, she has been involved with numerous public and civic-minded organizations.  She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Air Cargo Association, served on the Board for the Animal Protection Institute of America, was a member of the steering committee for the JFK Career Center and is Past President of Animal Lifeline.  In 1997, she received the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award naming her their “Woman of the Year” and in 2003, was named “Woman of the Year” by Our Lady of the Skies Catholic Chapel, making her the first recipient of both prestigious airport awards.  In 2004 she was presented with the Queens Council of the Boy Scouts’ Leadership award and in 2009 was named one of the “Top Women in Business” by the Queens Courier & Queens Business Today Newspapers.

Melva M. Miller - Director, Economic Development - Office of the President, Borough of Queens
Melva M. Miller, resident of South East Queens, has dedicated her life to community advocacy through creative organizing and citizen participation.  The daughter of a community activist, Tony Miller, Ms. Miller commenced her activism work in 1993 when she began working with children using the arts as a tool to instill a sense of social responsibility while fostering positive imagery of youth in the community.  This work gave Ms. Miller the opportunity to collaborate in creating programming that used dance, music and artistic expression as a conduit to introduce community awareness.  She then sought to professionalize her community development skills and attended the Hunter College School of Social Work where she earned a Master’s degree in Community Organization and Planning, and received the school’s Dorothy North McNeal Award for achievement in Community Organization. 

Ms. Miller quickly put her formal organizing training to work when she was appointed the position of Executive Director for the Sutphin Boulevard Business Improvement District (BID).   As the first Executive Director of this community based not-for-profit organization, she created and administered programs that served as catalysts for economic revitalization along Sutphin Boulevard in downtown Jamaica, Queens.  During her tenure, she was charged with providing supplemental sanitation and security services throughout the District as well as provided promotion for the area, advocacy for the interests of the local businesses, distributed information to boost economic development, and enhanced neighborhood quality of life for local businesses and residents.  While at the BID, she also served as Project Director of the Downtown Jamaica Cultural District formed to contribute to the artistic development of downtown Jamaica through marketing, brand identity, cultural development, public space utilization and real estate initiatives. July of 2007, Ms. Miller joined the Office of Queens Borough President Helen Marshall to serve as key advisor on, and provide assistance to, small businesses throughout the Borough of Queens and develop a borough-wide Workforce Development initiative to support the borough’s economic development. June of 2008, she was promoted to Director of Economic Development.
 
Ms. Miller has also been the coordinator of Community Development for the Laurelton Local Development Corporation where she organized local businesses and other community organizations toward economic development within the Laurelton commercial corridor and, served as a community organizer for the National Center for Creative Aging in Brooklyn, a non-profit organization fostering the understanding of the relationship between creative expression and healthy aging. 

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