The Building & Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Region (BRI) marks its 75th anniversary this week with Lisa DeRosa, president of DeRosa Builders Inc. of White Plains, having been named its new president.
“My goal is to bring more transparency and give the organization a greater voice,” said DeRosa, who is BRI”™s first female president. “Whenever an issue occurs in the building and realty industries, I want the BRI to be the ultimate source in the Hudson Valley. I want to amplify our members”™ voices and give the BRI a larger spotlight.”
BRI was formed on Feb. 11, 1946, and has grown to have 1,800 members who come from 14 counties in New York.
DeRosa served as a vice chair of the BRI”™s Apartment Owners Advisory Council from 2016 to 2020 and has been a member of its negotiating committee during its labor contract negotiations with Local 32-BJ Service Employees International Union (SEIU). She was elected to the BRI”™s Board of Trustees in 2016 and has served as secretary since 2018.
DeRosa succeeded Vincent Mutarelli as BRI”™s president. As the organization”™s immediate past president, he is serving a one-year term as chair of the board of trustees.
DeRosa”™s late father, John DeRosa served as president of the BRI in the 1960s and was a longtime member of the organization”™s board. Her late mother, Margit DeRosa, was a president and longtime member of the BRI”™s Women”™s Council.
“We always hear the term ”˜glass ceiling”™ when it comes to women,” DeRosa said. “That we shouldn”™t aim too high because we”™re living in a male-dominated industry. But women bring a lot of different perspectives that are completely different from men”™s. And I think it”™s extremely important to have equal representation on all fronts to truly represent the society that we live in.”
