Marissa Brett resigns WCA president’s post

Groomed as the future leader of the Westchester County Association, Marissa Brett has resigned as president of the business advocacy group after serving about 15 months in the post.

Marissa Brett

“I am pursuing new opportunities,” Brett wrote in an email to the Business Journal regarding her Thursday resignation.

WCA CEO William M. Mooney Jr. said he will assume Brett”™s responsibilities “to ensure a smooth transition.” A retired banker, Mooney served as WCA president until Brett”™s appointment in June 2014, when he stepped into the newly created CEO position.

Mooney said he could not comment on reasons for Brett’s sudden departure but said it was “on amicable terms.”

Brett joined the approximately 600-member county association in 2011 as its executive director of economic development and led its Blueprint for Westchester partnership to attract and retain innovative businesses and reduce the county’s inventory of vacant commercial office space. She also has been the public face of the WCA’s 2-year-old annual Health Tech conference.

At the time of Brett’s promotion to the president’s job, Mooney said the move and staff restructuring would ensure an “orderly transition” of leadership at the WCA and publicly show that she “will be the future leader of this organization.”

A Carmel resident, Brett previously served six years as vice president of the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp.