During 2023, Westchester and Fairfield County saw an astonishing display of leadership across multiple industries and sectors. Some of this leadership resulted in headline-grabbing stories while other worked quietly to generate change for the better.
In compiling our list for 2023’s Persons of the Year, we are reminded of the often-repeated statement about how one person can make change the world. Within industries as diverse as real estate, entertainment, cryptocurrency, food service, government and nonprofits, our Persons of the Year brought about change for the better.
William Balter, co-founder and principal of WBP Development, Chappaqua. Balter is being cited for building his company into a leading developer of affordable housing projects when many of his fellow developers focus on market rate and luxury housing. At the same time, WBP Development is active with other segments of the real estate market. In September, a $51 million affordable housing project in Peekskill that Balter had developed with the Housing Action Council had its ribbon-cutting.
Noam Bramson, Mayor of New Rochelle. Bramson served 18 years as mayor and is being cited for his consistent leadership in government that has included the dramatic redevelopment of New Rochelle’s downtown. After he leaves office at the end of the year, Bramson will become executive director of the nonprofit energy organization Sustainable Westchester. Before he was elected mayor, Bramson served on the New Rochelle City Council for ten years. In addition to advocating for the redevelopment of New Rochelle’s downtown, Bramson has been a steady environmental advocate and created new land use policies in the city including promotion of open space.
John Chidsey, CEO of Subway, Shelton. This has been quite a busy year for Chidsey and his sandwich shop chain. During the course of 2023, Chidsey relocated Subway’s headquarters from Milford to Shelton while opening a dual headquarters in Miami, expanded its menu offerings to stay competitive in the fast-food sector, announced new senior leadership to shake up operations, signed a deal to open 4,000 eateries across China, and negotiated the company’s acquisition by the private equity firm Roark Capital. The latter achievement is being scrutinized by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission because Roark also owns the Jimmy John’s and Arby’s chains – a decision on that should be coming next month. And all of this raises an obvious question: what could Chidsey do in 2024 to top his astonishing accomplishment slate for 2023?
John Gomes, candidate for Mayor of Bridgeport. In September’s Democratic primary for Bridgeport’s mayoralty, the former business executive was leading with the in-person votes but lost when the absentee ballots pushed the results in favor of incumbent Joe Ganim. This was the same result as the 2019 primary, when the Ganim-favoring absentee vote count bore no resemblance to the in-person balloting that favored his challenger, State Sen. Marilyn Moore. But unlike Moore, Gomes produced video evidence of absentee ballot tampering by Ganim campaign workers and he successfully sued to force do-overs of the primary and general election, which have been scheduled for early 2024.
Robert Halmi, CEO of Great Point Studios, Yonkers. A veteran film and TV producer, Halmi is being recognized for his vision in creating movie and TV production facilities in Yonkers, leading the city to adopt the slogan, “Hollywood on Hudson.” Halmi has extensive experience in motion picture and television production, and founded the Hallmark Channel. He was instrumental in bringing the Lionsgate Studios to downtown Yonkers and in Lionsgate’s expansion. He recently broke ground for a separate studio campus to be occupied by Mediapro in Northwest Yonkers and is finalizing plans to build studios at the former Leake & Watts campus in Southwest Yonkers.
Vince McMahon, executive chairman of TKO Group Holdings, Stamford. The year’s most dramatic corporate comeback involved Vince McMahon’s dramatic return to the leadership of WWE in January, seven months after he stepped down in the middle of a scandal involving hush money payment to former female employees accusing him of harassment. McMahon used his majority stake in WWE to force his way back into charge and then deftly negotiated a merger deal with Endeavor Group Holdings, owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, to form the new TKO Group. TKO noted that “federal law enforcement agents executed a search warrant and served a federal grand jury subpoena” last July on him, although no charges were brought. He is viewed by some as Fairfield County’s most provocative and unpredictable business leader.
Sipho Simela, CEO of Matrix Rental Solutions, Stamford. Simela defines Matrix as “a rental application management platform that sits on top of a universal application. The idea is a single application with a single screening for the tenant.” Simela’s two-year-old company is currently working with Connecticut’s Department of Housing on pilot program in five cities to see if his platform can enable residents to get into homes faster. The entrepreneur has been honored twice by Westfair this year, as part of the 40 Under Forty cohort and as an award winner in last month’s Millennial & Gen Z Awards, while Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons led the ribbon cutting ceremony at his new Stamford office last April.
Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, Stamford. It’s not every day that a company takes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to court and wins, but in August Grayscale scored a legal victory when the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the SEC’s decision to deny conversion of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). The court called the denial “arbitrary and capricious.” The SEC opted not to pursue the matter further in the courts and Sonnenshein declared his company’s victory as “a historic milestone for American investors, the Bitcoin ecosystem, and all those who have been advocating for Bitcoin exposure through the added protections of the ETF wrapper.” The SEC had not approved the conversion Sonnenshein sought as of late December.
Ned Sullivan, president of Scenic Hudson, Poughkeepsie. Since being established in 1863, Scenic Hudson has been a leader in the protection of land, air and water in the Hudson Valley from the hazards of pollution and uncontrolled development. Sullivan became president of Scenic Hudson in 1999 and he is recognized as one of the most prominent forces in environmental protection and preservation. Among his career honors are the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal in 2007 and the Land Trust Alliance’s National Land Trust Excellence Award in 2011. Before taking on his leadership role at Scenic Hudson, Sullivan was deputy commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation from 1987 to 1995.
Kara Whelan, president of the Westchester Land Trust, Bedford Hills. Whelan was named president last year, after having been with the nonprofit since 2012, and has been involved in negotiating land acquisitions and directing the organization’s fundraising, communications and community engagement programs. In 2016, she helped launch and coordinate the Hudson to Housatonic Regional Conservation Partnership, which takes a regional approach to land preservation. Prior to joining the Westchester Land Trust, Whelan was with the Greenwich Land Trust, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Trustees of Reservations, and the City Parks Foundation.
