The Business Council of Westchester this week released the six winners of its annual Business Hall of Fame Awards dinner, which will be held April 19 at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle.
- Corporate Citizenship: Westchester Medical Center of Valhalla
- Entrepreneurial Success: Steiner Sports of New Rochelle
- Small Business Success: The Westchester Bank of White Plains
- Women in Business Success: Wendy Wollner, founder and president, Balancing Life’s Issues Inc.
- Family Owned Business: The College of Westchester in White Plains
- Chairman’s Recognition Award: N. Dain’s Sons Co., Inc. in Peekskill
Since new management, including president and CEO Michael Israel, took over the struggling Westchester Medical Center in 2005, it has grown from a $500 million organization to the $1.2 billion Westchester Medical Center Health Network. The Valhalla hospital now employs more than 10,000 people, including 3,000 attending physicians, and includes a 1,400-bed system with several locations throughout the Hudson Valley. Israel will accept the corporate citizenship award.
Steiner Sports, founded by sports marketer Brandon Steiner in 1979, provides hand-signed sports memorabilia, coordinates professional athlete appearances and events and produces digital content for major league sports. The company, based at 145 Huguenot Street in New Rochelle, has grown from 30 employees to 100 employees and has more than $40 million in annual sales. Steiner, the company’s CEO, will accept the entrepreneurial success award.
The Westchester Bank, founded in 2008, currently employs 56 people after starting with eight at the time of its launch. The bank has five full-service branches in Westchester, and has increased its assets from $39 million to more than $600 million over the past seven years. The Westchester Bank president and CEO John Tolomer will accept the small business success award.
Ossining-based Balancing Life’s Issues Inc., founded in 2001 by Wollner, provides consulting work for companies looking to improve employees’ work and life balance. The company’s employees provide work/life balance programs to corporations, nonprofits, employee assistance programs and educational institutions. Clients include IBM, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. Wollner will accept the women in business success award.
The College of Westchester, owned by the Sutkowski family since 1973, has an annual enrollment of 1,000-1,200 students and employs 150 full-time and 75 part-time employees. The school operates a five-story building in White Plains as well as two auxiliary buildings and offers both associate and bachelor degrees. President Mary Beth Del Balzo will accept the family owned business award.
N. Dain’s Sons Co. Inc., a building product company that operates a 30,000-square-foot warehouse and 5,000-square-foot showroom, is Peekskill’s oldest business, dating back to 1848. Jeffrey Dain, the company’s president and great-great grandson of founder Nathaniel Dain, will accept the chairman’s recognition award.
Business Council of Westchester president and CEO Marsha Gordon called the 2016 winners a “distinguished and diverse roster” of honorees.
“Selecting the winners for this prestigious award is never easy and this year was no different” Gordon said. “The quality of this year’s nominees was truly outstanding.”
For more information on the awards dinner, call 914-948-2110 or visit thebcw.org.
