Ushered in by the blasting strains of rock and roll hits from the Sixties, six small businesses and corporations were inducted into the Business Council of Westchester Hall of Fame on Tuesday night in New Rochelle.
In keeping with the evening”™s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame theme, the annual awards event honored “business rock stars” from health care, banking, sports marketing, business consulting, education and retail building supplies before an audience of about 600 diners at the Glen Island Harbour Club.
Westchester Medical Center President and CEO Michael Israel accepted the Business Council”™s Corporate Citizenship Award on behalf of WMC, which in the last decade has grown from a $500 million public benefits corporation with three hospitals on its Valhalla campus to a $1.2 billion regional health network with about 10,000 employees and 10 hospitals across eight counties, he said.
John Tolomer, president and CEO of The Westchester Bank, winner of the Business Council”™s Small Business Award for 2016, described the community bank”™s struggle to survive the “financial meltdown” that began a few months after its founding in Yonkers in 2008. Initially operating from two double-wide trailers, the 56-employee bank now headquartered in White Plains operates five branches and its seeking a sixth location, Tolomer said. Its assets in seven years have grown from $39 million to more than $600 million while the bank”™s lending has increased from $7 million to $512 million.
Wendy Wollner, founder and president of Balancing Life”™s Issues in Ossining, received the Women in Business Award for her work promoting work-life balance in corporate training programs and lectures. Her 15-year-old company”™s clients have included IBM, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
The College of Westchester, a for-profit degree-granting school in White Plains, received the Family-Owned Business Award. Purchased by Ernest Sutkowski in 1973, when it was known as The Westchester Business Institute, the college has been owned by the same family for 43 years.
Peekskill”™s oldest business, N. Dain”™s Sons Co., a retail building products center at 2 N. Water St. on the city”™s riverfront, was honored with the Business Council Chairman”™s Recognition Award. Founded in 1848, the business is one of the oldest retail lumberyards in the U.S. still owned by the same family, according to the Business Council.
Accepting the award was Jeffrey Dain, company president and great-great-grandson of the lumberyard”™s founder, Nathaniel Dain.
Brandon Steiner, founder and CEO of Steiner Sports, a sports memorabilia and marketing business with about 100 employees in New Rochelle, described himself as a “serial entrepreneur” when accepting the Entrepreneurial Success Award for his company.
“Entrepreneurship is a risky proposition,” said Steiner, comparing his business career to piloting a sailboat when “I don”™t know which way the wind is blowing, I don”™t know where I am.”
The marketer of Yankee memorabilia dispensed extra advice beyond entrepreneurism: don”™t eat any ballpark food until after the third inning.
“Before that it”™s probably from the game before,” he said.
