Westchester County Newsmakers, 1.20.2014
Thompson & Bender adds two senior staffers
THOMPSON & BENDER (T&B)has named two new senior staff members. Jennifer Bannan has been appointed advertising and marketing director and Laura Plunkett has been appointed director of public relations and special events; both are newly created positions.
“We are fortunate to have two highly qualified and experienced professionals join our agency,” said Geoff Thompson, T&B chairman and a founding partner. “Both Jennifer and Laura have extensive backgrounds and deep experience with a broad range of aspects of the field. They have worked with highly regarded agencies and companies and will play a key role in client-interaction, account management, staff leadership and positioning our agency for the future.”
Bannan, a resident of Cornwall-on-Hudson, will manage advertising, marketing and creative services. She joins T&B after four years with The Byne Group, an award-winning advertising and marketing agency in Rockland County. As managing director, she managed clients that included hospitals, colleges, nonprofits, economic development organizations and municipalities. Earlier in her career she was director of account management at Splashlight Studios and was a project manager at TBWA/Chiat Day and Kirchenbaum Bond & Partners, all in Manhattan. She received a bachelor”™s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in advertising and marketing communications.
A Tarrytown resident, Plunkett will manage public relations, social media and events marketing. She joins T&B after serving as a marketing director at DreamWorks Animation in Manhattan. At DreamWorks she created and managed brand communication plans, including strategic partnerships, online and social media sites and event-marketing programs for several of the company”™s pop culture action properties. Prior to DreamWorks, she was marketing director/North America for Guinness World Records, senior account manager for public relations at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners, LIME Communications and a publicist at Little, Brown and Company. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in mass communications from Denison University.
Title agency expands
TitleVest, voted the “Best Title Agency” in the New York Law Journal”™s 2013 reader rankings and one of the nation”™s leading providers of title insurance and related real estate services, is expanding its lower Hudson Valley operations with the addition of title insurance and real estate professionals Jennifer Noto and Fern Vozza to its White Plains office. Founded in 2000, TitleVest is a privately held New York City-based title insurance agency offering a full range of title insurance and related services throughout the United States.
Noto, director of operations, lower Hudson Valley, will be leveraging her 25-plus years of title industry experience to assist in the management and fulfillment of TitleVest”™s Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties transactions. For the past eight years, Noto was director of operations for Westchester-based Benchmark Title Agency. Her prior positions include recording department manager at First American Title Insurance Co.”™s White Plains office and senior clearance officer at L & H Abstract Corp., a First American company.
Vozza joins TitleVest with a diverse real estate background, including positions in property management at a Westchester-based property management firm and as paralegal/office manager for a Westchester-based real estate law firm.
“While we have long maintained a solid footprint in the lower Hudson Valley, we are excited to expand our local presence with the addition of Jennifer and Fern to our White Plains office,” said Bill Baron, TitleVest president and CEO.
Four appointed to PPHP board
Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic (PPHP) has appointed four new members to its boards of directors. Jeffrey Hastie and Ramon Padilla were appointed to the PPHP Board, which oversees the non-profit organization that provides sexual and reproductive health care, and Augustine Backer and Tom Gardner were appointed to the PPHP Action Fund Board, the agency”™s political and advocacy arm.
Hastie, a New Rochelle resident and former vice president at JPMorgan Chase & Co., is active in the community and serves on the New Rochelle Board of Education. He is a board member and nominating committee chair for National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), Fairchester region. Hastie also serves on New Rochelle”™s Telecommunications Advisory Council (TCAC). At JPMorgan Chase & Co., his responsibilities included information technology risk and control measures, business management, and planning and budgeting. He also started a consulting firm specializing in call center strategy, operations and management and spent 10 years overseeing the global technology infrastructure at The Associated Press. Hastie earned a Bachelor of Science degree in systems engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and an MBA from Columbia University.
Padilla of Bronxville is an active member in the Latino and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. He has worked at Pfizer for 10 years and was recently promoted to manager, quality assurance for the PGS-Quality Operations-Oncology department. He is well versed in both the biopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical business, most notably in the areas of vaccines and oncology. Padilla is a microbiologist by education and has a strong compliance and investigative background. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 2000 at Binghamton University and is currently taking graduate courses at Columbia University.
Backer of New Rochelle is currently on the PPHP board of directors. He has been working for IBM since 1999 and his areas of expertise include conflict resolution, finance, suicide prevention counseling and contract negotiations. While earning his Ph.D. in physics, Backer served as graduate student employees union president at the University of Massachusetts. He also holds an MBA in finance. He currently chairs the PPHP Investment Advisory Committee and serves as a member of the budget and finance committee.
Gardner of Bedford Hills is a retired executive with extensive board experience and a life-long interest in politics. He held a variety of senior management positions at The Reader”™s Digest Association, including serving as President of Reader”™s Digest International from 2003 ”“ 2007. Since 2009, Gardner has served on the boards of Dex Media, a publicly traded company, and Guideposts, a privately held publishing company. He has previously served as a trustee of the Northern Westchester Hospital and The Reader”™s Digest Foundation. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College and an MBA from Stanford University.
New director of The Picture House
LAURA DeBUYS has been appointed the new executive director of The Picture House in Pelham.
As the founder of deBuys & Co., a strategy, marketing and development consultancy for nonprofits and small businesses, deBuys was responsible for designing and executing a social media campaign for the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum that won a $155,000 Partners in Preservation grant against competition that included the Intrepid, the Guggenheim and the Apollo Theatre.
In addition, deBuys has developed fundraising strategies and campaigns for the Salvation Army of Greater New York, Children”™s Hope India, the Institute for Student Achievement and Furniture Sharehouse. DeBuys also brings a theater background to her role at The Picture House. She has stage-managed more than 100 productions, including Broadway shows, corporate events and product launches.
“This is a poignant moment for The Picture House,” said board Chairman John Calvelli. “We bid a fond farewell to Barbara Bratone following her 18 months of extraordinary leadership. Barbara”™s sound management, creativity and her commitment to the greater community leave The Picture House poised for terrific growth and innovation. As we welcome Laura deBuys as executive director, The Picture House continues its trajectory to becoming Westchester”™s leading independent movie theater and an important educational hub.”
In her new role, deBuys intends to focus on meeting the needs of the growing Picture House community. “The Picture House is now, as it has been since 1921, a community movie theater,” she says. “But our community has expanded and diversified dramatically so that we are now a cultural resource for Westchester, the Bronx and beyond. In 2014, we”™ll continue to meet the needs of this community with compelling films, great education programs, special events and more. There are a lot of creative plans afoot.”
A longtime resident of Pelham, DeBuys holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College and a Professional Certificate in Digital Media Marketing from New York University.
Senior VP named at Webster Bank
Richard McDonald of Scarsdale was promoted to senior vice president, treasury/wholesale bank manager at Webster Bank.
McDonald joined Webster in 2012 as vice president, funding manager, and since then has increased the bank”™s funding capacity and flexibility. In his new role, McDonald will oversee Webster”™s investment and bank-owned life insurance portfolios and continue to oversee the wholesale funding portfolio.
“The contributions made by exceptional leaders like Rich have been pivotal in driving Webster”™s success,” said Bruce Wandelmaier, senior vice president, treasurer at Webster. “I am thrilled for him and I have no doubt that he will continue to play a key role in determining and executing wholesale strategies to improve returns while managing risk.”
McDonald earned his bachelor”™s degree in general engineering from West Point and served in the Army for eight years rising to the level of captain. Deeply committed to serving his community, McDonald has been a coach with Girls”™ AAU basketball.
Katonah Museum names director
DARSIE ALEXANDER, a nationally renowned curator and museum professional, has been appointed the executive director of the Katonah Museum of Art (KMA).
She leaves her current position as chief curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis to assume her new role on March 1.
“We are thrilled to bring Darsie on board as our next executive,” KMA President Tara Coniaris said. “Her excellent track record as a curator, innovative approach to audience engagement and remarkable career at leading American museums made her an exceptional candidate who will bring visionary leadership to the KMA.”
Coniaris said, “The museum is grateful to Belinda Roth, our interim executive director, for her leadership over the past year. Not only did she supervise a compelling series of exhibitions and related events, but she also initiated important collaborative efforts going forward. We are thankful for Belinda”™s contribution in making this a smooth transition.”
“Great museums come in many shapes and sizes,” Alexander said. “An agile, non-collecting museum with close links to its community and New York City like the KMA occupies an essential spot in the landscape of art today. It is free to undertake exciting, in-depth program initiatives that may not work on a larger platform. It”™s where true creativity and experimentation can occur. Our success hinges on being a place where great ideas and art converge to engage the public. Affirming and expanding points of connection with local and national audiences will be the most important and deeply inspiring part of my job.”
Raised in Massachusetts, Alexander earned her Masters of Art in art history at Williams College and Bachelors of Art from Bates College. She began her career as a photography curator at the Museum of Modern Art, serving as the photography liaison for Modern Starts: MoMA2000, a museum-wide millennial project., and received MoMA”™s Lee Tanenbaum Award for Curatorial Excellence. Alexander, also, introduced art stars Rachel Harrison, Olafur Eliasson and Sam Taylor-Johnson to New York audiences in a group exhibition in 1998.
Environmental law students prevail
PACE LAW SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL LITIGATION CLINIC was the victor in the recent court ruling of Raritan Baykeeper v. City of New York. New York State Supreme Court Judge Bernard J. Graham sided with the Baykeeper, which was represented by the Environmental Litigation Clinic, when he ruled that New York City must cease using Spring Creek Park in Brooklyn as the site of solid-waste treatment center.
Graham agreed with the position, as presented by Pace law students active in the litigation clinic, that the placement of the waste treatment center violated the public trust doctrine. Using the park for this purpose and without legislative approval, blocked the public”™s enjoyment of public parkland.
“This decision is the first step toward correcting a fundamental injustice that has persisted for over a decade. There is no reason that the residents of the New Lots section of Brooklyn should have been deprived of their scarce parkland just to save New York City the expense of finding land for a waste management operation,” said Karl Coplan, professor of law and co-director of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic. “We are very proud of Pace law student Nicole Sasaki, who mastered New York”™s public trust doctrine and successfully argued the case before Justice Graham.”
The Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic is open to students in their second and third years of law school. Those selected for the program receive academic credit and hands-on legal experience as they work alongside experienced attorneys in an environmental law practice representing public interest groups.
More than a dozen students worked on this case over the last nine years, said Dan Estrin, professor of law and co-director of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic. Estrin made special note of the work of Adam Weiss (”™13) and Nicole Sasaki (”™14) who, he said, did most of the work researching and drafting the motion papers.
The Business Council of Westchester elects three to its board of directors
GEORGE LENCE, JEFFREY HAYDON and DOUGLAS SINGER have been elected to three-year terms on the board of directors of THE BUSINESS COUNCIL OF WESTCHESTER.
“These three new members of our board bring a wealth of experience in business, law, government relations and cultural affairs. We are delighted to have them join our board and look forward to their expertise and insights,” said Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of The Business Council of Westchester.
Lence is president of Nicholas & Lence Communications, a New York City-based strategic communications firm specializing in media relations, destination marketing, corporate positioning, crisis management, and government and community relations. Prior to co-founding the firm in 2007, Lence spent six years at NYC & Company, New York City”™s official tourism marketing and promotion organization. Lence, who has more than 25 years of legal and government affairs experience, is a resident of Sleepy Hollow.
Haydon is CEO of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah. Haydon, who joined the Caramoor staff in September 2012, has nearly 20 years of arts management experience and a lifelong love of music as both an avid audience member and musician. He previously served as executive director of the Ojai Music Festival in Southern California. He has also held positions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and Aspen Music Festival. Haydon resides in Katonah.
Singer is a partner in the law firm of Falcon & Singer P.C. with offices in Scarsdale and Montvale, N.J. Singer”™s primary focus is business law, working with privately held companies and their owners. He has particular niches working with women and minority owned companies and with for-profit companies that are also pursuing socially responsible goals. Singer is a resident of Stamford, Conn.
The Business Council has also announced the appointment of three new directors to its executive committee. Tim Jones, managing director and Partner of the Robert Martin Co., has been named vice chair of the Economic Development Leadership Council; Lence was appointed chair of the Government Action Council; and Singer was named general counsel.