Utility names McGinnis to executive HR post
The board of directors of Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. has appointed Sharon McGinnis to the position of vice president of human resources and safety.
McGinnis, succeeds Thomas C. Brocks, who will retire March 1, following a 35-year career with the utility.
McGinnis joined Central Hudson in 2009 as the director of human resources.
“Sharon has performed extremely well over the past six years, with a growing scope of responsibility and span of control,” said James P. Laurito, president and CEO. “Her performance, combined with her familiarity with the company’s culture and the respect that she has gained in the organization, make her the perfect choice to succeed Tom, whom we congratulate and thank for an outstanding career.”
Tompkins Mahopac Bank promotes three
Tompkins Mahopac Bank has promoted Julie Stellini, branch manager of the bank’s LaGrange and Southeast branches, to vice president.
Stellini has been with the bank for more than 13 years, currently holding the distinction of managing two branches. In her role, Stellini develops and leads a team of nine professionals, while pursuing business development in the LaGrange, Poughkeepsie and Southeast communities.
Active in the Hudson Valley community, Stellini is a member of the LaGrange Sunrise Rotary Club, the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Mahopac-Carmel Chamber of Commerce.
The bank also promoted Sue Musumeci, branch manager of the bank’s Red Mills branch in Mahopac, to vice president.
Musumeci has been with the bank for more than 10 years and is responsible for leading and developing a team of seven professionals, business development, small-business loan processing and banking and compliance controls.
Musumeci is a member of the Mahopac Chamber of Commerce, the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Women of Putnam.
Amy Greiner, branch manager of the Wappingers Falls branch, has been promoted by the bank to vice president. She has more than 25 years experience in the banking industry and has been with Tompkins Mahopac Bank since 2008. Greiner is responsible for the overall leadership, business development, operations and staff development of the Wappingers Falls branch. She is a member of the Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce and the local Rotary Club, where she currently serves as president.
The Briarcliff Manor hosts grand-opening celebration
The Briarcliff Manor and Antipasti di Napoli Trattoria & Bar in Briarcliff Manor held a grand-opening celebration recently to officially announce that the restaurant and catering venue are now open for business. More than 175 local residents, businesses, chamber of commerce members, village employees and dignitaries were on hand for the celebration complete with complimentary refreshments, hors d’oeuvres, dinner and desserts for guests. Restaurant owner Perry DiNapoli, of the DiNapoli Restaurant Group and former owner of Antonees on Broadway, was assisted by Mayor of Ossining Victoria Gearity as well as several other dignitaries for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony on the front steps of the new venue.
Guests toured the beautiful mansion on the hill built in 1902, formerly Maison Lafitte and most recently the Haymount House, and the surrounding grounds. Live music was provided by Gene DiNapoli of Lightning Entertainment, specialty drink samples by Bacardi were available and event sponsors Linda Rey of Rey Insurance and George Cutrone of David Lerner Associates were on hand for the event. Several members of the Rising Tides Alliance, a networking organization, which represents local businesses also supported the event.
TD Bank awards $5,000 to MHA Westchester
The Mental Health Association of Westchester received $5,000 from the TD Bank Charitable Foundation, which will help fund its peer specialist training program, held at the Sterling Community Center in White Plains. The program helps people who live with mental health issues, become health care providers and prepares them for New York state peer certification.
“The promise and power of the peer specialist training program,“ says CEO Amy Kohn, “is its potential to transition people from recipients of services to paid service providers.”
MHA is a community-based mental health agency based in Tarrytown that has been helping Westchester County residents for 68 years through direct services, professional and community education and advocacy. It supports 17,000 individuals annually through a comprehensive array of mental health services.
Amalgamated companies named top 50 call centers
Two members of the Amalgamated Family of Cos., which is based in White Plains – Amalgamated Life, a provider of life and health insurance, and AliCare, a third-party administrator — have been named to Benchmark Portal’s 2015 Top 50 Call Centers in North America in the small-size centers category. The competition is recognized internationally as the premier call-center program, which ranks call centers against key metrics of service and cost-efficiency quality. Each competing call center’s metrics were benchmarked against Benchmark Portal’s database. This is the third consecutive year that Amalgamated’s call center has been recognized as being among the best.
American dream realized
Abbie Rodriguez, an immigrant from the Philippines and a paralegal at Rye-based Dorf & Nelson law firm, passed her citizenship test and was sworn in as an American citizen July 17.
Growing up in the Philippines, Rodriguez had a very modest upbringing as her mother worked as a housekeeper struggling to provide for her and her five siblings. In 2002, after earning her bachelor’s degree from Centro Escolar University in Manila, Philippines, she made the decision to move to the United States.
Her first two jobs in America were at a fast-food restaurant and a flower shop. Motivated to do more, she went back to school to become a certified paralegal, while maintaining a job as a waitress. Her hard work and dedication proved to be a success and in 2008 she was offered a position at Dorf & Nelson as a paralegal.
A married mother of two, Rodriguez quickly rose through the ranks at the law firm and today, nearly seven years later, she manages the litigation department.
New dean at nursing school
The Cochran School of Nursing of St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers recently welcomed its new dean, Annemarie McAllister. McAllister holds a Master of Arts degree in health care administration and a Doctorate of Education – Nurse Executive Program from Teachers College. She is an assistant professor at Lienhard School of Nursing of Pace University, with professional organizational affiliations, including the American Association of the History of Nursing and American Nurses Association.
An appointed advisory board member of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, and book review editor for “Nursing History Review, The Official Publication of the American Association for the History of Nursing (2014),” McAllister’s professional accomplishments also include chapter contributions to “Learning the historical method: Step by step.”
White Plains rotary names 100th president
L. William Fishman, a tax attorney for 43 years, is the 100th president of the Rotary Club of White Plains for the 2015-16 year.
Fishman was a senior trial attorney with the U.S. Treasury Department from 1972 to 1977. Since then, he has been in private practice, specializing in federal, state and local income tax and estate and gift tax matters. His career has involved corporate, business and individual tax matters, handling tax disputes with government tax agencies, working with nonprofit organizations and estate planning.
During his tenure in the Rotary Club of White Plains, Fishman started the Rotary Means Business networking group and is a director of the Rotary Means Business Fellowship of Rotary International.
Fishman also serves on the board of directors of Gift of Life, a nonprofit organization sponsored by the Rotary Clubs in District 7230, which provides life-saving heart surgeries for indigent children from many parts of the world through special arrangements with the Westchester Medical Center Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital and Montefiore Medical Center.
Metallized Carbon names sales manager
Ossining-based Metallized Carbon Corp., a global leader in the manufacture of oil-free, self-lubricating, carbon-graphite materials for severe service lubrication applications, has appointed Justin Snowdon as sales manager, responsible for driving sales’ initiatives and expanding markets for products and services.
Snowdon, more than 13 years of sales and management experience, is “an insightful and consultative leader with strong customer engagement skills,” according to a press release. Previously he was regional sales manager at Thermatool Corp. where he used sales forecasting and analytics to grow territory and revenue through consultative selling and identified new market segments to expand the company’s existing customer base.
As a radioman in the U.S. Navy, Snowdon participated in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, receiving an honorable discharge and earning two Bronze Stars.
Special fundraiser
The William Raveis Real Estate office in Chappaqua has launched a community fundraising effort to benefit the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, which will tie-in with the William Raveis Ride and Walk event Sept. 12, at 8 a.m. at Jennings Beach, 880 S. Benson Road in Fairfield, Conn.
William Raveis chose to partner with the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation because the organization “identifies new generations of cancer researchers who have the brilliance, creativity and drive to revolutionize cancer research and provides them with funding to pursue their boldest ideas in search of new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat all forms of cancer.”
“We have been following the journey of Candy Raveis, William Raveis’ wife, as she has shared her personal battle with leukemia with the entire Raveis company since her diagnosis in 2014,” said Susan Myers, office manager of the Raveis Chappaqua Office. “Candy is a warrior. She has documented this most difficult chapter in her life and she has fought hard and is here to tell her story. Candy has taken her experience and translated it into her work as the official spokesperson for the partnership between the William Raveis Charitable Fund and the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation.”
Veteran Bankers join Signature Bank
Signature Bank has appointed two private client banking teams to its growing network.
One of the teams is headed by Avraham Azuolay, who was named group director and senior vice president and joins Signature from Hudson Valley Bank, headquartered in Yonkers, which recently merged with Sterling Bancorp. The members of this five-person team, based at Signature Bank’s private client office at 261 Madison Ave. in Manhattan, all worked together for 10 years and include Ronald J. Sylvestri and Arlene DeBenedictis, each of whom was named associate group director and vice president, and Jenny Panora and Wilfred Rivera, both senior client associates.
Azuolay has 15 years of banking experience and spent the past 10 years at Hudson Valley Bank as senior vice president and team leader of the legal services group in New York City.
Sylvestri brings more than 35 years of banking experience to his role. Most recently, for 13 years, he was senior vice president and regional manager at Hudson Valley Bank.
With 40 years of banking experience, DeBenedictis was previously branch area manager and first vice president for 21 years at her previous employer.
Panora spent her entire 11-year banking career at Hudson Valley Bank. Most recently, she was assistant branch area manager-officer, serving commercial clients.
Promotions at Citrin Cooperman
Effective July 1, seven professionals have been admitted into Citrin Cooperman’s partnership, along with one promotion to principal and 10 directors.
The newly admitted partners and principals include Gary Bagoff, tax partner in New Jersey; Michael Iannuzzi, audit partner in New York City; Denise Koch, tax principal in New York City; Denise Kopyar, audit and quality control partner in Philadelphia; Matt Lakofsky, tax partner in Philadelphia; Keith Rennard, audit partner in New York City; Eugene Ruvere, SALT partner in White Plains; and Marc Sonnenberg, audit partner in Long Island.
Among the 10 promotions to director was Vincent Abbruzzese, audit director in White Plains.
New board members at ORMC foundation
Tonia Crown, Jessica Gardner, Michael Gilfeather and Terrence Olivo have joined the board of trustees of the Orange Regional Medical Center Foundation.
Crown is the partner-in-charge of the auditing department of Vanacore, DeBenedictus, DiGovanni & Weddell LLP, which is based in Newburgh. She joined the firm in 2001 and her 20 years of public accounting experience includes positions with Price Waterhouse LLP in Washington, D.C., and Deloitte & Touche in New York City.
Gardner is the founder and president of Media Solstice Marketing & PR, an award-winning interdisciplinary marketing agency in the Hudson Valley, which helps advance the efforts of area companies and nonprofit organizations.
Gilfeather is president and CEO of Orange County Trust Co., and its holding company Orange County Bancorp Inc. Previously Gilfeather was chief administrative officer and executive vice president of Hudson Valley Bank.
Olivo has been a public school educator for 47 years and for more than 38 of those years, he was employed as a central office administrator. He began his career in Ulster County, as a history teacher and rose to superintendent of schools. After retiring he was Orange-Ulster BOCES’ chief operating officer, a post from which he retired in 2013.
Zachys appoints creative director, senior wine specialist
Zachys Wine Auctions, a third-generation family owned business located in Scarsdale and a market leader in fine and rare wine auctions internationally, has appointed Charles Antin as creative director, senior wine specialist and auctioneer. Antin brings nearly a decade of wine auction experience to Zachys, where he will assist the New York and global team in marketing, strategy, developing business and advising clients.
Over the past decade, Antin has developed skills in fine wine appraisal, assessment, authentication and auction.
“It’s a great pleasure to welcome Charles to Zachys,” said Jeff Zacharia, president of Zachys. “Charles brings a wealth of knowledge and talent to our team. Anyone who has dealt with Charles as a client or seen him from the rostrum, knows what an asset he is to the fine wine auction world. Everyone on the international Zachys team, from New York to Hong Kong, looks forward to working with him.”
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