Volume 1, Issue 1
Table of Contents

Miscellaneous
• From The Publishers
• Last Look: Syd Farber

Cover Story:
Where’s Everybody Going?
What’s causing some small businesses to pack up and leave? And what should we
be doing to stop them?

Feature Story:
The Excessive Costs of Doing Business in New York
A productive Small Business Day in Albany, but worries still exist for Rockland-ites and other New York based businesses.

Feature Story:
How’d They Do That?
Follow Provident Bank CEO George Strayton’s strategies for success.

DEPARTMENTS:

Economics Roundup
• The Smart Investor
• Money Talk

Business Roundup
• Unlock Your Potential
• Marketing By Design

Retail Round-Up
• Talking Shop
• Odds & Ends

Ask the Expert
• Estate Planning
• Mortgage Advice

Invest in Your Community
• The Bottom Line
• First Annual Non-profit Leadership Summit

Dedicated Section:
Rockland Business Association:

The President’s Desk
A new voice for Rockland County and a new advocate for its hottest issues and concerns.

Pinnacles of Success
RBA’s best honored at the
Third Annual Pinnacle Awards.

RBA Happenings
• Committee and Council Info
• Calendar of Events
• New Members

RBA Pinnacle Award winners receive a glass obelisk with their name engraved on it, a nice gift for certain. But while the obelisk might look great on the mantle, winners also receive the more substantial gift of being honored by their own peers.

Each year, the RBA honors the best and the brightest from the Rockland business community with a Pinnacle Award for their professionalism, tenacity, and philanthropic side. Truly the cream of the crop in our community.

As Mary Diem, owner of the Holiday Inn and Conference Center in Suffern, said when she accepted her award for outstanding achievement by a woman-owned business, “I’m deeply touched and honored that other professionals recognize what I’ve done.”

The third annual RBA Pinnacle Awards were held April 19 at the Park Ridge Marriott. More than 200 RBA members and friends filled the banquet hall to see six RBA members honored for their service and excellence. Winners were profiled in three-minute video presentations, featuring interviews with co-workers and RBA staff members and then took the stage for an acceptance speech.

Pinnacle’s presenting sponsor was Active International. Other sponsors were A & T Healthcare, LLC., MSA Consulting Corporation, and Smart Money Mortgage Center, Inc.

 

"Thirty years ago, it was unheard of for a woman to be the general manager of a hotel. Conrad (Hilton) said, 'not in my lifetime.' You could get away with saying things like that back then."

Mary Diem
Owner, Holiday Inn Suffern
Outstanding Achievement by a
Woman-Owned Business

 

In her video presentation, Mary Diem confessed to being “something of a pioneer.” Thirty years ago, it was unheard of for a woman to be the general manager of a hotel,” she says. “Conrad [Hilton] said, ‘not in my lifetime.’ You could get away with saying things like that back then.” Today, Diem says, many young people who worked for her have become General Managers in their own right.

Diem, a former executive employee of the legendary hotelier Conrad Hilton, is something of a celebrity herself, within the hotel business. The owner of the Holiday Inn and Conference Center in Suffern, Diem was also the first female manager of a major hotel in New York City—despite Mr. Hilton’s predictions!

Union State Bank’s Harold Peterson presented the award to Diem, noting that she contributes greatly to the quality of life in Rockland, and that USB was proud to be her bank. Diem said she was a woman of few words, but noted that it takes a team to bring excellence.

One member of her team was Dominick Cirri, who worked under her for seven years as a sales manager. He attended the Pinnacle Awards with Diem’s Tuxedo Park neighbor Renee Radevic and a few other friends. They said they were Mary’s “fan club.”

“Mary Diem—the best,” said Cirri. “She put that hotel on the map, when no one knew it was there,” added Radevic.

 

"This has been a particularly humbling experience. What you get is what you give. Someone said, 'You can have everything you want, if you are helping other people get what they want.'"

Dave Heinrich
Smart Money Mortgage
President's Award for Service to the RBA

 

Everyone knows when David Heinrich, President of Smart Money Mortgage Center, Inc. is in the room. He’s a big man, with a big voice. At the Pinnacle Awards he was also recognized for his big heart, as he was awarded the President’s Award for Service to the RBA.

Heinrich appeared visibly moved as he took the stage to address the crowd.

“This has been a particularly humbling experience,” he said. “What you get is what you give. Someone said, ‘You can have everything you want, if you are helping other people get what they want.’”

Heinrich has been an active member of the RBA since joining in 1994. During his tenure, he spent six years on the Board of Directors, including a term on the Executive Board, and has been Chairman of the RBA Ambassadors.

In his video presentation, Heinrich said that as the son of two missionaries, he’d always been outgoing by nature and interested in helping others. He also realized that to be successful in the RBA, he had to be active.

“I’d say to myself, that’s the place where things are happening, that’s where I need to go. Success is what you know and whom you know,” he said.

RBA President/CEO Al Samuels presented Heinrich with the award, commending his contributions and character. If, in life and business, there was a situation he felt inclined to respond to with hostility, Samuels noted, Heinrich was most often the go-to person he’d call for council.

Heinrich’s wife and business partner Linda Heinrich was moved to tears by the presentation. “I cried through the whole thing,” she said. “He’s a sweetie; that’s Dave. That’s not an act put on for the RBA,” she said.

 

" Rockland is a very special place. My family has had roots here since the 1880’s. Most of our business comes from within Rockland. Most Rockland residents have an item in their house from Beckerle."

Larry Beckerle III
Beckerle Lumber
Chairman's Award for Overall Business Excellence

 

Howard Hellman presented the Chairman’s Award for Overall Business Excellence to Larry Beckerle, III of Beckerle Lumber Supply Co., Inc. He received the award on behalf of his father Larry (Pete) Beckerle, the company’s President, and his three brothers, Mike, Steve and Matt, who help run Beckerle.

“Most people thought when Home Depot and Lowes came to Rockland, small businesses would pack up and leave. But [Beckerle] didn’t do that; instead they expanded,” Hellman said.

Beckerle Lumber would not be such a success without good, learned employees who were able to pass information on to new employees, he added. The company started in 1940 when Larry Beckerle’s grandfather, Larry Beckerle Sr., at 52-years-of-age, got laid off from his lumber industry job. He started Beckerle Lumber Co. Inc., where Spring Valley International Food Market currently stands, Beckerle said. It began as strictly a lumber company, but now is a full service hardware store as well. The company currently has 96 employees.

Pete Beckerle, President since 1966, sent his regards from Florida. Larry Beckerle joked that the four brothers involved in the daily operations of the company would sometimes be at each other’s throats, but in all, it was well worth running a family enterprise.

“ Rockland is a very special place. My family has roots here since the 1880’s,” said Larry Beckerle. “Most of our business comes from within Rockland. Most Rockland residents have an item in their house made from Beckerle.”

And in spite of the arrival of the big box stores, the family is undaunted. “We survived Pergament; we survived Rickles; and we’ll survive Home Depot and Lowes,” he said. The company also survived fires in 1959, 1963 and 1967.

 

"There is nothing scarier in New York than a crazy old white guy," (describing his grandfather's tenacity staying in business in a tough New York neighborhood)

Jim Katzenstein
President, Star Kay White
Manufacturer's Award for Business Excellence

 

Jim Katzenstein, President of Star Kay White, was able to make several impressive claims about his company during his video presentation and acceptance speech for the Manufacturer’s Award for Business Excellence.

“Probably, everybody watching this video has eaten something I made,” he said. “Our products are in every ice-cream eating country in the world. As long as people are eating ice cream, we’ll be here,” he added.

Star Kay White manufactures food flavoring, mostly for ice cream. Two of their recent innovations include Marshmallow Crinkle and Grand Slam. The company has been in the family since 1920. Katzenstein is proud to report that he and his father will still pack the supply trucks when they need to.

Star Kay White is a quirky company, with a long memory, said Katzenstein. There was a butter supplier who would not work with the company during World War II and Star Kay hasn’t worked with them since. “Last year we moved a quarter of a million pounds of butter,” he said wryly, bringing a laugh from the crowd.

Katzenstein told the audience about his company’s transition from the Bronx to Rockland County and the massive growth the company has experienced over the last two decades.

In 1984, when they moved to Congers, the company had about 20 workers. Now they have 75. The company’s Congers facility is 43,000 square feet and its Valley Cottage facility gives them an additional 5,000 square feet.

Katzenstein recalled the deterioration of the Bronx community the company had moved from. In the 1970’s there were riots and much of the community was set on fire, but the factory remained safe thanks to his grandfather’s rowdy antics that scared off some young thugs.

“There is nothing scarier in urban New York than a crazy old white guy walking down the street,” Katzenstein said, bringing a loud laugh.

Running Star Kay White “is amazing,” he said, though it can be stressful maintaining the family’s reputation and honor. He said his personal business philosophy is the three T’s; Talent, Technology and Time.

 

"Provident looks forward to continuing its long relationship with the RBA; to nuture the business environment."

Constance Martin
Provident Bank
Bobby Lewis Award for Corporate Citizenship

 

Montebello-based Provident Bank won the Bobby Lewis Award for Corporate Citizenship. Provident has been in Rockland since 1888 and is by now well known for its community-minded approach to doing business. A wing at United Hospice in New City, which also won a Pinnacle Award, is named after Provident Bank because of their generous contributions and ongoing efforts to help the communities they reside in.

The bank owns over $2.6 billion in assets and operates branches in the counties of Rockland, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Putnam and Bergen. Bank President George Strayton has spearheaded an active community presence for the bank.

He is currently a trustee at St. Thomas Aquinas College, a director of the New York Bankers Association and a board member of America’s Community Bankers. Strayton has been the chairman of the RBA, Rockland United Way and the Rockland County Boy Scouts of American, among others. He’s also served as a trustee of Nyack Hospital and on the Board of Directors of Jawonio.

Provident Representative Constance Martin received the award on behalf of the financial

institution and George Strayton, its CEO, saying the bank shares similar values with the RBA—community, empowerment and trust.

“Provident looks forward to continuing its long, relationship with the RBA; to nurture the business environment,” she said.

 

"Some people ask how we do it? It’s simple, really. Each day, we go home feeling we made a difference in the lives of others in the community, and that's how we do it."

Amy Stern
Executive Director, United Hospice of Rockland, Inc.
Outstanding Achievement by a Non-Profit Organization

 

 

The evening’s final award—Outstanding Achievement by a Non-Profit Organization—went to United Hospice. Established in 1988, UH is a Medicare/Medicaid certified, New York State licensed, JCAHO accredited, not-for-profit corporation. They provide care for seriously ill individuals and their families. Many people spend their final hours under the care of Hospice. In 2005, Hospice provided services to nearly 600 individuals and their families and provided over 1,000 bereavement counseling sessions. Hospice has a paid staff of 70 and a volunteer staff of 140.

In their video presentation a Hospice employee said, “Some people ask how do we do it? Each day we go home feeling we made a difference in the lives of others in the community, that’s how we do it.” RBD