Crain's New York Business

ASKED & ANSWERED: A Queens bank sticks to its knitting PAGE 10

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IN THE MARKETS The $1.2 trillion shadow bank market may be looking for a government handout PAGE 5

CORONAVIRUS ALERT

Small business leaders blast loan program

TRIAGE: Nurse examines a patient before he can enter St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.

Many complain SBA money won’t get to those who need it the most

BY BRIAN PASCUS

loan program raises many questions for ownerse and advocates.

“Loans are risky in an enview York's small business community is skeptical ronment when you’re being told that the $350 billion set to return staff, pay bills, and be expected to generaside for small busiate revenue,” Meatness in the federal packing Business stimulas bill will Improvement Dishelp them survive trict head Jeffrey the widespread devLeFrancois said. astation the coronaCITY makes “If that’s just virus has left in its $1.14 million more debt then wake. in small business why would you Businesses will be grants. Page 2 want to take it on?” able to borrow up to Rosetti said, al$10 million through BUSINESSES though he acthe Small Business adjust to the knowledged the A d m i n i s t ra t i o n ' s deal’s $33.5 billion network of 1,800 ‘new normal’ payroll tax credit lenders. The loans, Page 3 will help. which will be guarRosetti also quesanteed by the SBA, SL GREEN looks tioned the timeline will carry a 4% interto unload and implementaest rate and be avail$150 milion tion of the loan proable to businesses loan portfolio gram. with up to 500 emPage 3 “If it’s a sixployees. month timeline to Portions of the RESTAURANTS’ get these funds out loans used for payinsurance the door, then how roll, rent, mortgage are they going to obligations or utility claims denied. process it? Are they payments could be Page 4 setting up a website forgiven, and the and how is the program favors busHOTEL money coming inesses that have not occupancy from Point A to laid off employees. continues to Point B?” “It’s better than plummet Treasury Secrenothing,” said tary Steven Brooklyn Running Page 4 Mnuchin said he Company owner anticipates loans Matthew Rosetti. “I will begin to be disthink there is some social safety net elements to it, tributed by the end of next week but it’s still wait-and-see mode through all FDIC-insured banks. for me.”

The expanded small business See SMALL BIZ on page 27

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NEWSPAPER

VOL. 36, NO. 11

© 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC.

GETTY IMAGES

INSIDE

BREAKING POINT: Hospitals in distress Health care workers say they’ve never experienced a medical emergency of this scale before

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ew York’s battle with Covid-19 has brought the region’s hospital system to its knees.

The state is asking hospitals to double their bed counts and is desperately trying to find 10 times as many ventilators as they currently have. Convention centers and college dorms have been enlisted to make room for an anticipated surge of patients. Doctors and nurses have turned to social media to beg for the protective gear that will keep them

BY JONATHAN LAMANTIA

See HOSPITAL on page 27

INSTANT EXPERT

A PRIMER ON THE SMALL BUSINESS BAILOUT PAGE 11

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CORONAVIRUS ALERT

BY GWEN EVERETT

BUCK ENNIS

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he city doled out $1.4 million under its small-business Covid-19 bailout program—a stop-gap measure geared at helping shuttered mom-and-pop shops until federal relief money can be secured.

Additionally, last Friday the Department of Small Business Services launched its loan program to help small companies slammed by travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

More than 10,000 business owners filed pre-applications for the loan, SBS spokeswoman Samantha Keitt said. After the screening, businesses will need to fill out a formal application. The city agency is expecting to disburse around $20 million in loans.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has made it clear that these grant and loan pro-

grams will not by themselves be able to meet the full demand of businesses across the city, which have seen revenue plummet after the government ordered 100% of the state's workforce to state at home, a decision that left many small businesses scrambling.

De Blasio has called on the federal government to intervene and provide additional aid. He criti-

cized at $2 trillion relief bill for not providing enough support. That package, signed by President Donald Trump Friday, included $350 billion for small business loans, up to $10 million per company.

The SBS is working to determine how to use federal relief, in tandem with city programs, to meet needs among the city's businesses, Keitt said.

To pay for the loan program, the city entered a public-private partnership with coding education and technology firm Pursuit, and foundations at Goldman Sachs, Tapestry Inc. Two Goldman Sachs programs, 10,000 Small Businesses and the Goldman Sachs Foundation, partnered with the city, alongside Tapestry Inc.’s Coach Foundation.

Under the so-called Employee Retention Grant Program, business with less the five employees are eligible for up to $27,000. The average allotment, however was about $9,000.

The city approved 155 applications and issued nearly half of the funds to businesses already. They plan to distribute the remaining $600,000 soon.

Nearly 466 small businesses applied to the grant program, and the SBS plans to disburse another $8.7 million more in grants. ■

NOMINATIONS

ISTOCK

$1.4M allocated by city in stopgap small-biz relief grants

DO YOU KNOW A NOTABLE LGBTQ LEADER AND EXECUTIVE? Crain’s is seeking Notable LGBTQ Leaders and Executives in New York.

This list will honor those who are making the biggest impact in the local business community.

CrainsNewYork.com/ NotableLGBTQ

Vol. 36, No. 11, March 30, 2020—Crain’s New York Business (ISSN 8756-789X) is published weekly, except for bimonthly in January, July and August and the last issue in December, by Crain Communications Inc., 685 Third Ave., New York, NY 10017.

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CORONAVIRUS ALERT

SPECIAL DELIVERY Apthorp Pharmacy owner Gellis Russell looks on as a messenger picks up an order.

Crain’s follows six executives as they confront new challenges and navigate the ‘new normal’

BY CARA EISENPRESS AND GREG DAVID

A

pharmacist and food executive cope with soaring demand for prescription drugs and grocery deliveries. A restaurant owner works to survive on takeout, while a restaurant supplier pivots, offering its products to supermarkets and consumers.

The head of the Brooklyn Navy Yard tries to keep open for manufacturers—some producing hand sanitizer. The new boss at the 92nd Street Y moves his programming online and worries about his finances.

PHOTOGRAPHY BUCK ENNIS

CORONAVIRUS TESTS METTLE OF BUSINESSES, NONPROFITS SETH PINSKY took over as head of the 92nd Street Y in January.

What follows are the stories of six New York executives as they cope with the coronavirus. Crain’s will continue to check in with them to track how the leaders of these representative businesses are meeting the challenge.

92nd Street Y Longtime city official and real estate executive Seth Pinsky took over as chief executive of the 92nd Street Y in January.

Now he has to move as much of its extensive programing See NORMAL on page 24

REAL ESTATE

SL Green tries to unload $150 million in loans Company, whose shares are down 50%, says it’s not a distress sale

BY DANIEL GEIGER

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ega-landlord SL Green is trying to shed a package of loans tied to city real estate assets in an effort to raise cash.

The company, whose share price has plummeted by as much as 50% in recent weeks amid the coronavirus crisis and dramatic economic downturn, is marketing about $150

million worth of debt for sale, a person with knowledge of the offering told Crain’s.

SL Green insisted the loan sale was business as usual for the firm, which periodically monetizes assets to recycle capital into new deals, pay dividends and buy back shares.

"We regularly sell loans as normal course of business and are in

the market now—we haven't stopped doing business,” company spokesman Jeremy Soffin said.

“These deals don't happen overnight, and we will only move forward if we like the terms.”

The source said the loans were performing and that the $3.75 billion public real estate company wasn’t willing to sell the debt at a discount. SL Green has hired a sales

team from Newmark Knight Frank, led by executives Dustin Stolly and Jordan Roeschlaub, to help it sell the debt.

The sale comes as several lenders in the real estate market have experienced tumult in recent days as the pandemic crisis has filtered into the real estate financing market. The source stressed that SL Green wasn’t in this bucket of distressed

lenders and concurred with the company’s position that it was seeking to selectively liquidate assets to raise money as part of the normal course of its business, including buying back stock while it feels the shares are trading at a sharply discounted value.

On Thursday, SL Green shares See MONEY on page 4

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CORONAVIRUS ALERT

Insurers deny restaurants’ business interruption claims Companies began excluding epidemics from coverage after SARS outbreak in 2003-04 for fear of being exposed to too much risk

Hotel occupancy keeps plummeting Four Seasons offers rooms to ‘tireless’ hospital workers for free during crisis

BY BRUCE PASCUS

T

he New York City hotel industry continues to take it on the chin over virus containment measures, as new data show a continuing plunge in occupancy and revenue.

Data compiled by STR Global, an analytics marketing firm that tracks hotels, showed that for the week ended March 21, New York City hotel occupancy stood at 16.8%, down from 49% the week before and an 80.5% decline from a year ago.

In addition, at just $26.98, New York City hotels showed an 86.5% drop in revenue per available room, compared to a year ago,.

The trend in New York is reflective of the hotel industry at large.

All around the country Americans have virtually halted all travel, and businesses and individuals alike are canceling group events.

Revenue-per-available-room decreases are at unprecedented levels nationally, according to STR Global.

“Seven of 10 rooms were empty around the country,” said Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights. “That average is staggering on its own, but it’s tougher to pro-

MONEY FROM PAGE 3

were around $48, precipitously down from as high as $95 in February.

SL Green is one of the city’s largest commercial landlords, with a controlling stake in high profile properties such as the Graybar Building and the soaring new midtown office tower One Vanderbilt.

In addition to its real estate holdings, the company holds a portfolio of about $1.7 billion of real estate loans, according to its financial filings, largely tied to city properties.

That book of debt has shown

cess when you consider that occupancy will likely fall further.

“The industry is no doubt facing a situation that will take a concerted effort by brands, owners and the government to overcome,” Freitag added.

Greater good Some hotels in the city are seeking to put their empty rooms to use for the greater good.

Last week, the Four Seasons Hotel New York announced it would open its rooms to nurses, doctors and medical personnel at no charge. The hotel is on 57th Street and Park Avenue, a few blocks from Weill Cornell Medical Center.

“Our health care workers are working tirelessly on the front lines of this crisis,” hotel owner Ty Warner said.

“Many of those working in New York City have to travel long distances to and from their homes after putting in 18-hour days,” he said. “They need a place close to work where they can rest and regenerate. I heard Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo’s call to action during one of his press conferences, and there was no other option for us but do whatever we could to help.” ■

small cracks, including deals that recently resulted in modest losses for the company.

SL Green for instance, held a $15 million junior mezzanine loan against a large retail condominium at 229 W. 43rd St. in Times Square that may have recently been wiped out.

Kushner connection That condo is owned by Kushner Companies, the family real estate firm of White House advisor and President Donald Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner. Earlier this week, Crain’s revealed Kushner hasn’t paid its March mortgage payment and may default on the

W

ith his restaurant chain's more than 30 locations shut down by coronavirus distancing measures, Bareburger CEO Euripides Pelekanos filed a claim for losses two weeks ago through his business interruption insurance.

Within a few days, he had an answer: Denied.

"We're covered for break-ins, floods, infrastructure issues and 'acts of God,'" Pelekanos said. "I mean, if this is not an act of God, I don't know what it is."

The Astoria-based company pays just under $350,000 a year for business interruption coverage across its locations, which are focused in the New York region but include Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia.

Bareburger is hardly alone in rejection. Faced with the most significant disruption to their operations in modern history, restaurants and small-business owners are finding their insurance coverage is of no help.

"For restaurants, music venues, whoever, pandemics are excluded from insurance," said Michael Dorf, CEO of City Winery. "No one was able to get that into their business interruption insurance."

Some restaurants report being told preemptively not to bother filing a claim. A letter from an insurer to Sylvia's Restaurant in Harlem read: "Like most commercial property policies, your policy does not provide coverage" for losses or damages from coronavirus.

“We were told that this was not a natural disaster,” said Taniedra McFadden, who runs Sylvia’s Restaurant.

McFadden laid off 95 people, 90% of her staff, at the iconic Harlem soul food eatery.

“We were told if we were to file a

property.

SL Green told Crain’s in a previous statement that it recently sold off that debt.

People familiar with the retail condo’s financial situation said that the value of SL Green’s loan had likely been wiped out, resulting in a loss for the firm in that sale.

In a recent financial statement, SL Green disclosed it also took control of a distressed retail space at 106 Spring St. in Soho after its owners defaulted on a mezzanine loan it had issued at the property.

The real estate titan suffered another recent setback in its effort to raise cash. Yesterday, it was reported by the Wall Street Journal that

BAREBURGER was denied business interruption insurance

claim that it would not be approved,” she said.

Most business interruption insurance is structured around physical damage—fires and natural disasters. Insurers paid out nearly $30 billion in claims along the East Coast following Superstorm Sandy.

Many insurers began specifically precluding epidemic and pandemic damages from commercial plans following the SARS outbreak in 2003 and 2004.

"They saw that losses could be so widespread that it is a massive risk for the insurance industry to take on," said Loretta Worters, vice president of media relations at the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute. "It was financially prudent for them not to include it because by paying out these thousands of businesses, you could have another business going under."

Putting up a fight That doesn't mean businesses won't put up a fight.

Hundreds of homeowners took insurers to court following Superstorm Sandy over claims. Already a restaurant in New Orleans has sued its insurer, arguing that its business interruption policy

covers damages if it is ordered to close by civil authorities in response to the coronavirus.

"There will be arguments across many states that the physical damage requirement is satisfied by the virus," said Alan Lyons, chairman of Herrick’s Insurance & Reinsurance Group. "It may be that there are decisions throughout the country interpreting physical damage in this context differently."

Pelekanos said Bareburger would wait to see the final details of the federal stimulus package before deciding whether to fight for its claim in court.

Astoria City Councilman Costa Constantinides said in a letter to federal officials last week that small businesses would prefer to lean on their insurance to get through the coronavirus crisis rather than be bailed out through loans. But he said the federal government would need to funnel money to insurers to make sure they can actually cover the claims.

The framework of the $2 trillion rescue package reached in the Senate early Wednesday focuses instead on direct aid to small businesses, including $367 billion dedicated to keeping employers on track with payroll. ■

SL GREEN CEO Marc Holliday and President Andrew Mathias

BUCK ENNIS

BUCK ENNIS

BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH

an $815 million deal to sell a large office building on East 42nd Street had fallen through as financing for

large real estate acquisitions has become scarce amid the coronavirus crisis. ■

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CORONAVIRUS ALERT

Private EMTs seek direct insurance payments Ambulance services say it’s critical to safety and sustainability during the outbreak

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ommercial ambulance providers across the state are pleading with the Cuomo administration for more supplies and direct insurance payments to grapple with the coronavirus outbreak.

The request is critical to the safety and sustainability of business, Tom Coyle, chairman of the United New York Ambulance Network, said. The network’s members provide emergency medical services to millions of New Yorkers.

In a letter submitted to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, Coyle wrote that EMS workers—like

the front lines,” Coyle said. “I know they're taking care of hospitals, but we’re health care providers also. A lot of the time, we're the first ones to see the patient.”

Many commercial ambulance providers have already exhausted their lists of vendors and suppliers, he said, and it’s essential that employees are protected when answering calls from potentially infected individuals. Now that federal aid is starting to come in, stockpiles of supplies need to be earmarked, in part, for EMS workers.

Cash in hand The network also is urging the state to enact proposed legislation that would streamline the process for ambulance providers to be reimbursed by insurers without having to go through the patient first.

The network has been lobbying for this kind of direct pay for years. It has complained patients often pocket the money and never pay for their services.

Now that high numbers of non-

“WE WANT THE GOVERNOR TO UNDERSTAND THAT WE’RE ON THE FRONT LINES” health care facilities—are facing a shortage of supplies, such as masks, gowns and gloves.

“We want to make sure the governor understands that we’re on

30%

BUCK ENNIS

BY JENNIFER HENDERSON

essential employees are out of work, the legislation is even more important, Coyle said. Many insurers pay the patients directly, and their lack of payment to ambulance providers is only going to get worse in challenging economic times.

Outside of the coronavirus outbreak, Coyle attributed nonpayment to companies transitioning more and more to high deductible plans.

“Patients are more responsible for their bills than ever,” he said.

“There is a high percentage that does not turn that check over to the ambulance company.”

Though ambulance providers aren’t experiencing workforce shortages like other health care sectors, that’s partly because the volume of business is down because patients are urged not to rush to capacity-crushed hospitals and emergency departments.

Coyle said one downstate provider said on a conference call last week that its volume was down 30%

due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Though the THE DROP OFF percentage is on in business for the higher end some private ambulance of the specservice since the trum—others outbreak have seen their volume dip 15%—it’s a substantial loss either way.

“I believe every agency, including nonprofits, are seeing decreases in volume,” Coyle said.

If the system gets overwhelmed they’ll can still be able to pay their workers, he said.

Aside from supplies and payment, the network lauded a Cuomo executive order that included community paramedicine an emerging field that allows EMS to work in non-emergency situations, treat and release patients and be compensated.

The network is even urging the state to consider expanding the use of community paramedicine in the future, beyond the outbreak.

The Governor’s office did not respond. ■

Northwell is proud to recognize our doctors— who give their all to protect fellow New Yorkers National Doctors’ Day is March 30 To our 14,200 physicians, The entire Northwell team would like to express our sincere gratitude for all you do and the compassion and bravery you show every day. You’re on the frontline, ready to rise to any challenge—and that makes a world of difference.

We thank you. Today and always.

Michael J. Dowling President & Chief Executive Officer

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 5

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IN THE MARKETS

Throwing shade on bank bailout

Is this the last hurrah for hedge fund managers?

ISTOCK

S

hadow banking—a private While we definitely aren’t banks, debt market in which lenders we’re many of their biggest customand borrowers aren’t regu- ers, and in the past decade we’ve lated as banks are—may grown so big you really wouldn’t sound like one of those terms want us to fail. Would you?

Shadow banks are big owners of designed to discourage people from real estate. Private-equity firms thinking about it much.

Get to know it better. It’s huge, borrowed lots of money from comwounded and asking for govern- mercial banks or other shadow banks to buy office buildings, homent help.

Private-equity firms, real estate tels and shopping centers. These investment trusts, hedge funds and leveraged properties carry nearly business development companies $3.7 trillion worth of debt, up from $2.4 trillion in 2007. are all entities you meet As rent payments dry in the shadow-banking up, three publicly traded neighborhood, which has REITs–New York Mortgrown to an estimated gage, Invesco Mortgage $1.2 trillion in assets, acCapital and AG Mortcording to research by gage–have been unable, Steve Kaplan, a professor or say they will be unable, at the University of Chicato satisfy margin calls go’s Booth School of Busifrom lenders. That’s just ness. Bond-rating firm tip of the spear.

DBRS puts the U.S. figure AARON ELSTEIN the“The system is simply at $15 trillion, a 75% innot prepared to respond crease since the financial to the wave of [forebearcrisis ended.

The shadow-banking sector also ance] requests that are likely to be is exposed to massive losses, no big received,” Morgan Stanley said in a surprise in a free-falling economy report last week. where Goldman Sachs expects U.S. gross domestic product to fall by an Stop the spread annualized rate of 24% in the secThe firm recommended the Fedond quarter. (GDP fell by 15.5% be- eral Reserve start buying commertween 2008 and 2009.) cial mortgage-backed securities to Murmurs are emerging that “mitigate spread widening.” shadow-banking players need gov“Let’s not forget that the S&L criernment assistance of the sort giv- sis was triggered by commercial en to government-insured banks 12 real estate and had meaningful imyears ago. They would like it done plications for the broader economy without the “bailout” baggage, if in the 1980s-early 1990s,” Morgan you please.

Stanley said in what sounds like the The shadow-banking sector’s ar- windup to a Washington lobbying gument for help goes like this: pitch.

In return for federal help, landlords are pledging to cut tenants slack, at least for a while. The Real Estate Roundtable, whose members include Blackstone Group and The Related Cos., called on all commercial and residential property owners to “positively and constructively” work with “Covid-19-impacted tenants.”

That isn’t quite saying, “We’ll work with anyone,” but it sounds close.

Shadow banks are pushing hard for a helping hand because their next report card to the institutional

investors and lenders upon whom they rely for funding is due March 31.

Unless the junk bond market turns around fast–a Fed announcement that it’s buying commercial mortgage-backed securities would really help on that front–then hedge funds, private-equity firms, REITs, BDCs and the rest will be turning in some really ugly numbers to their investors.

Some investors just might get ornery enough to shut them down, and then their days of collecting fees of as much as 2% of the assets and 20% of the profits will be histo-

ry. That’s not how most guys in the shadow-banking arena envisioned their stories ending.

In particular, the stock-market rout could be the last hurrah for business world-celebrity stockholders known as hedge fund managers. As a group, equity hedge funds have consistently underperformed the S&P 500 since the financial crisis.

“Very few were positioned for what’s happened,” a Wall Street executive said. “There will be a lot of investors asking themselves, ‘Why am I paying these guys so much?’” ■

ON NEW YORK

State unemployment numbers lie

Officials acknowledge their website was overwhelmed by the crush of applications

O

With substantially enhanced unemployment benefits in the latest federal stimulus bill, an influx of cash could bolster the city and state economy. The impact on the unemMarch 21.

State officials have acknowl- ployed is even more important.

“This is more unfortunate than edged their website was overever since the Senate whelmed and said a more stimulus bill just boosted accurate figure would be unemployment benefits forthcoming. tremendously for lowStill, it’s clear that New wage workers, who have Yorkers could be needto account for the great lessly hurt by a delay in majority of those who benefits and that other should qualify,” Parrott states have successfully said. handled the crush of apMeanwhile, the proplications. jections for the future of Nationally, a record 3.3 GREG DAVID the state’s economy conmillion people filed for tinue to worsen. jobless benefits, not just a Earlier this week the Economic record but a 1,500% increase in just Policy Institute predicted the state two weeks.

New York should have consisted would see jobs drop by 860,000. A of 10% to 12% of the claims, said Century Foundation study projecteconomist James Parrott, given that ed a decline of 1.2 million jobs, with the state is the epicenter of the pan- about 780,000 qualifying for unemdemic and the city has such a large ployment benefits. hospitality sector. By comparison, Pennsylvania reported 379,000 Closed for business claims.

Parrot said he believes about half nly 80,000 New Yorkers successfully filed for unemployment insurance in the week ending

the losses will be in SEEKING ASSISTANCE New York City. The reState unemployment claims in the third week of March were more than six times higher in cord number of New 2020 than in the previous year.

Yorkers on unemployUnemployment claims ment insurance was about 400,000 in early 100K 2009.

Two data points in80,334 80K dicate the damage being sustained by the hospitality industry. A 60K survey last week by the NYC Hospitality Alli40K ance said 1,870 restaurants, bars and clubs 20K reported laying off or furloughing 67,650 em0 ployees since the shutdown began. ’09 ’10 ’11 ’12 ’13 ’14 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19 ’20 The weekly report on SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics hotel occupancy by STR showed occupanMost economists predict a survive until business returns; othcy at city hotels plunged to 16.8%; revenue per room fell to an absurd- V-shaped recession: a sharp plunge erwise the city will be pockmarked ly low $28. Hotels can’t remain followed by a relatively steep re- with empty storefronts. It also will depend on whether the budget criopen with that kind of revenue, and bound. the question is whether lenders will But in New York that kind of re- sis confronting the state and city be willing to restructure debts to bound will depend on whether the will be managed without either makeep the hotels from falling into hospitality businesses and other jor workforce reductions or higher bankruptcy. small firms on the front line can taxes. ■

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REAL ESTATE

Kushner Cos. could lose old Times building

The company hasn’t made its March mortgage payment for the 250,000 square foot retail space on 43rd street

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he family real estate firm of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-inlaw and senior advisor, could lose its hold on a large retail property it owns in the old New York Times building amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Kushner Cos. hasn’t made its March mortgage payment for the 250,000 square foot retail space at 229 W. 43rd St., according to a recent report by a special servicer that represents the bondholders who own the property’s $285 million of securitized senior debt.

The report was provided by the mortgage data tracking firm Trepp.

Leasing at the property, where one large tenant recently declared bankruptcy and shuttered its space, and another has struggled to pay its rent, has become virtually impossible amid the coronavirus outbreak, making the prospect of a financial turnaround for Kushner Companies increasingly remote.

“For any project right now that urgently needs to lease retail and experiential space, it’s not happening until the dust settles,” said Matthew Seigel, the co-founder of Lantern Real Estate Advisors.

A spokesperson for Kushner did not respond to a request for comment.

With corona cases surging and the city in a near lockdown to control the pandemic, rebooting commerce and restoring retail leasing back to previous levels could take weeks, months, or longer--time that Kushner doesn’t appear to have at the distressed property.

Two separate lenders that together extended $85 million of additional mezzanine loans against the retail space, signaled in February that they will seek to seize the well-connected real estate company's ownership interest in the property to protect their liens from being wiped out in a potential foreclosure by the senior mortgage, Trepp reported.

No action yet So far no foreclosure actions have been commenced against Kushner at the space.

The Manhattan-based real estate company defaulted in December on those two mezzanine loans, which were issued by the public real estate firms Paramount Group and SL Green, Trepp reported.

Green has since divested itself of that loan, although he would not provide details of the sale, including whether the company sold the distressed debt at a discount, a company spokesman said.

Paramount Group declined to comment.

Even before the coronavirus crisis, Kushner Cos. was locked in a financial struggle at 229 W. 43rd St. amid a troubled retail market. The company purchased the space, a retail condominium at the base of a larger office building that used to house the New York Times, for $295

million in November 2015. The firm was able to pocket about $59 million on the subsequent mezzanine loans it placed against the property, according to Bloomberg News.

Gulliver’s Gate, an emporium of miniature models that occupied about 20% of the retail space, declared bankruptcy and closed its location at the beginning of the year. A National Geographic-branded exhibit that comprises almost 25% of the retail is paying a reduced

rent for its space after missing past payments. The exhibit paid $150,000 of its $200,000 monthly rent in November and failed to pay its December rent, according to Trepp.

The property was barely making enough income to cover its senior mortgage payments even before Gulliver’s Gate left and National Geographic began missing rent, which suggests that the property is now currently losing money, data

shows.

Kushner Companies has been late with mortgage payments before, Trepp reported, making its November, January and February payments after the due date but within a 30-day grace period.

“In my experience, when you see a property flipping in and out of payments during the grace period, it's a sign they’re starting to have financial distress,” said Tom Fink, an executive at Trepp. ■

BUCK ENNIS

BY DANIEL GEIGER

A forward-thinking real estate firm providing brokerage, property management, and consulting services since 1920.

212.679.5500 adamsre.com

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 7

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president K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain group publisher Mary Kramer

EDITORIAL

publisher/executive editor

Time to put differences aside and coordinate coronavirus response

EDITORIAL editor Robert Hordt assistant managing editors

Christine Haughney (special projects), Janon Fisher, Gabriella Iannetta (digital) senior editor Telisha Bryan

the city.

Moments later, before his news conference ended, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief of staff fired off an email criticizing the prospect of a lockdown and asserting that if the decision was made it would be made in Albany, not City Hall.

“Words matter,” Cuomo said during one of his press conferences afterward. The governor, whose political star is rising over his handling of the pandemic, admonished the mayor for frightening the public.

Two days later, the governor announced a new executive order, New York on PAUSE, essentially shutting down all nonessential businesses, exactly what the mayor had suggested 48 hours earlier.

denied the virus was a problem, ridiculing the Federal Reserve chairman months ago for warning of a world crisis. He’s touted unproven medication and last week suggested that this pandemic would be over

by Easter, something his own advisers immediately shot down.

Both Cuomo and de Blasio vacillate between DEBLASIO CUOMO complaining bitterly of being jilted by the federal government regarding supplies and thanking the president for his help.

We don’t quibble with the president, the governor or the mayor about what they have to do to stop this bullet train virus bearing down on Gentlemen, you are governing a will be thousands more to come. the world. This is a serious, terrified country, state and city.

Our economy is virtually frozen. immediate crisis. There is no Mixed messages and contradicUnemployment has hit new blueprint to tions have consequences. records. The crisis is real. follow. Lessons Businesses and citizens react to But it also needs coordination. of the 1918 your statements. Words do matter.

Now is not the time for petty influenza The message matters. disagreements. It is not the time pandemic have Now is the time to put the for power plays and political been instructive, public good ahead of personal posturing. Whatever personal but we live in a ambition. Come together and animosity these elected officials different world. coordinate your efforts. It’s the have toward each other needs to Thousands of people have only way to beat this virus. ■ be put aside. succumbed to the virus and there

associate editor Lizeth Beltran (digital) art director Carolyn McClain photographer Buck Ennis data editor Gerald Schifman senior reporters Aaron Elstein, Daniel Geiger,

Jonathan LaMantia reporters Ryan Deffenbaugh, Gwen Everett,

Jennifer Henderson, Brian Pascus columnist Greg David contributors Tom Acitelli, Ronald DeCicco,

Cara Eisenpress, Cheryl S. Grant, Steve Krupinski, Danielle McManus Sladek, Mark Yawdoszyn to contact the newsroom:

www.crainsnewyork.com/staff GOVENORANDREWCUOMO/FLICKR

n March 18, Mayor Bill de Blasio openly broached the issue of imposing a mass quarantine over

NYCMAYORSOFFICE/FLICKR

O

Frederick P. Gabriel Jr.

NOW IS THE TIME TO PUT THE PUBLIC GOOD AHEAD OF PERSONAL AMBITION President Donald Trump has also sent confusing, sometimes contradictory messages. At first he

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OP-ED

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Arts community needs a ‘Marshall Plan’ A new paradigm to super-charge the cultural recovery

BY KAREN BROOKS HOPKINS

I

t's time to consider a cultural Marshall Plan to rescue and restore the financial health of the city's arts community.

Several major charitable foundations are already providing a lifeline to small- and medium-sized non-profit arts organizations in the city. But so much more needs to be done, not only by the usual donors, but by us, the dayto-day leaders of our community.

As a former, long-serving president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and member of the city's army of arts administrators, my heart goes out to those who now carry the responsibility for steering their battered institutions through this storm.

The field needs a new paradigm to super-charge the cultural recovery once this crisis has passed.

The first step the mayor must take is to appoint a task force, bringing together CEOs and board chairs of arts non-profits, both

large and small; representatives from organized labor; individual artists; and community leaders.

The group should meet immediately (online) to devise a clear and focused response to the financial and human damage.

The task force should immediately develop and distribute a simple but comprehensive questionnaire to all of the arts groups to collect a detailed profile of each institution's revenue shortfalls, staff layoffs, lost artists' income, deferred facility maintenance and, for some, dwindling cash reserves and endowments.

The data will yield indisputable facts on trends, improving the field's ability to craft a rescue plan.

Equipped with conclusions supported by the data, the task force will then be in a position to 1) design a more effective financial rescue plan from federal, state, and city sources; 2) increase funding from donors already participating; 3) identify a much larger base of funders willing to contribute to the

cultural revival.

GOVERNMENT: The task force could set up an online "town hall" meeting with elected officials, to make specific funding requests and maximize support from stimulus packages.

PRIVATE SECTOR AND FOUNDATIONS: While some foundations have jumped in to help, many more are on the sidelines. Hopefully, even the most generous donors will consider additional funding once they have analyzed the new data. The task force would tailor a comprehensive solicitation plan and a communications strategy to amplify our most pressing needs. Individual arts organizations would adopt these tools for their own funders and audiences.

INVESTMENT: Culture is a powerful engine of the city’s economy, generating millions of dollars from tourism, raising real estate values, enhancing the success of retail shops and restaurants, reviving derelict buildings, revitalizing neighborhoods, and creating

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strong communities. The task force must make a more convincing argument to local businesses and investors that direct funding of the arts will add to the value of their assets.

Beyond private investment, there is an opportunity for government as well to rethink its perspective on how the arts fit into an overall business strategy. In addition to responding to individual institutions' operational and capital needs, the city could embrace arts and culture as a pillar of its neighborhood revitalization plans.

We must change our familiar narrative and start thinking and talking about investment—both public and private. Philanthropy alone, as essential as it is, cannot meet the ordinary demands of most arts organizations, let alone chart the course of recovery from the current extraordinary crisis. ■ Karen Brooks Hopkins is the former president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

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CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. chairman Keith E. Crain vice chairman Mary Kay Crain president K.C. Crain senior executive vice president Chris Crain secretary Lexie Crain Armstrong editor-in-chief emeritus Rance Crain chief financial officer Robert Recchia founder G.D. Crain Jr. [1885-1973] chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. [1911-1996]

8 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

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OP-ED

BY DAVID C. BROOKS

M

oments of crisis push us toward innovation. The current COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to think deeper about how our school system functions. Unfortunately, we are not prepared for this crisis, and that is a huge problem.

On Monday, New York City schools began virtual learning classes. What that looks like as of yet is unclear. What is clear is that teachers and our education system need resources, support and a clear path forward. While we have always talked about using technology in classrooms, we have a unique, once-in-a-generation opportunity now to innovate and build a new 21st century educational model. In doing so, we must call on technology companies and their leaders to help us blaze a trail forward. We need technology, video gaming and political leaders to step up, build learning infrastructures and create a new kind of school for our children.

I understand the importance of urgently creating an equitable online education system because of the nature of my work as President and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation. My job before the COVID-19 outbreak was to help the

public schools in our network help prepare disadvantaged boys, especially boys of color, to matriculate to college and achieve success in professional life. This isn't an easy task under normal conditions. It has become just that much harder for me and educators across the country due to this historic and unprecedented public health emergency.

The U.S. is facing a daunting task.

We have dabbled in the notion of distance learning before, but now it is fully thrust upon us. We are facing great barriers, from parents struggling to find childcare, to tailoring virtual learning for children with special needs, to teachers scrambling to adapt their lesson plans to an online format to children without access to technology.

Virtual learning The 1.1 million children in the NYC school system need to be ready and equipped to begin online learning, but with a quarter of New York City’s kids living below the poverty line, there are hundreds of thousands of children in the city without access to high-speed internet or internet-connected devices.

This is one of the first educational challenges we face where we must turn to technology companies for

help. We are seeing some step up to the plate. Some internet providers across the country are offering free WiFi access to homes with K-12 children, but they must do far more.

The tech world and government need to join forces to not only help us during this crisis, but to radically reinvent our education system for the long term and for the challenges our children are going to face in the 21st century.

From climate change to epidemiology to income inequality to the gig economy, think about how vast and how difficult some of these societal challenges are that this next generation will be facing.

How prepared will they be as they enter the workforce in the coming years?

The technology industry is reshaping the workplace and our world every day. We should see that change reflected in our education system. We need to see concrete, original ideas – ideas that will better prepare our children for their futures. If technology leaders come together with our teachers and students we can create learning expe-

BUCK ENNIS

Tech must innovate learning during outbreak

riences for children that inspire creativity, innovation and flexibility – skills that will make them adaptable and sought after when they graduate.

Gaming and video technology leaders, this is your time. You have shown us that you understand how to captivate children’s attention, create constructive competition and most importantly, build community in the virtual world. You are best positioned to revolutionize and reinvent our education system to create an online learning environment in which every child is included, engaged and learning. We need you to seize this opportunity.

Parents, we need to you to embrace technology as an educational tool. How you create healthy and constructive boundaries with your children’s relationship with tech-

nology and learning will determine much of the outcomes your kids have. For example, go into your child’s room and experience the video games they are playing. Ask what types of creativity, and critical thinking skills they elicit in your child and why. Play these games with them and see how they are building online communities like we’ve never seen before.

I also believe we should take this opportunity not only as a chance to re-imagine the way we teach, but also how we measure success. State exams will likely go away in the short term. Instead, success must be measured by how engaged our students are and what level of community connection is being fostered.

Let’s all step up to the challenge to reinvent our school system.

Technology companies, corporations, nonprofits, government and political leaders, teachers, administrators and parents all need to come together to determine the best way forward in this new educational paradigm. ■ David C. Banks is the president and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, a leading education reform nonprofit serving 3,000 young men in a network of all-male public schools.

OP-ED

Hardhats ready and willing to build hospitals

BY GARY LABARBERA AND FRANCISCO MOYA

T

he efforts to combat COVID-19 across New York have been staggering, even heroic in many cases. New Yorkers have shown their industriousness, their ingenuity -- and many more have signaled their readiness to step up and serve.

The health care professionals, teachers, grocery and delivery workers have done a remarkable job carrying the load that was dropped on their shoulders. They can’t carry it all, however.

As the number of confirmed cases continues to grow, so too does the demand for tens of thousands of ventilators and hospital beds and personal protective equipment like gloves, masks and medical gowns.

On top of that, demand for places to put all those beds, patients, and the staff who will care for them continues to rise astronomically.

Fortunately, we have one of the most dedicated groups of workers ready to answer that call: Construction workers.

Hardhats can start building and repurposing the medical facilities we will need. New York City’s construction workers are ready and eager to get to work increasing hospital capacity, whether that’s building out hospitals or transforming dorms and arenas into fully func-

tional health care centers.

This new normal won't last forever but getting through this pandemic will require a concerted effort across every industry. We need to marshal every resource at our disposal and that includes the skilled men and women in labor.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is already considering repurposing sites such as the Javits Center, Westchester Convention Center, SUNY Stony Brook and SUNY Old Westbury to meet our medical needs. Hardhats have the skills and proficiency to step up and meet this demand and build the mobile intensive units that are needed.

Nailed it Construction workers work. They work in severe conditions and in spite of the dangers. They work for their families and ours. They build out our systems of infrastructure, our apartment buildings, our community centers, and our places of work. We need to let them do what they do, now more than ever.

Even as New York deploys unprecedented levels of resources to stop the spread, the challenge we face continues to grow. The state is now the epicenter of the outbreak.

To treat current and future cases, both Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio are recruiting an army of retired health professionals to suit back up and help treat the infected.

The response has been heartening with more than 2,100 health care professionals responding.

But clearly, more medical facilities and expanded bed capacity will be required to stop this disease in its tracks.

New York has 53,000 hospital beds, including 3,000 intensive care unit beds.

Though not yet at capacity, Gov. Cuomo said on Tuesday he anticipates New York will need as many as 140,000 beds, including 40,000 ICU beds.

This fight is unlike any we’ve faced before. But together, and with all hands on deck, there’s nothing the hardworking people of this city can’t overcome.

Members of the New York City Building Trades are among the toughest and most dedicated workers in the state. Construction workers have helped lead our city through crises past, and there’s no doubt that construction workers are ready to once again rise to the challenge. ■

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Councilman Francisco Moya represents the New York City Council’s 21st District, covering Corona, East Elmhurst, LeFrak City and parts of Jackson Heights.

Gary LaBarbera is president of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 9

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ASKED & ANSWERED Ridgewood Savings Bank INTERVIEW BY TOM ACITELLI

O

n Jan. 1, 2018, Leonard Stekol became chairman, president and CEO of Ridgewood Savings Bank, where he’s worked for nearly three decades.

Stekol, 52, who was chief financial officer before taking the CEO post, has had a front-row seat for Ridgewood’s recent growth spurt. Its assets grew to $5.8 billion last year, from $5.6 billion in 2018. Meanwhile, the number of its branches and the variety of its services have grown too, as other banks look to close their storefronts.

Ridgewood has prioritized building relationships with customers and the community, including through more than $3 million in reinvestment grants, contributions to local organizations and charities, and matching donations by Ridgewood employees over the past two years.

What effect is coronavirus having on your business?

We’re monitoring it very closely with police and customers, and we’re working with the local and federal governments. We’re also very confident in the state and local governments. There’s no panic. There’s confidence in the authorities—and constant communication.

How does Ridgewood balance digital banking with physical branches. Which draws more business?

DOSSIER WHO HE IS Chairman, president and CEO, Ridgewood Savings Bank ASSETS Ridgewood is the state’s largest mutual savings bank, with $5.8 billion in assets.

GREW UP Stekol was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1968, and immigrated with his parents and sister to the United States in 1979. They settled in Forest Hills, Queens, where he attended Forest Hills High School.

RESIDES Bellmore, Long Island EDUCATION Bachelor’s in accounting, Queens College; master’s in accounting, Adelphi University; graduate of the National School of Banking at Fairfield University COMPANY LOYALTY “I started with the bank right after college, and I’ve been here ever since—27 years,” he said. “I was very fortunate.”

SIDE HUSTLE Stekol is also a licensed certified public accountant.

We look at it as an ecosystem—so all of those assets work together. Our customers come in for that personal touch. We’re getting very good responses to both of our channels, so both are important.

Do you think the mix will change?

We’re investing in both. For example, other banks have been closing branches. We’ve actually opened two branches—in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and Plainview, Long Island—and there’s one in the pipeline, for a total of 36 branches. We’re going to grow both digital channels and brick-and-mortar. As far as which will grow faster than the other, I think both will continue to grow proportionately.

What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in commercial banking in the New York area?

I think it’s innovation. People want things more conveniently. People want the personal touch and the attention to detail. We talk about digital, we talk about brick-and-mortar, but what we’re focused on as well are the small things: free coin-counting, free coffee, notary service. The other thing we’re focused on is providing our customers with free access to ID theft protection.

When did that launch?

We launched it in a partnership with EZShield just over a year ago. That’s very important to us. If you’ve ever had your ID stolen, you know how hard it is to go through the process. So we have free ID restoration for our premier checking customers. With a lot of these partnerships, products and services, we’ve had a lot of growth in our customer relationships. And it’s all organic.

What do you mean by organic?

All of our growth is coming from our customer base. Some other banks may leverage by borrowing funds from different sources or leveraging different things. All of our growth has come from our customer base doing more business with us. ■

BUCK ENNIS

LEONARD STEKOL

10 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

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3/26/20 12:28 PM

INSTANT EXPERT

What you need to know about the small business bailout THE PLAYERS

1

2

Nearly 10% of the city's workers—500,000 people—across all sectors of the economy will soon be unemployed. An estimated 130,000 restaurant workers have already lost their jobs. Whole industries have shut down in New York City and no side of the economy has been hit quite as hard as small businesses, which number 200,000 across the five boroughs. State and federal authorities are now implementing sweeping measures to provide financial relief to small business owners in the form of low-interest loans, open credit lines, and even direct infusion of cash, but it's not clear how all these programs will work together.

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THE ISSUE

There is no bigger player here than the Federal Reserve and its chairman, Jerome Powell. We’ll get to the Fed momentarily, but the most important point to understand is that Powell and the POWELL Fed are essentially opening up their balance sheet and telling the entire economy, you can put every loan you make on us, we’ll guarantee it.

In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has already suspended mortgage payments for 90 days and directed a 90-day moratorium on all residential or commercial evictions. Mayor Bill De Blasio’s Department of Small Business Services awarded $1.14 million in grants to 155 businesses last week, and plans to distribute another $8.7 million. It is also working on an interest-free loan program.

In Washington, leaders of the House, Senate and Treasury put together a stimulus package of up to $2 trillion, which includes $350 billion in federally guaranteed loans to small business. Additionally, President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration (SBA) announced a new loan program aimed at helping those businesses affected by the crisis.

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BY BRIAN PASCUS

WHAT’S NEXT

5

Nothing is more important than the $2 trillion stimulus package, the largest of its kind in U.S. history. The Fed previously announced it will initiate a “Main Street Lending” program, but the concept is rather nebulous as the Fed seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach until Congress determines how much cash it will allocate in direct payments to small businesses. The small business loans that the government is guaranteeing will be forgiven if the employer keeps its workers on payroll during the crisis. Only time will tell if that number is large enough—or how much more assistance the Fed will offer—as no amount of generous loan terms or sizable stimulus checks can stop banks from coming down on small business owners if they can’t pay their bills.

NO AMOUNT OF AID CAN STOP BANKS FROM COMING DOWN ON SMALL BUSINESSES IF THEY CAN’T PAY THEIR BILLS

YEAH, BUT

3

Even though the Fed and the SBA have made loans available to small businesses, there is still a bit of a catch. First, while the Fed is opening its window in an unprecedented fashion—committing to buy as much government-back debt as necessary and even corporate debt, as well—it’s not handing out cash to small businesses. It’s mainly becoming a buyer of last resort throughout the financial system in order to keep it humming. Any money the Fed provides will be in the form of a loan that must be paid back. The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan—while providing loans up to $2 million—carries an interest rate of 3.75% and small business owners seeking more than $25,000 in assistance must put up some form of collateral, in most cases the building they operate from.

ISTOCK

SOME BACKGROUND

4

Many of these stimulus plans and asset-purchasing measures harken back to the steps Congress and the Fed took 12 years ago to shore up credit during the financial crisis. One program being dusted off is an asset-purchase plan known as “Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF),” which encourages bank lending to small businesses by having the Fed buy securities backed by small business loans. Present and future lending to small business .hinges on the ability of banks to package those debts as desirable securities—and in the Fed they now have a dependable buyer.

But again, the main issue is cash-flow. Banks can help businesses restructure loans and defer payments, but if there’s no cash flow then the TALF scheme won’t work. That is why so many financial measures now hinge on the fiscal policy being hashed out in Congress, which can actually provide liquidity to small business owners in the form of direct checks, and whose only legislated precedent on the same scale is the infamous $750 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) that Congress passed in 2008.

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 11

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DES

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ers and experienced decision-makers, from all kinds of organizations and industries.

To find our honorees—a reporting effort begun before the coronavirus pandemic developed—we consulted with trusted sources in human resources specifically and in business precincts generally. At the same time we vetted those nominations submitted by firms either headquartered in the New York metropolitan area or with a major presence in the five boroughs and surrounding counties.

Each of these notable women was selected for her career accomplishments, her mentorship of others, and her involvement in community and industry organizations.

So just how are these talented and committed professionals keeping the circuits of commerce pulsing?

Read on!

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Even with foresight bordering on clairvoyance, we could not have selected a more appropriate time to honor the women who set the pace in New York’s talent management ranks.

The front lines of corporate America in our current national health crisis is staffed first and foremost by executives with the responsibility for the lifeblood of all businesses: people. Human resources and related fields are in the “people business” of business, and women make up the majority of those who work in these challenging areas.

The issues facing HR departments today are as complex in nature and as broad in scope as any in our country’s history. So it comes as no surprise that the 62 people on Crain’s Notable Women in Talent Management list for this year are an impressive group of thoughtful lead-

PAMELA Y. ABNER

ALLIE BAROT

JEANELLE BEACH

EILEEN BENWITT

ANGELA BLUM-FINLAY

DO

Vice president and chief administrative officer, office of diversity and inclusion

Executive vice president, chief human resources officer

Chief people officer

Chief talent officer, executive vice president

Executive vice president and chief human resources officer

Dire

Horizon Media

Dime Community Bank

Eileen Benwitt applies a wide-tent approach to all of her talent-related tasks. That begins with her hiring process, which looks for individuals who present a variety of interests rather than simply match a rigid list of skills. Once an outside-the-box hire is on board, she encourages that individual to articulate a professional vision, then strives to engineer a work experience that helps to actualize it. Benwitt further empowers Horizon employees by supporting any initiatives—whether recreational, philanthropic or otherwise—that have the potential to enhance the company’s culture.

Benwitt, a career coach certified by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, offers employees personalized counsel and career guidance, to better keep them motivated, engaged and fulfilled.

As Dime Community Bank continues to evolve from a thrift to a robust community bank, Angela Blum-Finlay has been one of its primary change agents. As chief human resources officer, she has drawn on the knowledge and know-how gained in two decades of talent management experience to lead a concomitant shift in Dime’s human resources functions. Previously Blum-Finlay held directorial positions at Mitsui & Co., where she was responsible for the strategy and execution of HR activities across the Americas, as well as at a roster of firms in the accounting and consulting space.

Boasting several HR certifications, she is an adjunct professor of human resources at Columbia University and a board member of the New York City Society for Human Resource Management.

Mount Sinai Health System

Pamela Abner has pushed envelopes in diversity and equity for 14 years. As vice president and chief administrative officer for the office of diversity and inclusion at Mount Sinai Health System, Abner conceives plans with industry leaders to cultivate inclusion across business lines. Using research and education curriculums, Abner helps implement initiatives to identify demographic disparities and eliminate barriers to care and educate underserved groups. The certified unconscious bias educator is a regular presenter at forums, and she advises organizations from her own consulting practice. Abner’s leadership and management guidance was instrumental in Mount Sinai Health System’s ranking as the No. 1 health and hospital system on Forbes’ 2019 list of Best Employers for Diversity.

RXR Realty

Allie Barot’s more than 25 years of experience spans financial services, public and private investments, retail and real estate in Europe and the U.S. As executive vice president and chief human resources officer for RXR Realty in New York, she’s responsible for creating a business-aligned human resources agenda and executing human capital management strategies that improve business performance and organizational effectiveness.

Previously she worked in HR leadership at Guardian Life Insurance and UBS. Barot is a trustee on the board of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Royal Foundation, which equips young people for life regardless of their background, culture, physical ability, skills and interests.

12 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

First

Jeanelle Beach is an executive who understands a human resources department is more elemental than auxiliary. As the chief people officer at First, a global events agency, Beach has been integral to the company’s steady growth, driving numerous account implementations and acquisitions.

Working shoulder to shoulder with other company leaders, she has developed all the critical people programs, policies, benefits, and recruitment and training strategies that build and refresh a staff that aligns with First’s 21st-century business objectives. Stationed at the nexus of human interaction and business strategy, Beach sees her responsibility as advancing both the company and its people. Before joining First, she worked at Deutsche Bank and BDO Seidman.

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DEBORAH BORG

MAXINE CARRINGTON

LAURA COOPER

NANCY CORCORAN-DAVIDOFF

Director of culture development programs

Chief human resources and communications officer

Deputy chief human resources officer

Senior vice president of people

Google

Bunge Limited

Northwell Health

Executive vice president, chief experience and human resources officer

Desmonique Bonet oversees career development, global onboarding, diversity inclusion and well-being learning programs at Google. Bonet commands a team tasked with developing programs that forge the culture at the technology behemoth, creating initiatives that reach 100,000 employees worldwide. She has 15 years of experience in marketing, sales and business development, working with C-level executives and thought leaders in digital and traditional media across Fortune 500 companies. This, her doctorate in political science and her teaching background help Bonet drive global learning programs at Google. She channels her development expertise into promoting inclusion and welfare throughout the company.

Deborah Borg has lived and worked on three continents, making her an ideal leader at a global agribusiness and food organization with 35,000 employees worldwide. As chief human resources and communications officer at Bunge, which is headquartered in White Plains but operates in more than 40 countries, Borg is responsible for the people, culture and communications strategy, and operations. Her previous experience put her in good stead: As president of Dow USA, she oversaw overall business performance, regional business strategy, new business development and relationships with customers, government organizations and partners. Last year Borg joined the board of SWM International, a global provider of engineered solutions and advanced materials.

As Northwell Health’s deputy chief human resources officer, Maxine Carrington marshals more than a decade of HR experience to oversee initiatives related to organizational development, employee experience and corporate social responsibility.

She is committed to serving the Northwell community beyond her immediate role: She instructs at the Center for Learning and Innovation—the health care network’s corporate university— and often avails herself as a mentor. Carrington, a lawyer by trade, was previously a manager and attorney with the New York Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations.

She graduated from Northwell’s High Potential Leadership Development Program in 2010. In 2013, Human Resource Executive named her a rising star in HR.

Bluecore

Laura Cooper approaches her role as senior vice president of people for Bluecore with this worldview: When trust is reinforced and the symbiotic relationship between leader and contributor is strengthened, organizational and individual successes follow.

In her position at the artificial intelligence-driven retail marketing platform, Cooper coaches all levels of leadership to uphold these ideals. She solves a sweeping array of management challenges—conceptualizing strategy, executing development, bolstering engagement and improving organizational design—to enact measures that engender operational excellence.

Cooper’s increasingly global career trajectory was forged through diverse centers of excellence such as Citigroup, Franklin Templeton Investments and Samsung Electronics America, among others. She is a licensed attorney and holds Senior Professional in Human Resources certification.

Hackensack Meridian Health

At the nub of superb health care is first-rate human experiences, for patients and staff.

Nancy Corcoran-Davidoff devotes herself to both: As executive vice president and chief experience and human resources officer for Hackensack Meridian Health, she focuses on person-centered care models that provide exceptionally high-quality, respectful, and empathetic care and services.

Corcoran-Davidoff formed an Office of Human Experience leadership team whose impact pervades disparate elements of the health care network, among them, emergency care, inpatient experience and physician groups. Corcoran-Davidoff’s work has earned her acclaim. Within the past two years, she was named an ROI-NJ Champion of the C-Suite and a CXO to Know by Becker’s Hospital Review. In addition, Corcoran-Davidoff was named to the NJBIZ Best 50 Women in Business list.

Nearly three of every four HR managers in the U.S. are women, while nearly nine in ten HR generalists identify as such.

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DESMONIQUE BONET

Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics, payscale.com

ief

DORIT CORWIN

LOIS DURANT

VALERIE EGAN

KATE ETINGER

AUGUSTA FULCHER

Director, talent acquisition

Director, diversity, inclusion and talent management strategy

Senior director, learning and development

Chief human resources officer

Senior director, human resources, New York business unit

Sheppard Mullin

Girl Scouts of the USA

Lois Durant manages all of Sheppard Mullin’s diversity-and-inclusion efforts as well as the international law firm’s talent management activities. That means Durant is expert at dealing with multiple stakeholders. She works closely with the firm’s chairman, chief human resources officer, diversity-and-inclusion committee, diversity-and-inclusion strategic council, affinity groups and others in firm leadership. Before joining Sheppard Mullin, Durant worked at White & Case, leading talent management at all of the international law firm’s litigation practices groups. Previously she was the firm’s manager of professional development and retention, and she worked with the diversity-and-inclusion committee to implement diversity-and-inclusion action plans.

Durant received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University and an M.B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.

Valerie Egan has spent 25 years in talent acquisition for large organizations such as Merrill Lynch, AT&T, the Linde Group and Girl Scouts of the USA. Everywhere she has worked, Egan has contributed vision, strategic leadership and practical experience to her employer’s talent-acquisition infrastructure.

Recent accolades include the 2018 HRO Today’s Talent Acquisition Leader of the Year Award for Nonprofits and the 2019 HRO Today’s Thought Leadership and HR Excellence Award for Nonprofits. Egan donates her time on the advisory council of Dress for Success Northern New Jersey, which empowers women to gain economic independence with professional attire, a support network and career development tools.

Standard Industries

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While recruiting for executive positions in Asia, Dorit Corwin built up her firm’s client portfolio with Fortune 50 technology companies. She then brought her global experience to executive search giant Heidrick & Struggles as the firm’s engagement manager. Since 2018 Corwin has been director of talent acquisition at Standard Industries in New York, where she recruits at all levels and works closely with corporate leadership on global searches. She is the interim human capital business partner at solar company GAF Energy, a Standard Industries venture. Corwin is active in the philanthropic organization UJA-Federation of New York, where she sits on the Professional Women’s Leadership board and is vice chair of the Young Leaders board.

Bank Leumi

Bank Leumi prides itself on the relationships and trust between its people and customers. The bank looks to Kate Etinger, its chief human resources officer, to ensure the company’s unique culture supports that pride. To that end, Etinger and her team handle talent acquisition and development, compensation and benefits, and employee engagement programs to support the company’s growth and priorities. Etinger, who held senior HR positions at Fiserv, Citibank and HSBC, among other global financial institutions, sits on the board of the Hebrew Free Loan Society, an organization that fosters economic self-sufficiency and stability among New Yorkers in need through interest-free lending.

Turner Construction

As senior human resources director at Turner Construction, Augusta Fulcher is responsible for maintaining a comfortable and effective work environment for more than 1,000 employees at the company’s New York business unit. Fulcher leads talent acquisition, employee relations, strategic management, and training and development. She implements people-related services and lean improvement processes and, as a partner to management, supports overall achievement in the business unit.

After beginning her career at Cablevision and rising through the ranks, Fulcher joined Turner Construction in 2016. She devotes a considerable part of her free time to mentoring young women entering the workforce in and around New York.

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 13

LINDSAY GAAL

DORIANE K. GLORIA

MARY GOLDEN

SAVAN HACKNORATH

MARY LEE HANNELL

Chief human resources officer

Vice chancellor, human resources City University of New York

Senior vice president, human resources

Chief human capital officer

Friedman LLP

Assistant vice president and director, human resources Mount Sinai South Nassau

BSE Global

As assistant vice president and director of human resources for Mount Sinai South Nassau, Mary Golden focuses on meeting the changing needs of the organization and its 3,700 employees. Her responsibilities include recruitment, retention, benefits, employee education and employee relations. Golden oversees the employee health, volunteer and cultural initiatives departments. As an executive team member, she plays a key role in defining the staffing needs of the organization, including qualifications and competencies for employees. In her more than 20 years of human resources work in New York, Golden has served as the HR manager at New Island Hospital in Bethpage, an associate knowledge manager at WTW Associates and a human resources generalist at Catholic Medical Centers’ Home Health Agency in Rego Park.

Savan Hacknorath’s human resources philosophy is rather algorithmic: Employee engagement generates customer satisfaction, which leads to profits and shareholder returns. Thus, the senior vice president of human resources at BSE Global prioritizes employee experience across the many HR functions she oversees, among them, human resources strategies, talent and organizational development activities, recruitment, and diversity and inclusion efforts. Hacknorath is a valuable strategic business partner to BSE’s executive leadership team, its event operations, and food and beverages partners. For 15 years, she has supervised HR functions throughout the fashion, retail, sports and entertainment industries with one focus: allying employer objectives and brand-building with positive employee experiences.

How people make decisions is a key aspect of their leadership abilities. Lindsay Gaal, Friedman LLP’s chief human resources officer, uses a process that considers the potential impact on employees, clients and potential hires.

This big-picture thinking is one of the reasons she’s the “right hand” of Friedman’s co-managing partners at the large New York-based accounting firm.

It’s also why she’s regularly published in media outlets such as Reuters and CBS Local, among others. Recently Gaal led several successful initiatives throughout the firm, including the development and implementation of an alternative work arrangement policy that’s been instrumental in attracting and retaining top talent, the deployment of an employee engagement and satisfaction tool, and the management of HR components relating to mergers.

City University of New York, the largest urban public university in the country, has 25 colleges and more than 46,000 employees. In December Doriane K. Gloria became its vice chancellor of human resources, bringing extensive leadership experience in higher education, health care and nonprofits. Most recently she led HR at the New York Blood Center, where she helped the organization expand and increase employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

Previously Gloria designed, built and staffed a human resources infrastructure for Physician Affiliate Group of New York. She spent nearly the first 20 years of her career in the HR department at NYU Medical Center. She is a recognized expert across disciplines. These include performance management, talent acquisition and retention, benefits and compensation, and labor relations.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

Mary Lee Hannell is responsible for the human capital agenda at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which conceives, builds, operates and maintains infrastructure critical to the region’s trade and transportation network.

Her role includes leading all the essential human resources functions as well as a comprehensive labor-relations strategy across 23 unions. Hannell, who has been with the Port Authority for almost 33 years, won a National Association for Female Executives Women of Excellence Award for her service to New York after 9/11. She was a charter docent with the 9/11 Tribute Center, sharing her experience as a survivor of the attacks. Hannell contributed to classroom resources that guide students to connect outcomes of 9/11 to the choices they make in their lives.

GETTY IMAGES

Women who work in human resources have one of the highest levels of job satisfaction.

“Resume”—or résumé, technically—derives from the French résumer, meaning “to summarize.”

Sources: Forbes, Merriam-Webster

MEREDITH HAUPTMAN

LYNNE-COURTNEY HODGES

DEBRA R. HUDNELL

DONNA M. HUGHES, JD

ERIKA IRISH BROWN

Senior manager, human resources

Vice president, human resources

Chief diversity officer

SL Green Realty Corp.

Senior vice president, human resources

Chief human resources officer

Marks Paneth

EmblemHealth

Goldman Sachs

Donna M. Hughes brings varied and valuable experiences to her new role as EmblemHealth’s chief human resources officer. She’s an attorney, she had the unenviable chore of being involved in the layoff of 30,000 employees after Circuit City’s bankruptcy— and she was the HR leader of Impax Laboratories Inc. No wonder she’s been profiled in multiple publications and speaks regularly on issues such as mergers-and-acquisitions transformation, mental health in the workplace, and the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. At EmblemHealth, Hughes is responsible for aligning human capital strategies with the overall business plan. In her first year she revamped the company’s onboarding practices, rolled out rules on effective working styles, and invested in employee and leadership development programs.

“Former I-Banker turned global diversity leader and agent of change,” reads Erika Irish Brown’s Twitter biography. For Irish Brown, who received the Most Powerful Women in Corporate Diversity Award in 2019 at the Black Enterprise Women of Power Summit, the description seems apt. She is responsible for Goldman Sachs’ global diversity and inclusion strategy, driving initiatives related to the recruitment, retention and advancement of diverse professionals. Earlier she led diversity hiring efforts at Bloomberg, Bank of America and Lehman Brothers. Irish Brown is making change outside of her employer as well: She’s a member of the Executive Leadership Council, vice chair of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation and a board member of Riverside Hawks, a youth basketball program.

Meredith Hauptman is a team builder. In her role at Marks Paneth, Meredith Hauptman forges strong alliances among the accounting firm’s employees, managers and partners through collaboration and team building.

Hauptman, based in the firm’s Manhattan headquarters, brings more than 15 years of experience as a human relations generalist to employment-related issues such as sourcing and retaining qualified talent, employee relations, interpersonal communications and compensation. She sits on the core committee for the Leadership Empowerment Advancement Diversity Success initiative, which promotes the retention and professional development of women at Marks Paneth. Hauptman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from SUNY at Buffalo and a master’s degree in organizational psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Lynne-Courtney Hodges understands that a company’s strength is its personnel, and it is that principle that guides her decision-making as vice president of human resources at SL Green Realty Corp.

Under Hodges’ watch, employee satisfaction has soared—and for good reason: She implemented wellness and mental health initiatives, including market-leading benefits offerings; a potent community engagement system; and a platform devoted to creating and maintaining a diverse workforce. Hodges has received accolades for installing and championing SL Green’s comprehensive performance management process and employee engagement surveys. Before joining the real estate firm, she held HR positions at advertising giant Havas Creative, previously Havas Worldwide, and at Thornton Tomasetti, an engineering consultancy.

14 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

Silverstein Properties

Under Debra Hudnell’s leadership, Silverstein Properties has been one of the Best Places to Work in New York City, according to Crain’s New York Business, for eight years running. What’s all the more exceptional, Hudnell joined SPI as a clerk and rose to senior vice president of human resources. In 2016 The Network Journal named her one of the 25 Influential Black Women in Business. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks—SPI acquired the World Trade Center six weeks earlier—Hudnell advocated on behalf of the families of those employees that perished.

She implemented crisis management plans and made changes in employee benefits to ensure the safety and welfare of SPI employees. Today she oversees HR practices that maintain SPI’s core values of integrity, respect and collegiality.

Crain’s Notable Women in Talent NYC 2020 Allie Barot We congratulate Allie Barot, RXR’s Chief Human Resources Officer, on this deserving honor. We salute her dedication to a company culture of excellence and inclusion. We commend her commitment to creating career opportunities for talent from all communities.

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SOPHIA ISAAC

HARSHA JALIHAL

ANNA JANSSON SHARKEY

SARAN JOHNSON

JENNIFER KAPLOW

Director, human resources

Vice president, human resources, U.S. operations

Global head of talent

Co-chief human resources officer

S&P Global

Marcum

Regional director of human resources

At S&P Global, Anna Jansson Sharkey is leading an effort to create a more inclusive workforce: “Our focus is to bring more women into our workforce globally,” she said. As the financial rating firm’s global head of talent, she’s responsible for diversity and inclusion as well as talent acquisition and development.

Sharkey partners with leaders and teams to create and implement talent strategies and capabilities across the organization. She was promoted to the role in 2018 after serving as a strategic business partner to the S&P Global Market Intelligence executive team, where she built and executed human capital plans, aligned talent initiatives and led change management initiatives. Sharkey previously spent 11 years at Barclays.

Saran Johnson knows how to climb a corporate ladder. After joining Marcum in 2000 as an administrative assistant, Johnson rose to C-level executive. Marcum’s chairman and CEO handpicked Johnson for her current position after she helped shepherd the firm through a period of fast-paced mergers and acquisitions. Under her watch, Marcum grew from a company with two offices and 125 employees to one of the largest independent accounting and advisory firms in the country. Johnson’s 20 years of experience in human resources management has made her an expert in the industry, and she’s been quoted in various trade publications. In 2019 Johnson was profiled in Leaders Magazine alongside senior executives from the country’s largest companies.

New York City Health + Hospitals/ Woodhull

Sophia Isaac focuses on employee engagement and teamwork in her role at New York City Health + Hospitals. To that end, she established the Woodhull engagement team, which implemented daily huddles throughout the facility to improve communication. Isaac continues to work with the joint labor management committees and employee recognition committee, creating activities to maintain employee engagement and maintain quality of customer service. Before joining Woodhull, Isaac was associate director, administrator-on-duty, culture change committee chair and unit ambassador for various health care facilities. She is a member of the National Association of Professional Women, the Association of Health Care Human Resources Administration and the Society of Human Resources Administration.

Unilever

Throughout her career, Harsha Jalihal has tried to help people and organizations venture beyond their comfort zones— something she’s now doing at Unilever to great effect. As vice president of human resources for its U.S. operations, Jalihal is spearheading an effort to augment the digital acumen and general agility of the consumer goods giant. It’s not the first time she’s pushed for change at Unilever. In a previous position, Jalihal supported the early stages of Unilever’s strategy to build a sustainable future of work. This followed 15 years in the technology services industry, in roles such as human resources business partner, mergers-and-acquisitions specialist and C-suite chief of staff. Jalihal is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for the New Education and Work Agenda.

Corcoran Group

Jennifer Kaplow oversees all human resources functions for the Corcoran Group and Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the East End of Long Island and in South Florida.

Kaplow brings 20 years of experience to the real estate organization, and she has her hand in everything from employee relations and compensation formulas to recruiting and succession planning. Before Corcoran, she held senior human relations positions in engineering, hospitality and real estate. Kaplow participates in and supports the annual Corcoran Cycle for Survival team, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The American profession that started as “personnel management” in the early 1900s became widely known

“talent management.”

GETTY IMAGES

as “human resources” after World War II is now often described as Source: Harvard Business Review

MARGARET LAZO

LAURIE LEDFORD

NICOLE LEON

ROBIN LEOPOLD

ALISON LEWIS

Chief human resources officer

Chief human resources officer, senior vice president

Director of diversity and inclusion

Executive vice president and head of human resources

Chief administrative officer

Univision Communications Inc.

“Margaret has a clear and deep understanding that how we treat, compensate and listen to our employees continues to make Univision an employer of choice, a stronger competitor and a powerful advocate for the communities we serve,” Univision CEO Vincent Sadusky said last year about the media company’s chief human resources officer. For the past four years, Margaret Lazo has overseen leadership development, succession planning, diversity and inclusion, organizational design, employee relations, and compensation and benefits. She’s committed to empowering the Hispanic community, serving on the board of the Hispanic Federation and the T. Howard Foundation.

Marsh & McLennan Companies

As Marsh & McLennan’s chief human resources officer, Laurie Ledford is responsible for human capital and talent strategy, the delivery of HR resources and corporate social responsibility.

Ledford came to the firm from Marsh Inc., where she was named chief human resources officer in 2006. Before that role, she held multiple leadership positions at Marsh, including senior HR director for international specialty operations, where she managed human resources for the firm’s operations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific and Africa.

Previously she held senior HR positions at Citibank and NationsBank, now Bank of America.

Ledford received her M.B.A. from the University of Miami and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Florida Atlantic University.

16 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

Con Edison

To many, true workplace equality seems like a pipe dream. But to Nicole Leon, Con Edison’s director of diversity and inclusion, it’s no less than the motivating principle behind her daily endeavors. And there are many of those—developing and executing diversity strategies, eliminating barriers to inclusion and constantly evaluating equal opportunity efforts, for starters. Leon also monitors compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity policies and anti-discrimination laws related to harassment and retaliation. In a previous role as Con Ed’s manager of organizational development, she handled leadership training, succession planning and general development initiatives. Leon is a certified executive coach with a history of leadership roles of increasing responsibility, particularly in the banking industry.

JPMorgan Chase

Robin Leopold is a bona fide human resources veteran, having operated in that space for more than three decades. She is making her mark as an executive vice president and head of human resources for JPMorgan Chase—and as a member of its operating committee. Before assuming that role, Leopold was an HR executive for the finance leviathan’s corporate and investment bank, and managed its home lending human resources team during a significant business transformation. Previously she led impactful HR functions at Citi and its predecessor companies for more than 20 years. Throughout her career, Leopold’s undertakings have run from recruitment and employee relations to compensation and generalist functions supporting multiple lines of business.

Newmark Knight Frank

If all Alison Lewis did was also oversee human resources at Newmark Knight Frank—focusing on culture, retention and attracting talent—she would have her hands full. But that’s only one part of her job for the full-service real estate firm. Lewis is leading NKF’s rebrand and digital transformation. That role is in addition to her responsibilities as chief administrative officer.

Before joining Newmark Knight Frank, Lewis was the senior managing director of CBRE’s New York tristate region brokerage. For five years she oversaw development, management, recruitment and training of the New York brokerage staff. Before CBRE, Lewis was senior vice president at Studley, developing and executing corporate business strategy to grow the firm’s brand and market share.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THOSE BEING RECOGNIZED BY CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS NOTABLE WOMEN IN TALENT

WE PROUDLY SALUTE OUR OWN LYNNE-COURTNEY HODGES

SL GREEN’S VICE PRESIDENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES

AS ONE OF CRAIN’S NEW YORK NOTABLE WOMEN IN TALENT 2020

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PAM LIPP-HENDRICKS

MEREDITH LUBITZ

JANE MAKSOUD

STEPHANIE MARDELL

ANG

Head of executive talent management and diversity

Senior vice president, talent management

Economist John R.

Senior vice president, chief human relations officer

Chief people officer

Dire staf

JPMorgan Chase

Dow Jones

Commons coined the

Mount Sinai Health System

The word “integration” does double duty in describing Pam Lipp-Hendricks’ mission. Ideologically, it speaks to her commitment to cross-communal inclusion.

Strategically, it points to her efforts to incorporate that ideal throughout JPMorgan Chase, where she heads executive talent management and diversity.

Lipp-Hendricks juggles a lot: She oversees talent pipeline programs, diversity initiatives, disability inclusion, affirmative action, and business resource groups for employees. Before her 20 years at JPMorgan, she worked at American Express and AT&T, and she was an adjunct professor at Baruch College and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Lipp-Hendricks is board chair for Neighborhood Defender Services, a nonprofit that provides legal representation for Harlem residents. She has been named twice to Black Enterprise’s list of the Most Powerful Women in Corporate Diversity.

In the course of her career at Dow Jones, Meredith Lubitz has built and led talent recruiting and organizational functions, and she has coached hundreds of executives in media, tech, finance, journalism and startups.

Recently Lubitz built an innovation program for top talent aimed at weaving adaptive leadership into Dow Jones’ corporate culture.

Ignite, a program she designed and led, won a gold award from the Brandon Hall Group for advancing female leadership development.

Lubitz has been a board member for iVentiv Chief Learning Leaders and the Training Industry editorial board. In addition to her position at Dow Jones, she is a certified executive coach, speaker, editor and wellness instructor.

“human resource” in phrases

his 1893 book, The Distribution of Wealth.

867 occupations There are

in the federal government’s most recent version of the Standard Occupational Classification, which was established in 1977.

Sources: Industrial Relations to Human Resources and Beyond, Bureau of Labor Statistics

In the competitive health care labor market, would-be hirers must be inventive, a reality Jane Maksoud understands: The senior vice president and chief human relations officer for the Mount Sinai Health System is constantly innovating strategies to onboard, develop and retain clinical and administrative personnel. Maksoud leverages psychometric evaluation tools, data analytics and machine learning to reinvent the hiring and development processes. For example, she recently chartered a committee to investigate the creation of simulation tools to assess nursing competency in prospective hires.

Faculty and employee relations, talent development, workforce analytics, international personnel, and recreation and wellness also fall under her purview. Maksoud, a veteran of more than 30 years in Mount Sinai’s professional community, recently received the Healthcare HR Innovation Award from HRO Today.

HEALTHIER FUTURES, TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP As one of the nation’s largest non-profit health insurers, EmblemHealth is dedicated to creating healthier futures for our customers and communities.

We commend EmblemHealth Chief Human Resources Officer Donna Hughes for championing teams and setting new standards for transformative change.

18 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

Button

Stephanie Mardell built a “people team” from scratch for Button, a leading mobile commerce platform. Her data-driven approach to people operations has contributed to Button being included on multiple “best places to work” lists in both New York City and the United States in the past five years. Before joining Button, Mardell spent more than a decade recruiting talent for top technology companies and executive search firms, including Square, Airtime and Isaacson Miller. Mardell received a 2019 Great Place to Work for All Leadership Award. She is an adviser for PeopleTechPartners, a national business network for founders and CEOs.

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CHRISTY PAMBIANCHI

Director, HR recruitment and staffing

Director, talent acquisition

Global manager of diversity and inclusion

Senior vice president, global head of talent management and diversity

Executive vice president and chief human resources officer

Montefiore Medical Center

Health care organizations don’t win awards for exceptional care without an exceptional staff.

Montefiore, which is consistently recognized, was ranked one of the best hospitals for 2019-20

by U.S. News & World Report. So some credit must go to Angie Mercado, who supports talent acquisition efforts across the medical center. That’s more than 22,000 employees in multiple locations. Mercado has worked at Montefiore for 29 years and in human resources since 2005. Since joining the department, she’s implemented effective talent acquisition strategies, processes, performance metrics and systems ensuring alignment with Montefiore’s mission, vision and values. She holds a bachelor’s from St. John’s University and a master’s from Iona College.

Better.com

In less than three years, Kenna Meyeroff has helped recruit, build and scale Better.com to 1,700 employees. She grew the recruiting team fourfold, and she oversees more than 40 people. During that time she helped grow three teams within the sales and operation departments from fewer than 200 people to approximately 800 positions.

Meyeroff accomplished this while she and her team managed to convert 90% of their candidates into employees. The internal process she developed has reduced the cycle time of hires to two weeks, compared with the industry average of 37.5 days. Before her time at Better.com, Meyeroff worked in a variety of roles for organizations, including development for AlleyNYC.

Fried Frank

Lourdes Olvera-Marshall wants to change the workplace and the world—and she’s pulling out all the stops. As manager of diversity and inclusion at Fried Frank, she’s driven representation across the law firm—increasing diversity rankings by five points nationally and upping LGBTQ representation from below average to national average. At New York University, where she’s an adjunct professor, she teaches classes on networking, emphasizing diversity and how to gain workplace influence. She speaks regularly on these topics to minority groups and large institutions. She is an attorney, a professionally trained chef, a business coach and the president of MexPro, a Mexican professional association linked with the Mexican Consulate.

Olvera-Marshall was selected to participate in the Cultural Representative Program at Walt Disney World, Epcot Center.

Cushman & Wakefield

Workplace homogeneity imposes a tyranny of sameness—not just in employee demographics, but often in perspectives.

Recognizing this, Janice O’Neill, Cushman & Wakefield’s senior vice president and global head of talent management and diversity, drives initiatives to establish a high-performance, inclusive culture where diverse viewpoints are mobilized to solve clients’ challenges. O’Neill oversees programming related to learning and development, executive succession planning, onboarding, engagement and performance management. In 2015 she was pivotal in the integration of Cushman & Wakefield and the European real estate services company DTZ. O’Neill was previously with KCG Holdings, Accenture and Nabisco/Kraft Foods. She is a board member for Homes of Hope India, an organization that helps to build orphanages for girls in that country.

Verizon

With its ubiquitous red check mark, Verizon makes known its penchant for doing things right— and that includes its human resources operations.

Luckily for Verizon, Christy Pambianchi joined the telecommunications conglomerate as chief human resources officer in 2019, with decades of HR experience at Corning Incorporated and PepsiCo. Pambianchi oversees a smorgasbord of people-related functions for Verizon, such as compensation, benefits, talent acquisition, and training and labor functions. Her aptitude with people is manifest outside the office as well: Pambianchi spent five seasons coaching a team at FIRST, a global not-forprofit STEM engagement program for children. She is a board member for the Lumina Foundation, whose mission is to increase the percentage of Americans with postsecondary credentials.

C O N G R AT U L AT I O N S

TA N YA

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N O TA B L E W O M E N I N TA L E N T R E S O U R C E S

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 19

DIANE RAFFAELE

AMANDA RAJKUMAR

DAWN ROGERS

TANYA SAFFADI

NANCY SANCHEZ

BET

Director, human resources

Head, human resources

Vice president human resources

BNP Paribas

Executive vice president and vice dean, human resources and organizational development and learning

Dire

Olayan Group

Executive vice president, chief human resources officer

Diane Raffaele leads all human resources functions for the Olayan Group’s U.S. operations. Her responsibilities include recruitment, compensation and benefits, talent and development, employee relations, health and wellness, and employee engagement. She is on the group’s global HR steering committee, which focuses on strategy across the Saudi Arabia-based investment company. Raffaele led the effort to consolidate payroll, onboarding, benefits, enrollment, time management and performance management into a single system across the organization’s international locations. In addition, she oversaw the development and implementation of a global career framework across all locations that would consistently define job architecture, develop salary structures and define competencies. Before joining Olayan, Raffaele was vice president of benefits at Barclays.

Amanda Rajkumar’s responsibilities have grown steadily in the past decade. Since March 2018 she has been responsible for human resources at the corporate and institutional banking arm of BNP Paribas USA and the bank’s intermediate holding company. She is on the Americas executive committee and the group human resources executive committee. Rajkumar is passionate about inclusivity at all levels. In 2015 she developed the “Music in the Workplace” initiative for BNP Paribas’ London campus, hosting lunchtime concerts performed by students from the Royal Academy of Music. She pioneered an “Employee Concert” series that highlighted the musical talents of the bank’s employees while encouraging inclusiveness and well-being.

Pfizer

Two years ago Dawn Rogers took on the challenge of overseeing human resources for Pfizer. That’s no small matter: The global biopharmaceutical company employs 80,000 people in 87 markets. Its purpose is no smaller: delivering breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. Toward that end, Rogers said recently, “We’re focusing much more on working smarter—on what matters, agree on who does what, and then measure outcomes.” She had been at Pfizer for almost 19 years before becoming chief HR officer. Her experience spans Pfizer’s global business, where she’s done everything from integrating field forces after an acquisition and establishing business units in Europe to building a team of scientific talent and co-leading the restructuring of the commercial businesses and integration of the emerging markets.

Kushner

Tanya Saffadi provides strategic direction and support to the diversified real estate organization’s 800 employees. She and her team work on attracting, retaining and developing real estate professionals to accelerate overall business performance.

Before working in real estate, Saffadi gained wide-ranging experience in the financial services, technology, pharmaceutical and media industries via positions with Thomson Reuters, Equity One, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Pfizer, Cisco and Morgan Stanley. Her results-oriented approach has grown out of her expertise in implementing HR programs that focus on attracting and retaining the most talented people in any given operating market.

NYU Langone Health

Nancy Sanchez’s professional modus operandi is intricate and intuitive.

She weaves a cross-departmental web of connections to create learning, development and human resources initiatives that benefit managers and staff. That’s no trifling task for the executive vice president and vice dean at NYU Langone Health, with its staff of 17,000 employees. In one of her most notable achievements, Sanchez simplified the administration of HR services by championing eAppraisal (for performance management), eHire (to expedite hiring approval) and an employee-benefits call center. Sanchez, who joined the organization more than 30 years ago, advocates for workers within it and in numerous national employer councils.

Congratulations MEREDITH HAUPTMAN on your “Notable Women in Talent Resources” recognition

We applaud your remarkable achievements and your dedication to serving our firm.

INSIGHTS AND EXPERTISE TO D R I V E Y O U R B U S I N E S S F O R W A R D.

SUCCESS IS PERSONAL MARKSPANETH.COM

20 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

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New York City Bar Association and City Bar Fund

From her perch as director of human resources for the New York City Bar Association and the City Bar Fund, Beth Schefflan has a bird’s-eye view of the lawyer’s professional life cycle. That big picture perspective enables her to help aspiring and practicing attorneys by providing a plethora of invaluable HR-related services.

Schefflan, who takes pride in facilitating success, is motivated by the tangible results that testify to her achievements. At an organization that prioritizes justice and the public interest, it’s no wonder that her diplomacy, integrity and can-do approach serve her well.

Schefflan sits on the board of directors for New York City Society for Human Resource Management and is an active member of the Human Resources Directors Forum.

Accenture

GETTY IMAGES

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BETH SCHEFFLAN

The first resume—in the form of a letter— is credited to

Leonardo DaVinci, who was seeking a job (presumably as a painter) in the court of

As Accenture’s chief leadership and human resources officer, Ellyn Shook leads a multinational team of HR experts charged with promoting the professional and personal success of nearly 505,000 employees. That effort stems from recognition that creating a truly human work environment today is more pressing than ever. She and her team are reimagining leadership and talent practices, fueling Accenture’s digital changeover, market differentiation and work-related improvements.

Shook, a recognized thought leader and author in the talent management sphere, is a member of the Women’s Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School. She sits on the board of directors of the HR Policy Association.

VaynerMedia

Coaching. Team-building.

Performance maximization. Those are just a few of the skills Claude Silver first honed back in her days of running an adventure and surf company in San Francisco.

Today she leverages those skills in a very different setting.

As VaynerMedia’s first chief heart officer, Silver is known for taking a particularly human approach to human resources, unlocking employees’ potential by forming close person-to-person connections, fostering an inclusive culture, empowering purpose-driven teams, and imbuing the entire organization with a no-cal optimism. Silver’s three-decade career includes leadership positions at major advertising agencies and consultative engagements with a variety of other corporate clients.

Weill Cornell Medicine

Rache Simmons serves the Weill Cornell/New York-Presbyterian community in a unique trifecta of capacities: medicine, education and diversity prioritization.

As a member of the surgical staff, Dr. Simmons practices breast surgery—she is a past president of the 3,000-member American Society of Breast Surgeons. As the Weiskopf Endowed Professor of Surgical Oncology at Weill Cornell, Dr. Simmons is regularly called on by major media outlets to discuss her innovative breast cancer treatments. As associate dean of diversity and inclusion, she has shown a pronounced interest in women’s initiatives, nowhere more so than as the institution’s inaugural director of the Office of Women.

She is pursuing an M.B.A. and a master’s in health care leadership.

the ruler of Milan.

Source: Letters of Note

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 21

JULIE STAUDENMIER

PEG SULLIVAN

JESSICA VANROSSEM

YVE

Vice chair of talent

Vice president, global learning and development

Managing director, human resources and global head, talent management

Director, human resources

Vice

Grassi

NYC

Pfizer

Morgan Stanley

Julie Staudenmier likes to take bold action—and not just when she’s jumping out of airplanes for fun.

She’s responsible for developing and executing Pfizer’s global leadership development and learning strategy. Her team’s efforts with employees at all levels, from individual contributors to managers and senior executives, impart the leadership capabilities essential to fulfilling the biopharmaceutical company’s goal of “health for all.”

Before joining Pfizer, Staudenmier was a human resources executive at Boehringer Ingelheim, TD Ameritrade, American Express and Sony, leading initiatives in succession planning and talent management, corporate learning and development, talent acquisition, resource planning and organizational development. Earlier in her career, Staudenmier was a partner with Executive Development Associates, a consulting firm focusing on strategic executive development.

Peg Sullivan oversees talent acquisition, talent development, employee relations and corporate culture at Morgan Stanley.

In more than two decades with the firm, she has worked as the head of human resources for the investment banking and finance segments. She has supported a variety of departments in her career, including technology, risk management, research and talent management. She is a corporate trustee on Prep for Prep, a leadership development program for New York City’s students of color. Sullivan was appointed recently to the New York Federal Reserve’s Education and Industry Forum on Financial Services Culture.

Jessica VanRossem is a classic people person, which in part explains why she specializes in employee relations, resource allocation, professional development and recruiting for Grassi, a New York-based accounting firm.

But she’s no Luddite; she has worked to increase the role of technology in Grassi’s human resources processes to create a more streamlined and automated experience for job candidates and the HR professionals she oversees.

VanRossem doesn’t only know people, she knows accounting, working as an auditor before transitioning to HR. She obtained her certified public accountant license in 2012 and continues her education to maintain it. She is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management.

Yve pro Vill for t

EY Americas

As vice chair of talent for the multidisciplinary professional services firm Ernst & Young, Carolyn Slaski leads efforts to create exceptional long-term experiences for the organization’s 71,000 employees across the Americas. Under her leadership, EY Americas implemented its LEAD approach to careers, development and performance. The program is based on constructive feedback and honest conversations. As a proponent of flexibility in the workplace, Slaski supports policies that help employees succeed in the office and at home. In that vein, she successfully advocated for U.S. office closures that last a full week in July and December. Slaski began her career in EY’s office in Metropark, N.J.

22 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

GETTY IMAGES

CAROLYN SLASKI

According to Gallup, which conducts the leading workplace

managers account for 70% of the survey,

variance in employee engagement scores.

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YVETTE VILLANUEVA

ERICA VOLINI

TOMYA WATT

KAREN WEEKS

LYDIA WU

Vice president, human resources

Global human capital leader

Vice president of people

Head, talent analytics

NYC Health + Hospitals

Deloitte

Vice president of talent acquisition and mobility, chief diversity officer

Ordergroove

Panasonic North America

In human resources there are practitioners, and there are maestros. Karen Weeks, vice president of people at Ordergroove, belongs to that exclusive latter group.

Through speeches, podcasts and written materials, Weeks helps her counterparts in the HR industry by breaking down fundamentals such as change fatigue, scaling culture, company values and talent development. At Ordergroove, she concentrates on assembling a results-focused people strategy and helps the company maintain a robust culture during its growth stages. And with excellent results: Ordergroove has twice been named one of the Best Companies to Work for in New York. Weeks teaches management and HR strategy at Baruch College and recently published her first book, Setting the Stage: A Guide to Preparing for Any Feedback Conversation.

Lydia Wu believes analytics is the best way to unleash an organization’s most valuable resource—its people. To prove it, she’s built the people analytics practice at Panasonic North America, where she heads talent analytics. But Wu doesn’t just rely on numbers. She incorporates organizational behavior principles to derive insights that aid the company’s human capital strategy and business outcomes. She speaks regularly at industry events.

Yvette Villanueva is all about process. Since March 2017 Villanueva has been responsible for the day-to-day operation of human resources at NYC Health + Hospitals health system.

That followed her work as senior assistant vice president of human resources, when she partnered with senior management to transition HR to a shared services model; she introduced workforce planning initiatives, expanded employee self-service functions and established a governance structure. Villanueva’s accomplishments include revising the facility language assistance policy and integrating the patient relations and medical interpreter programs. Previously she served as senior associate executive director at NYC Health + Hospitals’ Lincoln, Harlem and Woodhull locations.

Erica Volini is a progressive human relations visionary who understands that in the modern corporate sphere, businesses are always on the brink of major disruptive change. As Deloitte’s global human capital leader, she guides and assists company leaders in tackling issues endemic to an ever-shifting corporate landscape. These challenges include navigating the future of work and enabling the digital organization. Optimizing the junction of workforce and business performance is Volini’s lodestar throughout these efforts.

She served as a member of Deloitte’s consulting management committee and board of directors.

Drawing on perspectives accrued in a career of more than 20 years’ working with leading organizations in the world, Volini speaks regularly on how market trends affect human resources.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, Tomya Watt translates business strategy to people strategy using labor-market data to drive decisions. Watt transformed what was a traditional recruiting operation into a data-driven business partnership central to the cancer center’s innovation and growth strategy. She views diversity and inclusion as an integral part of the overall talent strategy—her team delivers more than 2,000 hires each year—and continually seeks to discover individuals’ potential. Watt, who’s been with the center for more than a decade, seeks to strike a balance between what is right for the employees and for the organization.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College and an M.B.A. from Howard University.

MARCH 30, 2020 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | 23

NORMAL

particulate respirator masks in stock. Customers were soon emptying the cold-medicine shelves and loading up on their prescriptions, even paying out of pocket. Delivery orders went up 25%.

A hit to the bottom line is coming, even though the pharmacy, an essential business, will stay open: On March 17, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine recommended that fertility doctors stop initiating new treatment cycles, since dosages are time-sensitive, and Apthorp specializes in fertility medication.

“That represents a significant amount of my business,” said owner Russell Gellis. He is about to move to a cheaper location a half block away, but he is waiting for approval on a state application. A delay could leave him paying two rents.

Yet so far Gellis has been receiving all the drugs he orders, both prescription and over-the-counter, although the pile-on for messenger services has slowed delivery time, and he has to prioritize delivery to patients with acute needs. He likely

FROM PAGE 3

online as possible and hope he can hold the institution’s $70 million annual budget together.

He focused first on vulnerable seniors, barring people from the building who had visited in the last 14 days certain countries hit by the pandemic and then closing the senior center altogether.

Now it’s all about reaching users online with a combination of recorded classes and group meetings through the internet or conference call technology. It has also asked for volunteers and families to take a handful of the 700 seniors it serves on a regular basis. As of a couple of

weeks ago, scores of people had volunteered.

The Y is seeing some success.

About 80% of those using the music program are doing so online. A classical concert almost two weeks ago with pianist Garrick Ohlsson drew 65,000 people watching in 120 countries. An in-person concert at the Y in normal times draws a couple of hundred people.

Finances soon will be a great concern. “We are doing everything to balance our need to be fiscally prudent to continue to carry out the mission, which is not something we can do indefinitely,” Pinsky said.

“We are confronting a threefold hit: Revenues are declining, it’s more complicated to get philanthropic donations, and the endowment has shrunk.”

Apthorp Pharmacy On March 7, Apthorp Pharmacy sent out two tweets that it had N95

PHOTOGRAPHY BUCK ENNIS

“IT’S A TREMENDOUS FINANCIAL STRAIN, PUTTING US BACK FIVE TO SEVEN YEARS.”

APTHROP PHARMACY

Advertising Section

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE To place your listing, visit crainsnewyork.com/people-on-the-move or for more information contact Debora Stein at dstein@crainsnewyork.com LAW

LAW

Squire Patton Boggs

Foley & Lardner LLP

Global law firm Squire Patton Boggs has appointed Lauren Trialonas as Principal. Trialonas focuses her practice on public finance including state and local government law and school law. She has served as bond counsel and underwriter’s counsel with respect to taxable and tax-exempt bond financings and refinancing.

Trialonas’ experience includes assisting with bond financings for nonprofit colleges and universities, nonprofit healthcare facilities, and solid waste facilities.

Andrew “Andy” Lee, former general counsel to the New York Jets and the New York / New Jersey Super Bowl Host Committee, has joined Foley & Lardner’s New York office as Of Counsel and Special Adviser to its renowned Sports & Entertainment Group. He joins a deep roster of other sports attorneys at Foley who have held high-profile, in-house leadership positions in the sports business. Lee has over 20 years of extensive sports, media and entertainment industry experience.

He remains confident. “We are well positioned to weather this and are trying to make sure our tenants can survive and be ready to rebound,” he said.

FreshDirect

will reduce payroll by cutting staff hours.

He remains uncertain about what to do if his 28 employees, including four pharmacists, come into contact with sick shoppers.

“Should staff be wearing masks?” he asked. “Do you quarantine everyone for 14 days?

“If you want the pharmacies to be able to continue during the crisis, there should be direct communication,” he said.

Baldor Foods Baldor Foods has 10,000 customers from Maine to Virginia, and 80% of them are restaurants, hotels, schools, caterers and stadiums that have ceased or diminished operations because of the coronavirus.

Last week Baldor’s sales were less than half of what they were the same week in 2019. “It’s a tremendous financial strain, putting us back five to seven years,” said Ben Walker, the vice president for sales and marketing. Walker said conversations about layofffs for the 2,200 employees were just beginning but hundreds of jobs are at risk.

Just as food service accounts stopped ordering, supermarkets needed products. Within three days, Baldor’s retail business grew from 12% to 65% of sales. That meant rapidly setting up accounts and launching relationships that usually take months to build.

Friends asked about home delivery, so Baldor had its developers tweak the existing website, used for about 70% of wholesale orders.

“Our trucks are on the road, and we have the product so we can offer it,” said Walker, who noted that its 3,000 items are geared to restaurants. That means home-delivery customers may have to buy 40 pounds of chicken or 10 pounds of cheese at once, although they also have access to the kinds of specialty

On March 4 the size of each customer order at FreshDirect surged.

Within days, the number of orders increased too, as people bought paper products, cleaning supplies and canned goods. Delivery time slots BALDOR for the week ahead filled up the moment they were released.

FreshDirect is now doing 40% more in sales over the same period last year. “Meals have migrated back to the home,” FreshDirect CEO David McInerney said. goods and imported vegetables FreshDirect’s warehouse is less used at restaurants such as Le Ber- than 2 years old, built with growth nadin and Eleven Madison Park. in mind. It has the capacity to store and ship large volumes—and to let Brooklyn Navy Yard workers stand far from one another.

More than three weeks ago Brook- The company is trying to add 300 lyn Navy Yard CEO David Ehren- employees to its Bronx workforce of 3,000. It added trucks berg assembled his through partnersenior managers to ships with outside come up with a plan fleets and vendors to cope with the corowho found their venavirus threat at the hicles suddenly city-owned facility, parked. home to manufacturAt the same time, ers, creative businessthe company is tryes and the city’s larging to communicate est film studio. to customers that But no matter how supplies are availmuch he planned, able and that they events overtook him. can return to buying Instead of implefood for the week, menting partial teleFRESH DIRECT not for eternity. commuting on March “That’s our plea to 9, everyone was put people—we’re tryon remote work that day. And the cascade of events has ing to serve as many homes as we can,” McInerney said, including the continued.

Steiner Studios was shut down kitchen at New York Common Panthe week of March 16. The manu- try, an East Harlem food pantry for facturing firms were trying to con- which FreshDirect has taken over tinue to operate, with a few rushing all production. to make hand sanitizer. The crucial operations staff had been pared and put on shifts so the Navy Yard would not have to close for essential businesses. The parking lot was actually busier than usual because people were driving instead of taking mass transit.

A few tenants have asked about reducing or forgoing rent payments. “Keeping staff is the highest priority,” Ehrenberg said. “We have instituted a hiring freeze, eliminated discretionary spending and NAMI NORI shored up our cash position.” The Yard boasts a rainy-day fund, though he wouldn’t say how big it Nami Nori is.

Ehrenberg said he finds it impos- Four weeks ago Lisa Limb, a partsible to prepare when he doesn’t ner at the Japanese hand roll know how long the crisis will last. restaurant Nami Nori, bought a case of all-natural peppermint-scented hand sanitizer and made it a ritual to spritz guests’ BROOKLYN NAVY YARD hands before they ate. Limb and her partners then began following guidelines to operate at half capacity. On March 16, when Mayor Bill de Blasio told all restaurants to shut down, they had already decided to shift to takeout and delivery only.

The restaurant, which opened in October, had always planned to offer takeout but had been too busy.

So Limb had already developed a custom biodegradable wrapper to keep each hand roll’s piece of nori crisp in transit. “We were sort of prepared to make this transition,” she said. She is rushing to get another order of the wrappers. ■

24 | CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS | MARCH 30, 2020

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CLASSIFIEDS

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To place a classified ad, Call 212-210-0189 or Email: jbarbieri@crainsnewyork.com

PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES Notice of Qualification of Healthinsura nce.com, LLC, fictitious name: Health insurance.com Insurance Services, LLC. Authority filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/20/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/29/1999.

SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: National Registered Agents, Inc., 28 Liberty St., NY, NY 10005. Address to be maintained in DE: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Arts of Org. filed with the Secy. of State, Division of Corporations, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful activities.

Notice of Qualification of MSGS PUBLISHING, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/10/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/05/20. Princ. office of LLC: Two Pennsylvania Plaza, 19th Fl., NY, NY 10121. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of PQOZ SPE JV, L.P. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/11/20.

Office location: NY County. LP formed in Delaware (DE) on 11/29/18. Princ. office of LP: 75 Broadway, Ste. 230, San Francisco, CA 94111. Duration of LP is Perpetual. SSNY designated as agent of LP upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the Partnership at the princ. office of the LP. Name and addr. of each general partner are available from SSNY. DE addr. of LP: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of LP filed with Secy. of State, DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of VESTA ASSET MANAGEMENT LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/02/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 10/16/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c /o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543.

DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of MATERIAL LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/28/20. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 12/18/18. Princ. office of LLC: 54 W. 21st St., #607, NY, NY 10010. NYS fictitious name: MATERIAL VENTURES LLC. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. DE addr. of LLC: Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of MJU HUNTSVILLE MANAGER LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/12/20. Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Boro Real Estate Partners, 1 Rockefeller Plaza, Ste. 1006, NY, NY 10020. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of 1FBBK OWNER LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 03/19/20.

Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/ 05/20. Princ. office of LLC: Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West St., NY, NY 10282. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the addr. of its princ. office. DE addr. of LLC: c/o Corporation Service Co., 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., PO Box 898, Dover, DE 19903.

Purpose: Any lawful activity.

19 ROBERTSON DRIVE LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/ 28/2020. Office loc: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 1185 Park Avenue, Apt. 16F, NY, NY 10128. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

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Notice of Qualification of SUPERMASSIVE BEVERAGE COMPANY, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/ 20/20. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/ 19/20. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co., 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State, Div. of Corps., John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal - Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION OF O3 Partners LLC. App. for Auth. filed with the Sec’y of State of NY (SSNY) on 2 /11/20. Office location: New York County. LLC formed in DE on 10/ 25/18. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her to 787 11th Ave, 6th Floor, NY, NY 10019. The principal business address of the LLC is 787 11th Ave, 6th Fl, NY, NY 10019. DE address of LLC: 3616 Kirkwood Hwy, Ste A #1070, Wilmington, DE 19808.

Certificate of LLC filed with Sec’y of State of DE located at 401 Federal St #4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

Notice of Qualification of IEX CLOUD SERVICES LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 0 2/20/20. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 08/ 15/18. Princ. office of LLC: 3 World Trade Center, 58th Fl., NY, NY 10007. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 12207-2543. DE addr. of LLC: c/o CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808-1674. Cert. of Form. filed with Secy. of State of the State of DE, John G. Townsend Bldg., 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Operation of a business which provides data products and services, including an API. STANDARD OIL CAPITAL GROUP LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/29/2020. Office loc: NY County.

SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: The LLC, 352 Seventh Ave., Ste 303, NY, NY 10001. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

Notice of Formation of COMPANY YOU KEEP KITCHEN LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 0 3/20/20. Office location: NY County.

Princ. office of LLC: 335 Madison Ave., 24th Fl., NY, NY 10017. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to the LLC at the princ. office of the LLC. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Formation of Limited Liability Company (LLC). NAME: WLC TOP LLC - Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 10/03/2018. Office location: New York County. SSNY shall mail a copy of process to: The LLC, 98 E BROADWAY STE 309, NEW YORK, NY 10002. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS Notice of Formation of General Delivery Consulting LLC. Arts or Org filed with Secy. of State (SSNY) ON 12/ 16/19. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 2082 8th Ave, #4C, New York, NY 10026.

Purpose: any lawful act.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF 62 Lawlor Street LLC. Articles of Organization filed with the Secretary of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/11/2020. Office location: NEW YORK County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against it may be served. The Post Office address to which the SSNY shall mail a copy of any process against the LLC served upon him/her is: 46 North Clover Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021. R/A: Zachary Goldman, 46 North Clover Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021.

The principal business address of the LLC is: 46 North Clover Drive, Great Neck, NY 11021. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of Logic Pallet, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/13/2020.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to 80 Maiden Ln, Ste 1004, New York, NY 10038.

Notice of Formation of Wrublin Holdings LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/12/20.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to: the Company, 134 West 25th St., 5th Fl., NY, NY 10001. Purpose: any lawful activities.

SCHACHTER SALES LLC. Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 01/10/20.

Latest date to dissolve: 12/ 31/2119. Office: New York County.

SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail copy of process to the LLC, c/o Russell Schachter, 200 West 54th Street, #6GH, New York, NY 10019. Purpose: Any lawful purpose.

Notice of Formation of DONATELLO NA LLC Arts. of Org. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 02/28/20.

Office location: NY County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail process to Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP, Attn: Gina Piazza, Esq., 1350 Broadway, 11th Fl., NY, NY 10018. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION of limited liability company (LLC). Name: BOOKED

BY EJ, LLC. Articles of Organization filed with Secretary of State of New York (SSNY) on 01/10/2020. Office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served.

SSNY shall mail copy of process to: ERIC DE’MON JONES 115 W. 128th ST., APT. 4A, NEW YORK, NY 10027.

Purpose: consulting services.

Notice of formation of RENHUB GROUP, LLC. Arts of Org filed with Secy of State of NY (SSNY) on 2/ 26/20. Office location: NY County.

SSNY designated as agent upon whom process may be served and shall mail copy of process against LLC to: 260 W. 54th St., NY, NY 10019 Purpose: any lawful act.

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PUBLIC & LEGAL NOTICES ELIZABETH ADLER TRTO NUTRITION, LLC, Arts. of Org. filed with the SSNY on 02/20/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process against the LLC may be served. SSNY shall mail process to: Elizabeth Adler, 325 North End Avenue, Apt. 16C, NY, NY 10282. Purpose: Any Lawful Purpose.

NOTICE OF QUALIFICATION of STOCHASTICO LLC. Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 12/9/19. Office location: NY County. LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 1 1/12/19. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o LEGALINC CORPORATE SERVICES INC, 1967 WEHRLE DRIVE SUITE 1-086, BUFFALO, NY 14221.

DE addr. of LLC: 651 N BROAD ST SUITE 206, MIDDLETOWN, DE 19709. Cert. of Form. filed with DE Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Ste. 4, Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

Notice of Qualification of STREET SPOT ME, LLC Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 0 3/02/20. Office location: NY County.

LLC formed in Delaware (DE) on 02/12/20. Princ. office of LLC: 333 Seventh Ave., NY, NY 10001. SSNY designated as agent of LLC upon whom process against it may be served. SSNY shall mail process to c/o Corporation Service Co. (CSC), 80 State St., Albany, NY 122072543. DE addr. of LLC: CSC, 251 Little Falls Dr., Wilmington, DE 19808.

Cert. of Form. filed with Jeffrey W. Bullock, Secy. of State, 401 Federal St., Dover, DE 19901. Purpose: Software application development.

Notice of Formation of ROUTE 20 HOLDINGS LLC Arts of Org filed with SSNY on 2/13/2020. Office loc: NY County. SSNY has been designated as agent upon whom process may be served. SSNY shall mail process to 201 E 12th St, Apt 204, New York, NY 10003. Purpose: Any lawful activity.

NOTICE OF FORMATION OF D.D. Encore Laundromat LLC. Articles of Org. filed with Sec. of State of N.Y. on 2/ 12/2020. Office location: New York County. SSNY desig. as agent for service of process. SSNY shall mail process to: 324 East 73rd Street New York, NY 10021. Purpose: any lawful act or activity.

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THANK YOU T

o everyone at the frontlines of the pandemic, from health care employees to food services, words cannot begin to express our gratitude.

You selflessly take care of others, putting their needs ahead of your own. In times like these, your strength and resiliency are an inspiration to all.

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from becoming patients themselves.

Crain’s spoke to frontline health care workers and hospital leaders around the region to learn how they’re coping with this generation’s greatest medical challenge, one which could get worse before it gets better. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the virus may not peak for another two weeks.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time. Through the course of my career I have worked through the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and 9/11 and been in Los Angeles for an earthquake,” said Dr. Billy Goldberg, an emergency-room physician at NYU Langone and the emergency department’s vice chairman for business operations and strategic planning. “This is on a larger scale and very different than anything I’ve experienced.”

Goldberg said doctors and nurses in the emergency room are getting one N95 mask per shift to conserve supplies as opposed to changing masks with each new patient they see.

“The shifts are physically and emotionally exhausting,” Goldberg said. “There’s that anxiety of bringing things home to your family, and then I’m the doctor for my friends, family, and neighbors. It’s like you’re always on.”

Beds, vents and masks As of last Friday, New York state had confirmed nearly 45,000 cases of Covid-19, with about 25,000 people sick in New York City. There were 6,400 people hospitalized, nearly 1,600 of whom were in intensive care. Queens and Brooklyn had the highest number of cases, and 365 city residents had died from complications with the respiratory illness.

Cuomo has instructed hospitals that they must increase the number of beds in their facilities by at least 50% with some hospitals tasked with doubling their capacity. The state anticipates needing 140,000 beds at the outbreak’s peak.

Some of the city’s largest gathering spaces are candidates to house patients. A 1,000-bed medical facility is being built at the Javits Convention Center, and Cuomo said last week he is considering creating

SMALL BIZ FROM PAGE 1

Provisions in the law will require small businesses to show creditworthiness and year-over-year business losses, as well as fulfill specific reporting requirements in order to qualify—a sticking point for some business leaders.

more facilities at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, CUNY’s Staten Island campus and the NY Expo Center in the Bronx.

Hospitals have also been setting up tents outside their doors to triage patients. Refrigerated trucks have been stationed outside the city medical examiner’s office in Manhattan as a potential temporary morgue.

Efforts to close schools and businesses have all been aimed at delaying the apex of the outbreak, so the hospital system might have more time to ramp up its capabilities and acquire ventilators.

It is the ventilators which have truly vexed the Cuomo administration as it anticipates needing 40,000 when the largest number of patients are hospitalized. The state estimated it had 3,200 just a few weeks ago.

It now says it has about 12,000 and is exploring converting anesthesia machines and splitting the breathing machines using tubes to treat several patients at a time.

The problem was particularly pronounced at the city-run Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens, where 13 patients died from Covid-19 during one 24-hour period, The New York Times reported.

“So many people are saying it’s going to be OK, everything’s fine, we have what we need,” Dr. Colleen Smith, who works in Elmhurst’s emergency department, said in a video shared with the Times. “And if this goes on for a month or two, or three or five like it did in China, and we’re already this strained, we don’t have what we need.”

Dr. Eric Wei, an emergency medicine physician and chief quality officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, said the public hospital system has diverted more resources to Elmhurst Hospital as well as Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx and Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, which have been treating the largest numbers of patients, he said.

Wei said the system hasn’t determined the origin of the cluster of cases in Elmhurst but that certain factors such as the density of the population there might have been responsible.

“I’m very proud of how we handled this as a system,” Wei said.

“We’ve never come close to running out of PPE or ventilators.”

He said workers’ concerns about inadequate supplies are underadvocates said. Furthermore, social distancing restrictions will make the notarization, building inspection, and appraisal process that much more difficult to complete for some company owners, they said.

“Anyone who has applied for an SBA grant knows it’s not a walk in the park,” Sunset Park BID leader David Astrada said. “When you take people who are already reeling, now you’re asking them to take on this rather significant task to get legitimate aid.”

Business owners also have questions about who's eligible.

What becomes of those businesses that were set to open later this year but cannot document any sustained loss? What about businesses

“THESE BUSINESSES WILL NEED SIGNIFICANT CAPITAL TO RE-OPEN” Many mom-and-pop shops in the five boroughs lack the administrative capacity to understand the complex application process for these loans and grants, business

pital and they do well and a week later they get discharged. It's completely variable, and it’s very difficult to tell who’s going to be the person to get very sick and who’s not.”

Plasencia is also an executive vice president for the Committee of Interns and Residents SEIU, a national union, and has been advocating for a residents’ bill of rights to protect the early-career physicians from unsafe working conditions. Those include limited access to protective equipment and working hours that can stretch beyond 80 hours a week.

That mission could become more important as hospitals tap into a volunteer medical reserve corps assembled by the state. About 40,000 people, including clinicians with jobs outside of patient care, and retired workers have signed up.

NYU’s medical school told its students last week that those who had already met course requirements could graduate early if they agreed to work for the university’s health system in internal medicine or emergency medicine.

“Those are individuals who are going to need more training and who may become more exposed because they haven't had the time to train to really prepare for this,” Plasencia said.

Staffing concerns are top of mind for area health systems.

“The beds are the easy part,” said Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling. “It’s the staff and supplies that become the management part.”

Northwell has been having staff members take on additional shifts and tapped doctors and nurses working in nonclinical roles to get back into patient care. It’s hired

about 100 doctors and nurses from out-of-state and is calling retired clinicians to come back to work.

In one week Northwell saw the number of Covid patients it was treating increase more than tenfold from 90 to more than 1,250 across the system’s 19 metro area hospitals. Long Island Jewish Medical Center and LIJ Forest Hills have been two of its busiest campuses.

Dowling said he plans to deal with some of the surge by creating more beds in those places but also transferring patients to less inundated hospitals such as Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, Long Island.

“By doubling up and using non-traditional spaces such as lobbies and conference centers and moving things we could create another 2,000-plus beds,” Dowling said. “If I have a lot of patients in one place, I can move them to another place. It’s not like I’m looking at each hospital separately. They’re all part of a network.”

As hospitals strain to assemble the necessary number of beds and acquire needed supplies, it raises the question of whether they were prepared to handle a pandemic of these proportions.

The Greater New York Hospital Association holds frequent emergency drills for situations as varied as mass shootings or chemical attacks. But Covid-19 is taxing the hospital system in a more widespread way that isn’t limited to certain sections of the region as was the case in the response to 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy.

In Northwell’s case, it has been burning through about 6,000 N95 respirators a day.

“The lesson here for me is that we have to stockpile a lot more resources for the inevitability of something like this happening again,” Dowling said. “We shouldn't be running around in a time like this looking for ventilators, we should be able to produce them quickly. We should not be totally reliant on overseas manufacturing.”

Goldberg, in the emergency room at NYU Langone, is only looking as far ahead as the next two weeks.

“I’m trying not to look too far ahead because it’s so unpredictable,” Goldberg said. “We hope to see a decrease in the number of cases. Hopefully we will gradually catch up. I don’t see this ending quickly.” ■

government should issue grants, not loans, and offer additional financial assistance to the city’s restaurants.

“These businesses will need significant capital to re-open, to rehire, to train, to buy new products, and to cover past bills,” he said.

“These are cash businesses. They don’t have reserves on hand.”

New York has close to 200,000 small businesses with fewer than 10 employees across all five boroughs, according to Queens Chamber of Commerce President Tom Grech.

“This is the definition of your mom-and-pops,” Grech said. “If they close now, they will probably never re-open.”

And cash alone will not rescue small businesses, owners say.

Laughlin believes a federal mortgage moratorium must create great-

er flexibility for tenants so they will be able to restructure their loans and won’t be hit with a massive payment on day 91 after the threemonth holiday issued by Gov. Andrew Cuomo ends.

He also believes new abatements to sales taxes and property tax payments can put cash into business owners’ pockets right away.

Rigie believes the federal or state government must forgive rent payments for small businesses and force insurance companies to honor business interruption insurance claims, which have been denied for many restaurants in New York City.

"The longer this goes on, the more devastating this will be for our economy,” said Rigie. “If people aren’t working and they don’t have money, how will they support our local business?” ■

TESTING: Staff at St. Barnabas Hospital test patients.

standable but that the system has procured another 100 ventilators. A city spokeswoman said Friday it was sending thousands of pieces of safety gear and dispatching 105 nurses to Elmhurst Hospital.

Dr. Amy Plasencia, chief medical resident in internal medicine at Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, said she is concerned not everyone has had consistent access to protective gear. Resident physicians in the emergency department get one N95 mask per shift but those in lower-risk specialties have been asked to reuse the masks.

She spent the first three weeks of March working in the medical ICU, where her 12-hour shift ran 6:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.

“We do what we can with what we have. If that means that we have to reuse masks, we’ll reuse masks,” Plasencia said. “We protect ourselves in the ways that we can, but we're not going to stop treating our patients because of suboptimal conditions.”

Plasencia has been alarmed by patients coming in who are in their 30s and 40s who become critically ill with Covid-19. Those patients typically were obese but didn’t have other underlying medical conditions.

Patients vary “We've seen patients who come in one day, doing well enough but we recommend to them admission.

They say, ‘No thank you.’ They sign out against medical advice, and then they come back the next day in respiratory failure,” Plasencia said.

“We also have patients who, you know, they get admitted to the hosthat laid off their entire staffs in anticipation of the downturn and can no longer demonstrate the loan guarantee requirement of keeping a certain percentage of their staff on payroll?

Back on payroll?

In the New York City restaurant industry alone, an estimated 130,000 restaurant workers have already lost their jobs. Can these workers be retroactively put back on payroll?

“Frankly there haven’t been a lot of folks who’ve been able to keep their staff on payroll,” said Tim Laughlin, president of the Lower East Side Partnership. “The question is about how many merchants are eligible for that loan today.”

Andrew Rigie, of the NY Hospitality Alliance, believes the federal

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