IGNITE Award Ambassador

Meet our 2023 IGNITE Award Ambassador, and a past award finalist, who has given back and supported this event and the young leaders being honored today.

Joseph Sayre Senior Economic Development Specialist, RG&E 2019 IGNITE Award Finalist

What has your journey been since being a finalist for the Greater Rochester Chamber IGNITE Award?

Since being named a finalist for the inaugural IGNITE award, I’ve had an extremely varied professional journey. When I was a finalist, I worked in higher education at the Simon Business School and was working towards earning my MBA. Once I achieved my MBA, I joined a local company focused on the trading card industry as their VP of Operations. After a year with them, their parent company asked me to shift to the mobile sports wagering industry as Vice President of Business Development – North America. I served in this role for a year and then noticed a friend of mine had posted that a role in Economic Development at RG&E had opened and I immediately applied. I joined RG&E in June of 2023 and haven’t looked back as I was able to marry my passion for our community with my professional life.

What advice would you share with those aspiring to join this group of outstanding young leaders?

(1) Having a Growth Mindset and (2) Identifying your passion. A growth mindset means having a focus on always growing and improving will help you both professionally and personally. Being stagnant is the same as moving backwards. Surround yourself with people with different backgrounds and opinions than you so you can constantly be challenged and be learning. Identifying your passion will allow you to find a role you are passionate about, so you wake up every day excited to have an impact on the world around you. Only 20% of U.S employees say they are passionate about their work. If you are in that 20% you are going to be able to excel in ways you would have never dreamed possible.

For this year’s finalists, if you would like learn more on how YOU can uplift young leaders in our area as an IGNITE Award Ambassador, contact Greater Rochester Chamber Events Director Susan George at Susan.George@GreaterRochesterChamber.com

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