FAIRFIELD COUNTY
BUSINESS JOURNAL February 15, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 7
16 | FC BUZZ
9 | BRAVA AWARDS YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS
westfaironline.com
The Greatest Place on Earth, 2016
BARNUM MUSEUM HAS A NEW BOARD DIRECTOR AND A VISION FOR 100 YEARS BY BILL FALLON bfallon@westfairinc.com
C Alice Ferreira, left, the new board chairwoman at The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, and Kathleen Maher, the museum’s executive director.
all it the trifecta from hell. In short order for The Barnum Museum in Bridgeport beginning June 24, 2010, the red stone and terra cotta landmark was the victim of a tornado that homed in like the museum had a bull’s-eye on it. That was followed by hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy. Piling on the injuries, the museum’s 20,000 artifacts — many of them paper — were in danger of the same fate as Tom Thumb’s carriage, which is now restored, but which was ravaged to the point of destruction by the uncontrolled humidity that
accompanied the more explosive weather damage. To date, $3.8 million has been spent salvaging artifacts and shoring up the building. It would seem the sort of karmic pile-up to send a responsible person searching for cover or even for the egress, P.T. Barnum’s famous exit sign. Not so in the case of Alice Ferreira, who was named chairwoman of The Barnum Museum board of directors in January. She began volunteering with the museum’s planning committee in 1996 and has been a board member since 2009. She is a vice president for corporate communications for United Health Group, a » BARNUM, page 6
Fed rep cites anxiety amid economy’s ‘healthy pace’ BUSINESS COUNCIL CHIEF SEES MULTIPLE INDUSTRIES, STRONG LABOR POOL AS KEYS
BY REECE ALVAREZ Ralvarez@westfairinc.com ADDRESSING A PACKED BALLROOM OF ABOUT 200 state business and government leaders at the Stamford Marriott Hotel and Spa recently, Joseph Tracy, executive vice president and senior adviser to the president of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, delivered a cautiously optimistic overview of the national economic forecast with a particular focus on the New York metropolitan area. “This is a very interesting time for the economy,” he said. “A lot of people are very anxious. I think
our best guess is still the U.S will continue to grow at a healthy pace this year.” While Tracy forecast the U.S. economy growing at a rate between 2 percent and 2.2 percent for 2016, Chris Bruhl, president and CEO of the event’s host, the Business Council of Fairfield County, said the projection is not enough. “I do think that people were hoping to hear that we are steadily building take-off velocity, that we are going to hear this January that were are going to hit 3 » FED, page 3
Joseph Tracy, executive vice president and special adviser to the president, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Photo by John Vecchiolla