White Plains CitizeNetReporter - "Billion Dollar Joe" Delfino Joins County Big 5 Mayors at 1st Biz Summit

WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey with E. Hezi of The Yonkers Tribune. UPDATED 11:00 A.M. October 10, 2002: White Plains Mayor Joseph Delfino, the Mayor responsible for attracting over $1 Billion of development to White Plains in the last two years will participate in gathering of eagles and angels Wednesday at the first Westchester Mayors Business Summit.

The conference to be held in Yonkers will bring together five of Westchester's key Mayors with the finance community of Westchester County to discuss how more development can be stimulated in Westchester's cities.

"It is our mission," according to Anthony Fardella, President of Westchester Venture Group, major sponsor of the conference, "to create a forum whereby entities who seek financing and the financing community can meet."

Dee Del Bello, President of the Westchester County Business Journal, another even sponsor, added, "It is the hope of all the participants that the Westchester Mayors Business Summit becomes an annual event."

Aims at Developing Westchester's Cities: Spencer

Mayor John Spencer of Yonkers said, "This is an amazing opportunity for the mayors of this county to come together and work toward the goal we all hold very much in common. That is, bringing more and more community-friendly, professional and intelligent economic development to our cities and involving highly trained, skilled men and women in the process."

Westchester's Big Five

The Summit will be hosted by Mayor John Spencer and the City of Yonkers and will be sponsored by Morgan Stanley. Participating in the panel of distinguished executives will be Mayor Delfino, New Rochelle Mayor Timothy Idoni, Mount Vernon Mayor Ernest Davis, and Rye Mayor Steven Otis.

The program is scheduled to begin with an informal “Networking Breakfast” beginning at 7:30 A.M., according to Vincent Bocchimuzzo, a spokesman for the Westchester Venture Group.

Mayors Seeking Investment Meet the Investors

Bocchimuzzo reports that the format of the Mayors Business Summit will consist of panel discussion between Mayor Delfino, Mayor Iodoni, Mayor Spencer, Mayor Otis and Mayor Davis and a second panel of executives from venture capital firms.

Venturer firms appearing on the investor side of the panel are Green Hills Ventures LLC, Morgan Stanley, New York Community Investment Corporation, Enhanced Capital Partners, Signature Bank and Venture Partners. The panels will be moderated by Joseph DePaolo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Signature Bank.

Show and Tell.

At the beginning of the event, Bocchimuzzo said, each Mayor will speak about his city and then the panel of venture capitalist representatives will respond. They will make comments and “engage the mayors,” followed by a question and answer period from the floor.

Westchester’s Money Market.

Bocchimuzzo says the event has over 100 persons scheduled to attend at this point, and his hope is that entrepreneurs with business plans, and an audience of what he describes as “a cross-section of the Westchester business community” will, in turn engage the Mayors and venturists in discussion to mutual benefit.

“The organizers see this,” Bocchimuzzo said, “as a way to bring a new source of finance to the people of the cities, to entrepreneurs with new business initiatives.”

Asked if representatives from Westchester County government would be on the panel, Bocchimuzzo, said “No,” that the plan for this meeting was to provide a forum for just the Mayors and 30 venture capitalist groups. He said, the organizers of the event, Westchester Venture Group, the Westchester County Association, and the Westchester County Business Journal, the organizations which “conceptualized this” hoped to organize a similar event involving the county next year.

The Money is Out There.

Asked if the discussion was going to address the apparent weak economy in the county, Bocchimuzzo told WPCNR that “this was a perception that venture capitalists were not ready to invest, and not the reality, because we are not seeing enough of venture capitalist firms.” He said the purpose of the Summit was “to give them (venture capitalists) visibility, that their doors are open for business.”

He said this was going to become an annual event, and at the end of the morning, the Mayors would draw out of a hat to see which city would host the Summit next year.

The Summit, slated to begin at 8:30 A.M, Wednesday, October 16 at Ridge Hill Plaza, 1 Ridge Hill Drive, in Yonkers, New York, just off Exit 6A North of the New York State Thruway. You exit onto Stew Leonard Drive, and make a right at the Guard Booth.

For information on how you can register contact 914-699-2020, Extension 118.


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