Business in the Burbs » Awards

Real estate firm founder receives ethics award

Jay Loomis — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:04:58 +0000

Rick Rakow, founder of Rakow Commercial Realty Group Inc. in White Plains, recently received the “Business Ethics Award” from The White Plains Rotary Club in recognition of his business career and involvement in the community. Rakow, who has worked in the real estate business for 25 years, handles about 100 real estate transactions a year. He also has been active as a local board member at the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, The Business Council of Westchester, the American Heart Association, The Food Bank of Westchester and other organizations.

Real estate executive named woman of year in Rockland

Jay Loomis — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:51:54 +0000

Marsha Rand, the chief executive officer and founder of Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty, recently was named 2009 Woman of the Year by the Rockland Business Women’s Network.

Rand, a former nurse, earned her real estate license in 1977 and launched her own firm in 1984. The company first earned the No. 1 market share in Rockland County in 1989, a position it still holds. Rand has partnered with her sons Greg, Matt and Joe to build a real estate firm with 20 offices in the Lower Hudson Valley.

“Marsha Rand was (our group’s) unanimous choice for Woman of the Year,” said Judy Bachman, president of the Rockland Business Women’s Network. “She was selected not only for her remarkable business success but also for her deep connection to the community.”

Video marketing firm receives awards

Jay Loomis — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:06:33 +0000

RPD Media Associates LLC, a Chappaqua-based video content marketing firm, has received four Big W Awards from the the Advertising Club of Westchester County.

The awards recognized the firm’s production of an online video podcast focusing on White Plains Hospital Center’s Westchester Orthopaedic Institute; a series for WHUD radio called The WHUD Westchester Medical Center Health and Life Minute; a feature film for The Snowball Gala for the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford, Conn; and a documentary presentation entitled “AIDS: A Change in Social Awareness.”

PepsiCo headquarters wins architectural award

Jay Loomis — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:42:44 +0000

The PepsiCo Inc. headquarters in Purchase has won the 2009 Landmark Award presented by the American Society of Landscape Architects and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The award recognizes “a project’s design excellence, longevity and contribution to the public realm,” the groups said. The headquarters, designed in 1970, features a blend of landscapes, sculptures, gardens and fountains “that sets the standard for corporate campus environments and continues to enhance the quality of employees’ attitudes, lifestyles and overall performance,” the groups said.

Yonkers Business Week starts Monday

Jerry Gleeson — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:17:23 +0000

Helping small business is this year’s theme for the annual Yonkers Business Week, starting Monday.
Among the programs scheduled are a seminar on raising credit, starting a business and writing a business plan, buying a franchise, managing and transferring risk, and using social media Web sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
Featured speakers include Stew Leonard Jr., president and chief executive of the well-known family food market, who will address the kickoff breakfast on Monday at the Polish Center. Jonah Lehrer, author of “How We Decide” and “Proust Was a Neuroscientist,” will discuss the science of decision-making at a breakfast on Thursday morning at the Yonkers Riverfront Library. Former JPMorganChase economist Marc Goloven will speak at the annual dinner Thursday at X2O Xaviars on the Hudson.
Yonkers Planning Commissioner Louis C. Kirven will host a luncheon and tour of commercial real estate investment properties in the city on Thursday.
Yonkers Business Week also will feature familiar favorites, including its annual Business Expo at the Royal Regency Hotel on Tuesday, and awards programs recognizing local businesses and student entrepreneurs.
For more details, go online at www.yonkersbusinessweek.com.

Nokia named one of state’s best companies for workers

Jay Loomis — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:05:28 +0000

Nokia, the mobile phone company with offices in White Plains, recently was named a winner in the 2nd annual “Best Companies to Work for in New York” competition.

Winners were selected in a small/medium-sized company (15 to 249 employees) and large companies such as Nokia (more than 250 employees). The selection process was based on an assessment of the company’s employee policies and the results of internal employee surveys. The competition was sponsored by the New York State Society for Human Resource Management, Best Companies Group and the Business Council of New York State. Forty winners were named statewide.

Labor group plans rally, dinner

Jerry Gleeson — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:50:22 +0000

The Westchester Putnam Central Labor Body will hold its annual rally Thursday, April 30 in Valhalla to commemorate workers who have died on the job, and later will sponsor a fund-raising dinner for a memorial.
Five local workers—Wayne Bleidner, Luis De Oliviera, Kenneth McGrath, Bruce Plunkett, and David Vasquez—will be remembered at the rally at Kensico Dam Plaza, starting at 4:45 p.m.
The dinner takes place from 6:30-9:30 p.m at the Colonial Mansion Caterers, 139 N. Broadway, in North White Plains. State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins will receive the labor group’s Outstanding Public Service Award. Mike Trinchi, the group’s former labor liaison to the United Way, will receive the group’s Labor Service Award.
For more information, contact Carol Craft at 914-698-7988.

Piermont business owner receives award

Jay Loomis — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 18:23:03 +0000

A business owner in Rockland County recently recieved an award from the the New York District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Deborah Brenner, founder and chief executive officer of Women of the Vine Cellars LLC in Piermont, was the recipient of Women in Business Champion of the Year award. The presentation was made in a ceremony held during National Small Business Week.

Business Council honors 5

Jerry Gleeson — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:55:20 +0000

Five businesses will be inducted into The Business Council of Westchester’s Hall of Fame when the organization holds its annual awards dinner Wednesday night at the Glen Island Harbor Club in New Rochelle.
The inductees are:
• New York Life Insurance Co., for Corporate Citizenship. The company employs about 1,000 at its Sleepy Hollow campus, where it provides child care, adoption assistance, a fitness center, tuition reimbursement, and a volunteer program that does food collections and youth events in the county.
• Hospitality Resource Group Inc., for Entrepreneurial Success. Founded 12 years ago, the company employs 19 at White Plains and at satellite offices in Manhattan and Connecticut.
• Dorf Law Firm, for Small Business Success. Founded by Jon A. Dorf as a solo practice in 1992 in Mamaroneck, the practice has diversified and grown to 12 people.
• Therese Ferretti, Collins Brothers Moving Corp., for Women in Business. Ferretti, who started at the business as a receptionist in 1985, is now president of the company and oversees operations in Larchmont and elsewhere around the country.
• Berkeley College, Family Business Success. The White Plains college is run by brothers Kevin, Randy, Tim and Brian Luing.

Krugman talk rescheduled for May 1

Jerry Gleeson — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:35:24 +0000

New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman will speak on the national economy on Friday, May 1 at 1 p.m at Westchester Community College’s Academic Arts Building Theatre in Valhalla. The free event is rescheduled from earlier this month, when it was postponed for weather.
Krugman, who won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics, is a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University on Friday, May 1. For information, call 914-606-6900.