Contact: Phyllis Levine at 845.896.6934 X3001 or by Email
Hudson Valley Center for Innovation, Inc. (HVCFI) Officially Opens
Regional Business and Technology Incubator Launched by Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC)
and the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC)
Two powerful not-for-profit agencies, The Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC) in Kingston, and the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center (HVTDC) in Fishkill, announced today the official opening of a regional business and technology incubator, the Hudson Valley Center for Innovation, Inc. (HVCFI) (www.hvcfi.com). Headquartered in the Hudson Valley Business Center in Kingston, this not-for-profit corporation has been established to foster growth and development of emerging, high value businesses and technology development firms, and the creation of high-value jobs throughout the Hudson Valley region. “HVCFI is a collaborative effort of business and economic development, academia, and investment communities throughout the Hudson Valley to create jobs; assist emerging companies get established and organized through professional mentoring; and once established, encourage those companies to remain in the region, employ area residents, and restore a proud legacy of technology research and development throughout the Hudson Valley”, states Chester J. Straub, Jr., President of the Ulster County Development Corporation, Vice Chairman and Director of the HVCFI Corporation.
“What differentiates this incubator,” states Thomas G. Phillips, Sr., HVCFI’s Chairman and Director of the Corporation, and Executive Director of the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center, “is that in addition to being supported by a stellar Board of Directors and committed Board of Advisors from various regions, HVCFI offers its licensees the benefits of a full-time, in-house Executive Mentoring Team comprised of experienced executives disciplined in finance, business development and marketing. These seasoned professionals will work hand in hand with licensing companies to ensure their success. The Center is also being supervised day to day by a full-time Managing Director, Mr. Les Neumann, Founder and President of Business Forensics, LLC, a business consulting company in New City.”
“Our ambition,” continues Phillips, “is that this newly-established incubator Center will become a leader in Hudson Valley business initiatives by being a facilitator for technology development through a series of physical and virtual locations that will foster intellectual and knowledge-based expansion by connecting fledgling businesses to higher learning institutions along with collaborations within and outside the entire Hudson Valley’s social and professional networking community.”
World-Class Board of Directors
To reach those leadership ambitions, HVCFI’s creators have attracted the notable expertise and extensive experiences of a regionally diverse Board of Directors and a Board of Advisors. Members of both boards were recruited from Straub’s and Phillips’ accomplished leadership roles and through Les Neumann. “Our world-class Board of Directors,” explains Phillips, “consists of highly accomplished senior level business leaders from the Hudson Valley region, Connecticut, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. Our newly created Board of Advisors includes members of academia, technology-related businesses, financial and industry specific consultants who are also based in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Our Board member disciplines range from accomplished attorneys, advisors, and researchers to industrial corporate consultants, college leaders and administrators, presidents and chief executive officers of regional, national and international companies.”
The HVCFI Board of Directors include Clifford M. Miller, President and CEO, Ulster Savings, Kingston, NY and HVCFI Treasurer; Rick W. Diehl, Principal, Strategic Technology Group, Wilton, CT; Dr. Andres Fortino, Dean, School of Management, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY; Jay Gartlan, Esq., Founder of Gartlan & Associates, Clifton, NJ; Irwin Glen, Chief Technologist for the Public Sector of Salesforce.com; Glenn H. Heller, Esq., attorney with Drake, Sommers, Loeb, Tarshis, Catania & Liberth PLLC, Newburgh, NY; Dr. Donald C. Katt, President of SUNY Ulster, Stone Ridge, NY; Arnaldo J. Sehwerert, PHD, Regional Director of the Mid-Hudson Small Business Development Center, Kingston, NY; Stephen S. Young, Chairman of Mentor Business Group, Weston, CT.
HVCFI’s Board of Advisors include Steve Crandall, PhD, Chief Technical Officer, and Steve Greenspan, PhD, CEO of Omenti Research in Scotch Plains, NJ; Frank S. Falatyn, President/CEO, FALA Technologies, Inc., Kingston, NY; Mary Ann Hoffman, Director of Business Development, Marist College Center for Collaborative and On-Demand Computing (CCODC), Poughkeepsie, NY; John Koski, Director of Information Technology for Dominican College in Orangeburg, NY; Alan G. Labouseur, President of 3NF Consulting, Inc., Beacon, NY; Mark V. Laurenzi, President, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Marotta Controls, Montville, New Jersey; Laszlo I. Nemeth, President of Dynamic Decision Systems, LLC, Bethany, CT; and Howard Reis, Hudson Valley DataNet, Newburgh, NY.