President Roger Hull is to be
honored as “Executive of the Year” at the annual business awards dinner of the Chamber
of Schenectady County on Thursday, Jan. 30, at 5:30
p.m. at the Glen Sanders
Mansion, Scotia.
Hull
is to be cited for his leadership in College-city relations and community
revitalization.
Shortly after his inauguration in
1990, he joined with Neil Golub and other business and government leaders to
create Schenectady 2000, a revitalization effort modeled after a similar
campaign that he helped begin in Beloit, Wis.,
where he was president of Beloit College.
With $1 million in seed money from
the Golub Corp., Schenectady 2000 began with the premise that a city in which
residents take pride will be better able to lure and retain businesses. A
largely volunteer organization, more than 1,000 residents have volunteered with
business and civic leaders chairing a variety of task forces. Schenectady
2000 has also been responsible for the organization of the Union
College community service day, in
which students, faculty and staff (including Hull
himself) take part in repainting bridges, picking up trash and planting
shrubbery.
Hull
also was a driving force in the creation of the Metroplex Development
Authority, founded with the idea that large-scale redevelopment supported by a
taxing authority can stop the decline of Schenectady's
downtown and attract private investment. Among the successes of Metroplex have
been the construction of a new headquarters for MVP, and the construction of a
new state office building for the state Department of Transportation.
In 1998, Hull
announced the Union-Schenectady Initiative, the College's broad-based
revitalization project. The College has invested some $11 million in the College
Park neighborhood west of campus. The initiative
includes the College's acquisition and renovation of a number of properties to
house about 200 students, incentives for homeowners and Union employees to
purchase homes (including low-interest mortgages, tuition scholarships and
closing costs), the formation of a neighborhood residents association, and the
College's operation of the Kenney Community Center, which provides a variety of
programs for children and residents of College Park.
In 1999, Hull
and Walter Robb, a former executive for General Electric Research and
Development, created the U-Start Business
Incubator Center,
which provides professional space at below-market rates and provides expert
services to high-tech start-up businesses. The center has played a critical
role in helping new companies establish themselves in a business-friendly
environment. In addition to attractive leases, U-Start offers a valuable
mentoring program where experts from local businesses and organizations as well
as Union faculty work closely with the program's directors to offer
entrepreneurs counsel and networking opportunities.
“Union
College can play an important role
in the revitalization of Schenectady,”
Hull said. “I believe that
individuals and institutions alike have an obligation to make a difference in
the communities in which they are a part.”
Other awards to be presented at
the chamber's event include Company of the Year (GE Global Research Center),
Non-Profit Executive of the Year (Ellis
Hospital's Robert Smanik), Non-Profit
Organization (Schenectady County
Community College), and Outstanding
New Business (Cyclics Inc.)
For more information about the
Chamber dinner, call (518) 372-5656.