CenterState CEO honors Business of the Year winners at annual meeting

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CenterState CEO on Thursday honored five area organizations in separate categories with its Business of the Year award.

The region’s primary economic-development organization, announced the recipients during its annual meeting at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter.

More than 1,000 business and community leaders attended the event, which marked CenterState CEO’s fifth anniversary, according to the organization’s news release about the meeting.

The organization honored Sutherland Global Services, a business-process outsourcing firm, in the “More than 50 employees” category.

Sutherland operates in the Galleries of Syracuse at 441 S. Salina St. in Syracuse.

It also recognized engineering / design firm Sullivan, Bazinet, Bongio, Inc. (SBB) of DeWitt in the “Less than 50 employees” category.

In addition, CenterState CEO honored Rome–based credit union AmeriCU in the “Community Involvement” category.

The organization recognized Clear Path for Veterans in the “Nonprofit” category.

CenterState CEO awarded the inaugural minority-owned Business of the Year honor to DeWitt–based construction firm CHC Group, Inc. CenterState presented the award in partnership with the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance (MEA).

CenterState CEO also used the event to announce its partnership with MEA, a newly formed organization to support minority-owned business ventures in the region.

The annual meeting’s lineup of speakers included Howard Zemsky, the new president and CEO of Empire State Development, New York’s primary economic-development agency.

Zemsky talked about his experiences as a private business developer in Buffalo; the impact of the “Buffalo Billion,” the billion-dollar investment that New York state has made to attract new jobs and businesses to Buffalo; and the chance to replicate that investment statewide through Gov. Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.) also shared remarks about a proposed federal bill to require employers to provide workers with paid leave. Gillibrand spoke “as part of her statewide tour to build support for her federal legislation,” the Democrat’s office said in a news release about her appearance.

In addition, Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, a NASA scientist with knowledge of unmanned aerial systems (UAS), presented the keynote address.

Unmanned aerial systems are often referred to as drones.

In his remarks, Kopardekar shared his vision for the future of the UAS industry and highlighted the “pace at which UAS technology is advancing,” according to the CenterState CEO news release.

CenterState CEO said it believed that Kopardekar’s perspective was “timely and relevant” given the organization’s role with the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research (NUAIR) Alliance, the organization said.

NUAIR operates and manages one of six UAS test sites in the country leading the research and deployment technologies that “establish the case for safe UAS operations in the nation’s commercial airspace,” CenterState CEO said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com