Empire State Development (ESD), New York’s chief economic-development agency, on Wednesday announced a new vice president of business services.

Chelsea Rao will serve as a liaison to the digital and technology industries to help attract and grow technology firms across New York, ESD said in a news release.

New York is proving to be “fertile ground” for technology companies to “grow and prosper,” Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of ESD, said in the news release.

“I am pleased to welcome Chelsea Rao to the team, and look forward to her help in continuing to attract the world’s greatest technology firms and start-ups to New York,” Adams said.

As vice president of business services, Rao is expected to connect new media and digital-technology companies to existing initiatives across New York, ESD said.

She will also look at opportunities to further engage the technology sector, and develop programs and policies to attract more companies and talent from the industry to New York, the agency added.

Rao will also work with the post-production sector to promote and build on the post-production tax credit that Gov. Andrew Cuomo believes has “significantly” increased the amount of post-production work happening in the state, according to ESD.

The digital sector has grown into a “significant” part of the state’s economy, Rao said in the release.

“I’m excited to promote the governor’s groundbreaking initiatives and work with the private sector to make sure New York is the number one choice for technology companies,” she said.

Prior to joining ESD, Rao served as assistant director of the Center for Economic Transformation, which is part of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the economic-development agency said.

In that role, she oversaw media and technology-sector programs, developed programs to expand the availability and transparency of broadband infrastructure, and launched initiatives to grow the health-care technology sector, according to ESD.

Besides its role as New York’s primary economic-development agency, ESD is also the primary administrative agency overseeing Gov. Cuomo’s Regional Economic Development Councils and the marketing of “I Love NY,” the state’s tourism brand, the agency said.

Contact The Business Journal at news@cnybj.com

LANSING — For the third year in a row, Envisage Information Systems was included in Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list, which honors the fastest growing private companies in America.

The software-development company, which has additional offices in Syracuse and Endicott, ranked number 883 on the list with three-year revenue growth of 504 percent. Revenue jumped from $2.8 million in 2009 to $17 million in 2012.

Over the past five years, employment at the firm has grown from 30 people to 260 employees, says Steff McGonagle, principal and co-founder of Envisage.

In 2012, the company ranked number 382 on the Inc. 5000 list and placed 808th on the list in 2011.

“We’ve been very blessed,” McGonagle says of the company’s inclusion on the Inc. rankings.

Founded in 1990, Envisage specializes in software that provides web access, data connection, and workflow automation products to the retirement industry. With an increasing number of people participating in retirement plans as well as the complex nature of the industry and its regulations, Envisage has seen success by offering products that help make solving complex problems easy for the companies that manage those retirement plans, says Daren Free, Envisage’s COO. “That capability is rare in our industry,” he says. “That’s a big piece of what’s driving that demand and that growth.”

McGonagle says he expects that growth to continue as Envisage continues to gain market share. “We’re looking to double in size again over the next 18 months,” and then double again after that, he says. He expects the company will have added a total of 100 employees in 2013. Annual revenue is now above $20 million and growing.

Surprisingly, Envisage does not have a sales force and gains the majority of its new clients through word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations from current clients, he says.

Inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list certainly helps win new clients over, McGonagle says. Being on the list has also become a valuable recruiting tool as the company looks for new employees, Free adds.

“We are constantly looking to hire developers, business analysts, people who really understand this retirement space,” he says. The company looks frequently to new college graduates to fill those roles, he notes, but in the past it wasn’t always easy to convince them to come to Ithaca. “People are starting to understand who we are and seek us out,” he says since the company has made the Inc. 5000 list three times. Now, Free says, when he encounters soon-to-be college graduates, not only have they heard of Envisage, but the often know someone who is working there and may already have plans to apply for a job themselves.

The Inc. 5000 list has also benefited the company in another way, McGonagle says, and that is boosting current employee morale. “It feeds the culture of people having autonomy and self-direction and pride of accomplishment,” he says.

Envisage prides itself on its laid-back and family-like work atmosphere, says James Mandle, head of marketing and communications, for the company. “It’s not the typical corporate America,” he says. With a “fun room” where employees can take breaks, a family atmosphere where everyone goes by their first name instead of a title, and heavy emphasis on teamwork, Envisage’s work environment is more of a Google-type workplace, he says. Google is known for its employee perks that include things like game rooms, massages, and the like.

This past spring, Envisage was named one of the top 10 companies in the Central New York’s Best Places to Work awards for employers with 51 or more employees. More than 1,100 employees participated in the surveys conducted by Research and Marketing Strategies Inc. (RMS), which determined the top ranked companies. CNY’s Best Places to Work is a BizEventz and Central New York Business Journal event.

Headquartered at 31 Dutch Mill Rd. in the town of Lansing, Envisage (www.envisagesystems.com) also has offices at 306 E. Main St. in Endicott and in the Jefferson Towers at 50 Presidential Plaza in Syracuse. The company employs just over 20 people in each of those offices.

On its website, Envisage describes itself as the largest independent software development company providing web, common remitter, and workflow solutions for the retirement industry. Since 1995, it has been exclusively serving mid- to large-scale record keepers and financial companies.

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DeWITT — The Central New York International Business Alliance (CNYIBA), an organization formed to enhance global sales of companies in the 12-county region, relaunched on Oct. 24 with the announcement of new programs and services to support growth through exporting.

“We are a group of local business, government, and community leaders, who’ve come together in this nonprofit organization to create a local, one-stop shop for all export-related advice and assistance for other local companies,” said Peter Maier, president of Switzerland–based Inficon, Inc., who spoke at an Oct. 24 press event at the Inficon location at 2 Technology Place in DeWitt.

Inficon is a manufacturer of scientific instrumentation, sensor technologies, and advanced process-control software for the high-tech sector and other industries, said Maier, who serves on the CNYIBA board.

The CNYIBA held its inaugural event later in the day at the Crowne Plaza Syracuse hotel.

The CNYIBA provides mentoring and consulting services, educational programs, and will offer trips to international trade shows in places such as South Africa and Singapore, Steven King, export director of the CNYIBA, said during his remarks at the press event.

“There’s a lot of opportunity out there. There are many, many markets in the world that haven’t been tapped by the regional companies,” King said.

King has been exporting for more than 25 years and has significant international sales and marketing experience, according to the CNYIBA website.

He served more than 10 years with New York City–based Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL) from its offices in London and Paris, the CNYIBA website says.

President Barack Obama in his 2010 State of the Union address called for a doubling of exports by 2015. Inficon “doubled” its exports by the end of 2012, Maier said.

As a result, the U.S. Department of Commerce on May 20 awarded Inficon the President’s “E” Award for Exports, the “highest recognition any U.S. entity may receive for making a significant contribution to the expansion of U.S. exports,” according to the Inficon website.

CNYIBA is looking for regional small and medium-sized businesses that want to expand their efforts in exporting, David Mankiewicz, senior vice president and director of infrastructure and urban activities at CenterState CEO, said in his remarks at the event.

“Collectively, this region right now has $8.7 billion worth of exports. Even with that number, we’re an underperformer,” Mankiewicz said.

To capture more of that global market, the region must boost its international orientation and become more globally engaged. To do that, the CNYIBA needs “buy in” from the business community, Mankiewicz added.

“And that’s why we encourage businesses of all sizes to make exporting a strategic priority and to get involved with the new CNYIBA,” he said.

The relaunch of CNYIBA follows the 2011 development of the CenterState Export Plan, which a group of regional partners devised with the Brookings Institution, a private, Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit organization that focuses on independent research. 

The plan called for a lead agency to provide export services and guidance to local companies, and the CNYIBA holds the designation, the organization said.

The CNYIBA dates back to the mid-1990s, and, in assuming its new role in guiding local companies in the exporting process, the organization has “transitioned,” Mankiewicz said.

“The IBA before was a great effort, but it was an all volunteer effort,” Mankiewicz said in answering a reporter’s question.

Several of its programs, such as Export New York, will continue, he said. Export New York trains companies on how to export their products.

When another reporter asked how this CNYIBA is different from the original organization, Maier replied that one of the “significant” differences is that board membership includes “a number” of companies that are involved in exporting.

 “I would say it’s a more balanced board … as experienced exporters, we believe that we can bring something to the table and that’s experience,” Maier said.

Membership in the CNYIBA is open to any business or individual located in the CenterState region with an interest in learning about, assisting with, or participating in international- business activities, according to the CNYIBA website.

CNYIBA offers four distinct levels of membership; price is determined by business size and affiliation with its economic-development partners, the website says.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com