GBA Launches Seminar Series with NYC Power Brokers

The Graduate School of Business Administration (GBA) will launch its Business and the City seminar series on Tuesday, March 5, with some of the biggest names in government, real estate, and urban planning slated to speak. Sponsored in part by Verizon, "Hurricane Sandy as Inspiration for a ‘New’ New York" will take a critical look at designing, building, and funding infrastructure in the post-Sandy metropolis.

"The series is intended to be the beginning of a protracted conversation," said David Gautschi, Ph.D., dean of GBA. "Cities have become so important in advancing standards of living and economic development, that infrastructure has become a bigger issues than the fiscal cliff, and New York City serves as a natural case study."

Gautschi pointed out the overall economy is "hyper dependent on activities that happen in Lower Manhattan," an area that mostly sat in the dark and beneath water for several days after the hurricane.

Indeed several of the speakers will speak directly to infrastructure challenges with very real authority. Patrick Foye, FCRH'78, LAW'81, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will discuss post-Sandy challenges with Kevin Burke, LAW'77, CEO, Consolidated Edison.

Joining Foye and Burke in the daylong discussion will be:

• Richard Ravitch, former NY State Lt Governor, former Chairman, MTA

• Cas Holloway, Deputy Mayor for Operations, City of New York

• Christopher Levendos, Executive Director of National Operations, Verizon 

• John Zuccotti, Co-Chairman, Brookfield Office Properties

• Mike Wallace, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898"

• Carol Kellermann, President, Citizens Budget Commission 

• Lee Sander, Chairman of the Regional Plan Association; President and CEO, HAKS Group; former Executive Director and CEO, MTA

• Nicole Gelinas, Searle Freedom Trust Fellow, Manhattan Institute; Contributing Editor, City Journal

• Abraham M. Lackman, President, Praxis Insights, former Budget Director, City of New York, Scholar in Residence, Fordham University 


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-Tom Stoekler