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Home > NEWS > Email from the President > 15 Year Anniversary

15 Year Anniversary and Annual Report to Members
June 3, 2008
 
In 1993, a new organization was formed - the Greater Buffalo Partnership - created via an amalgamation of the Greater Buffalo Development Foundation and the Greater Buffalo Chamber of Commerce. Its mission statement outlined its top priority: "Providing extensive input to a statewide effort to measurably improve the business climate of New York in general, particularly in Western New York."

Sound familiar? It should. Today, the Buffalo Niagara Partnership's top priority is: "to organize and undertake actions to expand private sector jobs and stimulate investments in the Buffalo Niagara region."

The similarity between these two excerpts is no mystery. Everything this organization has done since its inception in 1993 has been for one purpose - to make Buffalo Niagara's marketplace, and the employers in it, more competitive in order to grow private sector investment and jobs here. Whether it is on the macro level of improving the general business climate or the micro level of helping each and every one of our individual members thrive and grow, our mission has been the same from Day One.

This morning, at the Partnership's Annual Report to Members, we were proud to celebrate our 15th Anniversary as an organization. It was an opportunity to look back at our successes and challenges over time; to reflect on the Partnership's place in the Buffalo Niagara community; and to thank the thousands of business men and women who have gotten involved in the overall effort to fulfill our important mission.

As part of the 15th Anniversary celebration, Partnership staff has compiled a list of 15 Years of Partnership Accomplishments. While our purpose has remained constant it is interesting to see how the strategies and tactics to achieve regional competitiveness regularly have been retooled since 1993. Nothing makes the case for the need to be ready to rethink our strategies than the tsunami-like dynamics of international business economics and economic development, and their regional implications.

Offense, defense, analysis, promotion - over these past 15 years our member volunteers have played a critical role in our capacity to actually effect change. The Partnership exists for our members, to be sure; and equally true is we continue to be able to do good work because of you. Our ability to function, indeed to succeed, is a direct result of our members' support, involvement and input. At this morning's event, we were also proud to honor some subsets of Partnership volunteers, including our Past Board Chairs, member companies that served on the Board in 1993 and today, and member companies who have been on the Board of Directors continuously from the beginning.
 
We also honored one member - a past board chair - actually, a two-time board chair - who is the only person to serve on the Partnership board throughout the last 15 years: my good friend Bob Brady, CEO of Moog, Inc. A special thanks goes to Bob for his tireless, effective leadership and support over the past fifteen years.
 
For the rest of our member volunteers, please, do not think that any of your work goes unnoticed. From those of you, like Jeff Weber of Remedy Intelligent Staffing, who served on focus groups guiding our recently-completed strategic plan or, like Craig Slater of Harter Seacrest and Wally Smith of AAA, in industry groups on brownfields or transportation infrastructure needs, to our tireless Unshackle Upstate volunteers like Steve Zenger of the Zenger Group who regularly make that awful trip to Albany for lobbying days; from those of you, like Scott Zylka of Associated Builders and Contractors, who provide invaluable expertise to help craft the annual Regional Agenda to those of you who join our advocacy efforts using our VoterVoice technology; Our members' active participation is the invaluable backbone of our efforts.

I'd like to thank the staff of the Partnership - past and present. From veterans like Lillian Price of our insurance department, who has been with the chamber/Partnership for 30 years, to recent college grads like Maggie Kuffner, who coordinates the day-to-day activities of Unshackle Upstate, the women and men of the Partnership are a hard-working, caring group who work tirelessly on behalf of our members and who share a love for this community. You can be very proud of them; I know I am.

Many things have changed over the past 15 years since the Partnership was formed - the tactics and strategies, the technologies and tools we're able to use, the name of the organization, itself, and the faces of the thousands of volunteers and dozens of staff who have been a part of our successes. But our mission remains the same.

As I stated earlier: The Buffalo Niagara Partnership's mission is to organize and undertake actions to expand private sector jobs and stimulate investments in the Buffalo Niagara region."

Thank you for enabling us to continue it - for you, your families, and for this community.

Happy 15th Anniversary.

Andrew J. Rudnick
President & CEO