The SUNY New Paltz School of Business Hall of Fame Selection Committee for 2008 is pleased to announce the inductees to this year's inductees: William Spearman as Business Person of the Year, Art Palmiotti as Alumnus of the Year’83, Jeannie Henriques as Student of the Year and Daniel Devine will receive the Dean's Award of Excellence.
Business People of the Year
William Spearman is the President and CEO of Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union (MHV), a position he has held for 12 years. Mr. Spearman led the conversion of the former IBM Employees Federal Credit Union into Mid-Hudson Valley. During his thirty five year tenure, MHV has grown from $6 million to $570 million in assets, and exceeded national averages for U.S. credit unions in asset, loans and share growth.
Mr. Spearman was a president’s scholar at Ulster Community College, and graduated cum laude from SUNY Albany with a degree in business administration and business management. He is currently pursuing an MBA from Marist College. He is also a graduate of the Bankers Administration Institute and the Credit Union Executives Society (CUES) CEO Institute and has achieved CCE status as a Certified Credit Union Executive.
A staunch supporter of the credit union community, Mr. Spearman currently serves on the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU) Membership Committee and the Alliance of Credit Unions (formerly LICU) Supervisory Committee, and is a member of CUES. In May 2007, he was elected to a four year term on the board of the NYS Credit Union League. He has also served on NAFCU’s Regulatory and Advisory Committees, LICU Pension Trust and Northstar Life board. Mr. Spearman was the past president and council member of the Catskill-Hudson District of the NYS Credit Union League and secretary of the Ulster Financial Council.
Mr. Spearman is an active member of the local community. He is currently the Chair of the Ulster Community College (UCC) Foundation Board, a member and past president of the Kingston Kiwanis Club, and serves on the Ulster County Development Corporation (UCDC) Loan Fund Committee, United Way Leadership Committee, American Cancer Society Advisory Board, and Bardavon Board. He is a past treasurer of the Hudson Valley Maritime Museum, Chair of the March of Dimes Corporate Walk, Corporate Chairperson of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and past member of the Mental Health Association Board and Finance Committee, and the UCDC Business Retention and Task Force Committee.
Mr. Spearman was the recipient of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation Hope Award in 2004, inducted into the SUNY Ulster Hall of Fame in 2006 as a Distinguished Alumnus, celebrated as an honoree of the 2007 UCC Annual Gala, and honored as the 2004 NYS Credit Union League Professional of the Year among credit unions $50+ million in assets. Under his leadership, MHV was voted the Best Financial Institution in the Mid-Hudson Valley in a regional competition sponsored by local media to benefit the March of Dimes in 2003, and has received two Dora Maxwell Awards for Social Responsibility from the New York State Credit Union League.
Dean’s Award of Excellence
Dan Devine
Dan Devine retired from Rondout Savings Bank after serving for seventeen years as the President and Chief Executive Officer and has since joined Financial Solutions Partners with associates located along the East Coast and into Mid and North Central-America. His role is centered on working with financial institutions offering innovative executive benefit plans.
Mr. Devine holds a B.S. from Syracuse University with a major in Accounting and an MBA in Management from Farleigh Dickinson University. He has had additional professional, technical, and investment education throughout his years in the banking industry. At his recent retirement Mr. Devine was holding Board seats and National Committee assignments for the Community Bankers Association of New York State, America's Community Bankers, The American Bankers Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America.
Mr. Devine enjoys participating in a wide variety of community activities. He is a member of the SUNY New Paltz Business Advisory Council and its Outreach Committee. He has also volunteered to act as the School of Business Community Relations Liaison. In addition, some of his current and past participation include the Community Rehabilitation Center, Benedictine Hospital Foundation, Ulster County Development Corporation, United Way of Ulster County, United Way of Tri-State, Lions Club, Hudson River Maritime Museum, and others.
Alumnus of the Year
Art Palmiotti
Art Palmiotti is the Program Director of IBM WW Design Centers & Solution Integration Team. These Centers, located in Poughkeepsie, Makuhari Japan and Montpellier France, work with select customers to architect complex IT infrastructures using state of the art server and software technologies. His contribution to the SUNY New Paltz School of Business and the campus at large can be summarized into three major areas: first, his successful effort in bringing the IBM Virtual Lab to the campus, second his devotion to the Business Advisory Council (BAC) of the School of Business, and finally his long time commitment in serving the campus community.
Mr. Palmiotti grew up in the Hudson Valley. He received a Bachelors Degree in Mathematics from SUNY New Paltz in 1983, and a Master of Science in Management of Information Systems from Marist College in 1992.
For over eight years, Mr. Palmiotti has been an active recruiter for IBM at SUNY New Paltz. He has been a member of the Computer Science Advisory Board for six years, and has organized numerous technology briefings for the ACM chapter at the college. Mr. Palmiotti has lead numerous projects to provide technology and expertise to the School of Business through his membership on the Business Advisory Council’s Technology Sub-Committee, as well as the School of Engineering and Career Advising. Mr. Palmiotti was instrumental in bringing the IBM Virtual Lab to the School of Business and provided input during the van den Berg Hall renovations in regards to wireless technology.
Mr. Palmiotti is a junior high Sunday school teacher and leader of his church’s Christian youth group.
Student of the Year
Jeannie Henriques
Jeannie Henriques is an undergraduate student majoring in Accounting who will be graduating in May 2008. After graduation, she plans to be employed locally in the accounting field to gain real world experience before attending graduate school.
Ms. Henriques is a member of the School of Business Accounting and Finance Association (AFA), and is currently the Executive Board Vice President of the Annual Symposium. Each year, the AFA has a Career Symposium, an evening of networking and information sharing for employers, students and faculty. This year, Ms. Henriques planned for the appropriate cuisine, completed all event approval paperwork and secured its funding through the Student Association (SA), while also attending to students’ questions or needs regarding the event. Ms. Henriques was the past Executive Board Council of Organizations Representative for the AFA and still attends the bi-weekly SA Council of Organizations meetings to represent AFA and to stay involved with other campus clubs and activities.
Ms. Henriques also serves on the SUNY New Paltz SA Programming Board and as its Academic House Representative. As such, she reviews and votes on all event requests from campus organizations. With her familiarity of SA requirements and her skills acquired from the School of Business, Ms. Henriques assisted the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers in preparing members for networking at their annual Fall Regional and National Conferences. In addition, she helped its treasurer in properly completing all required documents for event/travel funding. Jeannie is also actively involved in the New Paltz Women’s Rugby Football Club, and is a past member of the New Paltz Women’s Tennis team.
In the Spring 2007 semester, Ms. Henriques studied abroad in Costa Rica to become fluent in the Spanish language and to fully immerse herself in the country’s rich culture. Directly following her experience abroad, she worked as an External Audit Intern for the SUNY New Paltz Foundation, Inc., where she assisted the Director of Finance in preparing for the Foundation’s annual audit.
Thank you to our Sponsors!
Presenting Sponsor
Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union
Corporate Sponsors
CH Energy Group
Everton H. Henriques ‘78 & '83g & Jeannie Irvine ‘78
Vanacore, DeBenedictus, DiGovanni & Weddell, CPA, LLP
Business Sponsors
Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union
Mohonk Mountain House
Art & Jill Palmiotti
Timely Signs of Kingston, Inc.
Ulster Savings Bank
Company Sponsors
Alfandre Architecture
M&T Bank
Orange County Capital Development Corp.
Rondout Savings Bank
Rose & Kiernan, Inc.
