Rochester Business Journal Leading source of business news and information in Rochester, N.Y.

It’s hard to imagine a Rochester without Justin L. Vigdor.  Like the iconic character of George Bailey, played by James Stewart in the classic holiday movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Vigdor has enriched virtually every aspect of life in the ...

When changing jobs, it is not unusual for some people to take time in between to regroup and prepare for the next challenge. That thinking does not apply to Jennie Schaff.  Schaff will join the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation on Jan. 1 as the organization’s CEO, almost immediately after her final ...

Stacey Trien’s plan for her term as president of the Greater Rochester Association of Women Attorneys was to focus on the theme of empowerment. 

Shaun Nelms said no to the East High School Educational Partnership Organization (EPO) superintendent job several times before finally accepting the offer in 2016. That’s what past experiences will do to you. “Frankly, my experience as a school chief was ...

When designing a building or a bridge, every detail must be exact, every measurement precise. There can be no surprises, no ad-libbing. Life, however, doesn’t work that way, as Nagappa Ravindra will attest. When he completed his bachelor’s degree in ...

As a youngster, Manning & Napier CEO Marc Mayer was focused science. “I thought I might want to be an anthropologist or archeologist possibly,” he said. But after a summer of digging up Indian ruins as a teen, Mayer decided ...

Chelsea Conway doesn’t let much stand in the way of reaching her goals. In June, Conway traveled to Eugene, Ore., to participate in the Olympic trials in the 20 km race walk, where dangerously high temperatures of 100 or more ...

When he arrived in Rochester in December of 1995, hired by WXXI Public Broadcasting Council to run its radio and television operations, Norm Silverstein assumed there would be a very finite timeline to his stay. A New Jersey native who ...

A college degree in creative writing is an unlikely pathway to a career in healthcare administration, but for John Sheehan it was a key factor that put him on the road to success. Sheehan, who officially takes over on Aug. 1 ...

At one time, Angelica Perez-Delgado was a teen mom who had dropped out of high school to care for her child. Today, she runs the Ibero-American Action League Inc., a local nonprofit with more than 200 staffers that serves roughly ...

At some point, everyone needs to chase the dream, to see just what is possible, to ensure there are no regrets later in life. That is how Kurt Ziemendorf ended up playing professional hockey in Sweden for a year and ...

Incoming Monroe County Bar Association President Bradley P. Kammholz plans to focus on helping members reconnect when he officially takes over the leadership role on July 1. And to help kick start the effort, the organization will hold an in-person ...

DeAnna R. Burt-Nanna found herself in unfamiliar territory this year, when, in the midst of a global pandemic, she accepted a new job in a new state. The interview process, as well as the search for a new home, were both done virtually before Burt-Nanna had ever set foot in Rochester. “It was ...

Aqua Porter spent four decades in the for-profit world before making the switch, while in retirement, to nonprofits. It is a move that has served her, and the community, well. “I was at Xerox for 36 years — right out ...

Had it not been for the recession in 1974, or for a creepy orange-colored slime seeping into the Genesee River around the same time, who knows where Larry Smith would be today. Maybe he’d have his own furniture company or ...