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Rochester Business Hall of Fame to induct 6

Six business leaders will be inducted into the Rochester Business Hall of Fame for 2019, representing four businesses whose leaders will take their place among the 127 others who have been lauded for their contributions to Rochester.

The new inductees will be Lori Van Dusen of LVW Advisors; John DiMarco Sr. and Richard DiMarco of the DiMarco Group; Peter Schottland of American Packaging; and James Isaac and Ray Isaac of Isaac Heating & Air Conditioning.

The induction will be held Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m. at the Joseph A. Floreano Riverside Convention Center, 123 E. Main St.

Van Dusen formed her own wealth advisement company in 2011 after 22 years with Citigroup and three years with Convergent Wealth Advisors. Her firm merged with Zappia Investment Group in 2014. Van Dusen is frequently at the top of national and state rankings for advisors, such as the 2019 Forbes lists that place her third in New York State overall and fifth for female advisors nationally. LVW Advisors, located in the village of Pittsford, oversees $1.8 billion and has 19 employees.

The DiMarco brothers are the third generation of building contractors in their family but they expanded the family business to include development, property management and rental of construction equipment before handing much of the DiMarco Group over to the fourth generation. John DiMarco is CEO and chairman of the umbrella company, while Richard DiMarco is vice chairman. Though DiMarco is known for major Rochester-area projects such as the downtown campus of Monroe Community College, BayTown plaza, Sibley Square and others, its various entities serve much of the Eastern United States with its 550 employees.

Peter Schottland took a leadership role at American Packaging in 1999, following his older brother, Steve, and late father, Stan, into the family-owned business. Last year was a big one for the company as Peter Schottland traded his job as president for one as co-chairman of the board, keeping the title of CEO. American Packaging also opened a new facility in Chili, and the board decided to move headquarters from Rochester to its Columbus, Wisconsin location.

James Isaac and his son, Ray, now president and CEO of Isaac Heating & Air Conditioning, represent the second and third generations of the Isaac family to carry on the family business. James Isaac, who is now retired, was the Small Business Council’s Business Person of the Year for 1995. Ray Isaac and his three brothers, Ken, Michael and Dave, own the company that their grandfather founded 1945. Today the company employs 375 people — 296 in the Rochester area — maintains six locations and has a footprint stretching from Buffalo to Albany and Corning.

The Rochester Business Hall of Fame, launched in 2001, is presented by Junior Achievement of Rochester New York Area Inc., the Rochester Business Journal and Rochester Museum & Science Center, which serves as host to an exhibit of Rochester’s noteworthy businesses and their accomplishments.

The Hall of Fame Committee, advised by an independent group that includes past inductees, selects each year’s honorees.

The 2018 inductees were: James Gould, founder and president of Alesco Advisors LLC; Andrew Langston (posthumous,) founder of 103.9 WDKX; Michael Mandina, president, and Richard Plympton, CEO, of Optimax Systems Inc.; and Carlton Myers, president and CEO of Sweeteners Plus Inc.

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70 businesses and Small Business Council get school supplies to kids

The Small Business Council of Rochester’s annual Backpack Give Back program will help an estimated 1,500 local kids with school supplies. (Photo by Velvet Spicer)
The Small Business Council of Rochester’s annual Backpack Give Back program will help an estimated 1,500 local kids with school supplies. (Photo by Velvet Spicer)

More than 70 area businesses participated in the Small Business Council of Rochester’s annual Backpack Give Back program, helping an estimated 1,500 local kids with school supplies.

Now in its third year, the SBC program uses just word-of-mouth through members and nonmembers to gather school supplies and stuff backpacks for underprivileged children, culminating in Wednesday’s all-day drop off at R.W. Dake & Co. Inc. in East Rochester.

Dake also supplied the truck to deliver the backpacks and has supported the event since its inception, said SBC President Ray Isaac, who also is president of Isaac Heating & Air Conditioning Inc.

“It’s just one of those small, unseen things that our organization does,” Isaac said of the backpack drive. He picked up roughly 100 backpacks Wednesday morning from M&T Bank Corp., Nixon Peabody LLP and Genesee Regional Bank.

By late morning Wednesday, hundreds of bags already had been loaded into a Dake delivery truck, including 150 from All American Home Care. Companies were given about a month to pull together supplies such as paper and notebooks, pencils, pens and highlighters for area children, Isaac said.

“This is an initiative where we said, hey, there’s people out there in need, let’s see what we can do,” Isaac said of the program, run almost entirely by volunteers.

SBC also runs a program at Thanksgiving in which it solicits food items for baskets the organization distributes to families in need. Isaac said more than 3,000 boxes of items were donated last year, helping to feed some 12,000 people.

Isaac Heating & Air Conditioning Inc. President Ray Isaac heads the Small Business Council of Rochester, which will deliver roughly 1,500 backpacks to local children this year. (Photo by Velvet Spicer)
Isaac Heating & Air Conditioning Inc. President Ray Isaac heads the Small Business Council of Rochester, which will deliver roughly 1,500 backpacks to local children this year. (Photo by Velvet Spicer)

As far as the backpacks, though, Isaac said the looks on the kids’ faces when SBC volunteers deliver the bags is priceless. Often the children will show their thanks by hugging the volunteers. SBC delivered more than 1,100 backpacks last year.

“SBC is your friend in business and your friend in the community,” Isaac said. “Our whole initiative as an organization is to set up businesses for success. In this way we’re setting up kids for success and giving them the essentials they need when they go back to school, so at least they have a good start to a successful school year.”

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Follow Velvet Spicer on Twitter: @Velvet_Spicer