20 JANUARY 13 - JANUARY 19, 2017 BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP Carlo Scissura, Person of the Year BY HELEN KLEIN [email protected] As born-and-bred Brooklynite Carlo Scissura – Brooklyn Media Group’s Person of the Year — took the helm of the New York Building Congress at the commencement of 2017, the lifelong borough-booster also took his first job outside the county of Kings in two decades. “I’m excited that I’m working in Manhattan,” Scissura told this paper in an extended interview. “I hadn’t worked in Manhattan in 20 years. But, I will always live in Brooklyn.” Indeed, Scissura – whose position as president and CEO of the Building Commerce kicked off with the New Year — has had an extended love affair with the borough of his birth, and many of the positions he has held – both paid and volunteer — have reflected that. Prior to joining the Building Congress, Scissura, an attorney who once operated a solo practice on 13th Avenue in Dyker Heights, enjoyed a four-and-a-half-year-long stint at the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce as its president and CEO, helping to revitalize that organization, tripling its membership from 720 (when he started with the advocacy group in summer, 2012) to 2,250, as well as, “building a whole new office, doubling the staff and more than doubling the Chamber’s operating budget.” Before that, he was chief of staff to then-Borough President Marty Markowitz, who initially brought Scissura on board as his legal counsel (on January 1, 2008), but then promoted him when the chief of staff spot became vacant. That was by no means Scissura’s first foray into the political world; he cut his teeth as a legislative aide to then-State Senator Vincent Gentile, beginning with him when the latter assumed the office on January 1, 1997, and also worked for Assemblymember Peter Abbate. And, yes, he has had several January 1 job starts. “It’s like a New Year’s resolution,” he joked. For Scissura, the shift to the Building Congress was the right move at the right time. “They reached out to me a couple of months ago to see if I would be interested,” he recalled. “Over the course of a couple of conversations, both they and I realized that over the next five to 10 years, I would be a very good option for them,” in terms of setting a path into the future for the business group which advocates for the citywide community of companies in the building trades or ancillary professions. Right now, the Building Congress has 425 members, concentrated in Manhattan, and Scissura said that his predecessor, Dick Anderson, “left a great organization that we are now going to take to the next level. “One of my tasks,” Scissura said, “is going to be to look at all five boroughs in the city.” The Building Congress, he added, “is bigger than what the Chamber was when I started. I believe that in two or three years, it will be one of the largest organizations in the city. We’re just now going to begin to explore the untapped membership and resources out there.” To that end, he added, the Building Congress will be assessing, “What are the next big projects across the city, what should we be talking about now that may not be started for the next five to 10 years but need to be talked about now. We are going to be a very forward-thinking organization. We need to be talking about projects for every borough for the next generation so we’re ready, 10 to 20 years from now. “I’ve always been a forward-thinking person. One of the last things I did was to leave the Chamber with a five year strategic plan,” he went on, “and at the Building Congress, I’m going to embark on a strategic plan. I think being at the Building Congress will allow me to do that on a larger scale and look at every corner of the city.” The strategy has paid dividends for the Chamber, said Chair Denise Arbesu. “Under Carlo Scissura' s leadership, the Brooklyn Chamber has seen tremendous growth, financial stability, increased our brand profile and has become the premier business advocacy group in our borough if not in the entire state and city,” noted Arbesu. “The Brooklyn Chamber encompasses the entire borough of Brooklyn and is truly as diverse as the borough. Perhaps the greatest legacy will be Carlo's planning and building the Brooklyn Chamber's infrastructure–a determination to insure the continuity of this great Chamber.” As Markowitz recalled, when he got to know Scissura, the latter was busy as both a member of his local community board (CB 11 in Bensonhurst, which he served on from 1998 through 2007) as well as on District 20’s Community Education Council (Scissura served on both the District 20 school board and its CEC for a total of nine years, five as president). “I was impressed by his energy and outgoing personality,” said Markowitz, himself no shrinking violet. For Markowitz, a key aspect of Scissura’s tenure as his right-hand man was his ability to make connections, particularly with the Michael Bloomberg-led City Hall. “He is very, very outgoing,” Markowitz said. “He especially excelled in establishing relationships with Mayor Bloomberg’s office that directly helped my efforts and contributed to moving some of our key projects where they have now come to fruition. “In New York City’s not-for-profit service organization world, he’s certainly one of the biggies now,” Markowitz added. “There’s no question about it and he’s certainly moving on up.”
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