2011 Irish Small Biz 50 Honorees, M-P
Name: Maribel Aviles
Biography: Maribel Aviles was born in Brooklyn New York on April 19, 1968 and as a little girl loved to pretend being a banker and walking around with her mother’s dress and briefcase. She graduated from BMCC Community College where she majored in Business Administration. Her first banking job was a receptionist position at Capital National Bank. Very quickly she was promoted to bank secretary where she learned the administrative side of banking. As years went by she continued to move on and worked at many different banking levels until she finally reached one of her goals, becoming a VP Branch Manager. She loves working with people and being able to guide them and establishing great relationships. She also has a deep connection to Country Bank who, she says, she owes her success and who have given her the opportunity to grow in the company.
Name: Maura Kelly
Biography: Purple Mountain Media is a creative and strategic media consulting company focused on building cross-media (TV/ Web/mobile) projects and experiences. PMM grew out of Maura’s 15 plus years as an Emmy-award winning Executive Producer and director at WNET/PBS. While there, she produced national media campaigns in partnership with the corporate sector, government agencies and community groups. Today, the Kerrywoman works with top tier entertainment companies and non-profits on executive production, business development and integrated marketing. Current projects include ‘HOPE in Ethiopia,’ and a reality/ talk show, ‘4 Men for Women’ that is being pitched for TV. Clients have included: PBS Kids; Spectra Animation; The Jim Henson Company, and the Tribeca Film Festival. She also enjoys working with Irish media companies who are looking to expand in the US. Maura is passionate about using technology for social change and regularly produces panels on tech and media innovations for NY Women in Film. She started her career at the UN (UNDP) while pursuing a Masters in Media Communications.
Name: Michael Faulkner
Biography: Seedups is a crowd funding initiative born out of the need to bring investors and start-ups together so entrepreneurs in the start up phase can pitch to a growing pool of tech savvy investors. It aims to create a “virtual silicon valley” which can expose Irish entrepreneurs to a larger network of investors. Investors become involved in a reverse auction to gain stakes in start up companies, meaning that entrepreneurs can hold on to a larger stake than by working with traditional angel investors. Seedups was founded to bridge the gap in the funding market for companies seeking less than $250,000. Many VCs are now concentrating on later stage investments to ensure some return on their investment and to minimize the risk and are continuing to reduce their spending on smaller companies, as many have been burned too often for their liking. Crowd funded ventures are now perfectly placed to navigate the widening gap beneath the noses of the VCs and the larger angel investors. Seedups was formed in 2010, and following a successful Beta testing period launched in February 2011 in the UK and Ireland. After quickly gaining traction within both the entrepreneur and investor community there, Seedups launched its US service in March at the SXSW festival in Austin, which coincided with the opening of the Seedups’ American Office in San Francisco.
Name: Michael Novak
Biography: Atlantic Environmental Solutions, Inc. (AESI) was incorporated in Hoboken in 1997. Since that time, AESI has investigated and/or remediated more than 2,200 properties throughout 45 states around the country. AESI’s areas of expertise include: environmental due diligence, brownfields redevelopment, soil and groundwater remediation, asbestos and indoor air quality. Notably, a $3MM remediation project performed by AESI for American Water was awarded the Environmental Excellence Award by the NJBIA, a 24,000 member organization. AESI’s President, Michael Novak, was one of the first 10 persons to be issued a license by the State of New Jersey under its Licensed Site Remediation Professional (LSRP) program. Since the program’s inception, AESI has successfully closed more environmental contamination cases than any other environmental consulting or engineering firm in the State of NJ. AESI professionals have testified successfully in court and have been deposed on multiple matters involving environmental issues. Their Court testimony ranges from one-day appearances to a six-week trial at State Superior Court in a complicated, corporate dispute regarding environmental remediation cost allocation as well as other environmental and regulatory compliance issues. AESI has assisted many customers regarding eminent domain and condemnation proceedings. Michael Novak is a speaker on environmental matters for Lorman Education Services and serves as an instructor to lawyers in CLE courses on environmental due diligence and remediation.
Name: Michael Perry
Biography: House Party is an influencer marketing company that fuses in-home, online, word-of-mouth, and social media marketing. House Party influencers meet a profile defined by the marketer, and are passionate advocates of the marketer’s brand. The company engages these qualified consumer advocates to host in-home parties – thousands of parties on a single day across the country or the world – built around a brand, product or entertainment programming. Parties are attended by the host’s friends and family, and their experiences are shared by millions more via the custom branded website deployed in the weeks before each event, as well as on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Each unique House Party event is a measurable, turnkey marketing program that enhances and spreads brand passion through in-person endorsements and viral online sharing. Headquartered in Irvington, NY, House Party execute successful, high-impact, consumer activation campaigns for a diverse range of industries and Fortune 1000 companies, including NBC, Kraft, Ford, Johnson & Johnson, Canon, Gerber, Disney, Microsoft and many others
Name: Nicole Moore
Biography: Little Black Book’s bartenders and wait staff are highly trained, professionals blessed with model good looks and red carpet poise and are renowned for their uncanny ability to blend beauty, brains and professionalism… along with the perfect cocktail. The company’s clients demand the very best and so do its managers. With over a decade of experience within the service industry they also know how to deliver it. Although the staff is hand picked for their beauty and allure the business will never compromise on their professionalism. For this reason they insist staff are trained to exacting standards, have a minimum of two years work experience and are certified by TIPS. They understand that every customer and event is unique and pride themselves on an ability to be flexible and to tailor services to each client’s specific needs.
Name: Patrick McGowan
Biography: Mc Gowan Builders, Inc. is a premier full service General Contracting and Construction Management firm. The company provides construction services to commercial and institutional clients, including office, retail, hospitality, healthcare, educational, cultural, transportation, warehousing and industrial organizations. The firm has office locations in New Jersey, New York, Florida and Chicago. Led by founder Patrick Mc Gowan, the Mc Gowan Builders team includes licensed architects, engineers, estimators, CPAs, project managers, superintendents, artisans and laborers. In-house estimating, budgeting, scheduling, value engineering, and accounting departments support all project teams. The Mc Gowan Builders team has delivered projects for some of the most prominent firms and organizations in the nation, including Sheraton Hotels, Morgan Stanley, Columbia University, Rockefeller University, Harvard Medical School, and others. Mc Gowan Builders’ expertise encompasses turnkey projects, interior fit-outs, ground-up base building construction, building systems upgrades, capital improvements and renovations. They take pride in assuring the full commitment of management and staff to ensure the successful completion of all projects, regardless of size or value.
Name: Paul J. Donahue
Biography:
Paul J. Donahue, Ph.D. is a nationally-recognized clinical psychologist and leading consultant and expert in the field of parenting and children’s mental health.
Dr Donahue is the founder and director of Child Development Associates, a clinical practice based in Scarsdale, NY, that provides psychological assessment and treatment for children, adolescents and families, along with parent education, professional development, and school consultation.
He is the author of Parenting Without Fear: Letting Go of Worry and Focusing on What Really Matters (St. Martin’s Press, 2007) and co-author of Mental Health Consultation in Early Childhood (Brookes Publishing, 2000).
Dr Donahue brings practical solutions to the everyday dilemmas that parents and their children face in today’s demanding, rapidly changing world. He is also renowned for his work coaching business executives and working parents to identify their personal and professional goals, and to develop and implement strategies that further their career and family aspirations.
In addition to his practice, Dr. Donahue is an accomplished speaker, traveling throughout the country lecturing to parents, teachers and mental health professionals about resilience, technology and children, adolescent development, confident parenting and fatherhood.
Paul has been a guest on the CBS Early Show and Fox News, and his work has been profiled on two occasions in the The New York Times. He frequently appears in the national press, in Parents Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, and numerous other publications.
Dr Donahue has served as a consultant to the Columbia University School for Public Health, the Georgetown Center for Child and Human Development, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, and the National Head Start Association. He was previously the Director of Early Childhood Consultation and School-Based Services for Homeless Families at the Center for Preventive Psychiatry.
A native of Boston, Paul received his B.A. in psychology from Brown University. He received his Doctorate in clinical psychology from the City University of New York, where he was awarded the Harold Proshansky Presidential Fellowship for his research on the coping methods of homeless children. While still in graduate school, Paul helped found New York Cares, now the city’s largest volunteer organization.
Paul Donahue lives in Westchester County, NY with his wife and three children.
Name: Paul Tuffy
Biography: Tuffy & Associates has been serving the accounting and taxation needs of local business since 2001. Paul Tuffy is the managing director and owner of the business. A graduate of City University of New York in accounting, Tuffy has a solid foundation in all areas of taxation and serves a wide range of individuals, corporations, partnerships and non-profit organizations. Prior to starting his own business he worked at McEnerney Brady & Co in the areas of corporate and individual taxation. Tuffy also worked as an AVP at Merrill Lynch & Co and specialized in partnership accounting and Private Equity Funds. He began his accounting career with Silver Screen Partners / Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex in New York City.
Name: Peggy O’Boyle Dunigan
Biography: Brookside Garden Center was founded in 1988 by my brothers Martin and Michael O’Boyle. It serves the local communities of Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, and neighboring areas with landscaping, floral and outdoor garden needs.