The attendees of the Saint Peter’s College 40th Annual Regents Business Symposium had to feel some Jersey pride today and a sense of optimism about what is to come for the state’s economy after hearing from an impressive list of accomplished Jersey-based business leaders. For 40 years, the Symposium has served as the College’s signature annual event, designed to inspire and educate an audience of all ages, professions and industries regarding business trends, challenges and best practices. The topic for this milestone event was New Jersey: Building Tomorrow’s Economy Today.
Senior vice president, anchor and managing editor of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, Neil Cavuto, served as the keynote speaker for the well attended forum, which was held at the Jersey City Hyatt Regency on the Hudson. Additional speakers included Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno, Patricia Russo, former chairman and CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, and Thomas Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.
The program began with Saint Peter’s College president, Eugene J. Cornacchia, Ph.D., reminiscing about fond memories from prior symposiums dating back to 1971. “Forty years of this Symposium is a tremendous legacy not only for the College, but for the state of New Jersey,” said Cornacchia.
Over the course of the four-hour seminar, the speakers addressed and explored solutions to timely, challenging issues facing the state and nation. Russo, the morning’s first speaker, addressed the importance of looking out for the next big thing in each industry stating, “Sometimes you need to be willing to cannibalize your own business to make way for new technologies.”
Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno then took the stage and shared her strategy for bringing new business into New Jersey as well as retaining the businesses that are already in the state. Guadagno shared anecdotes about meeting with business owners and stressed the importance of ensuring “a sense of finality and a sense of confidence” in the state’s business owners.
The program continued with Bracken who applied a quote from Thomas Edison, the original founder of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, to the current state of the New Jersey economy. “If we could capitalize on all we have available to us we would astound ourselves,” he said.
Cavuto, host of the television news program Your World with Neil Cavuto, entertained the audience with an insightful address that touched upon the global economic crisis, taxes and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Cavuto encouraged everyone to “challenge the information they encounter.” In regards to taxes Cavuto stated, “Try to improve the soundness of the product before raising the price.”
The Symposium concluded with Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy presenting a heartfelt proclamation to Patricia Q. Sheehan H ’77, who has served as the event’s emcee for 39 years.
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