By Dustin Brown
The Queens Chamber of Commerce welcomed a new president for the first time in three years at its annual meeting last Thursday, where George Rozansky was sworn in to the post that had been held by Joseph Farber since 1999.
The new president, who officially begins his one-year term May 1, sees the changing of hands at the 90-year-old business group as one of many recent changes likely to promote exciting advancements in borough commerce.
“We have a new borough president for the first time in 15 years. We have a new City Council,” Rozansky said Monday in a phone interview. “We’ve got a lot of change that’s recently occurred all at once, which I believe could be very positive. With this change, business has the opportunity to modify itself, to grow.”
Rozansky was installed at the Chamber’s 90th Annual Meeting at the LaGuardia Marriott Hotel in East Elmhurst, where Russell Camp of the Petrocelli Group Inc., a Flushing insurance agent, was sworn-in as treasurer and many others joined the board of directors.
Rozansky, 53, is the vice president of industrial properties for Atco Properties & Management, Inc., which operates the Atlas Terminals in Glendale, a 25-acre complex of commercial and industrial buildings on Cooper Avenue that also house converted office space.
Rozansky said his primary goals for the upcoming year are to expand Chamber membership, which stands at 1,100, and to reach out to businesses across the borough’s diverse communities to foster a sense of unity in the Chamber.
“What I would like to do is universally reach out to all and bring them in, and point out the benefits of belonging to a central, powerful, large business group,” Rozansky said.
Born in the Bronx, Rozansky moved to Queens in 1962 and attended JHS 172, Martin Van Buren High School and Queens College, from which he graduated in 1972. He lived in Forest Hills for 20 years after college, moving in 1991 to New Rochelle, where he resides with his wife and daughter.
Rozansky’s experience as a businessmen spans a host of part-time jobs he held across the borough since he was 13 years old, ranging from delivering the Long Island Press to working at a dry cleaning store in Jamaica and a candy store in Bellerose.
His real estate career began with his part-time weekend job renting apartments in Glen Oaks Village shortly after college graduation, when he also was employed at the Leviton Manufacturing Company in Little Neck.
Looking back at his three-year tenure at the helm of the Chamber, Farber remarked of the continued appeal of the borough even in the face of recession.
“Queens is dynamic. The plans for development in the county are extensive,” he said. “People still flock to live and to have businesses in Queens County. It’s the place to be.”
Farber also pointed out many of the Chamber’s successful programs, such as a seminar for minority- and women-owned businesses, a feasibility study on the need for a conference center in Queens and the creation of a non-profit foundation to support the Chamber’s educational efforts.
Rozansky anticipates the continued growth of Queens commerce under his watch.
“I see the borough shining within the whole metropolitan area,” he said. “I see Queens as a real shining star for the economy.”
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
