Northwell Health President and CEO Michael Dowling urged Long Island Press Power List honorees to use their clout to make positive change in the world while keynoting the 17th annual celebration Thursday.
“We are a very privileged group of people and people look up to everybody in this room,” Dowling told the audience of nearly 400 attendees. “Leadership is a privilege, how we use it is what makes the big difference. Power is no good unless it’s used for the right reasons.”
Dowling made his remarks before a room full of local business, political, nonprofit, education, and community leaders and their supporters who gathered at The Carltun in East Meadow for the high-powered networking event and awards ceremony.
“Some believe power is a gift. That some people are born with it; others earn it. We are all capable of it,” said Joanna Austin, publisher of Long Island Press. “Regardless, it’s how you use it that will be your legacy.”
To that end, the Press and its parent company, Schneps Media, which organized the event, donated more than $2,100 from a raffle to Orange Ribbons for Jaime, a nonprofit dedicated to the issue of gun safety and named for a victim of the Parkland mass school shooting.
The Power Listers got the message.
“As Michael Dowling of Northwell Health noted in his keynote address, leadership is an honor and a privilege,” said honoree New York Institute of Technology President Hank Foley. “At New York Tech, we are educating a new generation of doers, makers, innovators, and leaders who will reinvent the future. It is an honor to be named to the Long Island Press Power List. I am humbled and deeply grateful for this distinction.”
Many Power Listers were similarly pleased with the designation.
“It is an honor to be considered in the company of Michael Dowling amongst others,” said Steve Schlesinger, managing partner of the law firm of Jaspan Schlesinger LLP.
“I was honored to be recognized for my leadership on behalf of the Mid-Island Y JCC and the Suffolk YJCC, both great agencies that provide incredible life changing services for the community,” said Rick Lewis, who is CEO of both JCCs.
“Truly an honor to be included on the list with so many other great Long Islanders said,” Lou Grassi, CEO and managing partner of Grassi & Co.
“I was born on Long Island, I grew up on Long Island, I’m a Long Islander through and through, and to be recognized as somebody who has any influence at all on Long Island, for me, is an incredible honor,” said David Sterling, CEO of SterlingRisk Insurance.
Inducted into the Long Island Press Power List Hall of Fame, a distinction reserved for those who make the list five times, were Tritec Real Estate Company Co-founders Robert Coughlan and James Coughlan and Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory Director Doon Gibbs.
Past Hall of Famers who made the list again this year included John Cameron, the founder and managing partner of Cameron Engineering.
“It is a humbling honor to be recognized as one of the most influential Long Islanders,” Cameron said. “That recognition comes with a responsibility to use that influence to work to improve the lives of all Long Islanders.”
