The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana

When you speak with Jeremy Gorelick, you get the feeling he’s never met a challenge he didn’t like.

The newly elected chairman of the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce, which just celebrated its 35th year, comes to the post with a solid background in business, finance and economics, having majored, at Johns Hopkins University, in International Studies with a minor in entrepreneurship and management for his Bachelor’s Degree, then getting his Master’s in International Economics with a minor in Eastern European Economies.  And he’s a Phi Beta Kappa, and he got his Bachelor’s in three years instead of the requisite four, and just to keep everything well rounded, he minored in music performance.

And yet, working in high finance, even while experiencing the accompanying glamorous nightlife, was not what Gorelick wanted to do. “I was somewhere in the Middle East and I’m thinking, ‘how did I get here?’ It was moving too quickly … which made me question some things and realize there were better opportunities for me to channel my energy …”

At that point in time, Gorelick’s father, Jerrold, founder of Emanon Equities, a well-established, successful development company on Long Island, asked his son to work with him. “I didn’t want to work with him immediately,” says the younger Gorelick, “so I did development and consulting for him and other developers on Long Island. And my dad realized that it would be smart for him to hire me to work with the company. I told him I’d only work if I was president of the company.”

Jeremy reports that, while it was a difficult adjustment for his father, the pair eventually “found their groove.” But, looking for new challenges, the younger Gorelick decided to come to Sullivan County where his family had property. “I came here with the idea of developing property in [the Town of] Fallsburg. We started with plans for 550 residential units and about 85,000 square feet of commercial property, then scaled it back to 350 residential and 45,000 square feet of commercial. It’s on Route 52 in Woodbourne right at the Sullivan–Ulster border.”

Gorelick also bought a building on Broadway in Monticello, which had been three separate buildings, and got the approval for it to be combined into one. Now the building houses two artists, the NYSDDSO (Developmental Disabilities Service Office), the Sullivan County office of Emanon Equities, the office for the construction company that is working on Broadway, the Sullivan County Chamber of Commerce, Periwinkle Productions, an oral surgeon, a dentist, and the Army Navy store.

Not one to let the grass grow under his feet, Gorelick has also taught economics at SCCC, acted in two plays for Big Sky Productions, served as treasurer for Habit for Humanity and the Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development, is a board member for the Liberty Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Liberty Community Development Corporation, and is a member of Partnership for Economic Development. Plus he has a development called Schoolbell Townhouses in Liberty, and is still involved with Habitat for Humanity on Long Island. And he has four different projects in various states of construction or approval in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

“People ask me how I do all this,” says Gorelick, “This is all my extracurricular [activity]. I still have my full-time job. I never really slept that much , but I’ve gone from 8 hours to about 4.5 and I do much better on that.” He keeps fit as a spin instructor, and he runs between three and seven miles a day.”

Gorelick credits both his parents for his work ethic. “My father taught me the best way to get a lot of things done at the same time is to know what you want done and to tell somebody else and have them do it. Delegation is the absolute smartest thing. … Sometimes you’re the chief and sometimes you’re the Indian, you can’t be the chief without being the Indian first. …”

“My mom tells me that … I can’t walk in and just do it, I have to make sure that everybody feels they’re part of the team, and that you’re as strong as your weakest link, so make everyone feel like they’re the strongest link.”

According to the chamber’s bylaws, Gorelick has one duty: chair the regular meetings. But if you’ve ever met this dynamic 30-year-old “wunderkind,” you’ll know that just chairing the meetings will not satisfy his hunger for accomplishment.

“People in the community, whether they’re members or non-members of the chamber, need to really understand all that the chamber offers, the courses and everything else … if there’s someone out there who’s a small business owner who says ‘I would like to deal more effectively with my customer base’ or ‘I’d like to streamline my ordering process’ – all of these are things that we either offer classes for or we can offer counseling on. So we should be a total resource center for every business in the community. I’d like to see business owners come in and ask questions, I’d like to have office hours. …If businesses have nowhere else to turn, they’re concerned about the economy, how to sell their business, give it to a child – they don’t have money to hire a consultant … “

President and CEO, Terri Ward will be starting her sixth year with the chamber in January. And she’s extremely enthusiastic about working with her new chair. “Jeremy and I have a really good synergy. He’s been on the board since just about when I started here. We’re both young professionals, we have our rose-colored glasses on, we have a really great attitude toward ‘yes we can change this county and we can do something good.’ ”

Ward is confident that the chamber, under Gorelick’s leadership, will “take on more of a role as an advocate for small businesses in the community. The solid-waste issue is something we just dealt with. We were in a position in the past where it was difficult because we accepted some government funding, we’re no longer doing that anymore, we’re freestanding, on our own. We can speak our mind, we can really stand up and fight for the small businesses in the economy.”

Gorelick concurs. “I think the Chamber made the very wise decision to divorce itself from county funding. We get our funding from member dues, from grants and programs. We have a reserve fund that we built up specifically for times like this when money doesn’t flow so freely. Other agencies are dependent on county funding, so they can’t be dismissive of county policies with one hand, with the other hand out looking for funding. So I think it’s very exciting for the chamber to be able to vocalize concerns without a fear of losing funding.”

Going back to his strongest link theory, Gorelick is quick to give credit for the chamber’s success to the staff. Besides Ward, there’s Lisa Mills, who serves as vice president and Kristin Volpicella, the office manager. “The staff are the driving force behind so much that goes on,” says the new chairman.

One of the things Gorelick is looking forward to is increased networking for the chamber. “We’re going to build on the networks we’ve created. I have a lot of contacts in New York State and the chamber has contacts in the Hudson Valley. We can really start to do some great things here based on the fact that even though it’s a tight economy, there are a lot of financial opportunities, grants and things like that we can go after. We’re not looking at big ticket numbers, but we’re not at the low threshold either. We’re kind of in that medium area where no other agency is really looking in the Hudson Valley Catskill area.”

Planning on building on “the strengths of my predecessors,” Gorelick is determined to offer the same service the chamber had in the past and yet, “morph the chamber into something even more dynamic and streamlined. He also wants to “represent the needs of the business community in the way they haven’t been before. There are opportunities that while they haven’t been missed they haven’t been built upon or promoted the way they should have been. I think people will see, come 2010, a new chamber. And while their membership might have lapsed or they might have questioned their membership in the past, they’re going to know why they want to be a member in the future.”