Category Archives: Women In Business

By Christine Graf

After giving birth to her first child in 2015, Hudson Falls native Carly Trerise was especially grateful to the friends and family members who delivered home cooked meals to her house. It was out of that gratitude that the idea for a business was born. 

With the help of her father, Jim Quinlan, she came up with the idea for Dinner and Flowers (previously known as Send A Meal Today), a business that delivers pre-cooked refrigerated meals that can be reheated in the microwave or oven. 

The meals make perfect gifts for new parents, people who have just had surgery, or those who have suffered the loss of a loved one. In addition to entrees, a variety of homemade desserts are also available.

After a lot of time spent brainstorming with her father, Trerise enlisted Tamberlyn Dickinson to provide meals and baked goods for the business. Dickinson and her husband, Jon, are the owners of Dickerson’s Delight, an eatery in Glens Falls. They also sell their baked goods at the Glens Falls Farmer’s Market.

“After that, I started putting the word out that my dad and I had an idea that we were working on and that we were in the beginning stages and wanted to do test orders,” said Trerise. “I would use social media, including Facebook, to get orders.”

They accepted test orders for an entire year before officially launching the business in 2017. Trerise hired Kate Austin, owner of Advokate, a Glens Falls PR and marketing company, to help her as she worked to get the business off the ground.  

“Kate helped us iron out all of the little details. She also helped us to really get our business name out there into the community,” she said.

By Jill Nagy

When a company needs a controller, a staff accountant, a chief financial officer (CFO), or similar staff member, but not on a full-time basis, CEFO Advisors can step in. 

The Saratoga company provides a variety of professional staff members on a part-time basis.

Amy Roman has owned the company for 10 years. For the first five years, however, Roman was the only employee. Eventually, she realized that clients “needed more than just me,” and for the past five years, she has been hiring staff members and placing them with clients. 

In the early days, one of her clients described her as ”the bridge between CFO and CEO.”   That is the origin of the company name, CEFO.

Roman has 18 employees including managers, accountants, bookkeepers, controllers, CFOs, and staff training specialists, that she matches with companies needing their skills and expertise. Many are part-timers, working parents, or semi-retired people ready for a second career. They work flexible hours, including working at home, but must be available when the client company needs them on site, Roman said.

Typically, the CEFO specialist will remain with a company for year or more, coming and going as needed.

Company offices are at 125 High Rock Ave., Suite 103, in Saratoga Springs. 

Roman creates a team for each client company and she hires people for specific companies.

By Paul Post

Patrina Leland wasted no time making believers out of skeptical co-workers and customers in the male-dominated world of tire sales.

In 2021, she was named RNR Tire Express Rookie Manager of the Year for her success with a brand new store at 708 Upper Glen St.  in Queensbury.

Now plans are in the works for a second shop on State Street in Schenectady, with a long-range goal of opening one or two more between Albany and Troy.

“Sometimes people are a little surprised that a woman in this business knows about the tire, the wheel, the bolt pattern, what you can and can’t put on it,” Leland said. “I can run all the machines out back, set up the alignment rack, do the tire balances.”

Her can-do spirit comes from 30 years of work at her husband Jeff’s long-time, family-owned business, Leland Paper Co., which became part of W.B. Mason in 2019. 

“I really believe all my years there set me up for this position because I’ve done all of it—accounting, receivables, payables, sales. I ran the warehouse, loaded trucks and drove trucks,” said Leland, who holds an accounting degree from Russell Sage College.

By Ann Donnelly

Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Women in Business group is a valuable resource for women doing business in the Lake George region.

When I returned to upstate New York five years ago, participation in the group helped me quickly build connections and gain important information about the area and the best ways to do business here. So, in 2021, I took the group’s co-chair role to participate more actively and support the women working so hard on their careers while advancing the Lake George region.

Formed in 2012, the first co-chairs were Lynn Clausen, who worked at Dunhams Bay Resort, and Kathy Miller, owner of Love is on Lake George, still an active member. They spent the first meetings developing the mission, which we continue to adhere to today, “To inspire personal growth using our combined experiences and expertise to provide the tools to aid and encourage women in our region through networking, educating, and mentoring.”

All women who are Chamber members, or work for member organizations, including non-profit and commercial enterprises, are welcome to participate. In addition, those considering joining the Chamber may attend one meeting. Recent attendees have come from real estate, healthcare, business services, hospitality, leisure, retail, education, local agencies, healthcare, and membership organizations.

LGRCC Women in Business meets on the first Wednesday of each month from September through June. After 30 minutes of open networking, the meeting starts with “around the room,” where each attendee introduces herself, describes her business, and announces any news, promotions, or events. Attendees may also note any needs where others in the group could assist. Many members have developed valuable alliances from this.

Local principal broker and owner of EXIT Realty Empire Associates Jennifer Vucetic is  the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR) president for 2022.

She was formally installed Feb. 7 by 2021 National Association of Realtor’s President Charlie Oppler as part of the organizations mid-winter business meetings. 

The celebration was held at the Crowne Plaza- Desmond Hotel in Albany.

Vucetic is a 2012 graduate of NYSAR’s Leadership Academy and a 2020 graduate of NAR’s Leadership Academy. She was named Realtor of the year in 2016 by the Greater Capital Association of Realtors, has served as local NS  NYS Women’s Council of Realtors president and regional vice president for the National Women’s Council of Realtors. 

Vucetic is also an 2019 Realtors Political Action Committee (RPAC) Hall of Fame inductee, 2020 recipient of the Lawernce B. Caldwell RPAC Service Award and currently Region 2 RPAC trustee. She also has several professional real estate designations.

Glens Falls native Tyra (Lundgren) MacGuffie has returned home to become the new director of development for the Lake George Association.

MacGuffie, a 1985 graduate of Glens Falls Senior High School, joins the LGA after four years as director of advancement for Green Mountain Valley School, a premier ski academy in Waitsfield, Vt., that counts 26 Olympians among its alumni. In that role, she oversaw a $7 million capital campaign for the development of a world-class training and race venue.

MacGuffie said Lake George has never been far from her thoughts. She grew up spending summers on the Lake at a Route 9L camp that dates back to 1845 and was purchased by her grandparents, the late Thor and Donna Lundgren, in 1950. MacGuffie now co-owns the camp with other family members and visited regularly while living away.

“I am thrilled to join the LGA at a time when it is poised for tremendous growth and a significant acceleration of its Lake-protection capabilities,” MacGuffie said. “I am excited to be a part of an organization that has a mission I am passionate about, in a community that I respect and care for deeply, and where I feel a can make a significant contribution.”

MacGuffie’s accomplished development career in the nonprofit sector also includes 12 years in the state of Idaho as director of development for the independent Community School and for Higher Ground Sun Valley, an organization providing therapeutic recreation to individuals and veterans with physical and cognitive disabilities.

Prior to entering the development field, she served as soft-goods buyer and manager for a major outdoor recreation gear and apparel retailer with four locations in and around Sun Valley, Idaho. Her responsibilities included management of retail staff, communications and marketing, and special events planning.

By Christine Graf

Less than four years after establishing her first State Farm insurance office In Queensbury, agent Paula Traina is preparing to open a second office at 80 Warren St. in Glens Falls. 

Prior to becoming an independent agent, she held a corporate leadership position at State Farm. During her 14-year career with the company, she earned an M.B.A. as well as numerous professional certifications.

When the company consolidated operations and closed its corporate location in Malta, many Capital Region-based employees relocated to State Farm hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, or Phoenix. Traina was managing corporate training at the time, and instead of relocating, she decided the time was right to open her own independent State Farm office.

“I always knew I was going to go in this direction but didn’t want to do it until I felt professionally ready to do it,” she said. “I wanted to go through the leadership program at State Farm and get experience on that side before I wanted to risk my own finances. I’m now self-employed, so it was more of a financial undertaking to go from being a corporate employee to being independently owned and operated.”

State Farm was aware that Traina was interested and approached her when there was an opportunity in Queensbury.

SUNY Adirondack announced the appointment of Rachael Hunsinger Patten as the college’s chief advancement officer and executive director of the SUNY Adirondack Foundation.

Patten has nearly 30 years of experience in fundraising and higher education, including having served as executive director of Development, Alumni Relations and SUNY Adirondack Foundation from 2012 to 2018. 

“Rachael is a longtime regional resident with deep roots in the community and an inspiring history with SUNY Adirondack,” said Kristine D. Duffy, Ed.D., president of the college. “We’re excited for Rachael and her team to help us further develop relationships with area businesses, organizations, investors and alumni that will advance our strong network of donors in support of college needs.” 

As CAO, Patten is the college’s chief fundraising officer, developing long-range strategic leadership and daily administration of the Foundation, Development and Alumni Relations. She is responsible for fostering relationships to support college programs and initiatives.

“When I first started working here, it clicked,” Patten said. “It felt like home.”

A graduate of Ithaca College, Patten has dedicated her career to higher education and nonprofit organizations, including work at Skidmore College, Albany Law School and Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council (LARAC). At the latter, she said she fell in love with fundraising. 

By Susan Elise Campbell

The Spa Studio Adirondacks LLC has relocated to 420 Quaker Road in Queensbury, in a storefront of the building owned and occupied by Heber Travel.

Owner Erica Keays said the move “has been wildly successful.”

The COVID-19 pandemic caused Keays and her mother Sharon, co-owner, to rethink the spa they had started together in 2006. They decided to shut down two days before the state mandate that non-essential businesses like spas, salons and stylists close.

“Over the years we really grew and at one point the spa included a full hair salon,” she said. “We’ve moved before. But now it was time to downsize, help my mother transition to a quieter role, and take over the whole business.”

Keays is a licensed therapist and her mother, an aesthetician. The spa offers massage therapies, skin care facials and waxing services. Her sister, a nail technician, was brought in 10 years ago, so Keays calls the studio  “a family business.”

When the shutdown began, Keays wondered how they could offer hands-on services and comply with state guidelines.