Grillo of NYC SCA to be honored by NYWCC on September 20

New York, NY On Friday, September 20, Quenia Abreu, president of The New York Women’s Chamber of Commerce (NYWCC), and organization board members will honor 13 women leaders and those who support the mission of the NYWCC at its 17th annual Women of Excellence awards ceremony to be held at the Battery Gardens Restaurant from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Several of this year’s honorees represent and/or support construction and real estate-related companies and agencies, nontraditional venues for women and particularly for women of color. Honorees include Lorraine Grillo, NYC School Construction Authority president & CEO and commissioner of the agency’s Department of Design & Construction. Under Grillo’s leadership, the SCA has completed over $20 billion of construction, producing over 70,000 new school seats and completing thousands of capital improvement projects.  

The NYWCC will also celebrate the accomplishments of: Kimberly Hardy, vice president of compliance, McKissack & McKissack; Renee Sacks, executive director, Women Builders Council; Adeola Adejobi, CEO & founder, Avant-Garde Network; Eugenia Foxworth, president, Foxworth Realty and NYWCC board member; Zenaida Rodriguez, assistant director Business Diversity Initiatives Unit, MTA Department of Diversity & Civil Rights; Shendora Pridgen, executive director & global head of supplier diversity, Morgan Stanley; Gladys Lopez, global head, supplier diversity, BNY Mellon; Francilia Wilkins Rahim, CEO & founder, R.F. Wlkins Consultants; Sarah Man, managing director-investments, The Voyage Group of Wells Fargo Advisors Inc.; Cira Angeles, president & CEO, LA Riverside Brokerage, Inc.; Rodneyse Bichotte, NYS assembly member, chair of the M/WBEs Subcommittee. This year’s Gentleman of Quality is Mark Gjonaj, NYC Council member & chair of the Council’s Small Business Committee.

NYWCC president Quenia Abreu said, “We invite you to please join me and NYWCC Chair Lina Gottesman, president/owner of Altus Metal, Marble and Wood, as well as our board members Vera Moore, CEO/owner Vera Moore Cosmetics; Claire Scanlon, former VP, BNY Mellon; Aimee Lee, Turner Construction Company; NYWCC Treasurer Donald Notice, and all women and minority business owners, influencers and decision makers in the M/WBE and Supplier Diversity world to celebrate these remarkable women achievers and their supporters and advocates.”

The event also and raises funds for ContractHER, an NYWCC program initiated last year to increase the number of city, state and private contracts awarded to women entrepreneurs, with a focus on women of color.  

For tickets and/or more information, call (212) 491-9640, email Lawrence Miles at  [email protected] or visit nywomenexcellenceaward.com