ROCHESTER BUSINESS HALL OF FAME 2019 VISIONARY LEADERSHIP UNLOCKING BOUNDLESS POTENTIAL Your curiosity helped pave a path to success. RMSC Congratulates the 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame Inductees. The RMSC celebrates your innovation, inspiration, and dedication to our community. As we help educate the next generation of thinkers, you are providing a guiding light. Visit the Rochester Business Hall of Fame Exhibit at RMSC Supported by 657 East Avenue, Rochester NY, 14607 • 585.271.4320 • RMSC.org Table of Contents 4 Essay by Junior Achievement 12 Peter Schottland, who has been at the helm of American Packaging for 20 President and CEO Patricia Leva years, believes in reinvesting in company and community. 8 John L. DiMarco and Richard J. DiMarco used lessons forged in the depths 14 Lori Van Dusen of LVW Advisors built a of the Depression to turn their father’s masonry wealth management empire out of a humble business into the DiMarco Group, which has space off Monroe Avenue in Pittsford. done work up and down the East Coast. 16 Hall of Fame honorees from years past 10 James Isaac and Raymond Isaac grew their family’s company, Isaac Heating & Air Conditioning, into a 400-employee powerhouse. This year’s Rochester Business Hall of Fame inductees will be honored on Oct. 21 during a dinner at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Group Publisher: Suzanne E. Fischer-Huettner; Publisher: Kevin Momot; Editor: Ben Jacobs; Special Products Editor: Dick Moss; Copy Editor: Bill Alden; Staff writers: Diana Carter, Gino Fanelli, Kevin Oklobzija, Velvet Spicer; Events and Marketing Coordinator: Jessica Sims; Account Manager: Jean Moorhouse; Digital Content Manager: Kelly Plessinger; Audience Development Manager: Tracy Bumba; Special Productions Supervisor: Laura Black; Graphic Designer: Wendy Martin; Ad Designer: Lauren Seybold 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame ▪ OCTOBER 18, 2019 3 Junior Achievement: Turning ‘I can’t’ into ‘I can’ and dreams into plans very year the ERoches- ter Business Hall of Fame inducts new entrepreneurs and innovators who have helped shape our region. They have made significant contributions to their industries, given generously in our community, and served as excellent role models for the next generation. This year’s evening induction ceremony will be held on October 21 and supports Junior Achievement’s efforts to help more than 15,000 students gain critical financial, workforce and entrepreneurial skills, and develop the attitudes An artist's rendering of the planned Junior Achievement Discovery Center, to be Continued on page 6 housed in Kodak Center at Eastman Business Park. (RENDERING PROVIDED BY SWBR) Get Greater Rochester’s business news and information online every day and in print every Friday. RBJ.net/subscribe • 866-941-4130 4 OCTOBER 18, 2019 ▪ 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame RESULTS-DRIVEN FINANCIAL ADVISEMENT FOR INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS. An artist's rendering of the planned Junior Achievement Discovery Center, to be housed in Kodak Center at Eastman Business Park. (RENDERING PROVIDED BY SWBR) I CAN Continued from page 4 nities throughout our country. It’s a powerful of participating, but also their ability to now say experience that gives students an authentic and “I can.” and confi dence to realize their own version of the memorable way to practice being an adult in our Each one of the 135 members of the Rochester American Dream. economy, and provides the skills and confi dence Business Hall of Fame has contributed to the Th e year 2019 marks a milestone for the JA to become self-suffi cient future citizens. development and growth of our region. JA is mission–100 years of preparing and inspiring It’s called the JA Discovery Center and will proud to bring these great stories of success to our youth in the nation, and 50 years here in Roches- be housed in Kodak Center at Eastman Business students and to showcase the vast opportunities ter. As we look to the future, we are focused on Park. Our school districts are actively preparing our laureates have created. In doing so, we will collaborating with educators, businesses and oth- to integrate this innovative program into their inspire the next generation to turn “I can’t” into er service agencies to help solve this community’s middle and high school curricula. Our local “I can” and dreams into plans! most pressing needs, including poverty, work- employers will be highlighting their industries Congratulations to the 2019 class of the Roch- force shortages and new business generation. and the careers and jobs of the future, and our ester Business Hall of Fame. Th is year we launched our fi rst-ever capi- volunteers are ready to impart their workforce tal campaign to bring a national JA program experience, including all the “soft ” skills required —Patricia Leva, to Rochester–a program that has helped for success. We will not only measure our stu- President & CEO, address many of these same issues in commu- dent’s increased academic performance as a result Junior Achievement of Central Upstate New York CONNECTING COMMUNITIES IN THE AIR AND ON THE GROUND. Proud to support the Rochester Business Hall of Fame. 6 OCTOBER 18, 2019 ▪ 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame FPO Rochester Business Hall of Fame 2019 inductees — We’re proud to support you Helping the local economy thrive is just one of the many positive attributes you bring to our area. Extending your abilities and resources to the community through service and other initiatives makes you a true leader and role model for young people. Bank of America congratulates the Rochester Business Hall of Fame 2019 inductees for helping to make a lasting difference where we live and work. Visit us at bankofamerica.com/local. ©2019 Bank of America Corporation | ARWJX93N | ESG-297-AD Family values helped pave way in construction for John and Richard DiMarco JOHN AND RICHARD DIMARCO 8 OCTOBER 18, 2019 ▪ 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA us the manuscript of how our That has enabled the family John, who is 77. His brother is 82. lives would go. We learned you business to branch out into other They aren’t done yet, either. heir maternal grandfather could lose it all, that bad things ventures. The DiMarco Group While John L. DiMarco II is now owned his own construc- could happen and you should includes the construction firm as president of the DiMarco Group, tion firm: D. Giamberar- prepare yourself for that.” well as ADMAR Construction John and Richard are still coming Tdino Construction Co. So did In fact, when their father start- Equipment & Supplies, Baldwin to work every day. their father: Richard DiMarco ed his firm in 1945, he was careful Real Estate and DiMarco Realty “Our business is our hobby,” not to extend himself financially. Services. General Contractor. John said. “We really like what He preferred small and steady, Now they not only build Thus, it was only natural for his we do.” sons, John and Richard, to follow not grandiose and vulnerable. things, they rent construction That wasn’t lost on John and equipment to others through The only time John ever in those mortar-dusted foot- thought about getting out was prints—first doing masonry with Richard. Maintaining the core ADMAR, and also manage and values of honesty and trust that develop mixed-use properties. in 1986, when the state of New their father, and then branching were passed along by their family, DiMarco Constructors was No. York bought the property that out on their own. they have made a lasting mark on 3 among commercial build- housed their business near East But the most important lesson Rochester and beyond. ers in the Rochester Business Main Street and Goodman Street. John and Richard learned about Their firm, DiMarco Construc- Journal’s 2019 Book of Lists. The state needed to reconstruct a construction had nothing to do tors, renovated Geva Theatre, ADMAR has grown from a rental roadway. with building a structure to last, rehabilitated the Sibley Building, inventory of scaffolding, some “I was going to retire,” John like the Belleayre Apartments created Monroe Community compressors, some forklifts and recalled. which Domenico Giamberardino College’s downtown campus in some generators to a $120 mil- built in Ithaca in 1929 and that “He had a weak moment,” his part of the old Eastman Kodak lion, all-things-construction op- son, John II, joked. still serves tenants today, or with Co. offices, and constructed more eration with 10 offices across New Indeed, more than 30 years the craftsmanship their father than 150 Walmart and/or Sam’s York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. later, he and his brother are still displayed as a mason. Club stores for Samuel Walton up John DiMarco admits they Instead, it was about life. and down the East Coast. maybe weren’t as conservative as going strong. “The only thing my The Great Depression forced “Our father didn’t make all their father would have liked, but brother doesn’t do is sit,” John Domenico Giamberardino into the money but he made what the growth was done wisely and said. bankruptcy. he needed,” John DiMarco said. prudently. “For two guys who only did “My father saw the depths of “And he gave us a great name, “My brother and I worked masonry, we’ve come a long way.” the Depression,” Richard said. because he was very honorable. hard, we saved our money and we koklobzija@bridgetowerme- Said John: “That kind of gave Honor above everything.” reinvested in the business,” said dia.com/(585) 653-4020 COMMITMENT TO COMMUNITY Congratulations to all of the 2019 Rochester Business Hall of Fame Inductees Chase & Co.