Skidmore College Names New VP For Finance And Administration, Treasurer

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Daniel T. Konstalid, VP for finance and administration, treasurer at Skidmore College.
Courtesy Skidmore College

Daniel T. Konstalid, an experienced senior financial officer with an extensive background in higher education, has been appointed vice president for finance and administration and treasurer at Skidmore College. 

Konstalid will begin his role on June 15 and serve as the college’s senior officer in all financial and business matters. He joins Skidmore from Gettysburg College, where he has served as vice president for finance and administration and treasurer since 2006.  

At Gettysburg, Konstalid has led the formation of a financial strategy for the college to advance key programmatic initiatives and ensure its continuing financial stability while overseeing financial, accounting, budget, treasury, and endowment management; facilities planning and operations; human resources; risk management; and auxiliary services. 

Among his many duties, he also served as a member of the faculty finance committee and the campus emergency response team.  

“Skidmore will benefit greatly from Dan’s strategic insight and management skills, and he brings exceptional expertise to this important leadership role,” said Skidmore College President Marc C. Conner. “His keen judgement, financial acumen, and exceptional understanding of the value of the liberal arts in today’s world will help ensure that Skidmore College continues to prosper and that our students thrive.” 

Konstalid previously served as vice president for finance and administration at Le Moyne College in Syracuse; controller and director of budgets at Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.; and senior audit manager at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in Syracuse. 

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Amy Roman’s Company Helps Businesses By Providing Specialized Staff And Training

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Amy Roman has owned CEFO Advisors for 10 years.
Courtesy CEFO Advisors

By Jill Nagy

Small businesses need as much, if not more, support than their larger counterparts.  CEO’s and business owners often find themselves struggling with balancing cash flow, managing teams of staff, attracting banks and investors, and so much more. 

The Saratoga Springs -based company, CEFO Advisors, provides a variety of professional staff members that specialize in meeting those needs on a part-time basis. CEFO was built on the very premise that they can put a strong team in place to properly support their client needs using effective and innovative processes.

Amy Roman has owned the company for 10 years. For the first five years, however, Roman was the only employee. Eventually, she realized that her clients “needed more than just me,” and for the past five years, she has been hiring CFO’s, controllers, and additional support staff to place with clients, working within their businesses.

Early on, Roman recognized the benefit she could offer her clients by providing focused CFO support and strategic services that can be achieved through outsourced, forward-thinking business and accounting solutions.  One of her clients commented that “Amy did a good job closing the gap between the CEO and CFO” and thus the company name CEFO Advisors was born.    

Fast forward to 2023, Roman’s company supports over 65 businesses both locally and out of state. Roman currently has 18 employees including managers, accountants, bookkeepers, controllers, CFOs, and staff training specialists, which she matches with companies needing their specialized skills and expertise. 

Many are part-timers, working parents, or semi-retired professionals ready for a second career. They work flexible, hybrid hours that include working at home or in the CEFO offices, while maintaining the availability to work on site at the client’s company as needed, Roman said.

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DeAngelus, Goralczyk PLLC Constitutes One Of Largest Women-Owned Firms In The Area

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Karen DeAngelus is a partner in DeAngelus Goralczyk, PLLC in Clifton Park.
Courtesy DeAngelus, Goralczyk PPLC

By Christine Graf

Attorneys Karen DeAngelus and Jacqueline Goralczyk opened DeAngelus Goralczyk, PLLC in Clifton Park in 2019, and since that time, they have expanded their firm significantly.

Their law practice now employs 11 attorneys and 10 support staff members. In addition to their headquarters in Clifton Park, the firm has offices in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs, Williamsville, N.Y., and Bonita Springs, Fla.

Although there are other women-owned law office in the area, there are few that are as large as DeAngelus Goralczyk.

“I think that being a women-owned firm of our size is unusual. We credit our success to keeping a laser focus on customer service and trying to serve our clients in a way that allows them to meet their goals,” said Goralczyk.

The pair decided to open their own firm after working in real estate law at different law practices in area. Having worked on opposite sides of transactions, they realized that had very similar ways of conducting business.

DeAngelus Goralczyk had been operating for just 11 months when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In the early days of the pandemic, the partners worried they would not be able to keep the new firm afloat.

“We were very nervous and had no idea what would happen,” said Goralczyk.

Because residential and commercial real estate is one of DeAngelus Goralczyk’s core practice areas, the pandemic-triggered real estate boom resulted in a surge in an unexpected business.

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Only EOS Session Room Between NYC Area and Plattsburgh Now Open

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Wendy Waldron owns WaldronWorks and is a Professional EOS Implementor. Seen here in her new 1,200-square-foot office and EOS Session Room in Union Square, 9-11 Broad Street, Glens Falls.

By Paul Post

Gerald Davis wants to open a second location for his successful heating and cooling business, and document its growth with a long-range goal of having employees partner up with him as franchise owners.

JoAnna Schwartz felt the need for more structure and better processes at Name Bubbles, an e-commerce company that makes personalized waterproof name labels and decals, to ensure the firm’s future prosperity.

These are just two of many area business leaders that have turned to Wendy Waldron to teach, facilitate, coach, lead and direct them through critical phases of their respective operations. 

She owns Glens Falls-based WaldronWorks, and is a Professional EOS Implementer for the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), whose principles have helped clients around the world overcome business problems as well as identify and take advantage of new opportunities.

“We need Wendy’s help coaching and teaching us to be a great company, not just a good company,” said Davis, owner of Cambridge-based Superior Co-Op HVAC. The firm specializes in heating and cooling systems, using Mitsubishi hyper heat pumps, which maintain a desired  temperature without the use of fossil fuels

Davis began working with Waldron in January after discovering that other successful companies use EOS, too.

Schwartz, Name Bubbles vice president, said the leadership team started the EOS process in spring 2021. 

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Capital District Chamber’s ‘Unprecedented Array Of Resources’ Benefits Its Membership

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Peter Bardunias, senior vice president, Capital Region Chamber.
Courtesy Capital Region Chamber

BY PETE BARDUNIAS

For decades, Saratoga County has been blessed with multiple large organizations supporting economic development, including chambers of commerce, EDCs, local development agencies, IDAs, and more. 

One of these, the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County (CSSC), was founded in 1967 to promote Clifton Park and Halfmoon, eventually providing support for the towns, villages and suburbs just north of the Mohawk River. By its 50th anniversary, the organization had grown to be in the top 10-12 percent of chambers statewide, despite still being the “small” chamber in Saratoga County.

Like many nonprofits in the past decade, the CSSC board evaluated potential partners for collaboration, affiliation or outright merger, culminating with affiliation into the 2600 member Capital Region Chamber in 2020, just weeks before the onset of the COVID pandemic.

As one of three large chambers making up the Capital Region Chamber (along with the eight-county Center for Economic Growth), the CSSC continues to be the official chamber of commerce of Clifton Park and Halfmoon, the administrator of the Saratoga County Community Development Program (funded in part by the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors) and the operator of the visitor center inside of the Clifton Park rest area at Northway Exit 8 that sees over 200,000 visitors annually. 

It remains committed to supporting events such as the festivals in Waterford, the Great Upstate Boat Show, the Saratoga County Fair, Clifton Park July 4, movies, concerts and car show in the village of Ballston Spa, the Burnt Hills Flag Day parade, the Malta Business Community Alliance, and much more.

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Proposed Project Would Add 382 Luxury Apartments To The Wilton Mall Property

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This is a rendering of the luxury apartment complex proposed as part of the ‘re-imagined’ Wilton Mall property two development firms are seeking to create.
Courtesy Paramount Development

The Wilton Mall ownership and Paramount Development have proposed adding new multifamily housing to the shopping center property as part of its transformation from strictly a retail facility to a more community centric mixed-use destination. 

The project includes 382 new luxury, market-rate rental residences, including both apartments and townhomes. The enhancement to the community will feature premium resident amenities and sophisticated design. 

Officials said the $120 million investment in Wilton will drive significant new sales and property tax revenue for Saratoga County and the Town of Wilton.

The housing community’s new residents will translate to new customers spending money at the Wilton Mall as well as surrounding retail, restaurants and entertainment facilities.

According to the developers, recent years have seen unprecedented changes in the retail industry, requiring shopping malls to evolve in response or risk going out of business. In July 2007, Wilton Mall backfilled the former retail space with a grocery store and fitness center. It marked the first steps towards the mall’s mixed use evolution. 

In 2018, Wilton Mall experienced two anchor store closings—Sears and Bon Ton. Within two years the Saratoga Hospital opened in the former Sears store. Now Wilton Mall has an opportunity to further expand upon its uses and plans to repurpose the former Bon Ton site with amenity-rich apartments and townhouses.

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Business Report: EDC, Our Communities And The Way Forward

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Jim Siplon, president and CEO, EDC Warren County
Courtesy EDC Warren County

By Jim Siplon

Earlier this year EDC Warren County shared a stark view of the future economy as we age, try to compete with a smaller and smaller workforce, and still build a community and economy that works.

To help catalyze the needed investments, public policy work, and collective actions needed to attract new, younger residents that can support our diversified economy for the long haul, EDC is adding “convener” to our list of roles we play supporting our businesses and communities.

Last year we brought Dr. Rachel Sederberg to Warren County from leading labor market research firm EMSI Burning Glass to share deep insights on the “demographic drought” we are all experiencing. Using that groundbreaking research and aggregating it with local economic data that is current and novel, EDC is now engaged in meeting with as many audiences as we can to share the underlying foundation for our position. 

Convening as many groups as we can, EDC is sharing the data over the last 50 years that led to where we are so we can have informed discussions and public discourse on what we must do to navigate and adapt to our new normal.

One lesson I learned over and over in my previous chapters as a military, business and sustainability leader was the value of not rushing to action, especially on problems that took generations to develop. 

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Business Report: Asset Location: Should I Be Using It?

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Bill Canty, CPA, CFP, founder, CFM Tax and Investment Advisors.
Courtesy CFM Tax and Investment Advisors.

By Bill Canty

Asset location pertains to the types of investment assets that are best held in various types of accounts. Asset location is a tax minimization strategy that matches various types of investments with the type of account best suited for that type of investment holding. 

Asset location is about strategically holding investments in accounts where you are likely to achieve the highest after-tax returns. This includes taxable investment accounts, tax-deferred accounts such as a traditional IRA or 401(k), or tax-free accounts which are usually Roth accounts. 

Due to the nature of dividends, interest, or capital gains connected with certain types of investments, it might be most tax-efficient to hold them in one type of account versus another. This is the essence of asset location. 

While it is not always possible to align your entire portfolio in a perfect fashion in terms of asset location for each holding, it does make sense to pay attention to this when deciding which investment holdings fit best into your various accounts. 

The following types of holdings can be well-suited for a taxable account: 

• Municipal bonds or mutual funds holding muni bonds. The interest on these bonds is exempt from federal income taxes, and in some cases from state taxes if they are issued by an entity in the state in which you reside.

• Individual stocks that you plan to hold for a year or more. After this time period, any capital gains from the sale of the shares will be taxed at preferential long-term capital gains rates.

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Business Report: Do Millennials Need An Estate Plan?

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Jason Snyder is a senior associate at Tully Rinckey PLLC.
Courtesy Tully Rinckey PLLC

By Jason Snyder, Esq.

As the largest living generation in the U.S.—making up 22 percent of the population—and collectively having lived through several “once-in-a-lifetime” crises, the millennial generation has been forged into some of the most adaptable planners to date. 

From setting personal and professional goals, managing and interacting with their finances and investments, to purchasing their first homes and starting families, many in this group are committed to planning further into the future than ever before.

Despite this, 41 percent of individuals ages 18-34 have never discussed estate planning with anyone. While grim, this number did see some downward motion in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as 32 percent of adults under the age of 35 said they only engaged in estate planning due to the pandemic.

So, with these numbers, are millennials right in thinking that they do not need estate plans? What are some of the most common concerns that millennials have when looking to plan their futures? While it’s impossible to capture all aspects of an estate plan in a single article, below is a brief snapshot of why estate plans might be the logical next step for any millennial looking to secure their future.

Broadening our scope, just 33 percent of Americans have a will or living trust, despite the fact that more than 50 percent believe estate planning to be at least somewhat significant. One in three respondents, when asked why they don’t have a will, said they don’t have enough assets to leave behind. 

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