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Sunday, 09/30/2007 9:21:27 AM

Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:21:27 AM

Entrepreneur Scozzafava selected to serve on NYPA board.
From: Watertown Daily Times (Watertown, NY) Date: February 18, 2006

Byline: Chris Garifo

Feb. 18--ALBANY -- Gov. George E. Pataki has nominated north country entrepreneur Thomas W. Scozzafava to a two-year term on the New York Power Authority Board of Trustees.

"It's an honor, and I look forward to learning as much as I can about the organization," said Mr. Scozzafava, who is the younger brother of Assemblywoman Dierdre K. Scozzafava, R-Gouverneur. "I know the basics, and I'm glad that the trustees are going to have a representative from the north country."

The non-salaried appointment must be approved by the state Senate. Mr. Scozzafava will fill the seat vacated by Timothy S. Carey, who resigned in September and became NYPA's chief operating officer. In January, the trustees voted to make Mr. Carey NYPA's president and chief executive officer.

Mr. Scozzafava is the chief financial officer and treasurer/director of WiseBuys Stores, which he founded in 2002. The company has stores in Gouverneur, Canton, Pulaski, Tupper Lake and Hamilton.

Prior to that, he was director of Prudential U.S. Private Equity, the domestic private investment business of The Prudential Insurance Company of America. He also was an analyst for Lehman Brothers' Merchant Banking Group.

He graduated cum laude in 1992 from Hamilton College in Clinton, where he was an honors major in economics.

The Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties region has not had a representative on NYPA's board for at least 50 years, according to Brian R. Vattimo, an authority spokesman. The vice chairman of the first NYPA board was Watertown lawyer Delos M. Cosgrove, who served from 1931 to 1934.

"I don't think it's parochial or territorial, per se, but it's important that the north country have someone on there who can communicate back and forth to the area on the directives of NYPA," Mr. Scozzafava said.

Though he does not come to the position with an agenda, one issue he sees as vital to the north country is economic development, Mr. Scozzafava said.

"I do know it's important for the north country to encourage economic development to the extent that the Power Authority is in a position to encourage that," he said. "I'd be a strong advocate of that."

Mr. Scozzafava's appointment brought immediate praise from state Sen. James W. Wright, R-Watertown, whose Committee on Energy and Telecommunications will consider the selection before reporting it to the entire state Senate.

"Tom, of course, is an excellent nominee," Mr. Wright said. "He's a native son of St. Lawrence County, he's an entrepreneur who has made an investment in the north country as founder and chief financial officer of WiseBuys Stores, investing not only in St. Lawrence County but in the Tupper Lake area, which is home to a number of NYPA efforts also. That's an important criteria."

Mr. Scozzafava also brings knowledge of the finance capital industry, Mr. Wright said.

"One of the primary responsibilities of the trustees is their fiduciary responsibilities," he said. "His background in investment management and the management jobs he's held, as well as his academic background, have prepared him well to ensure that the fiduciary interests of the state are protected."

NYPA operates a number of electrical power facilities throughout the state, including the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project, Massena.

To see more of the Watertown Daily Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.wdt.net.

Copyright (c) 2006, Watertown Daily Times, N.Y.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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