Empire Corporate's 23rd annual meeting

ALBANY, N.Y. - Approximately 230 attendees, representing 113 credit unions, turned out for Empire Corporate FCU's 23rd Annual Meeting held here on April 11-12. Mary Ellen Withrow, Treasurer of the United States, was one of the featured speakers. Withrow wowed the crowd with quirky facts about the nation's currency. For example the average life of a dollar bill is only 18 months and there were 122 artists' drawings submitted before the portrait of Sacagawea was selected as the design for the new Golden Dollar coin. She also said the recent redesign of U.S. currency has reduced the counterfeit rate by one-third. Other featured speakers included Brian Jones, an economist for Salomon Smith Barney; Thomas Sowanick, global chief fixed income strategist at Merrill Lynch; Barry Eigen, a professional speaker; and Jeffrey Rosenweig, associate dean for corporate relations at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. At the meeting Empire Corporate re-elected Bruce M. Beaudette, president/CEO of Sunmark FCU (Beaudette will serve as vice chair); Jill A. Fillippini, president of Bakelite Employees CU; and Louis Jimenez, treasurer/CEO of Montauk CU, to its board of directors. Board officer appointments include the following: Nancy Kasprzak-Whitmore, president/CEO of Niagara County FCU, chair; David Bartone, president/CEO of Corning FCU, as treasurer; and Michael J. Connery, president/CEO of United Nations FCU, as secretary. Other Empire directors include Donald Briggs, general manager of NorthEast Alliance FCU; Paul Filippone, president/CEO of Rhode Island State ECU; and Robert Witty, president/CEO of Cornell FingerLakes CU.