Spark: The InnovateLI Podcast

Private-jet travel is not just a lifestyle of the rich and famous – it’s an important resource for businesses of all shapes and sizes, on Long Island and beyond. As chief executive officer of Talon Air – a full-service operator specializing in aircraft charter, maintenance and management operations, based at East Farmingdale’s Republic Airport – James Chitty recognizes the importance of this econo...

You might already know James Lentini , but not as president of Molloy University. He’s that for sure, and one of the best in the business – in his six years at the helm, Dr. Lentini has overseen Molloy’s transition from college to university, helped double the institution’s endowment and led steady gains in first-year enrollment, belying both the COVID pandemic and declining rates at nationwide pr...

Long Island has the cutting-edge laboratories, the world-class talent, the technological know-how, the proud manufacturing history – everything it needs to be a hub of 21st Century R&D and venture investment. But with cornerstone institutions all over its wide-spread map – Nassau Suffolk, North Shore, South Shore – it sometimes lacks the cohesion of a New York City or a Silicon Valley. Enter a...

Long Island has no shortage of excellent public-relations professionals – and ranking among the best is ace communicator, seasoned political appointee, veteran educator and bona fide funnyman Mark Grossman . A survivor of tenures under municipal, county and state lawmakers, the namesake of Medford-based Mark Grossman Public Relations has carved an impressive niche as a go-to regional media expert...

Before he was Suffolk County Deputy Executive, before he served on the County Legislature, before he was Suffolk’s Commissioner of Economic Development or the Town of Brookhaven’s Economic Development Coordinator, before he became a revered board-of-directors mainstay or private-sector business consultant, Jim Morgo was a teacher. Jim taught English at a Massachusetts prep school and a Long Island...

Meet Spencer Bang – or maybe you already know him. It’s a name that stands out in credits, for sure, and you’ve certainly had plenty of chances to see it. He’s appeared in multiple network and streaming TV crime dramas, he’s performed on stage (on Long Island and beyond) and he’s featured in several independent films, on both sides of the camera. And four years ago, he cofounded Nightwire Films –...

You don’t need a journalism degree or advanced understanding of broadcasting sciences to see that U.S. news media are on the ropes. From your favorite cable news channel to that big city daily to that small-town weekly, American news is plagued by a crisis of trust. Nobody understands how far the fourth column has fallen better than Fair Media Council CEO and Executive Director Jaci Clement, who c...

Everyone doing business on Long Island – most of us living here, too – owes a debt to the Island’s amazing Industrial Development Agencies, which work hard to ensure that Long Island startups stay here, that out-of-state businesses come here and that every entrepreneur and executive working here has the best chance to succeed. No regional IDA is busier or bolder than the Suffolk County Industrial...

Few names resonate across Long Island real estate development like “Burman.” That includes Scott Burman, the one-time heir apparent to the Burman real estate empire now creating his own legacy as the founder of innovative, forward-thinking development firm Burman RE. In today’s episode, Scott joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss the emotional turmoil of breaking away – professionally and per...

Small business is the revenue-generating, jobs-producing backbone of regional socioeconomics – and nobody knows this better than Martha Stansbury. As director of the Small Business Development Center at Stony Brook, Martha has many oars in the water – overseeing instructional programs, preparing annual and special-project budgets, addressing the immediate and long-term needs of entrepreneurs, meet...

As co-founder and CEO of Long Beach-based Trellus Networks, Adam Haber is giving Long Island mom-and-pop retailers a fighting chance against Amazon and other e-commerce giants: a last-mile logistics partner offering home delivery to customers across the Island. It’s the latest endeavor for a master innovator whose long résumé includes stints as a commodities trader, a political candidate, a restau...

Nobody understands Long Island socioeconomics better than Kyle Strober. Long Island has many organizations and many leaders monitoring and shaping the regional quality of life – but none more influential than the Association for a Better Long Island and its busy executive director. Kyle joined the association in 2017 after several years as a legislative aide, first for a Nassau County legislator a...

If you read newspapers, magazines or books, you’ve likely read something written by Ambrose Clancy. Ambrose has been an author and professional journalist for half a century, gracing major newspapers like The Village Voice, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, popular magazines like GQ and The Nation, and several beloved community periodicals on Long Island, including a long run as edito...

Few American jurists have assembled a career as influential or accomplished as the Honorable A. Gail Prudenti, the former Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts of New York State. From her studies at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and her first job as a law clerk in the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court to her days as a Suffolk prosecutor, her 20-plus years on the bench and her post-judge...

Bethpage Federal Credit Union didn't rise to become a top-20 national credit union -- or increase its asset holdings from $1 billion to more than $13 billion -- by accident. It took a team of forward-thinking leaders and dedicated employees, working together to bulk up an institution that launched more than 80 years ago as a small neighborhood depository exclusively servicing Grumman employees. Ch...

The introduction of the school’s first PhD programs, the creation of a world-class biomedical-research facility, a major rebranding and a successful emergency pivot through the teeth of the COVID pandemic – and these are just some of the amazing accomplishments on the scorecard of New York Institute of Technology President Henry Foley. After a seven-year presidential term, Dr. Foley – “Hank,” to f...

Smart branding and successful marketing usually go hand-in-hand … but what makes a brand “smart?” And in the cutthroat business of professional promotions, what defines “successful?” These and other critical questions that can make or break a business marketing campaign are answered in this very special episode of Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast – a classic switcheroo that sees Spark host...

Long Island is blessed with many great attorneys, but not all are as studious, flamboyant or successful as John Ray of Miller Place – part Perry Mason, part Marlon Brando, always impressive. With a ripped-from-the-headlines caseload and a long list of high-profile acting gigs, John has made a name for himself in and out of the courtroom over the last four-decades plus – and on the lacrosse field,...

Laura Curran has seen the world – but chose Nassau County as her home. Born in Canada and raised everywhere, the once-and-future journalist was the first woman to serve as Nassau County executive, after early jobs reporting for New York City’s biggest tabloids and before her later career in podcasting and talk radio. As county exec, the Democrat – not always an ally of Albany’s liberal majority –...

Black business is big business – and if you’re not “buying Black,” as the saying goes, you’re shortchanging your local community and the larger economy. That’s the message of the BlaQue Resource Network and its founder, entrepreneur extraordinaire Aleeia Abraham , who’s on a mission to elevate and support her fellow Black business owners. Through popular events, shared promotions and other progres...

David Battinelli is a hyper-productive engine of medical modernization, with a 28-page résumé – degrees, jobs, honorifics and more – to prove it. As Northwell Health physician-in-chief and dean of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, David plays leading roles in the shaping of Long Island’s biotech-centric identity – and the realization of the region’s best socioe...

Laura Harding had some mighty big shoes to fill, succeeding Elaine Gross as president of Syosset-based equal-rights watchdog ERASE Racism. But over her first 10 months on the job, fill them she has, running headlong into this new opportunity and leading the 22-year-old anti-discrimination organization through fresh inclusive-housing and education-funding initiatives. In today’s episode, the attorn...

Lauren Sheprow is a gifted communicator – so gifted, in fact, that she’s reanimated a long-dead lesson of American political science, brutally murdered by hate, ignorance and bullshit: Communication is always key. After decades of highest-level strategic communications (professional tennis tournaments, major regional hospitals, a SUNY flagship university and more), Lauren is the new mayor of the V...

As director of real estate for Lesso Mall Development Long Island, Dominic Coluccio’s primary responsibilities include vetting potential tenants and negotiating sensitive lease agreements for Samanea New York, a post-pandemic retail/dining/entertainment experience rising from the ashes of a defunct Westbury shopping mall. With Chinese parents, an exotic assortment of ethnic foods and a second-gene...

Johnny Rosado, known best by stage name DJ Johnny Juice, is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated musician – a composer, producer, turntablist, engineer and legendary “b-boy” who’s collaborated with some of the biggest names in the hip-hop genre. But that’s only part of his amazing resumé. Packing engineering and computer-science degrees from the University of California San Diego, the U.S. Navy vet...