20 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2020
EMPIRE STATE DEVELOPMENT CEO ERIC GERTLER
CONTROL ROOM CHAIRMAN
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
As acting CEO, president, and commissioner
of the New York State’s Empire
State Development, Eric Gertler runs
the state’s economic engine. The former
executive chairman of U.S. News &
World Report and managing member
of Ulysses Ventures is also the regional
captain of the Long Island Control Room,
charged with helping to reopen the region’s
economy from the coronavirus
shutdown. He talked with the Press
about his agency’s changing role, adapting
in crisis and reopening LI.
What are your priorities
for the agency as
president and CEO,
and have they
changed in the
wake of the pandemic?
When
you go through a
crisis, they need
to change. You
need to respond
to the times and
how a crisis is
evolving. For the
first 90 days, we
supported combating
the COVID-19
crisis. Everything
we did was in support
of that. Now we’re looking
at how to support
the opening of the
economy.
What has ESD done to support the
state’s response to COVID-19? We did
an enormous amount of sourcing for
the PPE personal protective equipment
we needed to buy for essential
workers around the state. When the
crisis hit, we were involved in defining
essential businesses and updating
guidance. We also focused on how
to help New York manufacturers of
COVID-related equipment. We needed
to make sure we had the necessary
supply chain, including
food, around the
state. Those are not tasks that ESD
normally undertakes. We became
entrepreneurial and innovative and
worked around the clock.
What are things you and the agency
have been doing on Long Island? We
are looking to support small businesses.
Small businesses are critical
to New York State. They represent 98
percent of the businesses we have. A
lot of businesses, particularly those
with under 20 employees, didn’t
get federal money. We created the
New York Forward loan fund to get
loans to small businesses, particularly
MWBEs Minority and Women
Owned Business Enterprises
in need of financial support. And
infrastructure. There are important
infrastructure projects on Long
Island, including the Belmont Park
arena. Focusing on infrastructure, on
jobs, is critical as to how we support
the economy.
What’s been your experience as captain
of the Long Island Regional Control
Room? The Control Room has been
an important part of assuring that the
opening of Long Island goes smoothly.
The key to the control room has been
to understand the pulse of what’s going
on so we can be ahead of the issues and
monitor the region, so we can open up
safely and keep tracking important
data in a way that allows us to open
smoothly and not pause.
How is managing the Long Island
Control Room been different
than other regions? I think the
key here isn’t that the managing
is different. We’ve been able
to learn from other regions
that opened up prior to Long
Island. Other than New York
City, Long Island was the last
region to open up. We’ve
learned from what other
regions went through. You
learn about specific issues
with business, what
people face when they
go back into offices. You can write
guidelines, but how are they being applied?
What are the issues? Where are
people feeling frustration so we can
manage that? What were the issues
for outdoor dining? A hundred things
allowed us to ensure that each phase of
Long Island opens up smoothly.
What’s the biggest change for you,
going from the private sector to the
public sector? On a personal basis,
there’s a great sense of being involved
in meaningful work and a mission. You
get to do that, to be part of that in government.
Nothing replaces every day being
able to help people, to make the state, the
community, society better. On a dayto
day operations basis, in the private
sector, your thinking is more linear. You
do this deal, invest this money and go
forward. In public service, at this level,
you need to be thinking almost three
dimensionally. You need to understand
the agency, how this will affect the community,
where the pressure points are.
You don’t contour everything in terms
of projects. How do you make sure you
get everybody, and the right people, as
part of the projects to make a difference?
Are you optimistic that New York
State’s economy will rebound from
the recession caused by the coronavirus,
and if so, why and how? I am
optimistic that the state economy
will recover, that we’ll return to the
heights we were experiencing before.
But I don’t think it’s going to necessarily
be easy. I don’t think it’ll be the
same. As the governor has pointed
out, we’re going to reimagine the
economy. Things will be different. I
think there will be different types
of investments in businesses of the
future. As the governor has pointed
out, we are New York tough. At the
end of the day, the people will fuel
the economy. And I have the highest
degree of confidence in the people of
New York State. I’m optimistic, but
also a pragmatist. We’ll have to work
too. But I do see a rebuilt, reimagined
New York State economy.
CORNER OFFICE
Eric Gertler chairs the Long Island Control Room tasked with overseeing the region’s reopening
from the coronavirus shutdown.
"I’m optimistic, but also a pragmatist."
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
