The Corporation is governed by a board of directors (the “Corporation Board”), which consists of seven directors. Three of the directors are designated in the Act as ex-officio members: the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation of the State, whom the Act also designates as the chairman of the Corporation, the Commissioner of Health of the State and the Secretary of State of the State. The four remaining directors are appointed by the Governor of the State by and with the advice and consent of the State Senate. The appointed directors serve staggered six-year terms. Pursuant to State law, after the expiration of a director’s term, he or she shall hold over and continue to discharge the duties of a director of the Corporation Board until a successor has been chosen and qualified.
EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS
PETE GRANNIS, Chair, was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer to serve as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and began his tenure in April 2007. His appointment marks a return to the Department for Mr. Grannis, who began his career in public service at DEC in the early 1970’s as a Compliance Counsel.
Mr. Grannis served as a member of the Assembly representing the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Roosevelt Island for more than 30 years. While in the Assembly, Mr. Grannis championed a wide range of environmental issues as a long-time member of its Environmental Conservation Committee, and played a key role in enacting laws addressing acid rain, clean air and water, fluorocarbons and recycling. He fought for the passage of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the original Bottle Bill and the clean-up and revitalization of brownfields. Last year, legislation he sponsored was signed into law requiring heavy duty trucks utilized by state contractors to use the best available technology and low-sulfur diesel, making such equipment virtually emission free.
Early in his career, Mr. Grannis chaired the Assembly's first Subcommittee on Toxic Wastes, sponsored legislation ensuring a worker's right to know about hazardous materials in the workplace, and worked to regulate the transport, storage and disposal of toxic wastes. Mr. Grannis’s other environmental interests include preserving open spaces, reducing packaging waste, and preserving the beauty and irreplaceable resources of the Adirondacks. He has also advocated for funding for the complete and timely clean-up of Superfund sites. Mr. Grannis authored the state's rapid transit noise code and has been in the forefront of the fight to force the MTA to convert its polluting bus fleet to clean fuels.
Mr. Grannis is a three-time winner of the Legislator of the Year award from the Environmental Planning Lobby and was accorded similar honors by the Audubon Society, the Environmental Action Coalition and Environmental Advocates.
A nationally recognized leader in the fight to curb the health hazards posed by smoking, Mr. Grannis authored New York's historic Clean Indoor Air Act and strengthening amendments to protect all working men and women from exposure to deadly secondhand smoke. His Adolescent Tobacco Use Prevention Act stands as one of the strongest laws in the nation to limit teenagers’ access to tobacco. He also wrote the first state law to require tobacco companies to produce a fire-safe cigarette. The first law in the country to address directly how cigarettes are manufactured, this life saving measure banned the sale in New York of any brand not meeting the fire safety standard.
Mr. Grannis’s work has been hailed by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the New York State Association of County Health Officials. He received the American Lung Association’s prestigious Hall of Fame Award in 1996 and the New York State Public Health Association’s Herman M. Biggs Memorial Award in 2004.
Mr. Grannis’s efforts on behalf of consumers were recognized by the Consumer Federation of America, which presented him with its prestigious Philip Hart Public Service Award—the first state legislator to receive this award—joining a list of distinguished past recipients including Senators Paul Wellstone, Ted Kennedy and former House Speaker Tip O’Neill.
As Chair of the Assembly Insurance Committee from 1992 to 2007, Mr. Grannis championed legislation on behalf of consumers, including New York's precedent-setting Community Rating/Open Enrollment law which revolutionized the way small group and individual health insurance policies are sold in the state. In 2006, Mr. Grannis negotiated a new law requiring hospitals receiving funding under the state’s $850 million Indigent Care Program to provide discounted care to uninsured patients and rein in the abusive billing and collection practices that have come under fire across the country.
Mr. Grannis led the fight to strengthen the state Insurance Department’s authority to oversee auto insurance premium rates to stop auto insurers from ripping off New Yorkers and developed important measures to ensure the availability of homeowners' insurance in coastal areas.
Prior to his appointment to the Insurance Committee, Mr. Grannis served as Chair of the Assembly Housing Committee for ten years, where he was the leading legislative voice on behalf of tenants’ rights and protections. He crafted many of the state’s affordable housing programs for homeless, low-, moderate- and middle-income New Yorkers. Long recognized for his tireless work to reform and improve the operation of government and politics by good government groups including the League of Women Voters, Common Cause and the New York State Public Interest Group, Mr. Grannis sponsored and supported sweeping reforms to bring transparency and efficiency to the state budget process and to state government. Among the many areas he worked on were overhauling the state’s ethics laws and limiting the “revolving door” from legislative member or staff to lobbyist—reforms which were included in the first law signed by Governor Spitzer. Mr. Grannis also sponsored legislation to strengthen the state’s lax campaign finance laws by providing public financing of elections and banning unlimited “soft money” contributions to political parties’ housekeeping accounts.
An avid outdoorsman and fly fisherman, Mr. Grannis lives with his family on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, grew up in Michigan and is a graduate of the Loomis School, Rutgers University and the University of Virginia Law School. Prior to entering the Assembly, Mr. Grannis practiced law in New York City.
RICHARD F. DAINES, M.D. was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer to be the fourteenth New York State Health Commissioner on January 18, 2007. The nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate on March 21, 2007.
Prior to becoming Commissioner of Health, Dr. Daines was the President and CEO of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center from January 1, 2002 until January 2007. Previous to joining the Hospital Center as Medical Director in 2000, Dr. Daines served as Senior Vice President for Professional Affairs of St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, New York since 1994 and the Medical Director from 1987 to 1999. Dr. Daines received a Bachelor of History degree from Utah State University in 1974 and served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bolivia, 1970-1972. He received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1978. He served a residency in internal medicine at New York Hospital and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine (1987-1997).
LORRAINE CORTÉS-VÁZQUEZ was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer to serve as Secretary of State, the third oldest office in New York State, dating back to 1778. The nomination was confirmed by the New York State Senate. She is the 65th Secretary of State and first Hispanic to hold this position.
Before becoming Secretary of State, Ms. Cortés-Vázquez was vice-president of Government and Public Affairs at Cablevision Systems Corporation, one of the largest cable and entertainment companies in the United States. From 1998 to 2004, she served as president of the Hispanic Federation, an umbrella organization of more than 60 providers of health and social services located throughout the Northeastern United States. In 2001, she was appointed to the New York State Board of Regents, a position she held until this year.
From 1996 to 1998, Ms. Cortés-Vázquez was chief of staff for New York State Assemblyman Roberto Ramirez. Prior to that, she served as executive director at ASPIRA, the oldest and largest non-profit group dedicated to education and leadership development on the part of young Latinos. Ms. Cortés-Vázquez also has extensive experience as a government official, serving from 1979 to 1992 at the New York City Department of Aging, where she became director of the Bureau of Program and Resource Development. Before that she held a variety of positions working with children, young people and senior citizens in East Harlem.
Ms. Cortés-Vásquez graduated from Hunter College in 1975 and received a master’s degree from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in 1983.
She is married to Louis M. Vázquez, has a son Michael and two grandsons, Michael and Mark.
In addition to the ex-officio members of the Corporation Board, the other present members of the Corporation Board and their occupations are as follows:
FRANCIS T. CORCORAN is Executive Vice President at Perimeter Financial Corporation, a financial services firm which strives to improve the efficiency of the financial services industry through superior technology. Prior to joining Perimeter, Mr. Corcoran served as Senior Vice President for Business Development & Equity Order Flow at The American Stock Exchange. Mr. Corcoran has also held executive level positions with various financial/investment firms. Mr. Corcoran served on the Congressional Financial Services Advisory Committee for House Member Sue Kelly and is the Acting Chairman of the Advisory Board to the Inspector General of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Metro-North Railroad Commuter Council and is a member of several other not-for-profit organizations.
LAWRENCE F. DIGIOVANNA is a private practitioner of law, concentrating in the area of real estate development, cooperative and condominium law, and related litigation. He has also served as president of several Bar Associations and as chair of the Grievance Committee of the Appellate Division, Second Department, for the Second and Eleventh Judicial Districts. He is currently a member of the Appellate Division's Committee on Character and Fitness for the Second, Tenth and Eleventh Judicial Districts. As an active member of the New York State Bar Association, Mr. DiGiovanna sits on its Committees on Attorney Professionalism, Real Property and Environmental Law. He is also a board member of several not-for-profit corporations.
CHARLES KRUZANSKY is the Director of Government Relations and Special Assistant to the Vice Provost for Research at Cornell University in Ithaca. Responsible for Cornell’s dealings with New York State, he manages the University’s legislative and budget agendas before the Legislative and Executive branches of state government. As the state’s largest research university and New York’s Land Grant Institution, Cornell is involved in a range of issues and programs with New York State in addition to those that affect higher education and research. Prior to becoming director of the Albany Office of Government Relations for Cornell University in 1991, Charlie served as a legislative and fiscal analyst for the NYS Assembly Ways and Means Committee staff from 1985 to 1990. He was the State Assembly’s primary negotiator on energy and other regulatory agency budgets and legislation. He was on the board of Environmental Advocates of New York from 1993-2007 and was New York’s affiliate representative or alternate to the National Wildlife Federation for several years between 1998-2004. He has a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and an MBA from Columbia University in New York City. Charlie grew up in the Hudson Valley and resides in Voorheesville with his wife and two kids.
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