INSIDE STORIES
CARRIE MASON-DRAFFEN; JAMES BERNSTEIN
 
Oh, boy! Women's group will honor a man
March 26, 2007
 
The Long Island chapter of a well-known women's group will make history at its annual gala in May, when it names its first male honoree.
 
No, the National Association of Women Business Owners/LI isn't planning to amend its name. The group just wants to honor Hicksville resident Sudhir Sachdev for the businessman's work with the local chapter. He sits on the group's board and serves as a liaison to the national organization.
 
"He is so genuine and committed to working with the organization to help empower women to strategically grow and expand their business," says Maureen Borzacchiello, the gala's chairwoman and founder and president of Creative Display Solutions Inc., a Lynbrook company that specializes in custom graphics and displays.
 
Sachdev, who started OysterBridge Group Inc., a Manhattan financial-planning and risk-management company, describes his selection as "overwhelming."
 
He said, "I understand that the women business owners are more resilient and more open than other people in their businesses. If this were a men's club, a woman would have to go for a lawsuit [to be recognized]," he says.
 
The NAWBO/LI Gala will feature some high-powered women.
 
The event's emcee and keynote is Marcia Silverman, chief executive of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in Manhattan. She is a 25-year veteran of Ogilvy and was the firm's first president of the Americas and once headed the company's largest office, in Washington, D.C.
 
"She's broken through the glass ceiling," Borzacchiello says. "I really think that she is such an inspiration in the corporate world as well as to women entrepreneurs."
 
[CORRECTION: Because of an editing error, a reference in an Inside Stories item in the Business & Technology section yesterday was incomplete. Maureen Borzacchiello, the chairwoman of a women's group gala, was a winner of the "Make Mine a Million Business" contest in 2005 and credits the program with helping her company reach the $1-million revenue mark. (A15 ALL 3/27/2007)] Borzacchiello, the gala's president and a contest winner in 2005, credits the program with helping her company pass the $1 million revenue mark last year.
 
The gala takes place on May 23 at Fox Hollow in Woodbury. For more information, call 516-240-8058. - CARRIE MASON-DRAFFEN
 
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