The new Mehiel era for the BPCA

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On July 31st, Dennis Mehiel was formally elected to become the new Chairman of the Battery Park City Authority.

The BPCA website biography states: “Mr. Mehiel is the former Principal Shareholder and Chairman of U. S. Corrugated, Inc., the Nation’s largest independent manufacturer of corrugated packaging until a recent transaction in which USC was acquired by Kapstone Paper and Packaging Corporation. U. S. Corrugated operated a 500,000 ton integrated manufacturing system with 19 converting facilities and a recycled containerboard mill.

Mr. Mehiel is the former Chairman, CEO and Principal Shareholder of Box USA, which he founded in 1966. The Company was built primarily through the acquisition of financially troubled competitors, many in Chapter 11. When sold to International Paper in 2004, Box USA was also then the Nation’s largest independent producer of corrugated shipping containers operating 22 corrugated packaging facilities and two containerboard mills, all located within the continental United States. Mr. Mehiel is also the former Chairman, CEO, and Principal Shareholder of Sweetheart Cup Company, North America’s largest producer of disposable table top products for the away-from-home dining market. The company was acquired by its principal competitor, Solo Cup Company in 2004. Sweetheart was rescued from insolvency when acquired by Mr. Mehiel in 1998. During the course of his career Mr. Mehiel has been instrumental in creating or saving thousands of U.S. based manufacturing jobs. He has long experience in the Public Debt Markets through which his enterprises have typically been capitalized.

Mr. Mehiel is an Investor in and an Independent Director of Sober Steering Sensors, a development stage Company commercializing a passive interdiction technology which prevents the operation of a motor vehicle when alcohol is present. He is also an Investor in and an Independent Director of Mineral Separation Technologies, Inc., a development stage company commercializing a revolutionary new process for the preparation of coal for market. He is a former Director of Fusion Telecommunications; a NASDAQ listed Public Company, a former Member of the Board of The Milano School for Management and Urban Policy at the New School, a Member of Business Executives for National Security and a former Trustee of the Westchester Medical Center. During 2011 he served as Vice-Chair and a Director of the Empire State Development Corporation, an instrumentality of the New York State Government focused on Economic Development and Job Creation. From 1989 until 1993 he was a Trustee of the Windward School in White Plains, one of the region’s premier providers of education for learning disabled children. He served for ten years as a Trustee of the Purnell School in Pottersville, N.J., an independent high school for girls who have not succeeded in a traditional competitive academic setting. Mr. Mehiel was the first person not of the Jewish faith ever elected to the Board of Governors of Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work where he served from 1989 until 1996.

Mr. Mehiel has long been active in New York State political life. He served for 12 years as a member of the Democratic National Committee and is a former Chairman of the Westchester County Democratic Committee. For eight years he served as an Officer and Director of the New York League of Conservation Voters. He was the New York State Chair of the Kerry Presidential Campaign in 2004 and was the Democratic Nominee for Lt. Governor in 2002.

Mr. Mehiel is a member of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New York City. He is a former member of the Archdiocesan Council, the Lay Leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Americas, and continues as a member of its Leadership 100 Group and Faith: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism. He is an Archon of The Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the world’s oldest Lay Religious Organization.”