SOPAC’s 2nd Annual Business Leaders Breakfast Deemed a Success

On Thursday, the (SOPAC) held its second annual Business Leaders Breakfast, bringing in over 120 business owners and operators from around the area.  The idea was started by SOPAC’s Director of Development Linda Onorevole as a way to provide a networking opportunity for area business leaders and highlight SOPAC as an ideal venue for hosting business meetings and events.

This year’s event featured three scheduled guest speakers; Caren Franzini, Chief Executive Officer of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority; Sharon Waters, Editor of NJBiz and Each one spoke of ways that business owners could succeed in New Jersey and of topics relevant to today’s business owners.

“This is only our second year doing this; last year we only had around 75 people here and this year we have around 120, so I think that’s great growth for just two years,” said SOPAC Executive Director Michael Bollinger.  “I think it’s great to see state speakers here, county speakers here, city speakers here, and they’re all kind of getting along.  So good stuff this year.”

Joining the speakers were local officials from South Orange.  Village President Alex Torpey, Trustees Howard Levison and Deborah Davis Ford and Village Administrator Barry Lewis were among the attendees.

“It’s great to see all the people that need to work together at this event; business owners, people in local government, county government and the state,” said Torpey.  “I think we are all supporting each other and we are all supporting SOPAC and I think this is exactly the kind of thing I think everyone wants to work towards, which is how to support your local downtown and main streets and I am glad to be a part of that.”