At the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce’s (MCC) annual meeting, New York Governor Hochul and Manhattan Chamber chair, Don Winter honored Michael Kempner with its prestigious award, the Chairman Award. The award recognizes Kempner and entertainer Nick Cannon for their dedication to serving the small business community of New York. Hochul cited Kempner’s work in helping to build the MCC as its former chairman and the many critical services initiated by the MCC during his tenure.
MCC chair Don Winters celebrated Kempner’s previous Chairmanship in announcing the award. He credited Kempner for modernizing the MCC, enhancing its board and its preeminent position as the voice of small and medium business in the New York political and economic infrastructure. “He brought knowledge and belief to the Chamber when he became chairman of our board. He helped to raise our profile and our revenue, made our Chamber way more modern and efficient, but most importantly, he helped to ensure we were truly serving our members each and every day.”
Kempner asked the audience to keep focused on making New York a better place to build small businesses in accepting the award. “Small business is the backbone of New York City. Owning and running a small business is difficult under any circumstances, but it was close to impossible in a pandemic. But under the guidance of the MCC, small business has the opportunity to come out of the pandemic strong. In fact, the MCC had directly helped more than 10,000 New York small businesses with programs to help them sustain and grow. I’m proud to be part of this critical organization.”
