Executive suite: Maureen Borzacchiello, Garden City

Tired of commuting from Long Island to New Jersey, Maureen Borzacchiello had planned to take some time off after leaving her job at an exhibit management company there in 2000.

Instead, she ended up launching a similar company within several weeks. Creative Display Solutions Inc., which creates, manages and stores trade show displays for clients worldwide -- including American Express and JetBlue -- is based in Garden City.

Borzacchiello, 41, serves on the board of Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence, a nonprofit group helping women entrepreneurs. Her husband joined the company, started by Borzacchiello in 2001, four years ago. They have a son.

What do you remember about the first time you were someone else's boss?
After being promoted to manager, "My boss said to me, 'Welcome to eating alone at lunchtime.' Just because you had to maintain a line in the sand. You had to interact with your colleagues in a slightly different way or they perceived you a little bit differently."

Employees take a behavioral test that assesses "who's visual, who's auditory. If you're giving someone an assignment, are they are a reader that needs to read and digest the information, or can you verbally just say, 'I need you to do this . . . ' and they work better without lots of detail to bog them down?" Rather than "have them conform to who I am, I can identify some key things that are important to who they are behaviorally."

What are your plans for growth?
Borzacchiello calls moving into government contracts "a significant part of our growth strategy. Here's a clear way to go from a $2-million company to a $4-million company." Also, the company is continuing to expand its event management services.

What do you look for when you're hiring?
"It's a very positive environment here. If you're a negative person by nature, you're not really going to fit in because no one's going to enable that. We always try to maintain a fun place to work.

"We certainly have the days where -- [bad] stuff happens." For instance, a truck delivering a client's exhibits once got into an accident and caught fire. The exhibits were destroyed 48 hours before a show.

"We scrambled -- we had new graphics produced, and we took care of it. It's what you do when things happen that sets you apart. You have to have a team that gets that."

How would you describe your leadership style?
"I'm a diplomatic leader. I give people room to do what they need to do, but yet, I will certainly hold them accountable if they're not generating results."

How do you get people to do what you need them to do?
"I share my vision a lot, and I share where we're going, what we're trying to accomplish. By doing so, they understand where the boat is heading and that we're not just out to sea, kind of floating around -- that we have a destination and some stops along the way that we want to make."