LIA's tech program draws Fed's interest

Accelerate Long Island -- the Long Island Association's program to create jobs and businesses out of research conducted at the region's labs and universities -- got an endorsement Monday from an unexpected source: the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Speaking before an LIA special executive breakfast meeting, William C. Dudley told business executives, civic leaders and political figures at the organization's Melville headquarters that programs like Accelerate Long Island are "a welcome development."

"We would like to pick your brains to see what we can learn," said Dudley. "We look on this as extremely important. This is something we endorse."

Sam Aronson, director of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, said that despite local efforts, jobs have tended to leave Long Island anyway.

Accelerate Long Island is still getting off the ground. It is searching for a full-time executive director. The program involves a collaboration of the region's top institutions -- Stony Brook University, Cold Spring Harbor Lab, Hofstra University, North Shore-LIJ Health Systems and BNL.

Dudley offered lots of stats about the local economy. "I hadn't realized the Fed was doing so much" research, said LIA economist Pearl Kamer. "They're tackling small business and what's happening in local lending." Kamer called Dudley's talk "a realistic assessment" of the local and national economy.