Brooklyn's Progress
March 2004

By Khadija Batuta

The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce that Maggie Beaute-Lucien joined the staff on Feb. 2 as Manager of Special Events.  Maggie will be responsible for the management and execution of Chamber events including the monthly Business After Hours and the Annual Golf and Tennis Classic to name a few.  A graduate of Long Island University’s School of Business, Maggie is currently working on a master’s degree in business management.  Maggie’s previous experience includes product development initiatives for Prudential Financial and development and alumni relations for the Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy at Long Island University.  Maggie looks forward to working more closely with Members to ensure the continued success of Chamber events.

Joe Kochanski also joined the Chamber staff on Feb. 2 as a Staff Accountnat.  He has an associate degree in accouting from Katherine Gibbs School in Manhattan.  Prior to joining the Chamber, Joe was a chef for Park Slope Chip Shop. 

In other Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce staff news,
veteran  Chamber staff and Members may believe they have been experiencing a bit of déjà vu lately.  And they would be right.  That’s because Chamber intern Seydi Sevinc has been here at the Chamber before.

Currently serving a two-month internship at the Brooklyn Chamber, Seydi, a student with the International School of Management at Dortmund in Germany, first interned for Brooklyn Goes Global back in 1999 under previous director Jen O’Connor.  During his second tenure with the Chamber, Seydi is working on projects as diverse as developing the Member-to-Member feature on iBrooklyn.com, and providing technology and marketing support for the Downtown Brooklyn Council and the Chamber’s Special Events and Program Development departments.

The road back to the Chamber proved to be quite simple.  Seydi maintained contact with an old ally from his first internship, former iBrooklyn director Henok Assefa, and propositioned him about returning to the Chamber for a second run.  Seydi was pleased to receive a welcoming and positive response.

“I wanted to intern with the Chamber again because I knew the Chamber would provide me with a varied work experience that would allow me to focus on building my marketing skills.  I also knew I’d have a good time and would have the opportunity to participate in many events and meet representatives of important businesses.”

Seydi, who is a native of Germany, has worked on projects in a number of different countries including Denmark, Italy and Spain.  He has studied in France in addition to his two stints here in the United States with the Brooklyn Chamber.  Seydi hopes his diverse study and work experiences will assist him in understanding global marketing strategies, as his goal is to work abroad for an international marketing firm.  As a matter of fact, he hopes to return to the U.S. to continue his studies at Harvard University.

In the meantime, the Brooklyn Chamber is glad to welcome Seydi back … and looks forward to possibly working with him again in the next few years.