It was billed as the top networking event of the year — and proved to be that from the start, as more than 400 of the top business leaders in the state gathered Tuesday night at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick for the BINJE’s Best: Power Players event presented by Johnson & Johnson.
Then the surprised guest, Lt. Governor-elect Dale Caldwell came — and lifted the event to another level.
The Honorees
The BINJE’s Best: Power Players reception is a ‘Who’s Who’ among leaders in the state.
A look at the Top 30
A look at the complete list
Caldwell not only delivered a message that Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill is eager to work with the business community to create more revenue, more jobs and more opportunity in the state, he stayed until the end, shaking hands and posing for pictures for the more than 100 honorees in attendance.
“This is an event we should be at; we have to be at,” Caldwell told BINJE afterward. “This is a community we want to connect with and work with.”
That message came through loud and clear.
“Mikie and I said our goal is to expand the tax base to make sure that businesses in New Jersey are not only doing well, that they’re thriving, to make sure that small businesses have the bureaucracy that has held them back for so long cleared out of the way,” he said.
“In our transition, we created task forces, not based on departments but based on issues. That’s how we’re going to govern, because the state of New Jersey is there to work with the residents of New Jersey.”
Caldwell then issued a call to action.
“One of the things you’re going to see from this administration is that we’re going to put you to work,” he said. “We’re going to ask you for your ideas. We can’t do everything, but we need to make sure that we work from the community up.”
He noted New Jersey’s GDP, on its own, would make the state one of the biggest countries in the world.
“We need to begin to think about, how can we create businesses in New Jersey that are standalone?” he said. “We have the density of population; we have the geography. We can do things. The mindset has to be very different.”
Caldwell was a natural fit in the room because he’s spent his entire work life in these rooms.
Caldwell isn’t a career politician — he’s a former Deloitte consultant, Newark Alliance leader, and university president. He knows firsthand the challenges businesses face.
When was the last time an elected official had previously served as the head of an institute for innovation and entrepreneurship, as he did at FDU?
That’s why Caldwell knows first-hand the challenges businesses face. He has tried to navigate the silos of state government and seen their shortcomings.
“I still consider myself a corporate person, and corporate people are focused on what getting things done, and Gov. Sherrill is the same way,” he said.
Caldwell said the transition task forces are just one way the new administration will bring new ideas. He pointed to Sherrill naming of the state’s first chief operating officer, Kelly Doucette, as a transformational move — one that shows the incoming governor’s commitment to the business community.
Caldwell said Doucette will help the business community work through the challenges.
“We want to hear how government is getting in the way,” he said. “We can’t promise we can solve it immediately, but we’re going to focus on doing that.”
N.J. State Chamber CEO Tom Bracken, who introduced Caldwell to the standing-room-only crowd, was thrilled. He said the business community is eager to begin working with the new administration.
“Everyone in this room is a proud member of the New Jersey business community,” he said. “We all know the enormous potential this state has, and we’ve been waiting patiently, probably more honestly, impatiently, for somebody to unlock that potential.
“I’m very optimistic about the partnership that the governor and lieutenant governor are going to create with New Jersey’s business community, and the result that is going to have on our economy, which has no place to go but up.”
It was that type of night, one in which Caldwell collected more business cards than anyone.
Bracken said the State Chamber, which did an incredible job as the event planner and operator for an event that sold out, couldn’t have been happier with the outcome.
He praised Caldwell for staying the entire night.
Caldwell said he wouldn’t have it any other way. He ended his talk with one tell-all idea.
“People ask me: ‘Dale, are you going to be excited when you and the governor are inaugurated?” he asked and then answered. “I’ll be excited when we do something. And the only way we’re going to do something is by working with each of you.
“Let’s make sure that New Jersey is unified. Let’s work together for the good of the entire 9.5 million population, and let’s make history together and be a model for the United States of America.”
