New appointment at NIFA, but still no women (Updated)

 

 

                                                                       

      Mohsin Meghji

Nassau's financial control board has been around since 2000, overseeing the county's finances and taking control of the books in 2011.

In all that time,  the Nassau Interim Finance Authority has never had a woman on the seven-member board of directors.

And it looks like the volunteer board will stay all male for now.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed Mohsin Y. Meghji, of Old Westbury, to the NIFA board, at the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

In a news release, NIFA says Meghji  "is a nationally recognized turnaround professional known for his work with companies encountering financial, operational, or strategic challenges or at inflection points in their growth cycles."

Nassau, which has struggled with budget deficits for the same 20 years NIFA has been around, certainly can use a turnaround specialist.

"He is founder and managing partner of M3 Partners, LP, a corporate
advisory firm that specializes in turnarounds and performance improvement. Through M3
Partners, Mr. Meghji has, among other engagements, recently served as chief restructuring
officer for Sears Holdings Corporation, Barney’s Inc., and Sanchez Energy Corporation, and onthe Boards of Directors of a variety of companies including Toys “R” Us, Frontier
Communications, and Intelsat S.A, " NIFA said in the release.

Meghji is not affiliated with any political party, according to the Nassau Board of Elections.

He was a member of Cuomo's transition team when Cuomo became governor and he has donated to Democratic County Executive Laura Curran and Democratic state Senator Anna Kaplan of Great Neck. However, it is difficult to trace contributions from individual donors because the state Board of Elections recently changed its website to make it much more difficult to see who has donated to whom.

Meghji replaces Republican Paul Leventhal on the NIFA Board. Leventhal was serving as a holdover as is the board's only other Republican, Paul Annunziato.

Legis. Denise Ford of Long Beach in the past had written to Cuomo,  urging a woman be appointed to the NIFA board. She said today she will write again, pointing out that the United States now has a female vice president. 

Leg. Denise Ford

 While Ford said she wished Meghji luck, "I feel it's time."

"I find it hard to believe in New York State nobody can come up with a woman, " she said. "When you talk about implicit bias, that clearly is the case here."

She said she had forwarded the resume's of two smart capable women to the governor in the past -- a CPA and a lawyer who worked with large firms -- but never received a response.

"Fifty percent of the voters in New York state are women, " Ford said, "A lot of smart women."