By GREGORY ZELLER //
Across industries and sectors, an A-list of major Long Island names is updating its resumés this summer.
The latest: Former New York State Chief Administrative Judge Gail Prudenti, who’s joined the East Setauket-based Burner Law Group (known henceforth as Burner Prudenti Law).
Prudenti – also a former dean of Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law – makes her move on the heels of Mark Michalski and Gregg Fergus, who’ve been named CEO and executive chairman, respectively, of Ascertain, a unique artificial intelligence-development platform birthed by New York City-based company-creator Aegis Ventures and New Hyde Park-based Northwell Holdings, the health system’s for-profit investment arm.
The official formation of its high-caliber leadership team marks a significant milestone for Ascertain, which launched in 2022 to unite clinicians, engineers and executive leaders on a mission to develop impactful AI-based healthcare solutions.
Mark Michalski: Radiologist-active.
Longtime collaborators Michalski and Fergus deliver a formidable combination of science and business savvy. Michalski, a board-certified radiologist educated at Yale and Stanford universities, boasts two decades of executive leadership experience, including a turn running healthcare and life sciences strategic development for Amazon.
He first met Fergus at Connecticut-based venture studio 4Catalyzer, where Fergus – former president and COO of DNA-sequencing company Ion Torrent – helped launch several notable healthcare companies, including Butterfly Network (manufacturer of AI-powered handheld devices) and AI Therapeutics (a pharmaceutical pipeline for rare orphan diseases).
The duo’s long experience with medical-product and medical-service development – and their unique AI expertise – makes them the ideal leaders for up-and-coming Ascertain, according to Northwell Health COO Mark Solazzo, who doubles as the vast health system’s president of strategic initiatives.
“We see tremendous opportunity to develop and implement AI solutions which improve operational efficiencies and ease the administrative burden placed on healthcare providers,” Solazzo said in a statement. “This is a pivotal moment in healthcare and we are excited to lead efforts to advance this work.”
Pivotal moments and significant advances are also in play in East Setauket, where law partners Nancy Burner and Britt Burner have made room for the one-time highest-ranking administrative judge in the New York State judiciary.
Gregg Fergus: Launch angles.
Prudenti, who stepped down in June after a six-and-a-half-year run as Deane School dean, brings several off-the-charts experiences to the table. Exhibit A: In addition to serving as the state’s highest administrative judge, she was the first woman to serve as Appellate Division presiding justice for the Second Judicial Department in New York State, the nation’s busiest appellate court.
During her deanship, she also led a $22 million fundraising campaign to revitalize Hofstra’s law school, including new diversity and inclusion efforts.
But most of all, the new partner – a Marymount College of Fordham University graduate who studied abroad at the University of Aberdeen, where she earned a Bachelor of Law degree (and was later granted an honorary Doctorate of Law) – brings unparalleled name recognition to a circa-1995 firm was its own well-earned reputations.
“Gail Prudenti is one of New York’s preeminent trust and estates attorneys, with decades of experience as a distinguished judge, an outstanding law school dean and … trusted attorney,” noted Founding Partner Nancy Burner. “Adding Gail positions Burner Prudenti Law to uniquely serve our clients’ growing needs for elder law and trust and estates expertise.”
Prudenti, who applauded the veteran firm’s commitment to “bettering the Long Island and New York community,” said the partnership was the ideal next chapter after her Hofstra term.
“I wanted an opportunity where I could continue to make a difference in the community and help families solve their legal issues,” the judge noted. “Burner Prudenti Law provides me with both opportunities.
“I am delighted to be joining such an outstanding team of attorneys and a firm that shares a commitment to providing exceptional legal services … and putting clients’ needs first.”
The rechristened law firm and the up-and-coming med-tech manufacturer are merely the latest regional organizations making big-name moves this summer season.
Among the notables: a new side gig for Stony Brook University Hospital CEO/COO Carol Gomes, who’s somehow found time in the day to became chairwoman of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, and a new title for distinguished Brookhaven National Laboratory physicist John Hill, the longtime leader of BNL’s National Synchrotron Light Source II who’s been named deputy director for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Upton-based laboratory.
Bethpage Federal Credit Union on Tuesday announced that Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Linda Armyn has been promoted to president and CEO, effective immediately. Armyn succeeds longtime top dog Wayne Grossé , a 24-year BFCU veteran who stepped down this month after eight years as president/CEO.
And top-tier law firm Sahn Ward Braff Koblenz PLLC has added a new partner: Edward McCabe, a Deane School graduate with long experience in civil and commercial litigation and appeals, as well as real estate law and transactions.
McCabe is a good get for the land use-focused firm: In addition to managing his private practice, he is vice chairman of the Town of Islip Zoning Board of Appeals.
And his partnership marks a full-circle moment: McCabe’s father, Edward G. McCabe, a former New York State Supreme Court justice and Nassau County administrative judge, was special counsel to the Uniondale firm until his death in June.
