Connecticut Executives to Discuss Transportation Strategies

Senior executives from Connecticut businesses will discuss how traffic congestion hurts economic growth and the natural environment on Thursday, January 30, at 4:15 p.m. at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

The panel titled, “Corridor Congestion: How I-95 Impacts Business and Environment,” will include:
* Christopher Bruhl, president and CEO of SACIA (the Business Council of Southwestern Connecticut), head of the Coastal Corridor Coalition and chair of the State Stakeholders Group on Transportation;
* Michael Critelli, chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes, member of the Transportation Strategy Board and incoming president of the Connecticut Institute for the 21st Century; and
* Diana Lenkowsky, vice president of Purdue Pharma.

The moderator will be Emil Frankel, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Transportation.

The panelists will address how their companies have worked to reduce the impact of corridor congestion on their businesses and the environment through innovative, practical strategies and participation in transportation policy development. Pitney Bowes, a leading mail and document management company, and Purdue Pharma, one of the world’s fastest-growing pharmaceutical companies, have offices in Stamford, which is most affected by transportation problems.

The discussion will take place in Bowers Auditorium of Sage Hall, 205 Prospect Street, and is free and open to the public. It is part of the lecture series, The Business of Sustainable Transportation, and is sponsored by the Yale Industrial Environmental Management (IEM) Program. A reception will follow the presentation. For more information, contact Michelle Portlock, 203-432-6953 or iem@yale.edu

In its 13th year, the IEM Spring Lecture Series brings speakers from a variety of companies to the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies to discuss the relationship between business and the environment. Other events in the 2003 series will address car sharing, alternative automobile fueling and the economics of mass transportation. On Tuesday, February 4, David Gunn, president & CEO of Amtrak , will discuss “The Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Rail Travel,” at 4:15 in Bowers Auditorium.

The IEM spring lecture series is supported by the Joel Omura Kurihara Fund, named for the late Joel Kurihara, F&ES class of 1992, who was committed to improving business and environmental relations and the type of dialogue this series seeks to advance.