Directors

Brad is a Senior Vice President-Managing Director at Mower, a full-service marketing communications agency. He joined the firm in 1997 and manages Mower’s Rochester office.

He is a graduate of Northwood University in Midland, Michigan and began his communications career in radio, serving as a news announcer, on-air talent, and copywriter while working for three stations in Michigan: WFYC, WSGW and WGER.

He moved to Rochester and the agency world in 1993, joining Hutchins/Y&R as an account executive providing writing and other tactical program support for B2B public relations accounts. He then served as a public relations specialist at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Brad is actively engaged in professional and charitable organizations, including:

• Action for a Better Community: current Board Chair
• Hunter's Hope: current Board Member
• Public Relations Society of America: Past president and board member of the Rochester Chapter
• American Heart Association: Past Board Member, Rochester Chapter
• WXXI Public Broadcasting: Past Board Member

Honors and Awards Brad has received include:

• Advertising Chairman’s Award, Northwood University
• Rochester Business Journal, 40 Under 40 Award, 2001
• Graduate, Leadership Rochester, 2002
• Crystal Stair Award for Outstanding Board Service, Action for a Better Community, 2011

Brad and his wife, Ellen, reside in Webster and have three children in college.

Entrepreneur. Social scientist. Problem solver. Life-long learner. Ralph Dandrea founded ITX Corp. in 1997 to help clients solve complex technology problems. As challenges deepened and technology advanced, ITX responded in kind, expanding its range of capabilities and types of challenges it seeks. Ralph continues to evolve, as well. An accomplished software developer – e.g., some of the administrative systems he created decades ago remain in use – Ralph wears just one hat now, as ITX’s CEO.

In that role, he continues to leverage his social science research background in applying a comprehensive world view to lead ITX, mentor its leaders, and build enduring relationships with clients – an approach that has served as the cornerstone of ITX’s success for more than 20 years. His philosophies serve as the underpinnings for ITX’s mission, vision, and values.

At the core of Ralph’s belief system – what drives his personal and professional contentment – is instilling the concept of workability to create an uplifting culture that empowers leaders throughout ITX. Workability infuses his decision making and creates favorable conditions in which he and those around him can achieve success – at work, at home, and in relationships. His insights on workability can be found at his Workability Blog. Ralph’s contributions to Information Technology have been published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), a leading international forum for peer-reviewed research in information science, and the Public Library of Science (PLOS), a non-profit publisher, innovator, and advocacy organization.

Ralph’s journey to entrepreneurial success began with a small electronics parts venture at age 12. By 14, he had launched a database services business, striking the hot iron just as the personal computer industry heated up. His inquisitive nature and eagerness to solve problems inspired a series of business endeavors throughout his youth and beyond.

Working full-time throughout his education, Ralph became a partner in a profitable telecommunications business. Within a month of his graduation from Rochester Institute of Technology with a BS in Finance, Ralph sold his share of the business and spent a brief time exploring his next adventure. A passionate learner, he completed a joint JD/MBA program at the University of Buffalo in the midst of launching a technology consulting firm and even trying his hand in the food services business. Ralph recognized technology’s limitless opportunity and determined that his energies would be best focused there.

In 1994, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield recruited Ralph to serve as a director of information technology. In his 4 years there, Ralph outfitted home healthcare providers with laptops and other digital tools while reengineering the computerized billing system for their services – at the time, a $50M business. Though wonderfully successful in this role, Ralph’s entrepreneurial spirit and passion for solving new and complex challenges inspired the creation of yet another opportunity.

As he transitioned away from Excellus BC/BS, Ralph launched ITX and laid the groundwork for implementing an expansive telecommunications project at the University of Rochester. What started with one project in Q4 1997 blossomed into a $3M business in 3 years – leveraging the impact of Y2K as companies sought safeguards against anticipated turn-of-the-century calamity. Ralph’s early focus on project management services expanded as technology advanced. New development tools led to new solutions and quickly to even more complex – Ralph calls them “fun” – problems to be solved. At that time, development meant web development, and the demand for ITX’s unique and growing skill set was high.

Beyond ITX, Ralph is enthusiastic about his involvement with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, a worldwide collaborative comprising thousands of business owners seeking to learn from each other. He has served as a member leader at the local and global levels. He continues to explore topics in the social sciences and has studied leadership work with renowned scholars Werner Erhard and Michael Jensen. Ralph and ITX are avid supporters of the Rochester community and beyond. He has been an active board member of the Venture Jobs Foundation since 2013. A lover of the arts, Ralph has since 2005 served on the board of directors of Beth Morrison Projects, a national organization at the forefront of musical and theatrical innovation, and whose works have garnered two Pulitzer prizes in music. In addition, he and his wife, Colleen, have been involved in supporting a number of not-for-profits, including the Bivona Child Advocacy Center.

Ralph and Colleen reside in Pittsford, NY with their three teenage daughters.

From mergers and acquisitions to emerging technology companies, Steve has immersed himself in business and corporate law his entire legal career. Steve is a partner and immediate past chair of the firm's Corporate & Business Practice Group, and has extensive experience in the organization and development of business and professional entities; mergers, acquisitions and dispositions; corporate financing; and Federal and State securities law.

As both an attorney and a community volunteer, Steve is actively involved in healthcare matters. He has represented physicians, medical groups and other health care providers on a wide variety of legal matters.

Steve instructs other attorneys in corporate practice matters as the author of the 2014 LexisNexis® AnswerGuide™ New York Business Entities and is an Editorial Board Member and revision author for White New York Business Entities, a preeminent law treatise which provides an in-depth statutory and case law analysis of the New York Business Corporation Law, Limited Liability Company Law, Partnership Law and Not-for-Profit Corporation Law.

Steve practiced corporate law with Rosenman & Colin in New York City before joining Underberg & Kessler in 1986.

Professional and Community Involvement

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Jewish Senior Life Foundation and is past chair of the Jewish Home of Rochester. Steve has previously served as president of the Mental Health Association of Rochester and Monroe Counties, as a member of the Board of Directors of Temple Beth El, and as past chair of the Business Law Section of the Monroe County Bar Association.

Awards and Recognitions

Steve was selected a 2008-2013 Upstate New York Super Lawyer. The Super Lawyer group represents the top 5% of attorneys in Upstate New York who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. He also was named to the 2014 and 2013 editions of Best Lawyers in America®.

Steve was a recipient of the Rochester Business Journal's "Forty Under 40" Award, an annual tribute to emerging leaders of Rochester. He is a graduate of the State University of New York at Buffalo, B.A., 1979, and received his law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law, J.D., 1982.

Howie is a Principal in Red Rock 1886, providing ‘value-added thinking’ for small and emerging businesses. A 3rd generation Rochesterian and a graduate of Cornell University, Howie has spent a career in sales, marketing and distribution. As Executive Vice President of Canandaigua Wine/Constellation Brands and a member of the group that purchased Genesee Brewery Co., he has focused on national & global initiatives. In addition, he was President of Polyphenolics, Inc., a leader in the production of grape seed extract. As the managing partner at Dixon Schwabl “#1 Best Small Company To Work For In America’, Howie had an active role in expanding the client base and building the culture.

He has received recognition in many national and regional publications such as Advertising Week ‘One of the Top Marketers in America’. Locally, RBJ, D&C and others have recognized him for his volunteer and Board service.

With his co-founding of The Big Parade, the nation-wide community arts company, millions of dollars have been raised for not for profits. This aligns with his role as Vice Chair of Golisano Children’s Hospital, Vice Chair, Hillside Work Scholarship Connection, YWCP Charter School, EquiCenter for Therapeutic Riding and community emcee & auctioneering at numerous charitable events.

As co-founder of RocRead, an extremely successful reading program for all 32,000 Rochester City School District students, participation levels in this school-break reading initiative, average 7,000 to 8,000 for each RocRead.

Howie lives in Canandaigua with his wife, Jona.

Truman Tolefree is Director of Acquisitions for Morgan Management LLC, a leading national developer, owner, and operator of institutional quality multifamily apartment communities, headquartered in Pittsford, NY. Truman has over 12 years of experience in real estate finance, acquisitions and development. His industry experience and expertise includes the development, acquisition and disposition of real estate assets and the procurement of project financing implemented through various mechanisms including, but not limited to, senior and subordinated debt, mezzanine financing, various federal and state tax credits and hybrid debt/equity instruments.

Prior to joining Morgan Management, Truman worked in the Real Estate Capital Markets Groups of LaSalle Bank and Prudential Financial (Chicago, IL) where he was responsible for originating and underwriting non-recourse debt collateralized by commercial real estate assets. Serving in this capacity, he conducted detailed valuation analyses for commercial real estate valued in excess of $1.0 billion. Prior to his experience at LaSalle and Prudential, Truman was a financial analyst in the Financial Institutions Group for the corporate finance division of UBS Investment Bank in New York, NY, where he worked directly on three lead-managed acquisition transactions valued in excess of $2.0 billion. His experience includes mergers and acquisitions, real estate financing, CMBS securitizations and real estate development, acquisitions and dispositions.

Truman holds a B.S. in finance from Morehouse College (with distinction), and an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management with a concentration in corporate finance and a minor in real estate finance and development from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration. Truman resides with his wife, Erin, and two sons, Eric and Alex, in Victor, NY.