Siena College’s ninth annual Maddalone Wall of Success induction ceremony was hosted October 11 with an on-campus dinner to raise funds for student projects.
The Maddalone Wall, made possible through the generous support of Guy Maddalone ’89, founder and CEO of GTM Payroll Services, provides a highly visible platform to honor Siena alumni who have launched their own successful businesses, and to inspire current students who have entrepreneurial plans, according to Michael J. Hickey '83, executive director of the Stack Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and emcee of the dinner. Inductees have a plaque with their business’s logo featured on the Wall in the center.
The 2022 inductees are:
Chuck Cronin, Jr. '79
Axiom Capital Corp., Clifton Park, NY
Commercial real estate finance and advisory firm
Christian King '91
KNC Holdings, Albany, NY
Chain of Capital Region retail businesses
Alison Murphy '93
Total Event Solutions, Inc., Newport, RI
Nationwide, full-service event management and promotional staffing agency
Paul Vandenburgh '87
WDGJ Talk 1300, Albany, NY
Commercial AM talk radio station
Dawn Vavala '90
Nite Owl Marketing, Clifton Park, NY
Custom clothing and branded promotional products
Hickey said the local businesses it honors “form an ecosystem that we’re building together, and we celebrate that.”
Maddalone, as benefactor of the annual awards, noted that the purpose behind the Wall is to “highlight the risks that Siena alumni have taken to learn, innovate, and to design products and services that will create value and make a profit, along with their desire, tenacity and refusal to give up in their pursuit of entrepreneurial excellence.”
Louis Kudla '23, president of Siena’s student Entrepreneurship Organization, shared with the audience the wisdom he found in the Napoleon Hill book Think and Grow Rich, which highlights the point that the secret to success is not something definable.
“There is no right way to become an entrepreneur, and there is no blueprint,” Kudla said. “It's about having the patience, the motivation, and the confidence to face problems head on when they do show up. These are just some of the traits that make an entrepreneur truly successful and our honorees great role models.”
