North Brooklyn
Chamber of Commerce

Elaine Brodsky is the former co-owner of CitiStorage, LLC – an archival storage and records management company, located in Brooklyn, NY. The company, founded in 1990, grew into the largest independent, privately-owned, single- location records-storage company in the United States. In December, 2007, Elaine and her partners sold a majority interest to a NYSE company.

During her years as owner of CitiStorage, Elaine created a unique culture in the company. Toward that end, she planned and implemented “business excellence” sessions for her employees, most of whom came from the inner city. The programs, which have been the subject of several articles in Inc. magazine, were designed to encourage personal growth and promote teamwork throughout the organization. In 2005, the company received the Strive Employer of the Year Award for “demonstrating a commitment to providing second chances to individuals and assisting them in becoming productive members of society.” Elaine herself was the winner of the 2006 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year regional award for New York City. She also received the 2007 National Association of Women Business Owners Lifetime Achievement Award in New York City. A nationally recognized speaker, Elaine has co-authored numerous articles on women in business for the Inc. magazine website. Her company and its culture have been featured in two best-selling business books, Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big and The Knack.

For over 15 years, Elaine was an active member of the Board of the League Education and Treatment Center in Brooklyn which educated children with special needs. She is especially proud of her involvement with the North Brooklyn Angels, an organization which delivers meals and offers counseling to people in need throughout Brooklyn. Elaine has been married to Norm for 53 years and they have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Kendall Charter has made a career at New York City’s YMCA. He began working the front desk at the Y in 1993 and, over the following six years, held positions in Membership and the Youth and Family departments. Then, in 2000, he transferred to the Long Island City YMCA, where he served as Youth and Family Director for eight years. In 2008, Charter was named Associate Executive Director at the Prospect Park YMCA and Park Slope Armory—a position he held until assuming the head role at the Flatbush Y. He became the Executive Director at the Greenpoint YMCA in October 2015. He earned a bachelor’s degree from York College, where he studied social work, and a MPA from Metropolitan College of New York’s Graduate School of Public Service.

Kevin Thompson studied Business at LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and graduated from the Tulane University School of Law, New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally from New York City, Kevin has lived in many places across the US, as a result of working in the oil and gas industry. Kevin practiced law in New Orleans for 9 years, prior to moving into Public & Government Affairs.

In this new capacity, Kevin represented ConocoPhillips as Public Affairs Manager and Tribal Liaison in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. He was responsible for maintaining positive relations with the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute Tribes, as well as the Jicarilla Apache and Navajo Nations. Later, he represented Shell Oil and Motiva as Public Affairs Manager for Downstream Refining and Chemical assets at their New Orleans facilities. He then moved into the role of Communications and State Government Relations Manager for Sunoco, based in Philadelphia.

Kevin is now responsible for Public & Government Affairs for ExxonMobil in New York and New Jersey. His responsibilities include public and government affairs, communications and media relations.

Julia Moak is owner and publisher of Greenpointers.com, Brokelyn.com, and DumboNYC.com – three local media outlets based in Brooklyn. She has over 10 years of experience as a product developer, conceptualizing and overseeing the launch of various award winning web and mobile applications. During her role as VP of Products at an ed-tech start-up, she led a team of 12 developers to build a framework for custom CRM solutions and presented the product to investors, which eventually helped raise close to $4 million in a Series A round.

By late 2014, she was ready to branch out on her own and was itching to do something different from online products. Serendipitously, while browsing the latest neighborhood news on Greenpointers.com, she saw that it was up for sale and thought it would be the perfect creative outlet to connect with and experience her community. Despite having no experience in journalism or events, she started 2015 hitting the ground running, immediately writing stories and producing the first of many seasonal markets. Since then, she has expanded with two additional acquisitions (DumboNYC.com and Brokelyn.com) and resurrected Greenpoint Open Studios, a popular yearly event that draws over 400 participating local artists and thousands of visitors.

When she’s not juggling local events and news, she photographs street scenes, draws, and swing dances. She lives in Greenpoint with her jorkie fur-daughter rescue pup, Ella Fitzgerald