Where In The World Is Robert Wilmers?
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- July
- 11
The first order of business for M&T Bank Chairman Robert Wilmers after he was tapped to lead Empire State Development Corp.? Take a vacation.
Wilmers is set to take the reins of the state’s Empire State Development Corp. on Saturday amid ongoing troubles facing the agency.
But Wilmers, 74, has yet to reach out to many of the state’s business or legislative leaders as he prepares for the critical role of overseeing the state’s main economic-development arm.
Instead, Wilmers has apparently been on vacation in Europe, including at his home in France, for most of the time since he was confirmed to the post by the state Senate nearly a month ago. He was not in attendance during his confirmation.
Wilmers, a multi-millionaire from Buffalo, is expected back soon, according to state officials. But his spokesman at M&T Bank declined to discuss Wilmers’ whereabouts and Wilmers, through the spokesman, declined an interview request.
Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer split the agency into upstate and downstate divisions with co-chairmen in an effort to put renewed focus on the upstate economy.
But when David Paterson replaced Spitzer in March, one of his first orders was to revamp the agency’s structure and put it under one leader, arguing that the dual positions were ineffective.
Paterson tapped Wilmers in early June as the unpaid chairman, who will hire upstate and downstate deputies to handle the day-to-day operations.
But some business leaders said they have yet to meet with Wilmers since Paterson named him to the position. They have no idea which direction he plans to take the agency, or when he plans to name the agency’s deputies.
This entry was posted
on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 3:59 pm by Joseph Spector.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
