For Immediate Release:
February 23, 2006

BUFFALO, NY – Anthony M. Masiello, former mayor of the City of Buffalo, was honored Wednesday evening in a surprise ceremony during which he received the first Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus Citizen of the Year award.

The presentation followed a Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) progress report by board chair Thomas R. Beecher, Jr. to invited guests assembled for a private performance by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO).

Tony Masiello has been our greatest cheerleader,” said Beecher. “He was committed to the formation of our organization and continued his engagement as an active member of our board of directors, rarely missing a meeting.”

Former Mayor Masiello helped get all of the institutions and our public sector partners on the same page. He pledged support from the city – and he delivered,” Beecher continued. “His vision and leadership helped get us where we are today. It is a pleasure to present the very first BNMC Citizen of the Year award to him.”

The evening featured a BPO performance called “Amadeus Rocks,” which included Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne and John Harbison’s The Most Often Used Chords.

Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 dedicated to the cultivation of a world-class medical campus on 100 acres in downtown Buffalo. The BNMC represents a consortium of the region’s premier clinical, research and education institutions.

The BNMC is home to the region’s top clinical, research, and medical education institutions. They are University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Olmsted Center for the Visually Impaired, Kaleida Health, Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, Buffalo Medical Group and Buffalo Hearing & Speech Center.

In 2001, these institutions came together in partnership with the City of Buffalo, the County of Erie, the Allentown neighborhood and the Fruit Belt neighborhood, to form BNMC, Inc., to cultivate a world-class medical campus on 100-acres in downtown Buffalo.

Over 8,000 people come to work at the medical campus every day. Together, the BNMC institutions host over 750,000 patient visits annually, and account for approximately $600M in annual expenditures as well as another $300M in economic impact each year.