Anthony Mormile wants to strengthen the Bronx Chamber of Commerce, and in doing so, make his successor Joe Kelleher proud.
Mormile, the organization’s former treasurer, was unanimously voted as its new board chair last month following the Nov. 25, 2022 death of Kelleher, the former chair. Kelleher died at the age of 70 from Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, after a May 2022 diagnosis.
Mormile, who works as the Bronx market manager for Orange Bank and Trust, has been in banking since he was 19. The 57-year-old banker started on Jerome Avenue, where he managed a Citi Bank and then worked as a commercial lender in the Bronx for Hudson Valley Bank. He began working for Orange Bank and Trust four years ago with the goal of opening the Hudson Valley company’s first Bronx location, which became a reality in 2021 on Williamsbridge Road in Morris Park with the backdrop of other banks shutting down in the borough.
Born and raised on Arthur Avenue, Mormile lived in the Bronx for about three decades before relocating to Westchester, first in Peekskill for 10 years and then Croton on Hudson for the past 17 years.
Before his passing, Kelleher wanted Mormile to fill his post, the new chair said. The two men go back, with Kelleher inviting Mormile to get more involved with the chamber following its early 2000s reemergence under Elias Karmon — known as “Mr. Bronx” — after the organization fell apart in the 1990s. When Kelleher became treasurer, Mormile became assistant treasurer — Kelleher was his mentor.
Though Mormile and the chamber could not confirm the exact year he became a board member, the organization’s president Lisa Sorin believes it was approximately 2006.
Mormile described being treasurer, a role he approximated he held for 15 years, as a two-step process: putting financial controls in place at the chamber and then obtaining grants to support small businesses in the Bronx.
Now as chair, his vision stems from his love for both the borough and Kelleher, who Mormile said he doesn’t want to let down.
Mormile wants to continue his predecessor’s work developing committees of business owners within the organization, which he believes improve both transparency and efficiency. He also wants to build off of Kelleher’s efforts to grow chamber membership.
As for what he hopes to add to the organization, Mormile wants to work in unison more with other organizations that represent business owners, property owners and developers, like the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Bronx Rotary Club and the New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
“I’d love to see us come together as organizations to be even more vocal and stronger, a mouthpiece for the businesses of the Bronx,” he said. ” … It’s all intertwined as far as I’m concerned.”
He also wants to facilitate more programs that educate small business owners in the Bronx about running their businesses more efficiently.
Although the chamber is apolitical, the organization forms opinions and meets with pols when it comes to issues that impact the small businesses it represents, such as taxes, quality of life and security. Affordable housing also impacts doing business in the borough, Mormile said, because more people who can afford to live in the area means a bigger market.
Kelleher, the chair emeritus, was the president and chief operating officer of Hutch Management LLC, and received countless honors from New York institutions, such as the Bronx Historical Society to Jacobi Hospital.
The chamber will host a golf tournament named after Kelleher at Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point on June 20.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
