Morris County Chamber names Tom Serluco of KPMG as board chair and other board officers

Florham Park N.J. – The Morris County Chamber of Commerce board of directors has named Tom Serluco, a partner at audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG, LLP as its 2021 chair, as well as its 2021 slate of officers.

• Trish O’Keefe, president of Morristown Medical Center and vice president of Atlantic Health System, will serve as immediate past chair. She served as board chair for 2019-2020.
• Deidre Wheately-Liss, a principal at the law firm Porzio, Bromberg & Newman, P.C., will serve as vice chair, moving up from secretary.
• Tom Lyons, senior vice president, chief financial officer of Provident Bank and Provident Financial Services, Inc., will remain as treasurer.
• Tony Iacono, president of County College of Morris, has been added to the officer slate and will serve as secretary.
• Jason Waldstein, a partner at legal services firm Schenck, Price, Smith & King, LLP, also is new to the officers and will serve as board attorney.

​The board also welcomed three new members: Casey Gocel, a partner at the law firm Mandelbaum Salsberg; Barbra Katz, chief human resources officer and senior vice president at Crum & Forster; and Jawad Chaudhry, executive vice president and head of corporate finance & strategy at Investors Bank.
 
Serluco Is an audit partner in KPMG’s Short Hills office and serves as the leader of the New Jersey Audit Practice.  He has more than 28 years of experience serving national and global organizations and provides accounting and auditing services to public and private companies for a variety of industries, including the retail, consumer product, chemical and life science industries. He holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration from Northeastern University and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in New Jersey and New York
 
“I am honored to serve as the board chair for the Morris County Chamber of Commerce,” he said. “The chamber is a vital economic engine for the county and surrounding region and plays a vital role in empowering the business community to grow, employ tens of thousands of people and contribute to the greater common good.
 
“I am humbled to follow Trish O’Keefe, whose stewardship of the board during the onset and continuation of COVID-19 was remarkable, and I hope to be able to provide similar leadership as we make our way out of these challenging times and weather the new conditions to which all business must now adapt.”
 
O’Keefe, Ph.D., R.N., was appointed as president of Morristown Medical Center and vice president of Atlantic Health System in 2016. She also served as the chief nursing officer to Morristown Medical Center since 1996 and, prior to that, was the director of Inpatient Surgical Services at the hospital since 1992. O’Keefe received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from Wilkes College (Wilkes-Barre, PA) and both a master of science degree in nursing administration and a Ph.D. from Seton Hall University.
 
Wheately-Liss counsels business owners on legal and structural issues related to start-up, financing, growth, risk mitigation and exit strategy, with an emphasis in tax minimization for all transactions. A graduate with honors from Johns Hopkins University, she earned her J.D. at Boston College Law School and holds a master of law degree in taxation from New York University School of Law.
 
Lyons has held his current position at Provident since 2009. He also serves on the board of Beacon Trust Company, Provident’s wealth management subsidiary. Lyons is responsible for providing strategic and tactical leadership on all critical financial areas throughout the bank. He is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University with a bachelor of science degree in accounting.
 
Iacono became the third president of County College of Morris in 2016. Prior to that he served as vice president of academic affairs at Indian River State College (Fort Pierce, FL), where he helped the school earn recognition by the Aspen Award Committee as one of the top three community colleges in the nation. He earned his Ph.D. in American history from Mississippi State University, his master’s of administration and bachelor’s of arts in American history from the University of Central Florida and his associate degree in general studies from Indian River Community College.
 
Waldstein focuses his practice on assisting closely-held companies. His experience with these entities has been equally broad, as he has counseled in areas ranging from drafting, negotiating and reviewing agreements to developing and implementing policies and procedures.  He earned his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law and his bachelor of science degree in marketing from Rutgers University.
 
Gocel is a member of Mandelbaum Salsburg’s executive committee. She focuses her practice on corporate transactions for entrepreneurs and businesses in a wide range of industries, as well as tax and estate planning for business principals and executives, and is widely known for her work in the dental industry. She earned her J.D. from Whittier Law School (Costa Mesa, CA), her master of law degree from New York University School of Law and her bachelor of arts degree in political science from University of Albany, SUNY.
 
Katz joined Crum & Forster in 2020.  She oversees all human resources functions and leads a corporate HR team supporting the organization with people strategy, learning, development, succession planning, talent acquisition, compensation, benefits, corporate social responsibility and diversity equity and inclusion. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from City University of New York-Brooklyn College.
 
Chaudhry joined Investors Bank in 2015 from Prudential Financial, where he worked as a vice president of corporate development. Prior to  that he worked as a senior vice president in Jefferies’ FIG Investment Banking  division, with more than a decade career on Wall Street.  A Chartered Financial Analyst, Chaudhry holds a bachelor's degree in economics, mathematics with a minor in finance from Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, PA).
     
“The Morris County Chamber of Commerce could not be as successful as we have been over the years without the insightful guidance of our board, its officers and chair,” said Meghan Hunscher, president of the Morris County Chamber of Commerce. “We are thankful to Trish O’Keefe for her guidance during her tenure – we attracted new members despite COVID – and I look forward to working closely with Tom, the 2021 officer group and our entire board to ensure our continued progress and the best interests of our members.”
 
About the Morris County Chamber of Commerce 
The Morris County Chamber of Commerce has more than 700 member organizations that range from entrepreneurs and small businesses to large corporations and Fortune 500 companies. The chamber’s mission is to collaboratively advance the interests of its members to champion a thriving business and community environment. The chamber’s many events, meetings and seminars provide a platform for its members to connect, collaborate, learn and succeed. The chamber is dedicated to the advancement of Morris County's businesses and community by providing services, information and advocacy to support the success of its member organizations. They are headquartered in Florham Park.
 
Chamber Contact:                                                       Media Contact:
Colette Moran                                                              Christopher Reardon
Morris County Chamber of Commerce                    Reardon Communications Group
Tel: 973.210.6083                                                         Tel: 908.229.4674
colette@morrischamber.org                                       chris@reardoncommunications.com