NJBIA Announces 12 Recipients of 2025 Awards for Excellence
NJBIA and New Jersey Business Magazine have announced the 12 recipients of the annual Awards for Excellence, which honor member companies and business leaders whose energy and vision have had a positive impact on their employees, their communities and the state’s economy.
Eight businesses and organizations, as well as four executives, are being recognized with awards in 2025.
Details about the winners can be found in the October issue of New Jersey Business Magazine.
“This year’s Awards for Excellence winners, all valued NJBIA members, have stepped up to do right for their employees, their communities and New Jersey’s economy,” said NJBIA President & CEO Michele Siekerka. “We are truly proud to recognize their notable achievements.”
The winners are listed by category below:
2025 AFE Executives of the Year
Patrick Jefferey, Executive VP & COO, T&M Associates
Upon being named executive vice president and COO of engineering/technical services firm T&M Associates in 2019, Jefferey has guided the 350-person organization through its most profitable period in company history. Under his leadership, annual revenues have exceeded $89 million, and operational efficiency has been enhanced through measurable strategies. As a licensed professional engineer and planner, Jefferey brings technical expertise to his leadership role, with a project portfolio that includes enhancing roads, stormwater systems, public water facilities, parks and coastal zones.
Mark E. Manigan, President & CEO, RWJBarnabas Health
Upon assuming his role in 2023, Manigan leveraged a strategic vision to drive $9.5 billion in operating income in 2024, representing a $546 million two-year turnaround. Manigan has simultaneously helped decrease patient mortality at RWJBarnanas Health by 15% and reduced patient central line infections by 34%. Manigan has a deep commitment to New Jersey communities: RWJBarnabas Health annually contributes more than $5.5 billion to New Jersey’s economy and is the largest provider of safety net medical care in the state. Manigan also spearheaded a $1 billion partnership with Rutgers University to expand clinical trials and medical education.
Dr. Christopher M. Reber, President, Hudson County Community College
Reber, Ph.D., has been president of Hudson County Community College (HCCC) since 2018, overseeing an institution that serves more than 20,000 students with high-quality educational programs/services. Reber has initiated nationally acclaimed programs including: the President’s Advisory Council on Institutional Engagement and Excellence (PACE), which promotes principles of excellence in all HCCC activities and outcomes; and the HCCC Hudson Helps Resource Center, a compendium of wraparound services and programs that address basic student needs beyond the classroom. He is the first community college president to serve on the board of the Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF), an organization of corporate CEOs and higher education leaders.
Deborah Visconi, President & CEO, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center
With more than 30 years of success in providing strategic direction, vision, and leadership in healthcare systems across the region, Visconi has led the center in expanding programs and services as well as enhancing its provider relations. This has yielded improvements in quality, safety, and the patient/resident experience, with Bergen New Bridge recognized as a “Top Hospital” and “Top Teaching Hospital” by the Leapfrog Group. Visconi collaborates with Bergen County and other community partners to launch programs that deliver care onsite and via telehealth, to thousands. In 2024, Visconi was named in “Becker’s Women Hospital Presidents and CEOs to Know” as well as a 2024 “Crain’s Women of Influence Finalist.”
2025 Members of the Year
Citizens is devoted both to New Jersey’s business community as well as NJBIA, including funding two workforce development grants in support of NJBIA’s affiliate foundation, Focus NJ. These grants are furthering Focus NJ’s online Workforce Development Map, an interactive map cataloging hundreds of workforce development training programs.
More broadly, Citizens is committing $10 million to nonprofits in 2025/2026 to support workforce development programs that strengthen talent pipelines and drive economic growth. With 107 New Jersey bank branches serving companies and consumers alike, Citizens operates in 14 states as well as the District of Columbia.
With more than 100 years of service in South Jersey and beyond, the Mt. Laurel-based law firm of Parker McCay is dedicated to its clients and the business community at large.
Its attorneys presented at NJBIA’s 2024 “The Second Act of Cannabis in the Garden State” event as well as the 2025 Women Business Leadership Forum. A Parker McCay attorney will likewise present at NJBIA’s Energy & Environmental Policy Forum this month.
It’s all part of Parker McCay’s larger pattern of engaging businesses with legal information that can protect them, as well as foster job creation and overall prosperity in the Garden State.
2025 AFE Community Service
While Atlantic City Electric (ACE) provides electricity for its customers, it also serves its communities in myriad ways, including having more than 470 team members operating beyond their job descriptions to spend over 11,400 hours volunteering at local nonprofits in 2024.
ACE employees also contributed more than $1 million to local nonprofits last year. The team meets customers at local pop-ups and neighborhood gatherings to chat about energy education and bill support options. In 2024, they attended more than 80 in-person events and provided $60 million in financial assistance to 35,000 customers.
Innovation+ was founded by James Barrood during the coronavirus pandemic, when New Jersey’s tech and innovation ecosystem was experiencing a time of great need. Since then, Innovation+ has hosted more than 180 salons and over 150 events that have connected leaders and shared insights on wide-ranging topics primarily focused on business/technology.
Successfully leveraging Barrood’s knowledge of the tech community to connect people and build relationships, Innovation+ has forged relationships throughout industry, education, government and nonprofits, evolving into a community of more than 1,000 global leaders and a total of 20,000+ members.
For Modern Line Furniture, philanthropic endeavors are part of its ethos.
The company recently donated furniture to Habitat for Humanity. “From the moment we arrived, we knew this was more than just a delivery – it was an opportunity to make a meaningful impact,” the company states. Modern Line Furniture routinely makes donations to Paralyzed Veterans of America, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Vietnam Veterans of America and others, recognizing that in-person donations allow the firm to build deeper relationships with those it supports and strengthen its connection with the community.
2025 AFE Outstanding Employers
Taurus International Corporation
Taurus International Corporation is deeply devoted to its employees: Its annual sales meeting features a week of employee training and recently included a day to develop a corporate culture statement. But Taurus is also known for its “human touch”: Its employees routinely celebrate family milestones, athletic wins and many other life events.
One employee tells New Jersey Business Magazine, “I joined Taurus after a 20-plus year career in corporate America where I was an ‘employee ID number.’ [At Taurus], I feel valued… That makes me want to do better and contribute more to the bottom line.”
If onboarding employees and continuously instructing them is part of Golden Crown Contractors’ corporate culture, it could be because its president, Christine Luizzia-McGuire, was taught about construction by her father (the former president) from an early age.
One of her current employees tells New Jersey Business Magazine, “I started with Golden Crown [about three years ago] and what it has been able to teach me about construction is far from none. I came in new to this industry and the company has taken the time to explain certain areas that I could not quite understand; it has sent me to classes to better my knowledge.”
Scrum Alliance, a fully remote nonprofit with 50 employees, has built an innovative people-first culture. In 2025, the firm earned a 94% Great Place to Work® score, outpacing the typical company average of 57%.
Scrum Alliance has invested in employee growth, launching career pathing tools as well as a custom leadership and professional development series based on employee feedback. Their onboarding program includes new hire mentors and a “network wheel” to foster early connections. Scrum Alliance has also kept its year-over-year healthcare premium increases to just 6.67% while separately donating to various causes and launching a formal Volunteer Time Off (VTO) policy, which annually affords eight paid hours to employees for their chosen causes.
