About the director

Matthew Aracich was unanimously elected President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties in 2017. In his role as President, he represents more than 65,000 Tradesmen and Tradeswomen belonging to 36 affiliated Labor Organizations. Matthew is a third-generation union member, spanning more than 106 years of family heritage. In his previous career he served as the Business Manager/Financial Secretary of Heat and Frost Insulators, Local Union No.12 located in NY City. In that capacity he was the union’s principal administrator and responsible for negotiating contracts; Trustee to the member’s hundreds of Millions in benefit funds, securing work opportunities for the membership, and representing the union for its political agenda. Matthew has been involved in many aspects of education in local unions. Education is one of the most important aspects of construction, and Matthew is supportive of expanding Pre-Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship Programs as an important aspect of workforce development in the construction trades.

The Building Trades Councils enlist the help of their affiliates to train and graduate more students than all private colleges combined. It is noteworthy that there is no cost to the union member because the labor unions pay for all training.  The National Offshore Wind Training Center(NOWTC) is another prime example of education and opportunity that will promote green energy initiatives while lowering our nation’s carbon footprint.  Since taking office he was selected to join the Board of Directors for United Way of Long Island. President Aracich has a strong resume that includes being a heavy equipment operator for the U.S. Navy. He began his career in construction as a commercial diver more than 40 years ago.

About the director

Louis J. Petrizzo retired in March 2023 as the Executive Vice-President and College General Counsel of Suffolk County Community College. He had served from January 2019 through June 2021, as the Interim President of the College. Suffolk County Community College is the largest community college in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. The College is a comprehensive publicly supported, two-year, open enrollment institution located in the easternmost county of Long Island, New York. The College's service area is about 900 square miles with a population of 1.5 million people. The College has a current enrollment of more than 21,000 students.Prior to his association with the College, Mr. Petrizzo was elected and served a three-year term as a Suffolk County Legislator. He served a two-year term as Town Attorney for the Town of Babylon on Long Island and was Staff Counsel for over a decade for a member of the New York State Senate. He then established his own private practice, where he provided legal advice to employers and engaged in the general practice of law.

In December 2010, Mr. Petrizzo joined the College as College General Counsel. He was promoted to the position of Executive Vice President/College General Counsel in December 2017. From January 2019 until June 2021, Mr. Petrizzo has served as Interim President of the College, overseeing all the day-to-day operations of the College, providing executive leadership to the College’s Cabinet and serving as the primary point of contact for the College’s Board of Trustees. Mr. Petrizzo has demonstrated expertise in organizational management, inter-governmental affairs, and policy development, as well as broad experience with a full range of the legal issues involved within the field of higher education and general municipal law. Mr. Petrizzo earned his Bachelor's degree from LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York and his J.D. from the University of Toledo, College of Law in Ohio. Mr. Petrizzo was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

About the director

From 2005 until 2022, Roger Clayman served as the Executive Director of the Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the fourth largest labor council in the country. The local Federation is the voice for 250,000 union members and their families in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The Long Island Federation of Labor speaks for local unions and their members at every level of government. Under Clayman’s leadership, The Federation established an effective legislative and political program to promote the needs of union families on Long Island. It focused on gaining good jobs and housing in local communities; rebuilding Long Island’s infrastructure; and providing leadership training for the next generation of union leaders.He emphasized The Federation’s work addressing economic development, with an emphasis on building wealth and opportunities in our local communities through union construction, thereby benefiting all sectors of the labor movement. In addition, the Federation has been deeply involved in community coalitions, working closely with Long Island Jobs with Justice to promote immigrants’ rights and economic empowerment for workers fighting exploitation and unsafe working conditions.

Clayman came to the Long Island Federation of Labor after a 30 year career with the National AFL-CIO where he was involved with organizing, political and collective bargaining campaigns around the country. He started his career in 1973 with the National AFL-CIO Civil Rights Department. He has worked closely with the Building and Construction Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties along with partners in government and the community to establish a pre-apprenticeship program, Opportunities Long Island. The program recruits primarily young minority men and women from economically challenged communities and helps them gain entry into the construction trades.Recently, he has led the Federation’s efforts to create union jobs in the emerging offshore wind industry. Working closely with the Building Trades, Suffolk County Community College, the BlueGreenAlliance, IBEW, the Utility Workers and Orsted/Eversource, he has worked to establish the National Offshore Wind Training Center (NOWTC) on Long Island to provide Global Wind Organization certifications for workers in the industry. Clayman was born in Columbus, Ohio. He received his B.A. from Oberlin College. He currently lives in Port Jefferson, New York with his wife Lillian. They have two grown children, David and Rebecca, and three grandchildren, Cameron, Gabriel and Levi.