RETIRED FINANCIER BOB HANFT

SUCCEEDS OBERRITER AT IDA

Bob Hanft, Pierstown, the retired Wall Street banker, has been elected chairman of the Otsego County Industrial Development Agency board.

Meeting yesterday, the IDA accepted “with regret” the resignation of Sharon Oberitter of Fly Creek, retired founder, with husband Don, of the Cooperstown Bat Co., who had shepherded the IDA through its dramatic transition.

During her tenure, longtime county economic developer Carolyn Lewis resigned and, under Oberriter’s leadership, the IDA made a three-year commitment to a “single point of contact” approach to economic development, recruiting the former Greene County economic developer, Sandy Mathes, to lead the charge.

Hanft, among the foremost supporters of the new approach, had been vice chair, and the board elected Jim Jordan, the Richfield Springs architect and longtime IDA board member, to succeed him.

A 1969 Hartwick College graduate who has served at chairman of the college Board of Trustees, Hanft retired to the Cooperstown area with wife Pat.  They had lived in New Jersey over the course of his Wall Street career.  The couple has grown children.

Graduating with a degree in economics, he joined J.P. Morgan, retiring as managing/director, global equity research. He then joined Trinsum Group, retiring as managing director.