Michele N. Siekerka, Esq., President and CEO of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, leads the nation’s largest, most influential employers’ organization, advocating on behalf of New Jersey’s large and small businesses for policies that will make New Jersey more affordable and regionally competitive.

Being known as a collaborative leader, Siekerka is leading an NJBIA established coalition (New Jersey Business Coalition) comprised of more than 100 business and nonprofit associations across the state to tackle the tough economic and business challenges our state is facing during COVID 19.

Well versed on the ‘boots on the ground” issues affecting our state’s business community, Michele is often the “go to” resource for media and is sought after to share her expertise in public forums across the state.

As Chief Government Affairs Officer for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association Christopher focuses on taxation, budget, economic development and workforce development. NJBIA is the largest and most impactful business association in the nation.

Prior to his current job, Emigholz worked in state government for a decade. He was the Budget Director for the State Senate Republican Office for 8 years overseeing economic, fiscal and education policy, and he also directed education policy and legislative affairs in the New Jersey Department of Education prior to that. This is his second stint at NJBIA having served for years as their workforce development and education lobbyist earlier in his career. He was also a teacher through the Teach For America program in a high school in Atlanta, Georgia, and a community liaison/volunteer coordinator for an elementary school in Baltimore City through the AmeriCorps-VISTA program.

Emigholz has a Master of Public Policy degree from Rutgers’ Bloustein School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University. He currently lives in Robbinsville, NJ with his wife and 3 children, where he is active in the community including coaching youth sports and serving on the school board to which he was elected.

Ray Cantor is Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer of Government Affairs of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA), the nation’s largest state-level business association whose member companies collectively employ 1 million people.

Cantor, an attorney whose career has included high-level positions in the legislative and executive branches of government, a former assistant commissioner and, later, chief adviser to the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), leads NJBIA’s advocacy efforts on environmental and energy matters affecting the business community.

At DEP, Cantor oversaw the offices of Legal Affairs, Dispute Resolution, and Economic Analysis in addition to advising the DEP commissioner on policy, legal, management, and economic matters. Cantor was also responsible for policy formulation related to all DEP regulations, including site remediation, NRD, air quality, water regulation, and land-use management.

A graduate of New York Law School, Cantor began his career working at the state’s Office of Legislative Services as senior counsel in the Environment, Energy, & Natural Resources section. He later served as the Assistant Commissioner of Land Use Management & Compliance at DEP until 2002 and also worked as a project consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Cantor’s experience as a business lobbyist includes five years as director of Government Affairs for the Medical Society of New Jersey and then executive director of the New Jersey Apartment Association. He returned to the state DEP in 2010, where he served as chief advisor to DEP Commissioner Bob Martin for eight years.

Ford, who previously served as director of government relations for the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association (NJSFDA), brings valuable experience as a skilled researcher, legislative policy analyst and public speaker to her new role at NJBIA.

“Althea is well-respected by the business community, and the balanced, experienced and thoughtful approach she brings to advocating for New Jersey businesses will be a great asset as we expand the NJBIA Government Affairs team,” Siekerka said.

The NJBIA Government Affairs team also includes Chief Government Affairs Officer Christopher Emigholz, Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer Ray Cantor, Vice President of Government Affairs Alexis Bailey, and Director of Economic Policy Research Kyle Sullender.

A New Jersey native and Edison resident, Ford began working for the not-for-profit trade organization NJSFDA in 2012 as a government and external relations representative before her promotion to director of government relations in 2018.

Prior to joining NJSFDA, Ford worked in higher education administration at Columbia University’s Teachers College in New York City.

Before moving back to New Jersey, Ford was an executive assistant to Tennessee State Senate Speaker Pro Tem Rosalind Kurita, managing two legislative and district offices.

Ford is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and earned her master’s degree in politics and education from the Teachers College at Columbia University in 2010. She completed the New Leaders Council–New Jersey (NLC-NJ) Fellowship Program in 2012 and served on its executive board.

In addition to her current role as NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Elissa Frank has been selected to lead the Focus NJ Center for Economic Research & Workforce Solutions, an independent nonprofit that conducts timely nonpartisan research economic and workforce issues.  

Frank, who succeeds former Focus NJ Executive Director Kyle Sullender, was appointed to her new position on Feb. 5 by the Focus NJ Board of Trustees, effective immediately. 

“As NJBIA’s point person on all employer and labor law issues, Elissa is well-respected for her intellect, research capabilities and the passion that she brings to her work,” said NJBIA President & CEO Michele Siekerka, who also chairs the Focus NJ Board of Trustees. 

“Elissa will be a great asset to Focus NJ and its mission to provide timely, innovative, nonpartisan economic and workforce research that is the foundation of sound public policy that enables New Jersey businesses and their workers to thrive,” Siekerka said. 

Through its in-depth reports and Economic Tracker dashboard, Focus NJ tracks how the Garden State’s GDP, unemployment, income, and other indicators are affecting the state’s economy. The tracker compares current and historical economic data through interactive maps, charts and tables updated as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis are released. 

Focus NJ also provides an online Workforce Development Map, which is an interactive map cataloging more than 400 workforce development training programs throughout the state to connect workers, employers, and training providers. This resource is continually updated to provide useful information for members of academia, business and government, as well as current workers and future workers. 

Before joining NJBIA’s Government Affairs team in 2023, Frank worked as the New Jersey state director of the Humane Society of the United States. Frank has also worked as an associate and law clerk at Kates Nussman Ellis Farhi & Earle from 2019 through 2021 and prior to that was director of legislative affairs for former Assemblyman Reed Gusciora. 

Frank, a resident of Cherry Hill, is a 2021 graduate of Rutgers Law School in Newark, where she also was the editor-in-chief of the Rutgers Law Record