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16 SEPTEMBER 2023
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almost a generation ago. And they’ve acknowledged that there’s been a backsliding of this progress because of internal administrative decisions, and they’re working through some committees to see if they can’t get it back on track.
LSRPs’ independent professional judgment isn’t being respected
like it should, and we at NAIOP
will be helping and working with
the (Licensed Site Remediation Professionals Association) ... and others in the business community
to make sure that we’re going to roll up our sleeves and work with the DEP ... We’ll be looking forward in the coming months to working more closely with them on that, and this
is the thing about NAIOP: We have engineers, lawyers, subject matter experts that are committee members and acting not just on their own individual behalf, but keeping the whole industry in mind. We can call on these experts that are members and (they) take the extra step to not just work for their own companies or their own clients, but keep the industry’s bigger picture in mind, which is something that makes us different and very strong.
RENJ: Outside of public policy, what are some of your other near-term priorities as CEO?
DK: We’re going to be recommending to the trustees to engage in a thoughtful strategic planning process that would start this fall. So, while I think that there are obvious things and obvious priorities outside of public policy
for our organization to focus on,
we’ll have a way to engage with our members, benchmark us against other strong NAIOP chapters nationally or similar organizations in the region and have an organizational assessment provided to us that will be the basis for a five-year strategic plan.
I’m a planner. I’ve done this for every organization that I’ve worked for. I know that I don’t have all the ideas, and I know that I’ve got a learning curve about this industry, so to overcome that, we’re going to be embarking
on this process. We’re going to be doing some surveying of members
and interviews with members, the benchmarking that I talked about, and over the winter receive information from an outside professional about what we do well, what we could maybe do better and how that impacts the things that we need to do.
RENJ: What else should chapter members know about your leadership style?
DK: One thing I want them to know is that I’m not afraid of innovation and change, but I tend to be calculated before I act. So while folks may be bringing us ideas, as an organization that relies heavily on our operational income, you don’t really have the luxury to turn things upside down because we run off of dues and events. So they may see some changes, but it’s not going to be overnight.
I’m (also) more of a wonk than a flamethrower. So I think I’m very careful with building strong relationships that add value over
Dan Kennedy
time. I bring
to the table
a lot of those relationships already, and I try to conduct myself the right way. I think planners tend to be generalists
— you know, the mile-wide, inch-deep kind of crowd — but I try to be deeper than that. And I really enjoy taking
the time to find out what’s important to not just current members, but past leaders that are around but not as active and also emerging leaders. So I hope folks feel comfortable reaching out and grabbing a cup of coffee or a bourbon to just talk.
RENJ: What should people know about your career that they wouldn’t get from your written bio?
DK: I come from a family of entrepreneurs and business
owners, so I tend to exhibit, I think, entrepreneurial behavior as I approach my work. Although I’ve been in government and trade associations my whole career that I didn’t create, I was raised in the back of an upholstery shop, essentially, in a downtown
in Monmouth County, in Atlantic Highlands. ... So that’s something people would not realize about me. They may see my resume and think I’m a recovering bureaucrat or a
trade association guy. But my training really started as a child watching my mother run a business and paying the bills, inviting over her employees for Thanksgiving when they had nowhere to go, the care she took for her employees and how hard she worked just to make ends meet. RE