2017 Distinguished Citizens Honorees

Trudy Hardy ’91
Thomas M. Hewitt, Sr. ’75
Rich Henning
Ilija Pavlovic

Saturday, March 5, 2017
Rockleigh Country Club
Rockleigh, NJ

Trudy Hardy ’91

Trudy Hardy ’91 is vice president of marketing for BMW of North America and is responsible for directing all marketing communications activity and strategic product planning for the United States market. She directs and leads a team of fifty professionals across multiple disciplines, including product planning, brand and retail communications, CRM, experiential, social media and digital marketing.

Trudy began her career in the automotive industry in brand communications for Jaguar and moved to BMW Group in 2001 to help launch the MINI brand in the United States. Prior to her current position, Trudy was department manager for BMW Marketing Communications and Consumer Events.

Trudy graduated from Ramapo College with a B.S. in Business Administration in 1991 and currently serves on the Foundation Board of Governors and the Anisfield School of Business Alumni Advisory Board. She also attended Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Communications Strategy Program.

She has been instrumental in BMW’s annual sponsorship of the Foundation’s Golf Outing and Distinguished Citizens Dinner. Also, she helped coordinate the BMW of North America Diversity Scholarship.

Thomas M. Hewitt, Sr. ’75

Tom Hewitt is vice president field marketing manager for TD Bank / North New Jersey market. In this position he executes strategic marketing initiatives to promote new retail and business accounts, supervises community sponsorship donations to enhance business development and manages the TD Charitable Foundation Grant process in the community.

Previously, Tom was president of T.M. Hewitt Associates, an international marketing and sales consultancy for the beverage industry. While working on behalf of a client, Tom was named interim vice president for manufacturing operations & sales at American Bottling Company. In that capacity, he played a major role in implementing one of the largest bottler consolidations to form the Dr. Pepper/Seven-Up Bottling Group. In his career, Tom has managed projects which identified corporate objectives, evaluated current marketing and sales operations and implemented executive level management re-organizations. Tom started his career with Federal Pacific Electric as an accountant following his graduation from Ramapo College in 1975 and then went on to hold senior management positions in sales and marketing at Pepsi-Cola Company.

Tom has served as chair of the School of Humanities and Global Studies Alumni Advisory Board, participated on the Anisfield School of Business Alumni Advisory Board and is a member of the Ramapo College Foundation Board of Governors. He has been instrumental in TD Bank’s annual sponsorship of the TD Bank Summer Concert series at Ramapo College, the Business Partners Program and a grant for the Nursing Program.

Tom graduated from Ramapo with a B.A. in American Studies and a B.S. in Business Administration in 1975 and received his M.B.A in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1980. Tom lives in Ramsey, New Jersey with his wife, Terry, and is the proud grandfather of five grandsons, including identical triplets!

Rich Henning

Rich Henning serves as senior vice president of communications for SUEZ North America. In this position, he oversees all internal and external communications programs for the company’s corporate office and its nationwide water and wastewater operations. This includes strategic planning and policy development, media relations, marketing, community relations, customer communications and creative services.

Rich is responsible for leading SUEZ North America’s communications program, which fosters the company’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, sustainable development and managed growth.

Rich joined SUEZ North America in 1990 and assisted in transforming the company from a regional utility into a leading national environmental and water services company. Earlier in his career, Rich held management positions with General Electric, RCA and Panasonic.

He serves as chair of the board of directors for Heroes and Cool Kids Foundation as well as the Hackensack University Medical Center Foundation. He also sits on the board of the Foundation for Free Enterprise. He is a member of the New Jersey Utilities Association, the New York State Water Wise Council and the American Water Works Association.

Rich has a B.A. in Communications from Rutgers University, where he taught media relations as an adjunct professor.

Ilija Pavlovic

Ilija Pavlovic is president and chief executive officer of Special Properties Real Estate Services, LLC, which is an exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, the real estate arm of Christie’s, the world’s leading art business and arbiter of luxury for 250 years. Within the past year, Special Properties Real Estate Services has significantly expanded its presence, becoming the exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate in more than 100 communities in Northern New Jersey.

Ilija was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia and holds both a B.S. in Economics and M.B.A. from the University of Belgrade. After years of experience as an automotive industry executive in both Europe and the United States, Ilija started his own automotive business in the United States working with Chrysler and Daimler in transferring their extra power-train production capacities and production technologies to emerging markets, primarily China and Russia. In 2005, Ilija purchased Chrysler’s stamping, welding and assembly plants for the Sebring and successfully moved this production to Russia.

Since 2008 Ilija has been involved in the local real estate business. He purchased the Crocker Mansion, a National Historic Registry property in Mahwah, and in seven years completely restored this unique and magnificent property.

Ilija resides in Mahwah with his wife and two daughters and has been an active and proud member of the community for more than 28 years.