A lifelong Central New Yorker, Al was raised in Clyde, where his family owned and operated Albert’s Restaurant for more than 25 years. Al graduated from high school with honors and attended The University of Notre Dame, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics.
After college, Al worked as a financial analyst for General Electric in Syracuse and eventually spun-off GE’s Electronic Camera Operation to form CID Technologies. Al was the company’s CFO and fostered innovation in the company’s information systems and customer support. In 1994, CIDTEC was sold to Thermo Electron, a Fortune 500 company.
From there, Al formed a new venture, Qube Software, Inc. As the company’s president, Al brought Qube Software from a start-up business to a multi-million dollar company with 200 customers throughout the United States and Canada.
During 2011 Al served as the Executive Director of Synapse Sustainability Trust, an environmental not-for-profit. During this period Synapse deployed 68 Electric Vehicle Charging Stations throughout Central New York. Through its Restoration Tree Trust, Synapse provided over 4,000 native trees for reforestation projects at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and Trees for Tributaries (from NYC to Troy along tributaries to the Hudson River). In addition, Synapse provided 420 special RPM technology trees for SUNY ESF’s Memorial Grove at Heiberg Forest. In October of 2011, Al received the first ever SUNY Empire State College Excellence in Environmental Sustainability Award.
Al has resided in the 127th Assembly District for more than 41 years. He lives in North Syracuse with his wife, Chele and their daughter, Alexandra. Their son Chris – after serving four years on active duty in the Navy – completed his Masters in Economics from The University of Buffalo and is now works at Syracuse University. Their daughter Jesseca lives in an ARC of Onondaga group home for the disabled in Syracuse.
In addition to helping to care for Jesseca, Al has served on the Board of Directors of Familycapped (now Advocates Inc.), a non-profit organization comprised of parents of children with disabilities; the organization was formed to expand programs for handicapped children in Central New York. Al and Chele were directly involved in helping to raise over $1,000,000 to build Casey’s Place, a respite home for families caring for disabled children. He also served on the Boards of Friends of North Syracuse Early Education, Onondaga Citizens League, NY State Fair Advisory Board and CNY Bounty (the Farmer’s Market to Your Door). In 2022, Al was recognized by NYCASE with the “Friend of Special Education Award”, in recognition of leadership, dedication and service to individuals with disabilities for distinguished service and advocacy.
This is the 17th year Al has run his LifeSavers Blood Drive in conjunction with the Red Cross. It has come to be one of the biggest one day drives in Central New York, regularly netting between 150 and 180 units of blood during the middle of summer, the most difficult time of the year for blood donations. This is done with the help of dozens of local businesses that offer gifts, gift certificates, food, drinks and music!
In his 8 terms in the Assembly, Al has been a powerful advocate for small business and economic development in Central New York, early intervention programs for children with developmental issues, universal pre-k, higher education and environmental issues. He serves as the chair of the Assembly Standing Committee on Small Business.