Two real estate executives to be honored at South Nassau golf classic

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In recognition of their leadership, community involvement and generosity, two Long Island real estate executives, Matthew Whalen and Joel Schneider, have been named co-honorees of South Nassau Communities Hospital’s 34th Annual Golf Outing to be held May 21 on three courses.

This year the hospital’s annual golf outing will take place at The Seawane Club in Hewlett Harbor, the Rockway Hunting Club in Lawrence and the Rockville Links Club in Rockville Centre. All net proceeds will benefit expansion of the hospital’s Emergency Department in Oceanside, which currently serves 70,000 patients a year in a space built for 35,000 patient visits.

Whalen, a Garden City resident, serves as senior vice president of development at AvalonBay. He is responsible for leading its development and acquisition activity in both the Long Island and Connecticut real estate markets. Whalen has over 30 years of experience in the real estate business and has worked in many different sectors, including multifamily, office, industrial, hospitality and single family.

Schneider, of Hewlett Bay Park, is a South Nassau board member and founder, president and chief executive officer of Joel Schneider Construction Corp., Joel Schneider Management Corp. and J. Schneider Group, LTD. He also serves as president of Carolina Building and Management Corp., which is a developer/owner of multifamily residential properties throughout the Northeast. His firms have completed dozens of projects during the last quarter century in business, including helping to restore properties that were damaged during Hurricane Sandy.

“Matt and Joel are both visionary developers whose efforts have improved the quality of life and availability of housing in the communities we serve,” said South Nassau’s President and CEO, Richard J. Murphy. “At the same time, they are also known for their altruism, generosity and community-minded spirit. We are very grateful that they have agreed to help the hospital by lending their reputations and expertise to the success of our golf outing.”

Golf outing co-chairs Tony Cancellieri, Vice Chairman of South Nassau’s board of directors and Jeffrey Greenfield, a member of South Nassau’s advisory board and managing member, NGL Group, LLC, attribute the ongoing popularity of the outing to its mission of raising funds for the South Nassau Emergency Department Expansion Campaign. The campaign has already raised more than $7 million toward its $10 million goal.

More than 40 business and civic leaders also have agreed to serve on the hospital’s golf committee. Many local businesses support the outing through their sponsorships. Last year’s golf outing was expanded to three courses, and raised the most funds in its history, netting more than $290,000.

In late 2017, the first phase of the expansion was completed with the opening of a $4.5 million, 10-bed annex that features a lay out and design to facilitate communication between patients, visitors and emergency department staff. Nurses and doctors’ stations face semi-private treatment bays with open floor space to allow for clear lines of sight. The treatment bays are equipped with monitored beds, cardiac monitors and bedside laboratory testing capability and furnished with individual high-definition, flat-screen TVs. Additional features of the annex include a dedicated waiting area for families and loved ones, rest rooms and access to free Wi-Fi.

When the multi-phase expansion is completed, the Emergency Department will nearly double in size, making it as long as a football field. It will also feature a larger waiting area as well as separate treatment areas for pediatric and behavioral health patients. The current Emergency Department is projected to see some 80,000 patients annually in the years ahead.

Elected to the Long Island Builders Institute’s board of directors in 2006, Mr. Whalen quickly ascended to become LIBI’s president in 2009 and chairman in 2010. He has served on the Board of the Hofstra University’s Institute of Real Estate and on the Executive Board of both the Long Island Real Estate Group and the Real Estate Practitioners Institute. He also served as a member of the Next Generation Housing Committee, the board of directors of the Community Development Corporation of Long Island and the Long Island Housing Partnership. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Long Island Association and the executive committee for the New York State Builders Association and is an active member of the Association for a Better Long Island, the Urban Land Institute and Action Long Island.

A 1988 graduate of Princeton University where he received a bachelor’s degree in history, Whalen completed the AMDP program at Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2012.

Schneider is a long-time supporter of South Nassau. He presently serves as a voluntary member of South Nassau’s board of directors and is chair of the Emergency Department expansion campaign and serves on the hospital’s buildings committee. As chair of the expansion campaign, Schneider has helped generate support for the Emergency Department capital project.

Schneider has more than 35 years of experience in the commercial and residential real estate and construction industries. He started his career as a laborer and bricklayer in his home state of Vermont and went on to build one of Long Island’s most successful construction management firms.

Schneider also is as an elected member of the Board of Trustees of the Incorporated Village of Hewlett Bay Park and serves on the Nassau County Police Foundation Center for Law Enforcement & Intelligence Advisory Board. A founding member of the Boca Raton Police Foundation, Mr. Schneider assists with fundraising efforts for Make-A-Wish Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy Association of Greater Suffolk County, New York.

-Compiled by Peter Belfiore