March, 2008 Cover Story

EVETTE BECKETT-TUGGLE
Executive Director, Nassau County OED Business Development Unit Uses Her Many Skills to Grow Nassau County

Story by Maureen Traxler
Cover Photo by Miranda Gatewood

When she graduated from Tufts University, Evette Beckett-Tuggle’s resume stated that she wanted to pursue a “well rounded career.” Today, that resume reveals an extraordinary career that has taken her to the cutting edge of new business ventures — consumer product design, global marketing, investor relations, financial services, publishing, higher education, e-commerce, even a dot-com experience.

Beckett-Tuggle was serving as Dowling College’s Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Services when, two years ago, her “well rounded career” put her name atop the list as Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi was searching for a professional with a marketing background and expertise in speaking to the business community. Suozzi appointed Beckett-Tuggle Executive Director of the County’s Office of Economic Development’s Business Development Unit, asking her to lead the efforts to make Nassau County the preferred destination for growing businesses. Beckett-Tuggle views her job as somewhat of a consultant’s role, meeting with business owners to assess their needs and matching them with products, programs and services to help their businesses expand.

Her congeniality, capability and skills, even her spirituality and desire to lift up individuals and communities, made Beckett-Tuggle the right choice at the right time. A couple of months after her arrival, Nassau County was designated a New York State Empire Zone. As coordinator, Beckett-Tuggle oversees Nassau’s seven geographic Empire Zone areas, which encompass 10 different municipalities or communities with some of the County’s highest minority populations. Empire Zones offer significant tax and utility incentives to businesses that are “certified” by the state, and located or investing in the designated zone.

Beckett-Tuggle uses “a one-stop shop approach,” modeled after the Long Island Partnership, where she teams with representatives of government agencies, members of the economic development departments of municipalities like the Town of Hempstead, local and County Industrial Development Agencies, LIPA and National Grid to bring prospective businesses a concentration of opportunities. In just over a year, she says, “The County has taken 16 businesses, of which nearly 20% have minority or women owners, all the way through the certification process, and the number of pending applications are in the double digits.”

Among the County Executive’s strategic imperatives, notes Beckett-Tuggle, is “to attract a greater concentration of hi-tech/biotech and other companies that will boost the region’s economy through increased tax revenue” and “to create high paying jobs for our already well-educated workforce that provide a living wage, offer benefits and healthcare to workers. It’s necessary work,” she adds. “I welcome the opportunity to serve the larger community and help the economy.”Women in leadership roles
Beckett-Tuggle is proud to share the Office of Economic Development duties with her women colleagues in senior positions and those heading units and departments under the leadership of Deputy County Executive Patrick Duggan, including, Patti Bourne, executive commissioner of the Planning Commission; Rosemary Olsen, executive director of Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs and director of the Brownfields Redevelopment Program and Connie Lassandro, director of Housing and Homeless Services. She attributes this “opportunity for women to participate in the well-being of our economy and communities to County Executive Suozzi’s vision and leadership, and his willingness to put strong, no-nonsense women in leadership roles.”

“Many of the women I’ve worked with in management and leadership roles have been keenly articulate communicators, strategic and results oriented,” says Beckett-Tuggle. “I find women to be thorough, balanced in their thought process. We like to make decisions and achieve closure. These are the kinds of skill sets that are valued and sought after.” Finding a rewarding career
At Tufts, Beckett-Tuggle majored in two of her lifelong interests: drama and English. She was accepted to law school, but unsure about her future plans, she took an interim job at a publishing company. Soon, she realized she wanted to use her creative energy.

“I thought it would be so cool to come up with an idea that people would want, package it in the right way, get it out to them, and make money doing it.”

Going back to school, she received a Masters of Business Administration in the dual majors of Marketing and Finance from Columbia University.

“Juggling more than one thing at a time has been a pattern in my life,” she told Networking® magazine in a recent interview.

Hitting her professional stride in the 80s and 90s, Beckett-Tuggle’s career followed the ebb and flow of world economy, through takeovers, consolidations, globalization and the dot-com demise. With her MBA in hand, she joined Bankers Trust Company but the economy was in recession and no one was borrowing money. Switching to her marketing side, Beckett-Tuggle moved to Avon Products, where the direct selling approach meant plenty of “product proliferation to keep things new.” As Director of Fragrance Marketing, her responsibilities included fragrance, bath and personal care products.

“This department was a huge piece of Avon’s business, and one of the most profitable,” notes Beckett-Tuggle, and she “enjoyed working closely with the sales force, exciting and motivating them with incentive programs around the product ideas.” Avon promoted her to General Manager of Specialty Gifts and later moved her to the corporate side as Director of Investor Relations where she used her presentation skills to tell the Avon story and engage the financial community. “Working at Avon gave me the ability to take on a lot of responsibility early in my career,” she says.

After a short stint at Tambrands, a leading manufacturer of feminine hygiene products, Beckett-Tuggle headed to Citibank as Vice President of Global Marketing, promoting financial service products around the world. Her responsibilities took her to South America, Asia and India, until the Bank merged with Travelers and her group was disbanded.

Beckett-Tuggle credits her e-commerce duties at Citibank as her entryway to a music dot-com. “This position spoke to my artistic passion,” she explains, the company streamed classical, opera and jazz on the Web. But around the year 2000, the bottom fell out of the dot-coms. Her next move was to Essence magazine as Chief Marketing Officer. She thought:

“This was a brand I grew up with and loved, a magazine that speaks to the spirit and lifestyles of African-American women. I thought at the time that I had died and gone to heaven.” Unfortunately, Time Warner stepped in and the marketing division was folded into the larger company.

“I’ve had a rich career in the sense of depth and many interesting experiences working in different industries, public and private,” Beckett-Tuggle reflects, adding the tag, “I haven’t done not-for-profit yet!” But about this time, she thought, “Maybe God is trying to tell me something.” Listening to her spiritual core, she decided to “sit back, be quiet awhile, and praying for discernment.” Recently divorced, she placed “possibilities of marriage” in God’s hands, too. And, during those waning days at Essence, some of her prayers were answered.

Five years prior during her divorce, Beckett-Tuggle sought spiritual renewal on a church trip to Israel. After a long conversation with her church pastor one night in Jerusalem, she recalls a “spark of something there.” Then, after a somewhat unconventional courtship, on a snowy December day in 2000, Rev. Reginald Tuggle, senior pastor at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt, met her in Bryant Park near her Essence offices and proposed! They were a fine match that the congregation would approve — he’s funny, spiritual and known for his “bear hugs”; she’s sensitive and sophisticated, yet down-to-earth. “We do a lot of laughing together,” Beckett-Tuggle remarks. “That’s so important. We can’t take ourselves too seriously.”A way of life
The youngest of five, Beckett-Tuggle says she enjoyed a rich family life and her educational achievements “broke the mold in her immediate family.” As a teenager, she attended Friends Academy and became the fourth African-American to graduate from the Quaker college-preparatory school in Locust Valley. In addition to assimilating the Friends philosophy of integrity, simplicity, patience, moderation and peaceful resolution of conflict, she says she was taught that “being the ‘first’ or ‘the only’ one to achieve something is only as good as how quickly and how far back you can reach to help others achieve what you have achieved.”

From the age of 10, Beckett-Tuggle recalls, “I’ve always thought my calling in life is to bring people together and to promote peace,” and she feels the need to encourage, support and elevate others. Her early volunteer experiences show a strong desire to assist women and children. She served 12 years including four years as president of the Nassau County Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, a family organization with African-American roots that provides cultural, social, civic and recreational activities. She has served on the boards of directors of Children’s House, Glen Cove Boys & Girls Club, Coalition of 100 Black Women of Long Island, and the Women’s League of Memorial Presbyterian Church, where she is immediate past president and current vice president. Remembering her roots, she served for 10 years as a trustee of Friends Academy.

More recently, Beckett-Tuggle is a member of Long Island Women’s Agenda, Women Economic Developers of Long Island, the Council of Advisors of Community Development Corporation LI, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Theta Iota Omega Chapter, and is corresponding secretary and spiritual advisor of the Greater New York Chapter, The Links, Inc., one of the oldest and largest volunteer service organizations for professional women of color.

The Tuggles live in Glen Cove and are the parents of three adult daughters: Karleena, a surgical resident at Howard University Hospital; Regine, an associate brand manager at Tyson Foods in Arkansas; and Lauren, a third year student at Tufts. Beckett-Tuggle has a love of fashion, and admits she’s a little bit of a clothes horse. She enjoys most art forms, design, home décor, and hopes one day to write books. She finds gospel music uplifting, participates in liturgical dancing at her church, and likes “communing with nature during walks by the water with Reggie.”