Obama senior adviser meets with N.J. executives in Newark

Leaders from the state’s business community had a unique opportunity to voice their issues and concerns directly to the White House Monday.
Valerie B. Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, met with CEOs and executives from about 25 New Jersey businesses. Jarrett was in the state to speak at Rutgers University Monday evening.
The visit, which took place at PSEG’s headquarters in Newark, was part of an effort by the White House Business Council to dispatch senior administration officials to hold roughly 100 roundtable discussions with business leaders across the country, said Elnardo J. Webster II, New Jersey’s representative on the council, and a partner at the Newark law firm Trenk, DiPasquale, Webster, Della Fera Sodono P.C.
Webster said many of the executives praised the federal government’s stimulus bill.
“People commented on a lot of programs that came out as a result of the stimulus package and how helpful it was, and just wanted to talk about how that kind of growth and that kind of stimulus could continue,” he said.
The executives at the meeting represented large companies, as well as mid-sized and small companies. PSEG Chairman and CEO Ralph Izzo was in attendance, as was Panasonic Chairman and CEO Joseph Taylor and Deputy Mayor of Newark Stefan Pryor.
Vaughn McKoy, president of the PSEG Foundation, and another attendee at the event, said Jarrett came ready to listen.
“She came to hear,” he said. “She talked for maybe two minutes, but the whole time was Q-and-A. It wasn’t a prepared speech or anything like that.”
McKoy said another…