Leadership
Meet our Leadership Team
Leslie Granger, CAWA
President & CEO
Leslie Granger has been President & CEO of Bideawee since 2017. Leslie has a long history with Bideawee, beginning in 2010 as the Vice President of Development.
Under Leslie’s leadership, Bideawee expanded partnerships with shelters across the country to transport high-risk animals to the organization, and nearly doubled Bideawee’s adoption numbers. In 2019, she presided over the decision to assume responsibility for the operations and management of the New York City Feral Cat Initiative (FCI), a seminal program that addresses the systemic problem of cat overpopulation by providing education, resources and support to the individuals working to humanely reduce the population of community cats in NYC.
In 2020 just prior to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic lock-down, adoptions and fundraising were soaring to record levels under her leadership. With the start of Covid, Leslie saw the organization through unprecedented times without ever closing our doors to animals in need and even expanding our programs to serve the needs of people and their animals through our Community Initiative programming. Additionally, Leslie saw this time as an opportunity to move the organization into the next phase of growth and successfully purchased and constructed the organization’s new state-of-the-art adoption center and outdoor dog enrichment space in the heart of the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
Leslie’s professional tenure also includes the role of Director of Development for ACDS and the Senior Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving for North Shore Animal League.
She currently serves on the board of the New York State Animal Protection Federation (NYSAPF), which employs legislative and policy initiatives to safeguard the well-being of all animal companions. Leslie received her CAWA (Certified Animal Welfare Administration) certification from the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement in 2020 and was the first reciepient of the prestigious von Liebig Prize for leadership and service in animal welfare.
A lifelong animal lover, Leslie shares her Long Island home her Bideawee pup Aja, two Bideawee kitties, Max and Hairy, and her husband (her only non-Bideawee rescue).
Steven R. Victorin
Chair, Bideawee Board of Directors
Mr. Victorin was elected to the Board of Directors in April 2018. He is a retired international corporate banker with a 30+ year career extending across a number of businesses, including corporate banking, bank loan capital markets, wealth management, credit and leveraged finance. Following a 26 year career at Citigroup, Steven spent time at JP Morgan & Co. and retired from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as both head of Asia Pacific Corporate Banking (2012-2016) and global head of Corporate Banking Subsidiaries (2012-2018). Throughout his banking career Steven focused on large-cap corporate clients and financial institutions with a global perspective and was based in Los Angeles, New York City, London and Hong Kong. Steven was raised in the New York metropolitan region and holds a bachelor’s degree from Skidmore College. He currently lives in New York City and Amagansett with Neil Parker, his partner of over 25 years, and their two red short-hair dachshunds – Jackson from England and Jäger from Australia and Hong Kong.
Board of Directors
Officers
Steven R. Victorin, Chair
Kurt A. Abrams, Vice Chair
Joseph L. Sorbera, Jr., Vice Chair
Robert Gurney, Treasurer
Sherif Nahas, Secretary
Leslie Granger, President & CEO
Directors
Ellen Barbara
Leslie C.G. Campbell
Jeanne Cloppse
Chanelle Flavell
Cathy Genzlinger
Brian J. Glaser, Ph.D.
CeCe Olisa
Patricia Preston
Philip Pucciarelli
Thomas W. Young
Emeritus
Lewis H. Berman, DVM
Elizabeth R. Cooke
William A. Dueker Jr.
Warren Eckstein
Ellen C. Grimes
Mary M. Luria, Esq.
Executive Leadership
Leslie Granger, CAWA, President & CEO
Raymond Cushmore, CFO
Dr. Shian Simms, Chief of Veterinary Medicine
Eric Muscatell, Chief Marketing &
Development Officer