Crystal Ball winner Daino discusses his path to CEO of WCNY

SYRACUSE — Besides his role as president and CEO of WCNY, Robert Daino also holds the same title for Promergent and ServeCentral LLC, both of Syracuse.

Promergent is a “process, change and document management software and services provider,” according to its website. ServeCentral is a software company that targets the legal-services industry, according to its LinkedIn page.  

Daino holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from SUNY Oswego. He started his career at General Electric, where he worked for 10 years before starting his own firms.

In his career, Daino has also developed software and hardware for electronic systems for the U.S. Navy, the Federal Aviation Administration (or FAA), and other commercial businesses, according to a WCNY news release distributed Feb. 10.

How does a software developer eventually become the top official at a public-media company?

“I was doing my civic duty,” quips Daino, noting it all started at a pledge event 13 years ago.

The Central New York Sales & Marketing Executives (CNYSME) has chosen Daino as the 2015 recipient of the Crystal Ball Award. 

The organization annually bestows the award on a local businessperson who has contributed to the sales and marketing profession and has worked in community development and support.

“I was quite honestly very honored,” Daino says. “It was quite a surprise, a pleasant surprise.”

CNYSME will present the award at the 39th annual Crystal Ball Award and Sales & Marketing Excellence Awards (SMEA) at the Holiday Inn Syracuse / Liverpool on April 16.

Daino spoke with CNYBJ at WCNY’s headquarters on March 12.

As the latest Crystal Ball recipient, Daino believes CNYSME is recognizing WCNY’s changes in messaging, programming, and location.

“The new building [serves as] a very large statement of that and a culmination of a lot of hard work [in] repositioning and rebranding the fact that this is the community’s asset,” says Daino.

Daino joins a list of past Crystal Ball winners that includes the 2014 recipient, Howard Dolgon, owner, president, CEO, and team governor of the Syracuse Crunch minor league hockey team; and the 2013 recipient, Peter Belyea, president of CXtec and TERACAI. 

 Change the message

As Daino recalled it, the marketing vice president at Promergent in 2002 told Daino that the firm “needed to do more in the community” and suggested the company answer the phone during a WCNY pledge drive.

Daino “didn’t want to” get involved because he didn’t believe in it, he says. 

“I was so anti-pledge,” he says.

The company eventually decided to participate, but the phones weren’t ringing that night, which left Daino frustrated.

“I got up and walked over to a line producer and said, “Hey, we need to change the message … We can’t do the same old tired message. People want to see their money work for them,” Daino recalled saying.

He offered a dollar-for-dollar match for every dollar raised, if WCNY would change the message.

The pledges increased that night and Daino wrote a “very large check” that he didn’t expect he would have to write, he says.

WCNY’s then-CEO Michael Fields called Daino the next morning and asked to meet with him about joining the station’s board of directors. 

Daino accepted the offer, knowing that WCNY was involved in a digital transition at the time, he says.

He had been performing work for both the FAA and the military. Daino knew the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) system, with all its towers, had a government-owned, built-in network and “perhaps we would create an emergency-management system,” he says.

“Well, I can get on the board and maybe help, in a very entrepreneurial way, a new revenue approach to help a public-broadcasting station. And I was a tech guy,” he says.

Daino eventually became the board’s vice chair, and when Fields left WCNY in early 2005, the board asked Daino to serve as the interim CEO during the search process. 

Four months later, the search committee called him in to review a candidate and handed him a folder.

“I opened it up, and it was my picture,” he says.

At the time, Daino looked at WCNY as a “41-year-old startup.”

Daino’s other companies, Promergent and ServeCentral, continue operations in the ProLiteracy building next to WCNY at 104 Marcellus St in Syracuse.

“I moved [them] down here, so I could walk back and forth. It was easier,” he quips.

New location

Daino helped lead WCNY in its recent move to a new location on Syracuse’s Near Westside.

WCNY, Central New York’s public-media company, on Oct. 30, 2013, formally opened its new, 56,000-square-foot broadcast and education center at 415 W. Fayette St. in Syracuse.

WCNY moved into the new facility earlier that year after having previously operated at 506 Old Liverpool Road in Salina.

Daino believes the organization’s West Fayette Street location is “more visible” and provides “that touch dimension,” that makes it easier for the public to get to know the organization.        

SYRACUSE — Besides his role as president and CEO of WCNY, Robert Daino also holds the same title for Promergent and ServeCentral LLC, both of Syracuse.

Promergent is a “process, change and document management software and services provider,” according to its website. ServeCentral is a software company that targets the legal-services industry, according to its LinkedIn page.  

Daino holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from SUNY Oswego. He started his career at General Electric, where he worked for 10 years before starting his own firms.

In his career, Daino has also developed software and hardware for electronic systems for the U.S. Navy, the Federal Aviation Administration (or FAA), and other commercial businesses, according to a WCNY news release distributed Feb. 10.

How does a software developer eventually become the top official at a public-media company?

“I was doing my civic duty,” quips Daino, noting it all started at a pledge event 13 years ago.

The Central New York Sales & Marketing Executives (CNYSME) has chosen Daino as the 2015 recipient of the Crystal Ball Award. 

The organization annually bestows the award on a local businessperson who has contributed to the sales and marketing profession and has worked in community development and support.

“I was quite honestly very honored,” Daino says. “It was quite a surprise, a pleasant surprise.”

CNYSME will present the award at the 39th annual Crystal Ball Award and Sales & Marketing Excellence Awards (SMEA) at the Holiday Inn Syracuse / Liverpool on April 16.

Daino spoke with CNYBJ at WCNY’s headquarters on March 12.

As the latest Crystal Ball recipient, Daino believes CNYSME is recognizing WCNY’s changes in messaging, programming, and location.

“The new building [serves as] a very large statement of that and a culmination of a lot of hard work [in] repositioning and rebranding the fact that this is the community’s asset,” says Daino.

Daino joins a list of past Crystal Ball winners that includes the 2014 recipient, Howard Dolgon, owner, president, CEO, and team governor of the Syracuse Crunch minor league hockey team; and the 2013 recipient, Peter Belyea, president of CXtec and TERACAI. 

 Change the message

As Daino recalled it, the marketing vice president at Promergent in 2002 told Daino that the firm “needed to do more in the community” and suggested the company answer the phone during a WCNY pledge drive.

Daino “didn’t want to” get involved because he didn’t believe in it, he says. 

“I was so anti-pledge,” he says.

The company eventually decided to participate, but the phones weren’t ringing that night, which left Daino frustrated.

“I got up and walked over to a line producer and said, “Hey, we need to change the message … We can’t do the same old tired message. People want to see their money work for them,” Daino recalled saying.

He offered a dollar-for-dollar match for every dollar raised, if WCNY would change the message.

The pledges increased that night and Daino wrote a “very large check” that he didn’t expect he would have to write, he says.

WCNY’s then-CEO Michael Fields called Daino the next morning and asked to meet with him about joining the station’s board of directors. 

Daino accepted the offer, knowing that WCNY was involved in a digital transition at the time, he says.

He had been performing work for both the FAA and the military. Daino knew the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) system, with all its towers, had a government-owned, built-in network and “perhaps we would create an emergency-management system,” he says.

“Well, I can get on the board and maybe help, in a very entrepreneurial way, a new revenue approach to help a public-broadcasting station. And I was a tech guy,” he says.

Daino eventually became the board’s vice chair, and when Fields left WCNY in early 2005, the board asked Daino to serve as the interim CEO during the search process. 

Four months later, the search committee called him in to review a candidate and handed him a folder.

“I opened it up, and it was my picture,” he says.

At the time, Daino looked at WCNY as a “41-year-old startup.”

Daino’s other companies, Promergent and ServeCentral, continue operations in the ProLiteracy building next to WCNY at 104 Marcellus St in Syracuse.

“I moved [them] down here, so I could walk back and forth. It was easier,” he quips.

New location

Daino helped lead WCNY in its recent move to a new location on Syracuse’s Near Westside.

WCNY, Central New York’s public-media company, on Oct. 30, 2013, formally opened its new, 56,000-square-foot broadcast and education center at 415 W. Fayette St. in Syracuse.

WCNY moved into the new facility earlier that year after having previously operated at 506 Old Liverpool Road in Salina.

Daino believes the organization’s West Fayette Street location is “more visible” and provides “that touch dimension,” that makes it easier for the public to get to know the organization.