“I love New York”

"Neville is one of the most important leaders in our economic development team. (He) has a position far more important than many of our cabinet administrators,” columnist Suman Guha Mozumder quotes New York Governor George Pataki in the cover story in India in New York (March 1, 2002).

Senior vice president at the state owned Empire State Deve­lopment Corporation, Neville Bugwadia has been in charge of the "I love New York” campaign which highlights tourism and business opportunities in the State of New York. Mozum­der says Bug­wa­dia’s task is "to make the world fall in love with New York,” and has a $ 40 million fund for this year alone to make it happen.

Spending a substantial part of that budget on TV and print advertising Bugwadia’s brief is to reverse the drop in tourism and business since September 11, 2001. "Travel and tourism, in particular are not just the state’s second largest industry — they are the premier industry in New York City as well,” says Bugwadia.

The "I love New York” campaign is 25 years old and was once described by The Financial Times, London, as one of the top 50 brands world wide, writes Mozumder. But to keep the brand fresh, there is need to reinvent the brand, reinvest it with new meaning and make it more relevant to changing consumer behavior, Bugwadia told Mozumder. "One of the ways we did this was by focusing on the attributes and spelling out the attraction and opportunities that people did not previously identify with New York,” Bugwadia noted. These he said, included the Niagara Falls and the magnifi­cent landscapes of Western New York apart from the city’s sky­line, its fine dining and theaters on Broadway.

Bugwadia: making the world love New York

The son of Phiroj whose family had fled Rangoon, and Khorshed, Bugwadia grew up in Bombay, an alumnus of Campion School and Sydenham College. Though the parents hoped he’d become a chartered accountant, Neville’s focus on history, politics and current affairs made him opt for a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University financed by the R. D. Sethna Trust and the J. N. Tata Foundation. After his master’s he worked for a year at The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) regularly contribut­ing to its editorial page, as notes Priya Ganapati in a side piece based on interviews with the family.

Following the WSJ stint Bugwadia worked for a few years with an Indian software company, eventually quitting to join a New York based think tank, the Manhattan Institute, where he met and married Cynthia who is currently director of development for the NGO, Sanctuary for Families.

Bugwadia credits his early years in Bombay as "the best education for somebody who would work in New York... It is very similar to New York. There is the same... richness and diversity in both places... Most of my American friends from small towns in the US found it hard to adjust to the pace of life in New York. But I did not have that problem.”

When Pataki picked a senior scholar at the Institute to run with him, Bugwadia "saw an opportunity to jump into politics and public life” and joined Pataki’s campaign. "To me politics has always been a very honorable profession. Public life, too, has its own appeal,” says Bugwadia, bemoaning the fact that the Indian American community has shown little interest in politics. As an instance of the relevance of government to people’s lives he notes that Pataki set up a business assistance center within 48 hours of the September 11 attack on New York.

Will Bugwadia take up politics as a full-time profession in future? "I have not quite thought about that as yet,” he replied.