The Long Island Association has a new leader – but the LIA is hardly new to Matthew Cohen, the freshly minted president and CEO who’s already logged a decade with Long Island’s largest business and networking organization, primarily as its government relations director.

Matt takes over at a touch-and-go time for the 95-year-old association, with the nation emerging from the COVID pandemic and socioeconomic stakeholders jockeying for position in the so-called “new normal.” He’s uniquely suited to the job: The new head honcho has also directed government relations for the Long Island Power Authority and spent years as Sen. Chuck Schumer’s right-hand man on Long Island, and while helping the LIA win billions of state and federal economic-development dollars, he’s become quite familiar to rainmakers from Long Island to Albany.

In today’s conversation, Matt joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss his LIA ascension and the association’s near- and long-term plans – with greater small-business outreach and the introduction of new technologies topping a very long list.