President of design firm right at home in Utica

By ALLISSA KLINE
Observer-Dispatch

Michelle McCarrick sees bright lights in Utica's future - loft-style apartments, more nightlife options and a revitalized downtown.

The 29-year-old president of The M&G Group - a design firm - didn't always believe in the city she now calls home. She said she used to think there were few opportunities to keep young people in the area.

"Everybody thought I was kind of nuts to move here," said McCarrick, who moved to Utica from Rochester when she was 22. "I lived in a bubble for four years and really dove into my work."

McCarrick eventually got involved with the Genesis Group, a nonprofit advocacy group for the Mohawk Valley that boasts more than 600 professional leaders, as well as the group's offshoot for professional younger than 40, Genesis Young Professionals, which she chaired for one year.

McCarrick's nominator, James G. Hill, a business development representative for Partners Trust Bank, sits with McCarrick on the Genesis board of directors.

"I've watched her bring Genesis Young Professionals from just a bare idea to something really wonderful," Hill said. "The thing that really impresses me about Michelle is that if she says she's going to do something, she really does it. That's a very admirable quality."

McCarrick also has drive when it comes to her career. Laid off after working four years for an advertising agency, McCarrick started her own firm.

"The day I got laid off, I said, 'I'm going to do this myself,'" said McCarrick, a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology. "You can just do whatever you want here. You can kind of make your own blueprint."

McCarrick's firm grew from her apartment to a downtown office with one employee.

"It hasn't been hard," McCarrick said of her entrepreneurial endeavor. "There are great clients here, and we work with a lot of family-based companies. It forges a kind of relationship you don't find elsewhere.'"

Rachel Rossiter, 23, interned with The M&G Group for one year and then was hired full-time by McCarrick as a marketing strategist. Originally from Alabama, Rossiter said McCarrick's involvement with the community has helped Rossiter find her footing in a new city.

"I'm just really grateful that I was put in front of someone who's so positive about the area," said Rossiter, herself a member of Genesis Young Professionals. "Being an outsider and moving to the area, it was refreshing to see someone be more positive."

Today, McCarrick balances work and community involvement with her role as the single mother of a 4-year-old son, Deondre. She intends to stay in the area, with hopes of expanding her business with more clients and employees.

"I hope that I can attract employees as good as the one I have," McCarrick said. "I want to build it where I can get the most talented people in the field they're in. I hope I can do enough and sell the region enough to have them want to come here."

For Utica, McCarrick hopes urban renewal will draw people to the city to work, live and play.

"I'm especially pro-Utica because I live here, I work here, my son's going to school here," McCarrick said. "This place really grows with you, once you start having kids and that type of thing. It's phenomenal."