A path to Congress with Mayor Mike Ghassali

The Exchange Podcast

Mayor Mike Ghassali has a conversation with Kevin Warmhold about his story of immigrating to the United States from Syria, becoming Mayor of Montvale, New Jersey, and his mission to effect change in Washington D.C by getting elected to congress. Check out Mike Ghassali's Bio Below. Mike Ghassali was born in Aleppo, Syria and emigrated to the United States in 1981 when he was 16 years old. Seven years later, he celebrated his US citizenship. Mike and his family settled in Dumont and ended up in Montvale in 2004, where he lives with his wife Maryann and two sons, Ellie and Danny. Mike worked at Unilever in Englewood Cliffs for 15 years and then started his own supply chain solutions business, consulting food companies on best practices to reduce in-transit damages. His company Damage Research Inc. was sold to GENCO Supply Chain Solutions which was ultimately acquired by FedEx. The systems and methodology developed by Mike are being used by Fortune 500 companies today all over the world. In 2011, Mike decided to help to minimize child hunger in America after learning that one in five children goes to bed hungry every night. He joined Feed the Children as the Vice President of Corporate Partnerships and with an incredibly talented team, raised hundreds of millions of dollars to help needy families and veterans across the country. Mike is currently a contract language analyst with active security clearance (TS/SCI) and continues to help in human rights causes with refugees and child hunger. He is the current mayor of Montvale, a diverse town of four square miles that is home to natives of 44 countries and where 22 languages are spoken. He is also the president of the Pascack Valley Mayors Association. During his time as Mayor, he has added over 4,000 new jobs, held tax increases at zero and managed to grow the town through smart development and planning. Mike is proud of his family and his parents; his father is a tailor and still works with Mike’s mother at their tailor shop in Bergenfield. Mike holds a biology and a sociology degree, and attended several business management classes and workshops. Music intro provided by https://www.bensound.com/