37. Desmond Ryan

There is scant information available about Desmond Ryan, and that’s just the way he likes it. Ryan is a Long Islander through and through, but he is as comfortable in the powerful political circles of Albany and Washington, D.C., as he is at home in St. James. There isn’t an elected official in the region who doesn’t seek Ryan’s counsel or look to him to quietly carry the message of Long Island’s influential development community, which he represents in his capacity as executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island. But after decades of lobbying and pulling strings in the shadows, Ryan is begrudgingly opting to raise his profile with a public awareness campaign about the danger of inertia. Long Island is at a critical juncture that requires development that is economically feasible and environmentally responsible, a delicate balancing act between two interests previously thought to be mutually exclusive. Ryan is bringing all parties to the table and increasingly walking in unfamiliar territory on the front lines in the battle against NIMBYism. He has no compunction about unleashing his considerable arsenal of political experience on anyone standing in the way of growth and development.