A living legend of Long Island logistics, John Costanzo was front row during direct marketing’s evolution from snail-mailed mass-prints to glossy catalogues to e-commerce. More in the driver’s seat, actually: As president of the Long Island-based International Mail and Parcels Division of TNT Post Group (then among the world’s largest transportation-logistics providers, still punching across Europe) and most famously as longtime leader of Jericho-based Purolator International ($200 million U.S. subsidiary of Canadian freight giant Purolator Inc.), Costanzo directed operations that redirected “junk mail” (his term) from print campaigns to magazine-style mailings to the Internet, an unprecedented logistics game-changer.
Now “retired” and running a “personal consulting business” for select clients, Costanzo has taken the reins of the MAPLE New York Business Council, first satellite branch of a California-based networking organization committed to capitalizing U.S./Canadian trade opportunities. With the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement supplanting NAFTA, MAPLE New York, the Long Island Association and the Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce have scheduled a Nov. 5 webinar exploring new Canadian prospects for LI businesses, which according to Costanzo are plentiful.