Uni-Mail List president Michael Bryant re-entered his office at 42 Broadway on Wednesday for the first time since terrorists flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center just a few blocks away.
With no electricity and no phones, he picked up what few odds and ends he could to try to run his business from remote locations.
“We are in terrible shape,” he said. “We have some severe problems down there, and the bottom line of it is that we will never be reoccupying that building again. I have issues beyond just the issues of having no power and no telephone and no idea as to if and when any of these services will be restored. I've also got the emotional issues of people who just never ever want to be down in that area again as long as they live.”
Uni-Mail is operating out of donated office space and through employees' cell phones, he said.
Backup servers for Uni-Mail's computer systems are running, so employees at least can get into the firm's systems and try to serve clients. Employees are in touch with clients and fellow list brokers and managers, Bryant said.
Ten Uni-Mail managers and brokers are working out of Direct Media's offices in Greenwich, CT. Bryant himself is tending to accounting and other back-office issues from a friend's office in Manhattan.
“It's amazing the displacement that happens — we're kind of like refugees,” he said. “I wish I could tell you more, but there's nothing to say at the moment. It's just been a tremendously difficult time for the company as a whole.”
