REYNALDO C. SAMALA '80 

President and CEO 

Bide-A-Wee 

Rey Samala is living proof that once animals find a way into your heart, they become a part of your life. For Samala, who graduated from Mercy in 1980 with a degree in Business Administration, his work as president and CEO of Bide-A-Wee fulfills his desire to help animals. 

Bide-A-Wee, founded in 1903 as a nonprofit association with the primary purpose of providing temorary shelter and finding loving, responsible homes for unwanted pets, has expanded, with three shelters and adoption centers, located in Manhattan, Wantagh, and Westhampton. Instead of destroying unwanted animals, Bide-A-Wee cares for them until they can find a new home.

"We are a companion animal welfare society,” Samala comments. “In the century since we were founded, we have found loving homes for more than one million cats, dogs, puppies and kittens.”