20150622-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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2:35 PM
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$2.00/JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
A sure sign of good times for the local apartment industry: Owners are reinvesting millions — P. 3
Police reform is going to be very costly for Cleveland, but business leaders are willing to help — P. 3
Parker could be cracking
case on mysterious crash
Clinic believes
posting ratings
of physicians is
a healthy step
Mayfield Heights manufacturer
believes its search for answers
to Earhart’s death is on point
MetroHealth and UH also plan to post
their docs’ scores in coming months
By DAN SHINGLER
dshingler@crain.com
By TIMOTHY MAGAW
tmagaw@crain.com
Executives at
Parker Hannifin
believe they
found the crash
site of Amelia
Earhart. Below,
parts they found
that are being
tested for validitiy.
GETTY IMAGES (2), CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Talk about a great quarter — Parker Hannifin had one
that might even be historic.
Increase net income, check. Increase earnings per
share, check. Find Amelia Earhart’s crash site, check.
Well, probably. Company executives think so, and
we’ll probably know soon if they’re right.
The Mayfield Heights-based maker of motion control
products says an expedition led by veteran Earhart researchers Mike Harris and Dick Spink, which Parker
sponsored and participated in, has struck gold. Or some
of the world’s most sought-after aluminum, at least.
“We’re looking, really, for the technical compositions
of the (aircraft) pieces we found,” said John Jeffery, director of Parker Aerospace technology and business development, who participated in the search.
“Also, one has some paint that we think might be a
match to her airplane,” he said. “I have good confidence
we’re going to have some success here.”
So how did Jeffery, a California-based engineer and
executive of an Ohio-based company, end up halfway
around the world in the remote Pacific Ocean, looking
for a famous plane that crashed in 1937? And why does
Parker even care?
The answer to the second question is fairly simple.
Parker found out that it made parts for Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E plane, including the fuel gauges and
other parts of the plane’s fuel system, which had been
heavily modified to enable the pilot to cross the Pacific
in her attempt to circle the globe.
As for how the company got involved, that’s a longer
and better story. It began last year when Jeffery’s brother, Jim, heard from an old friend who was a professional explorer and Earhart researcher.
“Just before Christmas, my brother called me, he had
a friend, that I know also, who has been a professional
explorer all his life. Mike Harris,” John Jeffery recalled.
“He said he had an exploration and knew Parker was an
aerospace company and wanted to know if we wanted
to be involved.”
Harris had been looking for Earhart’s plane for
25
See CRASH, page 11
See CLINIC, page 22
7
ALSO INSIDE:
NEWSPAPER
74470 83781
0
Cleveland Clinic docs are seeing stars, and hopefully
five of them.
The regional health care giant recently joined a handful of hospitals around the country that are posting physician ratings — the good, bad and the ugly — on their own
websites. Doc reviews aren’t necessarily a new thing, but
with the limited number of writeups on websites such as
Vitals.com or Healthgrades.com, health systems like the
Clinic believe they can offer prospective patients a more
accurate picture of what’s happening with their caregivers.
And soon the Clinic won’t be alone in Northeast Ohio,
as University Hospitals and MetroHealth plan to do the
same in the coming months.
“We believe that what’s out there isn’t data that’s valid
or of reasonable numbers to truly reflect the care people
are getting,” said Dr. Adrienne Boissy, the Clinic’s chief
experience officer. “We can provide more meaningful
data for patients. Transparency isn’t just posting good
stuff. When I say we mean it, we mean it.”
The Clinic’s scores, which can be accessed through its
online Find a Doctor tool, are an average of all responses
to the system’s outpatient and inpatient surveys, which
are administered by a third-party vendor. To ensure
they’re accurate, ratings are displayed only for those
providers with at least 30 returned surveys.
Clinic officials insist the anonymous comments aren’t
cherry picked and are monitored only to ensure protected health information or vulgarity doesn’t make it onto
the site. Moreover, the Clinic is posting data gleaned from
surveys sent directly to patients, so not just anyone can
post a negative review. The surveys are administered by
Press Ganey, an independent patient satisfaction company that works with roughly half of all U.S. hospitals.
Boissy, a neurologist, doesn’t have much to hide, as she
carries a perfect five-star rating (“Nothing bad to say,” one
patient said). On average, the Clinic’s docs boast 4.8 stars
out of five, but if you dig deep enough, you’ll find some
less-than-flattering comments. For example, despite a
WHO TO WATCH
Crain’s looks at some of the people who are
making their mark in the Northeast Ohio
technology sector ■ Pages 13-18
Entire contents © 2015
by Crain Communications Inc.
Vol. 36, No. 25
20150622-NEWS--2-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/18/2015
12:53 PM
Page 1
Small Business Matters
i Want more information and resources on this week's topics, ideas and events? Go to www.cose.org/smallbizmatters.
PRESENTED BY
ASK THE EXPERT
IT in the Sky: Is the Cloud Right for Your Business?
What is the “cloud” phenomenon all about?
You hear it constantly, but what does it mean
and how can it be used to help small business
owners?
The cloud has been a buzzword for several
years, and with good reason. The cloud is rapPKS`YLK\JPUNJVZ[ZHUKPTWYV]PUNL
JPLUJPLZ
for businesses globally. In its simplest form,
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can gain from utilization. Careful due diligence
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PU ÄUKPUN [OL YPNO[ WYV]PKLYZ [V SH\UJO [OLT
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Reasons to move to a cloud platform are
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2L]PU.VVKTHU
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drive and grow your business. You may want
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your overall IT footprint. As you move toward
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June 22
By The Numbers
40%
of business owners say
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the worst part of owning a
small business
6SHFLðFDOO\
47%GLVOLNHWKHðQDQFLDOFRVW
13% dislike administrative
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13% dislike the complexity of
compliance
10% dislike changing
KEVIN GOODMAN is managing director and
partner with Blue Bridge Networks, a cloud
data center and managed services business
headquartered in downtown Cleveland.
regulations & confusion
8% dislike all the paperwork
8% dislike inequity of the tax code
SOURCE: SCORE
Owner Resources
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20150622-NEWS--3-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
3
Business leaders are
pledging support for
costly police reform
By JAY MILLER
jmiller@crain.com
CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Dover Farms in North Royalton is a 300-unit complex that is currently undergoing a $4.5 million renovation project.
The ‘sun is shining’ on
NEO apartment industry
Competition and improved economy have meant a surge in investments
By STAN BULLARD
sbullard@crain.com
From the hills of North Royalton
to the mid-rise apartment towers of
Euclid, workers are swinging hammers, replacing sinks and tacking
down carpet at levels not seen in
years in Northeast Ohio multifamily
properties.
Driven partly by competition from
a bevy of new multifamily projects in
a region that historically sees few,
suites housing tenants from highend renters by choice to low-income
tenants with subsidies are getting
updates. Some improvements had
been delayed by the housing bust
while others are designed to meet
the desires of the echo boom just
graduating from college; still, others
are being undertaken by new property owners.
Ralph McGreevy, executive vice
president of the Northeast Ohio
Apartment Association trade group,
said the renewed activity is a function of good times in the apartment
industry.
“Things have never been better for
apartments. Owners are investing
and getting ready for what comes
next,” McGreevy said. “Remember
the old saying about the best time to
put on a roof? It’s when the sun is
shining. The sun is shining on the industry now.”
Some big dollars are involved.
Take Dover Farms in North Royalton, a 300-unit complex dating from
the 1980s. Owned by Oak Brook, Ill.based JVM Realty Corp., major features of a $4.5 million renovation
project have been completed but
suites will continue to be renovated
as they turn over in the next year.
In JVM’s case, it toyed with using
the surge in the apartment market as
a chance to buy new properties nationally. However, Jay Madary, JVM
president and CEO, said the firm
found itself looking in other cities at
properties somewhat like Dover
Farms and appreciated how well its
properties here withstood the
downturn. While thoughtful apartment owners worry about the profusion of new multifamily projects
in the region, Madary said the pace
in Cleveland is less than in other
markets where it operates, such as
Columbus.
“We’re conservative,” Madary
said in a phone interview. “We realized some of the best opportunities
are under our nose. There is a lot
more demand and not a lot of new
properties coming into the market
in Northeast Ohio. We see it as a
chance to make significant renovations for our tenants and our portfolio.”
JVM’s renovations went beyond
cosmetic updates such as painting,
Madary said. The firm took steps to
enhance the properties in ways
that, Madary said, will benefit the
tenant and owner for years to come.
For example, at Dover Farms,
JVM gutted a dated racquetball
court and removed a hot tub to replace them with a contemporary fitness center complete with largescreen TVs that offer exercise
programs. JVM also installed a new
system for handling parcel deliveries to cope with the rise in online
shopping. Managers were spending
a lot of time fetching goods that
were piling up in their offices since
Amazon became ubiquitous.
So Dover Farms received a system called Parcel Pending, a software system that notifies tenants
when they have a delivery. Tenants
receive a personal identification
number to open a special storage
locker that contains their parcel.
The system is available around-theclock, so tenants do not have to pick
up parcels during business hours.
Such steps go along with updated
entrances, lobbies and suite-bysuite improvements to add value for
tenants. The updates allowed the
owner to receive increased rents on
the properties. Renovated suites are
going for about $150 more than the
$800 average monthly rental before
they were renovated, Madary said.
Across town, at The Drake, a fivefloor apartment complex at 15830
Van Aken Blvd., Shaker Heights, an
affiliate of Rock on Cleveland Opportunity Fund has invested from
$4,000 to $12,000 per suite at the
1950-vintage property since buying
it a year ago, according to Ned
Wasserstein, managing partner of
See APARTMENTS, page 19
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
has said he will be asking the business and philanthropic communities to help the city pay for the cost of
reforming the city’s police force.
The reform will come about as the
city implements the consent decree
with the U.S. Department of Justice
that is designed to remedy what the
Justice Department found to be a
pattern of excessive and deadly force
by Cleveland police officers that violated the civil rights of city residents.
It’s too early to know how much it
will cost or how the community will
administer the private funds it hopes
to raise, but early indications are that
the Cleveland community is ready to
help.
But if the experiences of Seattle
are at all comparable, the cost could
be steep. Through the end of 2014,
that city spent $12.8 million since
2012 for its own court-enforced police reform, according to a Jan. 30
memorandum from the Seattle budget director to Seattle City Council.
At the annual meeting of the
Greater Cleveland Partnership last
Wednesday, June 17, GCP board
chair Beth Mooney pledged her
group’s support, even though no details are yet known.
“The business community and
GCP has already pledged to help the
mayor see this issue through to real
reform,” Mooney, KeyCorp chairman and CEO, told the membership
in her opening remarks. “We intend
to get involved early with the mayor
and his team to deliver consensus
and a lasting plan for Cleveland.”
The Justice Department, in a report released in December, found
that Cleveland police officers
demonstrated a pattern of unreasonable and unnecessary use of
force.
It said officers too often used excessive lethal and non-lethal force
and used poor and dangerous tactics
that placed officers in situations
where avoidable force becomes inevitable. These practices, the report
found, have eroded public confidence in the police force.
Under the consent agreement, the
city will retrain officers and create
several layers of oversight and enforcement, including creation of a
police inspector general, an overhauled internal affairs unit and, over
it all, an independent monitor chosen by the city and Justice Department who will serve a five-year term.
Though the cost of the retraining,
data collection and monitoring of
the reform effort has not been calculated, Jackson said the city likely will
be able to cover some, but not all, of
the cost through its general fund,
and that he will turn to the business
and philanthropic communities for
financial help.
Foundation funders
Barry Doggett, senior vice president for public and community affairs for Eaton Corp. and chairman
of the Eaton Charitable Fund, agrees
with Mooney that the business community should be involved.
“We recognize the importance of
this,” he said in a telephone interview. “We’ve got to figure out the best
way for us to be involved with it.”
David Abbott, executive director
of the Gund Foundation, also agreed
with Mooney. Abbott said he recently attended a meeting on the subject
of police reform with Jackson, U.S.
Attorney Steven Dettelbach and several business and foundation leaders, including Joe Roman, president
and CEO of the Greater Cleveland
Partnership; Ronn Richard, president of the Cleveland Foundation;
and Albert Ratner, co-chairman
emeritus of Forest City Enterprises
Inc.
“The business community
and GCP has already
pledged to help the mayor
see this issue through to
real reform.”
– Beth Mooney
Greater Cleveland Partnership
board chair
“I would say there is a willingness
among funders in an abstract way,
but I don’t know how much (money
foundations could invest) and for
how long,” he said. “There are categories (of needs) that are easier to
fund than others.”
Abbott said that a foundation’s
mission might limit what it can do.
For example, he said that while the
Gund Foundation is providing support to develop schools for Cleveland
students, “We don’t pay for teachers,
that’s what taxes are for.”
Paying for new police equipment
or software to track the police department’s performance might be
more compatible with a foundation’s funding guidelines, said
William LaPlace, treasurer of the
Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation, a private family foundation
with the mission to make grants to
nonprofit, charitable organizations
in Northeast Ohio.
LaPlace said he was aware of
foundations helping smaller communities buy police equipment. “I
don’t know that any of us with the
larger philanthropic groups here in
Cleveland have done it, but that
doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen
here,” he said. “It’s going to be trial
and error until people figure out if
they want to participate or not.”
Seattle made a similar agreement
with the Justice Department in 2012
after the DOJ found a pattern of excessive force used by Seattle police.
That settlement created the office of
Seattle Police Monitor charged with
remaking that city’s police department.
The agreement requires local police to report the rate of arrests,
where an officer used excessive
force, and how many times police
department policy was violated in
each incident. The monitor oversees
the whole process.
In 2014, according to a report filed
with Seattle City Council by the city’s
budget director, the city spent $7.6
million on the monitor, the community police commission and on police department spending related to
the consent decree.
20150622-NEWS--4-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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6/19/2015
1:58 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
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Former Hugo Boss plant
getting needed makeover
New owners will
invest about $1.5M
in Brooklyn facility
By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY
rmccafferty@crain.com
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Keystone Group Holding LLC is
investing about $1.5 million in the
former Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn
to get the factory ready to make Hart
Schaffner Marx brand menswear
starting in August.
Keystone purchased the plant for
an undisclosed price at the beginning of May, throwing a lifeline to
the factory that Hugo Boss planned
to close.
When Workers United, the union
representing employees at the plant,
approached the new parent company about the closure, the group took
action.
“It just became a greatly opportune moment for us,” said Doug
Williams, one of the owners of Keystone in Cleveland and CEO of W.
Diamond Group Corp. in Chicago,
which also owns entities such as the
Hickey Freeman retail store in New
York and Misook.com.
The group has more than $70 million in annual revenue, though
Williams declined to be more specific. The company has a license for the
Hart Schaffner Marx brand, and
Cleveland-area customers can find
its suits, sport coats and trousers at
stores such as Dillard’s.
Finding individuals who sew in
the U.S. is a problem for the garment
business, Williams said.
The company has seen growth
since the Williams family bought the
operating company for the Hart
Schaffner Marx brand in 2012 and
had outgrown its Chicago factory.
“Our business has been spectacular,” Williams said.
And he expects it to grow even
REBECCA R. MARKOVITZ (TOP)/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Doug Williams and Keystone Group Holding LLC are investing $1.5 million in the
former Hugo Boss plant in Brooklyn.
more.
The appreciating dollar means
that raw materials have been less
expensive, he said, and younger
men are dressing up more than
their fathers’ generation did.
The personalization side of the
business has been especially lucrative. In about 18 months, the company more than doubled its madeto-measure business.
Williams said he planned to grow
the company by mid-double-digit
percentages, and that the lack of
space in Chicago was the only factor that had been holding them
back. The Brooklyn plant’s approximately 150 employees were put on
furlough near the beginning of May,
but the majority are expected to return. Williams noted that the company has come up with a plan to
make up the difference after unemployment when employees return
to work.
As part of the agreement, the
union agreed to a three-year deal
that included better insurance and
built-in pay increases, said Workers
United area director Mark Milko.
He called Williams a hands-on
owner and sounded impressed that
he personally attended an employ-
Volume 36, Number 25 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published
weekly at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230. Copyright © 2015
by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Crain’s
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ee meeting shortly after the sale.
Milko said he thinks the new
ownership will make the plant a less
stressful work environment for employees, as Hugo Boss’ leadership
had often spoke about moving the
work offshore.
Williams, on the other hand, is
big on made-in-America products.
“That stress point will be gone,”
Milko said.
Training has already begun for
the retooled plant, which is expected to open Aug. 1. The Hart Schaffner Marx garment required new
equipment and a new material
management technology, Williams
said.
The company has taken some of
the supervisors to Chicago to see
how the process works, and the first
six to eight weeks of production will
be under a trained method.
Williams said he is looking for
additional business for the Brooklyn plant and wants to find a third
party to take on the distribution
center.
He plans to reopen the outlet
store to carry Hart Schaffner Marx
clothing and Austen Heller
footwear, which also is owned by
the company.
Subscriptions: In Ohio: 1 year - $64, 2 year - $110. Outside Ohio: 1 year $110, 2 year - $195. Single copy, $2.00. Allow 4 weeks for change of address. For subscription information and delivery concerns send correspondence to Audience Development Department, Crain’s Cleveland Business, 1155
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20150622-NEWS--5-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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12:54 PM
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20150622-NEWS--6-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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3:09 PM
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JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
Airport study shows lofty
need for funds from state
General aviation
airfields and their
backers say Ohio’s
support is critical
By JAY MILLER
jmiller@crain.com
Ohio’s 97 general aviation airports
will need more than $500 million
over the next 20 years to maintain
safe and efficient levels of operation,
according to a study released by the
Ohio Department of Transportation.
Aviation supporters are optimistic
that an increase in state spending will
survive the current state budget
process and allow Ohio’s airports to
keep operating safely and effectively.
The Federal Aviation Administration pays a significant portion, typically 90%, of the cost of maintaining
the infrastructure of these smaller airfields, including Burke Lakefront Airport, Cuyahoga County Airport and
Lorain County Airport. Nonetheless,
the cities, counties and quasi-public
airport authorities that operate the
landing fields struggle to find the local matching money the federal government requires. Airport operators,
the businesses on airport grounds
and private pilots who use these fields
have never been able to convince the
state to treat airports like highways
and take a financial role in maintaining this infrastructure as other state
governments have.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has allocated less than $1
million a year to airport improvements, and the Kasich administration, for fiscal 2016, budgeted
$620,000. But the House — unexpectedly to many observers —
bumped that up to $6 million while
the Senate version of the budget
trimmed that back to $3.4 million.
A final number is up in the air until the politicians do their horse trading and budget compromising in
time for the governor to sign by June
30, the end of the fiscal year.
“We have gotten strong support
from the House, especially Rep.
(Rick) Perales, and the majority
leader and now the Senate has put in
money,” said Terry Slaybaugh, director of aviation for the city of Dayton,
who oversees both the Dayton International Airport and a general aviation field, the Dayton Wright Brothers Airport. “It would be a good start
to a program.”
Slaybaugh is a former president of
the Ohio Aviation Association, a
nonprofit that works for aviation
safety and airport improvement.
Inclusion in the next biennial budget likely would move ahead legislation to make a larger allocation for
airport improvements permanent.
Rep. Rick Perales, a Republican
who represents part of Greene County near Dayton, is sponsoring a bill in
the House that would create a dedicated revenue stream to be used for
improving airports and promoting
economic development in the aerospace and aviation industry. The bill
would tax aviation fuel like gasoline
through an excise tax. Currently, aviation fuel purchasers pay a sales tax,
which goes into the general fund.
“Our airports are currently in dire
need of maintenance and improvements,” Perales said in February
when he introduced HB 32. “This
bill will not result in a tax increase,
but will simply relocate revenue received from aviation fuel from the
General Revenue Fund.”
Perales said the sale of aviation
fuel generates between $14 million
and $16 million a year in sales taxes,
and the excise tax created by his bill
would not raise that amount. A similar bill has been introduced in the
Senate by state Sen. Bob Beagle, a
Republican whose district includes
parts of Dayton and surrounding
counties.
The airport study found that the
state’s general aviation airports will
need nearly $460 million over the
next 20 years to upgrade and maintain the pavement of their runways.
Another $56 million will be needed
to purchase and maintain land beyond the ends of runways to meet
FAA-mandated safety requirements.
Another part of the state-commissioned study focuses on and
drills down to county-level economic development. The economic
impact section reports that Ohio’s
general aviation airports and the
visitor-related and construction activity on airport grounds account
for more than 123,000 jobs and a
$4.2 billion payroll.
The study also estimated that because of their role in supporting
emergency medical transport, pilot
training, crop dusting and utility inspections as well as business travel,
these general aviation airports have
a $13.3 billion economic impact.
The roads less traveled
Garry Swanson believes maintaining the small airports is an important investment.
Swanson is president and CEO of
Thermotion LLC, a Mentor manufacturer of tachometers and other
speed sensing equipment for industrial applications.
The company has fewer than
two dozen employees. Swanson
considers Willoughby Lost Nation
Airport an important asset to his
business. That’s especially so since
United Airlines’ cutbacks at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.
Business trips that used to be day
trips became overnight stays because of more cumbersome travel
itineraries.
But with Lost Nation nearby, he
has an alternative.
“I use the airport, half my employees use the airport,” said Swanson, who is a pilot and rents planes
for trips of 450 miles or fewer. “We
view it as a pretty important part of
what we do.”
“You have people saying, ‘Close
down those little airports. All they
do is suck up money,’ ” Swanson
said. “What non-fliers don’t understand is that they separate traffic.”
Swanson likened it to having 25mile-an-hour traffic and 70-milean-hour traffic using the same
roads and freeway interchanges.
“Do you really want planes like I
fly, doing 90 knots on the approach
and commercial airliners in the
same section of air doing 150
knots?” he asked. “It’s not a good
thing.”
Swanson believes that people
don’t fully understand the value of
these airports, many of which date
back 50 years, when Gov. James
Rhodes wanted an airport in every
county as part of his economic development strategy, believing that
businesses will want to locate near
good air facilities.
“A customer of ours is Cessna
(Aircraft Co.) in Wichita, Kansas,”
he said.
“We sent four of our engineers
out there and we chartered a twinengine airplane for that. That costs
us about $3,000, but if you multiply
four guys by four airline tickets, by
four hotel rooms, by extra meals, by
being on the road an extra day, it
made sense. One less day on the
road is always a happy event.”
20150622-NEWS--7-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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3:27 PM
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JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
7
Product Hunt funnels tech fans toward local startups
By CHUCK SODER
csoder@crain.com
Mike Cottrill knew that tech geeks
from around the world were about
to flood his company’s website.
A customer who helped test Beegit’s first product — a software tool
designed to help writers work together online — had told the company that he was going to promote
that product on Product Hunt.
That’s a big deal. In less than two
years, Product Hunt has become the
go-to place for people who want to
learn about tech products as soon as
they’re released. People who might
be willing to try a brand new product released by a startup company.
Beegit is one of at least six local
companies or entrepreneurs who
have had products featured on
Product Hunt, which posts a list of
new products every day and ranks
them based on how many “upvotes”
they get.
Getting on Product Hunt’s home
page can help a company generate
web traffic, sales and interest from
reporters and investors. Not to mention “street cred,” as Cottrill puts it.
Of course, some types of compa-
nies do better on Product Hunt than
others.
Take Beegit. In December, when
the Cleveland company appeared
on Product Hunt’s homepage, Cottrill and his small team manned
their battle stations. They knew
they’d have to respond to an influx
of emails and tweets. And they
wanted to do whatever they could to
get people to upvote their product
— without being punished by Product Hunt. The site is programmed to
lower a product’s ranking, or remove it entirely, if it senses that a
promotional campaign is underway.
“You’re suddenly turned on call.
It’s the equivalent of a hospital code
red. A bunch of alarms are going
off,” said Cottrill, one of the company’s three cofounders.
During that first 24 hours, Product Hunt pushed more than 1,500
unique visitors to Beegit’s website —
roughly double what the site was
drawing at the time. The company
also saw a “huge spike” in the number of people who signed up for a
free trial, Cottrill said.
But he only knows of a few who
became paying customers.
Looking back, Cottrill said he’s
not sure he would try to get on Product Hunt again. These days, Beegit is
going after companies that employ
entire teams of writers and content
marketers. He didn’t find many of
them on Product Hunt, which is
popular among entrepreneurs,
technophiles and other individuals.
Connections matter
The site works better for guys like
Mike Belsito. In March, he released
a book called “Start Up Seed Funding for the Rest of Us.”
It racked up 347 upvotes and became the top product featured that
day. Why? Belsito — who is best
known for starting eFuneral, a nowdefunct company that helped people shop for funeral homes online —
gave a few reasons: 1) It was readymade for the many entrepreneurs
who frequent Product Hunt; 2) they
could download it immediately; and
3) it was free for that first week.
About 5,000 people downloaded
it that week. Belsito — who now
works for Movable, a Brecksvillebased company that makes a wearable fitness tracker — emailed some
of them to ask how they learned
about the book. The most common
response was Product Hunt.
Individuals also are Quo’s target
market. The Cleveland company,
which matches people with apartments, attracted about a dozen paying customers after it appeared on
Product Hunt in May.
They’re only operating in a few
cities at this point, but they told
friends in those cities about the service. They attracted “good New York
and Chicago traffic,” two of the cities
where Quo does business, according to CEO Amit Patel.
So how does a brand new company like Quo end up on Product
Hunt? It helps to know someone.
Only particularly active members
of Product Hunt’s online community
are given the ability to post new
products. In Quo’s case, Belsito recommended the company.
As for Belsito, someone he never
met posted his book on Product
Hunt, after reading a tweet about it.
An investor at Ludlow Ventures in
Detroit added ExpenseBot to Product Hunt last fall, even though his
firm never invested in the Cleveland-based company, which makes
software designed to automate the
process of creating expense reports.
It came as a surprise to CEO Ed
Buchholz. He learned that his company was on Product Hunt through
Twitter.
Back then, though, ExpenseBot
wasn’t “really ready for scale,” he
said. So the company decided not to
campaign for upvotes. It earned 158
of them anyway. And the company’s
website still attracted three or four
times as many visitors as usual.
About 100 of them signed up for a
30-day free trial. At least a few paying customers have told him that
they found ExpenseBot through
Product Hunt, but like Cottrill,
Buchholz said his company wasn’t a
great fit for the site.
“It’s not the best way to get in
front of midsize businesses,” he said.
Buchholz described Product
Hunt as “the new TechCrunch.”
He’s also started companies that
were written about on that website,
which is popular with the same audience. So he knows exposure can
be good for a startup. But he also
knows that it rarely will launch a
company to the next level.
“It’s awesome, believe me, but it’s
not the end-all-be-all,” he said.
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
‘Dawg Pounded’ returns for more Browns ‘therapy’
By KEVIN KLEPS
kkleps@crain.com
“Dawg Pounded” is back and
bigger than before, but the Cleveland Browns’ 7-9 season in 2014 has
called for a rewrite.
The two-hour production —
which features parody songs and
looks back at some of the most devastating moments in Browns history
— debuted in 2014 at Kennedy’s
Theatre in Playhouse Square. This
summer, the play has doubled its
schedule to 20 performances, and
will be held at Kennedy’s and the
nearby Hermit Club, the 95-year-old
landmark that is now part of the
Hofbräuhaus complex in Cleveland’s theater district.
Last year, the play — which is
written by Cleveland native Tim
Tyler and produced by Rita Bigham
— was a comedic look at the frequent heartbreak that so often is
part of Browns fandom. The day after “Dawg Pounded” wrapped up its
10-performance run at Kennedy’s
last September, the Browns began a
season in which they won six of their
first nine games and briefly were in
first place in their division.
And even though the season had
a second half that followed the script
of many others (five consecutive
losses to end the campaign), Tyler
decided the return of his play called
for a more uplifting plot.
“It’s a little more positive,” he
said. “Last year, I had the mythical
‘every Browns season’ and kind of
made stuff up. Now, we mirror last
year’s season.”
The play will touch on the crazy
finishes at the start of last season
(the Browns’ first four games were
decided by three or fewer points),
plus the three-touchdown routs of
the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals.
It will also have a song about
Johnny Manziel — sung to the tune
of “Johnny Angel” — but that is
where Tyler’s optimism turns to dismay.
“We’re going to do the same song
(that was featured in 2014), but totally different lyrics,” Tyler said of the
ode to Manziel. “We’re not hopeful
anymore. We’re very disappointed.”
Sadness is still a prominent theme
in the Tyler-Bigham production.
The main characters — Paul
(played again by Tom Hill) and Otto
(Greg Mandryk returns in the role)
— are taunted by their nemesis,
Pittsburgh Pete, as they watch
Browns games at a local sports bar.
Canton native Don Jones is back
as the latter character — which he
originally was about as eager to play
as Browns fans would be to sit
through another season of Brandon
Weeden at quarterback.
“Once we broke the news to him,
he was very disappointed,” Tyler
said of Jones. “He did not want to be
a Pittsburgh fan. But I tell you, he
nailed it. He comes out every night
and people are booing him.”
It’s all part of a festive atmosphere
that Tyler wants to more closely resemble a pregame tailgate than a
performance geared toward the
wine-and-cheese crowd.
“There were people looking for a
good time, drinking and having
fun,” said Playhouse Square events
manager Heather Marshall, who attended the play’s debut at
Kennedy’s last August. “It’s like
you’re at a football game. You identify with the emotions of, ‘I’m so up.
I’m so down.’ ”
Marshall said the first show drew
a crowd of about 90 at the 100-seat
theater, and each of the nine shows
that followed sold out.
“We heard nothing but positive
feedback from everybody,” she said.
“The audience seems to really enjoy
it and identify with it. We’re Cleve-
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When: The eight shows at Kennedy’s
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12, 18, 19, 25 and 26. All shows are
at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $25. Tickets for the
Kennedy’s shows are $22 if
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land, and we understand how heartbreaking the Browns can be, and
sports can be. I think people found it
very relatable.”
That’s one of Tyler’s biggest focuses. The 63-year-old Browns fan
hatched out the plan for “Dawg
Pounded” during a three-hour flight,
which he said started with him battling a heck of a case of writer’s
block. And unlike most of the
Browns seasons he has followed, he
was pleased with the end result.
“We think it went very well,” Tyler
said. “The feedback we got, people
enjoyed it. They wanted something
to laugh about.
“We call it therapy for Browns
fans.”
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A scheduling conflict at Playhouse Square — “We’re pretty much
booking things a year or a year and a
half in advance,” Marshall said — resulted in “Dawg Pounded” splitting
its 2015 run between two theaters.
There will be eight performances
at Kennedy’s, five of which will be
held in July, before Browns mania really sets in.
“I’m wondering how that will play
out,” Tyler said of the play starting
three weeks earlier than it did in
2014.
“Dawg Pounded” will shift over to
the Hermit Club for 12 Friday and
Saturday shows, beginning with an
orange-carpet event on Aug. 15. The
addition of the Hofbräuhaus to the
schedule brings another twist — a
VIP “tailgate” package that includes
a half-liter of beer in a “Dawg Pounded” stein and a meal catered to the
pregame crowd (bratwurst and
fries).
“It’s going to be a wild environment,” Tyler said.
General admission for the 20
shows is $25, and the Hofbräuhaus
VIP package is $45. The Hermit Club
will give the play the potential of increasing its attendance to 130 per
night.
“They’re going to erect bleachers
in the back of the theater to get more
people in,” Tyler said.
“Dawg Pounded,” as it did in 2014,
will conclude in an uplifting manner.
“You know how us Browns fans
are: ‘We’re really going to do it next
year,’ ” Tyler said.
The play’s creator called the first
round of performances “surprisingly good.”
And like any Browns diehard, he
added, “We’re going to give it another try this year.”
Where: Kennedy’s Theatre,
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20150622-NEWS--9-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/18/2015
12:43 PM
Page 1
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
9
Community banks rebounding in big way
Sandusky-based Civista Bank is setting records for profits; other local institutions share enthusiasm
By JEREMY NOBILE
jnobile@crain.com
Despite rising costs and the impact of modern banking regulations
that tend to hit smaller institutions
the hardest, many community
banks are seeing their strongest
profit growth since the recession,
thanks to a gradually improving
economy in Northeast Ohio.
Sandusky-based Civista Bank, for
instance, is bigger and more profitable than ever.
While that might be expected of a
bank that traces its roots back more
than 130 years, it’s a significant
turnaround from five years ago,
when the lingering effects of the
downturn led to loan losses that
slashed revenues.
“You’ve got to grow to survive,”
said Civista chairman and CEO
James Miller.
“And we knew the recession
would eventually end and things
would come out right.”
And they did. Net income in 2014
jumped more than 54% in 2014
from 2013, to $9.5 million from $6.1
million. First-quarter income is up
34.5% this year over the like period
in 2014.
But an improving economy,
stronger asset quality and hunger
for new loans aren’t the only reasons Civista is growing.
The bank has been on an upswing since 2010, which was preceded by income loss and some layoffs. But a rebound came, sure
enough.
Not ‘rocket science’
The bank began hiring more loan
production staff and eyeing other
changes and acquisitions as revenue picked back up.
This year saw many more
changes. In March, Civista rebranded from its First Citizens moniker,
creating separation from other
banks with “citizens” in the name,
Miller said. (Its holding company,
First Citizens Banc Corp, became
Civista Bancshares Inc. in May.)
This March also saw Civista’s acquisition of Dayton-based TCNB
Financial Corp. and its banking
subsidiary, The Citizens National
Bank, in an all-cash transaction
valued at $17.2 million, or $23.50
per share.
The deal enabled Civista, which
now has 28 locations in Ohio, to en-
ter the Dayton market and helped
push the company’s total assets to
about $1.4 billion. Additional acquisitions are a possibility, although
none are immediately in the
pipeline.
The Dayton customer base is a
strong complement to its legacy
Northeast Ohio operations and its
“sticky, loyal” customers, Miller
said.
The business model, which Miller
describes as applying a community
banking approach to larger markets, is to gather deposits around its
largely rural hometown and put
those dollars to work via loans in
more vibrant areas like Akron,
Dublin and, now, Dayton.
With Ohio’s economy improving
— although less quickly in rural areas, Miller says — the ongoing strategy, he said, is “not rocket science.”
“There will continue to be pressure on interest margin simply because of this rate environment,”
Miller said.
“There is not much opportunity
to reduce interest expenses further
and increased competition for
good loans will keep loan rates in
check.”
He added, “The key will be
searching for good loans, don’t do
stupid things just to put loans on
your books, providing other products and services to generate fee income and work to keep expenses
under control.”
Jacques, Boynton D. Murch Chair
in Finance at Baldwin Wallace University and a former financial economist with the U.S. Department of
the Treasury.
“But that has to be balanced
against the cost side of structure,
like the increased regulatory burden,” Jacques said.
Jacques said while the national
economy has seen somewhat tepid
growth overall this year, the second
half is expected to be robust, which
will create even more loan demand
and further push up net interest incomes.
He also said the Federal Reserve
is expected to raise interest rates
later this year, which will further expand net interest margins.
Turnaround continues
Civista Bank is enjoying a surge
of income growth this year. And
while the growth varies, other community banks in Northeast Ohio are
echoing a story of cautious optimism marked by a solid start to
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Not only are community banks
overall seeing better business that
in many cases is outpacing the
growth of their larger counterparts,
the strong activity at small and midsize institutions so far this year
bodes well for the future.
According to the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp., community banks
led the industry in first-quarter
profit growth.
Aggregate net incomes rose
16.4% from a year ago with increases logged in both net interest and
non interest income.
Comparatively, that’s nearly
three times the growth seen in noncommunity banks (6.1%). Aggregate
growth among all FDIC-insured
banks was just under 7%.
“Things are clearly improving for
the small community banks on the
revenue side, and we expect them
to continue to improve,” said Kevin
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Both banks attribute the profit
growth to lending activity. Neither
is pulling out of reserves.
However, stronger asset quality
means banks likely will feel less
compelled to put more money into
reserves to cover loan loss.
Overall loan delinquencies are
falling, too.
This quarter, Portage Community Bank hasn’t injected anything
into loan reserves, compared with
$30 million placed in there at the
same point last year.
“I think it’s definitely positive
and the continuation of a turnaround,” Coe said of the statistics
on FDIC-insured community
banks.
“I think 2015 will continue to be
every bit as good as 2014, plus,” he
said.
“And the reason is because small
business owners are feeling more
confident. They’re willing to take a
little more chance now. They’re
willing to borrow.
“And I think that’s going to continue through 2015.”
UPCOMING CUSTOM SECTION
Indicators of a strong 2015
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2015.
Following the first quarter, net
income was up 2.4% over the like
period last year, said Thomas Fraser, president and CEO at First Federal Lakewood, which has about
$1.56 billion in total assets. That
growth comes as interest income
falls and noninterest expenses increase.
Overall income growth was flat in
2014 over 2013. But Fraser said the
bank is projecting 10% growth over
2014 by the end of the year.
“We feel good about credit performance, and the local economy
seems to be moving along at a decent pace,” Fraser said.
“We think the underlying trends
are favorable.
“If we’re facing any challenges,
it’s on yield of earning assets because of the prolonged rate environment.”
Portage Community Bank in
Ravenna, which has about $285
million in assets, logged 3.5% income growth in the first quarter
over 2014, said CEO Richard Coe.
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20150622-NEWS--10-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Page 1
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
PUBLISHER:
John Campanelli (jcampanelli@crain.com)
EDITOR:
Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)
MANAGING EDITOR:
Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)
OPINION
Cage it
When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Higher Education Act 50 years ago, he said the following
at the signing ceremony, held at his alma mater
Southwest Texas State College:
“The President’s signature upon this legislation
passed by this Congress will swing open a new door
for the young people of America. For them, and for
this entire land of ours, it is the most important door
that will ever open — the door to education. And this
legislation is the key which unlocks it.”
The HEA boosted federal aid for colleges and
financial help for students, including work-study
programs, scholarships and low-cost loans. For
millions of young Americans, the provisions of the
HEA truly provided that symbolic key to a better life.
In the five decades since, the Higher Education Act
has been reauthorized nine times, and as is the case
all too frequently with government regulation, the
HEA has bloated into a beast.
In 1965, the legislation was 58 pages. Today, it is
432 pages.
As the act has expanded, so have the higher-education regulations, directives and mandates from the
Department of Education. Those equal about 2,000
pages of text.
Colleges and universities now stagger through
literally hundreds of pages of regulations on
accreditation, the definitions of “credit hour” and
“gainful employment,” their stewardship of federal
funds and scores of other topics.
If that were not troublesome enough, colleges
must also comply with rules that have nothing to do
with educating young people. These include
requirements on voter registration, file-sharing
policies, vaccinations and Selective Service. Colleges
are required to disclose their policies on candle
usage in dormitories. And when students travel
overseas to study or participate in athletics, colleges
are mandated to gather crime statistics on any
location that has an agreement with the school.
(At a recent Crain’s event, one local former college
president described calling a police department in
Italy to request crime statistics for a hotel. The officer
on the other end of the line just laughed.)
“Colleges and universities find themselves
enmeshed in a jungle of red tape,” concluded a
recent report from the nonpartisan Task Force on
Federal Regulation of Higher Education, whose
members included Hiram College President
Emeritus Thomas V. Chema and former Ohio State
President William E. Kirwan.
The stifling overregulation of higher education has
done more than frustrate administrators. It’s
beginning to break the bank. After an analysis, Vanderbilt University figured that it spent $150 million
— 11% of its expenditures — on complying with federal mandates in 2013 alone.
Who pays for that? Already debt-laden students, of
course, with higher tuition, reduced services and
thinner course offerings.
Congress will again take up HEA reauthorization
later this year. It’s time for lawmakers to slash
needless regulations, to simplify wherever possible
and to again find that symbolic key.
We need to lock up the beast.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The real power of LeBron James
mistic, celebratory and forward-looking.
I go back and read LeBron James’ “I’m
We simply feel better about ourselves
Coming Home” Sports Illustrated essay
and our future.
pretty regularly.
It’s difficult to quantify this
I carry a copy in my wallet
kind of stuff, but that survey
as if it were a historic docufrom TNS Global from earlier
ment, because I believe it kinthis year is perhaps most
da is.
When the darkness moves
telling.
in, literally during the cold
The percentage of locals
nights of winter or figuratively
who would recommend
on the bad days in business or
Cleveland as a visitor destinalife, it is a thousand words of
tion has jumped from 34% in
sunshine.
2013 to 54% in 2015. For a shift
JOHN
I don’t think there are many
that astonishing, something
natives of Northeast Ohio who CAMPANELLI
special must have happened.
can read it aloud without a
LeBron’s return is certainly
speck of something getting in their eyes.
not the only reason for this palpable shift
We’ve just seen, again, the amazing
in attitude.
power of LeBron James the player,
Downtown development, the RNC,
putting a motley collection of role playour hospitals, our arts, our food culture,
ers on his shoulders and carrying them
vibrant neighborhoods, the improving
to the edge of a world championship.
economy — they all deserve a share of
What’s arguably more amazing — and
the credit, but LeBron provided somethat’s saying a lot — is the power of Lething different. He told the world, eloBron James the inspirer.
quently and passionately, what we alIn the 11½ months since he anready felt.
nounced he was coming home, someThe world was shocked when he chose
thing has changed here.
to come home. We nodded our heads.
The feeling about Cleveland, the outWe’ve all known, in our brains, that
look, the conversations — from both inNortheast Ohio is an incredible place to
side the region and out — are more optilive and work. We’re here for a reason.
But when a superstar, the world’s best,
leaves, realizes what he’s left behind and
then returns, well, that’s not only knowing it in your brain, it’s confirming it in
your heart.
LeBron said he came home to raise his
family in his hometown, that he has an
obligation to lead and be a mentor and
that he wants to make a difference. “This
is what makes me happy,” he wrote.
In other words, LeBron James, who
could live, work and play anywhere in
the world, realized that he just wanted to
be … like you and me.
In many ways, LeBron’s emotional
words in that essay accomplished the
same magic for the region that his onthe-court poetry did for the Cavaliers.
We are in uncharted territory.
Am I giving too much credit to the
ghost-written words of a millionaire pro
athlete? Maybe.
But I also know how those words
made me feel that day last July and how
they make me feel when I read them today.
I am inspired.
And what can an inspired person, an
inspired workforce, an inspired city or
region do?
Anything.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The two major trade deals that President Obama is hoping to push through
Congress — the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) and the Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership (TTIP) —
are not only bad ideas for our economy,
but also for our national sovereignty.
If passed, these agreements will let
foreign corporations dictate business
and financial regulations, food safety
laws, taxes, and other regulations to our
state government.
Sound crazy? It’s TPP and TTIP.
The agreement is about a lot more
than just trade.
One part of TPP sets up an international court that takes complaints
foreign companies have against our
laws.
Our laws are the result of the democratic process. They should not be modified or eliminated in order to bulk up foreign corporations’ bottom lines.
These massive and mysterious trade
deals allow foreign corporations that do
not like specific laws to sue at the World
Bank tribunal.
And damages awarded to the foreign
corporation by the tribunal would come
out of our pockets.
Perhaps the reason why these agreements are kept under lock and key and
the public is forbidden from viewing
them is that buried in the myriad pages
is a provision that formally prioritizes
foreign corporate rights over the sovereign rights of states to govern their own
affairs.
Congressional representatives can
stop this madness and protect our sovereignty by voting no on giving President
Obama fast-track authority to negotiate
secret deals.
— Fred Welty
Chardon
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CRASH
continued from page 1
decades, and had become convinced that the plane had landed or
crashed in the Marshall Islands.
Specifically, Endrikin Island, a tiny
spec of land in the Marshall’s Mili
Atoll. The spot is in the middle of
the vast Pacific, near the equator
and about 3,000 miles northeast of
Australia. Not only did the spot logically match an area where Earhart
might have run out of fuel, based on
her last radio contact, but there
were eyewitness accounts from islanders that Harris found. They
claimed to have seen Earhart’s
plane land on the island.
Jeffery was, if not convinced, certainly intrigued, and he thought the
effort to follow Harris’ lead was
worth Parker’s consideration.
“So I put together a proposal and
sent it to Cleveland, to a senior vice
president there. On Christmas Day,
he sends me a message that said
‘cool,’ ” he said.
An eventful week
But not quite cool enough. Not at
that point, at least.
The matter went all the way up to
Parker chairman and then-CEO
Don Washkewicz, who wanted to
know if Parker had a direct connection to the plane. Jeffery told him he
did not know, but would find out.
As it turned out, Harris’ team had a
parts list and, sure enough, Parker
parts were on it.
Jeffery was soon on a plane.
On Jan. 22, Jeffery, Harris and
Spink, along with four other Earhart
researchers, rented a 75-foot ship
for their base. (It was already in the
area, scouting surfing locations for
a Google executive.) They found the
woman who owned Endrikin Island
in the Marshall Islands’ matriarchal
hierarchy, and for a few chickens
and some rice, she gave them permission to search, Jeffery said.
So, how long did it take to potentially wrap up a 78-year search for
arguably the world’s most famous
aviator, once the team began looking on Endrikin? About a week.
Islanders took them to not only
the spot where they said the plane
came down on the shore of the island, but they also showed them
where the Japanese, who then occu-
pied the islands, forced the natives
to build a makeshift railroad on
which to drag the plane across the
island so it could be taken away by
ship.
Sure enough, the searchers found
old railroad ties and other evidence
right where they were told the railroad was built. Soon they had geophysicists with magnetometers and
metal detectors at work.
“We searched for a week and
found about half a dozen pieces we
think are off of her airplane,” Jeffery
said.
Down to the science
What they found certainly does
not look like an airplane. It would
take someone familiar with aviation
to know that the small pieces of
metal the expedition found came
from an aircraft.
They are bits and pieces that
were torn off the plane as the
Japanese and their island laborers
wrestled the Lockheed through the
thick jungle, Jeffery said. A few fragments of aluminum, two corroded
identification plates from a part or
aircraft component, and a piece of
what appears to be a wheel well.
None of them scream “Earhart”
or even “Lockheed,” but science is
unlocking where the parts came
from nonetheless.
Metallurgists and chemists are
hard at work to determine if what
was found matches what was used
in U.S. planes of the era. Jeffery said
data from the aluminum giant, Alcoa, should help to show if the metal is the same type used to make
Lockheed planes during Earhart’s
time. If it is, that will be nearly conclusive proof, since few other U.S.
planes were in the area back in the
1930s, Jeffery said.
There’s also the read paint on
one of the parts. If researchers can
match that to the paint used on
Earhart’s Electra, that will also help
to prove their case.
“But the real home run would be
to get some information from the
metal ID plate — that could positively identify it as Earhart’s plane,”
Jeffery said.
If Parker and its sponsored researchers are right, they’ll be disapproving the U.S. National Air and
Space Museum’s long-held view
that Earhart crashed elsewhere,
leaving her plane under 18,000 feet
of water in the Pacific.
“The initiative by Parker Hannifin may, or may not, silence the
incorrigible conspiracy theorists
and achieve public ‘closure,’ but at
least the responsible authorities in
Washington, D.C., might be able to
close their dusty files,” reported the
Show News publication from the giant Paris Air Show, where the latest
search results were being discussed
last Monday, June 15.
It added, “If Parker’s public-spirited sponsorship and technical
analysis proves the Museum’s unsupported assertion to be 18,005
feet in vertical error, not to mention
over 850 miles horizontally askew,
it will have been money well spent.”
Ending a mystery?
Parker plans to complete the
analysis of the parts and announce
its results sometime later this year.
But the parts are the most that any
searcher has found so far, and
everything adds up to the site being
where Earhart landed or crashed after running out of fuel.
“Having talked to some of the locals who have ancestors who were
there — some of them were on the
trip with us — and having seen
firsthand how this would have happened,” Jeffrey said. “Having seen
the railroad ties, the (railroad) axels
and finding these parts that shouldn’t have been there — and they
were all found along this corridor
that’s only about 50 feet wide. … I
have good confidence.”
But, he added, he and the world
will wait for the scientific results
and interpretation of the data by
Harris and other researchers before
the case is closed. If it is, Parker will
have played a significant role in
solving one of the 20th century’s —
and aviation’s — greatest mysteries.
There could be a sad element to
the story, though.
The same Marshall Islanders who
claim to have seen Earhart land also
reported that the Japanese took her
and her navigator, Fred Noonan
away, where they presumably died
in captivity before or during World
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20150622-NEWS--12-NAT-CCI-CL_--
12
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
GOING PLACES
JOB CHANGES
SAGEMARK CONSULTING
PRIVATE WEALTH SERVICES: Jim
Jump to financial planner.
ARCHITECTURE
FABO ARCHITECTURE INC.: Bob
Matakovich and Katie Chew
to architects; Christopher Abbott
to project manager; Kyle Davis
to project coordinator; Joe Evans
to senior CAD tech.
WE’VE BEEN NAMED A
GO-TO L AW FIRM
BY
®
SOME OF THE TOP COMPANIES
I N T H E C O U N T R Y. A G A I N .
For the 12th consecutive year, Vorys has been recognized as a
Go-To Law Firm® in American Lawyer Media’s survey of in-house
counsel at the top 500 companies in the country. Less than one
percent of all law firms in the U.S. are recognized with this honor.
And in the past two years, 23 companies listed Vorys as their firm
of choice for specific practice areas.
For more information, visit vorys.com.
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP
200 Public Square, Suite 1400, Cleveland, Ohio 44114
106 South Main Street, Suite 1100, Akron, Ohio 44308
Columbus
Washington
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Akron
Houston
RDL ARCHITECTS: Michel
Wildermuth to senior project
manager; Nora Hoxha to project
designer; Samantha Jones
to interior designer.
CONSTRUCTION
DONLEY’S: Jeff Dentzer to regional
vice president, business development;
Jeff Anderle to director, marketing
and communications.
FINANCE SERVICE
CIUNI & PANICHI INC.: Brian Aiello
and Sean White to staff accountants.
GABRIEL PARTNERS: Frank Ewing
to partner and assistant general
counsel; Reggie Garcia, Matthew
Zavodnik, Alexandra Cotten,
Hannah Fischer, Darren Cole,
James Gruber, James Morehouse,
Maria Mellody, Mici Chase, Amber
Schydzik, Dimitrius Lovett, Lydia
Chiro, Mathew Virden, Kelsey
Bascombe, Kyle Weissberg,
Gabrielle Giordano, Jessica Nolan
and Marina Frandanisa
to associates; Madi Maruna
to marketing coordinator.
HEALTH CARE
COMS INTERACTIVE LLC:
Christine Vetrano to senior vice
president, professional services.
METROHEALTH: Jerry T. Klue
to director and chief, protective
services.
LEGAL
BENESCH: Kevin J. Kessinger
to of counsel, real estate practice
group.
LITTLER: Patricia Krewson and
Ryan Morley to shareholders.
MANUFACTURING
SERVICE STORAGE
INTERNATIONAL INC.: Tim Bernot
to president.
NONPROFIT
KOINONIA: Polly Mix to behavior
support manager.
STARK COMMUNITY
FOUNDATION: Callie A. Livengood
to director, marketing and
communications.
REAL ESTATE
TRANSACTION REALTY: Dustin
Sun to sales associate.
STAFFING
AREA TEMPS: Camille Jarrett
to sales coordinator, Cleveland.
TECHNOLOGY
SHAKER: Jennifer Wason
to communications specialist.
BOARDS
CLEVELAND METROPOLITAN BAR
ASSOCIATION: Anne Owings Ford
to president; Richard D. Manoloff
to president-elect; Darrell Clay
to vice president; Joseph N. Gross
to treasurer; Majeed G. Makhlouf
to vice president, diversity and
inclusion; R. Scott Heasley to vice
president, membership; Rebecca
Ruppert McMahon to secretary.
CHAPLAIN PARTNERSHIP: Scott
Robinson (Schneider, Smeltz, Ranney
& LaFond PLL) to president; Barbara
Hoekstra to vice president; Luisa
Barone Gantt to secretary.
AWARDS
HEALOGICS INC.: Lisa Osborne
(University Hospitals Elyria Wound
Care Center) received the 2015 Mary
Cook Nurse of the Year Award.
LAKE COMMUNICATORS: Phil
Stella (Effective Training
& Communication Inc.) received an
Apex Award for Copywriting.
OHIO ASSOCIATION FOR ADULT
AND CONTINUING EDUCATION:
Bonnie Entler (Seeds of Literacy)
received the Sharon Stubbs-Davis
Award for State Administrator of the
Year.
Pittsburgh
Send information for Going Places to dhillyer@crain.com
MEMBER FDIC
20150622-NEWS--13-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
WHO TO WATCH
IN TECHNOLOGY
Technology is a fast-moving field, one
that includes a variety of specialties.
In Northeast Ohio, there are countless
individuals spending their time thinking
up the next best thing or building upon
and efficiently implementing current
technologies. In this section, we highlight
just of few of those who are making a mark
in the field of technology.
MONIQUE WILSON
FELIPE GOMEZ DEL CAMPO
Executive director, Center for
Information Technology Training
Corporate College, a division of
Cuyahoga Community College
Founder and CEO
FGC Plasma Solutions
A little less than a year ago, Monique Wilson set off on a new career path — and put
the Center for Information Technology
Training at Corporate College on a new
course.
Wilson was recruited in July 2014 to the division of Cuyahoga Community College from
Hospital Corp. of America, where she was senior project manager of supply chain at the
world’s largest for-profit operator of health
care facilities. She previously worked in IT
management positions at other large companies, including Xerox and Bridgestone/Firestone.
While she enjoyed corporate life, Wilson
also had a passion for education, having taught
for eight years as an adjunct instructor at the
University of Phoenix and Volunteer State
Community College in Tennessee. Her bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in computer information systems, but she earned her doctor
of management degree in community college
policy and administration from the University
of Maryland University College.
“Education increasingly became a major
part of my life,” Wilson said.
When she interviewed for the position at
Corporate College, Wilson said she was “impressed by the energy and the enthusiasm”
for ramping up the scope of the school’s IT
training offerings. The school already has begun to do just that, with new computer networking and programming educational
tracks and plans for expansions into areas including data analytics, cloud computing, the
Internet of Things and cyber security.
Wilson said the Corporate College focus is
on preparing students for what she calls jobs
with “middle skills” — those requiring more
than a high school degree but less than a bachelor’s degree. So, she said Corporate College
wants to be able to prepare data analytics students who can, for instance, produce charts,
graphics and data visualizations for researchers working on medical genome information.
Corporate College plays a critical role for
Northeast Ohio employers, Wilson said, by filling gaps in a talent pipeline that traditionally
overproduces students with bachelor’s and
graduate degrees.
If you weren’t working in the technology
sector, what would you be doing and
why?: “I’ve worked in IT since I was 19, so
it’s kind of hard to say, but I guess I’d be a
professional dancer. I want to dance!”
Robert Peterson, president and CEO of
Corporate College, said the Center for Information Technology Training already has
made “a lot of progress” under Wilson’s direction. He said she “quickly identified a need
for a fresh look at the IT training programs,”
with the goal to “make sure the programs
aligned with the needs of the business community.”
Her “high-level IT background at Fortune
500 companies,” coupled with her teaching
experience, “offered a unique perspective
and skill set” for Corporate College as it
strengthens IT training, Peterson said.
“She’s looking at where the puck is going,
not where it is,” he said, using a popular
sports metaphor.
Wilson had never been to Cleveland before
she interviewed for the Corporate College job.
She was accustomed to the more mild winters
in her former home, Tennessee, but says she
has become more acclimated to Cleveland’s
climate — especially after buying a coat
“that’s actually made for a winter.”
She gets back to Nashville occasionally to
see her 2-month-old grandson. In her free
time, Wilson said she enjoys all varieties of
dancing, including ballroom dancing, and
researching family ancestry back to the 14th
century.
— Scott Suttell
13
Felipe Gomez del Campo started a company that has raised more than $130,000 in
funding and recently won a top regional
prize in the Energy Department’s National
Clean Energy Business Plan Competition.
He’s hired a couple of employees, and this
Wednesday, June 24, his company will compete for more federal funding in the Energy
Department’s national competition in
Washington, D.C.
Not bad for a 22-year-old who is still working to complete his undergraduate degree at
Case Western Reserve University.
“He’s a very unique mix of ambitious, capable, humble and an outstanding listener,”
said Mindy Baierl, the commercialization
program manager of the Great Lakes Energy
Institute at CWRU and one of Gomez del
Campo’s mentors.
“All I can say is he is an absolute delight
to work with. And I think most people who
come into contact with him feel the same
way.”
Gomez del Campo’s passion project —
developing a method of injecting fuel into jet
engines that improves safety and decreases
fuel consumption — started as a high school
science fair project for the Weston, Fla., native. It led to a full scholarship at CWRU —
where Gomez del Campo has juggled his
schoolwork, his company and being a member of the swim team — and a product that
Baierl and others believe could revolutionize the airline industry.
He originally looked at the technology
from a research perspective, but once he got
to CWRU and worked with the entrepreneurial-minded professors there, he said he
became “motivated to pursue it as a commercial endeavor.”
By taking that approach, “your access to
capital is improved a lot,” Gomez del Campo said.
As one of five regional winners who will
compete in the Energy Department’s national competition this week, he has a
chance to receive more funding. The winner
of the June 24 event will receive a $50,000
prize, plus services to help bring their technologies to market.
Because of the complexities involved in
commercializing a device that would be installed in a jet engine, Gomez del Campo ad-
If you weren’t working in the technology
sector, what would you be doing and
why? “I think I’d want to be in health care or
some sort of public policy role,” Gomez del
Campo said. “I’m also interested in seeing
what are the best practices to promote entrepreneurship.”
mits his company is “very far away from a
product launch.”
But as Gomez del Campo and his colleagues — CWRU student Joe Scott, FGC
Plasma Solution’s chief financial officer, and
recent CWRU graduate Joe Heebner, the
company’s vice president of research and
development — work to perfect their technology, the soon-to-be senior plans to earn
his master’s in aerospace engineering. After
that, he’d like to get his Ph.D.
He’s even met the president, thanks to his
participation in a panel that was part of the
White House’s celebration of entrepreneurs
on May 11. There, Gomez del Campo received advice from three of the judges on
“Shark Tank.” The sharks liked his oneminute pitch, along with his responses in a
question-and-answer session that followed,
Gomez del Campo said.
That experience means he’s no longer eligible to be on the popular ABC show, but it
seems as if he’ll be just fine.
“Except for the winters, I wouldn’t change
my time here for anything,” Gomez del
Campo said. “It’s the perfect place to launch
a business, and I didn’t plan it like that all.”
— Kevin Kleps
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
JANE ALEXANDER
LUIS CABRERA
Chief information officer
Cleveland Museum of Art
ServiceNow administrator,
IT application support
Forest City Enterprises Inc.
As a lifelong admirer of the arts and someone who stumbled into — and discovered a
passion for — a career in technology, Jane
Alexander couldn’t think of a more perfect
job than the one she holds now. In her role
as the Cleveland Museum of Art’s chief information officer, she’s been tasked with improving the visitor experience by augmenting the museum’s world-renowned
collection with modern technology.
As she sees it, it couldn’t be a better fit.
“I’m living in a dream right now,” Alexander said. “It’s incredible.”
She added, “Sometimes, you just need to
walk around downstairs and be in these gorgeous galleries. Even on the worst day of the
year, you have gorgeous art around you.”
Alexander, who has also held jobs at the
Great Lakes Science Center and Case Western Reserve University, knows the sensitivity of her job. Art, as she describes it, is “emotional, and you don’t want technology to get
in the way of that.” That said, she’s led a project to transform the art museum into one of
the most technologically advanced museums in the world without compromising the
integrity of its collection.
“Leadership has been behind it all,”
Alexander said. “When you have that, you
can do anything. It’s not technology for technology’s sake. It’s not about that at all. It’s
about building experiences for people who
are coming from all over the world.”
Augie Napoli, the museum’s deputy director and chief advancement officer, described
Alexander as an energizing leader, and that
working with her is like “drinking water from
a fire hose.”
“She sees the possible where no one else
would see it from a technological perspective,” Napoli said.
Alexander’s largest achievement was the
launch of Gallery One — a gallery that
blends art and technology. The gallery includes the largest multi-touch screen in the
country and displays more than 4,100 objects in the museum’s collection. The inter-
If you weren’t working in the technology
sector, what would you be doing and
why? “Since I thrive in fast-changing highpressure environments and love travel it
seems obvious … starting point guard for
the Cavaliers.”
active experience allows visitors to shape
their own tours and explore these works of
art like never before.
There’s also ArtLens — the museum’s app
for iPhone, iPad and Android. The interactive
map in ArtLens, for instance, uses iBeacon
technology that helps guide visitors through
the museum and discover works of art. She attributes much of the museum’s technological
advances to the hard work of her staff, which
she said is comprised of some of the best professionals with whom she’s ever worked.
“This is the job to have right now,” she
said. “We get to do what no one’s doing. To
me, that’s so thrilling.”
As a native of New York, Alexander said
she had a bit of culture shock when she arrived in Cleveland in the mid-1990s. But
since, she said she’s “drank the Kool-Aid.”
She said, “We have access to things you
would never be able to access in New York,
and they’re world class.”
— Timothy Magaw
Luis Cabrera doesn’t work in finance or
real estate at Forest City Enterprises Inc., but
his work is crucial to the operation of the
Cleveland-based public real estate company.
He works on ensuring its enterprise software system called ServiceNow does what
staffers in its procurement, treasury and human relations need for it to do.
Cabrera, who earned a bachelor’s degree
of fine arts in digital arts from Bowling Green
State University, switched to the information
technology department in 2014 after working as a senior multimedia designer for Forest City’s communications department.
The change meant he was able to capitalize on the interest he had developed in more
challenging technical aspects of computer
and web design.
“It’s similar but I’m solving a lot more
problems and making things more streamlined,” Cabrera said. “It makes you think differently, more technically, about things.”
He was also attracted to the ability to work
in a role that directly impacts the business
and helps people because they use the software on a daily basis.
To make the switch, Cabrera had to obtain
multiple software certifications. He has handled the transition well, according to Mary
Adams, Forest City’s application support
manager, who supervises Cabrera.
“He’s done a fantastic job learning to use
the technology and how to bend the technology to do what we need it to do,” Adams
said.
“His sense of dedication to Forest City and
sense of customer service are outstanding.
He really cares about helping people.”
At Forest City, Cabrera is co-chair of its
Young Leaders group, which he was involved in founding to allow employees to apply their professional skills to community
needs.
He also belongs to UNIDOS, a year-old resource group for associates who are Hispan-
If you weren’t working in the technology
sector, what would you be doing and
why?:“I would be pursuing a career in art or
something few people would expect from
me, running a small restaurant or being a
chef.”
ic and was in the Cleveland Bridge Builders
class of 2013.
A native of Lorain who now lives in Lakewood, Cabrera said he was “enchanted” by
computer games as a kid.
That grew into learning how they worked
to make his own, which led him to graphics
design and computer graphics.
On the side, he is working on a computer
game with a group of people he met online
and also participates in several local groups
such as Cleveland Game Developers and the
CLE Game Co-op.
He also volunteers with TechPint, a technology networking group, and has been a
volunteer teacher at tech-related workshops
at Esperanza and the Techie Club at Mound
Elementary School in Cleveland.
“I can pin some of my success to taking
advantage of these kinds of opportunities,”
Cabrera said.
“For me, it’s a way of giving back.”
— Stan Bullard
Crain’s 2015 program nominations
)! ҃)
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Nominations are now open for all of Crain’s Cleveland Business’ 2015 programs. Deadlines for each of the programs are:
■ CFO of the Year Awards
Nomination deadline: July 10
■ General & In-House
Counsel Awards
Nomination deadline: Aug. 21
■ Who to Watch in Manufacturing
Nomination deadline: Aug. 24
■ Who to Watch in
Marketing/Creativity
Nomination deadline: Oct. 26
For more information on how to submit your recommendations for each of
the programs, go to: www.crainscleveland.com/nominations.
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JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Experience the Power
of Being Understood ®
If you weren’t working in the technology sector, what would you be doing and why?: Iyer said he’d be a writer, probably covering politics or social
topics. Currently living in Macedonia with his wife and two daughters, he often
spends his spare time reading both fiction and nonfiction materials. He’s dabbled in blogging, penning personal thoughts on everything from sports to politics and observations on current events. But, he says that would never compare to the satisfaction of running his first business. “The building of the
organization is really the most rewarding,” Iyer said. “I’m very excited by
where we’re at and where we’re going.”
GANESH IYER
Co-founder, president
Vertex Computer Systems
Ganesh Iyer calls the professionals at Vertex Computer Systems “solution scientists.”
While Iyer studied computer engineering, he’s always had the drive
of a businessman. He dreamed of
running his own business since
childhood. It just so happened he
excelled in computer technology.
So it was only a matter of time
until his two passions converged
with the formation of Vertex, a company he co-founded and currently
serves as president.
“Becoming an entrepreneur was
just always there in my life,” Iyer
said. “I was thinking about business
even in my teen years. It’s exciting,
not just because of the fact that being an entrepreneur comes with a
lot of risk, but also it comes with a
lot of reward.”
Those rewards are apparent now.
Vertex traces its roots back to
1989, Iyer said, but its current incarnation, which is headquartered in
Twinsburg, was established in 2001.
The company — which has
grown from being a startup in 2001
to more than 300 employees today
— crafts unique IT-based solutions
for a bevy of companies that today
include several Fortune 500 and
Fortune 1000 companies and bigname partners like Microsoft.
Vertex is growing at an annual
rate of about 10%, Iyer said, declining to disclose specific revenues.
That growth is partly why it secured
a 2015 Best of Tech award from
OHTec, the Council of Smaller Enterprises’ technology network (formerly called NEOSA.)
A native of Kerala, India, Iyer is
friendly and modest yet direct in
conversation — but he’s far from
meek.
“He’s extremely aggressive and
very tech savvy. He wants to get
things done yesterday,” said Venkit
Raman, Vertex CEO. “He just has
that kind of personality.”
He thinks quickly and “on his
toes,” Raman said, and encourages
free thinking of his “solution scientists” to generate unique solutions
to complex problems at a fast clip,
whether that’s moving entire digital
archives or simply reengineering a
current IT operation to make it
more efficient. It’s how the firm is
positioning itself not only as a consultant for clients, but a business
partner.
But his people skills result in the
relationship building that Raman
said is equally behind Vertex’s surging growth. Today, the firm prides
itself not only on crafting IT solutions, but proactively offering
unique workarounds to issues that
a company might’ve never even
considered yet. The term “thought
leader” comes up often when talking about Iyer.
“He’s a leader who is so passionate about everything that goes into
the organization,” Raman said.
“He’s detailed where he needs to be
and very strategic in direction. He’s
driving the growth here in a big, big
way.”
An obviously quick thinker, Iyer
said the tech industry appeals to
him because it’s continuously
evolving by nature.
“We’re on our toes constantly
looking at new technologies,” he
said. “Big Data is evolving. And
we’re constantly helping customers
notice technology as a differentiating solution.”
— Jeremy Nobile
When you trust the advice you’re getting, you know
your next move is the right one.
That’s what you can expect from McGladrey: a team
that can help middle-market executives navigate the
opportunities and challenges they encounter here
in Ohio, across the country or around the world.
In other words, anywhere their businesses take them.
That’s the power of being understood.
To learn more about how McGladrey can help your
organization, call our Cleveland office at 216.523.1900.
Or go to www.mcgladrey.com/growingohio.
© 2015 McGladrey LLP. All Rights Reserved.
YOU CAN WATCH US, TOO
Look for Crain’s Weekly Report webcast, which will hit your inboxes Friday
afternoons. To sign up, go to: crainscleveland.com/register.
15
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
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If you weren’t working in the technology sector, what would you be doing and why? “That’s easy. I’d own an ice cream parlor.”
WE KEEP YOU UP
AND RUNNING.
PATRICIA HUBBARD
Global technology director
PolyOne
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The chances are good that you’ve
used a product engineered by Patricia Hubbard and her team of about
60 scientists.
They don’t make cars, health care
products or even consumer goods.
But they make the polymers that
make all of those things lighter,
stronger and generally better.
For the past eight years, Hubbard has been the global technology director for Avon Lake-based
PolyOne, a specialty polymer company.
Her business line is Global Specialty Engineered Materials, and she
oversees teams of researchers and
developers not only in Avon Lake,
but in Germany and at a new innovation center PolyOne has built in
China that she was responsible for
launching.
Though she has both an undergraduate degree and a Ph.D. in
chemistry, Hubbard’s job also entails a fair amount of communications.
She not only has to communicate
with her own teams on three continents, but with customers who rely
on PolyOne to understand and
meet their materials needs and with
other company executives.
“Patti was instrumental in helping us transform into a specialty
business through her technical expertise, business savvy and inspirational leadership skills,” said Craig
Nikrant, president of Global Specialty Engineered Materials at PolyOne.
“But most importantly, she always puts our customers first and is
committed to their success through
continuous innovation.”
She’s also been a key member of
PolyOne’s integration teams following recent acquisitions, in addition
to expanding its technology with
projects like the new R&D center in
China.
Hubbard likes that she gets to
manage and direct such broad efforts, while still remaining involved
personally with the company’s
technology efforts and, sometimes,
even with specific projects for individual customers.
“I absolutely still get to do science,” Hubbard said.
“It’s one of the best parts of my
job!”
She also likes the variation that
she sees in her work, which she says
never gets boring and always presents new challenges.
“One day we might replace a
metal bracket that goes into a car,
another day … we might replace
lead in an X-ray machine,” she said.
The tasks might sound mundane
to some, but developing new materials that have the right strength, the
right weight and can withstand
specified environmental conditions
and interact with other materials as
needed is hardly boring stuff to a
materials scientist. It’s the stuff that
makes the world go ‘round, and
they know that, even if most of us
do not.
Hubbard said she credits some
childhood influences with helping
her to succeed in a scientific field.
Her father was a chemistry and
math major who went on to teach,
but she actually credits her decision
to go into science as a career to “Dr.
Decker” — her advanced chemistry
teacher at Vermilion High School.
Not that her life is all scientific
endeavors. The Olmsted Falls resident and her husband, Steven Hubbard, have two sons, Sam and Isaac.
Her sons plan to pursue careers in
medical technology and computer
programming, she said — not too
shabby for two kids not yet in high
school.
But that doesn’t really shock
Hubbard.
“My husband’s a physics professor,” she says with a chuckle, “so
they got the nerd genes.”
But as anyone, including Sam
and Isaac, knows these days: Nerds
are cool.
— Dan Shingler
20150622-NEWS--17-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/19/2015
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
2:00 PM
Page 1
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
DERRICK NAU
JEFF TAYLOR
Computer generated image
generalist; TRG Reality
CEO; Event 38
Imagine having the opportunity to virtually explore a building from top to bottom before it is even built.
Cool, right?
If Derrick Nau’s vision is correct, that’s exactly what might be possible in Northeast Ohio.
Nau is a computer generated image specialist at TRG Reality, a 30-year-old visual arts
studio in Cleveland with about 30 employees.
And, he’s “obsessed” (his word, not ours)
with his work and craft, and the technology
behind it. So it should be no surprise that
Nau recently was the one who pitched the
possibility of his studio further taking advantage of advances in virtual reality technology.
It’s the kind of sci-fi stuff that allows a user to
fully experience a situation or setting through
the use of special goggles.
“He’s really a driving force in bringing us
into the future,” said Adam Wilde, studio
manager and senior photographer at TRG,
which works with clients as diverse as Nestle,
Moen, Things Remembered and Swagelok.
“He thinks big picture.”
The 28-year-old Nau is originally from
Athens, Ohio, and is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, having specialized in
biomedical art.
He started at TRG as a freelancer, and has
worked full-time at the studio for about three
years, currently focusing his efforts on the
texturing, surfacing, lighting and rendering
of virtual 3-D objects.
Nau’s also active in an organization called
SIGGRAPH, or the Special Interest Group on
Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques.
While certainly not a household name, according to Nau and Wilde, SIGGRAPH is the
premiere organization for professionals specializing in any type of computer graphics.
Indeed, according to information submitted by Wilde, a number of developments
have been exhibited at SIGGRAPH, such as
Pixar’s “Toy Story,” the visual effects of
“Jurassic Park,” projection mapping such as
that used in the Sochi Olympics opening cer-
If you weren’t working in the technology
sector, what would you be doing and
why?: “I find myself wondering this frequently, and it is hard to imagine because I am
very happy in my profession. I think I would
be an organic farmer, or an oil painter, or
both. A ‘techno-farmer.’ I love the outdoors
and although I spend most of my time sitting
in front of a computer, I find messing around
in the dirt very satisfying and therapeutic
(cliché, I know). I am vaguely hopeful that one
day I will be a zero emission, off-the-grid-type
person, but not a drop out, just kind to good
old mother earth. An odd juxtaposition for a
tech person, I suppose, but that is me.”
emony, 3-D scanning and printing, holograms and, of course, the virtual reality that
caught Nau’s eye.
Nau is a staunch believer that Cleveland
can become a hotbed for computer graphics
work. In his free time — hence, the earlier use
of the word “obsessed”— he also has put together what he calls a “animated short film
creative collective group” called Magic City
Animation & VFX.
The group is producing an animated short
film that is a romantic comedy titled “Love is
Sweet.” Release is expected in mid-2016.
— Amy Ann Stoessel
Jeff Taylor has a work of art on the wall in his
office. It’s not a Picasso. It’s an aerial image of
a public park right outside the offices of 3D Robotics. He used to work at the San Diego-based
company, which makes drones for the consumer market.
The image — which includes six baseball diamonds and three soccer fields — is a composite that Taylor created with the help of a miniature airplane equipped with a camera. That’s
when he knew he was onto something.
“I was like, ‘Holy crap, this is really valuable
information,’” Taylor said. “I can make this in
20 minutes, and you can zoom in and see the
guy raking the dirt on the baseball diamond.
And you can measure the size of the baseball
diamond, and you can look at the grass and see
how well it’s growing.”
Today, the 28-year-old is CEO and founder
of a company that makes its own drones, Event
38. The company employs about 10 people at
Canal Place in Akron.
Over the past three years or so, the company has sold hundreds of drones to people all
over the world. Many of them are farmers who
otherwise would have a hard time inspecting
vast tracts of land. The maps generated by the
company’s E384 machine give them a way to
quickly spot problems.
For instance, maybe there are weeds growing in one area of the field. Or maybe the stalks
of corn on top of a hill are turning brown because water is rolling down the hill — and
flooding the plants at the bottom.
“You can see every single leaf on every single plant,” Taylor said.
Now, the company is getting more into software development. For instance, a few Event
38 customers are testing out drones with sensors that can tell how healthy plants are by the
light they reflect. The software then converts
that information into a heat map: Green
means healthy, yellow is OK and red is bad.
If Taylor’s eighth-grade English teacher is
reading this, he or she probably isn’t surprised.
That year, he wrote an essay stating that he
wanted to be an aerospace engineer. Thus, after graduating from Brecksville-Broadview
Heights High School in 2005, he majored in
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
If you weren’t working in the technology
sector, what would you be doing and
why? He’d be a health care researcher. Sure,
doctors no longer use leeches, but for many
conditions — like the common cold — they
simply tell people to “wait it out.” He’d like to
find better solutions.
aerospace engineering at Case Western Reserve University.
After college, he landed a job at SpaceX, a
spacecraft manufacturing company led by
Elon Musk. He spent about a year there before
leaving for 3D Robotics.
He started Event 38 in mid-2012, and at the
end of the year he moved the company to Santiago, Chile, to join an accelerator program for
startups. However, he ran into “huge customs
issues with corrupt immigrations officers” who
he “refused to bribe.”
So, in 2013, he started having his drones
built in Akron. He originally planned to move
the company back to California, but after hiring a few employees here, he decided to stay.
Ken Burns is glad he did. Burns, the founder
of TinyCircuits, works right next to Taylor’s office. The two entrepreneurs regularly give each
other advice. Burns describes Taylor as “a little insane.” Taylor enjoys rock climbing and
diving, and he uses spreadsheets to keep track
of his workouts and everything he eats.
He’s also “very down to earth,” Burns said.
That’s all the more impressive, given his
achievements. “It’s inspiring to see someone
his age do all this,” he said. — Chuck Soder
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JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
MICHAEL KISTER
President and CEO
Acceleration Systems
Michael Kister has his eye on the
end for Acceleration Systems, a
young company that is developing
cloud-based bandwith optimization. Or in Kister’s translation from
geek-speak: “It makes the Internet
go faster.”
That end, of course, as it is for so
many tech startups, is a sale to a
larger company that has the wherewithal to grow the business beyond
the 12 people now working for Acceleration Systems.
And that’s OK. Actually, it’s
Kister’s specialty.
The Dayton native looks and
sounds like a tech exec in his black
sport coat and jeans. But it might
be more accurate to call him a tech
farmer because he grows things, either from seeds or from a withering
vine. Then he takes them to market.
Kister outlines a simple business
philosophy.
“I’m always looking at what does
the customer need and what does
the market need and then build a
solution that delivers against that,”
he said.
His first was Multiverse Inc.
When Kister graduated from Case
Western Reserve University’s law
school in 1993 he lost his email account. So, with the help of three
lawyers, he started Multiverse, a
company that was an early provider
of Internet access to people.
That turned him on to the business potential of the Internet and
after doing a couple startup e-commerce divisions for Fortune 1000
companies, he began growing and
building businesses with names
like Cycle Therapy and Skycasters.
“I’ve done six of these, four startups and two turnarounds,” he
said. “Six in 22 years.”
With a bachelor’s degree in
chemistry from Bowling Green
State University in addition to his
law degree, Kister readily admits
he’s not a keyboard whiz.
“I keep saying, ‘I built it,’” he said
during an interview in Acceleration
Systems nondescript suite of offices
on Old Northfield Road in Sagamore Hills.
“I would put the team together
and we would build it. I understand
technology, and I’m pretty good at
If you weren’t working in the technology sector, what would you be doing and why?: “If I weren’t running a technology company, I would be running
some other type of business — manufacturing, distribution, retail — it doesn’t
really matter. I prefer running technology companies because it seems that
technology attracts some of the best and brightest. However, it is the puzzle
and challenge of business — any business — that gets me out of bed in the
morning.”
managing it.”
For Acceleration Systems, he’s
setting his sights high. He believes
it has developed the best, most economical way for small businesses to
move their computer storage and
even applications to a data center
that can offer more powerful computing than a small company could
afford on its own.
Kister joined the company in
April 2013. Before that, two brothers, Richard and Jack McKinney,
came up with the technology. Jack
is the engineer, with 45 years’ experience in technology design.
Richard’s career was on the sales
and marketing side of technology.
Between them, they came up with
the idea for a box that would in-
crease the speed of access to the Internet.
Kister was brought in to turn the
idea into a business. Now, after several dozen investors have put up
about $3 million, it’s testing the
market with what Kister believes is
an attractive way for small businesses to keep up with the pace of
technology.
“This is going to be part of the infrastructure of the Internet,” he
predicted.
“Ultimately, somebody like an
IBM or a Cisco, that has a global
cloud strategy and customers all
over the world, is going to figure
out that we fit strategically into
their offering. Or it could be a
provider like Comcast (a cable television operator) with millions of set
top boxes.”
One of Acceleration Systems’ key
investors agrees with, and is impressed with, Kister.
“What Mike’s developed is an efficient way to (get on the cloud) in
a cost-effective manner, where
even small companies can afford
it,” said Warren Musser, a key investor. “And he’s doing it without a
lot of resources and people.”
Musser is chairman emeritus of
Safeguard Scientifics Inc., a publicly traded Philadelphia firm that
invests in innovative life sciences
and technology companies.
“Mike has a great brain, he’s very
practical and indomitable,” Musser
said in a telephone interview.
If Acceleration Systems is eventually sold, Kister expects to stick
around for two years to integrate it
into its new parent company. After
that, he’s not sure where he’ll go
next.
Asked where he’ll be in five years
said, “I don’t know but I’m sure it
will find me. It always has.”
— Jay Miller
20150622-NEWS--19-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/19/2015
2:34 PM
Page 1
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
APARTMENTS
The Weatherhead Executive MBA
continued from page 3
Favorable terms
Rock On and president of Waterstone-Brainworks Capital Management, a property management
firm.
“Everything leaked,” Wasserstein
said. Work ranged from redoing
mortar on the building’s brick exterior to adding waterproofing to the
outside of the foundation.
Inside, the search for leaks required a suite-by-suite examination
of every plumbing fixture to find
which showers needed new bottoms. If nothing else, new valve
stems were put in fixtures because
of the age of the property. Rock On
also installed programmable thermostats in hopes of reducing heating costs, which the building pays,
by helping tenants appreciate the
savings in electricity, which they
pay, for air conditioning. A list of
700 building code violations has
been whittled down to 100.
From half-empty a year ago, the
27-suiter now has just one threebedroom available, and that’s because the landlord did not renew
the tenant’s lease. The asking rent
for it is $1,150, compared to $950
previously.
The story is similar at the muchlarger Triumph Towers, 25400 Euclid Ave. in Euclid, where an affiliate
of
Canton-based
RLI
Enterprises in the past year has
shooed homeless people from its
stairwells, replaced light fixtures,
updated suites and repaved a
crater-filled parking lot since buying the property out of receivership.
Ken Ippolito, the owner of RLI,
specializes in turning around severely distressed properties for resale and said he was shocked at the
condition of Triumph. Thirty-two
suites of the 126-unit property were
empty at the inception, but it’s now
full with a waiting list, said Ippolito,
a long-term multifamily Clevelandarea investor who used the purchase to return to Euclid after
spending the last decade turning
around four buildings, some 560
suites, in Canton.
“LeBron came back and so did I,”
said Ippolito, whose Jaguar bares
the vanity plate “APT KING.”
There is plenty of room for improvement in rentals. At the Cleveland Tenants Organization, the second most frequent complaint
triggering calls after the quest for
rent assistance is the need for landlords to make improvements to the
property, said Angela Shuckahosee,
executive director.
Last year, the organization got
1,078 such calls, according to its annual report. CTO counsels tenants
on ways to make landlords accountable, she said, but often tenants in such cases have to go to the
last resort: Move.
Part of the trend in renewed multifamily makeovers is due to apartments becoming a favored investment as occupancy reached high
levels and rents increased as homeownership declined due to foreclosures. Lenders like apartments, and
that means funds for updates are
available.
“Money is much more flexible,”
Wasserstein said.
When Rock On bought the
Drake, the firm obtained $300,000
for capital improvements as part of
its acquisition loan with an equity
investment of 20% down. In 2008,
he was in the middle of buying another property when the bank
changed its terms to require 25%
down and eliminated funds for improvements. He had to scurry to
find $200,000 to fund needed repairs.
Another factor making it easier to
undertake projects, Wasserstein
said, is that more investors are interested in real estate. A 7% return
for real estate looks good now, he
said, in the present low-interest rate
environment.
In JVM’s case, it paid for improvements on Dover Farms with a
letter of credit from its Chicagobased lender who believes in its
project, Madary said. When banks
lend on such projects now, they are
more focused on the borrower and
the project than before the downturn, when more banks were in the
market. Until recently, he said,
“Banks weren’t doing much of anything.”
JVM plans to undertake similar
improvement programs at its other
properties here, Royal Oaks in
North Royalton and Butternut
Ridge in North Olmsted. Both Rock
On and Ippolito are in the hunt for
more deals.
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19
20150622-NEWS--20-NAT-CCI-CL_--
20
6/19/2015
2:04 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
HIGHEST PAID CEOS
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20150622-NEWS--21-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/18/2015
12:54 PM
Page 1
HELP US BUILD //
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20150622-NEWS--22-NAT-CCI-CL_--
22
6/19/2015
2:03 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
CLINIC
continued from page 1
healthy 4.7-star rating, one doc’s patient said, “This was the worst experience I have ever had with a primary care provider. I will NEVER see
this doctor again.”
“Transparency can be somewhat
of a risk,” Boissy said. “You have to
be comfortable with the quality of
care you’re providing to take this
step. It’s a change for people.”
A referral from family or friend or
a patient’s insurance coverage tend
to be the largest influencers when
choosing a doc, experts say, though
online reviews and ratings are taking
a more prominent role. According to
a 2014 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, about two-thirds of the general
public is aware of online physician
rating sites — a figure higher than
previous studies — and a little more
than a third had used these sites
when selecting a doc. Those figures
were based on a 2012 survey, and Dr.
David Hanauer — one of the study’s
authors — anticipates they have
since grown given that people are
becoming increasingly comfortable
with using the Internet to make
health care decisions. The researchers hope to do a follow-up
study in the coming months.
“Patients are very eager for information to help them make a decision,” said Hanauer, a pediatrician at
the University of Michigan Health
System. “They get this information
for movies and food, but when it
comes to health care, we tend to provide no information to them about
how to pick a doctor.”
The feds have surveyed patients
on their experiences and perceptions of docs since 2006, but relatively recently, they’ve begun to tie reimbursements to the satisfaction
surveys. That’s part of the reason
why hospitals like the Clinic have
pumped significant resources into
their patient experience efforts.
A few years ago, the Clinic began
sharing satisfaction ratings with their
docs to let them know how they
stack up against their peers. Publishing the ratings and reviews is the
next logical step in that journey,
Clinic officials said. Over the coming
months, the Clinic plans to do the
same with its nurse practitioners and
physician assistants.
Eventually, Boissy said the Clinic
would like to post each doc’s quality
data, including complication and
readmission rates, which would offer
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
a more complete picture of a physician’s ability. The Clinic already is
one of the few hospital systems that
post institute-wide outcomes data
on its website, though it can be difficult for general consumers to digest
the hulking documents.
Don’t get Yelped
MetroHealth, too, has taken an
interest in boosting its own patient
experience efforts, and being transparent about its satisfaction scores
is a key prong of that journey, said
Dr. Sara Laskey, a MetroHealth vice
president and its chief experience
officer. At MetroHealth’s annual
meeting last month, CEO Dr.
Akram Boutros said he was “embarrassed” in the fact that only 66% of
patients say “definitely yes” to
whether they would recommend
the hospital to family and friends,
as opposed to the national average
of 71%.
With that in mind, the health system has pledged to post its scores
online in the next few weeks to incentivize improvements. Building
on that effort, Laskey said the
health system plans to also post
physician ratings within the next
eight to 12 months. Recently, the
health system took a sampling of 40
of its docs and tallied their scores
based on already-existing physician
reviews websites. At present, those
docs average 4.1 stars with 3.5 comments apiece, whereas if they published the rankings based on the
throngs of data they already have in
hand, they would average 4.6 stars
and 44.4 comments per doc. Laskey
said posting the reviews could provide an instant boost to MetroHealth’s docs’ online reputations.
“Nobody wants to feel like they’re
being Yelped,” said Laskey, referring
to the popular ratings site. “We want
to do this to be transparent and
change behaviors if that’s the appropriate thing.”
The University of Utah’s health
system led the way in posting physician reviews back in 2012. Last year,
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
in Winston-Salem, N.C., followed
suit — a process that hospital officials said have had a positive impact.
For one, the hospital’s physicians
are taking a keener interest in these
scores now that they’re public and
working to improve upon what they
see as deficient.
“We have confidence in those we
serve and hope they would understand and know how to use this information,” said Dr. Russell Howerton, Wake Forest’s chief medical
officer and the bearer of 4.7 out of
five stars. “Sharing all of the feed-
back is going to build trust with
them.”
In many respects, it’s very much
the Wild West online when it comes
to physician and hospital reviews
and rankings. The much-discussed
U.S. News and World Report rankings, which haven’t come without
criticism, have proven to be a favored marketing tool for high-scoring hospitals. The same goes for
Leapfrog Group’s safety rankings.
As for the individual docs, review
sites like Vitals.com can be particularly damning for providers with
only a handful of reviews. One
scathing write-up out of three reviews, for example, can ravage a
physician’s reputation in a quick
Google search. However, posting
their own doc ratings and reviews
— data they stress is compiled by
independent parties and not fluffed
for marketing purposes — could
put the providers in a more positive
light.
Still, hospitals insist the move isn’t about marketing.
“This kind of transparency is the
right thing to do and gives our patients more information so that they
can make intelligent choices,” said
Dr. William Annable, the chief quality officer at University Hospitals,
which plans to launch its ratings
over the next month or two.
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20150622-NEWS--23-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/19/2015
3:26 PM
Page 1
JUNE 22 - 28, 2015
THE WEEK
JUNE 15 - 21
The big story:
Craig
Arnold will become the next
CEO of Eaton Corp., replacing Alexander “Sandy” Cutler, who is scheduled to retire
on May 31, 2016. By then,
Cutler will be 65 years old,
which is the power management company’s mandatory Arnold
retirement age. Arnold has
been an executive at the Beachwood-based company for 15 years. He has served as vice chairman, president and chief operating officer of
Eaton’s Industrial Sector since 2009. Until Cutler’s retirement, Arnold will serve as president
and chief operating officer of Eaton. His current
position will be filled by Uday Yadav, president
of the company’s Aerospace Group.
Thinking big: The new owner of the 925 Euclid
Ave. building, best known as the former Huntington Building, plans to transform it into a
mixed-use property with a high-end hotel, 550
apartments and a whopping 400,000 square feet
of office space. Andrew “Avi” Greenbaum, a
principal of Delray Beach, Fla.-based Hudson
Holdings, puts a $280 million price tag on the
renovation plan. Hudson wants to have the
building ready for occupancy in 36 months.
Greenbaum said the company needs to cobble
together financing and plans to seek Ohio State
Historic Preservation Tax Credits, which has delayed more than one project due to constraints
on state allocations of the credits.
Insight into a deal: Medtronic acquired CardioInsight of Cleveland in a deal valued at $93
million. The local company’s technology is designed to diagnose electrical abnormalities affecting the heart. Thus, CardioInsight will become
part of Medtronic’s Atrial Fibrillation Solutions
business. The medical technology giant plans to
maintain CardioInsight’s presence in Cleveland,
according to an email from a Medtronic executive.
The company bought CardioInsight for its “talent
and technology,” she stated.
On the move: Kent State University made a
high-profile hire and will bring on Paul DiCorleto — a veteran of the Cleveland Clinic — as its
new vice president for research and sponsored
programs. DiCorleto, who starts in his new role
Aug. 17, most recently chaired the Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, a role he has held since
2002. DiCorleto also led the department of molecular medicine at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine. DiCorleto takes
over for Grant McGimpsey. McGimpsey announced in August he would return to a faculty
position after serving in the vice president role
since 2011.
We’re really not interested: MetroHealth
wants to be clear: It’s no longer interested in taking over Lakewood Hospital. “More than one
year ago, MetroHealth submitted a proposal for
Lakewood Hospital, which was unsuccessful.
Since that time, we have moved forward with developing strategies for the physical transformation of our health system. These plans do not include an inpatient facility in Lakewood,”
MetroHealth said in a statement on June 19.
Lakewood and the Clinic agreed to close the
money-losing hospital in favor of a $34 million
community health center and emergency department. That plan is facing opposition from
some city residents, as well as a lawsuit.
Hear them out: The Cleveland Orchestra
found another Internet stage to help take its music global. It’s among five leading orchestras
worldwide that are launching Classical Live, offering some of their recent recordings on Google
Play Music. Also participating in Classical Live
are the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
of Amsterdam.
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
23
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK
BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
In hindsight, OverDrive CEO
would think even bigger
Be glad that OverDrive got into the real
estate business.
Sure, the digital content distributor is
now owned by a much larger company, but
CEO Steve Potash expects OverDrive to continue growing in Northeast Ohio. Partly because of the “mini Googleplex” he built in
Garfield Heights.
In April, a Tokyo-based Internet services
company called Rakuten Inc. paid about
$410 million for OverDrive, which has capitalized on the growing demand for digital
books and audio books. Potash gave a behind-the-scene account of the deal last
week, while speaking to a small crowd in a
private dining room at Lockkeepers in Valley View. The event was organized by
OHTec, a local technology association that
used to be called NEOSA.
A few years ago, when OverDrive was raising venture capital, it turned away investors
who didn’t want the company to own real
estate. Why? Potash wanted to put down
roots in Northeast Ohio.
That building has more than enough
room for OverDrive’s 250 employees.
“Their financial guys are saying, ‘Who else
can we put in that Garfield Heights location
that we own?’ ” he said to laughs.
The deal also will help some members of
his management team put their kids
through college, according to Potash. Many
of them had stock options, and they received big checks after the Rakuten deal, he
said.
However, those checks could have been
bigger. Potash told the crowd that OverDrive
should have acquired more companies and
grown faster. Founded in 1986, OverDrive
has bought a few companies over the years,
but for the most part it grew organically. He
encouraged business owners in the room to
think about buying other companies if it can
help them “get to the next level.”
“This could’ve been a much bigger number for us. No regrets,” he said to laughs.
— Chuck Soder
Grant to aerospace group
aims to help small firms soar
The Ohio Aerospace Institute in Brook
Park has received a $100,000 grant to help
small businesses in the state, especially
those owned by women, minorities and veterans.
The grant is part of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Federal and State
Technology Partnership Program, according to a news release. It will be aimed at
helping small businesses in aerospace technology and related industries get access to
Small Business Innovation Research and
Small Business Technology Transfer funding, which helps companies create and
commercialize new technology ideas, said
executive vice president Ann Heyward.
The institute was just notified of its award
in the past two weeks, Heyward said, and
the program is expected to start in October.
The institute had been a Federal and State
Technology grantee in the past, but this program will have more of a statewide focus, instead of a regional one.
Heyward said the institute is excited
about the mentor network that will be part
of the program. The network pulls together
a group of C-level executives from the type
of companies it’s trying to reach to offer advice.
“These are folks who have been there,
done that and succeeded,” Heyward said.
WHAT’S NEW
BEST OF THE BLOGS
COMPANY: Renegade Brands,
Beachwood
PRODUCT: Xenith Gear Cleaner,
powered by Sweat X
Excerpts from recent blog entries
on CrainsCleveland.com.
Renegade
Brands
said it finalized a private-label deal with
Lowell,
Mass.-based
Xenith to bring a powerful gear cleaner into the
football market.
The company is marketing the new product
as a dual-purpose spray
designed to clean hard
equipment surfaces and
to eliminate sweat odor
from absorbent pads
and gear.
The product complements
Renegade’s
Sweat X Laundry Cleaning Line, which includes
a detergent, stain and
odor spray and is designed to remove sports
stains and odors. Renegade says the Sweat
X detergent and laundry line “eliminates
99% of harmful bacteria causing staph and
acne from technical fabrics and everyday
clothing.”
Sweat X inventor and Renegade Brands
CEO Cathy Horton said she’s “honored to
partner with Xenith” and hopes to turn the
new products into “a must for all professional, collegiate and youth football players
and programs.
Joe Esposito, CEO of Xenith, added, “We
are proud to be working with an organization committed to revolutionizing and promoting safety technology in football helmets and protective equipment.”
For
information,
visit
www.SweatXsport.com
and
www.Xenith.com.
They like him
Sherwin-Williams CEO Chris Connor is in
some pretty elite company — specifically,
one of the 50 Highest Rated CEOs for 2015,
as ranked by Glassdoor.com.
The website enables people to rate their
employers — and the companies’ CEOs —
anonymously and to list the companies’
pros and cons.
Among large companies (those with
1,000 or more employees), Connor ranked
No. 46 in this year’s survey, with 89% of reviews on Glassdoor.com giving him positive
marks.
The top-rated CEO was Google’s Larry
Page, with a 97% approval rating among
employees. The rest of the top five: Mark
Parker of Nike, Charles Butt of food retailer
HEB, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and
Scott Scherr of Ultimate Software.
The list had a couple other Ohio connections.
A.G. Lafley of Cincinnati-based Procter &
Gamble was No. 19, and Bill Emerson of
Quicken Loans, the company founded by
Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, was No. 44.
Nerves of steel
Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Clevelandbased mining company Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., said the plan to decrease the
company’s exposure to low global commodity prices is at risk without limits on unfairly traded steel, according to a
Bloomberg story.
When he took over the company last August after an activist-investor revolt,
Goncalves “promised to end Cliffs’ vulnerability to the oversupplied seaborne iron
market,” the news services noted. “Cheap
imports of steel made from iron mined
abroad also expose Cliffs to overseas mar-
The institute will partner with Kent State
University’s Manufacturing and Technology Small Business Development Center to
reach possible applicants.
— Rachel Abbey McCafferty
Ursuline preps MBA students
for ‘triple bottom line’ world
Ursuline College is taking its MBA program beyond business as usual.
The college’s School of Graduate and Professional Studies this fall is launching a socially conscious Master of Business Administration program designed for students to
“gain both a practical knowledge of modern
business as well as an understanding of the
new emerging economy.”
Gina Messina-Dysert, dean of the School
of Graduate and Professional Studies, said
in a statement announcing the new MBA
program that concepts taught in it “will include the gift economy, the sharing economy, cooperative business models, collaborative
leadership,
corporate
social
responsibility and the triple bottom line,”
often expressed as the “three Ps” of people,
planet and profit.
To accommodate professionals, classes
will be held one night per week, and each
class will last for eight weeks. The courses
will take place on Ursuline’s Pepper Pike
campus as well as online. Registration is
open for the program on www.ursuline.edu.
Nurete Brenner, director of the new MBA
program, said the goal is to prepare students
to be “socially conscious managers and collaborative leaders.” She said those characteristics dovetail with trends at large companies and health care providers, including the
Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and
MetroHealth in Northeast Ohio.
— Scott Suttell
kets as his customers struggle.”
On June 3, producers of the metal, including U.S. Steel Corp. and ArcelorMittal, filed
a U.S. trade case against corrosion-resistant
steel from five countries, Bloomberg reported. If steel trade cases fail, Goncalves said he
would have to find another way to assure his
company’s performance is aligned with U.S.
economic growth instead of a global commodity slump.
“If I don’t have the trade case, I will have
to figure things out,” Goncalves told
Bloomberg. “It is important for my clients.
It is important for the market.”
China is among countries unfairly subsidizing the metal, allowing the Asian country’s steelmakers to sell to U.S. buyers at unfairly low prices, Goncalves said. “I’m a
resourceful guy,” he said. “If I don’t have a
trade case, I will figure out a way.”
Are these prices right?
Christopher L. Sagers, an antitrust professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law,
was quoted in a New York Times story that
examined a favorite buzzword of the airline
industry these days: “discipline.”
The heads of at least three airlines used
some variation of that term during a recent
industry conference in Miami.
“Discipline,” the paper said, “is classic oligopoly-speak for limiting flights and seats,
higher prices and fatter profit margins.” And
this year, that discipline seems to be working, as airline industry profits are projected
to hit a record $30 billion.
Sagers, an airline industry specialist who
opposed the American-US Airways merger
in testimony before Congress, told The
Times that all the “discipline” talk at a conference of direct competitors in a concentrated oligopoly is a huge legal risk.
“I don’t see a smoking gun,” he said. “But
they’re all but saying you need to limit output to keep up prices.”
20150622-NEWS--24-NAT-CCI-CL_--
6/18/2015
12:55 PM
Page 1
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