Columbus CEO - September 2020 issue

Co lu m b u s pa r t n e r s h i p i ss u e 2 02 0

Walking the talk

New views

Black C-suiters share how companies can do better.

The pioneers making tech more diverse.

Page 66

Page 26

Year of trials Nine Columbus Partnership CEOs on leadership in crisis.

Page 56

September 2020

Taking the tough job Battling a pandemic is just one of the challenges Lorraine Lutton faces as Mount Carmel Health System’s new CEO. Page 8

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Contents 56

Sandy DoyleAhern

Doug Kridler

Central Ohio business leaders have faced one crisis after another in 2020.

Here’s how some responded—and what they’ve learned about their companies in the process.

Lisa Ingram

leadership through crisis 66 Walking the talk

Francie Henry

Black executives want to see and not just hear about corporate commitments to workplace equity.

74 From the top

Doug Ulman

CEO Mike Kaufmann drives Cardinal Health’s diversity and inclusion efforts.

Cameron Mitchell Alex Timm

september 2020

Jim Merkel

David Holladay

Photos by ROB HARDIN; except Jim Merkel photo by JODI MILLER; photos of David Holladay and Alex Timm courtesy CoverMyMeds and Root Insurance

Cover photo by

Rob Hardin September 2020 l ColumbusCEO

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Departments 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289 Columbus, Ohio 43216 Phone: 614-540-8900 • Fax: 614-461-8746

ColumbusCEO.com

VOLUME 29 / NUMBER 9 Columbus Site Manager

Alan D. Miller

Publisher/General Manager

Ray Paprocki

Associate Publisher/Advertising Director

Rheta Gallagher Editorial EDITOR

Katy Smith

05 Editor’s Note Margie Pizzuti has changed the lives of people with disabilities.

86 Leaderboards Central Ohio nonprofits

88 Home Office Space: Alex Frommeyer A treehouse high over Broad and High streets.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Design & Production

Craig Rusnak ART DIRECTOR

Yogesh Chaudhary Digital EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach ASSISTANT DIGITAL EDITOR

Brittany Moseley Custom Content PROJECT MANAGER

Emma Frankart Henterly Photography PHOTO EDITOR

Tim Johnson Associate photo editor

Rob Hardin Advertising

Senior Multimedia Sales Executives

Holly Gallucci, Susan Kendall Multimedia Sales Executives

Tia Hardman, Jackie Thiam

David Hunegnaw

Insider

Jeff Bell, Rebecca Walters PRODUCTION/DESIGN DIRECTOR

The hotel industry’s pain by the numbers.

24 Spotlight: Commercial Real Estate

08 Profile: Lorraine Lutton

Covid-19 shows the importance of sound financing for hotel projects.

07 Breakdown Mount Carmel’s new CEO is wellequipped to help cure the hospital system’s ills.

Ikostrips’ med-tech solutions for the CBD market.

18 Spotlight: Small Business Boxed lunches keep Bentos Catering delivering for its customers.

20 Spotlight: Nonprofit Kindway offers hope and help for a better future to prison inmates.

22 Spotlight: Innovation

SALES ASSISTANTs

Bylined writes its own story with usergenerated content model.

Veronica Hill, Lori Lester, Heather Smits Marketing

In-Depth 26 Technology Leaders

14 Tech Talk

CLASSIFIED SALES

Amy Vidrick

22

Efforts are being made to give more diverse candidates a chance at tech careers.

28 Succession Planning For some companies, ESOPs can yield big benefits for owners and employees.

Advertising Sections

31 Faces Meet Central Ohio business leaders in affordable housing and wealth management.

18

MARKETING MANAGER

Lauren Reinhard

LETTERS: letters@columbusceo.com PRESS RELEASES

pressreleases@columbusceo.com

The coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges. But there is hope. Ohio is well-positioned to emerge from the storm stronger.

Inserted after 36

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advertise@columbusceo.com Columbus CEO (ISSN 1085-911X) is published monthly by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2020, all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials. Known address of publication is 62 E. Broad St., Columbus, Ohio 43215. Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Senzd address changes to Columbus CEO, 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289, Columbus, OH 43216.

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Editor’s Notes * ksmith@ColumbusCEO.com

Pizzuti’s legacy gift of independence

M

argie Pizzuti feels good about her retirement, and she should. She’s leaving this community much the better for her efforts (which are far from done, by the way). The CEO of Goodwill announced her plans in August after a 40-year career including roles in marketing and community development with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the state of Ohio and the city of Columbus.

Pizzuti has spent the past 15 years advancing the lives of people with developmental disabilities, a cause that means very much to many families, including mine. I recently shared with Margie that I grew up with Goodwill staff in my house who were there to help my mom— who was single and juggling three kids, an executive assistant job and college on the weekends—with my brother Joe, who has autism.

Goodwill was a life raft for my family, and Pizzuti’s work has made it even more so for the people who benefit from its services. She retooled its workforce development services to connect people with disabilities with employers; moved adult day services from segregated settings into the community; renovated Goodwill’s Grandview Heights headquarters following a successful capital campaign; and nearly doubled revenue to $51 million this year from $28 million in 2006.

The search for a new leader for Goodwill is underway.

“I do this with a with a total sense of peace because the organization is in a strong, stable position,” Pizzuti, who is turning 70 in November.

“Goodwill will continue to transform the lives of individuals through pathways to independence and the power of work. I feel deeply honored and privileged to have led this extraordinary organization. There is a lot of collaboration in our community and a lot of passion to make sure that every individual has the opportunity

File/ Courtney Hergesheimer/COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Margie Pizzuti to thrive. That’s what it’s about.”

Pizzuti, a longtime Upper Arlington Board of Education member, plans to continue in her role as board chair of the Upper Arlington Community Foundation.

Fun fact: Among her considerable accomplishments is that she was the executive behind the “Ohio—The Heart of It All” tourism campaign, a slogan that made the state a destination for short trips and one that I continue to favor for its wholesome, vintage appeal.

••• We here at Columbus CEO are proud to say you hold in your hands the Best Magazine in Ohio. That’s the distinction we took home from the 2020 Cleveland Press Club awards Aug. 7. We also rounded up a few other statewide honors for work in 2019: Best technology writing for my profile of Bold Penguin founder Ilya Bodner; best studio photography for Rob Hardin’s portraits of four firebright women who overcame racism and sexism to achieve prominence in business; best public service/

investigative work among business publications for former staff writer Chloe Teasley’s profiles of those four women; and best personality profile among business publications for my story about Joy Bivens, the director of Franklin County Job and Family Services, who never met a person she didn’t want to help.

It’s a labor of love putting this magazine together every month. Thanks for paying us the greatest compliment you can—by reading it.

Katy Smith, Editor September 2020 l ColumbusCEO

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Breakdown Compiled by katy smith + Infographic by Yogesh Chaudhary Photo Istock.com/Orbon Alija

Source: STR Inc.

January

February

March

April

39.9%

31.4%

73.3% 24.5%

37.8%

67.4%

67.8%

62% 60.2%

50.4% 50%

Year 2020

74.6%

Year 2019

May

June

Monthly occupancy down significantly from last year

Pandemic pain for the hotel industry The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has crushed the hospitality industry for the year. In Columbus, canceled room nights have meant $207 million in lost revenue through June, and year-to-date bed tax collections of $12 million as of June 30 were down 45 percent over last year, according to Columbus Auditor Megan Kilgore’s office. The pain is spelled out in monthly hotel occupancy data for the Columbus region as reported by international hotel industry tracker STR Inc., based in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

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profile

By Kathy Lynn Gray + Photos by rob hardin

Lorraine Lutton President and CEO

Mount Carmel Health System Since: April 2020 Age: 54 Previous: President and CEO at Roper St. Francis Healthcare in Charleston, South Carolina.

Education: Bachelor of Science from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; MBA from University of California, Los Angeles.

Personal: Lives in Downtown Columbus with

her husband, Andy, who is executive director of a small nonprofit in Tampa. Their three grown children live in Washington, D.C., and Tampa.

Healing the healers The new leader of Mount Carmel Health System inherits an organization wounded by murder charges, lawsuits and more. Fortunately, turnarounds are her specialty.

A

s a teenage candy-striper at a West Virginia hospital near her home, Lorraine Lutton quickly noticed some problems.

She’d push patients in wheelchairs to a physical therapy room, where they’d wait for a physical therapist to become available. After their session they’d wait some more, for Lutton to retrieve them

and take them back to their rooms.

“It was such an inefficient system,” Lutton remembers. “I kept suggesting: Why not have the therapists go to the patient’s room? Why not modify the process to make it better for the patient? I didn’t get very far, as you can imagine.”

But the experience sparked an interest in Lutton, one that has stayed with her throughout her working life: How can health care be changed for the better for patients?

Lutton brought that passion to Columbus in April, when she became the new CEO for Mount Carmel Health System. She is its first laywoman leader in its nearly 135-year history—there have been women CEOs, all of whom were Sisters of the Holy Cross, while all the organization’s men CEOs have been laymen.

Leading a health system at a time when the industry is more complex than ever is a major challenge to begin with, but Lutton, 54, began her new job this spring, a particularly notable time for health care, and Mount Carmel in particular. Nationally, Covid-19 was beginning to spread and in Ohio, life was beginning to shut down to keep the pandemic in check.

Mount Carmel itself was trying to recover from more than a year of controversy that began in December 2018 when one of its intensivecare physicians, Dr. William Husel, was accused of ordering excessive painkiller doses for 34 patients. A Franklin County grand jury indicted him on 25 counts of murder in June 2019, and he is awaiting trial.

The accusations spawned numerous lawsuits against the health system and prompted Mount Carmel to fire more than 20 employees. CEO Ed Lamb resigned in July 2019, replaced by interim CEO Michael Englehart.

The system also had an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at Mount Carmel Grove City in 2019, resulting in one death, and it suffered the sudden death of Michael Wilkins, president of Mount Carmel East hospital, in September 2019.

There is a lot of healing to be done for Mount Carmel, led by its

Lorraine Lutton

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A reputation is built on every interaction, so every interaction our patients have with every one of our physicians and every one of our colleagues every day has got to be high quality. new chief executive.

“We needed someone with a deep background in quality and quality improvement,” says businessman Jordan Hansell, chairman of the Mount Carmel board and president of hotel developer Rockbridge. “We thought the ability to be thoughtful and agile was critical, and we wanted someone who would be steadfast but strong, who could take the organization from the position it found itself in to where we know it can be.”

Hansel says Lutton has an active mind and a calming spirit, a combination Mount Carmel needs.

“Mount Carmel is an organization in transition, in a world in transition, and her ability to stay calm and think clearly is a real positive,” he says.

“She has a certain restlessness and is always seeking to improve.”

This won’t be the first time Lutton has been asked to turn an organization around.

After graduating with an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, Lutton took a job in quality improvement at a California medical center before heading to Tampa to work for St. Joseph’s Hospital. Lutton began her work there in quality control and eventually became president of the facility. After 24 years, she was lured in 2016 to Roper St. Francis Healthcare in Charleston, South Carolina, to help the system overcome financial and management problems.

“We were at a time of evolution,” says Dr. Stanley Wilson, vice president and chief medical officer at Roper St. Francis. “Everyone was pointing fingers. She entered into a very challenging medical situation.”

Lutton, Wilson says, was approved unanimously for the job by an all-male selection team, besting several male September 2020 l ColumbusCEO

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Photos courtesy lorraine Lutton

Lorraine Lutton has spent her career building relationships. candidates and becoming the system’s first female CEO. “She came in, looked at everything, and began working on building relationships,” Wilson says. “She was very visible and involved, and she made it clear her focus was on quality.

At our leadership meetings, we always talked about quality, about what we could do better.”

Lutton is skilled at connecting with employees who work on the front lines, says Andy Lyons, director of corporate communications for Roper St. Francis. She’d schedule time each week in a different part of the hospital

so she could immerse herself in how each facet of care worked and talk with workers about how it could be improved, he says.

“She’d look at how linens got delivered or she was cleaning an operating room and figuring out how that was done,” Lyons says. “She lived it.”

Wilson says Lutton’s door was open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and she welcomed suggestions. She set up focus groups with physicians “to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly” and perpetuated a culture of physician engagement and leadership training.

“I feel she did turn the ship

around,” Wilson says. “We’re in an extremely competitive hospital situation, and yet in many areas we’re the market leader. We focus on the things we do well.”

Lutton already is working at Mount Carmel to listen to its 9,000 employees through virtual town halls, a special email program and a diversity series of virtual talks. Her normal style is to have in-person group meetings, but the pandemic has eliminated that possibility for now.

“It’s not the same as shaking hands and having large, open forums where people are gathered together to talk and share ideas,” she says. “But I think it’s been helpful for people to get together virtually and be able to ask questions of leadership. You have to encourage people to do that and create opportunities for that engagement, which is what I’m focusing on.”

Lutton wants every Mount Carmel staff member to think about and act on improving the organization’s patient care every day.

“My philosophy of leadership is all about continuous improvement.

How do we change the process to

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continue to improve the care we’re providing? What we did yesterday ended at midnight. What are we going to do today to make care better? That requires every colleague to be thinking about that, to be sharing their ideas, to be actively engaged, not just with their hands but with their minds as well, so we can move forward faster.”

She’s mindful that one of her challenges is to ameliorate the damage to Mount Carmel’s reputation by the patient deaths in the Husel case.

“A reputation is built on every interaction, so every interaction our patients have with every one of our physicians and every one of our colleagues every day has got to be high quality,” Lutton says. “It’s got to meet the needs of the patient, and it’s got to be a positive interaction. That is, first and foremost, how we’re going to rebuild trust.”

Beyond that, she says the health system must look for ways to engage with patients differently so they know Mount Carmel will meet their needs differently.

“We have a lot of great care going on, and we need to build on those

areas of excellence and ensure that the whole organization is lifted in a positive way through those centers of excellence,” she says. Those include the system’s Street Medicine program, which provides free urgent medical care to Central Ohioans who are uninsured or underinsured; its innovative cardiovascular services; and its pediatric and obstetrics services, Lutton says.

Lutton hopes to schedule meetings with area business leaders to find out how Mount Carmel is perceived and how it can better meet the needs of the communities served by its hospitals: Flagships Mount Carmel East, Mount Carmel St. Ann’s and Mount Carmel Grove City; plus surgery center Mount Carmel New Albany and freestanding ER Diley Ridge Medical Center, which it operates jointly in Canal Winchester with Fairfield Medical Center.

She’s already linked up with the other hospital systems in the area through cooperative efforts to provide care during the pandemic, such as helping to set up an emergency hospital facility at the convention center and providing Covid testing

Mount Carmel is an organization in transition, in a world in transition, and her ability to stay calm and think clearly is a real positive. She has a certain restlessness and is always seeking to improve.

Jordan Hansell, chairman, Mount Carmel Health System board for the community.

Hansell says Lutton has quickly formed a deeply educated view of the challenges and opportunities at Mount Carmel. She’s changed around the responsibilities of her leadership team and already has proved to be an empathetic leader who is defining a clear plan for improving the system, he says.

“She’s decisive, but balances that

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Q&A

Lorraine Lutton began her new role leading Mount Carmel just as the pandemic was setting in.

She says she found a caring, highly engaged team.

You came to Mount Carmel in April just as the pandemic was hitting Ohio.

What have your first few months on the job been like?

It was really exciting when I first came because it was right in the middle of the Covid [crisis], and the command structure we had in place was great, with incredible caregivers who are passionate about what they’re doing to provide safe, quality care.

Everybody was inspired and energetic and really doing incredible, missiondriven work. That was the introduction, and it was really helpful for me, to build our relationship together as a team to move the organization forward.

What qualities do you have that lend themselves to helping Mount Carmel overcome recent challenges?

It’s difficult to talk about yourself, but I would say integrity. I’m very committed to transparency and inclusive decision-making.

What convinced you to take this job?

It’s the opportunity to make a difference and work with a team of people to rebuild trust with the community and improve the work that we’re doing for the greater Columbus area. Mount Carmel has a few challenges, and my goal is to always work with a great team of people to improve patient care.

I felt like it was the right fit for me at this time.

You have three women now who are presidents of your full-service hospitals. Was that a purposeful choice, to select women for those positions?

We needed the right person to lead at this time who was the best fit for the roles we had. It wasn’t intentional to hire women, but to hire the right person. We are trying to downsize the number of people in executive positions, so rather than recruiting other people for open positions, we have rearranged our existing leaders. Now we have three female leaders heading our hospitals, and I think it’s working very well.

Lorraine Lutton in “Mary’s Garden” outside Mount Carmel East. with a willingness to be responsive and listen to feedback and dialogue,” says Hansell. “The team needs to be on board, and she’s done a nice job of ensuring that in a short period of time.”

One of her goals is to increase the influence and leadership that physicians have at Mount Carmel, something she worked on at Roper St. Francis. “I believe that physician engagement is essential to our success,” she says. “Physicians want to have meaningful influence and feel valued as members of the team. Mount Carmel has some of this going on now, but we need to grow and strengthen it so physicians feel engaged with the opportunities and the work we have to do here.”

Lutton also wants the system to be in the top quartile of all measurements of patient satisfaction, clinical outcomes and financial performance, be a preferred employer in the area and have all of its hospitals achieve a fivestar rating from the national Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The hospitals’ ratings now range from three to four stars.

Lutton was heavily involved in community organizations at her two previous jobs, including the local chamber of commerce, a performing arts center, numerous health care organizations and a regional development alliance.

So far, the pandemic has limited

her ability to find her community niche in Columbus.

“I have an interest in a lot of things, but I haven’t yet figured out how to get exposed to opportunities here,” she says. “My experience has been to be involved in a lot of activities and boards.”

In her free time, she and her husband of 30 years, Andy, like to hike, boat and travel to the national parks.

Lutton also is a runner, with a goal to complete at least 500 miles this year, and an avid reader.

Andy Lutton has a part-time position as executive director of an affordable-housing nonprofit in Tampa and spends much of his time in Columbus volunteering for MealsOn-Wheels and the Mid-Ohio Food Collective. The couple lives in a Downtown apartment but is buying a home in German Village. Their three adult children live in Washington, D.C., and Tampa.

Lutton says she’s excited about what’s ahead for Mount Carmel.

“My focus is moving the organization forward,” she says. “We are going to be caring and interacting with our patients in different ways, in digital ways, and looking at how we can grow our ambulatory interactions with patients. There are a lot of exciting things going on and I’m focused on the future.”

Kathy Lynn Gray is a freelance writer.

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Tech talk

By Cynthia Bent Findlay

Med-tech collaboration spins up venture making CBD strips The product is the latest to come from Ikove Capital and Nanofiber Solutions.

Photo courtesy Ikostrips

Scott Barnes

E

veryone knows medical marijuana is hot. The CBD market alone will balloon to a projected $15 billion to $20 billion by 2025, according to various market researchers including investment bank Cowen & Co. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a component of hemp or marijuana, which is now sold over the counter all over the country. CBD believers say it’s a remedy for pain and inflammation, anxiety and depression, chemotherapy-induced nausea— even acne.

Right now, you can get CBD as an oil, a topical cream, in edibles like gummy bears, or as a vaping product. Columbus startup Ikostrips is jumping into the burgeoning market by harnessing nanofiber technology already in use by a family of medtech companies.

In its method of delivering drugs, the company’s under-the-tongue strips use the same polymer as a time-release capsule. The body can absorb the micronized CBD oil much faster and more efficiently than simply swallowing the oil.

“The digestive tract reduces the amount of CBD active that gets in

your system. Bioavailability is what this is all about,” says Scott Barnes, Ikostrip’s CEO. “Ikostrips [can] get CBD into your system with the most accurate, predictable and controllable bioavailability.

Ikostrips is one of the newest portfolio companies of Ikove Capital, the Columbus startup nursery.

Ikostrips is a collaboration between Ikove and Dublin-based Nanofiber Solutions; the pair have been commercializing med-tech solutions based on electrospun nanofiber technology for several years, including ParaGen, which

Ikostrips Ikostrips.com Business: Dissolvable CBD strips CEO: Scott Barnes Employees: 5

O

Launch: March 2020

aids in tissue regrowth for wounds.

Ikove’s partnership with Nanofiber Technologies is an illustration of the growing biotech scene in Columbus.

The same nanofiber electrospinning technology can be used as a delivery system for medications and nutraceuticals; for implantable, dissolvable surgical materials; even for lab-grown meats, as used by another Ikove startup, Matrix Meats.

Barnes came to Ikove as an entrepreneur in residence after a series of Silicon Valley bioengineering startups and says his background in highly regulated markets helps further Ikostrips’ goal of being seen as a rigorously tested, trustworthy product in a market that currently resembles the Wild West.

Barnes is positioning Ikostrips as a wholesaler to brands already holding a firm footprint in the market, which he says should open the door to highvolume sales without a large marketing investment.

Ikostrips is in the middle of $1.1 million capital raise. Barnes says the company has just finished its first production run and plans to continue manufacturing here in Columbus, pushing toward seeing revenue begin to flow in the third quarter of 2020.

“CBD is already happening as a market,” he says. “The model has proven to be able to raise money even in the middle of pandemic.”

Plastic asphalt tech wins 100K grant Delaware startup NecoTech recently scored a couple of wins in its quest to bring more ecofriendly infrastructure products to market. The company’s new paving patch technology based on recycled plastic was featured at the U.S. Air Force’s 2020 Base of the Future Showcase, and it won

a $100,000 research grant, all within the space of a month.

NecoTech’s key product is an asphalt patching system called Hotpod that can rapidly heat and deploy pre-mixed asphalt patches in all outdoor temperatures.

The Air Force, which has been using Hotpod on runway potholes

as a trial. CEO Steve Flaherty says the invite to the Base of the Future Showcase stems from that work.

Flaherty’s goal for the product is 100 percent recycled plastic aggregate in the mix, which reduces landfill-bound waste and also creates a more durable pavement.

Piggybacking on Hotpod,

NecoTech was awarded a $100,000 grant by the Carpet American Recovery Effort, a national organization working toward recycling waste carpet materials. The grant will allow NecoTech to finalize formulations for working waste carpet remnants into the NecoPave mix.

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briefing

A space for Black businesses Web directory launches effort that could include workspace.

S

halonda Lee yearned to make an impact. While forced to stay home during the height of May’s anti-police brutality protests Downtown, she fell into a research rabbithole, diving into Columbus’ Black business scene after watching a video of a protester calling for greater Black entrepreneurship.

Over the next month, Lee developed her vision for Blackspace Columbus as a resource for Black business owners and artists that could strengthen their marketing, professionalism, and most importantly, their exposure.

“We want Blackspace Columbus to be a place where you could come in looking like what you look like, where you’re from,” she says. “We’re not judging you by how you talk.

We’re going to try to help get you there—to come into the room and sit

File photo ROB HARDIN

Sandy Doyle-Ahern

Photo courtesy Blackspace Columbus

By Tatyana Tandanpolie

Shalonda Lee, executive director, Blackspace Columbus

at the table and be taken seriously.”

The Black business incubator launched in July with a free-to-list business directory on blackspacecolumbus.com, connecting owners with potential patrons and providing free promotion through Blackspace’s social media pages.

“The ultimate goal is to give the people that exposure and get them to the next level, get them a few more customers, get them more dollars in their pocket so that they can actually start growing their businesses over the long term,” Lee says.

Blackspace has grown since launch.

As of August, more than 100 businesses fill the directory across 13 categories, its Instagram page has nearly 1,000 followers and its inaugural event—an online bracket for lash extension businesses—garnered $500 in donations for the grand prize.

For Lee, this is just the begin-

S i st e r h o o d To hear EMH&T President Sandy Doyle-Ahern tell it, there’s nothing magical about the way The Edge Sisters came together.

The informal group of 13 women business leaders—including Crane Group CEO Tanny Crane, ice cream magnate Jeni Britton Bauer, Columbus Urban League President Stephanie Hightower, City Auditor Megan Kilgore and several other local leaders— first met for dinner in February at Doyle-Ahern’s invitation.

“I sent an email out to all of them and said, ‘I’ve talked

ning. She hopes to receive enough social media shares, volunteers and donations to expand Blackspace’s offerings to a communal workspace, business development program and free workshops by January. As she decorates posts and the site with the colors of the Pan-African flag, a symbol of unity and liberation for the African diaspora, she also hopes to bring Black businesses and creatives in Columbus closer to her definition of freedom.

“When we talk about freedom, it’s more than not being owned by someone,” she says. “It’s more than not being a slave on a plantation. Living paycheck to paycheck, and when you lose your job because something has gone wrong, you lose your livelihood.

That’s not free. That’s not being liberated. We’re thinking about liberating people financially.”

-Tatyana Tandanpolie

fo r

to each one of you individually about different community issues over the years, and it just seems like we all feel like we need to do more,’” Doyle-Ahern says.

In August, the group hosted (and funded) a virtual event, “Seeing the Racial Water with Dr. Robin DiAngelo,” featuring the author of White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.

It wasn’t a fundraiser for a nonprofit. There was no corporate sponsor. The Edge Sisters merely saw it as an opportunity

r

c h a n g e for the community to learn and grow via a purposefully uncomfortable conversation.

While Doyle-Ahern hopes the group can host more events in the coming months, don’t expect The Edge Sisters to formalize with official mission statements or branding initiatives. “This is going to continue to be a group of friends that collectively come together and see what we can do in our respective circles to keep pushing for equity and change and positivity,” she says.

–Joel Oliphint

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spotlight

By Bob Vitale + Photo by rob hardin

Small Business

The work doesn’t stop Bentos Catering flexed its business model with the pandemic, but its core is in tact.

S

hannon Bowman discovered a passion for cooking in her desire to serve healthy, helpful food to her three sons.

Two have autism, and she saw firsthand how wholesome, homemade meals had positive effects on everything from their cognitive abilities to their energy levels.

She already had an entrepreneur’s passion, owning a card-making business and a horse-training facility.

“I like working hard,” she says. “It was one of those things: What do I want to get up in the morning to do?

It was cooking and serving. Serving is a true passion for me.”

Five years after starting Bentos Catering, which prepares and delivers employee lunches to corporate clients, both passions are burning still.

Business has more than doubled each year. Bowman’s goal in 2015 was to serve 250 meals weekly. She now employs five chefs and a staff of 20 to serve more than 5,000 each week.

“We really found a niche market

Bentos Catering

1528 N. Cassady Ave., Columbus, 43219 bentoscatering.com Business: Corporate lunches, event

catering and snacks prepared and delivered to Columbus offices

Founder: Shannon Bowman Employees: 20 Revenue: Would not disclose

Shannon Bowman there and filled the need,” she says.

“We had a couple parameters that we had to stay within, which is make food healthy, make the food interesting, and have a lot of choices. And one of the things that we never barter with is we’re always on time.”

Bentos—named after the Japanese lunchbox—offers more than 200 menus for clients. Bowman started off serving boxed lunches, moved into buffet-style service, and with the pandemic, has begun offering boxed lunches once again.

Each menu lets people mix and match to create their own meals around preferences and dietary restrictions. A hamburger bar includes

burgers, grilled chicken and a meatless patty; Japanese bowls include chicken, salmon or tofu.

Meals can be vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and other diets. Dressings and sauces are made in-house.

“What we do is we put everything on the side,” Bowman says. “If you’re in the mood for pasta and chicken, you don’t have to get anything else. If you’re in the mood for a chicken salad—you want chicken and salad and all the toppings—you can get that, too. You can do a heavy-carb meal if you wanted, or you can do a lighter version. Or if you’re eating keto, you can definitely find something.”

Bowman brags that her service

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“We’ve been busy. We didn’t sit around and complain. We said, ‘How can we come out of this stronger?’ ” Shannon Bowman, founder, Bentos Catering

is “talent-retention gold” for clients, and surveys have borne that out. A 2018 survey by San Francisco-based ZeroCater found two-thirds of employers who provide lunches and snacks in their offices called the practice part of their retention strategy. In a 2016 Glassdoor Economic Research survey, people listed free lunch and snacks higher than health savings accounts, company cars and performance bonuses as valued perks.

Drive Capital, the Columbus-based venture capital firm, has ordered lunch from Bentos for its 22 employees every day since the caterer opened. About half the staff are vegan, and one person has a shellfish allergy.

“I work with Shannon directly, and to be able to give feedback directly to the owner of the company is really rare and helpful,” says Executive Assistant Holly Revels. “She takes a lot of time to make sure our team is happy with the meals and is always super accommodating.”

As Drive Capital employees have begun returning to their office, Revels says, Bentos has accommodated Covid-related concerns by packaging meals individually. When business dropped off during the height of the spring shutdown, Bentos cooked 5,000 meals for homeless shelters and partnered with We Are All in This Together and Upstart, one of its customers, to provide another 5,000 meals to frontline workers.

Since March, Bentos also has tested new menus, completed a rebrand, revamped its website and started working on an app that clients will be able to use for ordering. Bowman also has planned a “catering-on-the-fly” option for customers who need lunch or catering on shorter notice.

“We’ve been busy,” Bowman says.

“We didn’t sit around and complain.

We said, ‘How can we come out of this stronger?’ ” Bob Vitale is a freelance writer.

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spotlight

By Shannon Shelton Miller

Nonprofit

Unlocking futures Kindway supports people as they leave incarceration and return to the community.

Christine Money, at right and below

Kindway P.O. Box 67, Reynoldsburg 43068 kindway.org Mission: To help incarcerated men and

women at Marion Correctional Institution and the Ohio Reformatory for Women in their efforts to make a successful reentry to the community.

Executive director: Christine Money Employees: 4 full-time, 2 part-time and 80

volunteers

Budget: $333,069 (2019) Funding sources: Board of directors,

individual donors, church partners, corporate gifts, grants

Photos courtesy KINDWAY

F

ew people would call a prison a “special place.” But for Juan Martinez, that’s exactly what Marion Correctional Institution turned out to be, thanks to a nonprofit and its volunteers who prepared him for life after release.

When Martinez arrived in 2004 to serve the majority of a 15-year sentence for drug possession, he expected a stereotypical prison environment—“life-threatening and dangerous.” Instead, he found the warden’s approach to corrections emphasized education and rehabilitation.

“I learned early I was in a special place,” he says. “I would often hear the warden start her presentations, usually at religious functions, by saying that God was welcome here.”

That warden, Christine Money, would return to Marion years later as executive director of Kindway, a faith-based nonprofit working to prepare and support inmates at Marion Correctional and the Ohio Reformatory for Women for a successful return to the community.

“I saw from the inside how people were failing and coming back to prison, and I felt I had the opportunity to do something to change that,” says Money, who has been a warden at three prisons—two that Kindway serves—and interim director of the Ohio Department of Youth Services during her career in corrections and social work. “Once I retired, I looked for an opportunity in ministry because I saw how dramatically people changed when they built a relationship with Christ while incarcerated.”

The proof is in the numbers. Of the

140 men and women who completed Embark, Kindway’s program to prepare inmates for post-prison life, just 5.7 percent have re-entered the correctional system. In comparison, Ohio’s recidivism rate— defined as returning to prison within three years of release—is 31 percent.

Embark, a 10-month program, was launched in 2011 by a church-based nonprofit that was the precursor to Kindway, which became an independent nonprofit in 2014. Embark participants must be within a year of release and demonstrate that they’re committed to the process of successful re-entry. The curriculum includes cognitive behavioral therapy and a 12-step program to address addiction and past criminal thinking, along with a plan for reintegration.

Each participant is matched with a mentor who continues the relation-

“I saw from the inside how people were failing and coming back to prison, and I felt I had the opportunity to do something to change that.”

Christine Money, executive director, Kindway

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ship for at least a year after release.

Before Martinez joined Embark, he had completed tech courses in the prison’s computer lab and graduated from a four-year program through Winebrenner Theological Seminary.

But even with that background and his preparation through Embark, he says the transition to life outside was more difficult than expected. Martinez began living with his brother and two sons, but wanted his own place and the ability to support his family.

Money understands the reluctance from some employers and landlords to hire or rent to people with criminal records, but she hopes Kindway’s record can convince them to give Embark graduates the chance they need to gain independence. “When we first started, we had a couple of businesses that would hire our folks, but the jobs weren’t quite full-time and there were no benefits,�

Money says. “Now we have companies that pay benefits and hire our people because we’ll have one start a job and do well. That person then opens doors [others] behind them.�

Franklin International, an adhesives manufacturer with locations in Columbus and Groveport, has hired 13 Embark graduates since 2017. Eleven still work for the company. “We had struggled to find qualified candidates for our production environment who could pass a drug test and show up for work reliably,� says Franklin President and COO Evan Williams. “We became convinced through our review with Chris Money and others that Embark was selective enough, intentional, faith-based and supported by active volunteers well beyond time behind bars.�

Money says Kindway “walks the talk� with two formerly incarcerated individuals in full-time staff positions.

In early 2019, when Kindway had an opening for a director of development and communications, Money thought of Martinez, who had by then secured stable employment and housing, and was ready for his next venture.

He got the job. “That’s what’s at the heart of this,�

Martinez says. “Receiving goodness from others when you least deserve it is humbling. It’s transforming.�

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spotlight

By Cynthia Bent Findlay + Photo by ROB HARDIN

Innovation

Brand extender Bylined connects companies with photos taken by fans, who get cash for sharing.

C

olumbus-based Bylined is disrupting the social media disruptors by connecting brands looking for authentic content with consumers looking to share their photos for a little extra cash.

Bylined’s premise: As a brand looking to market with images, you no longer have to do expensive photo shoots or pay Instagram miners to get customers’ snapshots of your brand out there in the world. And as a consumer, you no longer have to be a full-time social media influencer to earn a few bucks with your phone sharing photos.

Bylined was born out of a desperate attempt to find photo coverage at Comfest back in 2016. Bylined founder Dave Hunegnaw was chatting with his buddy Walker Evans, founder of Columbus Underground, who suggested he crowdsource photos when he couldn’t find a freelancer.

The idea for crowdsourced content stuck in Hunegnaw’s head. He ran it by his then-fellow partners at Loud Capital, and they loved it, too. Loud

Bylined Bylined.me

Business: Platform connecting brands

with user generated content

Founder: David Hunegnaw Employees: 3 full-time Launched: 2016 Revenue: Would not disclose

“Covid-19 taught us all to work from home. It’s also taught agencies to get creative when sourcing great content.”

David Hunegnaw, founder, Bylined became Hunegnaw’s first investor back in 2016.

“Brands need content these days to support every single social channel,” says Hunegnaw. “There’s email marketing, landing pages for websites, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter… brands need not a few pieces, but hundreds of pieces every single day, and they need them to be authentic, personalized and localized, too. And today, everyone’s a content creator.”

That, Hunegnaw says, is Bylined’s true innovation—its ability to make that direct brand-to-consumer connection. “My campaign is, 25 likes or $25, which would you rather have as a content creator?”

And from the brand side, “Consumers are not focused on that attention but the authenticity,” Hunegnaw says.

Scotts Miracle-Gro, for example, has been commissioning Bylined

photos from consumers around the world, localizing their social media posts from lush, green Ohio gardens to arid desert backyards with palm trees and sand.

Brand new companies like Barkyard, which launched last fall, have jumpstarted their marketing on a shoestring budget. Barkyard needed 475 photos of dogs from around the United States in a very short time frame last October; Bylined provided 1,200 in 60 days.

His closest competitors, Hunegnaw says, are companies that mine Instagram and other social media sites for photos, but those companies then have to reach out and find the original photographers one by one and ask for use permission as well as model releases, which come built-in with Bylined.

Brands using mined photos run a liability risk—what if the poster is

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David Hunegnaw

not the original creator of the content?

Most large brands aren’t willing to use shots that aren’t legally zipped up, Hunegnaw says.

Tamara Davis of Mentor in northeast Ohio says Bylined has allowed her to make hay out of a lifelong love for photography. Davis, a quality control manager for a cancer center in her day job, says she’s made almost $3,000 over the past couple of years by fulfilling Bylined requests for shots like her own Troy-Built tractor in action or her son enjoying French’s ketchup.

“It’s fun. Sometimes I see my photos pop up on Instagram or Twitter,” she says. “I’ve had some companies ask if I have any more from a certain shoot, and I can respond directly to them.”

As the coronavirus shut down photo shoots around the world, Hunegnaw says Bylined gained traction, signing its first advertising agency (which preferred to keep its name quiet).

“Covid-19 taught us all to work from home. It’s also taught agencies to get creative when sourcing great content,” he says.

“User-generated content on brands we manage we’ve seen perform two

to three times better than more professionally created content, whether it’s comments, likes or other standard metrics we’re using when looking at digital content performance,” says Heather Whaling, founder and president of Geben Communication in Columbus.

Whaling, whose company does not have direct relationships with Bylined but does have deep industry experience, says, “The more we share user generated content, the more it spurs other users to post their own that includes your brand or product.”

Bylined is in talks with local sports leagues about providing images of fans in team gear for cut-out cardboard seat placers. Going forward, Hunegnaw says a buyout or fundraising round could be on the table in the near future.

“We’re 4.5 years in and starting to have some fun figuring out how to bring value not only to agencies and brands, but to events, venues, all kinds of other categories,” Hunegnaw says.

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

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September 2020 l ColumbusCEO

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spotlight

By Laura Newpoff

Commercial Real Estate

Free fall Hotels are fighting for survival amid Covid-19.

Falling fast At the height of the pandemic business closures in March and April, 70 percent of people who worked in hotels in Ohio—about 30,000 people out of 43,000—were either laid off, let go or furloughed, says Joe Sava-

Photo courtesy franklin county facilities authority

I

n late July, Bhavin Patel was preparing to open a newly constructed TownePlace Suites by Marriott in Hilliard. Who opens a hotel in the middle of a pandemic?

An operator who secured financing and started construction before anyone ever heard of Covid-19.

Patel is managing partner of Hilliard-based Evolv Hotels, owner and operator 13 of hotels under a variety of flags. He considers Evolv to be in the fortunate position of having all its deals financed through community banks and not through commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans that are pooled with a diverse selection of other loans and often put into trusts. Because of the pandemic, Fitch Ratings expects thousands of those loans to default in the coming months.

“The local community banks have been wonderful to work with [including for the Paycheck Protection Program] and understand the situation,” Patel says. “We don’t have CMBS debt, and those who do have been put in a very difficult situation. They are very hard to get out of, and there are no exceptions for pandemics.”

While Patel has a new hotel to oversee and strong banking relationships to rely on, he and his peers in the industry continue to work through unprecedented challenges.

Columbus CEO spoke with hotel veterans to gauge Covid-19’s impact.

Construction of the Hilton expansion in Downtown Columbus continues.

rise, executive director of the Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association. As of late July, even though statewide stayat-home orders had been eased, only about 10 percent to 15 percent of those jobs had been brought back.

The average daily rate for Ohio hotels was $79.14 in early July, a 23.5 percent decrease from $103.41 a year earlier. Occupancy fell to 42.8 percent compared with 70 percent in 2019. Savarise says the actual statewide occupancy rate was closer to 30 percent because closed hotels weren’t being counted.

The biggest impact on the industry is the inability to hold events, such as conventions.

“We’re celebrating a weekend with 50 percent occupancy, when in normal times that would be a disastrous weekend,” Savarise says. “Hotels want to safely accommodate larger groups. If you have an event in a large hotel or a convention center, you may be able to accommodate more than 300 (people) by implementing the practices of social distancing, face coverings and deep cleanings. We

should take a look as we go forward at how many people hotels can accommodate with safe practices.”

The scene Downtown Occupancy levels dropped to single-digit levels for hotels in major markets like Columbus, and several downtown and Short North-area hotels suspended operations, including the newly opened Graduate and Moxy hotels, as well as the Joseph, Doubletree, Sheraton and Westin properties, Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority Executive Director Don Brown wrote in an email response for comment. He says several of those properties have since reopened.

The Hilton Columbus Downtown, which is owned by the authority, has stayed open and has an average occupancy rate so far this year that hovers around 30 percent, compared with 70 percent in 2019. The hotel’s expansion that will allow it to offer 1,000 rooms is moving forward with an opening expected in mid-2022.

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“We’re celebrating a weekend with 50 percent occupancy, when in normal times that would be a disastrous weekend.”

Joe Savarise, executive director, Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association

“The (authority) fully expects that our convention hotel’s expanded capacity will be needed to host the stream of national and regional conventions, trade shows and sporting events which are already committed to being held here in 2022 and beyond— once demand resumes following the (pandemic),” Brown wrote.

When stay-at-home orders went into effect in March, occupancy at the Hilton Columbus Downtown dropped to about 5 percent, says General Manager Chris Coffin. Ninety percent of the hotel’s 250 team members were furloughed immediately. By late July, just 20 percent of them had been brought back.

Coffin thought he had some good news for his team in July. A company that had 85 salespeople coming from New York and New Jersey planned a multi-day event. Arrangements had been made—the food had even been ordered—and then a group of governors that included those states said people coming from Ohio would have to quarantine for 14 days upon their return. The event was canceled.

“It was heartbreaking,” Coffin says.

“I had people scheduled to work, if even for a couple of days. We wanted to prove that we could hold a meeting like that to demonstrate to other groups that we can do this even in a pandemic.”

Hotels have implemented enhanced cleaning protocols to boost consumer confidence. Hilton’s “CleanStay” program was developed with Lysol and the Mayo Clinic.

Cash is king Over two decades, Columbus-based Rockbridge has arranged more than $8.5 billion in investments in 260 hotels in 38 states, and it’s a partner in or outright owner of 76 hotels. In late March and early April, CEO Jim Merkel mobilized his team, closed about 15 percent of the company’s portfolio and furloughed thousands of workers. Rockbridge’s banking relationships allowed it to modify 76 loans.

Merkel says Rockbridge will continue to be well-capitalized and

opportunistic in pursuing new deals as more distressed properties come to the market. While the company will be selective on new development projects during the pandemic, it’s moving forward on those in the pipeline, including its first two Columbus projects—two hotels on the Scioto Peninsula and one on the site of the North Market parking lot. Hotel owners that are well-capitalized will survive the pandemic. Those who aren’t, he says, will either have to sell or give properties back to lenders.

“I learned a long time ago that wellcapitalized deals are critical to success in the hospitality industry,” he says.

“If you’re not and you experience a market like we’re in now, it’s very difficult to dig yourself out. Staying power means cash and duration of loans. You want to try and lower your cost of capital and extend out the maturities to give yourself the ability to turn the property around when the market does come back. And, the market will come back.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

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Technology Leaders

Commitment to inclusion Various efforts in the Columbus region aim to make the tech industry more diverse.

F

ive months ago, Ty Vinson didn’t even know she wanted a career in technology.

The former stay-at-home Columbus mom had taken time off since 2012—she holds an electrical engineering technology degree—to home-school her kids and volunteer with local community organizations when she found Per Scholas for a young person she was mentoring.

Per Scholas is a free program that introduces people—young, and not so young—to the technology industry through an intense, short program leading to tech certification. Intrigued, Vinson ended up joining the training with her young mentee.

“For a while I felt uncomfortable, thinking, ‘Is it too late for me to get into tech?’ As some of the older people in the program started to come out of their shells, I felt empowered, too,” she says.

Participation in the Per Scholas program launched a new career for Vinson, who joined the Dublin office of TEKsystems, bringing not only her past professional experience and diversity to the table—she identifies as Native American—but prodigious skills in time management and dogged determination.

Hanover, Maryland-based TEKsystems says it has hired more than 400 Per Scholas graduates across six U.S. markets since 2015. “This

“Unless you are going to poach, you have to have some tolerance for individuals you can bring in, culture and grow.”

Toni Cunningham Managing director, Per Scholas Columbus

strategic partnership not only helps address the talent gap and strengthen diversity in IT, but is more proof that it is possible for organizations to do well by doing good,” says CEO Jay Alvather in an announcement about the partnership.

Per Scholas’ rapid certification program, which trains many people who bring backgrounds and identities vastly underrepresented in the technology industry, is just one of the efforts in the Columbus region to help the industry become more diverse.

In doing so, tech leaders are hoping to plug the talent gap in an extremely tight labor market, too.

Making space Doug McCollough is one of the few African-Americans who has sat in a top tech role in the region. Now CIO for the city of Dublin, McCollough says the tech industry represents a huge opportunity for minorities, especially in the “tech adjacent” roles such as sales or project management.

But the African Americans he spoke to weren’t seeing the same opportunities. And employers he spoke to across his leadership roles in private industry and with state agencies said they were having trouble finding diverse candidates to fill their positions. McCollough decided to do something about bridging that gap.

He and a group of other prominent Black technologists formed Black Tech Columbus in 2018.

McCollough says the organization is a first step.

“One thing that many Black tech professionals experience is being the only one in the room. You get recruited, suddenly you’re the only African American on the team, maybe in the whole division or company. And you are expected to thrive and perform in that environment. Sometimes people don’t,” McCollough says. “I’d say

Toni Cunningham, executive director, Per Scholas Photo by ROB HARDIN

By Cynthia Bent Findlay

in this country we train in tech,” he says, but people from underrepresented backgrounds aren’t automatically equipped with the confidence to smoothly network in a business culture different from their own, especially when they may lack social ties to wealth and status.

Black Tech aims to help connect, train and mentor African American technologists to navigate those often choppy waters, and also to lift each other through the corporate ranks with mentorship—or to inspire entrepreneurship.

However, McCollough says, getting Black technologists a foot in the door isn’t the only thing that needs to happen. Though he says he’s found a positive, open attitude in the Columbus tech community, the industry needs a hand with retention as well.

Recruitment missteps Level D&I is a new tech staffing consultancy spun out of Revel IT focused on helping companies increase their diversity from the ground up.

Co-founder and CEO Kristine Snow says clients often know racism and sexism are a problem in the industry, but don’t realize unintentional biases in their own workplaces are throwing up barriers keeping women and minorities from feeling welcome.

“There are tools out there to remove biases, trainings to put recruiting staff through, because people just naturally gravitate toward individuals like

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Photo courtesy Ty Vinson

Ty Vinson, TEKsystems themselves,” Snow says.

Tonjia Coverdale, associate vice president for workforce and legal technology at Nationwide, urges employers to look in the right places for talent. “It really starts with someone turning over different rocks,” she says.

Coverdale herself was recruited out of Morgan State University, a historically Black university in Baltimore, three decades ago when IBM came to a campus job fair for the first time. From there, Coverdale has surfed back and

forth between academia and the corporate world, working with Accenture and HP, and earning an MBA from Georgia State University and a Ph.D. from Morgan State.

She served as CEO of the Virgin Islands Next Generation Network, overseeing creation of fiber-optic networks in the islands, and she created a STEAM academy there. She recently left the CIO helm at Central State University, a historically Black college in Wilberforce, Ohio, to advance Nation-

Discrimination in tech A Pew Research Center survey in 2017 found many Black people experienced discrimination in STEM occupations. Percent of those in science, technology, engineering and math jobs who say the following: White

Black

13%

62%

5%

40%

15%

57%

The recruitment and hiring process

78%

43%

Opportunities for promotion and advancement

75%

37%

They have experienced discrimination at work due to their race/ethnicity Their race/ethnicity has made it harder to succeed in their job Their workplace pays too little attention to increasing racial/ethnic diversity

Percent saying Blacks are usually treated fairly in their workplace in…

Source: Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults, 2017

wide’s tech diversity efforts.

None of that, she says, would have been possible if IBM hadn’t started looking in the right place for her at the right time. “There’s an HBCU [historically Black college or university] one hour away, and many companies here are just now starting to recruit there largely because of the work I’ve done over the past three years. They’re from Ohio, I keep saying—stop trying to get people to move from the coasts. You have people from a cornfield down the street who want to stay home.”

Per Scholas is another player building bridges between new hires and their employers.

Most of the organization’s students come from nontraditional paths like Vinson’s. More recently, Per Scholas has been building custom training programs with employers looking for particular skill sets.

Toni Cunningham, Per Scholas Columbus managing director, says 60 percent to 65 percent of her students are people of color. The competition for individuals like her graduates is intense, she says, in a field where “unless you are going to poach, you have to have some tolerance for individuals you can bring in, culture and grow.”

As a result, companies are finding that building pipeline partnerships is paying off for them. Coverdale and others like McCollough call for more investment in new hires, however.

“You can’t just get students in the door—where are your wraparound supports?” Coverdale says. “How are they to learn the norms? And when they don’t, they’re punished.

So are we really investing in these new hires?”

Some paths in tech may not be well-lit for newbies, says McCollough. Black Tech wants to help shine spotlights on those clusters of opportunities—in, say, cybersecurity or data analysis.

“You can’t hire some of these folks out of school,” he says. “It takes years of experience and direction to become an architect or a senior level engineer, so to get on that path, you need other professionals to say hey, this is what you need to do to put you on a path to this level of income or influence in your organization,” McCollough says.

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

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Succession Planning

Selling to the employees ESOPs can be complicated, but they offer significant benefits, too.

By Mary Sterenberg + Photos by rob hardin

Todd Kaufman and his partner sold their tech consultancy, Test Double, to their employees.

C

olumbus entrepreneurs Todd Kaufman and Justin Searls sold their rapidly growing software consulting agency Test Double to their employees in April. They converted to an employee stock ownership plan, which

Is your company right for an ESOP?

Many factors come into play when company owners are considering selling to an employee stock ownership plan.

Here are a handful.

Middle market range of $10 million to $1 billion annual revenue Cash flow of $1.5 million Predictable earnings Mature company that’s been around for several years or more Not overly leveraged 20 or more employees Owners who want to continue working for awhile Corporate culture that can accommodate a shared management style Companies with existing retirement plans are well-positioned for ESOPs Source: Financial Poise

cost employees nothing, allowed Kaufman and Searls to remain at the helm and positioned the company for accelerated growth over the next several years.

ESOPs are an exit strategy that offers significant tax benefits to both sellers and employees, protects company culture, and rewards and retains employees by putting equity in their hands.

ESOPs have gained traction locally and nationally over the last four years. Numbers could jump even higher if legislation introduced in July by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) to create a temporary federal ESOP grant program moves forward as a way to support businesses struggling through the pandemic.

Selling to an ESOP can be a lucrative alternative to a merger or sale to a third-party buyer. ESOPs are the most common form of employee ownership in the U.S., according to the National Center for Employee Ownership—more popular than profit-sharing plans or allowing employees to buy directly or receive stock options.

As an ESOP, Test Double no longer pays federal income tax. Kaufman and Searls retained their leadership

positions and added a board of directors and a trust that manages employees’ shares of the company.

“It’s retirement on steroids,” says Kaufman. Employees receive shares allocated based on income and are fully vested within six years of their date of hire.

Columbus-based investment bank Lazear Capital Partners specializes in ESOPs. Partner Ted Lape says the company helped complete 16 new ESOPs in 2019 and is on pace to do even more this year. Their popularity continues to grow as companies with misconceptions learn more about the benefits and advantages.

Lape explains that an ESOP is a retirement plan, like a 401(k), that doesn’t pay taxes. It allows owners to sell their company tax-free and then move forward tax-free. Up-front costs roll into the financing.

“The most simple reason people do ESOPs is that they end up with more money—middle market kinds of companies,” Lape says. Companies usually get a valuation similar to if they sold to a competitor and then receive significant tax benefits.

Lazear Capital Partners saw 80 percent of clients choosing ESOPs, so it developed the specific knowledge

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NOVEMBER 2020 Best of Business Intellectual Property Holiday Planning Guide BBB Torch Awards CEO Leaderboards

and contacts to walk clients through the ESOP process, which involves various players including a trustee, a bank, attorneys, a valuation firm, accountants, wealth managers and insurance contacts.

Lape says ESOPs are ideal for companies with at least 20 employees, a cash flow of $1.5 million and owners who want to continue working three to 10 years. Stable earnings, good debt capacity and strong management also make companies strong candidates.

Brent Thomas, senior vice president and commercial banking manager with Fifth Third Bank, sees four key reasons businesses consider an ESOP. A top reason is that ESOPs allow selling shareholders to continue managing the business if they’re not looking to retire and liquify their investments.

Though Test Double had grown to 50 employees since its 2011 inception and was working its way up the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately held companies, the owners were looking long-term at potential exit strategies. Kaufman says he and his co-founder weren’t quite ready to step away, but “over the next five to 10 years, we couldn’t be 100 percent sure we could devote all of our time

and energy to this company.”

The ESOP process takes four to six months, and sellers typically make their money back within five to seven years.

Thomas says Fifth Third is one of only a handful of banks nationally with a specialized ESOP group, but he anticipates growth in the number of ESOPs, especially in the Midwest and Columbus region.

“There are 66,000 businesses greater than 100 employees owned by baby boomers, according to the Census—most of these businesses are positioned for ownership transition,” he says.

“It’s retirement on steroids. ... As loans get paid off, it means the company could start sitting on a lot of cash.

That can be leveraged for strategic investments or acquisitions.”

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Todd Kaufman, CEO, Test Double September 2020 l ColumbusCEO

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Todd Kaufman in his home office.

Many of Lazear Capital Partners’ clients also cite ongoing owner involvement as a major reason for choosing the ESOP option. “Baby boomers’ lives are intertwined with the company. A lot of who they are is the legacy of this company and seeing it grow,” Lape says.

The second major benefit of the ESOP structure is the unique opportunity for owners to reward employees.

According to a 2018 survey by the National Center for Employee Ownership, ESOP participants have twice

the total retirement balance of Americans nationally. Thomas says he’s seen employees retire with $1 million or more in their ESOP. “For employees, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. But it’s been wellearned,” Thomas says.

At Test Double, Kaufman says the ESOP moved the money that used to go to the owners to the business, making it a “perpetual reinvestment machine for employees” and generating added buy-in from employees.

ESOPs also assure continuity of

company culture because there’s no third party making decisions.

Potentially the biggest benefit of an ESOP is the significant tax savings for all parties.

“As loans get paid off, it means the company could start sitting on a lot of cash,” Kaufman explains. “That can be leveraged for strategic investments or acquisitions.”

Thomas emphasizes that companies considering an ESOP should plan well in advance and surround themselves with professionals who understand ESOPs to ensure they remain in full compliance during and after the transaction. “There are a lot of ways to describe an ESOP, and simple isn’t one of them,” he says.

Kaufman feels good about the decision to convert Test Double to an ESOP, but recommends that companies take the time to examine their priorities and do their homework on different exit strategies.

“The smartest thing we did was to take it extremely slowly and examine all options on the table.”

Mary Sterenberg is a freelance writer.

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Special Advertising Section

September 2020

Business 2020

Photos by Jodi Miller

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Business 2020

The faces of Wealth Management Robert A. Mauk, CFP® Joseph A. Chornyak, Sr., CFP® - Managing Partner Joseph A. Chornyak, Jr., CFP® Shortcuts don’t lead to the best financial planning, and that’s why Chornyak & Associates doesn’t use them.

Developed over 40 years, Chornyak uses proprietary processes and systems to research, analyze, select and monitor recommended investments. With a thorough understanding of each client’s financial picture, Chornyak builds comprehensive planning strategies to help clients achieve their dreams.

It takes more time to ask lots of questions, gather detailed information and act as a true partner, but Chornyak believes that’s the best way to be sure every financial decision supports their clients’ goals and desires with broad diversification and proper investment allocation. This disciplined approach is based on one simple belief: investors rarely reap aboveaverage returns by taking unnecessary risks.

Chornyak manages over $1.1 Billion in assets for over 1,000 individuals and businesses nationwide. The Columbus firm grew its business through referrals from satisfied clients who recommended its customized, comprehensive financial planning to friends and colleagues.

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Chornyak & Associates 716 Mt. Airyshire Blvd., Ste. 200 Columbus, OH 43235 • 614-888-2121 chornyak.com Faces of Columbus Business l ColumbusCEO

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Business 2020

The faces of Affordable Housing (Pictured Left to Right) Brenda Moncrief, Homeport, Real Estate Project Manager Valorie Schwarzmann, Homeport, CFO & Senior Vice President, Program Operations Maude Hill, Homeport, Senior Vice President, Community & Government Relations J.R. Tilson, Homeport, Real Estate Project Analyst Bruce Luecke, Homeport, President & CEO Roy Lowenstein, Homeport, Real Estate Project Developer Leah F. Evans, Homeport, Senior Vice President, Real Estate Development Sandy Doyle-Ahern, EMH&T, President Don Butler, Homeport, Real Estate Controller & Director of Risk Management Josh Casper, Homeport, Real Estate Closing Manager Angela Cradle, Homeport, Real Estate Project Manager Tuhru Derden, Homeport, Real Estate Project Manager

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Homeport

Special Advertising Section

3443 Agler Road, Columbus, OH 43219 614-221-8889 • homeportohio.org

Homeport, the largest locally focused nonprofit developer of affordable housing in Central Ohio, is proud to honor Sandy Doyle-Ahern, President of EMH&T and respected business leader, community organizer and affordable housing advocate. We invite you to join us for a special Voice & Vision virtual celebration on Oct. 15 to honor Sandy and support Homeport’s mission of quality affordable housing and critical homebuyer education. This year’s theme is “Strong Women, Strong Foundation.” (homeportohio.org/voiceandvision) Since 1987, thousands of Central Ohio residents, families and seniors have benefited from Homeport’s steadfast commitment to create strong communities by developing quality, affordable homes on a cornerstone of dignity, security and opportunity.

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BUILDING ON

OHIO’S

ECONOMIC SUCCESS

Ohio shows the country how it’s done in growing business and creating jobs JobsOhio September 2020 ColumbusCEO

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Over the past nine years and working with many partners, JobsOhio has completed more than 2,500 projects resulting in

Ohio also rose in independent national rankings of best states for business, quality of life and affordability.

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JobsOhio attributes much of this success to its unique model — a private structure, stable funding and statewide coverage with six regional network partners.

This success is also driven by JobsOhio’s many economic development experts, and its partnership with the Ohio Development Services Agency in creating economic development momentum across the state.

Public-private partners in education, research and business have been invaluable in helping Ohio attract, retain and grow businesses.

JobsOhio is grateful to Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted and members of the Ohio General Assembly for their support of JobsOhio’s projects and initiatives, economic development activities and for building a strong and competitive business climate.

As Ohio’s economy emerges from the pandemic, these partnerships are more critical than ever.

Ohio, like the entire U.S. economy, is currently facing challenging times. But through our proven formula of collaboration, inclusion and innovation, Ohio will emerge from this uncertain period in an even stronger position to grow business and create jobs.

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Ohio emerges as a leader in pandemic response and recovery.

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State leaders have taken a strategically cautious approach to COVID-19, and these efforts have been rewarded in many ways. To date, Ohio has avoided a massive outbreak that could have overwhelmed the state’s healthcare system. As a result, experts say that thousands of lives have been saved. Multiple polls have shown that Ohioans, joined by people across the U.S., overwhelmingly support the DeWine/Husted Administration’s approach in handling the pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak, however, triggered a national recession on a level not seen since the Great Depression. Unemployment rates have spiked as high as 17.6% in Ohio, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, creating an unprecedented strain on the state’s unemployment compensation system.

As has been the case across the country, the loss of tax revenue has forced the state to slash budgets at a time when critical safety net resources are most needed.

But there is cause for hope.

Like many other states, Ohio has reopened and navigated the dual responsibility of keeping the economy running while protecting the health and safety of its citizens. The ongoing coronavirus outbreak will continue to present challenges, but because of Ohio’s unique economic development engine — JobsOhio — the state’s economy is perfectly positioned not only to recover more quickly than other states, but to grow in a way that accelerates innovation, creating resiliency to better weather future economic storms. It is exactly because of JobsOhio’s unique, private structure and stable funding stream that it was able to respond with historic speed to the economic impacts of COVID-19. Add its statewide reach and partner network, plus a committed, professional staff with extensive private industry experience, and it’s easy to see why Ohio is poised to lead the nation in recovery. The state will be building on its core advantages, capitalizing on bold investment strategies and re-imagining Ohio’s future as the place to innovate, work and live.

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Rising to the Occasion

Columbus’ Battelle earns national acclaim for protecting our healthcare heroes.

From the first powered flight to the vacuum cleaner, Ohio has been home to inventors and innovation for much of its history. In fact, the near-universal symbol for new ideas – the light bulb – was invented in Ohio! Today, innovation that impacts the way we work and live continues at Ohio’s research institutions such as Central Ohio’s Battelle, which developed and deployed new technology to sterilize personal protective equipment as the nation battles the coronavirus.

One of the challenges facing many healthcare facilities amid the pandemic has been a shortage of personal protective equipment.

This need is precisely why Battelle was ready to distribute its innovative decontamination system nationwide. The Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System™ uses a hydrogen peroxide vapor to render used N95 respirator masks safe for reuse. Each system is capable of sterilizing up to 80,000 respirators per day. Battelle has decontaminated more than 2 million masks at nearly 50 facilities across the United States, helping first responders and healthcare providers stay safe while saving lives.

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Planning for the Future Ohio is well-positioned to be a leader in the economic recovery from the coronavirus.

One major trend to emerge amid the global pandemic is a national focus on relocating critical supply chains back to the U.S. such as personal protective equipment and pharmaceutical development, for example.

The need to relocate or create these supply chains cost-effectively during a time of economic stress will drive this development away from the coasts to more affordable areas of the country. With its strong manufacturing base, diverse economy, skilled workforce and business-friendly environment, Ohio is primed to play an important role in the nation’s efforts to reshore critically important supply chains.

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JobsOhio has demonstrated it has the agility, innovation and resources to respond quickly and meet emerging economic needs in times of crisis. The full weight of these resources will be brought to bear in a fine-tuned economic development strategy that puts Ohio and its workers on the path to rapid recovery and robust growth. JobsOhio’s development efforts will focus on growing and creating resiliency in 10 key sectors:

Automotive

Advanced Manufacturing

Aerospace & Aviation

Military & Defense Installations

Energy & Chemicals

Food & Agribusiness

Logistics & Distribution

Healthcare

Financial Services

Technology

Since the onset of COVID-19, more than

the state now faces the challenge of needing

1 million workers have been displaced, and

to quickly upskill displaced or vulnerable

2.1 million more are at risk.

workers for new jobs. JobsOhio has launched

Approximately 85% of displaced workers do not have a college degree.

a pilot initiative to assist the unemployed in

Jobs in the Technology sector will continue

local level to link displaced workers with

to drive opportunity for Ohio workers, but

training and employment opportunities.

modernizing their skillsets and connecting with employers. This initiative brings together career and workforce organizations at the

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A successful and sustainable recovery must include all Ohioans.

Nearly 20% of Ohioans live in distressed

These communities possess intellectual capital

areas, which have not recovered nearly as

and productivity that can benefit all of Ohio

well as more prosperous areas since the

and JobsOhio is prioritizing efforts to empower

Great Recession (2007– 2009). According

them. By investing in Ohio’s distressed areas,

to the Centers for Disease Control and

and providing capital needed to grow small

Prevention, there is increasing evidence that

and mid-size businesses (SMB) locally and/or

COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting some

those which are minority-owned, JobsOhio

racial and ethnic minority groups. Workers of

will help provide these communities with

color represent 36.4% of workers in low-wage

the resources they need to reach untapped

jobs that are most vulnerable to potential

potential.

layoffs during the pandemic, reports the Center for American Progress.

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JobsOhio has created three new programs (Inclusion Planning, Vibrant Communities and Inclusion Grants) to help distressed communities plan and fund development projects to support the expansion of SMBs located in distressed areas (rural, suburban and urban) and/or owned by an underrepresented population.

Near-universal broadband coverage in Ohio could create 15,000 to 25,000 new jobs and increase the state’s GDP by $1 to $3 billion.

This is particularly important since telework/ remote work, telemedicine and remote learning have emerged as growing opportunities as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Key to JobsOhio’s Inclusion Strategy is expanding broadband access to all Ohioans.

Over 230,000 households or approximately 622,000 Ohioans have limited or no access to reliable high-speed internet.

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Innovation will open the door to Ohio’s opportunity for growth.

From 2007-2017, the U.S. Bureau of Labor

inherent strengths (manufacturing, automotive,

Statistics reports that the highest rates of

agribusiness, among others), it is imperative

employment growth were in professional

that Ohio focuses on developing the robust

and

knowledge and tech industries that will keep

knowledge-based

sectors

including

healthcare, education and management.

Ohio competitive with peer states and

These sectors are expected to continue to

drive worldwide economic growth.

drive growth, but Ohio must do more to keep pace. While investing in its

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Introducing: Innovation Districts In March 2020, in partnership with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Lt. Governor Jon Husted, the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, JobsOhio helped launch Ohio’s first Innovation District in Cincinnati. Innovation Districts are unique public-private partnerships designed to build, retain and attract talent to Ohio by investing in Ohio’s universities and research institutions and making key investments in real estate development.

The Cincinnati Innovation District will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, increase world class research, generate a workforce educated in STEM fields, promote urban renewal, and ultimately create 20,000 new jobs, making a $3 billion economic impact per year.

For all Innovation Districts in Ohio, participating universities commit to tripling the number of STEM graduates, research institutions

real estate developers to create vibrant, mixed-use communities that are attractive to both established and new companies.

If successful, Innovation Districts have the potential to create a self-reinforcing cycle of talent retention, high-growth company attraction, new urban vibrancy and ancillary job creation (restaurants, hotels, shopping, etc.).

JobsOhio is actively working to develop other Innovation Districts across the state.

commit to a 20% increase in research in key areas and JobsOhio co-invests with

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An important step toward making Ohio the most innovative state in the Midwest.

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Investing in Innovation Among its peer states, Ohio ranks last in venture capital funding critical to helping promising start-ups and small companies get going so they can create jobs and innovate. With 3.6% of the U.S. population, Ohio should receive $3 billion in venture capital funding annually across approximately 335 companies. Instead, Ohio achieves less than $1 billion in funding over 147 deals, according to Pitchbook. Ohio has lost more than one aspiring company to other states as a result.

The solution is the JobsOhio Innovation Fund. This new fund allows JobsOhio to make an investment in start-up companies with solid potential for long-term growth. JobsOhio’s investment helps new companies stay in Ohio, providing them with the capital they need to staff up and scale their business for the marketplace. In return, Ohio establishes a reputation as an innovative state that supports new and growing firms. This, in turn, attracts more start-up companies and additional venture capital funding to the state. It all results in job creation in growth sectors and reinforces Ohio’s image as an ideal place for businesses to locate and people to enjoy life.

JobsOhio’s Innovation Fund consists of a portfolio of software, digital services, healthcare and financial technology companies that have venture-backed funding. Totaling up to $50 million, the JobsOhio Innovation Fund makes co-investments with venture firms fueling the growth of Ohio’s promising scale-up companies.

JobsOhio follows strict research and selection criteria to ensure risk is minimal, including that JobsOhio will never be the lead investor, and its investment will not exceed 20% of a deal. And JobsOhio will only invest in Ohio-based companies led by individuals with proven management expertise.

JobsOhio’s Innovation Fund is an important step toward making Ohio the most innovative state in the Midwest.

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Contact us today to learn more information about JobsOhio.

JobsOhio.com

41 S. High St. #1500, Columbus, OH 43215 855.874.2530 16

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Special Advertising Section

Central Ohio offers numerous programs and degrees from exceptional institutions.

Franklin Makes In-Demand Education Options Accessible Making Education Accessible for Adults

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continuing Education Resources

Franklin Makes In-Demand Education Options Accessible From entrepreneurs to CEOs, more than 20,000 Franklin University alumni contribute to making Central Ohio a dynamic place to work and live.

Accredited and adult-focused since 1902, Franklin launched its first online course in the 1990s to increase access to education for busy adults with schedules that didn’t fit the traditional model. Today, Franklin is Ohio’s No. 1 nonprofit university for online degrees. With more than 90 percent of students taking advantage of online course options, we’ve created an educational environment where students thrive.

Align your MBA with Your Goals

Boost your skills and broaden your career options with Ohio’s No. 1 online MBA. Franklin’s 14-month, accredited MBA unites the real-

world expertise of our faculty with a personalized online learning experience to help you get ahead. New for Fall 2020: Customize your MBA with optional focus areas in human resources, marketing and organizational psychology.

Lock in Your Tuition Rate

As a student-centered university in tune with the financial challenges students face when pursuing a degree, Franklin is committed to keeping a degree within reach. The Franklin University Tuition Guarantee enables new students to lock in their tuition rates from the first term to graduation. The guarantee applies to students who remain actively enrolled in associate, bachelor’s or master’s degree and certificate programs.

Balance Your Doctorate with Your Life

Fulfill a personal education goal with a doctorate. Franklin’s online applied doctorates in business administration, healthcare administration, organizational leadership and instructional design leadership can be completed in three years and were designed for student success.

Recruit, Train and Retain Vital Talent

Through FranklinWORKS, the University provides partner organizations—like OhioHealth, Nationwide Insurance and the city of Columbus—with education options to build a stronger workforce. FranklinWORKS’ innovative programs and tools allow partners to recruit, train and retain the talent vital to moving their organizations forward.

Employee Growth = Business Growth Recruit, Train and Retain Vital Talent With Franklin University For more than 115 years, Franklin University has served our students and the central Ohio community by providing in-demand programs that work for busy adults. Through our FranklinWORKS initiative, we partner with organizations, like OhioHealth, Discover Financial Services, State Auto and the City of Columbus, to provide education options to build a stronger workforce. Through innovative programs and tools, our partners are able to offer professional training and development that’s in tune with organizational needs.

Franklin makes it possible. Franklin makes it personal.

To learn how you can build a stronger workforce contact: Bill Chan, Vice President, Strategic Alliances Bill.Chan@franklin.edu 614.216.6554 Franklin University is nonprofit and accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org/800.621.7440).

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continuing Education Resources

I

Making Education Accessible for Adults

n 1985, Indiana Wesleyan University recognized that access to higher education was difficult for a working adult learner. In response, we pioneered a philosophy that aims to remove barriers and create an educational learning experience that focuses on the needs of the learner more than the conventional structure of a college.

We now serve students all over the world by offering more than 90 online and onsite programs designed to fit the life of a busy, working adult. Our learning model is designed to help you turn your full schedule into a fulfilling life through associate, bachelor’s and master’s programs and more. Our cohort model also gives students extra support by creating community for students in nontraditional

ONLINE

learning formats. These personal relationships give students a more “traditional” learning experience within the convenience of flexible learning models.

Serving the Columbus Area With a physical presence in Columbus, Ohio, at our Columbus Education and Conference Center, we have the privilege of serving both students and the local community in our classroom spaces. Our vision is to meet educational needs wherever they exist, so we’ve designed our education and conference centers to be spaces of connection and community, serving both our students and our neighbors.

Students who choose our onsite learning format enjoy the flexibility of one-night-per-week classes at our

SERVING COLUMBUS FOR 10 YEARS!

I N D I A N A W E SL E YA N U N I V E R S I T Y . N AT I O N A L & G L O B A L

education centers, where they can meet with faculty and classmates.

Our centers are equipped with comfortable spaces, friendly staff and the latest technology, so our students can have the best educational experiences possible. We also open our doors to the community for conferences, meetings and workshops, where we are capable of setting up events, arranging catering and providing technical support.

Indiana Wesleyan’s Columbus Education and Conference Center is conveniently located at exit 13/13A off of I-270, just minutes from downtown Columbus. To learn more about continuing your education online or onsite at Indiana Wesleyan University, visit indwes.edu or call 866-498-4968.

CELEBRATING

YEARS

DEVOE SCHOOL OF

BUSINESS Dynamic programs that build on the knowledge of our students

» ACCOUNTING, BUSINESS, IT, CYBERSECURITY, HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT, HUMAN RESOURCES, MANAGEMENT AND MORE!

TEXT IWU FOR MORE INFORMATION TO 58052 866.498.4968

INDWES.EDU/DEVOE September 2019 l ColumbusCEO

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Leading through true disruption

By Katy Smith + PhotoS by Rob hardin

How nine business leaders faced down a year none of us could have imagined.

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Katy Smith is editor of Columbus CEO.

How do we do better coming out of this?

Alex Timm CEO Root Insurance

Alex Timm helped start Root Insurance in 2015 with the idea of disrupting long-established principles in his field. Instead of setting auto insurance rates based on someone’s age or address or credit score, Root’s mobile app measures how hard someone brakes or how fast they turn. Instead of agents and offices, Root operates digitally.

But it took a global pandemic to make the CEO realize how tied to tradition his company still was.

“It’s been a long time since people have thought, from the ground up, how we work together,” Timm says. “It’s always been, you wake up at 8 a.m., you drive to the office, you stay in the office until 5 or whatever, and you get in your car and you go back home.

“Some of [the previous status quo] almost seems insane right now. What I keep asking myself is how we do better coming out

Photo courtesy ROOT INSURANCE

n

T

he way we talked about disruption before the watershed events of 2020 seems so casual now that our ways of living, working, relating to one another—and of course, running our businesses—have been completely upended.

Turns out we did not really know disruption.

As the people responsible for staying in touch with what’s going on in their organizations and then making choices in their best interest, leaders have faced a particularly challenging few months navigating true disruption. In addition to the coronavirus pandemic—and maybe partly because of it—protests over the violent deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many other Black people at the hands of police gave rise to a movement for racial justice and equality that will define our times—and many hope—our workplaces.

These giant challenges are opportunities to get it right, says Alex Fischer, someone who spends a lot of time in the study and practice of leadership. The CEO of the Columbus Partnership, the influential organization of area business leaders. “When you look at the year 2020, it’s clear it will be an epic and historic year,” Fischer says. “With the big challenges also comes the big opportunity for the cities, the communities that can rapidly adjust. And that includes rapidly adjusting workforces.

“Columbus [in particular] has a real opportunity here this next era. But certainly, we can’t take it for granted. We’re always going to have to be working at it very aggressively.”

In the following pages, you’ll find vignettes by four freelance writers— Laura Newpoff, Bob Vitale, Evan Weese and Amy Braunschweiger—of nine area business leaders who have navigated the worst times they’ve ever seen: Restaurant leaders who had to close all their restaurants; a hotel lender and operator who laid off thousands of people; a nonprofit centered on one giant event that simply could not go on this year; a bank president who faced chaos to distribute Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses on the brink of closure.

They have been graceful. They have been brave. No doubt weaknesses were unveiled, as they always are during crisis—just like strengths—but they all want the same thing: To emerge stronger on the other side of 2020.

of this?”

Look for more disruption from Root in the old ways of doing business.

Timm says his company is rethinking plans for a new headquarters and has held off on signing new leases.

As company leaders have become more flexible for employees balancing remote work, families and other responsibilities, they’ve been thinking about making such flexibility permanent.

Timm envisions a mix of work environments that includes office space for those who prefer the setting permanently or just a few days a week.

Fast-growing Root has the luxury of making decisions that don’t include layoffs or pay cuts for its 800-plus employees. The company website advertised 55 new jobs in early August.

“We know we’ll get through this at some point,” Timm says. “We just want to make sure through all of it, we stay true to our brand, our customers and our employees.”

–Bob Vitale

Alex Timm, Root Insurance

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Keeping the team together while apart David Holladay President CoverMyMeds

When Ohio’s stay-at-home orders went into effect in March, David Holladay got a team together at CoverMyMeds to facilitate remote work for 1,400 employees, a feat they pulled off in two days. Equipment was taken off desks, packed up and driven to employees’ homes. As the months have worn on, the company has found other ways to support offsite employees. In early August, remote work was extended until at least the end of the year.

CoverMyMeds makes software to automate the prior authorization process used by health insurance companies. The company holds the distinction of becoming the first startup in Ohio history to be sold for $1 billion when it was acquired in 2017 by pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp. for $1.3 billion. Holladay was promoted to president in June 2019 when co-founder and CEO Matt Scantland announced he was leaving the company.

Amid Covid-19,

Restaurateur Cameron Mitchell

Bad news should come quickly and from the top CEO Cameron Mitchell Restaurants

At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants went into dark mode, closing 37 restaurants and furloughing 4,500 associates.

Reopening wasn’t as simple as flipping a switch.

The company secured a Paycheck Protection Program loan, brought back employees and spent about $500,000 to outfit restaurants with plexiglass, says founder and CEO Cameron Mitchell.

Remaining open depends largely on the prevalence of the virus and government restrictions.

And doing business at normal levels seems all but impossible until there is a vaccine or treatment. The restaurateur is focusing on an associate-first philosophy during what he calls the most challenging environment he’s ever seen.

“During difficult times, you don’t throw your culture and values out the window. That’s when you lean on it the most,” says Mitchell, author of the book Yes is the Answer!

What is the Question?

How Faith in People and a Culture of Hospitality Built a Modern American Restaurant Company.

“That associate-first mentality really kind of dictated everything we did through the crisis, starting with laying everybody off immediately, without trying to hold onto people, so we could get them on government assistance.”

The company created an employee relief fund and paid for both the company and personal portions of their health insurance.

Mitchell says communication, transparency and integrity have proven key leadership traits through the pandemic. “I always say 95 percent of all problems in the restaurant business are due to a lack of communication,” says Mitchell, whose portfolio spans from Beverly Hills to Boston. “Integrity takes years to build and days to ruin, and so I would never say things just to say things—to make people feel better—but have them not be true. And if they need to hear bad news, they need to hear bad news—but it needs to come from me.”

–Evan Weese

David Holladay, CoverMyMeds

Photo courtesy CoverMyMeds

Cameron Mitchell

employees have “looked inwardly” to figure out how to solve problems together, Holladay says. The company’s culinary staff, for example, wondered about the challenges employees were facing at home, including meal planning for their children.

So, they came up with meal planning guides and virtual cooking classes. Employees also created a Slack channel for people to share the creative dishes they were making at home.

New “Innovation Days” let employees solve problems in teams. Those solutions, either for the organization—products and services—or community initiatives, are voted on to determine winners. Virtual monthly town halls also foster a sense of togetherness as the pandemic persists. The first one had more than 1,000 attendees.

Widely recognized for its corporate culture, CoverMyMeds also is leaning into the subject of racial justice, Holladay says. That includes bringing in members of the community like Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin for an open dialogue with employees. –Laura Newpoff

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Decisiveness in the face of uncertainty Doug Ulman President and CEO Pelotonia

Doug Kridler, Columbus Foundation

At a time of anxiety, people are thinking of others Doug Kridler President and CEO Columbus Foundation

During the first half of this year, the Columbus Foundation received the highest total gifts in its history, says Doug Kridler, president and CEO. People “want to be generous, they want to do something,” he says.

With the pandemic looming, in early March Kridler proposed creating an emergency response fund, an idea vetted by his staff and approved by the foundation’s governing committee. Since its creation, the fund has distributed $5 million to local nonprofits, helping them keep their doors open so they in turn can serve the Columbus community. Well over half of this $5 million came from Columbus Foundation donors, people and companies who trust the foundation’s due diligence around nonprofits.

“From March through May, the biggest percentage [of giving] so far is housing relief,” Kridler says. Speed in grant-giving was key. Nonprofits could quickly apply for grants via the foundation’s website,

and the foundation approved and paid grants twice weekly.

Early on, the Columbus Foundation also worked to secure personal protective equipment for nonprofits and human service organizations. It supported Middle West Spirits’ transition from making vodka to hand sanitizer, it received 1 million units of liquid soap from L Brands and Bath and Body Works, and managed to secure 100,000 KN95 masks from China.

More recently, the foundation allocated another $2.5 million to the fund.

In a leap of faith, the foundation also decided to go ahead with its June 10 fundraising event called the Big Give, even though many assumed that anxiety around the markets and the pandemic would keep people from giving. “There was no optimism,” Kridler says, although ultimately it was decided that any money raised would help.

Expectations were shattered. “It was an 81 percent increase over the last time,” Kridler says. The Big Give raised $32 million.

–Amy Braunschweiger

For the first time since 2007, Pelotonia isn’t filling the streets of Columbus with bicyclers.

Instead, due to the coronavirus, fundraising for cancer research at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer CenterJames Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is happening exclusively online. Using the new My Pelotonia platform, participants can define their fundraising goals—related to cycling or something entirely different—and ask friends and family to donate money to their cause.

Pelotonia CEO Doug Ulman says decisiveness in the face of uncertainty was necessary to create My Pelotonia in a matter of months.

“If you don’t make decisions, it can become paralyzing,” says Ulman, who served as CEO for the Livestrong Foundation in Austin, Texas, before taking the helm at Pelotonia in 2014. “So making some of the hard decisions back in March and April was important because we

wouldn’t have had time to build out a new platform.”

Adding to the complexity of moving the popular event online, Pelotonia employees weren’t able to convene in person. Ulman believes the way his team responded could shape the organization for years to come.

“We may not have unleashed the full capacity of talent on our team historically, and this type of experience has really shown what people are capable of in ways that we didn’t maybe fully appreciate,” he says. “I’m excited about that going forward.”

Ulman says the coronavirus pandemic, along with protests against systemic racism, have solidified the notion that Pelotonia operates within the context of a broader community.

“We all have a role to play in the bigger things that are going on around us,” he says. “And whether that’s supporting health care workers or whether that’s addressing systemic racism or anywhere in between, those things aren’t mutually exclusive to cancer research or the mission that Pelotonia has, first and foremost.”

–Evan Weese

Doug Ulman, Pelotonia

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Being a point of light in the storm Jim Merkel CEO Rockbridge

Jim Merkel runs a company that has made more than $8.5 billion in investments in 260 hotels in 38 states since 1999. As Covid19-related stay-at-home orders went into effect in March, Rockbridge had 76 hotel investments in its portfolio. Having managed the company through the crises of 2001 and 2008, Merkel knew what to do. He immediately began preserving cash by reducing expenses, furloughing thousands of employees and communicating with investors and lenders.

While the impact of Covid-19 was unprecedented—he says worse than 9/11 and the Great Recession combined—Merkel was able to find a silver lining. Rockbridge borrowed from balance sheet lenders like banks and insurance companies rather than from commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) loans. Owners with CMBS loans struggle to get feedback and definitive responses when times are tough, and clear direction is critical,

Francie Henry, Fifth Third Bank

Francie Henry Central Ohio President Fifth Third Bank

As a bank and essential business, Fifth Third perpetually has risk mitigation strategies in place. Yet even with this planning, Central Ohio President Francie Henry has faced down considerable challenges in 2020.

Keeping the 62 branches she oversees open while helping employees and clients stay safe was only the beginning.

One of the most challenging times? Helping businesses apply for Paycheck Protection Program loans, part of the federal stimulus program. “You could feel the stress and the strain that our customers were going through.

You could feel the desperation,” Henry says.

That the rules of engagement around the loans shifted as her bankers learned them only raised the stakes. “We were helping people in line, but sometimes didn’t know where the line was, how many people were in it, or how long it would take.”

Bankers worked around the clock, she says, and Fifth Third’s local offices secured $160 million in

funds for 790 loans.

For Henry, a selfprofessed people person who has worked at Fifth Third for 34 years, the hardest part of the past few months is not seeing people face-to-face. “When you have to work through situations with clients, it’s even harder to do when you can’t sit with them and get their human reaction.

We were so isolated and it felt so foreign,” she says.

Instead, the bank used technology to stay connected. Henry’s employees called all their clients to check in. In part because of these calls, Fifth Third learned who needed extra help. Since March 18, Fifth Third has administered more than 150,000 hardship requests for clients across its 10-state footprint, including fee waivers and mortgage forbearances, Henry says.

It’s not just Henry wanting more human connection. Clients do, too. In late July, Henry asked one of her branch tellers about her transaction volume.

The teller said it was 75 percent of where they were before the pandemic.

People were choosing to come into the bank, not just drive through.

–Amy Braunschweiger

Photo by JODI MILLER

navigating ppp loans as the rules shifted

he says. Merkel and his team leaned on longestablished relationships with lenders to modify 76 loans in 60 days. The company deferred interest, extended maturities, reduced interest rates and made other modifications to help get through the cash flow challenges the properties are facing because of Covid-19.

As the pandemic continued, Merkel tried to be a “point of light” for his team, reminding them brighter days were ahead. “As a leader, it’s critical to listen and understand what your team is going through,” he says. Merkel rolled up his sleeves to support “a great team of high integrity, hard-working people.”

Merkel says Rockbridge will be opportunistic in pursuing new deals. The company is seeing more distressed opportunities that could turn into attractive investments. While it will remain selective on new projects, it’s moving forward on those in the pipeline, including its first two in Columbus—two hotels in the Scioto Peninsula and one on the site of the North Market parking lot.

–Laura Newpoff

Jim Merkel, Rockbridge

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Culture is hard to build, and the office helps Sandy Doyle-Ahern President EMH&T

Lisa Ingram, White Castle

We’ve done it before— we can do it again Lisa Ingram President and CEO White Castle System Inc.

Lisa Ingram’s great-grandfather led White Castle through the Great Depression and World War II. Her grandfather faced competition from fast-food upstarts such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s. Her father weathered four economic downturns.

At a 99-year-old company that’s proud of its history, Ingram has found herself thinking even more this year of her ancestors and predecessors as CEO. Covid-19 is unlike anything White Castle, its employees and its customers have faced before.

“I definitely did think about how those times felt,” Ingram says. “You can look back and say we made the right decisions and have a brand that the customers desired through those events. That gave me comfort that we can survive this. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again if we make the right decisions and keep our values in mind.”

Since March, those decisions have included heeding employee concerns and staying closed to indoor dining even as

states eased restrictions.

White Castle sales continue through drive-throughs, delivery and carryout.

“Our team members told us they would prefer that we don’t do [indoor dining] right now,” Ingram says. “In hindsight, as cases have been rising, that seems like an appropriate decision to help keep them safe.”

The values Ingram touts—communication and loyalty that extend both ways—have paid off in these trying times, she says. About 9,500 of 10,000 workers are connected to a company app, which made it easier to keep people informed of safety directives. The average 21-year tenure of White Castle general managers kept trust high.

White Castle cut executive pay but offered restaurant workers what it called a Griddle Gratitude Bonus.

Ingram says it’s hard to compare 2020 with the crises in White Castle’s past, but she hopes her reaction is on par.

“I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility and tremendous desire to keep the company stable, take care of our team members and make sure everybody’s safe,” she says.

–Bob Vitale

Like most businesses, EMH&T sent office workers home amid stay-at-home orders in March. While the engineering, surveying and planning firm was able to “power through it,” President Sandy Doyle-Ahern says a lesson learned from the pandemic is that the firm’s in-person culture is the right one. That’s because teamwork involving multiple disciplines is inherent in nearly every project EMH&T touches.

By early August, nearly all of those office workers had returned under new health and safety protocols. EMH&T has 330 employees, 80 of whom work in the field.

“It worked fine with us sending our workforce home—we got through it, and it was the right thing to do,” Doyle-Ahern says.

“Our employees did a great job, but I don’t think it was a particularly strong period of growth. For us, there was some risk of losing that in-person relationship, and you worry about career development for younger people. This really

reaffirmed that culture is so hard to build. In-person growth and development is really important to us.”

EMH&T didn’t let any workers go during the pandemic. Its summer intern program that usually brings 20 students into the firm was canceled, however. Doyle-Ahern says the firm’s work is split evenly between the public and private sectors. While many projects were paused in the early phase of the pandemic, many are now proceeding for clients that want them completed by the end of the year. Covid-19’s impact on public funding for projects could extend through 2021, she says.

To make workers feel safe at the firm’s New Albany offices, signage was installed and a daily health attestation was implemented. With uncertainty around the new school year, Doyle-Ahern says the company will work with employees’ unique family circumstances. “We’re big enough that we have resources for our employees, but also small enough to customize what people need,” she says.

–Laura Newpoff

Sandy Doyle-Ahern, EMH&T

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Doing the work that is required Black C-suite executives say hearing CEOs commit to advancing workplace equity is encouraging. Now they want to see it happen.

Jocelyn Armstrong, Ohio State Bar Association

By Katy Smith + Photos by Rob hardin

I

an Labitue had checked all the boxes for a young Black man aspiring to join the ranks of business leadership in America.

His mother had risen through the banking system in Boston to a corporate role, and he grew up listening to her advice on how to be strategic, how to find mentors, and how to find people who looked like him to guide him. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in finance from Morehouse College in Atlanta, a historically Black men’s college—the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr.—with a powerful alumni base.

Labitue added a law degree from the University of Michigan to that.

Yet he experienced loneliness and

“We’ve been talking about diversity for a very long time. But there’s still such a long way to go.” jocelyn armstrong, director of inclusion and outreach, Ohio State Bar Association

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t “I didn’t work with another Black male legal associate until ... six or seven years into my practice. That is troublesome.” ian labitue, director of finance, Kaufman Development

isolation early in his career.

“When you show up to meetings or attend conferences, show up to work every day and you’re the only [Black person] or one of very few… I didn’t work with another Black male legal associate until I moved to Columbus, and I was already six or seven years into my practice,” Labitue says. “That is troublesome to me.”

Now the director of finance for Kaufman Development, Labitue says he’s found a place where he feels optimistic and confident, where his talents are recognized and rewarded.

But over his nearly two decades of corporate work, being one of few Black people put him in a vulnerable position that led to uncomfortable, and many times insulting, moments in his career. Like the time a law partner asked him to join a project pitch team because the client demanded contractor diversity.

“I was confused, because I had never really spoken to this partner before about work stuff, and also it was a litigation matter, and I was a corporate associate,” Labitue says. “I soon realized that I was being invited to the

pitch because there were no African American lawyers on that team. I was one of the few in the firm. And to win the business, they had to look for a team that showed diversity.”

He imagined what sitting in the pitch meeting with no real connection to the project would be like. “I was going to be there feeling awkward and anxious, hoping that I didn’t get called on to answer a question, because I wasn’t equipped to do that. And the monetary benefit coming into the firm and the prestige of having that client wasn’t going to be something that I could use to elevate myself, say, when I’m up for partner saying hey, look at this company that I helped bring in. I was really only asked to be there because of my skin color. And that’s just not OK.” Labitue told the partner he would not feel comfortable participating in the pitch. “And the response was, that’s not what’s going on, we really just think this is a great opportunity for everyone involved.” Labitue declined the offer—for him, it was a risk worth taking. “There have been other times where I have not felt

empowered enough to stick up for myself in that way,” he says. “More often than not, the higher you go, the riskier it is, and the higher the stakes for you to stick up for yourself as a Black person in corporate America.

Because then you put a spotlight on yourself, and you might take yourself out of another opportunity, or someone may not think that you’re a team player. You might not get invited to the next dinner, where important conversations are had. And all of those things happen.”

The summer’s protests following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery sparked a movement for racial justice and equality unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes. For large organizations with powerful platforms, such as the member companies of the Columbus Partnership, the movement brought new urgency to the conversation on why there are so few Black people among the ranks of business leadership.

A series of video calls were convened by the Partnership early in June, as protestors filled the streets

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of Downtown Columbus, to engage CEOs and Black corporate leaders in how they could use their collective voices and their considerable power to bring about meaningful change.

“We tried to be very proactive in the moment to make sure that we were both listening and letting our voices be heard,” says Alex Fischer, CEO of the Columbus Partnership. Robert Livingston, a lecturer of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government with whom the organization works— he has a home in Columbus—led one of the calls, which also featured small-group breakouts.

Building trust within and across organizations was one of the goals, Fischer says. “It all starts with being in fellowship and trusted relationships with one another to have sometimes tough, emotional conversations that are going to help us better understand everybody’s perspective on the issues that we’re facing.”

The work will continue, he says, with activities this fall around best practices for businesses in advancing themselves—and society—into an equitable future.

It is very much the domain of

businesses to fight racism, says Karen Morrison, president of the OhioHealth Foundation and senior vice president for OhioHealth.

“I’m of the opinion that corporate business leaders can focus first on [what they’re close to]: board diversity, diversity in their C-suites, and making executives and others feel included in their organizations,” says Morrison, who marked 32 years with OhioHealth Aug. 9. In that time, she rose from her first job as an epidemiologist at Riverside Methodist Hospital to one overseeing external relations, corporate reinvestment, community health and wellness, government affairs and strategic philanthropic advancement for one of the Columbus region’s largest employers.

How can businesses advance more Black people, people of color and women into leadership? It’s a topic Morrison and her colleagues at the Executive Leadership Council, a national member organization of 500 African American executives across industries, are keenly focused on. The council supported the 2019 report Being Black in Corporate America by the New York-based Center

for Talent Innovation. While Black adults represent 10 percent of college degree holders in the U.S., they make up 8 percent of professionals, 3.2 percent of executives and senior managers, and just 0.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, the report found.

This, despite that Black professionals are more likely than white ones to aspire to the CEO role, it found.

But barriers keep Black people out of the C-suite. First, they have a more difficult time getting hired in the first place because of the tendency for people to hire people who are similar to them. “In the environments of corporate America, people like to be around and work with people that they feel like they have things in common with,” Labitue says. “And so you hire someone who went to the same school as you or from the same neighborhood or same church, and a lot of that stuff, unfortunately, is around racial lines.”

If they can get through that gauntlet, many experience stress and frustration in organizations and simply leave. “The hard part is creating an environment where someone will say, hey, I can not only see myself there, but I can also move to the right track

T f w

T b y F d o

“The community is asking [CEOs] to step up, to step out, to lean in, to call themselves into the work that is required.” elon simms, vice president of community impact, Crane Group

©2 ESS cou

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To all the frontline workers: Thank you. For your bravery, your strength, your dedication.

For everything you are doing to help keep our communities safe.

Š 2020 Cardinal Health. All Rights Reserved. CARDINAL HEALTH, the Cardinal Health LOGO and ESSENTIAL TO CARE are trademarks of Cardinal Health and may be registered in the US and/or in other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. Lit. No. 5PR20-1227220 (08/2020)

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in a law firm, I can be a partner, or at a bank, I can be a vice president, because they’ll be champions and advocates for me,� Labitue says.

That dynamic is why Jocelyn Armstrong says “inclusion and diversity� rather than the common “diversity and inclusion.� The director of inclusion and outreach for the Ohio State Bar Association became one of the few Black women attorneys after she was inspired by Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show. “We’ve been talking about diversity for a very long time. If I’m 40, they’ve been doing this probably as long as I’ve been alive,� she says. “And we’ve certainly seen some incremental growth. But there’s still such a long way to go. “The inclusion piece is where I think our profession and many others have been having struggles,� Armstrong says. “We have this great recruitment, but we don’t have good retention.�

The commitment to hire from a diverse slate needs to come from the top of an organization, Morrison and Armstrong say, and leaders should be held accountable for

Autumn Glover, Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center meeting that goal. That especially includes the board of directors.

And, mentors and sponsors don’t need to be people of color—they should also be white men and women, those interviewed for this story say.

The same goes for leadership of di-

versity initiatives, says Autumn Glover, government affairs and community relations consultant with Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and interim president of Partners Achieving Community Transformation, or PACT, which is a partnership of the university, city of Columbus and the

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Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority to revitalize the area around OSU Hospital East.

“You shouldn’t always ask the brown people to lead the diversity initiatives, because the Black and brown folks are not in the positions of power to change things,” she says. And people should take chances on staff.

“Sometimes you get a diverse candidate pool, and they don’t meet every single criteria. But you’re more likely [because of] implicit bias [to choose a white applicant] because of social capital—she worked for that person before, or her mom is a member of this Rotary Club—and that social capital does not translate racial lines,” Glover says. “So you’ve got to stretch yourself to say, we’re going to take a chance on this candidate because she’s going to bring something that we don’t have, and we’re going to grow her.”

Intentional mechanisms should be put into place, like one Morrison described at OhioHealth, to grow a pipeline of diverse executives through a formal mentorship initia-

tive, giving people of color access to senior leaders, says Dr. Darrell Gray II, a gastroenterologist and associate professor at Ohio State University College of Medicine. In addition to his clinical practice, Gray holds multiple leadership roles in community health and racial equity programs.

He and Glover, along with two others, recently authored “How Academia Should Respond to Racism,” a paper published in the journal Nature that calls for academic medical centers to incorporate anti-racism into all they do. “[These mentorship programs] should consider things like succession planning—It’s not about checking boxes to get X number of Black people or Latinx folks,” he says. “It’s creating the opportunities for people from different racial, ethnic, sexual orientation and gender identity backgrounds to be able to justly and fairly ascend into those positions.”

For people who don’t have the networks, or the money, or the influence, sponsor relationships are critical, says Elon Simms, who earned social work degrees from Ohio State

and spent time at Franklin County Children Services and leading community relations for Mayor Andrew Ginther before becoming vice president of community impact for the Crane Group.

“I would hope that when CEOs read stories like this, they begin to understand that the community is asking, has been asking, them to step up, to step out, to lean in, to call themselves into the work that is required to achieve great prosperity for this community,” Simms says.

He says he was encouraged by the conversations he heard during the Columbus Partnership calls in June.

“A lot of companies were putting out public statements expressing their solidarity and their allyship towards issues that affect Black and brown people,” he says. “It was powerful to have this group of leaders come together and purposefully and intentionally invite [Black executives] to be a part of these conversations.

“Now let’s see organizations get out and do the work that is required.”

Katy Smith is the editor.

THROUGH ADVERSITY

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The difficult work of real change In Mike Kaufmann, Cardinal Health has a leader willing to have the hard conversations in pursuit of true diversity and inclusion.

By Amy Braunschweiger

L

ast February, Cardinal Health CEO Mike Kaufmann and a number of the company’s leaders went to Montgomery, Alabama, to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice—a place often called the “national lynching memorial.”

They walked through the sculptural steel monument memorializing the more than 4,400 Black people lynched in the United States between 1877 and 1950. At the nearby Legacy Museum, they learned how systemic racism was perpetuated through Jim Crow laws and convict leasing, the practice of arresting mainly African Americans on exaggerated charges and then leasing the prisoners to corporations or plantations as slavelike labor.

Afterwards, everyone gathered to talk, Kaufmann says. The men and women of various backgrounds who are part of the company’s 16-member Diversity and Inclusion Council used words like “angry” and “embarrassed,” in part because many did not know the depth of this dark side of U.S. history. As planned, the conversation turned to racial equity in the workplace. “For me, it helped get a lot of us really galvanized around making a difference,” Kaufmann says.

A few months later, after police killed George Floyd and protests

“If the CEO doesn’t say it’s important, people won’t give extra time to it as they won’t think it matters to their career.”

Mike Kaufmann, CEO, Cardinal Health

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, ey �

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spread across the U.S., the awareness around racism intensified. “We can’t waste this moment,� Kaufmann says.

Kaufmann, who heads the Dublinbased company with $146 billion in annual revenue and roughly 50,000 employees worldwide, has long put his muscle behind diversity. He sees it as a good business decision. “It will help us be more innovative and more welcoming, which will help us recruit better talent, which will help us win customers.�

For him, it is not just talk. Of Kaufmann’s eight direct reports, four are women and one is African American. Forty percent of management level employees are women, and in the U.S., 20 percent of executives are ethnically diverse. At the board level, 50 percent of directors are either female or are diverse. But he recognizes this is just a start. “We have a long way to go, and we know this is a journey.�

He believes change must come from the top. “If the CEO doesn’t say it’s important, people won’t give extra time to it as they won’t think it

“My white colleagues were asking, how do we engage in this conversation broadly? It opened the door to these really difficult conversations in corporate life in a way I’ve never experienced before.�

Talvis Love, senior vice president, Cardinal Health

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matters to their career,” he says.

The company’s Diversity and Inclusion Council gives feedback to Kaufmann on these issues when they arise for employees. The council’s chairperson and a senior vice president at Cardinal Health, Melissa Laber, meets monthly with Kaufmann. “He does not move the meetings, he shows up. Even with Covid. I thought he’d have to move it, and he showed up.”

Laber has worked with Kaufmann for 10 years and knew him when he led the companywide Women’s Initiative Network, designed to help women in their careers—his first official foray into diversity work.

For Laber, it wasn’t odd that a man headed the initiative. “We need allies. He was passionate and influential. For me, I thought it was great,” she says.

It was in this role that Kaufmann started experiencing what he calls “aha moments” around diversity. He learned that female employees are more concerned with safety than men, and that female managers don’t want to work nights at a facility in an unlit, industrial location. He insisted managers replace golf outings for the guys with ones all employees felt comfortable attending. And after reading that men are likely to apply to a job when they meet two of the five requirements, while women will wait until they’ve met all five, he called for “diverse slate” hiring practices, where applicants must include women and people of color. Now, 10 percent of bonuses are tied to reaching diversity goals.

Conversation around race and racism remains strong. But how do you lead a movement on diversity and inclusion in a massive company when people have a variety of opinions and talking about race feels so fraught?

“It’s very hard, it’s very uncomfortable,” Kaufmann says, adding that it will be particularly hard for white leaders. “They don’t even know if they should say African American or Black. They’re worried about choosing between those two terms and offending folks, let alone talking about Black Lives Matter. To assume that managers will suddenly be comfortable talking about this subject is not realistic.”

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ees at Cardinal Health, Kaufmann knew, was through the company’s African American leaders, people they respected. So in May, he put together a panel of African American leaders to talk to the leadership team about their experiences being Black.

During the panel, one leader shared how, while dropping off their child at an elite university they attended, someone asked if they were an Uber driver, and could they move the car. Another talked about showing up at their vacation home, going out in jogging shoes, and then being accused by local security of not living there.

“These are real stories that hit these leaders at an emotional level,” Kaufmann says. “And because these are leaders people love and think are outstanding, it makes people say, ‘This is not right.’ ” Talvis Love, a senior vice president at Cardinal, is one of the Black leaders who told his story on that panel.

“As a result of that, I received an avalanche of emails and phone calls,” he says. “My white colleagues were asking, how do we engage in this conversation broadly? It opened the door to these really difficult conversations in corporate life in a way I’ve never experienced before.”

Along with being a founding member of Cardinal’s Diversity and Inclusion Council, Love also sits on the African American and Black Racial Equity Cabinet, formed last December. “We see it as our responsibility as the cabinet to see what’s top of mind for Black people at Cardinal Health,” he says.

Right now, the cabinet is fine-tuning goals and recommendations, and will meet with Kaufmann and other leaders this month to talk about setting those goals officially.

The council has made one thing clear to Kaufmann: Until Black people say things are getting better, it’s not getting better. It’s not about sending people through trainings and saying the work is done. It’s about real change.

But pushing for tangible equality is not easy, Kaufmann acknowledges.

Still, “It’s incredibly rewarding, and you’ll get the best talent in the world.”

Amy Braunschweiger is a freelance writer.

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ACG Events Have Gone Virtual www.acg.org/columbus www.acg.org g/colum mbus m mb Visit w for schedule h d l and d details. details d ails ails. il

September 10

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Your continued support makes our events possible.

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*Executive committee member

Columbus partnership members as of 8/2020 Jack Kessler*

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New Albany Co.

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member since (organization):

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1997

2003

2003

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2019

2003

2015

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2003

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2018

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2000

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2003

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2019

2017

2019

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Adam Grzybicki

Nationwide

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AT&T Ohio

2004

member since (organization):

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1997

2001

2003

2019

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2019

2001

2013

Francie Henry

Steve Steinour*

Jay Schottenstein

Brad McLean

Fifth Third Bank Central Ohio

Huntington Bancshares

Schottenstein Stores

AT&T Ohio

member since (organization):

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2005

1997

2001

2003

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2019

2009

2001

2020

Kristina Johnson

Jay Gerlach

John Ammendola

Ohio State University

Lancaster Colony Corp.

Grange Insurance

Honda of America Mfg. Inc.

member since (organization):

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1997

2003

2003

2005

member since (person):

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2020

2003

2015

2019

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Stephen Markovich

Jack Nicklaus

Lorraine Lutton

Doug Kridler

OhioHealth

Nicklaus Cos.

Columbus Foundation

member since (organization):

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Mount Carmel Health System

2006

2010

member since (organization):

2012

member since (person):

member since (person):

2010

member since (person):

2020

2010

member since (person):

2017

2020

member since (organization):

Craig Rogerson

Jack Nicklaus II

Hexion

Nicklaus Cos.

Dave Harrison

Nancy Kramer*

member since (organization):

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2007

2010

Columbus State Community College

member since (person):

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2018

2010

2011

2013

IBM iX

2013

member since (person):

Adam Johnson

Abigail Wexner

NetJets

Whitebarn Associates

member since (organization):

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2008

2010

member since (person):

2015

2011

Scott Barbour

Dee Haslam Columbus Crew SC member since (organization):

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Advanced Drainage Systems

2010

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2019

2011

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Joe Hamrock

Melanie Corn

NiSource

CCAD

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2018

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White Castle System

2009

2010

Joe Nardone

2014

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2015

2016

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2011

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State Auto Insurance

Big Lots

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2010

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2019

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2014 member since (person):

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Thomas Obrokta Jr.

2012

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Greif Inc.

Encova Insurance

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member since (organization):

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2009

2010

2015

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2018

2020

2012

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Lorraine Lutton

Donatos Pizza member since (organization):

2016 member since (person):

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2016

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Chad Delligatti

member since (organization):

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2012

member since (organization):

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2016

2012

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2016

Cameron Mitchell Restaurants

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2016

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2016

Kaufman Development

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John McEwan

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2016

2017

2018

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2016

2017

2018

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2018

2016

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2018

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Central Ohio Nonprofits

Ranked by Central Ohio revenue in 2019, and for ties, by Central Ohio expenses 2019 Revenue

2019 Expenses

Central Ohio

Central Ohio

Nationwide

Nationwide

ORGANIZATION

1 National Church Residences $338.2 m

$312.8 m

$338.2 m

$312.8 m

$228.8 m

$233.5 m

$228.8 m

$233.5 m

$67.9 m

$58.3 m

$67.9 m

$58.3 m

2335 North Bank Drive Columbus 43220 • 614-273-3821 nationalchurchresidences.org

2 Ohio Living

9200 Worthington Road, Suite 300, Westerville 43082 • 614-888-7800 ohioliving.org

3 YMCA of Central Ohio

1907 Leonard Ave., Columbus 43219 614-483-8890 ymcacolumbus.org

4 Equitas Health

4400 N. High St., Suite 300 Columbus 43214 • 614 299-2437 equitashealth.com

$63 m

$47.5 m

$107.3 m

$99.9 m

$51.3 m

$51.8 m

$51.3 m

$51.8 m

$50.7 m

$50.9 m

$50.7 m

$50.9 m

$50 m

$48.4 m

$50 m

$48.4 m

$43.2 m

$42.4 m

$43.2 m

$42.4 m

$33.1 m

$36.9 m

$33.1 m

$36.9 m

$30.3 m

$30.1 m

$30.3 m

$30.1 m

5 Lutheran Social Services

500 W. Wilson Bridge Road, Suite 245 Worthington 43085 • 614-228-5200 lssnetworkofhope.org

6 Goodwill Columbus

1331 Edgehill Road, Columbus 43212 614-294-5181 goodwillcolumbus.org

7 The Buckeye Ranch

4653 E. Main St., Whitehall 43213 614 875-2371 buckeyeranch.org

8 PrimaryOne Health

2780 Airport Drive, Suite 100, Columbus 43219 • 614-859-1946 primaryonehealth.org

9 Maryhaven, Inc.

1791 Alum Creek Drive Columbus 43207 • 614-324-5473 maryhaven.com

10 Community Shelter Board 355 E. Campus View Blvd., Suite 250 Columbus 43235 • 614-715-2527 csb.org m = million Source: Survey of nonprofits

Information compiled by Rebecca Walters

86 ColumbusCEO l September 2020

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Employees in Central Ohio Employees across organization

Locations Central Ohio Nationwide

M S C

Top Officer Year Founded

1,092 2,715

37 340

2,677 2,677

4 20

804 804

15 15

292 490

8 22

William Hardy

324 606

28 30

Rev. Larry Crowell

1,004 1,004

23 23

479 487

5 6

318 318

12 12

500 500

9 9

29 29

1 1

Mark Ricketts

1961 Laurence Gumina

1922 Tony Collins

1855

1984

1912 Margie Pizzuti

1939 Vickie ThompsonSandy

1961 Charleta Tavares

1997 Shawn Holt

1953 Michelle Heritage

1986

Description Senior housing, continuum care communities, permanent supportive housing for the formerly homeless and disabled, home health care and community-based services, as well as adult day services and hospice.

Le A (9 w

Independent living, assisted living, long-term care, short-term rehabilitation, memory care, home health care, hospice, palliative care, physician’s services.

Swimming, youth sports, day camp, child care, overnight camp, early childhood resources, housing and shelter services, juvenile justice, New American Welcome Center, group exercise classes, teen club.

LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS health care organization offering primary and specialized medical care, pharmacy, dentistry, behavioral health, HIV/STI treatment and prevention, advocacy and community health initiatives.

R T C

Jo P (6 w re

Lutheran Social Services serves thousands of people in need each day in 27 Ohio counties by addressing the four core societal issues of food, shelter, safety and healing.

Employment training, job placement services, adult day services and community-based supported living services.

H R

Provides hope and healing for children, youth and families through emotional, behavioral and mental health services in Central and southwestern Ohio.

T T (6 ja h

Discount prescription drug program, telehealth, OB/GYN, primary care, pediatrics, dental, vision, behavioral health, adult medicine/diabetes/ hypertension, specialty services and health care for the homeless.

Adult and adolescent services, residential detox, women’s programs, gambling intervention, mental health, medication-assisted opioid treatment, family support, emergency shelter.

Franklin County homelessness prevention, shelter, street outreach, rapid rehousing and permanent supportive housing.

The Columbus CEO Leaderboard features selected topics each month. The December Leaderboards will feature Central Ohio credit unions, office furniture companies and colleges and universities. The deadline for inclusion in those surveys is Sept. 18. If you want your Central Ohio company to be considered for an upcoming CEO Leaderboard, contact us at rwalters@columbusCEO.com.

Information included in this survey was provided by companies listed and was not independently verified.

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7500 ROSS AVENUE - Tartan Fields Country Club home surrounded by beautiful lush trees; spacious foyer; wood flooring through-out the home; private office with French-doors; open DR, great room w/expansive windows and fireplace. First floor laundry. LL w/additional bdrm w/egress windows, full bath, lg built-in bar area, open space for games, work out room + storage space. $782,000

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8945 TARTAN FIELDS - Nothing but beautiful architectural details w/high-end finishes in this home. Grand staircase that wraps around the entry and travertine floors flow throughout this home. Large 1st-floor master w/luxurious ensuite w/ marble counters, Jacuzzi tub, walk-in shower, & 2 lg walk-in closets. Outside views pour in the many windows in each room, catching your eye at every turn. $1,125,000

086-087_Leaderboard_Nonprofit.indd 87

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OLD WORLD CHARM - Lovely South of Lane, Tudor style home on two parcels, exudes class and family warmth with an updated interior. Delightful sitting room/porch off gracious living room that leads to dining room. Spacious kitchen opens to a comfortable family room w/vaulted ceiling, frplc, access to patio. Fin. bsmt. $1,497,000

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Office Space: WFH edition By laura newpoff + Photos by Rob Hardin

Alex Frommeyer 8 on the Square Downtown Columbus beam.dental

Amid Covid-19, the CEO is running Beam Dental from his condo that has “a jungle of plants”giving a treehouse feel.

Downtown condo life sans car

Instead of traditional indoor furniture, the condo is full of large beanbags. And bicycles are the primary mode of transportation because Frommeyer and his partner Amelia don’t have a car.

Below: The patio’s South High Street view.

Light-filled space

There are 45 plants in the condo, including fiddle leaf figs, monsteras and African ZZ plants. Frommeyer listens to jazz and low-fi hip hop as he works each day.

Visit columbusCEO.com for a full article on the space.

88 ColumbusCEO l September 2020

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Reimagining video production for the virtual era You still need to tell your stories, engage with audiences, grow your business. To rise to the occasion, many of our clients are adopting outsourced production models for social videos, marketing campaigns, executive messaging, virtual events, etc.

We’re helping clients implement these lean content production models using Mills James talent and equipment. Our team is your team, working in COVID-safe studios and home edit suites, sending you footage and creative for real-time remote review.

This model gives you the best of all worlds: virtual resources for maximum agility and a direct connection to one of the country’s largest production companies when you need more scale.

We’re on your team, not your payroll. As one of our clients said after adopting this new model:

“

This is a game-changer.

Learn more about us at millsjames.com Mike Yearling | Managing Partner myearling@mjp.com | 614.313.3670

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