Columbus CEO - May 2022

Money talks

10 tips for investors to thrive in 2022.

PAGE 44

Shoulder to lean on

Center for Healthy Families connects teen parents to local resources.

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May 2022

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The next chapter

Columbus Zoo’s new CEO on a reputation remake.

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Announcing the region’s best places to work, according to its employees.

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Contents

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Sandy Doyle-Ahern, in the white jacket, and the EMH&T team.

Photo ROB HARDIN

Great places to thrive

Our annual Top Workplaces program has a tradition of celebrating employers that get it right. That’s been tough for businesses to do over the past two years in the face of a pandemic and societal unrest, but a long list of Columbus region employers have risen to the challenge – and their workers appreciate it.

Departments 03 Editor’s Note Celebrating what makes a workplace great.

52 Breakdown The region’s economic development pipeline is well-stocked.

MAY 2022 Cover photo by

ROB HARDIN

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Photos ROB HARDIN

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

ColumbusCEO.com

VOLUME 31 / NUMBER 4 PUBLISHER/GENERAL MANAGER

Ray Paprocki E DITORIAL

EDITOR

Katy Smith ASSOCIATE EDITOR

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Rob Hardin

04 Profile

10 Tech Talk

Rocked by scandal, the Columbus Zoo is turning to new CEO Tom Schmid to right the ship. Early signs indicate the humble, hands-on leader is exactly the person needed to restore the zoo’s once-stellar reputation.

Taj Quantum’s cybersecurity technology is helping Ukraine fight on.

A DVE RT ISING

12 Spotlight: Small Business Enlighten Angle is teaching the ABCs of finance to Columbus kids.

14 Spotlight: Nonprofit

VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES

Eugene Jackson

The Center for Healthy Families gives parenting teens the help they need to become self-sufficient.

MULTIMEDIA SALES EXECUTIVES

Tia Hardman, Jackie Thiam CLASSIFIED SALES

Amy Vidrick

In-Depth

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

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37 Diverse Leaders in Law

M ARKE T ING

MARKETING MANAGER

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Fabian Padamadan

Some local law firms are using their know-how to fight racism – and they’re doing the work for free.

Dr. Yvonne Efebera

44 Estate Planning As we approach the mid-year, financial experts say not to wait until December to better manage your money and tax obligations.

48 Health Watch Columbus region hospitals are on the leading edge of innovation – everything from blood and marrow transplants to looking at the effects of vaping on teens.

4/21/22 12:17 PM

Editor’s Notes * ksmith@ColumbusCEO.com

R

What are you returning to?

eturn-to-office is in full swing for many of us, including our team here at Columbus CEO. It’s been refreshing and energizing to see my colleagues in-person, many of them for the first time since March 2020, when we lived in another world.

I am convinced there is something physical, scientific, molecular, in what passes between people when they are in one another’s physical presence, and when we gather in groups. Interacting IRL builds trust, confidence, empathy, creativity.

Honestly, I never quite realized what we had till it was gone.

We have devoted a large portion of this issue to great teams. Our annual Top Workplaces program is based on a trusted process led by our partners at Philadelphia-based Energage, who surveyed 17,002 employees at companies across the region. In this issue, we honor the 73 Top Workplaces for 2022 across large, medium and small company categories.

What makes great teams? Here are my ruminations.

A culture that enjoys being together. Make it a priority to gather. Devote work hours to this endeavor so people don’t feel pressured to trade crucial family time to build relationships at work. Employers should be generous in supporting this social networking — pay for the pizza, the luncheon, the drinks. Install the good coffee station in the office. Playing host to your employees is not a “perk.” It’s a cost of doing business that offers a big return on investment in increased employee retention, collaboration and overall good feelings in an organization.

A culture that communicates openly and honestly. Choose leaders with the courage to be themselves at all times. To be vulnerable. To apologize quickly when they mess

up. Setting this example builds an environment of psychological safety across the organization, letting team members bring their full selves to work every day.

A culture of gratitude. These suggestions may seem like an episode of “Being a Good Boss 101,” but many workplaces sadly fail here. Celebrate people’s achievements. Call out successes publicly and regularly.

And demonstrate that employees are people first. Say “Happy Birthday” and “Happy Work Anniversary.”

Send a handwritten holiday card.

Name an “Employee of the Month” just to recognize good work and acts of kindness—and don’t let a month go by without making an award.

These things might seem small, but they can go a long way toward reaching business goals. Being named to the Top Workplaces list is imminently within reach.

Katy Smith, Editor May 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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PROFILE

By KATHY LYNN GRAY + Photos by ROB HARDIN

Tom Schmid President and CEO

Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Age: 59 In position since: December 2021 Previous: Served Texas State Aquarium since 1996, most recently as president and CEO (1999 to 2021). Prior, Schmid was director for Nauticus Maritime Center (1993-1996) and senior aquarist, SeaWorld Orlando (19871993).

Education: Bachelor of science in biology,

Stetson University; master of science in biological sciences, University of Central Florida

Resides: Powell Family: Schmid and his wife, Kim, have a son, Max, 26, and a daughter, Alex, 24

Fixing the zoo The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has mountains to climb to regain its status as a beloved institution. Early observers say Tom Schmid is the person to get it back to the top.

A

s the new director of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium walks the path near the outdoor elephant yard, a shoe catches his eye. More specifically, an untied sneaker worn by longtime docent Nancy Mulholand as she hurries to her next volunteer post on a sunny spring day in March. Without thinking, the zoo’s new leading man, Tom Schmid, bends down and ties Mulholand’s shoelaces.

Since coming to the zoo in December to replace CEO Tom Stalf, Schmid has been a sort of Mr. Fixit for problems small and large. For decades, the Columbus Zoo was one of the most beloved institutions in the area. After former director Jack Hanna arrived in the late 1970s, the once-struggling zoo became a nationally acclaimed institution, earning significant public support and expanding dramatically.

But that stellar reputation has taken a beating over the past year.

First, Stalf and three other officials were accused of misusing zoo money.

Then Hanna himself was dragged through the mud, when a documen-

tary alleged that the zoo icon dealt with backyard animal breeders. The zoo hit a low point in December when the Association of Zoos & Aquariums pulled its accreditation, a stunning turn of events for what was once one of the most admired animal care facilities in the country.

Today, Schmid is working to rebuild the zoo’s credibility, earn back its accreditation and regain its lost trust with the Central Ohio community, which provides the zoo with public funding.

Much work remains, but five months in, Schmid seems to be winning over staff, volunteers and community leaders with his calm

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Columbus Zoo President and CEO Tom Schmid introduces himself to the zoo’s donors at a meet-and-greet (top) and checks in with team members (bottom).

manner, humble personality and positive demeanor.

“When I heard Tom Schmid was on the short list [to become the next zoo leader], I was surprised and thrilled,” says Doug Warmolts, the zoo’s vice president of animal care who has known Schmid for years as the latter worked in aquariums. “A year ago, I thought things were looking pretty bleak, and I was contemplating retirement. Now our excitement and passion has been rekindled. Tom Schmid has revived us. I think there’s a second golden age coming for the zoo.”

••• To understand Warmolts’ enthusiasm, it helps to consider another

controversy Schmid navigated while leading the Texas State Aquarium, where he served as president for more than two decades. In 2015, hundreds of fish at the Corpus Christi aquarium died suddenly when staff poured what they thought was an anti-parasite drug into aquarium tanks. An investigation quickly revealed that the drug’s container had been mislabeled, and it actually contained a poisonous chemical, hydroquinone.

“It was a catastrophic loss,” says Schmid. He notified the media and other aquariums and learned two things: Some aquariums had previously used the mislabeled chemical but hadn’t revealed their losses,

while others still had the mislabeled containers on their shelves. “That was a case study in communicating, moving quickly and being transparent,” Schmid says.

The decision to go public, says Jesse Gilbert, who was chief operating officer at the aquarium under Schmid, reflects his leadership style.

“We told our managers that we’re not willing to do anything that we don’t want to put on the front page of the newspaper,” says Gilbert, who is now the aquarium CEO. “It’s not fun, but that’s the litmus test.”

Some recent Columbus Zoo officials wouldn’t have passed that test. Stalf’s tenure ended abruptly in March 2021 when he and former CFO Greg Bell were forced to resign after a Columbus Dispatch investigation revealed they had improperly used zoo properties and other resources. A forensic audit released in August found misspending and questionable business practices

by Stalf, Bell and two other employees led to a $631,651 loss for the zoo amid what was described as an “overall culture of entitlement” among its executives. Three of the four employees have repaid nearly $550,000 to the zoo; the zoo continues talks to regain nearly $57,000 from Pete Fingerhut, former vice president of marketing and sales.

With its top two executives gone, the zoo’s board convinced former director Jerry Borin to come out of retirement to calm the waters while a search firm hunted for a new director.

“I was glad to step in and be a familiar name to reassure everyone,” says Borin, who served as interim zoo director last year until Schmid took over. “We worked through the issues, reassuring donors and staff and figuring out how we could solve the zoo’s problems.”

Borin, his predecessor, Hanna, and former Columbus Recreation and Parks leader Mel Dodge are generally considered the three major figures in the transformation of the Columbus Zoo. In 1978, Dodge hired the then 31-year-old Hanna to lead the small and underfunded zoo. During Hanna’s 14 years as director, it flourished and Hanna developed a national reputation as a zoological leader.

Borin, who previously served as general manager, became zoo director in 1992 and the charismatic Hanna was named director emeritus, gaining May 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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Columbus Zoo President and CEO Tom Schmid talks with guests at the Columbus Zoo’s donor meet-and-greet event in March 2022.

celebrity status as a television show host, author and wildlife correspondent while still serving as the zoo’s public face.

Supported in part by a Franklin County property tax levy and blessed with a location with plenty of room to expand, the Columbus Zoo’s growth continued. A massive aquarium and home for rescued manatees were added in the 1990s, The Wilds safari park and conservation center near Zanesville became part of the zoo in 2009, and the Polar Frontier for polar bears and grizzly bears opened in 2010. The 43-acre Heart of Africa exhibit was unveiled in 2014 for giraffes, lions, zebras and other animals.

After Borin retired as director in 2008, the late Jeff Swanagan and then Dale Schmidt served stints as director until Stalf, the chief operations officer under Schmidt, became the director in 2012.

Known as a humble, hands-on leader, Borin is bewildered by the attitudes of Stalf and others. “There seemed to be a sense of entitlement among them,” he says. “At the zoo, you have to remember you’re a nonprofit with a foot in the public sector, and you can’t think that you’re a corporation and have the perks and

benefits that might come with that.”

Borin enlisted Dr. Jan Ramer, a veterinarian and vice president at The Wilds, to work with him during the transition.

“Jerry came in at a time when most of us had our hair on fire, and he’d say, ‘It’s OK; we’re going to get through this,’ ” says Ramer, now senior vice president of animal care and conservation at the zoo and The Wilds.

By October, the board had selected Schmid, president and CEO of the Texas State Aquarium, as its permanent leader, and he and Borin jointly made decisions until Schmid took over in December.

In the midst of the zoo’s financial scandal, its reputation took a second hit when the documentary “The Conservation Game” was released last spring. The film alleges that Hanna and other wildlife celebrities borrowed baby tigers and other exotic cats from backyard breeders to use during television appearances. According to the film, Hanna and others said the cats came from accredited zoos when they sometimes came from—and were returned to—facilities with substandard animal care. (Hanna’s family announced in April 2021 that he was suffering from dementia, had declined

rapidly in the past few months and had withdrawn from public life.)

The allegations about Hanna and the zoo’s financial issues rattled the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the top accrediting body for such facilities. In October, it refused to renew the zoo’s accreditation after a standard, five-year review. The zoo appealed and in December, a few days after Schmid officially took over, the association denied the appeal. By then, zoo leaders had made numerous changes, including additional financial oversight.

One important change was to the zoo’s ambassador animal program, whose animals are separate from the public animal collection and are used for promotional and educational purposes. That program, overseen by the zoo’s CFO rather than the zoo’s animal care division, provided Hanna with animals to use during his national television appearances, which included regular stints on Good Morning America and several late-night talk shows.

Borin and Ramer restructured the ambassador animal program used by Hanna last year, placing it under the zoo’s animal care department where it had been in the past and developing

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strict protocols about which facilities it could do business with. “The things stated in the film—none of that can possibly happen at the Columbus Zoo from here forward,” Ramer says. The department continues its work, she says, allowing people to see wildlife close up during events on site and off.

••• With a calm, Mister Rogers-like demeanor, Schmid has made listening his first order of business in his new post. He’s met with most of the zoo’s staff, kibitzed with zoo donors and introduced himself to city and county officials as he works to understand the zoo’s public and private partnerships, the politics behind them and how he can regain public trust in the zoo.

“He’s as honest and straightforward as they come,” says Warmolts, who has worked with Schmid on various national committees over the years. “He says what he means, and he means what he says. What the zoo has gone through has really shaken its foundation. In short order, Tom has stabilized and started to build all that back.”

Zoo volunteer Dennis McNulty, who met Schmid when the new leader had meetings with hundreds of volunteers via Zoom, has been impressed. “He’s been real about where we’re going,” said McNulty when he met Schmid in person as he walked the grounds. “I love his honesty.”

Schmid, 59, had been at the Texas aquarium for 25 years when headhunters from Columbus came calling.

Born in Miami, he’d grown up diving, snorkeling and swimming in the gulf in southwestern Florida. He majored in biology as an undergraduate at Stet-

son University in Florida and got his master’s in biological sciences from the University of Central Florida. Always fascinated by sharks, his plan to pursue a doctorate was derailed when an opportunity to work with sharks at SeaWorld Orlando opened up.

After six years at SeaWorld, Schmid was asked to join a team developing Nauticus, a maritime science center in Norfolk, Virginia.

A few years later, Schmid joined the Texas aquarium and within three years became CEO. One of the smallest aquariums in the country at 45,000 square feet when Schmid took the helm in 1999, it now houses more than 4,000 animals and is among the largest at 200,000 square feet.

As Schmid and other aquarium leaders convinced donors and politicians to invest in the attraction, habitats and exhibits were added, including the 400,000-gallon saltwater Dolphin Bay and the 71,000-squarefoot Caribbean Journey.

“Tom was an integral part of the success of all those projects,” says Charles Zahn Jr., chairman of the aquarium board. “He has a tremendous knowledge of the business of operating a zoo facility, he has tremendous people skills. He can communicate with people young and old, wealthy and poor, and he has the ability to work with government officials.”

His most recent legacy is the 20,000-square-foot Port of Corpus Christi Center for Wildlife Rescue, now under construction. It will house rescued wildlife, including manatees, and its research center will carry Schmid’s name.

When Zahn learned last fall that

It’s iconic in the industry and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I want to help craft a new vision for the Columbus Zoo. Tom Schmid, CEO, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

Columbus was courting Schmid to be its new leader, he hoped Schmid would turn the job down. “But I knew if they were to hire anyone in the United States to address their problems, Tom Schmid was the right person,” Zahn says. “He’s going to be a tremendous asset. He’s going to give the community and politicians trust in the zoo again.”

Schmid says while recruiters had approached him over the years with job offers, he’d never considered them until the Columbus Zoo came calling.

He knew some Columbus zookeepers through his work with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, including a stint as its president, and had great respect for the zoo’s extensive conservation work, its innovative exhibits and its team members.

“It’s iconic in the industry and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he says. “I want to help craft a new vision for the Columbus Zoo. In Texas, I was able to work closely with our teams, the board, stakeholders, donors and legislators to create advocates, and that’s the skill set I bring to Columbus.”

But first, the cleanup continues.

••• Fallout from 2021 isn’t over. An Ohio attorney general investigation into the financial scandal is ongoing, as is a plan to restructure the zoo’s boards, per a Franklin County commissioners demand. Schmid is trying to balance those challenges. In Columbus, Schmid says he’ll be just as transparent and expects his staff to follow suit.

Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady is happy to hear that. He says when the commissioners learned about the Stalf scandal last year, they demanded the zoo share the results of the investigation with the public.

“This wasn’t something we were going to allow to stay undercover,” he says. “We have a fiduciary responsibility to the public.” That’s because about 20 percent of the zoo’s income comes from a 10-year, 0.75-mill levy on Franklin County property taxpayers.

The levy is up for renewal in 2025, and commissioners must approve its placement on the ballot.

Commissioners also insisted that the zoo restructure the groups that oversee it, which include a board of May 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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directors, a public-sector board and a zoo association. “We want to make sure the public sector board has more influence,” O’Grady says. An outside firm examining the board structure has yet to issue a report.

Regaining the zoo’s accreditation is one of Schmid’s major goals. He says the zoo will reapply in September and expects to have an answer in spring

2023. In the meantime, the zoo has obtained approval letters from other zoos so it can continue their joint work breeding endangered species. Schmid says a few zoos have been reluctant to work with Columbus right now, but no animals have had to leave the zoo because of the accreditation denial.

“Losing accreditation has been an eye-opening process,” says Warmolts,

In Texas I was able to work closely with our teams, the board, stakeholders, donors and legislators to create advocates, and that’s the skill set I bring to Columbus.

Tom Schmid, CEO, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium

involving mountains of additional paperwork and seemingly constant inspections by colleagues at other zoos to make sure Columbus’ animal-care standards are up to AZA standards.

“Usually accreditation is every five years, but now we’re under a microscope every day.” He says so far the animals at the zoo haven’t been affected but could be if the denial was long-term.

Schmid says the Columbus Zoo has applied for accreditation from another body, the Zoological Association of America. It expects a decision from it by summer.

Schmid particularly laments how staff careers were affected when the zoo lost its accreditation.

Those in species survival program leadership within AZA—positions some had worked their entire careers to attain—had to step down because the zoo no longer was a member of the organization.

But Schmid hopes he can help lessen the blow. “I don’t manage from the top down,” he says. He eliminated a vice president position and replaced it with three full-time employees to

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beef up the animal care staff, which he says is stretched thin.

The zoo staff still isn’t where it was before the pandemic, when it had 283 full-time workers, compared with 261 now. In April 2020, it furloughed 29 employees and eliminated 33 positions at the zoo and The Wilds. It posted a $20 million revenue loss in 2020.

“Tom’s restoring a sense of teamwork, and there are more fluid, sharing lines of communication,” says Warmolts. “There’s a renewed sense of confidence and passion and positive outlooks. He recognizes the expertise of the people who work here. His expectations are high, but he’s giving us the tools to meet them.”

Schmid sees habitat improvements in the future for the bonobos, orangutans, wolves, river otters and kangaroos, to name a few, as well as a major renovation of the North America exhibit. He’d also like to improve housing for some animals that aren’t on exhibit during the winter to give them both a healthier environment and one that guests could visit.

Schmid already has begun work-

ing with his staff on a new master plan. More broadly, he envisions a zoo that would attract visitors year-round rather than largely in the summer and in December for the annual Wildlights. He also sees a focus on strategic conservation mission.

Keith Shumate, chairman of the zoo’s board of directors, says the zoo has plenty of land it can still develop.

“People should be excited about the zoo’s future; it’s bright,” he says. “Tom really wants to be here despite all the issues and challenges. He’s looking at the zoo with fresh eyes. We told him, ‘Use a critical eye and make the changes you think make sense.’”

As for Jack Hanna, his legacy will continue to be part of the zoo, both Shumate and Schmid say.

“I don’t think Jack knew [about the backyard breeders],” Schmid says.

“He trusted the team he worked with.

He will always have a legacy at the Columbus Zoo. He inspired so many people with his ability to relate and connect with people.

“He’s one of the most famous zoo conservationists in the world.

There’s no replacement for Jack.

Certainly not me.”

Schmid says the zoo is the last stop for his career. He and his wife, Kim, bought a house in Powell where they’re moving with his mother-in-law, who began living with them during the pandemic.

Their daughter, Alex, 24, is an aspiring actor living in Plano, Texas, and their son, Max, 26, works for the city of Little Rock, Arkansas.

Warmolts, who has seen zoo leaders come and go for 34 years, is expecting no less than a revival under Schmid.

“I felt fortunate to have lived and worked during the glory age of the zoo, the years of growth with Jerry and Jack, and I thought perhaps that was over.

“We have serious growing pains as we climb out of the last few years. But Tom has the right acumen, the right vision and the right personality to take us out of this. Everyone’s catching wind of it. Tom realizes the zoo is a diamond that needs to be dusted off and put back out there again.”

Kathy Lynn Gray is a freelance writer.

COSI IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE RECIPIENT OF THE 2022 JOH N GLENN INSPIRATION AWARD Award to be presented at Catalyst, COSI’s signature annual fundraising event

MAY 4, 2022

6:00 PM

COSI

Stephen D. Steinour Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Huntington

To learn more, support the event, eve n t , or o r make m ake a Tribute Gift, visit: cosi.org/catalyst JOHN GLENN INSPIRATION AWARD CHAIR

Jack Kessler

The Steinour Family Fo undation

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TECH TALK

Photo courtesy Taj Quantum

By CYNTHIA BENT FINDLAY

Paul Lilly

Protecting privacy A local cybersecurity startup is headed into the consumer space, and it’s starting with Ukrainians.

I

nformation is power, the saying goes. A central Ohio startup is speeding its entry into the consumer cybersecurity space— and giving its product away for free to Ukrainians to help combat their Russian aggressors.

Taj Quantum offers what its founder and CEO Paul Lilly says is not only state-of-the- art but futureproof technology and techniques.

Taj Quantum already provides secure networks to U.S. government clients using a proprietary two-layer method that Lilly says goes a generation beyond 256-bit encryption, the current industry standard.

Most data can be intercepted over today’s global internet, but most users

Taj Quantum Virtual company with operations in Columbus and Orlando tajquantum.com BUSINESS: Cybersecurity CEO AND FOUNDER: Paul Lilly FUNDING: Federal contracts, undisclosed

amount

EMPLOYEES: 10

encrypt that data in some way so that it can’t be used by thieves. But cracking encryption is a matter of time, and the better the encryption, the longer it takes for hackers to crack it.

“The challenge with state sponsors and large ransomware groups hacking is that with their significant resources, they can penetrate those systems fast,” he says—in a matter of minutes, too, on most days.

Lilly says Taj Quantum created a much longer decryption key, “which means that same attacker, it would take them around 200 to 300 years to get through that same message.”

Second, Taj Quantum hides even globally flowing data streams from attacker’s views so they can’t be detected and attacked in the first place.

“By eliminating anyone’s ability to see where data is coming from or going to, that eliminates DDoS attacks, another problem facing websites like a government’s,” Lilly says.

Taj Quantum calls its method “post-quantum resistant,” meaning that even when quantum computing becomes reality—and it’s when, not if, according to Lilly—Taj security will face the challenge.

Taj’s parent company, Lilly Global Consulting, has been fulfilling U.S. military and other government cybersecurity contracts for the past three years. In January, the U.S. government issued the company

clearance to launch a commercial version, and Taj was working toward a launch later this year, including an app allowing individuals to use the company’s secure network.

Initially Taj Quantum aimed at financial and insurance institutions and other commercial clients, but the war in Ukraine sped its plans.

Temporarily using the open-source app Element, Taj launched a secure network for free to Ukrainians.

“The Russians bombed humanitarian workers because they found out where they were going, and that disgusted us,” Lilly says. “We have the ability to fix that.”

Taj Quantum partnered with a global telecom giant and reached out through board members with deep military and industry connections in eastern Europe, including Columbus entrepreneur Wade Morrell.

The offer, Lilly says, has been taken up eagerly, and their secure network is now serving more than 5,000 humanitarian workers, counterinsurgents, media and more.

The company’s own secure chat app, tentatively called P.A. System (for Project Autonomy), is still in development and should be launched within weeks. Lilly is aiming for $10 to $15 million in revenue in 2022.

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

Arcos names new, remote CEO COLUMBUS-BASED Arcos, a well-known tech-based resource management solutions firm serving the utility and critical infrastructure industries, has named a new CEO. But in a sign of the times, while Arcos and its 150 employees will continue to stay put in north Columbus, Odus “Boogie” Wittenburg, will run the company remotely from Austin, Texas.

Arcos created its own

new market niche in the early 2000s with a tech solution for allocating human and other assets for utilities and then other industries such as airlines.

Arcos serves utilities such as AEP, Columbia Gas and others nationwide, as well as airlines including JetBlue and Southwest. In 2021, Inc. magazine named ARCOS to the Inc. 5000 for the seventh time.

Would Arcos have

considered a remote CEO prior to COVID? Probably not, the company says, but the move has allowed Arcos to take advantage of Wittenburg’s unique experience in enterprise software in the transition as former CEO Bruce Duff retires.

“He’s a great fit for this role technically, operationally, financially, and culturally,” Duff says. “I have no doubt he’ll take ARCOS to the next level.”

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SPOTLIGHT

By JESS DEYO + Photo by ROB HARDIN

Small Business

Save, baby, save Enlighten Angle Financial Group teaches the importance of informed spending habits to children.

F

or Tia Johnson, understanding the concept of money is like tying your shoes. Once you learn how to do it, it’s with you forever. That’s why she created Enlighten Angle Financial Group, a financial wellness educator that teaches kids finance basics by the time they ditch Velcro.

The inspiration for her company came from what she wished was around growing up—a solid financial education. She always knew how to make money, and even had her own paper route by age 11 but realized as an adult that it’s not always about making money, it’s about keeping it.

In 2013, Johnson began taking classes at the Women’s Business Center and sought out mentorship while considering leaving her corporate job.

She craved a job she felt passionate for but wanted to ensure she could still put food on the table.

Enlighten Angle Financial Group enlightenangle.com

BUSINESS: An education platform to teach healthy financial habits for K-12 students, parents and employees through real-life lessons and programming.

FOUNDER AND CEO: Tia Johnson EMPLOYEES: 1 2021 REVENUE: Would not disclose.

Tia Johnson By 2017, she not only furthered her education to become a loan originator, but she had an idea for a business that teaches kids to be financial experts. In 2018, she founded Enlighten Angle Financial Group.

Since, Enlighten Angle has partnered with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Westerville City Schools, Outward Bound and Columbus City Schools and has served 750 students.

Enlighten Angle’s staple program is Be Rich Academy, an eight-week series of one-hour financial literacy workshops that can be catered to elementary, middle school and high school students. Aside from teaching the basics, it also offers lessons in financial psychology and socialemotional learning.

“We talk about some of the basics of what we believe about ourselves,

about money, how we budget, the lifestyle choices that we choose,” Johnson says, “if we start to learn those concepts early, you won’t feel like you’ve lost something.”

One of Johnson’s favorite programs is what she calls KWR, a conversational session where she asks students what they know about money and what they hope to learn.

Through catered lessons, students can see how factors outside of money, like emotions and experiences, factor into how we spend, she says.

Johnson is the only employee of Enlighten Angle, but she hires contracted employees as needed. Following COVID, her lessons went virtual.

And while her wheelhouse has been teaching students, in 2020 she was recruited by the Wellness Initiative team at Columbus City Schools

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“You don’t have to go into a career field around finance to understand how it plays into all these other areas of your life and affects the quality of your life that you have.”

TIA JOHNSON,

founder, Enlighten Angle Financial Group

to create financial programming for the staff. The Wellness Initiative regularly partners with local economically disadvantaged enterprises, or LEDE Certified Vendors, to offer a series of inclusive programs for staff and students.

Johnson couldn’t have come at a better time, says Smita Yerramilli, a wellness consultant for the program.

“COVID has been such a difficult time for people emotionally, but financially it’s caused such an economic strain on everybody,” Yerramilli says.

“Her coaching sessions are all virtual ... she really focuses on the convenience and what works for staff and meets them where they are at.”

Enlighten Angle’s staff programs are meant to decrease the anxiety around managing finances. Since launching the program, it has helped over 200 employees. Johnson has also added similar programs for parents.

For Columbus City Schools Wellness Coordinator Jacqueline Broderick Patton, Johnson’s courses have been successful for her ability to be relatable and meet people where they’re at.

“We have roughly 10,000 employees and are very diverse,” Patton says. “I really appreciate that she’s a LEDEowned business, a woman-owned business and a woman of color.”

So far, Johnson has logged over 2,500 coaching hours. In the future, she hopes to offer micro-loans for small businesses, and above all else, help others unlock financial stability.

“You don’t have to go into a career field around finance to understand how it plays into all these other areas of your life and affects the quality of your life that you have,” Johnson says.

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SPOTLIGHT

By STEVE WARTENBERG + Photo by ROB HARDIN

Nonprofit

Partners for parents Center for Healthy Families serves as a one-stop resource hub for pregnant teenagers in the Columbus region.

T

he idea for Center for Healthy Families began with Donna James in 2006. “I was inspired by two social workers working with pregnant and parenting teens in the community, and they told me about how there wasn’t enough support for them,” says James, who at the time was preparing to retire as a top executive from Nationwide and would eventually open Lardon & Associates, a consulting firm. “What really got me

“I know these stats are hard to hear, but the reality is teen pregnancy often initiates a cycle of poverty for women.”

TOSHIA SAFFORD, president and CEO, Center for Healthy Families

Center for Healthy Families 500 S. Front St., Columbus 43215 centerforhealthyfamilies.org

MISSION: Help parenting teens deliver

healthy babies, continue their education, find meaningful housing and employment, become self-sufficient and lead.

PRESIDENT & CEO: Toshia Safford EMPLOYEES: 21 ANNUAL BUDGET: $3.5 million

Toshia Safford, president and CEO, Center for Healthy Families was the story of a young, teen mom who would ride the city bus all day, so she didn’t have to go home where there wasn’t a great situation.”

Soon after this initial discussion, James met with Toshia Safford, a behavior specialist at Crittenton Family Services. Like many others, Safford sought career guidance from James, who has mentored dozens of women.

“She was telling me about her conversation with the two social workers and I said, ‘I’ll help you,’” Safford recalls, not knowing the offer would change the course of her career.

Safford started researching the issue and quickly learned “there were probably 1,800 girls in this city in this position every year,” she says of teen pregnancy. “More than 65 percent live in poverty, the vast majority are Black and the high school graduation rate is less than 30 percent, and less than three percent receive a college degree by the age of 30.”

As James listened to Safford, “the voice inside my head” shouted that this was the woman to lead a new organization to address this issue: Center for Healthy Families. “She

had the behavioral health and fundraising background, the experience and the passion,” James says.

The center opened in 2008. The goal was to coordinate the available services in the city for pregnant teenage girls. There were already several local nonprofits offering services, but “they were all in their own silos,” Safford explains. “We wanted to integrate it into a onestop shop for medical care, housing, childcare, education, transportation.

And now, good news, we’re getting great outcomes that exceed the national averages. An estimated 1,000 girls give birth each year, 38 percent of the teen girls who have a child before the age of 18 earn a high school diploma by the age of 22. I know these stats are hard to hear, but the reality is teen pregnancy often initiates a cycle of poverty for women.”

Banding together The center has 12 “core” partners, including Action for Children, Directions for Youth Families, Moms2B, Columbus City Schools and the

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Central Ohio Workforce Investment Corp. OhioHealth is another important partner and provides two clinics for young moms and their babies at Grant Medical Center and Riverside Methodist Hospital. “This leads to better care for mothers and babies instead of them having to go to the emergency room,” Safford says, adding many women continue to see the physicians they meet at Grant and Riverside long after their babies are born.

Initially, there was some resistance from other organizations to the new nonprofit. “It did take us a while to educate people on our model of linking existing systems,” James says.

“It wasn’t that there was a lack of services, what was missing was connecting them.”

The center’s resource advocates develop a one-on-one relationship with every client and guide them through the services available within the center and at its partner organizations for a two-year period. Over the years, this has added up to more than 10,000 people receiving help. The vast majority (96 percent) are young mothers, but there are also young fathers who want to be part of their child’s life.

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The next steps The center has also formed an advocacy group to address changes in public policy that would benefit the women they work with. “How do we build public will around the issues so many Black girls face?” Safford asks rhetorically. “How can we engage and educate our community and make sure Black girls reach their full potential?”

At times, this can seem like an overwhelming goal in a society filled with disproportionate wealth, systemic racism and a general lack of opportunity for those at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.

“Absolutely, it’s overwhelming, but we have to change this narrative that’s linked to the history of slavery in their country,” Safford says. “We have to have courageous conversations and build public will and partner with organizations throughout the city, county and state … When I see amazing Black women in leadership positions in our country, that shouldn’t be rare.”

Steve Wartenberg is a freelance writer.

MEET TAMEKO. Director of the Foster Grandparent program.

The program works in schools providing tutors for at-risk students.

Foster Grandparents help students experiencing barriers to education, caused by poverty, familial discord, abuse, neglect and exploitation, racial, ethnic, and cultural differences that prevent youth from achieving the educational benchmarks necessary to succeed well into the future.

Today, she discovered the family of one of her students was using their stove for heat. After reporting this to the school, the child and their family got the help they needed.

Just one day of what we do.

Learn more at colscss.org.

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Our people are our greatest asset.

After a sound investment philosophy, we believe our people are our most important attribute.

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Starting fresh COVID-19 has been merciless, but these days (knock on wood) things are beginning to look up. Many of us have stepped back into society, whether at a social event, celebration or in-person meeting. Now, workplaces are tasked with doing the same, managing new hybrid schedules, flexible hours and ongoing safety protocols.

This year, we recognize the Top Workplaces that have come out of a challenging two years full speed ahead.

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Methodology

T

he heart of the Top Workplaces program is an employee survey.

The 24-question survey collects feedback from those who know organizations the best: the people who work there. Employee feedback is the sole basis for determining which employers make the Top Workplaces list.

This is the 10th year Philadelphiabased employee survey company Energage has partnered with Columbus CEO to identify outstanding workplaces in the Columbus area.

“The employee experience needs to be on the mission-critical list,” says Eric Rubino, CEO of Energage.

For 2022, 73 employers made the winners list. Energage invited 1,924 organizations to participate, and they were eligible provided they had 50 or more employees in the region. Most of the surveying was done between August and November of 2021. Surveys went out to 30,052 employees in the region, and 17,002 responded.

Employers were divided based on the number of employees in the region to compare feedback of similar-size groups.

Organizations that exceeded benchmark scores for each size group made the winners list. Within those groupings, organizations are ranked by the aggregate score based on the employee feedback.

Energage also determines special award winners for some employers who have standout scores in certain areas of the survey, such as leadership, values, direction, communication and more.

Want your organization to participate in the 2023 program? Go to columbusceo.com/nominate.

Subscribe to

Bob Helbig, Energage

Join the Twitter conversation on Top Workplaces at #CEOWork.

Subscribe or renew your annual subscription to Columbus Monthly for $18.

Go to columbusmonthly.com or call (760) 237-8505.

Top Workplaces 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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These 73 organizations are 2022 Top Workplaces. They are listed by their rankings as determined by Columbus CEO research partner Energage in each of three categories based on number of employees in the region.

Data is current as of employee surveys 2021.

LARGE ORGANIZATIONS (350 or more employees) Rank

Company

Founded

Ownership

Sector

City

Employees

1

Bark

2011

Public

Pets & Pet Supplies

New York

438

2

Ricart Automotive

1953

Private

Auto Dealership

Columbus

500

3

Worthington Industries

1955

Public

Metal Products

Columbus

1,500

4

Keller Williams Realty of Central Ohio

2002

Private

Agents / Brokers

Columbus

1,215

5

Manley Deas Kochalski

2002

Partnership

Legal Services

Columbus

6

Discover

1986

Public

Credit & Finance

Riverwoods, IL

7

Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas

1977

Partnership

Personal Care

Columbus

375

8

Fifth Third Bank

1858

Public

Financial Services

Cincinnati

535

9

Mid City Electric

1960

Private

Electrical

Westerville

454

10

Lower.com

2014

Private

Digital Mortgage Lender

New Albany

800

11

Kimball Midwest

1923

Private

Wholesale Distribution

Columbus

555

12

Fairfield County

1800

Government

County Government

Lancaster

932

13

Valley Interior Systems

1981

Private

Building Construction

Cincinnati

377

14

The Superior Group

1924

Private

Electrical

Columbus

1,200

15

Aldi

1976

Private

Retail

Batavia, IL

593

16

Olentangy Local School District

1952

Public

Education

Lewis Center

352 2,037

3,032

MIDSIZE ORGANIZATIONS (125 to 349 employees) Rank

Company

Founded

Ownership

Sector

City

Employees

1

EMH&T

1926

Private

Civil Engineering Consulting

Columbus

310

2

Northwestern Mutual – Columbus

1857

Coop/Mutual

Financial Advisors

Milwaukee

164

3

Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Service

1855

Private

Funerals

Columbus

160

4

Path Robotics

2018

Private

Making intelligent robots

Columbus

192

5

Ensemble Health Partners

2014

Coop/Mutual

Revenue Cycle Management

Cincinnati

205

6

Total Quality Logistics

1997

Private

Third Party Logistics

Cincinnati

175

7

Beam Dental

2012

Private

Dental

Columbus

280

8

The Eco Plumbers

2007

Private

Plumbing

Hilliard

143

9

Lake Shore Cryotronics

1968

Private

Electronics / Computers

Westerville

195

10

Kemba Financial Credit Union

1933

Coop/Mutual

Financial Services & Insurance

Gahanna

273

11

CGI

1976

Public

IT Consulting

Fairfax, VA

150

12

Greif

1877

Public

Industrial Packaging

Delaware

277

13

Panda Restaurant Group

1973

Private

Restaurant

Rosemead, CA

221

14

Richwood Banking

1867

Public

Community Bank

Richwood

181

2 ColumbusCEO l Top Workplaces 2022

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15

Elford

1910

Private

Building construction & management

Columbus

290

16

Air Force One

1984

Private

HVAC Mechanical Contractor

Dublin

205

17

Syntero

1978

Nonprofit

Behavioral Healthcare

Dublin

164

18

BDO USA

1910

Partnership

Public Accountants & Consultants

Chicago

180

19

KPMG

1953

Private

Accounting

Columbus

265

20

Advocate RCM

1998

Private

Vendor Serving Healthcare Industry

Dublin

205

21

Friendship Village Of Dublin Ohio

1981

Nonprofit

Healthcare - Senior Living

Dublin

300

22

The Wellington School

1982

Nonprofit

Independent School

Columbus

145

23

Dasco Home Medical Equipment

1987

Private

Durable Medical Equipment

Westerville

170

24

Westerwood

1978

Nonprofit

Life Care Community

Columbus

186

25

Lindsay Automotive (Honda/Acura)

1973

Private

Auto Dealership

Columbus

250

26

North Community Counseling Centers

1968

Public

Behavioral Health

Columbus

159

SMALL ORGANIZATIONS (124 or fewer employees) Rank

Company

Founded

Ownership

Sector

City

Employees

1

Boss Gal Beauty Bar

2019

Partnership

Medical Spa Services

Columbus

50

2

Choice Recovery

1997

Private

Collection Agency

Columbus

85

3

Forge Biologics

2020

Private

Novel gene therapies manufacturer

Grove City

160*

4

Union Home Mortgage

1970

Private

Mortgage Lending

Strongsville

81

5

Leading Edje

2007

Private

Software Development & Consulting

Dublin

70

6

SS Bendure - Hartwig

2007

Public

Life Insurance

Columbus

99

7

Manifest Solutions

1994

Private

Managed Services & Outsourcing

Columbus

89

8

SOLUT!

2005

Private

Paper & Paper Products

Lewis Center

75

9

LOTH

1891

Private

Workplace Furniture and Services

Cincinnati

58

10

Revolution Group

1995

Private

Technology Services

Westerville

77

11

Reminger Co.

1958

Private

Law

Cleveland

59

12

Group Management Services

1996

Private

Professional Employer Organization

Richfield

82

13

Durable Slate

1986

Private

Slate Roofing, Masonry

Columbus

52

14

Ohio Basement Authority

2016

Private

Construction

Virginia Beach, VA

15

Continental Building

1984

Private

Building Construction

Columbus

79

16

King Memory

2008

Private

Electronics / Computers

Columbus

50

17

Silco Fire & Security

1959

Private

Fire Protection and Security

Cincinnati

63

18

Agility Partners

2017

Private

Staffing - Services

Columbus

118

19

NFM Lending

1998

Private

Mortgage Lending

Linthicum, MD

87

20

Jewish Family Services

1908

Nonprofit

Human and social services

Columbus

50

21

Diamond Hill Capital Management

2000

Public

Investment Management

Columbus

102

22

Crawford Hoying

1994

Private

Real Estate Development

Dublin

100

23

Setterlin Building Co.

1935

Private

General Contractor

Columbus

82

24

King Business Interiors

1998

Private

Office flooring and furniture dealer

Columbus

65

25

Carlile Patchen & Murphy

1967

Partnership

Full Service Law Firm

Columbus

66

26

Orthopedic Foot & Ankle Center

1998

Private

Orthopedic and Podiatric Surgeons

Worthington

68

27

The Basement Doctor

1987

Private

Home Improvement

Reynoldsburg

115

28

Construction One

1980

Private

Building Construction

Columbus

68

29

OHM Advisors

1962

Private

Architecture, Engineering, Planning

Livonia, MI

62

30

National Auto Care

1984

Private

Specialty Insurance

Westerville

67

31

Airriva

2018

Private

Tech based, boutique lodging

Sunbury

61

* Forge Biologics has hired since the survey data was initially gathered.

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CLUED IN MANAGEMENT

Special Awards

Senior managers understand what is really happening at this company.

Total Quality Logistics The following special award recipients were chosen based on standout scores for employee responses to specific survey statements. Employees rate these statements on a seven-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly disagree.

LEADERSHIP I have confidence in the leader of this company.

Rick Ricart

Large

Ricart Automotive Midsize

Sandy Doyle-Ahern EMH&T

Small

Kathy Keeney Boss Gal Beauty Bar

MANAGERS

NEW IDEAS

COMMUNICATION

New ideas are encouraged at this company.

I feel well-informed about important decisions at this company.

Forge Biologics

Choice Recovery

DOERS

MEANINGFULNESS

At this company, we do things efficiently and well.

My job makes me feel like I am part of something meaningful.

Manley Deas Kochalski

Schoedinger Funeral Service

WORK/LIFE FLEXIBILITY

BENEFITS

I have the flexibility I need to balance my work and personal life.

My benefits package is good compared to others in this industry.

Lake Shore Cryotronics

Beam Dental

APPRECIATION

TRAINING

I feel genuinely appreciated at this company.

I get the formal training I want for my career.

Leading Edje

Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas

My manager helps me learn and grow.

My manager cares about my concerns.

This company operates by strong values.

I believe this company is going in the right direction.

Bark

Union Home Mortgage

Northwestern Mutual – Columbus

VALUES

DIRECTION

Congratulations Top Workplace Recipients!

BBB is a community-based resource where consumers can find trusted, local businesses and nonprofits. Each year we recognize outstanding businesses committed to building trust through our Torch Awards for Ethics. Nominate a top workplace to receive this recognition at bbbtorchaward.com

4 ColumbusCEO l Top Workplaces 2022

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Our Team Members

Make Us Great!

We are proud to announce that The Eco Plumbers has been rated a Top Workplace for the third year in a row by Columbus CEO Magazine.

OH LIC #23868 OH LIC #46198

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The friendly neighborhood funeral home The Schoedinger family, the associates, the sale of the business and how the 166year legacy pushes on.

By JESS DEYO Photo by ROB HARDIN

R

andy Schoedinger, CEO of Schoedinger Funeral Home and Cremation Service, is willing to let us in on an unusual secret: There’s actually quite a bit of laughter in the funeral industry.

There’s a time and place, of course, but the moments he and his associates have a laugh often serve as a bit of relief from the other experiences they share: caring for those who have passed, crafting a tribute and helping strangers grieve during what is often one of the worst days of their lives.

As somber as it is, those who choose to work in the business of death look forward to the moments they can provide even a little bit of relief to the surviving, Randy says.

“The type of people that are called to this profession come because they want to help,” he says. “They aren’t doing it

Schoedinger Funeral Home and Cremation Service 12 facilities across central Ohio schoedinger.com

Business: Offers funeral and cremation services, advanced funeral planning and pet cremation services.

CEO: Randy Schoedinger Employees: 160 Revenue: Would not disclose

From left: Carley Gueli, director of human resources; Kevin Schoedinger, co-president; Barry Griffith, COO; Randy Schoedinger, CEO

for money, fame or glory, they’re doing it because they feel a calling.”

Cabinets to caskets A helping hand is exactly how Schoedinger Funeral Home began and how it’s survived 166 years. It was 1829 when founder Philip Schoedinger emigrated from Germany to Columbus.

A craftsman by trade, he established a cabinet-making company.

The population of Columbus was small at the time, so when a community member died, it was standard to ask Philip to make the casket, and he did.

As the population grew, he dedicated his work full-time to casket making and founded the new business in 1855. In 1865, he established Schoedinger & Brown on West State Street.

Philip’s two sons would also join the business, and in a few years they would establish a new chapel at 229 E. State St., which still stands today. Schoedinger Funeral Home became the first in central Ohio to offer an automobile hearse, guarantee advance funeral arrangements and offer air-conditioning during a service.

Over a century later the business is maintained by Philip’s great, great, great grandkids. Now in its sixth generation, it’s led by Randy Schoedinger, who started at the business when he was 16 by driving and washing cars.

In 1994, after college and a brief stint working with Huntington Bank, he joined the business full-time and was

promoted to CEO in 2008.

Randy’s cousins, Michael and Kevin, serve the business as co-presidents.

There are12 Schoedinger funeral home locations including two cost-effective locations, Heart and Hope by Schoedinger, and Buckeye Cremation by Schoedinger, which offers only cremation.

There are 160 associates at the funeral home, and while the business has grown out of being a family affair, each associate is greeted with open arms.

Welcome to the family Barry Griffith, who joined the business almost four decades ago, took that culture into mind when he accepted an offer in 1986 to be a funeral director.

“I had some friends that went to Schoedinger [Funeral Home] directly out of school,” Griffith says. “A year into my apprenticeship I received a phone call from Schoedinger saying they had some positions open. I immediately hopped on board—the reputation of Schoedinger has always been a standard of excellence.”

And Griffith came in hot—he didn’t only want to be a funeral director, he wanted to be in leadership. By 1994 he had been promoted to manager of the Karl Road location by former president Jay Schoedinger, father to Randy, but that was only a stepping stone.

“Jay came up to me and said, ‘Barry, I’d like to congratulate you. You’ve been a great leader and I want to acknowl-

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“The type of people that are called to this profession come because they want to help. They aren’t doing it for money, fame or glory, they’re doing it because they feel a calling.”

RANDY SCHOEDINGER, CEO, Schoedinger Funeral Home and Cremation Service edge your moving into this position— you’ve finally made it,’” Griffith says. “I said, ‘Jay, I beg to differ with you. I appreciate what you’re saying, but I think I’ve got more room to grow’ …he said, ‘Barry, that’s an awesome goal. I hope you attain that.’”

Griffith continued to climb, and in 2017 he was promoted to chief operating officer, the second non-family member to achieve a C-suite role, with the help of endless support from the family, he says.

“One of their best traits is the respect that they show to the associates and the talents that each associate brings,” Griffith says. ”The Schoedingers have always been able to recognize what those talents are that each individual brings, and get them to the right seat on the bus.”

Those moments, which have added up over the years, and the uplifting culture are why Randy believes Schoedinger Funeral Home receives recognition. And it’s the same culture that he believes carried his team as COVID jolted the industry.

Unspoken frontline And like everybody else, nobody could have seen it coming.

“It all happened so quickly. You’re watching basketball and next thing you know, the tournaments are canceled, the Arnold’s canceled,” Randy says. “At that point you’re thinking if some of the things you’re reading out there happen and we’ve got half of our people sick and even more people needing services, how can we handle that?”

While death is inevitable and was heightened during the pandemic, the funeral business was still hurting. In 2020, as in-person gatherings were put on pause and services ceased, Schoedinger Funeral Home’s revenue was around 30 percent lower between August to October of that year, Kevin says.

Obtaining Paycheck Protection Program loans was critical, Randy says.

And despite a loss of services, the funeral

home offered additional compensation for employees who were now flexing their roles to meet new needs.

“People keep saying, ‘Your business is immune because people always need your services,’” Randy says. “And they do, but they need it at different levels.

They’re not renting our buildings or operating our vehicles or buying flowers or having catered events, so we were really struggling.”

But a loss of services didn’t mean less deaths—by December 2020, Ohio COVID-19 deaths surpassed 8,000, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

The same month, the funeral home served 80 percent more families than its previous record month and the momentum continued through the beginning of 2021, Kevin says.

In the months that followed, business remained increased but bearable, and things began to look up. But with the surge of the Omicron variant toward the end of 2021, optimism diminished. More associates were falling ill and the sense of defeat grew.

January 2022 marked the second busiest month for Schoedinger Funeral Home in its 166-year history. For the sake of others, Kevin daydreamed of a day when business was slow.

“This most recent spike was really hard and I would love to never have to go through that again,” he says. “We’d be more than happy to wait and not have to serve all these families right now.”

Now, the funeral home is about 10 to 14 percent busier on aggregate, Kevin says. And he’d like to think that they are as prepared as possible for any future spikes. New protocols are in place, and it became a point to advocate for clinical help, for both employees and families.

Selling Schoedinger As the COVID chapter hopefully ends, Schoedinger Funeral Home also started another—the one in which they sold.

In December 2021 the family an-

nounced that they sold the business to Houston-based Service Corporation International, the nation’s largest operator of funeral homes, ending its reign as a private, family-owned company.

Service Corp. was founded in 1962 and has ties to 44 states and nearly 2,000 facilities.

The decision was made with growth in mind. As times change, expectations for funeral services change too, which brings the need for more facilities, and nicer ones at that. The sale details that the buyer will be putting money toward maintaining the Schoedinger reputation, Randy says. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“I say there are two reasons businesses decide to sell,” he says. “They sell their business because they have to, or they sell the business because it’s the right thing. And when we looked at this, we looked at, okay, what’s the best thing for the next 50 years, the next 100 years for central Ohio.”

Thoughts of selling were brought about less than a year ago, at which point Randy began researching options. He handpicked Service Corp. and led the sale negotiations, then presented it to his cousins, who supported the choice.

While there are seventh generation Schoedingers, it’s unclear whether any will get in the business.

Nothing obvious at the funeral home will change, Kevin says. The biggest change will be increased pay for employees, more time off, better benefits and new technology—all things they have always hoped to offer.

“We’re still staying in the business, our name is still on the building, that’s never going to change,” he says. “When someone I know has a death, they’re still going to call me and I’m still going to take care of them… [the sale] provides us more stability and a stronger foundation to continue serving the community for another 166 years.”

Jay, 81, the oldest living family member who has been part of the business, has also shown support for the decision.

Now, the Schoedinger legacy can continue for decades, he says.

“They did a great job of continuing what my father and my grandfather and all our ancestors before us established in the community,” he says. “Words can’t express how proud you really are for something like that.”

Jess Deyo is associate editor.

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4/18/22 9:53 AM

Large Employer

Four-legged mission Bark has discovered the secret to stress-free work: man’s best friend

By LAURA NEWPOFF Photos by ROB HARDIN

C

OVID-19 sending Americans home to work over the past two years was a boom for pet adoption. More than 23 million households in the country took in a new pet during the pandemic to help family members cope with feelings of isolation. Now that people are returning to offices, however, some of those new pet owners are wondering how to care for their canine companions. Sadly, many are returning them to shelters.

If you work at Bark, you don’t have that dilemma. Long before the pandemic, the pet retailer had developed a culture that encouraged employees in its New York and Columbus offices to bring their dogs to work. In fact, on its careers page, it even tells prospective employees that “it would be kind of weird if you didn’t bring your dog to work. Being at Bark means

Bark 500 W. Broad St. Columbus 43215 • bark.co

Business: Bark makes products,

content and experiences for dogs and their people. It launched in 2012 with its first subscription product, BarkBox, and has since expanded with multiple subscription offerings.

CEO: Matt Meeker Employees: 438 regional 2021 Revenue: $378 million

Bark team member KJ Hunt greets Hazel while Olive enjoys a treat-filled toy.

having human and dog coworkers.”

The power of employees being able to work alongside their canine companions has been reinforced by a recent survey the company did to explore challenges dog parents face as they return to offices.

One in three dog parents believe they’ll be happier and less stressed at work if they have their dog with them and 28 percent feel their life would be more convenient if they had this option. And 72 percent of dog parents who already have returned to work miss their dog while they are back at the office. The survey also found that pet parents will miss their dogs much more than they will miss their children or their spouse.

“Employers that we speak with, including our peers or large companies, are always interested in how to create that environment where [you] can bring dogs into the workplace in a way that employees and the dogs are comfortable,” says Rustin Richburg, Bark’s chief people officer. “We’ve always done this. It’s always been a part of our DNA. Our culture is built around our mission as a company.

It’s simple and straight forward. Make dogs happy. Everything we do stems from that mission.”

Bark was founded in New York as BarkBox by Carly Strife, Matt Meeker and Henrik Werdelin. The company, which launched in 2012, opened an office in Columbus in 2015 where it currently has 333 employees. In addition to the original BarkBox—a monthly box of themed toys and treats—the company also sells a themed collection of super-tough toys, treats and chews under its Super Chewer line; a chew plus toothpaste duo under its Bright line; and healthy, personalized meals under its Eats line. Partnerships with major retailers like Amazon and Target have helped fuel growth.

The company, which went public in 2021, has about 2.3 million active subscriptions.

Shelby Mason, senior community and engagement coordinator in Columbus, says the company believes people are its strongest asset. Even though the company is publicly held now, the “people-

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“When you round up a bunch of dog-loving weirdos with one goal, ‘make dogs happy’ … you have already created a sacred space. The next part is to maintain that.”

SHELBY MASON, Columbus senior community and engagement coordinator, Bark first approach keeps Bark down-to-earth and a place you want to be every day,” she says.

Mason’s work directly impacts corporate culture. Her team plans what she describes as “cool engaging events to create meaningful experiences, community-building and brand integrity here at Bark.” Dinner parties with your dog, weekly wellness classes, take your (human) child to work day, drag queen bingo and family nights are a handful of events employees get to experience.

“When you round up a bunch of dog-loving weirdos with one goal, ‘make dogs happy’ … you have already created a sacred space,” Mason says. “The next part is to maintain that. Bark supports

employees holistically—from unlimited time off, comprehensive benefits, a mental health-focused employee assistance program, employee resource groups, meaningful outings with coworkers and happy hour every day after 5 p.m.— Well, it’s gotten a little earlier, lately— Bark has a space for everyone to find themselves. We know our people make us great so the answer is always, ‘Yes, and your dog is invited, too.’”

Bark’s benefits package includes comprehensive pet insurance. The company is also a strong advocate for fostering, dog-friendly spaces, surrender-prevention community services and responsible sourcing and rehoming.

Dogs also have been an integral part

of Bark’s return-to-the-office strategy.

Last year, the company brought in COVID-sniffing beagles as part of a pilot program. The dogs were trained by BioScent, which trains medical scentdetection beagles in partnership with the Florida International University Detection Dog program. The dogs are able to sniff out a positive case with 98 percent accuracy. If a dog walks up to an employee and sniffs that he or she is positive, the beagle will sit. If negative, the dog will simply keep walking.

“We wanted to showcase the ability of these pups and what they are capable of doing and educate others around different alternatives around the power of dogs that we really haven’t embraced as a society,” Richburg says.

Bark has a hybrid work environment structured around what makes sense by team. Some teams come in certain days for ... face-to-face meetings and other times they work remote. “The approach,” Richburg says, “is where can we be the most productive, the most effective and still keep a level of culture and community within our teams as well.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

CELEBRATING A DECADE OF BETTER At Worthington, our employees consistently find ways to make better possible year after year – for our customers, our communities and each other.

It’s because of their efforts that we’ve achieved Top Workplace recognition for the 10th consecutive year, including each year since the inaugural list was published in 2013. That’s an achievement worth celebrating and our employees deserve all the credit!

Join our team, where together, better is possible!

WorkForWorthington.com

2013-2022 Top Workplaces 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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4/15/22 1:00 PM

Midsize Employer

A people business EMH&T has survived when the odds have been stacked against it, a feat credited to the strong company culture.

By TIM FERAN Photo by ROB HARDIN

W

hen the pandemic forced a sudden shutdown of nearly everything, many organizations were caught flat-footed. They had never dealt with a global crisis like it and some floundered and failed.

But at EMH&T, a long history and a strong workplace culture helped the civil engineering consultant firm not only survive but thrive. Not that a lot of work wasn’t involved in the effort, says Sandy Doyle-Ahern, president of EMH&T. “Managing through the pandemic was exhausting,” Doyle-Ahern says. “But knowing that employees feel good about being here, it is huge for me personally.

As a person running the firm, I’m damn grateful for every person here.”

Founded in 1926, EMH&T consistently receives various workplace awards, something that Doyle-Ahern knew when she joined the company 25 years ago.

“It was always very strong,” she says.

EMH&T 5500 New Albany Road Columbus 43054 • emht.com

Business: EMH&T is a land development and public works engineering consulting firm.

President: Sandy Doyle-Ahern Employees: 310 Revenue: $60.7 million

EMH&T President Sandy Doyle-Ahern (front) stands with her team.

“But EMH&T for a long time kind of flew under the radar [to the general public]. That’s because most of the work is reputation based with repeat customers.”

The key to the firm’s ability to weather the pandemic dates back more than a decade to a couple of years before the Great Recession when Doyle-Ahern had moved up in the ranks.

At that point, “I started pushing out a lot more communication to employees about how the company was doing,” she says. “It was always rock solid, but it was a little bit of a heads-down kind of company. My personality is a little different from that, and we began to talk directly to them even more about how the company was doing.”

The commitment to open communication wasn’t just a nice benefit that was put away after the 2008 economic crisis passed, she says. “In civil engineering we have a lot of risk, it can be real, and my biggest priority is that you have got to have teams of people that trust each other, that know each other. If someone

is not certain about something they can always ask an expert in the area.

“You can’t build trust if you don’t have relationships with each other, so we do a lot of employee engagement work. It’s about getting people out of their desks to continue to build relationships.”

That effort left all of EMH&T’s staff— from longtime employees to recent hires—deeply impressed and grateful.

Christy Pirkle started at EMH&T 21 years ago. Hired as an intern, Pirkle became a full-time employee a year later and has been there ever since.

Today, as a senior environmental scientist, she collaborates often with other firms and has picked up how other companies run. Even so, she has never found anything that attracted her away.

The reason for that loyalty is the firm’s collaborative culture. During the Great Recession and through the pandemic, “we didn’t pull in, we reached out,” Pirkle says. “We know that the strength of the company is the people. There was a lot of transparency. We all kind of

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“Managing through the pandemic was exhausting. But knowing that employees feel good about being here, it is huge for me personally. As a person running the firm, I’m damn grateful for every person here.”

SANDY DOYLE-AHERN, president, EMH&T shared the good and the bad.”

A key moment in her career at EMH&T came when Pirkle and her husband decided to start a family. “I had my first child and I didn’t realize the demands it was going to have on me personally.” After consideration, Pirkle approached Doyle-Ahern and told her that she was going to quit.

But Doyle-Ahern said, “This is not this-or-that.” So, for years, Pirkle was able to work part-time at the firm, she says. “When my kids were older and I could leave the house every day, they welcomed me back full-time.”

Abby Cueva came to EMH&T in August 2012 after having worked at another firm for 11 years. After meeting Doyle-Ahern, Cueva thought, “If I went anywhere else, I’d be really interested in

going to EMH&T. It was definitely Sandy and her leadership and the culture at EMH&T that brought me here.”

The firm’s effort during the pandemic to return everyone to the office as safely and quickly as possible was crucial to maintaining that culture, especially for younger engineers, Cueva says.

“It’s very hard for younger engineers when they don’t have hands-on, face-toface experience with other experienced engineers,” she says. “… Sandy worked day and night getting protocols in place, and it paid off.”

Like Pirkle, Cueva found a sympathetic ear when she found herself pregnant soon after being hired at EMH&T. Doyle-Ahern sat down with her for a one-on-one chat and reassured her that everything would work out.

“It was the most impactful moment of my career, that someone would do something for me without even asking for it,” Cueva says. “I felt appreciated, and now forever indebted.”

Dan Bruin was hired in July 2019 as a product engineer and had only worked at one other firm, in St. Louis, for two years before that. “With only a couple years of experience I was coming into the city with few connections. I was just working off online reviews. One thing I saw was that EMH&T always got great reviews.

They were typically number one.”

When the pandemic forced everyone to shut down, Bruin was thankful he had time to be exposed to the firm’s culture.

“Under COVID, that was huge,” he says. “It was lucky timing, I guess. At the time it’s something you’d think: Is there job security? What’s going to happen?

But we were always reassured from upper management we would get through it. There was never a point where I felt that my job was in jeopardy.”

That culture won’t change, DoyleAhern says, because it is crucial to helping EMH&T do the best work possible.

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

TO OUR STAFF, THE HEARTBEAT OF OUR ENTIRE BRAND. WE ARE ELATED TO BE HONORED BY YOU FOR THIS AWARD, FOR THE 8TH YEAR IN A ROW.

Thank You! CONVENIENT 110 0C ONVENIENT LLOCATIONS OCATIONS • KKENNETHS.COM ENNETHS.COM KKENNETHSSALONANDSPA ENNETHSSALONANDSPA Top Workplaces 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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Small Employer

Science of beauty Kathy Keeney left her ER job for Boss Gal Beauty Bar, but there are more similarities than meet the eye.

By VIRGINIA BROWN Photo by ROB HARDIN

F

ive years ago, Kathy Keeney wanted a creative outlet outside of her full-time job as an emergency room nurse. She invested in a small studio and independently started providing eyebrow microblading.

After six months, using only social media to promote her work, she was so busy that she left her job in the ER to do brows full-time. “It seemed kind of radical,” Keeney says. “My family and my coworkers were like, ‘What did you do?’

But the money was good, and I enjoyed what I was doing.”

Six months later, she ventured into aesthetic medicine—cosmetic injectables, laser treatments, dermal fillers and other treatments—and started attending related conferences and investing in education courses.

In 2019, with four employees, she opened Boss Gal Beauty Bar, a medical spa now offering three locations across Columbus with 50 employees. “I took a

Boss Gal Beauty Bar bossgalbeautybar.com

Business: Medical spa and

facial bar

Locations: Clintonville, Grandview and Easton Founder: Kathy Keeney Employees: 50 Revenue: Would not disclose.

Boss Gal Beauty Bar founder Kathy Keeney (center) stands with her management team.

total leap of faith,” she says.

This year, Boss Gal Beauty Bar is the top-ranked small business on Columbus CEO’s Top Workplaces list.

Boss Gal is one part open-concept facial bar—including efficient facials compared with more time-consuming spa experiences—and the other part cosmetic medical treatments performed by nurses or nurse practitioners.

To have that kind of practice, a physician must serve as a medical director to oversee policies and procedures. Dr. Timothy Sutton, one of two male employees at Boss Gal, serves in that role.

“Having a medical director, we get to use medical-grade skincare,” Keeney says. “So our facials are very results-driven, not just [for] relaxation.” People still relax, though, she adds, and sometimes even fall asleep in the chair.

For many businesses, opening during COVID-19 proved too difficult, but for

Boss Gal, it provided a new trend: People seeing themselves most of the day with the rise of virtual meetings.

“People were working from home on Zoom and started to look at themselves a lot more,” she says. Her clients would come in and complain about lines, wrinkles or side profiles, among other things. “A whole Zoom phenomenon perpetuated,” she says.

Sarah Sweebe has worked at Boss Gal’s Clintonville location for a little over three years.

After graduating from Aveda in 2019, she says, “I wanted to work with corrective skincare lines and I wanted to do relaxing treatments, but also treatments that you are going to see results from.”

She started shopping around at various spas in town as a client. “I found that most of them were very uninviting and sterile,” she says. “It just wasn’t what I was looking for.”

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“This business is customer service- and salesoriented, so being an ER nurse really helps with that—being a good communicator, educator, and being able to explain things thoroughly to people.”

KATHY KEENEY, founder, Boss Gal Beauty Bar At first, she was skeptical of the open-concept facial bar. “I’m used to being in a treatment room by myself with music, where it’s dark.” She didn’t think the open concept would work for her.

“I ended up getting an interview with Kathy and I completely fell in love with her and she sold me on this idea.”

For Sweebe, the combination of the unique concept and Keeney’s leadership was the right mix.

“She takes time to listen, and that goes a long way,” Sweebe says. “Safety is always our number-one goal and treating your skin safely, so I think her [nursing] background really sets us apart.”

Keeney says her days working in acute care at a hospital positioned her well for running a business and managing people.

“ER nurses are confident, and we’re risk takers. We’ve seen so many things, and we also know how to deal with a lot of different situations and personalities,” she says. “This business is customer service- and sales-oriented, so being an ER nurse really helps with that—being a good communicator, educator, and being able to explain things thoroughly to people.”

And every day is a learning experience. “Being a business owner is constantly pivoting and problem solving,” she says. “Managing people has to be one of the most challenging parts of the business.”

That’s why she only wants to select the best employees, ones that truly hope to work at Boss Gal. “We pick people that are passionate

about what they do and constantly want to learn,” she says. “We are constantly immersing ourselves in continuing education and investing in our employees.”

Keeney earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Trent University and a permanent makeup certification from GLAMD of Chicago. She is also a member of the American Medical Spa Association and the American Academy of Facial Aesthetics, so continuing education is a big part of the Boss Gal business model.

The company offers classes, training opportunities, lunch-and-learns and more. And benefits include a maternity policy, a 401(k) match up to four percent of salary and flexible schedules.

“The culture is so important to me,” Keeney says. “We are female-run and very proud of that.”

Once a week, Sweebe huddles with her team to discuss a new product.

“We’re constantly learning and keeping up with the new techniques and new tools and I absolutely love that,” she says.

“This industry is constantly growing, so you do have to keep up with it. Boss Gal allows us to do that.”

Virginia Brown is a freelance writer.

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S P E C I A L

A W A R D

New ideas are encouraged

Two steps ahead Forge Biologics’ innovative culture has it in growth mode

By LAURA NEWPOFF

I Photos courtesy FORGE BIOLOGICS

f you were the hiring manager at Forge Biologics, you’d never know America was in the midst of an unprecedented labor shortage. While companies across the country are struggling to fill open positions, the Grove City biotechnology company has had more than 1,200 applications since the beginning of the year.

CEO Timothy Miller attributes it to people wanting to be a part of a

company that has a “patient-first approach” and could soon be the largest producer of dedicated adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies in the world.

Gene therapy using AAV as a vector has emerged as a novel therapeutic modality that has the potential to lead to substantial disease modification in many monogenic disorders, or even cures, Nature.com reports.

To address the growing demand for gene therapy manufacturing, Forge began an expansion of its facility, The Hearth, in 2021. It will increase the overall manufacturing footprint of the company to over 200,000 square feet of facility space in Grove City.

Forge’s business model is a hybrid, or hub-and-spoke model, where it develops its own pipeline of novel gene therapies and also serves as a contract and development manufacturing organization to manufacture gene therapies for

Forge Biologics team members.

“It goes to the mentality that we’re all here as a team to help kids get access to these potentially lifesaving therapies.”

TIMOTHY MILLER, CEO, Forge Biologics

Forge Biologics 3900 Gantz Rd. Grove City, 43123 forgebiologics.com

Business: A gene therapy-

focused contract development and manufacturing organization

CEO: Timothy Miller Employees: 160 (approx.)

Revenue: Would not disclose its clients, which include other companies, organizations and researchers.

With The Hearth as its foundation, Forge is building a promising pipeline of disease-modifying AAV-based therapies to potentially help patients with rare genetic diseases.

“We even have people from the coasts applying. It’s very exciting,” Miller says.

“It goes to the mentality that we’re all here as a team to help kids get access to these potentially life-saving therapies.

Without us, many of them might not get access in time to save their life.”

For example, Forge is working on FBX-101 for the treatment of patients with the neurodegenerative Krabbe disease. Infantile Krabbe disease usually results in death by age two. FBX-101 is in a Phase 1-2 clinical trial.

Miller co-founded the company in 2020 with Erandi De Silva and Jaysson Eicholtz. Forge has 160 employees and is hiring. Miller came to central Ohio from Cleveland where he co-founded Abeona Therapeutics in 2015, a rare disease gene and cell therapy company.

Danielle Sexton, scientist I, process development, joined Forge in April 2021. As a mother of two children, she finds meaning in work that could potentially change the lives of families.

She says new ideas are encouraged at the company through genuine collaboration.

“There’s a good exchange of ideas and no ideas are ever off the table,” Sexton says. “It’s a kinetic environment. We want to make a difference in patients’ lives and in order to do that you have to be able to think outside the box and do new things.

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

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Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas team members.

S P E C I A L

A W A R D

I get the formal training I want for my career

Rooted in training Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas give staff the education needed to feel confident behind the chair.

By VIRGINIA BROWN Photo by ROB HARDIN

S

ome companies draw talent with perks like free beer and PingPong tables. At Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas, it’s all about the training.

For the eighth year straight, Kenneth’s ranked among Columbus CEO’s Top Workplaces awards, this year also winning a special award for its extensive investment in its people.

“Our training is our biggest recruiting tool, and it’s what sets us apart,” says President Jody Achatz.

Founded by Kenneth Anders in 1977, today the salon has 10 locations, including a training academy, in central Ohio.

Kenneth’s training includes multiple phases and can take anywhere from seven months to a year to complete, according to Achatz.

Understanding the pace of a salon and developing the skills necessary to work

Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas 10 Columbus-area locations kenneths.com

Business: Hair salon and day

spa offering hair services, nails, massages and more

President: Jody Achatz Employees: 375 Revenue: Would not disclose

“At the platinum level, you don’t know who’s coming in. Your consultation has to be fantastic, and you have to educate throughout the appointment.”

JODY ACHATZ, president, Kenneth’s Hair Salons and Day Spas

with a wide array of personalities and expectations takes time. “A lot of times in this industry, when you’re getting training, you work alongside another hairdresser, and they teach you as you go,” Achatz says. “We don’t do it that way.”

At Kenneth’s, new hires spend seven weeks working full days at Kenneth’s Academy on Reed Road, northwest of Columbus. There, stylists learn how to apply color, drape clients and sharpen other foundational skills.

In the second phase, trainees assist top-level stylists to understand the pace of the salon environment. “Timing is important here,” says Marie Flanagan, who has worked at Kenneth’s since August 2021. “[We learn] how to juggle clients and make sure that we are staying on time—and how to please the customer.”

After that, employees return to the academy full-time for advanced training in cutting and coloring techniques, among others, this time with live models.

By the final level, stylists have spent about two months working with real clients at the academy budget salon.

“A lot of times, when you’re going through training, you bring your mom, your sister, your best friend …” Achatz says. “At the platinum level, you don’t know who’s coming in. Your consultation has to be fantastic, and you have to educate throughout the appointment.”

“There are certain key performance indicators that need to happen before you’re then promoted out to one of the locations,” Achatz adds.

And that’s just for hair. The process is similar for Kenneth’s nail technicians, estheticians and others, according to Achatz. They also provide training on financial wellness, marketing, social media and more.

Even more notable than the extensive time Kenneth’s puts into preparing its people: the training is paid.

After graduating from the Aveda Institute Columbus in April 2021, Flanagan applied to work at Kenneth’s because of its reputation.

“Hair school really just sets you up for the minimum,” says Flanagan. “They give you enough to get started, but there’s so much to learn in the industry.”

At Kenneth’s, Flanagan says she has found a support network of people she can go to with any question. “They prepare you for any situation that you might run into and for a successful future.”

Virginia Brown is a freelance writer.

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S P E C I A L AWA R D F O R B E N E F I T S

Beam Dental

Delivering value Beam Dental specializes in offering great benefits to others, so it only makes sense to offer the same to its own.

By TIM FERAN

T

File/Columbus CEO/ROB HARDIN

he Great Resignation has forced many companies to step up and offer higher pay and better benefits. But what about those who specialize in delivering great benefits to other companies? Well, then it’s about upping the game for their own.

Beam Dental, a provider of digital-first dental benefits, offers its employees a stellar package that includes free dental and vision, pays 99 percent of health insurance premiums and offers employees an annual learning stipend.

Beam’s digital platform makes everything from quotes to claims fast and easy for brokers, members and employers.

And in an innovation, every Beam member—and this includes employees—gets an internet-connected toothbrush “so you’re accruing benefits if you’re brushing your teeth,” says Alex Frommeyer, CEO and co-founder of Beam. “That shows in a very visceral way that we care about preventative care. We give you the brush and we’ll reward you.”

Frommeyer smiles when asked about the effects the Great Resignation might have had on Beam’s benefits package.

“We are a benefits company, and we should have a phenomenal benefits package,” he says. The real lure to potential employees is simple: It’s culture.

Beam has based that culture on its core values of Growth, Resilience, Initiative, Tenacity, and Team first—better known as GRITT. When Beam was founded in 2012, Frommeyer says, GRITT was already woven into the DNA of the business.

GRITT is at the center of everything that Beam does and was what attractedHannah Thompson to Beam Dental over three years ago.

“The tangible benefits that we get— dental, vision and the rest—of course those are recruiting points,” Thompson says. “But I really think the funny saying

“We are a benefits company, and we should have a phenomenal benefits package.”

ALEX FROMMEYER, co-founder and CEO, Beam Dental

Beam Dental 226 North 5th St., Floor 4 Columbus, 43215 www.beam.dental

Business: Digital-first dental benefits provider that incorporates dental hygiene behavior into policy pricing, combining an online insurance platform, AI-powered underwriting and the internetconnected Beam Toothbrush.

Co-Founder and CEO: Alex Frommeyer

Employees: 280 Revenue: $233.7 million is true: You come for the snacks; you stay for the culture. Especially in the remotefirst world, snacks aren’t as important.”

As a woman in the tech industry, Thompson has worked at other companies where she had to deal with the smug, misogynistic “tech bro” culture and battle “the imposter syndrome—it’s a real feeling for women in the tech industry,” she says. At Beam, it’s different.

That culture was illustrated during a meeting in which a colleague acknowledged making a mistake. “I watched my manager handle it,” Thompson says, “and he really deescalated it and made it clear we would solve it together. That’s extremely important in a startup culture, that mistakes will be made and we’ll solve it together.”

Over the past few years Thompson has been promoted twice. The most recent promotion was for a job that hadn’t existed at Beam, and Thompson herself crafted the job description. Now, she’s the team’s first solution architect.

Even so, despite the benefits package and culture, Beam has seen its share of resignations recently. Ironically, it’s because the company has essentially doubled in size every year since its founding, “and that is not what everyone wants,” Frommeyer says. “The company you joined a few years ago, that’s a completely different business.”

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

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Diverse Leaders in Law

Michael Battle

“[The Reily Reentry project] is very important.

It goes back to some of the systematic issues that some of these folks face and the snowball effect of what a what a [criminal] record could do to somebody.”

YAZ ASHRAWI, member, Frost Brown Todd

File/Columbus CEO/ROB HARDIN

A

Photo courtesy Feinknopf Photography

Yaz Ashrawi

By LAURA NEWPOFF + Photo by ROB HARDIN cross America, people who are Black or Hispanic are much more likely to live in poverty than their white counterparts. With that comes an inability to pay for critical legal services that can help them access basic necessities such as health care, housing, government benefits, employment and educational services.

While the importance of pro bono work to serve marginalized communities isn’t something new to the legal profession, the racial justice component has become increasingly important following the death of George Floyd in 2020, which resulted in protests across the globe. Since then, legal aid experts say there’s been a noticeable and sustained increase in interest in pro bono opportunities with a racial justice component, which providers hope will be a commitment that lasts for the long haul.

In central Ohio, many law firms have recognized the opportunity to use their legal skills to amplify the voices of those oppressed by racism and use the law as a vehicle for change that impacts communities of

Photo courtesy Vorys Sater Seymour & Pease

Photo courtesy Barnes & Thornburg

How to fight racism pro bono

Janay Stevens

Diane Menashe

color and to promote racial equity, says Kate McGarvey, executive director of the Ohio State Legal Services Association. The association, including through the Legal Aid Society of Columbus, helps low-income Ohioans resolve a broad range of civil legal issues.

McGarvey was the guest moderator at Columbus CEO magazine’s quarterly Diverse Leaders in Law forum in April that focused on how law firms can fight racism through pro bono services. Panelists at the forum were: • Michael Battle, partner and pro bono chair, Barnes & Thornburg • Yaz Ashrawi, member, Frost Brown Todd • Janay Stevens, partner, Vorys Sater Seymour & Pease • Diane Menashe, partner, director of litigation training and pro bono activities, Ice Miller The following are excerpts from their conversation, which have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Leaning in Ice Miller’s pro bono efforts got a renewed direction and purpose with the hiring of Menashe at the end of 2019. Her career focus is high-level criminal defense and an ongoing

commitment to creating fair access to the criminal justice system. The firm offers an extensive array of pro bono services, including research addressing policy reform for Chicago Police contracts and prisoner release litigation. Ice Miller partners with its corporate clients to host pro bono clinics and collaborates with community stakeholders to find ways to increase the impact upon people in communities who need it most.

The firm is, with intention, helping people of color gain access to justice.

“We are, with our hearts and minds, leaning in,” Menashe wrote in her inaugural pro bono newsletter.

Menashe says a recent focus area for the firm is a partnership with two professors at the Michigan State University College of Law to examine the impact of race on the administration of the death penalty in Cuyahoga County. Eighty-eight people in the firm have participated in data collection and coding analysis to get to the bottom of the disconnect between the county having more death penalty convictions than other counties that have more homicides.

Data collection and coding is an example of how “we can think broadly in this space,” says Menashe, and be involved in areas that go beyond May 2022 l ColumbusCEO

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direct litigation. “We need to look at, systemically, how our systems are failing and if they’re failing, why?”

New programs for minorityowned businesses In 2020, Vorys Sater Seymour & Pease launched the Vorys Initiative for Business Empowerment to provide low- or no-cost legal support for minority-owned businesses with a goal to create a strong legal foundation that allows clients to navigate the challenges associated with business ownership. Clients often reach out to the firm about employment, business formation, tax, financing, contracts, leasing, construction, brand protection and intellectual property.

Stevens says the firm has been able to bring in about 75 clients under the new program. Vorys has found there has been a high demand for intellectual property services, including trademark assistance. Through VIBE, Vorys attorneys helped PWR WMN and Way Down Yonder Beignets & Coffee satisfy their trademark needs, and they continue to provide access to attorney resources for additional legal needs as they arise.

Vorys also has partnered with the Columbus Urban League for additional educational programming to fill knowledge gaps. The program has been rewarding for lawyers and is helping Vorys retain them in a tight market for talent. “They’re likely to stay in an environment where they can both have the career that they want and do the work that they want to do,” Stevens says. “So I think we’re seeing benefits across both our communities and within the law firm itself.”

At Barnes & Thornburg, Battle helps coordinate pro bono work that’s being done across the firm’s 20 offices. Like other firms, it has a longstanding commitment to a variety of pro bono services while it works to continue to boost outreach to communities of color.

One recent initiative was a legal primer for black-owned small businesses webinar. The program is part of the Barnes & Thornburg Black-Owned Small Business Pro Bono Initiative, which aims to help Black-owned small businesses prosper through pro bono legal services and education. The

38 ColumbusCEO l May 2022

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Join Columbus CEO in honoring the members of Central Ohio's Top Workplaces class of 2022.

May 18

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program resulted from “a marriage among the diversity, equity and inclusion committee, BT Black, which is an affinity group … and the pro bono group,” Battle says.

Helping people re-enter society An example of Frost Brown Todd’s recent pro bono work is its involvement with the Louisville Urban League for a 2022 expungement project. From February 2018 to February 2021, the Urban League’s Reily Reentry project has gotten more than 7,000 cases successfully cleared from people’s records and saved them almost $1.3 million in related fees. The program aims to give free expungement services to people who

“We need to look at, systemically, how our systems are failing and if they’re failing, why?”

DIANE MENASHE, partner, director of litigation training and pro bono activities, Ice Miller

Kate McGarvey have faced criminal charges so they can find work, housing and participate more fully in society.

“That work is very important,” Ashrawi says. “It goes back to some of the systematic issues that some of these folks face and the snowball effect of what a what a [criminal] record could do to somebody.”

According to The Sentencing Project, Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at nearly five times the rate of whites and Latinx people are 1.3 times more likely to be incarcerated than nonLatinx whites.

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

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CEO INSIGHTS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH CENTRAL OHIO LEADERS

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ADVE RTISE ME NT BBB believes that when organizations operate with a foundation of trust and ethics, they develop a strong and lasting reputation that is recognized by their customers as well as the entire community. This series celebrates the organizations that earned a BBB Torch Award in 2021. By putting intentional focus on BBB’s four “Cs” of building trust - Character, Culture, Community and Customers - they reach their goal to be a better business.

BBB recognized A Kid Again at the Torch Awards last November for their outstanding commitment to serving a very special community of children and families who are fighting a life threatening condition. The organization also uniquely fills a needed but often forgotten niche by serving many families whose children’s conditions are too rare to have stand-alone dedicated organizations.

A Kid Again shifted directions in 2020; how did the pivot allow A Kid Again

BBB® Spotlight on 2021 Torch Award Recipient

A Champion in our Community

to continue to serve the community?

A Kid Again is unique in the non-profit community. Experiences are on-going and year-round, offering something to look forward to during a medical journey. When the pandemic emerged, A Kid Again rose to the occasion by creating two new formats. Adventures in a Box offers activity/supply kits that are shared at celebratory drive-through Pick-Up Parties and virtual Esports Adventures where kids play together in live-streamed online games, complete with mailed snack and swag packs.

What intentional ways is A Kid Again enhancing its internal and external culture?

The organization’s impact extends beyond families served, consciously working to ensure staff and leadership are able to not only thrive, but also develop skills that will take them to the next level. The organization offers coaching sessions, continuing education, professional accreditations, and other best practices that enables the team to be better stewards of their mission.

Family Focus Makes Memories, Offers Support Through Shared Experience

How does this emphasis help shape the support you provide to the children you serve?

Founded almost 3 decades ago in Columbus, Ohio and now operating

CEO Oyauma Garrison said it all starts before chapter leaders are even

in 48 states with seven fully staffed chapters, A Kid Again fosters hope,

hired. “All executive director candidates have to “pass” two central interview

happiness, and healing for families during the worst time of their lives. A

questions: When an ill child reaches out to you for a hug, are you huggable?

Kid Again’s vision is to enable a world where all children fighting a life-

and How do you handle a phone call informing you that a child has earned

threatening condition, and their families, can take a break from focusing

their angel wings? These are the heart of what we do together and what

on illness and make lasting memories instead.

we owe the children and families we serve. All our subsequent employee empowerment and support is intended to enable and strengthen our leaders’

Nationally, A Kid Again has hosted more than 500 Adventures offering

ability to in-turn support children and families.”

respite to more than 250,000 kids and their families. The impact is compelling: One mom wrote, “A Kid Again is like a lifeline, something we

A Kid Again’s Central Ohio Chapter serves more than 1,200 enrolled families;

can point to each month and look forward to as a family. We make sure

counting the ill children, their siblings, and their parents, this totals more than

to put those events in big red letters on the calendar, and it seems to

6,400 people. This organization embodies all of BBB’s four “Cs” of building

make the yucky medical stuff pale in comparison.”

trust - Character, Culture, Community and Customers as they bring families the gift of community and memories.

About the Torch Awards About the Torch Awards

BBB serving Central Ohio established the annual Torch Awards for Ethics to publicly recognize local BBB serving Central Ohio established the annual Torch Awards for Ethics to publicly recognize local companies with elevated commitment to ethical business. BBB has distilled our intentional focus on trust and companies with elevated commitment to ethical business. BBB has distilled our intentional focus on trust and ethics into four C’s – Character, Culture, Customers, and Community. Visit BBBTorchAward.com to nominate ethics into four C’s – Character, Culture, Customers, and Community. Visit BBBTorchAward.com to nominate an outstanding business today! an outstanding business today!

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Now Accepting Entries & Nominations

e

BBB’s Torch Awards for Ethics shines a spotlight on businesses and organizations that exemplify trust in our community.

n

To learn more about the criteria and entry process or to register for one of our information sessions, visit

BBBTorchAward.com

;

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Estate Planning

B

Expert advice 10 financial actions to take now for a strong 2022.

By VIRGINIA BROWN + Photo by ROB HARDIN

W

e tend to think most critically about our finances at the beginning and end of the year, but midway through is a great time to reassess goals, too. Here are a few financial steps to take now to finish the year strong, according to experts.

1. Review your portfolio and continue aggressive retirement contributions.

Mid-year is a good time to review your portfolio and reaffirm financial goals. “Continue to add to your investments and make sure you’re making decisions that support your overall intentions, goals and objectives,” says Fabian Padamadan, executive director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in Columbus.

In 2022, the federal maximum for 401(k) contributions rose to $20,500 per person. Even though the market has been volatile to start the year, it’s still generally seen by advisors as a good time to contribute. “When the market is declining a little bit, those are the times that are best to invest into the market,” says Danny Due, chief planning officer and senior wealth manager with Budros, Ruhlin & Roe, in Columbus. “Definitely don’t hesitate if the market right

“We are seeing a lot of clients with elevated cash balances.

Some people say cash is king; others say cash is a drag. It all depends on your purpose.”

FABIAN PADAMADAN, executive director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Fabian Padamadan, executive director, J.P. Morgan Private Bank now isn’t cooperating because that’s actually when a lot of the assets are going on sale.”

2. Be smart with cash.

“We are seeing a lot of clients with elevated cash balances,” Padamadan says. The uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other global concerns, meant that many people became more reserved with their spending and saved up. “Some people say cash is king; others say cash is a drag. It all depends on your purpose.”

To determine how much cash

you need outside of covering basic operating expenses, consider how much money you’d like on hand for opportunistic ideas like “buying into the market, accessing capital for a private investment or something else,” Padamadan suggests. There’s also a psychological aspect to the cash-onhand bucket. “It’s the number that makes you feel comfortable,” he says.

“I call it your ‘sleep-at-night’ money.”

Instead of keeping too much cash, Padamadan recommends putting those funds into a CD ladder. “You don’t want to lock in your money for too long too early because you may miss out on the opportunity to rein-

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vest those funds at a higher rate,” he says. “[In a CD ladder,] every month you have a portion of your funds coming due, so it helps you—every month you feel like you have access to a little bit of capital.”

3. Consider investing in “megatrends.”

Megatrends, according to Padamadan, are “the long-term movers, from an investment standpoint”—things like technology, health care, and sustainability. “Technology is in almost everything we do: how we use our mobile devices, how we access banking, how we trade, how we open our garage doors,” says Padamadan.

“And health care is going to continue to be an area where we’re going to see continued development and expansion.” Investing in these companies and trends can pay off long-term.

“There’s real-world global emphasis behind [them] that leads to investment opportunities.”

4. Take advantage of low rates while you can.

Consider refinancing and restructuring your debt while interest rates are still low, and talk with your advisor about how your family might benefit from estate-planning strategies that are potentially more lucrative when interest rates are low.

5. Consider year-end “to-dos” now.

“One of the important things it does is it allows you to be more proactive and not to worry about being so reactive at the end of the year when you know we’re faced with all these year-end deadlines and holidays and everything else,” says Due. “You have a little bit more time to sit and reflect.”

It may be more tax-efficient, for example, to take care of some things as early in the year as possible, including funding 401(k)s, 403(b)s and IRAs. Maxing out health savings accounts is another way to reduce your tax burden while offering another savings stream, good for unforeseen future expenses, according to Due. By the end of the year, he says, some people realize they could have made more contributions had they done so incrementally

throughout the year.

these limits today,” says Padamadan.

6. Don’t wait until December to plan your charitable giving.

8. Make sure you and your family are cyber-safe.

To reduce their tax burden, many people lean on year-end cash charitable donations. “Cash is what you don’t want to do,” says Padamadan.

Instead, assess how the timing of your annual donations might affect your tax situation and identify which gifting vehicle(s) might best support your strategy.

“You want to get positions that have the highest appreciation out of your estate,” he says. If you buy a stock for $10 and it rises in value to $100, you have to pay tax on the $90, he explains. Instead, if you transfer that stock or gift it to a charitable organization, then the organization can sell that position for $100 with no tax consequences.

As more of our life is handled online, the dangers of cyber theft and fraud grow. But there’s a lot you can do to protect your financial life and personal data.

Padamadan advises clients who write checks to transition fully to online bill pay, Zelle and other comparable financial platforms for payments and gifts. “There’s so much personal information on a check,” he says.

“Those are important pieces of information fraudsters use to get access and steal your identity.”

When in doubt about any correspondence, check with your financial firm. “We will never ask you for any personal information over email, and in the Private Bank, we have a dedicated service team that our advisors work with that are constantly helping monitor transactions and accounts,” he says.

7. Consider using your full lifetime transfer tax exemption.

The lifetime gift tax exclusion is at a record high—$12.06 million per individual for 2022.

Under current law, it is scheduled to be reduced significantly starting in 2026. “[We put in] a plan taking advantage of these dollar amounts and

10 THINGS TO DO NOW

1 Review your portfolio and continue aggressive retirement contributions.

2 Be smart with your cash.

3 Consider investing in

“megatrends.”

4 Take advantage of low rates.

5 Consider your year-end “to-dos.”

6 Plan your charitable giving.

7 Consider using your full lifetime

transfer tax exemption.

8 Increase your cyber security.

9 Explore ways to increase tax

efficiency.

10 Plan a family meeting.

9. Explore ways to increase tax efficiency.

“One of the big things right now is talking to our clients about how they are going to pay for taxes,” Padamadan says. “Do you plan on just using your cash that you may have to use those taxes to pay for those taxes? “ Rather, he says, “[Consider] using a line of credit to pay for those taxes, because interest rates are still historically low.”

10. Plan a family meeting.

Two key reasons wealth diminishes across generations, according to J.P. Morgan, are a lack of communication and trust, and beneficiaries’ unpreparedness. Both can be avoided by communicating clearly at least annually with your financially connected family members, says Padamadan. “We have a whole team of individuals who help us think about multi-generational family wealth, and we work with the whole family to educate all family members on where they’re at and what help that they need to make sure that we’re thinking about things together.”

Virginia Brown is a freelance writer.

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Health Watch

Region’s innovators Here are the newest initiatives at local hospital systems.

By LAURA NEWPOFF + Photo by ROB HARDIN

I

n 2010, a football player named John Stephens learned about a bone-marrow registry drive while he was attending a freshman recruiting weekend at the State University of New York at Cortland. The day he registered with Be The Match, Clara Violet Boyle was 17 days old. When she reached the four-month-old mark, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. That’s when Stephens got a call that he was the “perfect match.”

Boyle’s form of leukemia was high risk and her chances for survival were considered slim. It turns out that Stephens’ donation was 3.5 to 4.5 times more than she required and doctors used all of it to treat her.

“Your stem cells engrafted so quickly that they didn’t tell us initially, for fear of getting our hopes up,” Boyle’s mom would later write to Stephens.

In the coming years, more success stories like Boyle’s may be possible because of a blood and marrow transplant program starting this summer at OhioHealth. Doctors didn’t want to send patients to other hospitals to receive transplants, a procedure expected to grow 9 percent over the next five years.

Dr. Yvonne Efebera has joined

“The system knew the benefit for patients to get all of their care in one place instead of going back and forth. If a patient likes a place, they want all of their care to be there.”

DR. YVONNE EFEBERA, OhioHealth

Dr. Yvonne Efebera OhioHealth to launch the program.

“The system knew the benefit for patients to get all of their care in one place,” she says. Being able to perform the transplants will give patients a sense of consistency during a stressful time, she says.

The program will serve 150 patients a year who have hematologic or blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

Patients with non-cancerous disorders, like bone marrow failure, metabolic disorders and immunodeficiency disorders also will benefit.

OhioHealth is investing $20.5 million to establish the program. An inpatient unit is currently being built within 17,000 square feet of existing space at Riverside Methodist Hospi-

tal and a 10,000 square-foot portion of the atrium level of the Bing Cancer Center, previously occupied by conference room spaces, has been converted to include an infusion space for BMT patients, ambulatory care and outpatient clinics, a lab and a pharmacy. Because there’s a need for more blood marrow donors, including more diversity of donors, Efebera encourages those who have an interest in this life saving program to visit bethematch.org to support the cause.

Ohio State looks at vaping Ohio State University’s experience running the Center for Tobacco Research helped it land a $5.5 million

48 ColumbusCEO l May 2022

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4/20/22 9:57 AM

EVERYONE HAS A REASON TO SUPPORT NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

WHAT’S YOURS?

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Our dedicated sponsors support our work, our community and our patients. Through our sponsorship program each partner has the opportunity to choose the social impact they want to make by directing their funds to support a specific area of the hospital.

Sponsorship levels begin at just $1,000, with each level offering a variety of marketing benefits. Consider becoming a sponsor of the 2022 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon!

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Special advertising opportunities coming in Columbus CEO

JULY 2022 Top Lawyers

I N N O VAT I O N U P D AT E OhioHealth PROJECT: Blood and marrow transplant program for hematologic or blood cancers LAUNCHED: 2022 COST: $20.5 million

Personal Finance & Investments Health Watch CEO ROUNDTABLE Economic Outlook for 2022 CEO LEADERBOARD Commercial Mortgage Lenders Space Deadline: May 27

Ohio State University PROJECT: Health impacts of youth vaping LAUNCHED: 2020 FUNDING: $5.5 million

from the American Heart Association

PROJECT: Impacts of children’s mental health on the workforce LAUNCHED: 2021 FUNDING: Nationwide

Foundation

grant in 2020 to study the effects of e-cigarettes and nicotine in youth and develop vaping cessation programs.

The award was among the highest individual grants given in the American Heart Association’s history.

So far, the grant has led to a groundbreaking study released in February that found vaping had a significant and long-term cardiovascular effect on adolescent males but, surprisingly, not females.

Loren Wold, the study’s senior author and associate dean for research operations and compliance in the College of Medicine, says the longterm effects of vaping aren’t known because these compounds have been around only since the early 2000s.

“Understanding the long-term effects and informing the public is one of the main goals but we also want to come up with cessation tools,” he says.

Because COVID caused labs to shut down when OSU first got the grant, an extension will allow Wold and his team to continue their work.

Nationwide studies ‘The Great Collide’

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The pediatric and adolescent mental health crisis—punctuated by the stresses of the pandemic—is having dramatic implications in the workplace. That’s according to a first-ofits-kind study released this year by Nationwide Children’s Hospital as part of its On Our Sleeves movement for children’s mental health. The Great Collide: The Impact of Children’s Mental Health on the Workforce, funded by the Nationwide Foundation, found: • 53 percent of working parents

have missed work at least once per month to deal with their children’s mental health.

• 54 percent of working parents interrupted their work to answer communication about their child’s mental health needs during business hours.

• 30 to 50 percent of working parents’ thoughts are on their child’s mental health while at work.

• 85 percent of working parents think it’s a good idea to talk about children’s mental health, but few talked to managers, HR or colleagues.

Working parents under the age of 40 are more concerned about their children’s mental health and more likely to choose employers based on access to mental health care benefits.

Marti Bledsoe Post, lead study author and executive director of On Our Sleeves, says there’s still a lot of stigma tied to mental health, and many people fear they can’t leave work early to deal with their children’s issues without losing pay or facing negative consequences such as being passed over for a promotion.

“The workforce is highly concerned ...

There is still fear around either talking about the issue or taking time to deal with these issues.”

Bledsoe Post says the next steps are to add resources for parents on OnOurSleeves.org throughout the year.

A new program also will be rolled out in the fall through employers. The self-paced digital curriculum will be created for parents and caregivers to help them learn about issues tied to children’s mental health. Post says 88 percent of parents are interested in this type of coursework.

P

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

50 ColumbusCEO l May 2022

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4/19/22 10:00 AM

Breakdown

Compiled by KATY SMITH + Infographic by YOGESH CHAUDHARY

Illustration/Gettyimages.com

42%

auto/industrial projects are in electric vehicles

24%

of active projects are in the automotive and industrial spaces

36%

of all active projects are international

11%

of current active projects could generate 1,000 potential jobs each

Promising 2022, so far

The pipeline of economic development projects in the 10-county Columbus region is wellstocked. So far in 2022, potential investments here are 2.3 times greater than at this time last year. Here’s a look at the projects development officials are expecting or courting.

52 ColumbusCEO l May 2022

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Source: One Columbus Performance Update 03/23/22

4/21/22 1:32 PM

The mental health of children is an urgent public health crisis.” * So we need to start important conversations.

Talking to our kids, and to each other, is one of the best ways to address any challenge facing families.

On Our Sleeves – the movement for children’s mental health – is committed to breaking the stigma, giving kids a voice, starting important conversations – and keeping them going.

Free, expert-developed resources are ready for you at OnOurSleeves.org/ Conversation. *U.S. Surgeon General Youth Mental Health Advisory, 2021

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4/19/22 10:01 AM