Columbus CEO - Summer 2023 issue

COLUMBUS PARTNERSHIP ISSUE

Economic Transition

Columbus gains momentum in the tech and life sciences sectors.

Corporate Giving

Donors are becoming more strategic with their support.

Workplace Win

New federal laws expand rights for working mothers.

Summer 2023

POWER PLAYER

Julie Sloat rose through AEP’s ranks to lead one of the nation’s largest electric utilities.

$4.99 Summer 2023

These are the types of messages we hear every day from people in our community.

These are the types of messages we hear every day from people in our community.

These are the types of messages we hear every day from people in our community.

Working in partnership with dozens of central Ohio nonprofits, the Gifts of Kindness Fund at The Columbus Foundation provides critical support to help individuals and families weather the unexpected.

Working in partnership with dozens of central Ohio nonprofits, the Gifts of Kindness Fund at The Columbus Foundation provides critical support to help individuals and families weather the unexpected.

Working in partnership with dozens of central Ohio nonprofits, the Gifts of Kindness Fund at The Columbus Foundation provides critical support to help individuals and families weather the unexpected.

Be a part of the extraordinary kindness engine fueling our community.

Be a part of the extraordinary kindness engine fueling our community.

Be a part of the extraordinary kindness engine fueling our community.

I thought I had no other option but to get evicted. You helped me continue to grow strong.”

I thought I had no other option but to get evicted. You helped me continue to grow strong.”

I thought I had no other option but to get evicted. You helped me continue to grow strong.”

BBB’s Spark Award is given to entrepreneurs 35 years old and younger or businesses operating less than three years.

This is a unique opportunity for young businesses to spark trust as they build their businesses with Character, foster a collaborative Culture, and give back to their Community!

Meet the Members

6 Editor’s Notes

Losses roil Ohio pension funds.

22 Better Together

Public-private partnerships are helping the Columbus region tackle tough problems.

94 New Worker Protections

New federal laws strengthen rights for pregnant and nursing workers.

97 Women's Health

OhioHealth and Ohio State University are making overdue investments to close the women’s health care gap.

100 Corporate Giving

Local nonprofits are seeing a shift as business donors become more strategic.

Cover photo by TIM JOHNSON

Photos by Tim Johnson (2)

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Phone: 614-540-8900

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VOLUME 32 / NUMBER 2

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EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR

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Tim Johnson

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Columbus CEO (ISSN 1085-911X) is published quarterly by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2023, all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials. Known address of publication is 605 S. Front St., Suite 300, Columbus, Ohio 43215. Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Columbus CEO, P.O. Box 460,160 Escondido, CA 92046

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8

8 Profile

Insider

Julie Sloat took the helm at AEP at a challenging time for the industry and the company. Many say she’s the right leader at the right time.

12 Tech Talk

LittleSeed uses virtual reality to help pediatric patients.

14 Top Workplaces

Celebrating the winners of our 11th annual awards

Special Ad Sections

33 New Albany

The city gained attention for the Intel deal, but the community has long been an appealing place to work and live.

103 Nonprofit Navigator

A look at 25 Central Ohio charitable organizations

Photo by Tim Johnson

Editor’s Notes

* jhohbach@ColumbusCEO.com

Economic Development Goes Beyond Intel Deal

Much has already been written about Intel and the tech giant’s gamechanging $20 billion investment in the Columbus region, which no doubt will continue through the semiconductor factories’ projected 2025 opening. Deservedly so.

But what many Central Ohioans might not realize is that the area has seen multiple other economic development wins since that deal was announced in January 2022—including in technology and manufacturing.

This issue features our annual focus on The Columbus Partnership, the 21-year-old civic organization whose members come from many of the region’s most notable businesses and organizations. The C-suite think tank of sorts focuses on and advocates for economic development, public policy issues, leadership development and other regional priorities.

A special package of stories highlights how local business and economic development leaders are

realizing success in the push to make the state a leader in manufacturing, technology and life sciences; and how public-private partnerships are tackling tough problems like sending lower-income students to college, funding businesses owned by Black women and more.

Julie Sloat, one of the Partnership’s newest members, is featured on our cover. Sloat became president and CEO of American Electric Power Company Inc. on Jan. 1, taking the reins from Nick Akins as part of the company’s previously announced succession plan. The longtime AEP veteran took a back-door approach to the electric industry, having worked as a research analyst for the utilities sector at JPMorgan Chase & Co. before she joined AEP as a senior analyst.

Sloat assumed her new job at a particularly challenging time, both in terms of the broader energy sector and for AEP itself, which was the subject of extensive scrutiny from the public and regulators after forced

blackouts left some parts of the city— many of them lower-income—without power after storms and a heat wave swept through the area in June 2022. Learn how the company is addressing the issues and how Sloat’s rise through the company ranks informed her leadership and prepared her for the top job in “Power Player.” It starts on Page 8.

Thanks for reading. And mark your calendar for June 30, when we open voting in our 16th annual Best of Business reader poll. Cast your ballot to support your favorite business products, financial and professional services, restaurants and more. Watch our website and social media pages. Voting runs through July 31.

Julanne Hohbach Managing Editor

PROFILE

By Laura Newpoff

Power Player

AEP’s Julie Sloat runs one of the nation’s largest electric utilities at a challenging time for the industry and the company. Colleagues and analysts say she’s the right leader at the right time.

Julie Sloat can trace her first impression of the electric utility industry to the 1970s when she was a young child living in Bolivar, Ohio, at the northern tip of Tuscarawas County. Her family often drove a few miles north into Canton to buy groceries and, along the way, they passed by Ohio Power’s Canton South Service Center. It was normal to see the utility’s trucks buzzing around the community, including coming to the family’s home to read the meter.

When Sloat finished high school, she got a summer job as a motor repair technician at ABB, a company that uses automation and other technologies to improve manufacturing processes. Her dad worked there as an engineer. Sloat, who wanted to follow in his footsteps and become a mechanical engineer, thought this experience would be helpful and allow her to earn money for college.

She recalls a conversation where her dad told her, “Hey, your buddy Rich is not going to be at work [at ABB] this summer.” She asked why. “He got a job with the power company. Those are really good jobs.”

“Ohio Power was just down the street, and [those] were the best jobs you could get,” says Sloat, who now

About Julie Sloat

President and CEO, American Electric Power Company Inc.

Age: 54

Previous: President and CFO of AEP

Education: B.S. in business administration and MBA, Ohio State University; completed the Nuclear Reactor Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; completed level one of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam series

Community involvement: Boards of directors of American Electric Power, Columbus Downtown Development Corp., The Columbus Partnership, Edison Electric Institute, Evoqua Water Technologies Corp., Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, James Foundation Board (current chair), Ohio Business Roundtable, Ohio Valley Electric Corp., Pelotonia and U.S. Business Roundtable

Resides: Columbus

Julie Sloat, president and CEO of American Electric Power, in the lobby of the company’s Downtown Columbus headquarters

is president and CEO of that utility’s parent, American Electric Power Company Inc. “They did something nobody else could do—they kept the lights on.”

Fast forward to 2016. Sloat was president and chief operating officer of AEP Ohio, where she was responsible for all aspects of electric service for 1.5 million customers. She was in the field often and took a drive one day to the Canton South Service Center. When she stepped out of her Jeep, she received a pleasant surprise.

“A guy walks out, sticks out his hand and says, ‘Julie, do you remember me?’ It was my buddy Rich who I used to work with back [home], and he’s now running that Ohio Power service center,” she says. It was a full circle moment. The industry and AEP

have been “central to my family my entire life.”

Boots on the Ground

Sloat moved to Central Ohio to attend Ohio State University in the late 1980s. She changed her career focus and graduated from the Fisher College of Business in 1993 with a B.S. in business administration with a double major in finance and economics. She also has an MBA from the university and has completed level one of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam series and the Nuclear Reactor Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She began her professional career by working in banking, including as a buy-side equity research analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. where she covered the utilities sector. She joined AEP in 1999 as a senior analyst in credit risk management. She jokingly says that job was the only one she’s ever chosen herself, since from that point on she was asked to take different roles to rise through the company ranks. She’s worked in investor relations, treasury and risk, and in regulatory case management. She briefly left the company to work at Tween Brands Inc. in 2008 and 2009. Prior to being named AEP’s president and CEO in January 2023, she served as president and, before that, president and chief financial officer.

It was her role at AEP Ohio, however, that was key to reaching the CEO suite. Former CEO Nick Akins asked Sloat to take the position to give her exposure to the operational side of the

business. She “took the bull by the horns and performed wonderfully,” he says, which told company leadership she had an “ability to learn and focus in … admitting what she doesn’t know and reach out and galvanize a team. It was part of her development.” Akins is now executive chair of the AEP board.

The AEP Ohio role allowed Sloat to see firsthand the work employees do in the field, from maintaining and repairing power lines and equipment to answering customer calls and analyzing service requests. “That was the pivotal moment to this day,” Sloat says. “I left my heart in that job. I got to talk with customers and our folks who make all this magic happen and keep the lights on. It changed my life. It changed my understanding and respect for the entire business in a way that was profound to me.”

Seeing the work the line mechanics performed also shaped Sloat’s philosophy that safety is foundational to how the company operates. “To understand that—it was no longer about spreadsheets,” she says. “It was about the physical flow of this marvelous product we have. I never would have gotten that had they not sent me out to do that piece of my career.”

In fact, when Akins brought her back to the parent company in 2019 to prepare her to become CFO, Sloat admits she was “a little heartbroken.” Even today, if she gets a cancellation on her calendar, she often runs out to the field to see how employees are doing, a habit she credits with keeping her grounded.

Photo by Tim Johnson

AEP has 5.6 million customers spread across 11 states.

Courtesy American Electric Power Company Inc.

Challenges & Opportunities

As one of the largest electric energy companies in the U.S., AEP has approximately 5.6 million customers across 11 states. Its electricity transmission network stretches more than 40,000 miles—the most in the nation. It is one of the nation’s biggest electricity producers, with about 25,000 megawatts of diverse generating capacity, including more than 7,100 megawatts of renewable energy. The company has nearly 17,000 employees and recorded $19.54 billion in revenue in 2022.

Sloat stepped into the CEO role at a time of enormous challenges and opportunities in the industry.

The challenges include pressures on the bottom line: Zacks Investment Research Inc. reports that a “prolonged continuation of supply-chain disruptions and inflationary pressure might impact results. Also, a weak solvency position and unfavorable financial ratios indicate that it might face difficulties meeting debt obligations.”

The company also suffered blowback and regulatory scrutiny after it enacted widespread power outages following a June 2022 storm that damaged infrastructure and transmission lines, which were further taxed by a subsequent heat wave. Following orders from regional grid operator PJM, AEP Ohio was required to reduce its load to a level where it could safely operate. Approximately 606,000 customers were impacted between June 13 and 19, according to a report from the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Sloat says the company continues to address the issue by investing in its infrastructure, including smart circuits that can reroute power to minimize outages. There’s also a tree-trimming program to protect transmission lines; PUCO’s report suggested a more robust trimming schedule, since most of the transmission circuit failures were caused by vegetation. Improved communication with customers is a focus area, too.

But there are also opportunities. AEP, according to Zacks, plans to invest $40 billion in regulated operations, contracted renewables and wires during the 2023 to 2027 period to achieve long-term earnings growth of 6 percent to 7 percent.

Nick Akins, executive chair, AEP board of

Plans include growing its renewable generation portfolio to approximately 50 percent of total capacity by 2032. AEP is on track to reach an 80 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from 2005 levels by 2030 and has committed to achieving net zero by 2045.

Sloat also plans to simplify and “de-risk” the business. That includes reviewing some transmission joint ventures to determine if they fit with AEP’s long-term plans. “Active review of our portfolio allows us to continue prioritizing investment in our regulated utilities to enhance services for our customers,” she said in the first quarter earnings announcement.

Community involvement, economic development activities in its communities and a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion also are identified opportunity areas for the company.

As she executes her plans, Sloat vows to put the customer “at the

center of every decision we make.” That will allow the company to also meet the expectations of shareholders, employees and regulators, she says.

James Thalacker, a utilities, power and renewables analyst at BMO Capital Markets Corp., has known Sloat since the 1990s when she was in the banking sector. He’s watched her career progress and says her ability to blend what she’s learned on the finance side with her field and regulatory experiences will allow her to balance those interests to find solutions that benefit everyone.

“She’s extremely energetic and a thoughtful person, one of those people who leaves no stone unturned,” Thalacker says. “She’s always trying to look at the best way to approach a problem and figure out an optimal solution for it. As CEO, she’s straddling doing the right things for customers, employees and shareholders. That’s no easy task. But the one thing about Julie, she just never sort of gives up.”

She’s the right person to be CEO & lead the company forward.”

directors

AEP’s headquarters in Downtown Columbus

Courtesy American Electric Power Company Inc.

“Can't Think of Any Better Leader"

Sloat is AEP’s 11th president and the seventh CEO in the company’s 116year history. She is the first woman to hold the top position. More important to her than that milestone is that she’s “not going to be the last.”

Akins refers to Sloat’s leadership style as “engaging and energetic.” To this day, he says, line workers still want to talk with her, and her commitment to having an ongoing presence in the field is a “nice touch.”

“She’s the right person to be CEO and lead the company forward,” he says.

Susan Tomasky is a former AEP executive who held top positions including CFO and president of AEP Transmission. She started working with Sloat in 2001 when Sloat was in investor relations. Tomasky immediately was impressed with Sloat’s dedication to the company and her astute financial communication skills at a time when the industry was grappling with the Enron accounting scandal that rocked Wall Street.

“A philosophy I learned quickly that she shares is that the best decisions come from good listeners,” Tomasky says. “She is a great listener and she carries that. I’ve always seen in her an ability to synthesize data from a whole lot of sources, but also to really understand what others are saying, what are the interests, what are the goals, and to fashion leadership decisions around what she knows but also what the expectations are of those involved. A lot of the conversations early on in our relationship had to do with understanding AEP’s strategy, but also understanding individuals. She has a lot of insight into people, and that’s an important part of her style.”

Sloat will be a good decision-maker as CEO, Tomasky says, and will not hesitate to make a move when she knows what’s right.

Darcy Reese, vice president of AEP investor relations, has been with the company in financial positions for 15 years and Sloat has been her boss for much of that time. She considers Sloat a mentor who taught her to tackle challenges head-on. “What makes her an effective leader is an utmost confidence in her ability—she knows what she can do, and she gets the

Seeing the work line mechanics perform in her role at AEP Ohio shaped Sloat’s philosophy that safety is foundational to how the company operates.

team to come along with her,” Reese says. “Some leaders may delegate and some may run around the fire, but she runs straight into it.”

Outside of work, Sloat is a cycler and an avid long-distance runner with multiple Boston Marathon finishes under her belt. She serves on several boards, including on the executive committee of The Columbus Partnership, which she thinks is “one of the neatest things we do in Columbus.” The civic organization’s members—who come from Central Ohio’s most notable businesses and nonprofits—convene to address opportunities to advance economic development, smart mobility, public policy, education, leadership development, philanthropy, community branding and Downtown development.

She also chairs the board of directors for the James Foundation Board, which supports the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Sloat was diagnosed with breast cancer in September

2015, had surgery that October, then completed six weeks of daily radiation that concluded in December.

“The James kept my life on track,” she says. “I did the treatments early every morning after my run and before heading to the office. And I even squeezed in a race—the Kiawah Island Half Marathon—in early December 2015.”

Dr. David Cohn, interim CEO of the OSUCCC – James, says her personal journey in cancer and her leadership experience at AEP made Sloat the perfect choice to lead the board. “Her leadership style—Julie is one of the most authentic individuals I have met,” Cohn says. “Authentic leadership is something that to me is an incredible attribute in the health care field. … She is truly a remarkable, warm and engaging individual. I can’t think of any better leader for the board for this time.”

Her role on the board is something Sloat finds particularly fulfilling. “It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done—aside from AEP.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

An AEP substation off Fifth Avenue in the Milo-Grogan area of Columbus

Photo by Tim Johnson

File photo by Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch

TECH TALK

BY CYNTHIA BENT FINDLAY

Game Changers

Powell-based LittleSeed is using virtual reality to create less stressful medical visits for pediatric patients.

A2017 medical technology startup based in Powell has been quietly taking seeds of ideas and growing them into change for pediatric patients in Columbus and around the country.

LittleSeed’s portfolio of projects is focused on improving the treatment experiences of thousands of children with life-threatening diseases, and the company itself is now poised to grow.

LittleSeed was founded by Jeff Penka, a seasoned tech entrepreneur, and Jeremy Patterson, an Ohio State University faculty member and researcher in the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design.

The inspiration came after Patterson met Dr. Amy Dunn, a physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital who was curious about whether virtual reality games could help kids with anxiety about needle sticks and infusion treatments. Penka says tablets and video games are commonly used to distract kids in hospital settings, but Patterson

LittleSeed

littleseed.io

36 N. Liberty St., Suite B., Powell

Co-Founders: Jeff Penka and Jeremy Patterson

Business Launch: 2017

Employees: 5 full time

Annual Revenue: Would not disclose

and Penka thought that approach could be improved on. “In a clinic, set-up time is important, and focus of the game, cleanliness. … We have to build tools, not toys. There has to be a clinical approach or it doesn’t work,” Penka says.

The co-founders began testing the limitations of existing hardware and software and crafted a custom solution for and with treatment professionals: an interactive virtualreality game that captivates players and incorporates physical feedback on rhythmic, meditative breathing to calm and distract anxious patients.

Voxel Bay became the seed that sparked the company, as well as its first product. It was a finalist in the 2017 South by Southwest Interactive Innovation Awards and recently won an award from the Children’s Miracle Network.

LittleSeed’s team spent years honing Voxel Bay with clinicians and validating data with a few early-adopter pediatric groups and hospitals. The project is now ready for rollout on a subscription model.

The company’s second major product came via a clinician, as well. Nurse Abby Hess, who works in the anesthesiology department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, came up with a concept to ease the panic some patients experience with surgical anesthesia masks.

LittleSeed and Hess created EZ Induction, which introduces kids to the mask preoperatively as a game, changing the experience to one patients look forward to rather than fear.

To this point, Penka says LittleSeed has grown with some Third Frontier grant money but mainly through bootstrapping, mostly

through educational and studio work for various clients.

Penka says creativity, engagement with patients and clinicians, and validation of the company’s thesis have always been part of LittleSeed’s approach. “Previously, we worked in SAS and enterprise, large-scale data, so when we say clinically driven and data proven, we need to be able to produce evidence,” Penka says. “We know how to be very patient-centric. Joy and novelty are key and provable, too.”

He says the next several years will be focused on pushing Voxel Bay and EZ Induction through product development and getting more products in the pipeline behind them. The company is now evaluating whether venture capital is an option for acceleration. “We’ve lived through the venture capital scene. We always appreciate people helping with great ideas, but if people don’t fund properly, you can cause compromise,” Penka says. “We are glad we are where we are and excited about where we are headed.”

Being able to fulfill the company’s mission over time is the goal, he says. The co-founders believe virtual reality holds yet-untapped promise for helping patients at any age, in many settings. “I’ve had a mother tear up next to me with her little boy in treatment and her saying, ‘He’s more at peace than I’ve seen him in months. He’s able to calm himself down and be where he needs to be.’ That’s what the impact of our work looks like.”

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

Jeremy Patterson (left) works with a patient.

Courtesy LittleSeed (2)

Jeff Penka

Sponsored by:

CEO INSIGHTS

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH CENTRAL OHIO LEADERS

AUGUST 16 | CEO INSIGHTS

CHAD DELLIGATTI InnoSource

Join us for a conversation with Colleen Marshall, anchor of NBC4, and Chad Delligatti. Since joining InnoSource in 2000, Chad has served in multiple leadership roles, setting the groundwork for what InnoSource is today: a leading human resource, staffing and data agency. InnoSource, headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, specializes in recruiting and management solutions that improve efficiency and service quality for a diverse group of Fortune 500 and midsized companies. Learn more about Chad’s journey August 16 at CEO Insights.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER COLUMBUS.ORG/EVENTS

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Top Workplaces 2023

Columbus CEO honored our 2023 Top Workplaces winners on April 19, 2023, with a reception and ceremony at COSI. Nearly 300 people came out to celebrate the 92 honorees of our 11th annual awards. Thank you to our longtime research partner, Energage, as well as our sponsors: Delaware Area Career Center, Daugherty Business Solutions, Champion Companies, COSI, PITT OHIO and Slalom.

1 Katrina Roby, Becky Fromkes, Sam Zid 2 Patrick Bendure, Dan Hartwig

3 Matt Hamilton, June Meeker

4 Brian McGuire, Rich Hazelet, Chris Timo, Charles Heath 5 Ryan Phipps, Kayla Greer, Rena Henriques, Keera White, Paul Hicks 6 Maddie Beyer, Diane Flinders, Chelsea King, Chris King, Darla King, Dave King 7 Gabe Martineau, Raj Sundararaman, John Reedy, Ravi Darbha 8 Erin Nealy, Karen Mozenter, Austin Barger

9 Sandy Doyle-Ahern, Josh Corna, Lauren Drinkwine, Jonathan Moody 10 Cody Blair, Jamie Freeman

Photos by Dan Trittschuh

FINANCIAL WELLNESS

Taking hold of uncertainty

In recent years we have endured a pandemic, political divisiveness, inflation and other scary headlines. With so much stress around money these last few years and questions around personal financial goals, we believe now is a good time to ask, how is your financial wellness?

The American Psychological Association’s annual study, “Stress in America 2022,” reported 66% of Americans list finances as a significant source of stress. Of those who identified finances as a contributor to their stress, 83% reported inflation as the primary culprit. When the cost of food, services and basic expenses increase, it’s no wonder so many of us list money as a major source of stress in our lives.

Individually, we all react differently to uncertainty, worry and anxiety around money. However, there are simple steps you can take to reduce your worries and build up your financial resiliency during these uncertain times.

1. Focus on what you can control.

The consistent and focused media coverage on the economic and market uncertainties triggers an overwhelming emotional response. The seemingly never-ending cycle of negative news saps your motivation to continue to do the things financially you know will be most impactful for you in the long-term. However, by focusing on consistent saving, spending less than you earn and staying disciplined in your longterm investment strategy, you can positively impact the probability of achieving your financial goals.

2. Enlist trusted resources and advisors. You don’t have to do it alone. Gather your people, members of your inner circle who can be supportive, and strongly consider enlisting professionals providing unbiased guidance to help you move forward with confidence. If you are having

doubts about your financial wellness, a flat-fee financial advisor will help provide unbiased guidance and expertise to chart a better path forward.

3. Develop a plan to help make better decisions.

It’s important to create a tailored framework to navigate the hurdles in your financial decision making process. A trusted advisor, acting as a fiduciary, will guide you along the steps to help you reach your desired financial outcome and conquer the anxiety you feel from the ongoing uncertainty in our media.

4. Implement your plan. Some can do this on their own, but many need the experience and expertise of a trusted flat-fee financial advisor to make their plan a reality. With so many day to day responsibilities, questions and lack of time, you probably don’t feel confident in consistently making the right decision and executing. Working with a trusted professional will build your confidence in

making informed decisions and positively impact your feeling of financial wellness.

5. Sleep well at night. Enjoy the peace of mind from implementing the aforementioned steps to help reduce the stress from financial uncertainties. With ongoing support and collaboration with your trusted advisor committed to transparency and objective advice, you can be on your way to a greater sense of financial wellness.

There will be no shortage in negative news cycles and never-ending uncertainties. Fortunately, you can take solace in trusted professionals you can partner with, who invest in walking alongside you as you embark on your unique journey to financial freedom and wellness.

At PDS Planning, we work with you to help you define your financial journey. We address what keeps you up at night to better understand your unique circumstance. Our mission is to provide tailored advice to improve your financial wellness. As a fee-only planning firm in Columbus, we are paid a flat fee for the work and value we provide, with an aim to always serve in your best interest. We believe it’s unfair for you to pay more simply because you’re worth more. That’s what a percentage-based fee does. Our flat, fixed-dollar fees reflect our work, not your net worth.

Rita Itsell President & Managing Shareholder

Photo courtesy of PDS PLANNING

Time of Transformation

By Brittany Moseley

At the groundbreaking for Intel’s new microchip factories in New Albany, leaders at the state and national level, from Gov. Mike DeWine to President Joe Biden, praised the project and the positive effects it would have on Ohio’s economy and workforce.

Biden called it a “field of dreams where America’s future will be built.” DeWine said, “We celebrate a great victory for Ohio, but an even greater victory for our country.” U.S. Sens. Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown— who are often on opposite sides politically—both applauded Intel’s choice of Ohio.

But it was Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger who had the most memorable soundbite. “The Rust Belt is dead and the Silicon Heartland begins,” he told the crowd at the Sept. 9 event.

Since announcing in January 2022 that Licking County would be the home of two semiconductor plants, Intel has been the talk of the town, and rightly so. The company is investing $20 billion in the project, and the plants will employ 3,000 workers, plus 7,000 construction workers who will build them.

But Intel isn’t the only company making waves in the region.

In 2021, Zenni Optical Inc. opened a manufacturing facility in Obetz— its second overall and first in the U.S. The same year, Jacob Block founded American Nitrile, a personal protective equipment manufacturer, in Grove City. Chicago-based Invenergy plans to build a solar panel production plant in Pataskala that will employ 850 people. On the international front, the French company Forsee Power chose Hilliard for its North American headquarters. And the New Albany International Business Park, where Intel will be based, is attracting a burgeoning cluster of life sciences businesses. Biologic

Business and economic development leaders are realizing success in the push to make the state a leader in manufacturing, technology and life sciences.

Photo by Tim Johnson

American Nitrile founder Jacob Block in the company’s Grove City manufacturing facility. The tanks contain nitrile butadiene rubber, the raw material used to make disposable gloves.

medicine manufacturer Amgen Inc., AmplifyBio (a Battelle spinoff) and vitamin manufacturer Pharmavite all have sites under development.

Then there are game-changing projects from regional heavy hitters like Honda, which is creating a new $700 million electric vehicles hub, and Ohio State University, which recently opened the first building at Carmenton, its 270-acre research and innovation district.

All of these developments play an important part in Ohio’s ongoing economic transition and are helping to make the state a leader in manufacturing, technology and life sciences. As Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of The Columbus Partnership, explains, this transition from Rust Belt to Silicon Heartland was an “aggressive, intentional effort” to diversify the state’s economy.

McDonald says economic development organization One Columbus has three strategies for creating jobs and attracting new investments: providing existing companies with the resources they need to succeed; going after “the best companies in the world” and bringing them to Ohio; and connecting entrepreneurs to venture capital partners in the region.

“The world is a vast and changing place, and it’s changing very, very rapidly,” McDonald says. “And it’s never been more important to have a diverse economy and a strategy to bring new employers, job creators and investors to the market.”

Ohio’s economy has been on a steady rise for several years, but McDonald points to Columbus’ 2017 bid to be the home of Amazon’s second headquarters as a turning point. Out of more than 200 cities that applied for the opportunity, Columbus made it to a list of 20 finalists. And

although the city wasn’t chosen— HQ2 ultimately landed in Arlington, Virginia—McDonald says the process was a chance to sell a large audience on Columbus.

“It was a national exercise that forced us to make a very, very clear case for why someone would invest a massive amount and bring those kinds of jobs to our community,” he says.

Zenni Invests ‘Heavily’ in Columbus

When the founders of Novato, California-based Zenni Optical realized 66 percent of the company’s customers live in the eastern twothirds of the United States, they decided to open a second, more proximate distribution center. At the time, the eyewear retailer’s distribution was handled at its headquarters, and products were manufactured in China. When competitors began offering 24-hour turnaround services, Zenni decided to open a finishing lab, as well. After looking at several cities, including Dallas and Louisville, Kentucky, Zenni chose Obetz for its new manufacturing/ shipping center and finishing lab, which opened in 2021. A full-service lab opened in April.

Rob Tate, Zenni’s director of U.S. manufacturing, says the company chose Central Ohio because “this area is very rich with optical-experienced people,” referring to “optical village,” an unofficial swath of land in the Groveport-Obetz area that is home to companies including VSP Optics, Walmart Optical, Restoring Vision and EssilorLuxottica.

Zenni’s Obetz facility currently employs 77 people, and Tate expects to add 70 more by year’s end. Because Zenni’s largest cost is labor, Tate says they’ve invested heavily in automation

to reduce the overall number of fulltime employees needed and prioritize certain types of jobs. “It allows us to focus on hiring the more skilled labor that we need in the facility, versus paying 25 people just to push carts around the facility,” Tate explains. “That affords me the opportunity to pay more per person for the skilled positions in our industry.”

High labor costs and a competitive market aside, Tate says the benefits of reshoring outweigh the challenges. The Obetz facility offers a fast-frame service, which includes expedited manufacturing and shipping. This allows customers to receive their eyewear in three to five days versus 14 to 21 for standard orders manufactured in China.

Currently, the company manufactures 2,000 to 4,000 pairs of glasses per day in Obetz but expects that to increase to 14,000 pairs by the fourth quarter. “By the end of this year, we’ll have the capacity to be the largest ophthalmic lens manufacturing facility in North America,” Tate says. “So we’re investing heavily in the Columbus area. The performance of the facility, be it small right now compared to our larger manufacturing facility in China, we’re hitting all of our key metrics.”

Courtesy Zenni Optical

Zenni Optical manufactures and ships orders from its Obetz facility.

It’s never been more important to have a diverse economy and a strategy to bring new employers, job creators and investors to the market.”

Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of The Columbus Partnership

Local Manufacturing

American Nitrile is also investing in the Columbus region. Founded by Bexley native Jacob Block, the company manufactures disposable gloves for the health care, food service and automotive and manufacturing industries. The idea for the business was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Block realized two things: The United States imports nearly 100 percent of its PPE from Asia, and the largest market for nitrile gloves is in the U.S.

“We felt that the time to bring back this manufacturing, given where automation is, is now,” Block says. “The mission is to build and manufacture the highest-quality nitrile glove in the world, and do it as the most sustainable manufacturer of the product, as well.”

When American Nitrile began looking at potential sites, Block says, he initially considered Central Ohio because he’s from the region. But soon, the benefits of launching here became clear. He cites the incentives and funding offered by JobsOhio, the state’s private economic development corporation, as a major asset, as well

as the affordability of natural gas and water. “If you look around the country, I’ve never seen a coordinated effort like Columbus has put together and executed, I think, really tactically,” Block says. American Nitrile received a $500,000 grant from JobsOhio for training and recruiting, which allowed the company to hire a recruiter to staff up the operation.

As with Zenni Optical, automation is essential to American Nitrile’s reshoring efforts, especially if it wants to compete with manufacturers in Asia. Advances in technology make those efforts easier, Block says. “I think, prior to the past several years, even decades, if you wanted to compete with Asia, you really had to build automation in house,” he says. “Where now, there’s a lot of robotics and AI off the shelf.

“Now if you’re building a company, you have resources where you don’t have to invest substantial capital to get automation in the facility. … If you can make the product for as good or better quality at near parity in the United States, you’re going to have a really compelling message or product that you’re selling into the market, and that’s been the experience for us.”

Once it reaches full scale, American Nitrile’s 530,000-square-foot facility will be capable of producing around 3.5 billion gloves a year. Once that happens, Block says the average

Courtesy Zenni Optical

A worker at Zenni Optical

annual salary for employees will be north of $60,000.

“I think there’s a tremendous opportunity to scale up nitrile. We’ve got a laundry list of items that we’ve identified that are mainly manufactured in Asia, and the market is in the United States,” he says. “We hope that not only for ourselves, but for others, we’re building a blueprint to bring back manufacturing profitably and sustainably to the United States.”

Collaboration at Carmenton

As the Columbus region strives to attract new companies and diversify its business base, it’s essential to create an innovation hub that fosters and supports new ideas and talent. One such initiative is Carmenton, Ohio State’s new innovation district. Located on the west side of campus, the 270-acre space aims to foster collaboration between academia and the public and private sectors.

Peter Mohler, Carmenton’s interim executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge, says the goal is to create an ecosystem that brings together all the partners invested in Ohio’s growth, from Ohio State to Nationwide Children’s Hospital to One Columbus.

“Having this sit at the interface between industry and academia, I

think, gives us a leg up in being able to move faster,” Mohler says. “If we’re getting into areas like batteries, semiconductors, innovation in the life sciences around cell and gene therapy— the first to market is going to win. … Having these teams working together is going to allow this to move much more efficiently.”

Carmenton’s first building, the Pelotonia Research Center, opened in May. It’s part of a strategy to expand the region’s portfolio in the life sciences and biotech area, Mohler says. The center will focus on areas including cancer, gene- and cell-based

therapies, cardiovascular and pulmonary medicine, and neurological disease. Two more Carmenton buildings will open this year: the Energy Advancement and Innovation Center, specializing in renewable energy and sustainability, and The James Outpatient Care for cancer patients.

Looking ahead, Mohler stresses the ongoing importance of collaboration. “I don’t know that people understand how tight these relationships are between the leaders across Columbus and the Central Ohio region, and how fortunate we really are to be able to have everybody paddling in the right direction at the same cadence and how well that’s going to serve us over the next few years,” he says.

That type of collaboration—involving all levels of government, economic development organizations and the private sector—is key to Ohio’s future. It keeps the economic machine moving and growing, and The Partnership’s McDonald says that momentum is vital to the state’s success.

“As hard as it is to meet the demand that we have in infrastructure and workforce and housing and official transit needs, those are all welcome challenges. We’re happy warriors in that fight to make all that work,” McDonald says. “Because we know the other side of the coin is just much, much, much harder, when you don’t have growth. … We’re excited to come here every day and really start chipping away at this, and honestly, I have a lot of confidence in us achieving all of this.”

Brittany Moseley is a freelance writer.

Pelotonia Research Center, the first building in Ohio State University’s Carmenton district, opened in May.

Hand-shaped molds are used to make gloves at American Nitrile.

Courtesy Ohio State University

Courtesy American Nitrile

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Our generous sponsors have helped us raise over $11 million for life-saving research and care at Nationwide Children’s. Show your support by becoming a sponsor.

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.

or life-saving research and care

Our generous sponsors have helped us raise over $11 million for life-saving research and care at Nationwide Children’s. Show your support by becoming a sponsor.

Sponsorship levels begin at just $1,000, with each level offering a variety of marketing benefits. Consider becoming a sponsor of the 2023 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon!

Our generous sponsors have helped us raise over $11 million for life-saving research and care at Nationwide Children’s. Show your support by becoming a sponsor. 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.

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.

Learn more at NationwideChildrens.org/Marathon

at Nationwide Children’s. Show your support by becoming a sponsor. support our work, our community and our patients. Through our sponsorship y to choose the social impact they want to make by directing their funds to support a specific area of the hospital. begin at just $1,000, with each level offering a variety of marketing benefits. Consider of the 2023 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon!

Sponsorship levels begin at just $1,000, with each level offering a variety of marketing benefits. Consider becoming a sponsor of the 2023 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon!

Sponsorship levels begin at just $1,000, with each level offering a variety of marketing benefits. Consider becoming a sponsor of the 2023 Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon & 1/2 Marathon!

Learn more at NationwideChildrens.org/Marathon

Learn more at NationwideChildrens.org/Marathon

Learn more at NationwideChildrens.org/Marathon

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

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Better Together

By Chuck Nelson

Central Ohio’s public-private partnerships are having a moment.

On a visit to Columbus in April, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the region’s public-private ventures could be a model for the rest of the country. “There’s a culture here of intentional collaboration and a shared goal—I can feel it,” he said, according to a story in The Columbus Dispatch

Then in May, the Biden administration tapped Columbus as one of five model workforce hubs—due in part to the efforts of public-private partnerships to help develop a trained workforce for multibilliondollar manufacturing projects slated for the area.

That recognition is satisfying for Kenny McDonald, who’s been nurturing these types of regional projects for more than a decade—first as the leader of economic incubator One Columbus and more recently as president and CEO of The Columbus Partnership, a group of more than 80 leaders from the business, government, nonprofit and education sectors that dates back to 2002.

“It’s sort of a nonending dance that we do our best to orchestrate and facilitate,” McDonald says. When those efforts succeed—which is more often than not, he notes—they pay dividends for cities and functioning economies, he says.

Transformational projects require investment, energy and leadership from a range of public, private, academic and nonprofit sources, he says, which are all represented in the

Partnership. “Nothing really large happens with only one piece of that,” McDonald says.

“It’s validating that someone would visit, like the secretary of education and others that come to our community, and say, ‘Wow, this really is more than the norm, and you’re doing some pretty interesting things.’ ”

Still, McDonald knows there’s much more work ahead.

“If you take issues like housing, transit, education, public safety—every one of them will require publicprivate partnerships; every one of them will require regional solutions,” he says. “Ultimately, it forces us to intellectually challenge ourselves to look for best practices in every part of the globe so we can bring them back here and put them to use in the Columbus way.

“Our biggest opportunities, as well as our biggest challenges, lie ahead of us, not behind us.”

Here are just a few examples of how such partnerships are already enacting change across Central Ohio.

Accelerate Her

One of the newer public-private partnerships launched in February when JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced a $3 million, three-year commitment to the Columbus Urban League’s Accelerate Her program.

The Columbus Urban League has a long history of providing economic, educational and social programs to empower underserved communities. When funding ran its course for an earlier program—Incubate Her, which helped Black women develop

businesses during the pandemic— Stephanie Hightower, the urban league’s president and CEO, began talking to Chase about the next step.

Accelerate Her is intended to help develop the next million-dollar Black female-owned business in Columbus by providing access to resources and education, Hightower says.

“We at JPMorgan Chase are thrilled to partner with the Columbus

Public-private partnerships are helping the Columbus region tackle tough problems like sending lower-income students to college, overcoming the digital divide and funding businesses owned by Black women.

Urban League in their ongoing work to lift up Black female entrepreneurs and their businesses here in Columbus,” Corinne Burger, the bank’s managing director and Columbus market leader, said in a press release.

The funds come from Chase’s AdvancingCities initiative, a $500 million, five-year program whose goal is to “bolster the long-term vitality of the

world’s cities and the communities within them that have not benefitted from economic growth.”

“They’re putting their money where their mouth is, and they’re making sure their philanthropic dollars are having real impact,” Hightower says.

“That kind of investment is enormously beneficial to the community and, hopefully, all of those that participate” in the program, McDonald says.

“We know that systemic racism is one of those barriers over time that has not allowed Black women and their businesses to thrive and to really contribute to the economy,” Hightower says, mainly because they didn’t have access to capital or technical support to grow. “The beauty about this public-private partnership is we have the private sector—Chase in particular—that is willing to make

File photo by Brooke Lavalley/The Columbus Dispatch

the investment to help create this program. But we also have other community partners, as well, and a research partner in place.”

Hightower says the first group of Accelerate Her participants has been selected. “A lot of people applied to get in the program; more than what we’d expected,” she says. “That just validated that there’s a need there.

“We’re going to be able to watch them grow and thrive.”

Data collected from the program will help even more entrepreneurs in the future, she adds.

Columbus Promise

In the second year of a three-year pilot program, Columbus Promise has already changed hundreds of young lives.

A partnership between the city of Columbus, Columbus City Schools, Columbus State Community College and college access program I Know I Can, the program provides eligible CCS graduates with access to six semesters of tuition-free classes at Columbus State, as well as a $500 stipend each semester for books and transportation, says Jen

Gilbride-Brown, CSCC’s associate vice president.

Columbus Promise also offers a suite of services including academic advising, career counseling, internship opportunities and mentoring programs to “help get the students the resources that they need, as well as get them prepared for the workforce,” says Gilbride-Brown.

The first graduate of the program received an associate degree this spring, says Megan Noble, the school district’s executive director of careertechnical education and workforce. About 600 graduates from CCS classes of 2022 enrolled in the program, and roughly the same number could join this year, she says. “That’s the power of programs like this,” Noble says. “This allows flexibility for our students who want a tuition-free option without taking loans, and they’re able to stay close to home.”

Promise programs were operating in other places when Columbus City Council President Shannon G. Hardin (a CCS grad himself) brought the idea to Columbus State President David Harrison, then-Superintendent Talisa

Systemic racism is one of those barriers over time that has not allowed Black women and their businesses to thrive and to really contribute to the economy.”

Stephanie Hightower, president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League

photo by Courtney Hergesheimer/The Columbus Dispatch

Dave Ananou-Lawson, then a senior at Fort Hayes High School, talks in May 2022 about his opportunity to go to Columbus State Community College for free because of the Columbus Promise initiative as Mayor Andy Ginther and former Superintendent Talisa Dixon look on.

Photo by Getty Images/Vertigo3d

Dixon and I Know I Can Executive Director Katina Fullen.

The area of the most interest for current students has been health care, says Gilbride-Brown, but “as we think about our needs in electrical and mechanical engineering, particularly as it relates to semiconductor work, we’re exposing them to some of those opportunities, as well.”

Project funding has come from “a broad, broad range” of organizations throughout the community, says Gilbride-Brown. “It’s very much a grassroots-funded initiative.”

Angela Chapman, CCS’ new superintendent and CEO, says that’s the commitment that made an impression on Cardona. “He was really impressed with the power of partnerships here in Columbus, and he named Columbus Promise as a perfect example of the ways that higher ed, K–12, the city and nonprofits are coming together to support our students,” she says. “He said he was going to take it back as a model” and help secure future funding.

“We would not be able to stand up this type of program” without publicprivate support, says Chapman. “It just wouldn’t happen.”

Franklin County Digital Equity Coalition

The term “digital divide” has been around for more than two decades, but the issue came into stark relief when the pandemic closed Central Ohio schools and libraries in the spring of 2020, cutting tens of thousands off from public access to computers and internet service they couldn’t afford in their homes.

“We are the biggest public computing hub in Central Ohio,” says Patrick Losinski, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library, which gets more than 1 million reservations annually for computer time at its 23 locations.

The sudden loss of those services led to meetings with Columbus City Schools, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, Jewish Family Services and others, who

formed the Franklin County Digital Equity Coalition.

“I think getting everyone together really laid bare what public libraries have known for years,” says Losinski, “that there’s a real chasm between the [digital] haves and have-nots.”

The latter group includes 80,000 homes in Central Ohio that don’t have access to or can’t afford internet service, as well as thousands that lack a computing device other than a smartphone, says Jordan Davis, executive director of SmartColumbus.

Davis says SmartColumbus has been thinking about the digital divide since it won a $40 million federal grant in the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s 2016 Smart City Challenge. Many of the resulting demonstration projects relied heavily on access to technology. “If you didn’t have the digital device, or the basic skills, or the data plan, or internet access, those were not accessible to you,” she says. “We acknowledged those issues early on but just didn’t have the resources from the grant to specifically solve that problem.”

SmartColumbus, which also participates in other private-public partnerships, is now leading planning and coordination of local programs to tackle the problem. “We’re in a transition phase from understanding and organizing to laying the foundation of what it would mean to scale efforts for deployment” of solutions, Davis says. “Every aspect of this has public-private partnership opportunities,” she says, including for telehealth, online banking and e-commerce.

Finding ways to deliver devices and provide internet access are obvious elements of the program, but training people to use the technology is another key to solving the problem.

The library system is adding “digital navigator” positions to work on inclusion for patrons, says Benjamin Reid, CML’s public services director. It’s also partnering with the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority to have a digital navigator focused on residents of public and subsidized housing. CML

will also develop training for library staff, as well as staff from CMHA and National Church Residences, on digital inclusion topics, providing touchpoints in more communities.

Davis notes that the digital divide is also a workforce issue. “You need tech skills in almost any trade now, and that expectation is only going to continue to advance,” she says. “Having employees involved in workforce training programs, in digital education, digital skills building, is really, really important.”

Davis expects more federal and philanthropic funding for these programs in the coming year. She sees the situation as a historic moment.

“You have the resources that you never had before to really get after this problem,” she says. “Our challenge will be how you make it sustainable: Build an ecosystem of public-private partnerships that continue to invest in this work long after this moment.”

You need tech skills in almost any trade now, and that expectation is only going to continue to advance.”

Jordan Davis, executive director of SmartColumbus, on the impact the digital divide has on the workforce

Chuck Nelson is a freelance writer.

Members of the Columbus Partnership Who’s who in the nonprofit civic organization

The Columbus Partnership had 80 members in its ranks as of early June, representing many of the region’s most notable businesses and organizations. The president of Ohio State University traditionally also holds a post, which will be filled when a new university leader is named.

Jane Grote Abell CPO and Executive Chairwoman of the Board, Donatos Pizzeria LLC

Molly Kocour Boyle President, AT&T Ohio

David Ciesinski President & CEO, Lancaster Colony Corp.; President & CEO, T. Marzetti Co.

Dee B. Haslam Owner-Operator, Columbus Crew

Mary E. Auch SVP and Regional President, Central Ohio PNC Bank Columbus

Donald S. Barbour President and CEO, Advanced Drainage Systems Inc.

Giordano Albertazzi CEO, Vertiv

Lori Gillett CEO, CK Construction Group

Frances B. Henry Regional President, Fifth Third Bank – Central Ohio

Mark D. Kvamme Co-Founder and Partner, Drive Capital

John Ammendola President and CEO, Grange Insurance

Manuel Guzman President, CAS

Jason Hollar CEO, Cardinal Health Inc.

Ralph J. Andretta President and CEO, Bread Financial

Heather E. Brilliant President and CEO, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc.

Bradley L. Campbell President and CEO, The Dispatch Printing Co.

Corrine M. Burger Managing Director, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Renee Cacchillo President and CEO, Safelite Group

Christopher Calamari President, Abbott Nutrition North America

Melanie E. Corn President, Columbus College of Art & Design

Jeffrey W. Edwards Chairman, President and CEO, Installed Building Products and Edwards Cos.

Sandra C. Doyle-Ahern President, EMH&T

Tanny Crane President and CEO, Crane Group Co.

Brent D. Crawford Principal, Crawford Hoying

Chad M. Delligatti CEO, InnoSource

David T. Harrison President, Columbus State Community College

James Hagedorn Chairman and CEO, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co.

Chrissy Hand Chief Operating Officer, CoverMyMeds

Brett L. Kaufman Founder, Kaufman Development

Elizabeth P. Kessler Partner-in-Charge, Jones Day

Mark S. Johnson Managing Partner, Deloitte LLP

John W. Kessler Co-Founder and Chairman, The New Albany Co.

Nancy J. Kramer Chief Evangelist, IBM iX

Lisa K. Ingram President and CEO, White Castle System Inc.

Douglas F. Kridler President and CEO, The Columbus Foundation

Richard S. Langdale Founder and Managing Partner, NCT Ventures LLC

Michael Lefenfeld President and CEO, Hexion

Stephen E. Markovich President and CEO, OhioHealth

Lorraine L. Lutton President and CEO, Mount Carmel Health System

Traci L. Martinez Office Managing Partner, Squire Patton Boggs (US) LLP

Gina Boswell CEO, Bath & Body Works

Mark Kunar Executive Vice President, DHL Supply Chain

Michael D. Martz Managing Partner, Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP

James T. Merkel Co-Founder and CEO, Rockbridge Holdings

David R. Meuse Senior Advisor, Stonehenge Partners Inc.

Cameron Mitchell Founder and CEO, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants

Joseph R. Nardone President and CEO, Columbus Regional Airport Authority

Joel S. Pizzuti President, The Pizzuti Cos.

Jonathan H. Price CEO, CBC Companies Inc.

Robert D. Nelson Executive Vice President, Honda Development & Manufacturing of America LLC

Jack W. Nicklaus

Jack W. Nicklaus II Thomas J. Obrokta Jr. President and CEO, Encova Insurance

Timothy C. Robinson CEO, Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Andy Rose President and CEO, Worthington Industries

Jonathan Moody President and CEO, Moody•Nolan

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Each day, we see our work reflected in the world around us through healthy gardens; and we are forever committed to helping our consumers benefit from gardening and a garden-inspired lifestyle.

HELPING PEOPLE EXPRESS THEMSELVES ON THEIR OWN PIECE OF THE EARTH.

Lewis Smoot Jr. Chairman, CEO and President, The Smoot Construction Co.

Tom Schmid President and CEO, Columbus Zoo & Aquarium

Dan Snyder CEO, Lower.com

Leslie H. Wexner Columbus Partnership Founder

Ole Rosgaard President and CEO, Greif Inc.

Robert H. Schottenstein Chairman, President & CEO, M/I Homes Inc.

Stephen D. Steinour Chairman, President and CEO, Huntington Bancshares Inc.; Columbus Partnership Co-Chair

Alex E. Timm Co-Founder and CEO, Root Insurance Co.

Kara Trott Founder, Board Chair and Senior Advisor, Quantum Health

Douglas E. Ulman CEO, Pelotonia

Scott L. White President and CEO, IGS Energy

Matt Scantland Founder and CEO, AndHealth

Julie Sloat President and CEO, American Electric Power

Daniel P. Sullivan Executive Director, The Memorial Tournament

Lloyd Yates President and CEO, NiSource Inc.

Adam S. Weinberg President, Denison University

John J. Warner CEO, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Kirt A. Walker CEO, Nationwide Columbus Partnership Co-Chair

Lewis F. Von Thaer President and CEO, Battelle

Elise Spriggs Sr. Public Affairs Officer & Dir. of Strategic Policy, Liberty Mutual Insurance

Jeff Smith Office Managing Partner, Ernst & Young

Keeping Your Business and Personal Goals Aligned

Owning a business requires a constant balance of commitments, both personal and professional. That’s because you, your family and your business are intrinsically connected. We partner with business owners like you to find the right balance by taking the time to understand your goals and objectives. This partnership allows us to design customized strategies to achieve your vision.

Preparing for the unexpected

When you’re busy taking care of business demands, it’s easy to overlook your personal financial goals. Although business and personal financial planning are different, it’s important for you to understand how and where they connect, so that you can better prepare for the future.

That preparation also includes managing uncertainty, which plays a key role in running a successful business, yet isn’t always easy to do. Unexpected conflicts can arise at any time—that’s why we work together with you and your advisors to help you better navigate what may unfold.

By being proactive and preparing for life’s uncertainties, you can remain confident that your goals and your business continue moving in the direction you want them to.

We can help

We will guide you through a tailored business and personal planning process

and introduce additional resources as needed to fit your unique goals and circumstances.

Some of these may focus on:

• Investments and retirement planning

• Contingency planning

• Estate and wealth transfer planning*

• Business continuity/succession planning

• Buy-sell planning*

It all begins with a conversation

Our Life360 process seeks a holistic understanding of your current situation, goals and aspirations before determining a course of action.

To start a conversation, our contact information is included and we are here to help in any way.

FIFTH THIRD HELPS BUSINESS OWNERS FIND BALANCE AND ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS.

Jeremy Gutierrez, SVP, Commercial Bank Executive

Peyman Salehi, SVP, Wealth & Asset Management Executive

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(from left): Jennifer Chrysler, Sandra Rodriguez-Toledo, Mayor Sloan Spalding and Bill Ebbing

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WELCOME TO NEW ALBANY

New Albany is truly a special place. I’ve called many places home throughout my life, and none of them compares to New Albany. Whether it’s our strategic planning, growing list of leisure and entertainment options, or thriving 9,000-acre business park, there are so many reasons to be excited about living, working and visiting here. But what truly makes this community special is the people.

Community Connects Us

Our official tagline is “Community Connects Us,” and it’s a saying we take to heart. The spirits of cooperation and collaboration are evident throughout New Albany. We are a welcoming community that values partnerships and the well-being of all. Our residents and corporate partners share their time and talents for the betterment of this community. Organizations such as The New Albany Community Foundation, Healthy New Albany and the New Albany Symphony Orchestra help support our guiding pillars of lifelong learning, arts and culture, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability.

New Albany Gets Business

Through our strategic planning process, we are able to create tangible, proactive goals that ensure all development—residential and commercial—aligns with our aspirations, contributes to our quality of life, supports the long-term growth of our community and enhances our regional competitiveness. The result is a business climate that is friendly, supportive and inclusive, from the smallest

merchant to the largest corporation. From our developed infrastructure and shovel-ready sites to our fast-track permitting, we are able to offer advantages to businesses that very few communities can. It is no surprise New Albany is a regional leader in attracting world-class business partners.

Best in Class

New Albany is consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the state, too. The reasons include amenities such as our parks and 55-mile leisure trail network, top-rated schools and outstanding city services. But ultimately, the people here are the reason behind our success. Whether it’s one of our police officers helping to save a citizen’s life during a cardiac event, our business park employees spending a Saturday coaching Miracle League baseball, or neighbors giving their time to serve others at the New Albany Food Pantry, this city is filled with people who put others above self and community first. I encourage you to pay us a visit and see for yourself what makes New Albany so special.

Be well!

CONTENTS

4

BIOTECH: Biotech Boom

A variety of health and life sciences manufacturers, including several new to Ohio, are flourishing in the New Albany International Business Park.

10

AMENITIES: Community Connections

A shared vision, thoughtful planning and collaboration make this city of 11,400 residents a great place to live and work.

27

BUSINESS VERTICALS: Supplier Synergies

A dedicated Personal Care and Beauty Campus within the city’s business park helps companies like Bath & Body Works respond quickly to changing market dynamics and consumer trends.

33

SILICON HEARTLAND: Full Steam Ahead

Intel’s $20 billion investment in New Albany could be the catalyst to jump-start a new wave of highly skilled workers and a new network of suppliers.

37

LIVE, WORK, PLAY: Close to Home

Five local business owners talk about why they choose to live and work in New Albany.

51

ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Boosting Small Business

Sloan T. Spalding Mayor of New Albany

The Innovate New Albany incubator provides flexible spaces and services to help nascent companies grow and thrive.

54

SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental efforts pay dividends.

56 EDUCATION

Top-ranked schools emphasize achievement and student well-being.

ON THE COVER: Amgen Inc.’s biomanufacturing plant is under construction at the New Albany International Business Park. Pictured (from left) are: Jennifer Chrysler, director of community development for New Albany; Sandra Rodriguez-Toledo, Amgen vice president of site operations; Mayor Sloan Spalding; and Bill Ebbing, president and CEO of The New Albany Company. Photo by James D. DeCamp

Photo by Robb McCormick Photography

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Peter Tonguette

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Moving families forward since 1973 – yours and ours.

The Ackermann Team has been a family-owned real estate business for nearly 50 years. But it’s not just that real estate is in our blood, all our agents and team members feel like family to us. We celebrate the wins and mourn the losses together. And through it all, we keep moving forward.

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BIOTECHNOLOGY

Biotech Boom

A variety of health and life sciences manufacturers, including several new to Ohio, are flourishing in the New Albany International Business Park.

By Peter Tonguette

The New Albany International Business Park is already a hub for health and life sciences, such as pharmaceutical manufacturer American Regent Inc. and online wellness company Hims & Hers Health Inc. But soon, the 9,000acre site will welcome several more tenants making major investments in new facilities—a development that will further enhance its reputation as a growing biotech hot spot.

Although the rapid expansion of such companies might seem sudden, it’s actually the result of decades of work by local officials to diversify New Albany’s business base and establish the infrastructure necessary to accommodate major health and life science companies.

The impending arrival of Amgen Inc., AmplifyBio, Pharmavite and others is just the latest wave of innovation in the business park’s history.

The story begins in the mid-2000s, when most businesses headquartered or operating in New Albany were retailers, says Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community development. “The biggest employers were Abercrombie & Fitch and Justice/Tween Brands,” says Chrysler, who points to the city’s investment in infrastructure as a key to luring other industries. “We really needed to start to think about how we were going to attract different types of businesses to the market and how we were going to then help support them.”

The Personal Care and Beauty Campus—where a group of vendors serving Bath & Body Works established operations—introduced manufacturing to New Albany, but other sectors were needed to assure sustained economic success. “A healthy community has multiple types of economic clusters in order to help sustain the ups and downs,” Chrysler says. “You have certain times in our economy where there are certain industries that are booming, and there are others that aren’t.”

According to city leaders, health and life sciences blossomed in New Albany rather organically. In 2003, a private, physician-owned hospital now known as Mount Carmel New Albany Surgi-

Photo by James D. DeCamp

cal Hospital was an early entrant in the city’s health care space. “The health cluster really started to evolve around them,” says Chrysler. Ancillary businesses began popping up to support the hospital’s patients, such as specialized rehabilitation and assisted living facilities to serve those not yet well enough to go home.

Another pivotal moment came in 2012, when PharmaForce, a pharmaceutical company later acquired by American Regent, opened a local facility. “We really ended up becoming a place where biopharmaceutical companies and health and life science companies that were looking for a location now said: ‘Hey, why are these other companies finding success here?’” Chrysler says.

Keys to Success

As Chrysler points out, “Success tends to breed success,” but New Albany’s track record in luring new businesses is a testament to the time and effort the city spent making itself attractive to both established and newer companies. Infrastructure investments are key, Chrysler says. “The water, roads, sewer, fiber optics—the things that help make the business run every day,” she says. “We’ll look at areas that we know are going to get redeveloped into the future, and it might be three, five or 10 years later. We’ll start working on engineering the roads, the water and the sewer and try to figure out how that place is going to get served.”

When a company comes calling, those plans can be pulled off a shelf, Chrysler says. “Having all the property in the business park, as it got annexed, it immediately got rezoned and all of the entitlements in place,” she says. “That cuts time.”

Promises made and kept are part of what attracted Hims & Hers Health Inc., a telehealth company through which consumers can order prescriptions and personal care products. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company became aware of New Albany as it was seeking to run its own fulfill-

Left: American Regent Inc.

Top right: The New Albany community development team, including Cara Denny, Ryan Ohly, Jennifer Chrysler, Sara Zeigler and Steve Mayer Bottom right: The April Pharmavite groundbreaking

Photo by James D. DeCamp Courtesy Pharmavite

ment operations, says Chief Operating Officer Melissa Baird. “We took an exhaustive search across probably every city in the contiguous U.S.,” Baird says. In addition to transportation considerations, the local labor pool—from which both fulfillment-related and pharmacist jobs could be filled—was particularly attractive, she says. In the end, though, New Albany’s commitment to infrastructure was among the deciding factors.

“New Albany had just built this beautiful new warehousing park, and the building that we found was in the perfect status that we needed,” says Baird, whose company opened a 300,000-square-foot facility in 2020 that employs 500. (Hims & Hers has another fulfillment facility in Phoenix.)

“It was completed but we could still make a few modifications to it,” Baird says. “The town of New Albany was just very helpful in getting us started and making sure that we had everything that we needed.”

Pharmavite, a vitamin manufacturer that produces products for brands including Nature Made, is headquartered in West Hills, California. The company makes vitamins at facilities in California and Alabama, but lacked a Midwest presence until breaking ground on a new facility in New Albany this spring.

As with Hims & Hers, the leaders of Pharmavite were first attracted to Columbus more generally before settling on New Albany specifically. “The Columbus region is thriving and continues to grow,” says site director Brian R. Vogel, who notes the area’s ability to attract talent in the biotechnology, biology and chemistry fields. “That fits really nicely with the products that we produce.”

Pharmavite also embraces the culture of New Albany. “Their mission or vision for the city—the emphasis they put around lifetime learning, sustainability initiatives and ultimately health and wellness—is who we are as a company,” Vogel says. “It was a really good fit for us.”

With an investment of more than $200 million, Pharmavite is building a facility that will encompass some 225,000 square feet and employ about 225 workers when it opens at the end of 2024. “From a permitting perspective, the City of New Albany has just been great to work with—very responsive,” Vogel says. “We’ll be making vitamins next year.”

Pharmavite will manufacture and package its gummy vitamins in New Albany and will also run a researchand-development operation. “We’ll be able to develop new products at the site that we’re manufacturing,” says Vogel, adding this combined operation will give the company the ability to quickly deliver the latest products to consumers.

Pharmaceutical Innovation

Another business park tenant new to Ohio is Amgen Inc., a company based in Thousand Oaks, California, that manufactures biologics to treat severe medical conditions, including cancer and arthritis. “When you think about

tablets and capsules, you manufacture those medicines using synthetic chemicals,” says Sandra Rodriguez-Toledo, vice president of site operations. “When you’re in biological manufacturing, you are using live organisms to manufacture your medicines.”

Amgen conducted a nationwide search in its quest to build a new facility in which to assemble, label and package medication. “New Albany was selected because Ohio provides all the aspects that we were looking for in terms of environmental conditions, in terms of location, in terms of the readiness of the land, in terms of diversity, because talent is the most important thing to make things happen,” Rodriguez-Toledo says.

Projected to open in the first quarter of 2024, the 180,000-square-foot facility represents a $365 million investment and will ultimately employ about 400 workers. “We have opportunity to grow,” Rodriguez Toledo says.

Closer to home, West Jeffersonbased AmplifyBio chose New Albany as the location for its third U.S. site, a

Right: The Hims & Hers building Opposite page: New Albany Company President and CEO Bill Ebbing (left) talks to Sandra RodriguezToledo, vice president of site operations, (right) on a tour of the Amgen Inc. construction site.

350,000-square-foot lab facility. The business, which spun off from Battelle in 2021, aids pharmaceutical companies in learning more about novel drugs under development. “[AmplifyBio] launched as a preclinical CRO [clinical research organization], which is an outsourcing partner that drug development companies contract to test the safety and effectiveness of novel therapeutics, generating the data required by the FDA,” CEO J. Kelly Ganjei says via email.

Ganjei says that since the company was formed, it has also added to its portfolio of services, which now includes analyzing a particular drug’s characteristics so that the manufacturer can better understand how it functions. This is important, Ganjei says, “as more and more drugs are biologic material rather than small molecule compounds.”

In expanding, the company was committed to staying in Central Ohio. What made the New Albany location appealing, Ganjei says, was its “proximity to our headquarters since the services offered there will be comple-

mentary to our safety, efficacy and toxicology testing that happens at the West Jefferson building.

“What will be in New Albany are additional technology platforms, capabilities and connected partnerships that advance that vision of taking novel, safe drugs from concept to commercial,” he says.

About 35 employees will be working at the facility once it comes online, according to Ganjei. “When it comes to the timeline until it’s operational, we are dealing with the same building supply chain challenges as everyone else right now, so we aren’t providing a firm date,” he says. “We expect certain activities to ramp up later this year.”

AmplifyBio is pleased to play a role in the region’s increasingly vibrant biotech field. “We have important collaborative relationships with many of the organizations based here,” Ganjei says. “We all stand to gain from the strength of a growing biotech hub.”

As the New Albany International Business Park increasingly becomes

synonymous with the biotech sector, Ganjei says, it will become easier for companies to attract employees—which, in turn, will attract more tenants.

For its part, beyond providing a modern site with up-to-date infrastructure, New Albany has aimed to replicate in its business park the same environment enjoyed by those who live in the city.

“Leisure trails, street trees, open spaces, protected wetland areas that have been turned into passive parks—those all exist throughout our business park, just like you would see in a residential community,” Chrysler says. As companies become increasingly attentive to their employees’ quality of life, that gives New Albany a decisive advantage.

“Think about the fact that a lot of these companies don’t have a presence in the Midwest or the state of Ohio,” Chrysler says. “They are bringing people from other parts of the country and having to say, ‘We want you to relocate.’ … You have to be able to sell that package to an employee that you want to move with your business.”

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Courtesy VanTrust Real Estate

New Albany International Business Park

Business tenants as of May 31, 2023.

Courtesy The New Albany Company

AMENITIES

Community Connections

A shared vision, thoughtful planning and collaboration make this city of 11,400 residents a great place to live and work.

By Laurie Allen

If there were a single word to describe New Albany, it might be connection. In this master-planned community, people connect with ideas, with nature and with one another. They connect amid myriad carefully created spaces, including 2,000 acres of park land, a state-of-the-art performing arts center and world-class amphitheater, an integrated health and wellness facility, and a central hub anchored by schools and a library.

That a community of 11,400 residents can achieve widespread recognition as a top place to live and work is testament to a shared vision, thought-

ful planning and forward-thinking collaboration.

“Here, things start with residents. You don’t see that in every city. Things happen more organically here,” says Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation. That’s not to say programs grow haphazardly, but often are the result of creative collaboration. The foundation, Mohre says, “acts

as a convenor” and has played a pivotal role in several community mainstays, including the New Albany Lecture Series, Safety Town and the building of the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s New Albany branch, that are woven deeply into the fabric of the city.

The top-tier lecture series, which draws internationally known authors and speakers, a walking event that’s

The New Albany Company holds approximately 5,000 acres of land in and around New Albany.

The New Albany Company assembles a team of national planning and design experts to develop a master plan.

The New Albany Company established by Les Wexner and Jack Kessler as a private partnership for the purpose of land acquisition and development.

Community Facilities

Village of New Albany chartered with a population of 50.

First brick school built in New Albany.

The first 18 holes of the New Albany Country Club golf course open along with the Bath & Tennis facilities and the Main Clubhouse.

Strategic Plan completed by the Village of New Albany with funding from The New Albany Company.

Above: Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation

Right: Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and economist Arthur Laffer at a New Albany Lecture Series event moderated by CNN’s Rana Foroohar on March 8, 2023, at the Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts

Photos by James D. DeCamp (2)

Courtesy The New Albany Company Courtesy New Albany Company

Courtesy James D. DeCamp

among the largest in the nation and a business-friendly ecosystem are among the amenities that support New Albany’s four pillars:

• Lifelong learning

• Arts and culture

• Health and wellness

• Sustainable environment

Mohre says the overarching goal is connectedness. “We have all this tech-

nology at our fingertips, yet people feel a little isolated. It’s the shared experiences, when people come together, that builds a sense of community and sense of belonging. It’s what makes communities strong and sustainable.”

As a relatively young community, New Albany offers a unique culture of inclusion, Mayor Sloan Spalding says. “Almost everyone here came

from somewhere else, so there are no cliques. New Albany is such a welcoming community.”

New Albany’s business network is as diverse as it is successful, putting it on par with some of the best tech and commercial hubs in the country.

The New Albany International Business Park, with more than 26 million square feet of commercial space, is one of the largest strategically planned business parks in the country and one of the fastest growing in the Midwest. The site, which sits on more than 9,000 acres, represents more than $28 billion in private investment.

Intel’s $20-plus billion semiconductor complex is the latest in a line of high-profile companies located in the business park, including Amazon, Meta and Google. Other corporate residents include Discover Financial Services, Amgen Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Specialized industry clusters within the New Albany International Business Park have attracted national and multinational enterprises seeking to grow in an environment conducive to innovation, cooperation and commerce. Growth sectors within the park encompass:

• Personal Care and Beauty

• Information Technology and Mission Critical

• Corporate Office and R&D

Plain Township Fire Station 121 in New Albany, funded in part by the New Albany Community Authority, opens.

1995

The New Albany Expressway opens in June.

1996

Dedication of the Learning Community Campus, beginning with new high school and middle school buildings on 51 acres of land donated by The New Albany Company.

The New Albany Chamber of Commerce is established.

1997

Business park opens as Discover Financial breaks ground on 325,000square-foot facility on Central College Road. In the ensuing months, Aetna U.S. Healthcare, Express Med, Too Inc. and Abercrombie & Fitch announce plans to open facilities in New Albany.

Swickard Woods park, wetlands, and nature preserve created on land adjacent to the schools.

The Rocky Fork-Blacklick Accord planning committee, comprised of representatives from New Albany and Columbus, create land use and planning guidelines for approximately 11,000 acres in northeastern Franklin County.

The New Albany Community Foundation is established.

Courtesy Hart

NEW

ALBANY

MILESTONE TIMELINE

New 2–5 elementary school dedicated on the learning community campus.

1998

Village of New Albany adopts first 3,600-acre Strategic Plan.

1999

Joint Park District, which aligns with the boundaries of the local school district, covering parts of Columbus as well as Plain Township and New Albany, is created.

2000

New Village Hall is dedicated on Main Street.

The New Albany Company begins development of Market Street in the village center.

Left: Lower.com offices in the New Albany International Business Park Bottom: Green space is a priority for city leaders.

• High-Tech Manufacturing and Logistics

• Health and Life Sciences.

Four highway interchanges, triplefeed electric power and a state-ofthe-art municipal broadband network make the park appealing to gamechanging companies.

The complex features park-like settings with natural amenities, such as stream corridors and mature trees. Campuses and buildings are connected to a network of leisure trails. Cohesiveness of design elements, from fencing to grass type, create a feeling of continuity, according to Adrienne Joly, New Albany’s director of administrative services. “It all accumulates into a very nice experience.”

An overgrown stream that once was a barrier between people and places has become a valuable asset, thanks to forethought and planning of New Albany officials. “It’s a very vibrant place, connecting people with nature and each other,” says Joly.

Rose Run Park isn’t a traditional city park but is instead linear, following a creek that flows in and around the New Albany Plain Local Schools campus and city hub Market Square. Rose Run Park

The New Albany Company donates 45 acres at the northwest corner of the learning community campus for a new primary school, athletic fields and playgrounds, Wexner Community Park, and Plain Township Aquatic Center.

2002

New Albany Community Foundation hosts its first Remarkable Evening event to raise money for a public library. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough is the featured speaker.

New middle school dedicated on the learning community campus.

Courtesy The New Albany Company

Photo by James

D. DeCamp

Courtesy The New Albany Company

Plain Township Aquatic Center opens at Swickard Woods.

New K–1 elementary school opens on the learning community campus.

2003

New Albany branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library is dedicated by author David McCullough.

Dedication of New Albany High School academic expansion wing.

The Foundation establishes the New Albany Safety Town Program, with New Albany Women’s Network serving as the community sponsor and Key Bank serving as the corporate sponsor.

2004

The Foundation establishes the annual Jeanne and John G. McCoy Community Service Award to honor a person or persons who have contributed their time, talent and treasure to the New Albany community. The inaugural honorees are Mr. and Mrs. McCoy.

New Albany Symphony Orchestra is founded.

Courtesy City of New Albany

New Albany’s Village Center

2007

Courtesy New Albany Community Foundation

Courtesy New Albany Symphony

opened during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people felt a need to get outside and commune with others, Joly says.

The park is but one example of how government and other leaders move very intentionally in creating spaces within the city, Joly says. “We want to make sure we are thinking comprehensively … and it guided the acquisition of that property.” An expansion plan is in the works.

But Rose Run is just one element of New Albany’s 2,000 acres of park land and 55 miles of leisure trails. The newest, Taylor Farm Park, is being developed on the 100-acre site of a former farm dating back to the 1800s.

Green spaces appear everywhere in the community, including the New Albany International Business Park, with its aesthetically pleasing and cohesive blend of trees, grass and fencing, plus leisure trails throughout.

New Albany is ready.

Whether in the form of water supplies, electrical grids or ramped-up permitting processes, the city boasts a robust, business-friendly infrastructure that can accommodate tight timelines and scaled-up commerce.

“It all starts with our focus on planning,” says Joly. “It allows us to move quickly to create a community that businesses want to be part of. We create a framework that business leaders connect with.”

NEW ALBANY MILESTONE TIMELINE 2008

Rocky Fork Metro Park announced as a collaboration between the Village of New Albany, Plain Township, City of Columbus and Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks. The New Albany Company donates 107 acres in support of the park.

American Electric Power opens first facility in New Albany, providing fiberoptic communications, triple-feed electric capabilities and redundant power to the business park.

Commercial Vehicle Group opens new Corporate Headquarters and Research and Development Center in the New Albany International Business Park.

2010

The nonprofit Healthy New Albany is established with a mission to create a culture of health in the community.

Rose Run Park

Courtesy City of New Albany

Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts dedicated in the Village Center.

Courtesy James D. DeCamp

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Besides traditional incentives like roads, sewers, energy and tax abatements, New Albany makes other investments that are a powerful pull for developers. Alignment between elected officials, city staff and other stakeholders provides developers with muchneeded certainty about outcomes, says Andy Weeks, executive vice president of VanTrust Real Estate. “Uncertainty creates risk, and in New Albany, you don’t have that,” Weeks says.

The company has developed eight industrial buildings in New Albany and is expanding in its new VanTrust New Albany Tech Park.

NEW

2015

Amazon breaks ground on first data center.

Philip Heit Center opens.

Despite growing its economic engine tremendously in the last 25 years, Mayor Sloan Spalding says New Albany adheres to its master plan with each new development. “We have a great track record of being thoughtful and careful. We have incredible standards.”

Lifelong learning is one of New Albany’s four pillars, and an abundance of opportunities exists for residents and visitors of all ages to participate.

New Albany’s premier lecture series has brought in internationally known

Google breaks ground on 435-acre data center campus and Meta opens its 970,000-square-foot data center in the New Albany International Business Park.

2019

Business Insider names New Albany “Best Suburb in America.”

2021

ALBANY MILESTONE TIMELINE

11-acre Rose Run and Charleen and Charles Hinson Amphitheater are dedicated in New Albany

Amgen begins construction on its $365 million biomanufacturing plant in New Albany.

Courtesy City of New Albany

speakers such as Deepak Chopra, Michael Phelps, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and the late Gen. Colin Powell for conversations with the community on subjects such as mental health, social justice and civil discourse.

A June 6, 2023, panel on national security panel features Ret. Gen. John F. Kelly, former chief of staff for President Donald Trump; retired Adm. James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe; and CNN chief political correspondent Jim Sciutto, cohost of CNN Today.

The series features a daytime program for students and an evening event

Courtesy Intel Corp.

2022 2023

Strong Body. Calm Mind.

Pharmavite breaks ground on its $200 million production facility in the New Albany International Business Park. Try 3 Weeks of Unlimited Classes for Only $39 OFFER VALID FOR NEW CLIENTS ONLY. PURCHASE IN THE GOYOGA APP, AT WWW.GOYOGAUSA.COM OR IN STUDIO BY 8/31/23.

Left: A performance at the Hinson Amphitheater

Above: Deepak Chopra speaks at the New Albany Lecture Series.

Photos by James D. DeCamp

for the public. New Albany invites students from across Central Ohio, donating books and buses; adults who attend the evening event also are given opportunities to read in advance together.

Lifelong learning and shared cultural experiences occur elsewhere, from cooking classes at the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany to the world-class, $7 million Charleen & Charles Hinson Amphitheater. The amphitheater provides an affordable venue to see national and regional performances in an intimate setting. Like the $15 million Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, which hosts the lecture series and other programs but is used primarily by New Albany schools, the two-year old amphitheater also does double-duty, hosting community gatherings and special events.

Right:

Left: The Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany

A Healthy New Albany Nature Walk

Courtesy

The New Albany Company

Health and wellness form one of New Albany’s four pillars and are an essential part of the community’s character.

New Albany’s commitment to accessible fitness and health can be traced to former New York City marathoner Philip Heit, who initiated the New Albany Walking Classic, one of the largest events of its kind in the country.

His namesake, the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany, is a hub for health and wellness, housing the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Health & Fitness Center; OSU primary medicine, sports medicine and physical therapy; Nationwide Children’s Hospital physical therapy and sports medicine; and Healthy New Albany, an umbrella organization providing more than 200 programs, from yoga classes to medical lectures.

Courtesy Sarah Higgisten

The city’s community garden and food pantry complement other health and wellness initiatives.

The Heit Center “connects, in a very forward-thinking way, clinical services to community well-being and whole-person health,” says Healthy New Albany Executive Director Angela Douglas. Outdoor spaces, where residents can run, walk, hike, bike and connect with nature, align with New Albany’s intention to “embody and codify health and wellness into the fabric of the community,” Douglas says. That not only benefits residents, but also acts as a recruitment advantage. In vying for top talent, she says, businesses find that wellness “is more than a nice thing to have, it’s an expectation. We have a tremendous amenity.”

To that end, Healthy New Albany, which already hosts business retreats, is developing workplace wellness programs.

In New Albany, it’s easy to feel centered. Through purposeful planning that began 25 years ago, the city has created a walkable, dynamic village

Photo by James D.

center that brings people together in support of the city’s four pillars: lifelong learning; arts and culture; health and wellness; and sustainable environment and historic preservation.

New Albany’s de facto hub is Market Square, where all the pillars unite. The center includes:

• A 200-acre, K–12 learning campus

• The Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts

• The Charleen & Charles Hinson Amphitheater

• The Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany

• Rose Run Park

• The Charlotte P. Kessler Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library

• Village Hall and the New Albany post office.

Colocating essential community elements “leads to a sense of connection,” says Craig Mohre, president of The New Albany Community Foundation. It also helps to create vital synergies, Mayor Sloan Spalding says. For example, the Heit Center helped drive the development of nearby apartments that have been “wildly successful,” drawing both

• New Albany resident for 22 years.

• Licensed Agent for 25 years.

• Specializing in residential property sales, relocation, and land acquisition.

empty-nesters and young professionals, he says. “Those rooftops are important.”

Spalding says careful planning has created a critical mass of user-friendly activities, which appeals to a growing number of retail stores and restaurants.

Healthy schools are a cornerstone of New Albany’s success and desirability.

Thanks to purposeful planning, every New Albany-Plain Local Schools student attends class on a visually appealing, 200-acre learning campus that includes an 80-acre nature preserve and wetlands area, adjacent to the community’s library and wellness center.

“Every day, 5,000 students are in one place. It creates a vibrancy,” New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding says. “Any potential growth opportunities we entertain are with the thought of a single, central campus. We have almost doubled our population in the last 10 years, but purposefully, at a pace the schools can absorb,” he says.

Courtesy James

D. DeCamp

The New Albany Farmers Market in Market Square

The Charlotte P. Kessler Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library

The school campus is part of the city’s center, close to a world-class performing arts center, the library and the police station. Three resource officers are in schools every day.

Learning experiences take many forms, including an author-in-residence program sponsored by The New Albany Community Foundation, which also donates books for students to read as part of the New Albany Lecture Series.

Each year, students, faculty, staff and education programs are recognized at the local, state and national levels.

• Every school in the district has been designated a national Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education.

• For the past five years, the district has received an “excellent” rating from the Ohio Department of Education.

• The district consistently ranks within the top 5 percent of schools in Ohio.

Left: The Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts

Courtesy Lorn Spolter

BUSINESS VERTICALS

Supplier Synergies

A dedicated Personal Care and Beauty Campus within the city’s business park helps companies like Bath & Body Works respond quickly to changing market dynamics and consumer trends.

By Peter Tonguette

Out of great recessions sometimes come great ideas.

Amid the economic troubles of the late 2000s, New Albany leaders saw a need to diversify the city’s business base.

“For any community, it’s important not to be overly reliant on one particular sector,” says Bill Ebbing, president and CEO of The New Albany Company. “By diversifying, we’re all less susceptible to economic downturns, we protect the community’s tax base, clearly, and we provide a full range of employment opportunities for Central Ohio.”

Manufacturing was one sector that was lacking in New Albany—and it had been on the wane for some time not only in Ohio, but throughout the country. “There were so many companies that were offshoring jobs,” says Jennifer Chrysler, director of community development for the City of New Albany. “How do we bring this back to the United States? There was a lot of movement around us, with the state and our local partners, around supporting manufacturing.”

At the same time, L Brands—then the owner of Bath & Body Works, the soap, candle and personal care retailer headquartered in New Albany—was checking with its suppliers around the globe to see how they were faring, Chrysler says. “As they made those visits, the idea came together: ‘Wait a minute. Could we take these companies who are located all over the world and bring them into one location?’” she says.

The New Albany Personal Care and Beauty Campus was born.

Susanna Zhu, senior vice president of supply chain operations and commercialization at Bath & Body Works, compares the beauty campus to an orchestra. “We are the conductor, we are the composer, we write the music,” Zhu says, “but then all of our vendors

Axium Packaging, a Bath & Body Works supplier, was one of the first occupants in the Personal Care and Beauty Campus.

Courtesy James D. DeCamp

are playing the same sheet of music to serve our customers. You have people making bottles, making labels, making pumps, and they all come together getting filled.”

A single bold idea not only greatly simplified the company’s supply chain, but also demonstrated that manufacturing could once again flourish in the heartland. “[The beauty campus] was set up a little over 10 years ago to give us that speed to market and agility,” Zhu says. “We started with a couple of vendors. Today, we have 10 strategic partners that are in the park.” More than 50 percent of Bath & Body Works’ finished products are produced in the Personal Care and Beauty Campus.

The arrangement is beneficial for suppliers, too.

“In the old days, we would generally receive purchase orders 70 to 90 days before the in-store date,” says Rod Harl, CEO of Alene Candles, a Bath & Body Works partner and longtime tenant of the beauty campus. “That meant that the buyer was guessing at what was going

to sell well three months in advance and not being able to respond to the market conditions,” he says. “We’ve shortened that dramatically. It lets the people who make the buying decisions [at Bath & Body Works] within a season do refreshes on the product mix based on what’s selling well. That’s not something that any other retail supply chain, at least in our category, is able to do.”

Alene has a legacy factory in New Hampshire and two facilities in New Albany; about 250 people are employed year-round locally, with seasonal surges reaching 600 or 700 workers.

Early Adopters Embrace the Vision

In embarking on such an ambitious undertaking, New Albany had to have its ground game in good shape. It was— literally so.

“We didn’t have to start from scratch,” Chrysler says. “The ground was annexed and zoned, so we were ready to go.”

The appeal of the beauty campus for both the city and Bath & Body Works was obvious, but for suppliers contemplating

Courtesy Bath & Body Works Celebrating g Our20thYear!

whether to move operations, the decision was more complicated. In the end, many leaned on the trust engendered by their longtime customer. “These are not new suppliers [to Bath & Body Works],” Zhu says. “These are vendors who we’ve been partnering with for a long time, and as we looked at how to continue to accelerate our growth from a business perspective, we asked our vendors to come and invest in the beauty park with us.”

Among the earliest businesses to embrace the beauty campus was Accel, a packaging company then located in Lewis Center. “They believed this concept was going to be successful,” says Chrysler, who also points to kdc/one—a Montreal-based company that formulates and manufactures beauty and personal care products for brands including Bath & Body Works—and Voyant Beauty as other early adopters.

“We bought into the vision; we could see the benefits,” kdc/one CEO Nick Whitley says. His company built a $100 million facility in 2012 and expanded four years later.

Data Centers Drive Business

Beyond the Personal Care and Beauty Campus, New Albany has welcomed numerous other businesses to its International Business Park, including clusters of health and life sciences, corporate offices, and research and development ventures.

“It’s the same basic formula for success no matter what the cluster is,” says Jennifer Chrysler, New Albany’s director of community development. “You have a plan to either put the infrastructure in place, or the infrastructure is already in place in order to have shovel-ready sites.”

The city’s agility is the result of meticulous planning. “We were very intentional about how the business park was designed, and prepared for companies by proactively investing in infrastructure, such as redundant power, fiber, roadways, water and shovel-ready sites,” says The New Albany Company President and CEO Bill Ebbing.

Data centers have a particularly important presence in New Albany. Discover Financial Services paved the way by opening a facility in 2000. More recently, the city has welcomed other providers, including Amazon Web Services, Google and Meta. In turn, these data centers help attract other big-name companies, such as Intel and Amgen Inc., Ebbing says. The end result is a greater diversity of businesses, which makes others more likely to set up shop in New Albany.

“It’s a stamp of approval that the community has everything that’s necessary for any industry to locate in the area,” Ebbing says. “In today’s world, I don’t care what industry you’re in, you’re a technology business.”

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“I would say that this supply chain provides a competitive advantage,” Whitley says. “[We have] less truck miles, less transportation, a much more reactive supply chain. Also, importantly for our partner BBW, this is onshore manufacturing.”

Axium Packaging, a company founded in Ontario that produces the bottles, caps and other component packaging for Bath & Body Works, also saw the campus’ potential and built a 110,000-square-foot facility in 2011. At the time, it wasn’t unheard of for vendors to be located adjacent to a client, says CEO Paul Judge. “The difference here was it was multiple suppliers, all part of the same supply chain for one customer,” he says. “It would be more like Honda Marysville [Auto Plant]. Honda is the main anchor customer, and then you have tier one and tier two suppliers scattered around them.”

Axium now considers its eight New Albany buildings, which total 1.1 million square feet, to be its North American headquarters. “The city is a true partner in the success of this park,” says Judge,

whose company employs more 1,200 workers locally. “They put dark fiber lines [in] out of their own pockets. They built the roads, the streets, the infrastructure around it, even before the buildings were ready—things that cities don’t do. … They had already done the hard stuff.”

Job Creation and Supply Chain Speed

In the early years of the beauty campus, more than 4,300 jobs were created—and this amid a recession. “Manufacturing wasn’t even a viable industry in the region before that time,” Chrysler says.

As with any project of scale, there were challenges along the way. For example, officials came to recognize that since New Albany is an outer-ring suburb, they needed to attract workers from elsewhere in Central Ohio and find a means for them to get to the business park. To that end, the city partnered with COTA on a program called SmartRide New Albany. “COTA agreed to use the commuter bus that they brought to New Albany anyway and enhance that service,” Chrysler says. “There are two shuttles in the morning

and two shuttles in the evening, and COTA has an on-demand service that runs to fill in the gaps.”

But if job creation is one metric of the beauty campus’s impact, another is success of Bath & Body Works and its partner companies.

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bath & Body Works customers were buying candles and hand sanitizers in huge numbers. Because of its condensed supply chain, the company was able fill orders when other companies struggled. “As the demand increased, having beauty park right here gave us the ability to meet that demand,” Zhu says. “We’re able to shorten our supply chain from thousands of miles to essentially 10 miles between our vendors to our distribution center.”

Even during more normal times, though, Bath & Body Works benefits from its products being manufactured, filled and labeled in one local cluster. In stores, the floor is “reset” with a new product lineup every four to six weeks. “We are really in the fast fashion business,” Zhu

says. “We need to be extremely agile and really have a fast supply chain that can respond to customer requirements.”

Supply can be adjusted even midway through a product’s run because of the benefits of the beauty campus. If, during a typical four-to-six-week period, two of three newly introduced fragrances are selling extremely well, the company can work with its vendors to increase volume during that timeframe, Zhu says.

Although Bath & Body Works remains the nexus of activity on the beauty campus, all of the companies located there benefit from collaboration. “Some of their clients are each other; they all have to work together,” Chrysler says. “The filler has to buy the bottles, which they’re buying from Axium.”

When these companies grow and expand in New Albany, it validates the whole concept behind the beauty campus. “Every single one of the companies in the beauty park has expanded at least

once,” Chrysler says. “It’s one thing to win a project. … But what I think is a true testament to how great it is to do business in Central Ohio is when you have companies that choose to expand. That means that they are making it happen.”

Indeed, the results speak for themselves.

“If we were to expand again, we would look very seriously at New Albany,” Harl says. “They are so easy to do business with.”

Bath & Body Works products

Courtesy Bath & Body Works

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SILICON HEARTLAND

Full Steam Ahead

Intel’s $20 billion investment in New Albany could be the catalyst to jump-start a new wave of highly skilled workers and a new network of suppliers.

By Laurie Allen

Rust Belt, no more. Intel’s decision to choose New Albany as the site of its first new semiconductor factory in 40 years presents Ohio with a transformative opportunity to regain and create thousands of jobs, advance critical technology and firmly establish itself as the Silicon Heartland.

“New Albany is proud to be home to Intel. The impact will be felt far and beyond, on both a state and regional level,” says New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding. “We have really grown our economic

engine in the last 25 years, and that’s become evident with the Intel project. We came out on top in a very highly competitive process.”

Located in the Licking County portion of the 9,000-acre New Albany International Business Park, Intel’s $20-billion-plus Ohio One project will create two state-of-the-art chip fabrication plants, or “fabs,” with an estimated completion date in 2025.

The Intel project represents the single largest private sector company

investment in Ohio’s history and is expected to add $2.8 billion to Ohio’s gross annual state product. Planners say it will create tens of thousands of jobs across the state, open new academic pathways, and both recruit and retain highly skilled talent.

Intel site selectors found many reasons to select Central Ohio for its first chip manufacturing complex in the Midwest—among them, the state’s outstanding network of colleges, universities and technical schools, renowned research facilities and a site that met the company’s unique construction and operating needs.

As a master-planned community, “We are in the habit of planning ahead to get out in front of development before it’s at the doorstep,” New Albany City Engineer Ryan Ohly says. “As soon as Intel became a ‘thought,’ we really buckled down. We started treating it as though it were going to happen.” The city invested in traffic studies, talked with and visited other cities that had landed Intel fabs,

VanTrust Real Estate has developed eight industrial buildings in New Albany and is expanding in its new VanTrust Tech Park.

Courtesy Marla Marie

and engaged “some of the best consultants around.”

From a physical infrastructure standpoint, New Albany was well prepared. “We had land, we had energy and we had water,” Spalding says. The city also had a robust network of partners willing and able to make the deal happen. “Intel is the culmination of collaboration between New Albany, [regional development agency] One Columbus, JobsOhio and the state.”

In securing the partnership with Intel, New Albany showcased its ability to coalesce, collaborate and catalyze quickly to accommodate the megaproject.

The community benefits tremendously from a robust alignment between elected officials, city staff and other stakeholders, says Andy Weeks, executive vice president of VanTrust Real Estate, which has developed eight industrial buildings in New Albany and is expanding in its new VanTrust Tech Park. “When you have that kind of alignment, some pretty great things can happen. Intel is evidence of that. It’s a perfect example of how quickly the community mobilized.”

JobsOhio spokesman Ryan Squire says Intel is an example of “the speed of trust. The more trust you have among all invested parties, the faster you can move.” Squire, a New Albany resident, says the community’s vision is well-suit-

ed to Intel and demonstrates a willingness to think bigger. [Intel] needs Ohio to do what it’s done in the past, to invent and find solutions. It’s built into the kids here, too.”

Building a Talent Pipeline

When Intel’s two fabs open in 2025, the complex will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000. Before that happens, thousands more workers are needed to develop the site and build the plants.

To support development of the site, Intel is investing $100 million to build a pipeline of talent and bolster research programs in the region. Nearly 90 institutions already are receiving funding to ramp up training programs to meet the need for an estimated 47,000 STEM graduates, Squire says.

In a statement, Intel’s Ohio Public Affairs Director Emily Smith said Intel has made significant commitments to higher education through a $50 million grant program to create new curricula designed to help students from all backgrounds build career skills in STEM fields. “Skilled workers will have the opportunity to learn, study and stay in Ohio,” Smith said.

Construction at the new Intel site

Courtesy Intel Corp.

Stakeholders hope to stem the tide of top talent leaving the state for jobs elsewhere. “We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars educating these in-demand graduates. We want to bring those Buckeyes back home,” Spalding says.

Intel’s long-term plan calls for up to eight semiconductor fabrication plants over a timeline that could span 30 years. For now, Spalding says, “We’re trying to catch our breath. The phone is ringing off the hook” with companies that want to be a part of the juggernaut project.

Like the Honda plant has done in Marysville, Intel is capable of generating not only thousands of direct jobs, but thousands of others for suppliers. One of the 100 or so Ohio suppliers already involved is a laundry services company in Heath that will be in charge of the ultra-sensitive clean suits Intel employees will wear to protect critical research and manufacturing equipment, Spalding says.

In addition to construction jobs and positions directly related to the Intel factory’s operations, Squire says “induced” jobs in sectors like restaurants, hotels and entertainment also will drive economic growth. Workers in highly skilled trades, such as electricians, will gain expertise that is transferable to other fast-growing industries, including electrical vehicles. “Intel provides the critical mass,” he says. “This will have a major impact on the entire state and the Midwest.”

Weeks says VanTrust expects to continue expansion of its 500-acre tech park in order to house Intel suppliers in the coming years. “We’re talking to a variety of interested companies,” he says.

Concurrent with new development opportunities are the daily concerns and details around the massive building project, down to the permitting process. The city has added about a dozen staff to its development department and has stationed permitting specialists in trailers on the Intel site to provide same-day service when possible, Spalding says.

So quickly did the Intel project land in New Albany that planners initially were too busy to think about a groundbreaking ceremony, he recalls. “But when the president of the United States decides he wants to have a groundbreaking [ceremony] in your community, you roll out the red carpet.”

LIVE, WORK, PLAY

Close to Home

Five local business owners talk about why they choose to live and work in New Albany.

By Peter Tonguette

Many of the benefits of living in New Albany are well-known: top-flight schools, robust housing options, scenic parks and endless bike paths.

By the same token, the perks of running a business in the city are obvious, too: supportive, forward-thinking city leaders; a strong consumer base; and numerous opportunities for community engagement.

“We normally talk about ‘quality of life’ for residents: We have this beautiful, master-planned community and all the wonderful things that come along with that,” says Cherie Nelson, executive director of the New Albany Chamber of Commerce. “But that’s important to businesses, too.”

For some entrepreneurs, making one’s home and place of business in New Albany is too good an opportunity to pass up.

Here are five local business owners who chose to do just that.

Photo by James

D. DeCamp

Hudson 29 Kitchen + Drink on Market Street in New Albany

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A void for freshly made baked goods and coffee beckoned Fox in the Snow Cafe to New Albany.

The bakery—owned by spouses Lauren Culley and Jeff Excell—opened on Fourth Street in Italian Village in 2014. One of their earliest patrons was Jack Kessler, co-founder and chairman of The New Albany Company.

“He would come in with his wife, Charlotte, and he would always say, ‘When are you coming out to New Albany?’” Culley recalls. “I said, ‘Well, you know, when you have a location for us, you give me a call.’”

One afternoon, Culley got that call: Kessler had identified a space in New Albany’s burgeoning Market and Main area. “We saw it, and the numbers made sense, and the neighborhood made sense, and the community made sense,” Culley says. “I’m really grateful that Jack nudged us in what ended up being the right direction.”

As it turned out, it was the right direction on multiple levels: Within months of opening Fox in the Snow in New Albany in 2019, Culley and Excell—now parents to three young children—moved to the city.

“We were living in the German Village area at the time,” Culley says.

“When we were looking for homes, you start thinking about space and you start thinking about neighbors and you start thinking about schools and you start thinking about all those things related to your kids.”

New Albany checked all the boxes.

“We love living in New Albany so much, and we love our neighborhood so much,” says Culley, who takes pride in Fox in the Snow’s place in the community. While the cafe’s Italian and German Village locations are in more urban environments, the area around Market and Main streets has the walkability and flavor the couple hoped for in a suburban setting. “Downtown New Albany really has turned into that feeling: a small bustling town with a real true city center that people use as a city center,” Culley says. “It’s sort of like the heartbeat of it.”

That business at Fox in the Snow is booming is gratifying personally and professionally for the co-owners. “You’re becoming part of people’s routine and their holiday and their day and their family,” Culley says.

Lauren Culley FOX IN THE SNOW CAFE

Lauren Culley with her husband, Jeff Excell FILE/Fred Squillante, The Columbus Dispatch Courtesy Fox in the Snow Cafe

WE’LL BUILD YOUR STUDENT UP, NOT BREAK THEM DOWN.

Hayley Deeter

HAYLEY GALLERY

Hayley Deeter never envisioned running an art gallery or living in a small city like New Albany, but over the past two decades, she ended up doing both.

The New York native spent 27 years in corporate America; in 2003, she relocated from Chicago to Columbus at the behest of her then-employer. As a single parent, quality schools were a top priority, so she chose New Albany. “I had to get [my children] that same … caliber of education that they would get in Chicago in a private school, and I was able to find it in a public school in New Albany,” Deeter says.

By then, however, Deeter had decided she was ready to call her corporate life quits. “I decided to pursue avenues that would allow me to be here for my kids and also be a role model for my daughter to show that she could do whatever she wants,” says Deeter, a prolific art collector who helped arrange an art auction fundraiser at Temple Beth Shalom in New Albany.

After she auctioned more than $40,000 worth of art in an hour and a half, Deeter recognized there was an appetite for it in her new hometown. “Talk about perfect market research,” she

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Hayley Deeter in her gallery

We make Good Neighbors

says. In 2007, she founded Hayley Gallery, which has occupied three different sites in New Albany, including its present (and, Deeter says, final) location in Market and Main.

Over the years, the gallery has grown by leaps and bounds. “We started out with about 30 artists,” Deeter says. “And today we have 90.” Some 60 percent of its artists are women, 10 percent are from minority communities and another 10 percent are from the LGBTQ community, she adds. “It’s so important to really represent the state that you’re in.”

Deeter attributes her gallery’s success to the community around her. “I feel like I’m in the center of everything, and that’s nice because you can get discovered,” Deeter says.

Deeter is proud of her career detour. “It wasn’t even a glimmer in my eye to be an entrepreneur when I first moved

Leo Ruberto

Leo Ruberto knew the advantages of living in New Albany long before he considered working in the city.

“It was a hidden gem, probably more than it is right now today,” says Ruberto,

Photographer: Stephanie Barnes

here,” she says. And she’s proud to live in New Albany, too. “It’s the longest I’ve ever lived somewhere,” she says. “It’s nice to plant these roots.”

a resident of New Albany since 2006 and the CEO and owner of Feazel Roofing.

Ruberto says the city is a great place to raise a family, pointing to assets such as its walking paths, golf and school system. “It’s a really safe, great place to live,” he says.

When he bought Feazel Roofing in 2013, the company was headquartered in Westerville. Eventually, the business, which employs 280, outgrew its

Photos by James D. DeCamp (2)

corporate offices and was searching for a new location.

“New Albany wasn’t a prerequisite,” Ruberto says. “We looked all over the city [of Columbus]. We were looking for the right fit, the right location.”

New Albany Company President and CEO Bill Ebbing suggested Ruberto look in his own backyard. “He said, ‘Hey, I heard you’re looking for a new space,’” Ruberto says. “We were working heavily with the city of Westerville, because they wanted to keep us. … But they just didn’t have the site that worked well for us.”

As it turned out, New Albany had just the right site on Walton Parkway. “We wanted to have a building that was on a highway,” Ruberto says. “It was the exact right plot for us from a size perspective. … We built it with Daimler and worked with the city.”

The new corporate headquarters opened in early 2020, complementing a facility in Hilliard that houses trucks and equipment.

Although Feazel Roofing does business throughout Central Ohio, Ruberto proudly serves numerous customers in New Albany—including his neighbors.

“Certainly, you don’t want to get yelled at when you go to a barbeque,” he says.

The Feazel Roofing headquarters

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Alan Hinson

Jean Lesnick

Jennifer Hyland Andrea Iacovetta

Kauser Ahmad

Bev Klein

Kathy Daniels

Kandis Hall Scott Siebenaler

Gail Tobias

David Kaucheck

Mark Neff

David Randall

Rob Riddle

Erin Glowacki

Tracy West

Hallie Abel Erin Spalding Karrie Short Morgan Petrides

Jane Kessler Lennox

Karyn Dye

Tara Miller NEW ALBANY BALLET CO.

New Albany is known for encouraging its citizens to walk or bicycle, but one member of the community assures that its young people are always on their toes.

In 1999, New Albany Ballet Co. owner Tara Miller co-founded the dance school with Alisa Bernard to fill a void in arts education. “There are a lot of dance studios [and] competition-type dance studios, but there was no other noncompetition dance studio atmosphere,” Miller says.

The school, which today occupies its own, custom-designed 20,000-squarefoot-plus building, provides training across a panoply of styles to nearly 1,000 students; in addition to ballet, lessons in jazz, tap, hip-hop and contemporary are offered by 14 faculty members. Demand is such that a 6,000-square-foot addition to its building is in the works.

At first, Miller catered to New Albany residents in search of dance education for their children. “You can’t really live in New Albany and not know who we are or have been to us at some point,” says Miller. Today, the school also at-

tracts families from surrounding cities, including Newark, Granville, Dublin and Powell. “We even have a group coming from Zanesville,” she says.

An added attraction is the school’s nonprofit New Albany Children’s Ballet

Photo by James

D. DeCamp

Theatre, which presents nine performances of “The Nutcracker” annually with the New Albany Symphony Orchestra. “BalletMet has professionals doing all their main roles, where we cast students,” says Miller. “We’re fortunate to have support within the New Albany community,” she says, citing the city’s support of performing-arts venues such as the McCoy Center for the Arts and the Hinson Amphitheater.

Miller, a Gahanna native, moved to New Albany shortly after co-founding the New Albany Ballet Co. There, she has raised two daughters, now 17 and 20.

“I could not have found a better community to get married in, own a business in and raise both of my girls,” she says.

Paul Judge

AXIUM PACKAGING

Paul Judge never anticipated living or working in the United States, let alone New Albany.

But as the CEO of Axium Packaging, a longtime supplier to Bath & Body Works, he did just that when Bath & Body Works became the anchor to the Personal Care and Beauty Campus in the New Albany International Business Park. Numerous companies critical to the company’s supply chain relocated to be close to their customer, including Axium.

The company, then based in Ontario, made the move in 2011—and

The New Albany Children’s Ballet Theatre performs “The Nutcracker.”

Courtesy Stephanie Barnes

Judge and his wife followed suit. “I didn’t know much about Columbus, candidly,” Judge says. “I had come for meetings for Bath & Body Works. … My wife didn’t know much about it.”

After initially settling in Columbus in 2014, Judge and his wife moved to New Albany the following year. As parents, they were drawn by the schools, the proximity to Axium and, most importantly, the chance to be part of a community of “expatriates,” as Judge calls the mix of residents from out of state or other Central Ohio suburbs. “Unlike a lot of established communities, this was a community still establishing itself,” Judge says. “It’s a discovery mode. We said, ‘What a great opportunity to become a part of a community that’s growing [and] creating what it wants to become.’”

Judge embraces the chance to live and work in the same place, and the sense of civic responsibility it encourages. “The kids go to school 10 minutes from where I work, and I work 10 minutes from where I live,” he says. “What I do in my professional life also impacts my social/community [life]. I can get held to a higher standard maybe, because of that. There’s no anonymity between your professional self and your personal self.

“You want to be able to help and give back,” he says. “You’re appreciative of what you have.”

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Axium Packaging CEO Paul Judge

Some of the world’s most innovative companies all saw the same thing in New Albany. The future.

They saw a business park with a clear vision of tomorrow. They saw the strength of our technological infrastructure. They saw one of the nation’s most robust and affordable fiber optic networks, triple electric feeds and the power of tremendous bandwidth.

They saw what every company wants when looking for a new home. A place that delivers the resources they need to grow. To thrive. And look ahead with confidence. The New Albany International Business Park. Where will your business be tomorrow?

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Boosting Small Business

The Innovate New Albany incubator provides flexible spaces and services to help nascent companies grow and

thrive.

By Mandy Shunnarah

For small businesses, startups and nonprofits in the initial years of growth, being in the right environment can make all the difference. Innovate New Albany is a business incubator that understands the needs of early-stage and fast-growing companies and tailors its offerings to what founders and CEOs of up-andcoming organizations need most.

“The business incubator allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to be in the same place with people who have the same goals, so there’s a synergy that occurs between those folks. Whereas if you’re getting your own individual office space you might not have the collaborative capabilities with other entrepreneurs in the same situations you’re in,” says Jackie Russell, the economic development specialist who oversees operations at Innovate New Albany.

That has proven true for C. Emre Koksal, who founded Anchor, an awardwinning cybersecurity software company, alongside Harihara Varma Indukuri. “We’ve had partnerships based on the relationships we’ve built within Innovate New Albany and some of our customers are in the vicinity, so we can host them for meetings,” Koksal says.

While Innovate New Albany has been around for the past decade, the

demand for office space and other offerings has been growing. With the new Intel plant under construction just a few miles away, the incubator is a hot spot for tech entrepreneurs. However, those in other industries also can benefit from the swirl of ideas and cutting-edge thinking that permeate the environment.

“We’re geared towards technology, and over 50 percent of our companies

are technology companies, but there are still companies that fall under the service, product or nonprofit categories. So you’re getting ideas from people in different industry sectors that can add value to your operation that you might not have found if you were in a regular office building,” Russell says.

Beth Gibson, founder of the nonprofit Buddy Up for Life, has lived in New Albany for the past 26 years and

Photo by James D. DeCamp

Innovate New Albany team members

Jackie Russell (left) and Neil Collins (right) with Buddy Up for Life founder Beth Gibson

knew the business incubator was the perfect home for her organization, which helps individuals with Down syndrome access fitness training through tennis lessons and learn independent living skills. “What’s a better place to work than right in your backyard?” Gibson says. “Just because we’re a nonprofit doesn’t mean we’re not a business. We’re all trying to service our customers, and we’re all trying to generate revenue. It’s just that the way in which our organization is structured is nonprofit.”

What sets Innovate New Albany apart is the variety of space it offers for all levels of small business, as well as its programming. The incubator has everything from offices and cubicles to co-working spaces. There’s even an option for businesses that just need a professional mailing ad-

Anchor co-founders Harihara Varma Indukuri (left) and C. Emre Koksal

dress. Conference rooms and events spaces also are available. Gibson says Buddy Up uses “every nook and cranny” at Innovate New Albany for classes, parent meetings and quarterly board meetings, so she knows firsthand that the facility can handle a variety of space needs.

The programming, which is available for free to the public, brings in experts from various fields to share knowledge and resources. These events are called TIGER Talks, an acronym for Technology, Innovation, Growth, Entrepreneurship and Responsibility.

“They’re bringing in different people in the community into our environment on a weekly basis. That’s invaluable because you can do as much social media as you want, but I think word of mouth and building relationships in person really helps,” Gibson says. “It’s been helpful to have the opportunity to meet people in person and share your passion and be able to learn about others and see where you can connect the dots.”

Helping as many entrepreneurs as possible is vital to the city’s economic

development. “New Albany is different in that it thinks big picture, it thinks long term and it thinks strategically,” says Neil Collins, the on-site leader at Innovate New Albany. “We will help anybody because our economy works that way.”

Even outside the incubator’s doors, location makes all the difference. “In

New Albany, we move at the speed of business. In the city itself, we permit 25 percent faster than other Ohio communities, which allows our companies to get into the ground sooner. Similarly with Innovate New Albany, we’re able to turn around a lease in a couple of days. We’re operating at their speed and not the speed of government, which makes it really attractive,” Russell says.

For rapidly growing businesses, the ability to scale operations quickly is key—and it’s a factor in why 20 businesses have graduated from Innovate New Albany. A number of those companies sought bigger spaces but chose to stay local.

“The broader Columbus area has been selected as the No. 5 best place to be for software engineers, according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,” Koksal says. “It’s a lively city, a growing city with a lot of motion. This area is being referred to as the Silicon Heartland, and Innovate New Albany happens to be at the heart of it.”

“ You can do as much social media as you want, but I think word of mouth and building relationships in person really helps.”

Beth Gibson, Buddy Up for Life founder

SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental Efforts Pay Dividends

By Joseph Stefanov

As a strategically planned community, we at the City of New Albany proactively look for ways to improve our quality of life. We collaborate with residents and businesses in identifying the services and amenities that matter most and align with our founding pillars: lifelong learning, arts and culture, health and wellness, and environmental sustainability.

Our first three community pillars have long been evident across New Albany. We enjoy them through events such as the New Albany Lecture Series, New Albany Symphony Orchestra performances and the New Albany Walking Classic. We experience them inside facilities such as the McCoy Center for the Arts, Hinson Amphitheater and the Heit Center for Healthy New Albany.

The fourth pillar, environmental sustainability, has been an area of extra focus for us in recent years, and we are proud to report that our efforts are producing encouraging results.

Just a few examples include the following:

• Our city council created a Sustainability Advisory Board to help improve the city’s efforts to be good stewards of our environment.

• We completed a public service complex solar panel project that significantly cuts electricity costs. More importantly, this particular project will protect our environment by annually removing 112 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air. That is the equivalent of planting 2,800 new trees!

• We continue to preserve green space

in our community—acquiring land for active and passive recreational uses. Recent acquisitions include the roughly 100-acre Taylor Farm Park and a 73-acre site at Walnut Street and Bevelhymer Road. Nearly one out

of every five acres of our land is now devoted to parks and green space.

• We instituted a Green Building Incentive Program that reduces building permit fees by up to 25 percent to encourage sustainable development through practices that reduce energy, waste and water consumption.

• We launched a food waste composting program that has diverted more than 50,000 pounds of waste from the landfill since April 2022.

Our sustainability strides have allowed us to achieve silver status from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Sustainable2050 program. Through this program, MORPC not only recognizes our commitment to environmental sustainability, but also assists us, through collaboration and resources, to do even more.

At the City of New Albany, we are making every effort to lead by example in the area of sustainability. We are committed to protecting our environment to maintain a community and quality of life that residents, businesses and visitors can enjoy for generations to come.

Joseph

Stefanov is the New Albany city manager.

Courtesy City of New Albany (2)

Public service solar panels

Enjoy Serenity in Scenic View Estates

Nothing compares to nature’s beauty. This belief is the basis for the creation and design of a new and unique housing community in Pataskala, Ohio. Scenic View Estates will feature 60 new homes on 136 acres in a deeply wooded, secluded enclave. In phase one, 17 lots hit the market. So far, 5 lots have sold with 12 available.

As Columbus expands in population, it has become increasingly difficult to find a private retreat where one can view tall oaks, see vibrantly colored birds, and hear babbling streams. Scenic View Estates offers a natural setting for homeowners to escape from noise, concrete, and congestion and live in luxury homes ensconced in a serene, natural setting. Limiting the community to 60 homes was a purposeful decision. Preserving the existing natural beauty, as well as the copses of elms and maples, ravines, and quiet environment was something the developers considered vital and sacrosanct. At a time when builders are razing forests and turning cornfields into overcrowded, dense, noisy communities, Scenic View Estates has saved 7,000 trees, benefitting buyers and the environment. The goal is always to preserve the site’s natural beauty. Scenic View Estates’ developer hopes more builders adopt this philosophy in the future.

The property will have six bridges crossing over streams and a 50-foot bridge for traversing a wetland. For residents who wish to stroll, run, bike, walk a dog, or ride to the clubhouse in a golf cart, there is a 3-mile gravel walking path that invites homeowners to feel the natural world around

them and be at one with their tranquil surroundings. Each home will have a scenic view and be separated by wooded areas that ensure privacy, serenity, and seclusion.

Scenic View Estates is a gated community with modern amenities, such as a clubhouse and pool. Lots range in size from over 1 acre to more than 5 acres. Residents have freedom in choosing their housing design and builder. Lots will feature natural gas, electricity, high-speed internet, and city water and sewer service installed via directional boring, which reduces damage to the environment and the natural landscape. While Scenic View Estates offers a retreat from the noise, gridlock, and congestion of large cities and nearby towns, its location offers quick access to Downtown Columbus and the New Albany International Business Park, as well as the Google, Amazon, Intel, and Meta offices. Scenic View Estates has not tried to rival the beauty of nature. It has captured and preserved it so homeowners can smell the roses in spring, enjoy the warmth of summer, view the coruscating colors of fall, and snuggle during winter snows.

Top-Rated Schools Emphasize Achievement and Student Well-Being

By Michael L. Sawyers

New Albany-Plain Local Schools is ever grateful for a community that believes, embraces and supports the core purpose of our schools: “ To create a culture of accountability that achieves the best academic and developmental outcomes for each student .” This focused purpose enables everyone in our school district to put students first and implement measurable outcomes for continuous improvement that enhance student achievement, student growth and student well-being as our community expects.

Successful communities support student achievement in a number of ways, and New Albany is no exception. Our school district’s 120-acre learning campus and 80-acre nature preserve are the center of our community, and our success directly impacts our quality of life and the economic impact of attracting and retaining businesses, as well as residents. More than 5,100 students in grades preK–12 in our care are championed by nearly 700 teachers, administrators and staff, their parents, the City of New Albany, Plain Township, The New Albany Company, The New Albany Community Foundation, our civic leaders, the New Albany Chamber of Commerce and its business partners, resident taxpayers and many others. Life-changing developmental and educational opportunities for our students are possible because of the strength of our community.

This support is evident in our collective achievements. NAPLS is one of 12 school districts in the state to receive five stars, the highest rating possible, on Ohio’s Local School Report Card System. The class of 2023 includes eight National Merit Finalists, 18 Commended

Scholars, four students committed to serve our country in the armed services and 30 students who signed to take their game to the next level in collegiate athletics. Year after year, we celebrate similar achievements that would not be possible without our dedicated faculty, staff and administrators, and our family and community partners.

Our efforts to build an inclusive campus culture continue in order to allow every student to feel safe, supported and connected at school, at home and in our community. Our Culture of Accountability has been built on the foundation that we are each responsible for our behavior, that we “own” our responses to challenges and circumstances, that we are stronger when we work together, and that we will strive to be better every day. “NAPLS is Committed to Fostering an Environment of Kindness, Dignity & Respect.” Go Eagles!

Michael L. Sawyers is the superintendent of New Albany-Plain Local Schools.

Courtesy New Albany-Plain Local Schools (2)

Eagle Pride band

WE PROUDLY SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

WE PROUDLY SUPPORT OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

At Encova Insurance, we understand the critical relationship between business and community. We provide commercial, auto, home and life insurance to our policyholders through our more than 2,000 independent agents who serve the neighborhoods in their area. With this unique approach, we cultivate authentic, local insurance services across 28 states and Washington, D.C. Community is the foundation of our business model.

At Encova Insurance, we understand the critical relationship between business and community. We provide commercial, auto, home and life insurance to our policyholders through our more than 2,000 independent agents who serve the neighborhoods in their area. With this unique approach, we cultivate authentic, local insurance services across 28 states and Washington, D.C. Community is the foundation of our business model.

We advocate for the organizations and causes that mirror the values of our company mission, associates, agents and policyholders. Encova proudly supports community initiatives across our footprint to create something greater than ourselves.

We advocate for the organizations and causes that mirror the values of our company mission, associates, agents and policyholders. Encova proudly supports community initiatives across our footprint to create something greater than ourselves.

Thomas|Riddle Group

team of licensed real estate professionals associated with New Albany Realty.

Dedicated to protecting and preserving what is important to you

For over 55 years, Carlile Patchen & Murphy LLP has provided legal excellence to businesses, families and individuals. Our team provides expert legal advice, practical options, and the utmost in attention and respect.

2022

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New Worker Protections

By Peter Tonguette

This year, a large and essential part of Ohio’s workforce will benefit from new protections while on the job, thanks to a pair of new federal laws that assure employers will provide accommodations to workers who are pregnant or nursing.

In several ways, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (PUMP) reinforce existing federal and Ohio laws, but the acts, signed into law by President Joe Biden in December 2022, are more specific, tailored and robust.

“It filled an important gap in federal protection by requiring [employers] to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant women and … new moms, like letting them have water breaks, bathroom breaks, ‘sit down and work’ breaks,’ ” Biden said in remarks in February, adding, “Too many women have been denied… simple, basic support.”

Taken in tandem, the acts promise to be transformative for pregnant or nursing people seeking such accommodations at their place of work. Laws already on the books did not address those needs, or did so in a roundabout way, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that bars employment discrimination due to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

“Under federal law traditionally, pregnancy claims fell under sex discrimination claims under Title VII, which is not always an easy argument to make considering that you have to show that a pregnant female worker was treated differently than a male comparator, which obviously is very hard to do,” says Rachel Sabo Friedmann, an employment attorney with the Friedmann Firm in Hilliard, referring to the section of the Civil Rights Act. She notes that the Ohio Revised Code has a similar Ohio employment-discrimination law.

Pregnant workers whose employers failed to provide accommodations could also make use of the Americans with Disabilities Act, but that, too, was imperfect: Pregnancy is not akin to disability, though it can give rise to “impairments … that qualify as a ‘disability’ under the ADA,” the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says.

“Prior to this, we would have to make pretty creative arguments about pregnancy somehow rising to the level of a disability,” says Sabo Friedmann, whose firm represents aggrieved employees.

By contrast, the PWFA tackles the issue squarely and closes loopholes. When it goes into effect on June 27, the law will apply to all employees, as well as federal agencies, Congress, employment agencies and labor organizations.

“It provides more protection for pregnant workers,” Sabo Friedmann says. “The PWFA makes it unlawful for an employer not to make a

A pair of federal laws strengthen existing rights and close loopholes for pregnant and nursing workers, including salaried employees.

Photo by Getty Images/Yuri_Arcurs

reasonable accommodation to known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or medical conditions related to pregnancy.”

According to the EEOC, pregnant workers are entitled to request a range of accommodations, provided that they do not cause their employer an “undue hardship.” As examples of possible accommodations, the commission mentions pregnant employees being able to park closer to their place of work or being given uniforms appropriately sized to account for the physical changes of pregnancy.

“The accommodations that might be readily asked for can be something as simple as a water bottle [or] if I’m normally standing at a position, I need to have a stool to rest,” says Brad E. Bennett, an employment and labor attorney at Bricker Graydon.

Mental-health issues, such as an anxiety disorder that arose from a pregnancy, also would qualify for accommodations, Sabo Friedmann says.

Employers familiar with requests under the ADA should readily adjust to the PWFA, Bennett says. In both cases, an “interactive process” involves a

worker describing what is needed and, if reasonable, an employer making the accommodation. “That concept really has been lifted out of the ADA and placed into … the PWFA,” he says, adding that an employee does not have to say any “magic words” in asking for an accommodation.

“They can actually come to their employer and state, ‘Hey, here’s what I’m going to be needing,’” Bennett says. “That opens up the interactive process where both sides have to interact and communicate and work together to find that reasonable accommodation.”

The city of Columbus sees the new acts as complementary to accommodations it already offered employees. “We’ve had an executive order for several years and it was updated in 2018, which really is exactly what is written in the PUMP Act,” says Nichole M. Brandon, director of the Department of Human Resources at the city. “After having the interactive process with the employee [who] indicates some of the accommodations that they need … we’d make the necessary accommodations.”

Ahead of the PWFA coming into effect, Bennett recommends that employers review their policies-andprocedures manuals and train managers and HR representatives on the requirements.

If a pregnant worker feels that their needs are not being met after discussions with their employer or HR department, the PWFA offers a process whereby concerns can be addressed. “You would do the same thing that you’d do if there’s a violation of the ADA or Title VII: File a charge of discrimination with the EEOC,” says Sabo Friedmann, adding

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“The PWFA makes it unlawful for an employer not to make a reasonable accommodation to known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth or medical conditions related to pregnancy.”

Rachel Sabo Friedmann, an attorney with the Friedmann Firm

that, for pregnant workers currently employed, the EEOC offers mediation in the hope of resolving the issue. “If you want the right to sue immediately, you can request it,” she says.

Some employers might find granting accommodations trickier than others. “If you’re working on an assembly line where it doesn’t stop moving, and then you have employees who need more frequent break times, that can be a little more difficult to manage,” says Bennett, adding that manufacturing companies accustomed to ADArelated accommodations should not have too much difficulty navigating the PWFA.

PUMP Act Provisions

While the PWFA encompasses workplace accommodations during the period of pregnancy and childbirth, the PUMP Act governs a mother's rights after a child’s birth. The act, which went into effect in December and has had an enforcement provision in effect since April 28, requires that employers grant nursing mothers break times to pump milk for the first year after a child is born.

“The purpose of the PUMP Act is to close loopholes and what we’ll call unintentional mistakes that were in the 2010 bill,” Sabo Friedmann says, referring to a provision providing for break time for nursing mothers in the Fair Labor Standards Act for nonexempt employees. “[That] protection only extended to hourly workers who qualified for overtime pay.”

By contrast, the PUMP Act brings exempt workers into the fold. “It includes salaried workers, such as teachers and nurses, a lot of whom are women,” says Sabo Friedmann.

Under the new act, mothers have the right to be provided with a private space, outside the view of co-workers or others, while taking lactation breaks; restrooms are not eligible spaces. “If [employers] don’t have a space like that, they need to figure out how to provide it,” Sabo Friedmann says.

That may prove to be more of a challenge for some categories of employers than others. “If somebody works on a road crew or in a construction environment out on a job site where there isn’t a very sanitary, private place

to dispense breast milk, that can be a challenge,” Bennett says.

Pregnant workers and new mothers should feel confident about asking for the protections assured under the new acts, Sabo Friedmann says. “Both the PUMP Act and the PWFA prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for asserting their rights under either law,” she says, noting that termination and demotion constitute forms of retaliation.

Employers with fewer than 50 employees in their ranks can avoid being subject to the PUMP Act if complying with it amounts to an “undue hardship,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, which enforces the FLSA. But Sabo Friedmann cautions businesses to tread carefully: “Undue hardship is analyzed on a case-bycase basis. Realistically, any employer should probably pay very close attention to a request under the PUMP Act and really figure out if this is an undue burden on us or not. And if it’s not, then they should grant it.”

Filling the Women’s Health Gap

OhioHealth and Ohio State University are making overdue investments in a long-neglected field.

By Kathy Lynn Gray

If you’re a woman, you may be surprised to learn that you are the latest trend in health care.

For decades, women have played second fiddle to men in research funding for women’s health issues and for treatment of conditions that affect women differently than men, local experts say. But earlier this year, OhioHealth announced it plans to build a huge, freestanding women’s center on its Riverside Methodist Hospital campus by 2026, focusing attention on both the inequities and inadequacies of women’s health care nationally and in Central Ohio.

“It’s overdue,” says Dr. Jason Melillo, vice president of OhioHealth’s women’s clinical services. “We need to serve women across their lifespan, all at one location. There’s a heavy focus on women of reproductive age, especially in obstetrics, and a relatively myopic view of what women’s reproductive life is, but there are very few trained specialists in midlife care for women.”

The new 188-bed center will house Riverside’s labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care unit and most gynecological and breast surgeries. Specialty clinics will include those for midlife, bone health, primary care wellness and a “fourth trimester” clinic for mothers’ needs after birth, such as postpartum depression and breastfeeding help. At nearly 590,000 square feet and eight stories high, the facility will be comparable in size to OhioHealth’s Dublin Methodist Hospital but will be more compact, Melillo says.

Kristina Stuecher, OhioHealth

vice president and project executive

of the center, says some female health care needs have been ignored for years. “It’s time we create a space for women to be able to take care of themselves so that they then can take care of everyone else,” she says. “When you’re post-gestational age, you fall off a cliff in terms of health care.”

One response, Melillo says, will be to seek out doctors trained in midlife care for women. Although women spend a third or more of their lives in perimenopause, menopause or postmenopause, few doctors are trained in care for hot flashes, sleep difficulties and night sweats, he says.

“It’s overdue. We need to serve women across their lifespan, all at one location.”

Dr. Tamar Gur of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Photo by Tim Johnson

Dr. Jason Melillo, vice president of OhioHealth’s women’s clinical services

A related issue is the disparity between federal research spending for men and women’s health. Dr. Mark Landon, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, calls the difference “staggering.” A 2021 study published in the Journal of Women’s Health, for example, found that, for diseases that affect primarily one gender, three-fourths of the U.S. National Institutes of Health funding favored “male diseases.”

Ohio State hopes to make inroads into the issue with the Sarah Ross Soter Women’s Health Research Program, funded in May with a $15 million gift from Soter and the Soter Kay Foundation.

“This is going to be transformational,” says Dr. Tamar Gur, Ohio State associate professor of psychiatry, neuroscience, public health and obstetrics and gynecology. Her research into how stress during pregnancy affects mother and child will be funded through the research program, along with studies of new therapies for conditions that disproportionately

affect women, such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, thyroid disease and autoimmune diseases. Gur says the money will jump-start critical research, help attract additional funding and encourage additional training in women’s health for student doctors.

Ohio State also is planning to expand its labor and delivery offerings when its new, 820-bed inpatient hospital tower opens in 2026, Landon says. The top three floors of the 26-story facility will house obstetrics and neonatal care, with the capability to increase deliveries from the current level of 5,000 a year to 7,000. The tower will have an expanded midwifery practice and will maintain its high-risk obstetrics unit.

Landon says Ohio State also will continue its fourth trimester program, which monitors conditions women developed during pregnancy, such as high blood pressure or gestational diabetes, which may indicate future health risks. “This is a way we can substantially improve the overall health of women,” Landon says.

A rendering of the new freestanding OhioHealth women’s center planned for the health system’s Riverside Methodist Hospital campus

As an offshoot, the university is planning long-term research of mothers with gestational diabetes and their children, since some evidence points to a risk of childhood obesity and diabetes for those offspring. Ohio State will also continue operating its outpatient women’s health center in Upper Arlington, which has physicians for primary care, sexual health, gynecology, endocrinology, menopause and other women’s conditions.

OhioHealth’s new women’s center will be the first of its kind in Central Ohio, and, Stuecher says, unique in the United States. “We’re trying to distinguish ourselves as the link between inpatient and ambulatory care, and there’s not a center in the country yet doing what we’re planning,” she says. “There are a lot of moments around a woman’s health that don’t have attention, and we’ve looked at these many pockets of care and said, ‘We need to respond.’”

This story also appears in the July issue of Columbus Monthly

Kathy Lynn Gray is a freelance writer.

Courtesy OhioHealth

Philanthropic Focus

and development at The Columbus Foundation, which was created to facilitate philanthropy and connect corporations with effective charitable efforts. In her experience, corporate giving budgets are largely “pretty consistent year-to-year,” with most organizations making steady long-term financial commitments. But what isn’t always consistent, she says, is the strategy behind those contributions.

By Andrew King

For more than two years, the COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses in a way no one had ever seen. Some saw skyrocketing profits, as the pandemic made their goods or services more essential than ever. Others struggled as spending habits shifted and workers became scarce. But in the world of corporate giving, the pandemic had a surprising effect: Companies began donating more than they had before.

According to data from The Conference Board, a global nonprofit think tank and business membership

organization, 2020 and 2021 marked consecutive years of increased charitable giving nationwide, with surveys indicating that companies intended to maintain those levels even after the pandemic subsided.

In Central Ohio, nonprofit and business leaders say interest in charitable giving remains steady, but the focus is shifting toward more strategic, impactful philanthropy.

Angela Parsons has been working with corporate charitable giving for more than 15 years, currently as vice president for donor services

“When I first started working with corporations, it was a lot of spraying dollars all over and wanting to help every organization and be out in the community as much as they could,” Parsons says. “The trend now is to be a little more strategic and find some larger partnerships that really combine their charitable strategy and corporate strategy.”

At New Albany-based Bob Evans Farms, the company has become more strategic in an effort to maximize its philanthropic efforts, says Cassandra Binkley, senior manager of community, engagement and philanthropy for the packaged foods maker, which split from the

Central Ohio nonprofits are seeing a shift as donors become more strategic and tie efforts to their organization’s own principles and mission.

Photo by Getty Images/SDI Productions

restaurant group in 2017. Binkley worked in human resources until the company created her current role in 2022 to put a sharper focus on its philanthropic efforts. “We’ve determined that this is a key part of our business,” she says. “Just from information from our employees, it’s a big part of what people like in a company. They want to feel like they’re part of the mission and the vision of what a company does.”

With corporate philanthropy increasingly under a microscope and the “spraying dollars” philosophy waning, more companies are seeking a way to quantify their efforts. Parsons says organizations are determining that, with limited dollars to give, they want to see a tangible return on their investments. More than ever, companies are asking for data about their giving. “I don’t think they had to show the ROI, [philanthropy] was just a good thing,” Parsons says of previous giving environments. “But now it’s like, ‘Oh no. Now we have to show it.’ And there’s not always an easy way to demonstrate that.”

That shift in perspective matches larger corporate trends. According to the 2023 Corporate Social Impact Practices report from The Conference Board, “rising external and internal pressures” have led to more ROIfocused giving. “Companies are under pressure to respond and invest in so many areas (including climate, public health, education, racial equality,

Carts of food sit ready in the drive-thru pickup area at Mid-Ohio Food Collective.

food, water, and human rights), that philanthropic tools and resources can be stretched,” the report states. “Citizenship teams can manage these pressures by maintaining a consistent approach aligned with company capabilities and strategy, as well as rigorously measuring and reporting on their impact and return on investment.”

The sweet spot for many charitable organizations is demonstrating that return on investment while still offering the intangibles that make philanthropy personal. The Mid-Ohio Food Collective, which serves 20 counties and is Ohio’s largest food bank, aims to provide both. The

organization’s 2022 impact report shows it received more than $27 million in financial contributions and $83 million in donated food last year, helping to provide more than 140,000 meals a day. The organization also has a very straightforward way to express ROI: Every $1 donated can be stretched to $4.89 worth of impact, meaning a $1 million contribution becomes nearly $5 million worth of food for those in need.

But Craig Truax, director of corporate partnerships for the food bank, says in his experience, it isn’t just about the monetary value of contributions. He says companies are showing more interest in connecting with the donations they make, pairing financial contributions with volunteer days or food drives. Such efforts enable donors to “see their financial commitment at work,” he says, which can be just as critical as ROI.

“We’re seeing more people wanting to return to getting engaged,” he says. “Companies, HR departments and other groups are very interested in team-building and bringing that aspect back because some companies are still in hybrid models. They’re trying to reconnect with those associates after a long period of being away from each other. I think people like what Mid-Ohio Food Collective can provide from the volunteering and team-building aspects.”

In fact, corporate efforts helped make April the nonprofit’s busiest

We want to be sure we’re reaching underserved communities and population groups who are not always given dollars and actions.”

File photo by Barbara J. Perenic/The Columbus Dispatch

Cassandra Binkley, senior manager of community, engagement and philanthropy, Bob Evans Farms

PUBLIC ART IN COLUMBUS

volunteering month on record; the first four months of the year are up 47 percent in donated time compared with 2022.

Beyond ROI numbers, many companies are increasingly tying corporate giving and philanthropy to the principles of their organization and their employees. Binkley says Bob Evans Farms has re-emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion over the last few years, largely thanks to internal feedback. She says the company is “more intentional” about the effort than ever before and is working to ensure that any charitable giving also comes with an equality component.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re changing partnerships, but it means that we’re asking questions and looking to see if we’re hitting communities that don’t always get the dollars, care and funding,” she says. “We want to be sure we’re reaching underserved communities and population groups who are not always given dollars and actions.”

Parsons has seen the same trend spread across Central Ohio and beyond. “The thought used to be that you want to help as many people as you can,” she says. “But, if you’re a bank, you have clients who support all different things, so you want to support all different things. I think the shift is realizing, ‘We can support everybody with small amounts, or we can really try to take the limited amount of charitable dollars we have and see if we can go deeper and make a larger impact.’”

Ultimately, neither corporations nor charities can predict what the future holds for giving next year, let alone long term. But Truax says organizations such as Mid-Ohio Food Collective are better positioned than ever to respond to changing environments, and when need for food increases, the collective can alert its donors.

“The thing that swings the pendulum is the economy, how our customers are doing and the number of folks who are coming for services,” he says. “That swings in a way where sometimes we’re feeding more people now than we ever have. But we’re able to communicate that information with our donors and say, ‘Here’s what’s happening; here’s who is coming to see us.’”

Andrew King is a freelance writer.

Maker’s Monument Mark Reigelman

Jazz Duets, Omar Shaheed

Portals for Nature, Miss Birdy

NONPROFIT NAVIGATOR

Learn about 25 Central Ohio charitable and nonprofit organizations that serve a variety of needs and populations.

INVESTING IN OUR COMMUNITY

By Douglas F. Kridler, President and CEO, The Columbus Foundation

In the world of business, ideas are not enough; it takes grit and determination to see an idea through to realize success. I think of this guide as a great testimonial to the ingenuity and perseverance of a sometimes underestimated part of the business of our community, those that have ultimate societal value—our nonprofits.

Years ago, I had an opportunity to meet one-on-one with Jim Collins, business guru and author of “From Good to Great.” Jim and his team of researchers were in the middle of doing research for a monograph called “From Good to Great in the Social Sector,” which considered how to apply the “Good to Great” business principles to the nonprofit sector. He said one thing that stood out for him at that juncture was how resourceful and skilled nonprofit leaders had to be to make their organizations succeed, and that he had grown to have more respect and appreciation for what it takes to run a scaled non-

profit than what it takes to be a CEO of a large corporation.

So, as you look through these pages, I ask you to consider what talent, commitment, resourcefulness, patience and creativity it takes to run these organizations, and what you can do to support them in their pursuit of a healthier, safer, more creative community where everyone has a chance to thrive. After all, their success is our success. It is an undeniable truth that a vibrant, well-led and well-supported nonprofit sector makes our community more successful, for everyone.

The sheer volume and complexity of the areas of need covered by these nonprofits are as vast as they are daunting to address. We should all be thankful that we have the leaders—staff and boards alike—dedicating themselves to the most difficult challenges facing our fellow neighbors; the least we can do is assist them with our financial and volunteer support. Consider this guide

as a beneficial banquet menu to choose from, opportunities for you to provide sustenance where scarcity abounds.

In the end, these pages contain stories of those who dedicate themselves to others and stories of those in our community with vast potential that is as of yet unrealized due to barriers to progress—barriers that nonprofits are designed to lower or remove. I urge you to write your own chapter to these stories by supporting nonprofits that support others.

Whether you do so for your or your own business’s sense of community responsibility, or so that you can enjoy not only success but significance in your life, it all points to the recognition that the future is open in our community. That future will be determined by how high we rise up to meet both the challenges and opportunities before us, and how we support the nonprofit organizations building lives and civic infrastructure alongside us.

Courtesy The Columbus Foundation

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Philanthropic planning is an important element of managing your overall legal and financial goals. As you work through tax, legal, and financial strategies, know that The Columbus Foundation, now in its 80th year, serves as a world-class, trusted resource. Whether you’re interested in increasing your impact, decreasing your tax liability, or leaving a lasting legacy, we’re here to help.

columbusfoundation.org

614/251-4000 | dsd@columbusfoundation.org

GOODWILL COLUMBUS

671 S. High St., Eighth Floor, Columbus, OH 43206

614-294-5181

goodwillcolumbus.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $56 million

Number of employees: 1,100

Established: 1939

Number of locations: 30+

goodwillcolumbus

GoodwillCols

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Social Enterprise: 62%

Grants: 34%

Corporate Gifts: 3% Individual Gifts: 1%

OUR MISSION

Transforming the lives of individuals through pathways to independence and the power of work.

OUR VISION

All individuals are embraced as valued and dignified members of our community.

OUR GOAL

LEADERSHIP

Ryan Burgess

Chief Executive Officer and President

Mark Koenig, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Compliance Officer

Jennifer Marshall Senior VP of Mission Impact and Strategy

Marlene Armstrong VP of Marketing and Communications

Jennifer Jedinak, VP of Donated Goods Retail

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jen Yaross

Chair, Nationwide

Willam Barath Ice Miller LLP

Andrea Darby OhioHealth

Lisa DePerio Bath & Body Works

Kirk Dickerson Columbus State Community College

Jeff Girard Designer Brands Inc.

John Hall CBRE

Steve Ifeduba

Megan Kilgore City of Columbus

Clara Kridler Hologram

Melissa Laber Cardinal Health

George Leugers Fifth Third Bank

Jen Martin

Erik McDowell Westfield Insurance

Kari Palmer KPMG

Marissa Peirsol BakerHostetler

Marc Reitter AEP Ohio

Linda Roubinek Grange Insurance

We are committed to equipping 100,000 individuals with the tools to advance economic mobility through the power of work by 2030.

ABOUT

Goodwill Columbus is a proud member of Goodwill Industries International, a network of over 150 community-based, nonprofit organizations throughout the United States and Canada that sell donated goods to create job opportunities and training in local communities.

Goodwill Industries was founded in 1902 by Reverend Edgar J. Helms, a minister and early social innovator. Helms started Goodwill with the idea that people could earn a living repairing and selling donated goods. His business model was rooted in the philosophy we all deserve opportunity. “Not charity, but a chance,” he often said.

Today, with over 1,100 employees, Goodwill Columbus is proud to be a top 100 employer in Central Ohio and a trusted source for putting people to work.

Goodwill Columbus believes the power of work can transform lives. We have confidence that our commitment to career navigation and skills development can lead to long-term economic stability for individuals, their families and the greater Columbus community.

Whether you are looking for your first job, your next job or to grow your skills, Goodwill is here to help.

Learn more about our mission and how your organization can get involved at goodwillcolumbus.org/mission.

Photos courtesy Goodwill

Unlocking positive futures

Goodwill Columbus empowers individuals as they change their lives and make a difference in their community through the power of work.

Providing jobs

Offering free job training

Supporting sustainability

Empowering Individiuals

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER –ARTHUR G. JAMES CANCER

HOSPITAL AND RICHARD J. SOLOVE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

460 W. 10th Ave.

Columbus, OH 43210

800-293-5066 cancer.osu.edu

ABOUT

Annual revenue: N/A

Number of employees: 6,550 full-time equivalents, with more than 300 researchers and 200 specialized oncologists

Established: 1976

Number of locations: 11

EXTREME CARE THAT SAVES LIVES

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Individual Gifts: 40%

Foundation

Gifts: 33%

Other

Organizations: 14%

Corporations: 13%

“I shouldn’t even be here, but eight years later, I am,” says Sarah Eagleson, who was diagnosed with stage 3C ovarian cancer and received what she describes as “extreme care” from the OSUCCC – James.

“Extreme care is what you want,” she explains. “You don’t want to be just a ‘customer,’ and you’re not at The James.” Sarah shares several examples of this next-level kind of support. First and foremost is the determination to save her life shown by her gynecologic oncologist, David O’Malley, M.D.

LEADERSHIP

Raphael E. Pollock, M.D., Ph.D., FACS Director, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center

David E. Cohn, M.D., MBA

Interim CEO, James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute

JAMES FOUNDATION

BOARD MEMBERS

Helena Anderson

Jeri B. Block

Kenton R. Bowen

Michael Carpenter

William H. Carter

David E. Cohn, M.D., MBA

Jeg Coughlin Jr.

Dale Darnell

Tammy Dosch

Ron Ford

Steven G. Gabbe, M.D.

Libby Germain

Sarah B. Hatcher

Cindy Hilsheimer

Lisa A. Hinson

Peter Z. Horvath

Irene J. Levine

G. Scott McComb

Diane Nye

Marnette Perry

Raphael E. Pollock, M.D., Ph.D., FACS

Richard R. Porter

Mark Puskarich

Luciana Ramsey

Daniel H. Rosenthal

Charles E. Ruma

Mark C. Ryan

Amy Shepherd

Julie Sloat

Judith E. Tuckerman

Doug Ulman

Robert White Jr.

Alec Wightman

Jay Worly

Michelle YeagerThornton

EMERITUS MEMBERS

William B. Farrar, M.D.

Cheryl Krueger

Jane T. McCoy

James V. Pickett

David E. Schuller, M.D.

“My cancer was everywhere,” she says. “During my first surgery, he could have just sewn me up and sent me home, but he didn’t. He operated for over six hours, and he’s helped me continue to fight each time the cancer has returned.”

In so many smaller ways, the staff at the OSUCCC – James has also made a tremendous impact. When Sarah’s hair was falling out from chemo, a nurse came to her room with scissors, a shaver—and compassion. Another nurse, who had survived cancer herself, made sure Sarah knew she wasn’t alone and could make it through.

“Hearing someone tell you about their own experience and reassuring you that you’re going to be OK is such a gift,” she says.

Sarah’s path has been difficult. The cancer has returned five times and traveled to her brain stem. She’s faced countless

rounds of chemo, including a related allergic reaction and infection in the abdominal port used to deliver chemotherapy drugs. She’s fought extreme fatigue, had a blood transfusion and dealt with double vision, slurred speech and changes in her balance.

“Through it all, every time I’ve said I need something, there’s always been someone at The James who steps up to help,” Sarah says. “I’ve never felt like a number, and I’ve never been rushed along.”

She quickly adds, “I’m crazy about The James—they keep you alive. Statistics may say there’s a 2% chance of survival, but with the kind of extreme care that I’ve gotten from nearly everyone at The James, there’s no reason that 2% can’t be me.”

OSUCCCJames osuccc_james

Photos courtesy The Ohio State University Sarah Eagleson

Founded in 2008, Pelotonia was established to fund innovative cancer research. This year, Pelotonia celebrates its 15th year with a signature series of iconic and impactful events with cycling, entertainment and volunteerism experiences. This year’s events include Opening Ceremony and Ride Weekend in August, a new Gravel Day event in September, and Impact Celebration in November. In the 14 years since its inception, Pelotonia has raised more than $258 million for cancer research.

Thanks to its generous funding partners, Pelotonia is able to direct 100 percent of every dollar raised by its participants to cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), including The Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology.

With the support of the Pelotonia community, researchers at OSUCCC –James have been able to enhance early detection and prevention methods so that lives can be saved before cancer strikes, and scientists at The Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology are creating more effective immunological tools to fight cancer. Pelotonia’s impact partnership with the Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers, designed to improve outcomes specifically for women’s cancers, will directly support progress in the understanding,

prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of women’s cancers.

Pelotonia-funded efforts have contributed to research breakthroughs, innovative treatments and prevention methods, and new partnerships. The transformational discoveries that will happen as a result of these investments in innovative cancer research will lead the way to new or improved cancer treatments and broaden patient populations that can be treated.

By supporting Pelotonia, you are accelerating progress that makes cancer screening, prevention and treatment more effective. To read more about the impact of Pelotonia dollars, please visit pelotonia.org/impact. To join the movement as a Rider, Volunteer or Challenger, register for Ride Weekend and Gravel Day 2023 now at pelotonia.org/register.

PELOTONIA

450 W. Broad St. Columbus, OH 43215 614-221-6100 pelotonia.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $27,791,190

Number of employees: 17

Established: 2008

Number of locations: 1

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Ride Fundraising: 79%

Institutional Contributions: 16%

General Operations Contributions: 5%

LEADERSHIP

Doug Ulman CEO

Joe Apgar President

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Robert H. Schottenstein Chair

Carol R. Bradford, M.D., M.S., F.A.C.S.

Renee Cacchillo

Victor Crawford

Cindy Hilsheimer

Peter J. Mohler, Ph.D.

Dr. Raphael Pollock

Daniel Rosenthal

Julie Sloat

Steve Steinour

Doug Ulman

Abigail Wexner

Pelotonia pelotonia

Photos courtesy Pelotonia

CENTRAL OHIO COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT CORP. (COCICFRANKLIN COUNTY LAND BANK)

845 Parsons Ave. Columbus, OH 43206 614-724-4937 cocic.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $4,628,634

Number of employees: 11

Established: 2012

Number of locations: 1

cocic-franklin-county-land-bank

SOURCES OF FUNDING

General: 43%

DTAC: 24%

Recovery: 10%

Non-DTAC: 23%

LEADERSHIP

Curtiss L. Williams President/CEO

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cheryl Brooks Sullivan Franklin County Treasurer (Vikki Troy, representative)

Commissioner Erica Crawley (Joy Bivens, representative)

Commissioner Kevin Boyce (Emily Cooner, representative)

Commissioner John O’Grady (Eric Wagenbrenner, representative)

Robert Weiler President, The Robert Weiler Co.

Sadicka White

Frederick Ransier

Michael Stevens Director of Development, city of Columbus

James Jewell Administrator, Prairie Township

The Central Ohio Community Improvement Corp. is a quasi-independent public entity known as COCIC-Franklin County Land Bank. In 2012, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners designated COCIC as the agency to combat blight through demolitions, help transfer properties to productive use, and provide a countywide resource to assist in neighborhood and community redevelopment.

COCIC works cooperatively with local units of government, nonprofit organizations and other community partners to effectively create opportunities for blight elimination, economic development and community revitalization. Our partnerships help make change happen in each neighborhood, as every partner organization brings certain expertise and experience to the table to help develop healthy, mixed-income and inclusive communities.

To accomplish our vision of “Removing Barriers, Reusing Land and Rebuilding Communities,” COCIC programs have evolved over the years from an initial focus on demolition to a diverse array of programs geared toward commercial and residential property renovation, land assembly, property transactions, affordable housing, remediation of abandoned gas station sites for redevelopment and stabilization of historic structures.

COCIC’s interventions have done more than just stabilize local real estate markets; they have changed neighbor-

hoods and, as a result, improved lives in Franklin County.

INITIATIVES

Removing Barriers

• COCIC has worked in 65% of Franklin County’s local jurisdictions: 28 municipalities or townships of the county’s 43 local governments.

• COCIC demolished nearly 3,500 residential units between 2012 and 2022.

Reusing Land

• COCIC has returned 205 acres of commercial land to productive use.

• COCIC has stabilized two commercial buildings with historical and cultural significance to Black residents and issued grants to minority-owned businesses that are renovating buildings.

Rebuilding Communities

• To complement the preservation and production of affordable housing, from 2019 to 2022 COCIC issued grant dollars to partners who have stabilized 67 low- and moderate-income families whose homes required exterior repairs, such as a new roof or porch.

Photos courtesy Central Ohio Community Improvement Corp.

In 2018, in partnership with the city of Columbus and Franklin County, COCIC-Franklin County Land Bank established the Central Ohio Community Land Trust to address and promote affordable housing. Operating as a subsidiary of COCIC, the COCLT constructs new, high-quality, singlefamily homes on land bank lots throughout Franklin County and the city of Columbus.

These rehabbed and newly constructed homes in underserved and transitioning neighborhoods have been important bulwarks against rapidly increasing property values that could otherwise displace long-term residents from places like Whitehall and Urbancrest, and Columbus’ South Side, Near East, Linden, Franklinton and Milo-Grogan neighborhoods.

The COCLT achieves permanent affordability by placing the land under a residential property within the land trust, while selling or renting the actual housing structure that sits atop the land to an income-eligible buyer or renter. COCLT provides the development gap and purchase price write-down financing to make the home affordable. In the case of homeownership, the income-eligible buyer (earning 120 percent or below the area’s median income) executes a 99-year ground lease. As a condition of the lease, subsequent sales of the home are restricted to other incomeeligible buyers, and a restricted resale

formula limits future sale prices to ensure affordability while allowing for modest appreciation.

From February 2012 through June 30, 2022, we helped 441 families with safe and affordable housing:

• 148 families became owners of affordable housing through COCIC’s nonprofit partners.

• 52 families became owners of affordably priced housing through COCLT.

• 174 families rent affordably priced rentals built or rehabbed by COCIC’s nonprofit partners.

• 67 families who own their homes were stabilized with emergency home repairs funded by COCIC. Along with many of our partner organizations, we believe the lack of affordable housing opportunities is a key issue that must be addressed from many angles as the population continues to grow.

CENTRAL OHIO COMMUNITY LAND TRUST

845 Parsons Ave.

Columbus, OH 43205

614-724-4937

coclt.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $9,643,065

Number of employees: 11

Established: 2018

Number of locations: 1

cocic-franklin-county-land-bank

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Sales: 36%

Franklin County: 30%

City of Columbus: 29%

General: 4%

Other: 1%

LEADERSHIP

Curtiss L. Williams President/CEO

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cheryl Brooks Sullivan Franklin County Treasurer (Vikki Troy, representative)

Commissioner Erica Crawley (Joy Bivens, representative)

Commissioner Kevin Boyce (Emily Cooner, representative)

Commissioner John O’Grady (Eric Wagenbrenner, representative)

Robert Weiler President, The Robert Weiler Co.

Sadicka White

Frederick Ransier

Michael Stevens Director of Development, city of Columbus

James Jewell Administrator, Prairie Township

Photos courtesy Central Ohio Community Land Trust

COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS OF OHIO

6500 Busch Blvd., Suite 105 Columbus, OH 43229

614-268-2472 ciskids.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $4,102,183

Number of employees: 64

Established: 1993

Number of locations: 1

cisofohio CISofohio

SOURCES OF FUNDING*

Corporate and Foundation

Sponsorship: 41%

Earned

Income: 27%

Grants: 18%

Individual Contributions

and Fundraising

Events: 14%

*Fiscal 2021–22

LEADERSHIP

Amy Gordon

Chief Executive

Officer and Executive Director

Pam Kreber

Chief Operating Officer

Shelly Lewis

Chief Advancement Officer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Steven Williams Spectrum, Chair

Adam Gough

PNC Bank, Vice Chair

Bessie Kitto

Grange Insurance, Treasurer

Erick Carter

Bread Financial, Secretary

Betsy Walker

Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, Immediate Past Chair

Tim Rieder US Bank, Board

Member Emeritus and Past Chair

Abigail Barr

Ice Miller

Amelia Dunlap Nationwide

Ryan Giacomarro

J.P. Morgan

Natalie Grayson

South-Western City Schools

Jennifer Mundorf

Big Lots

Chanel Norton-Lee

Victoria’s Secret

Dennis Sparks Jr.

Dr. Martens

Moniqua Spencer

Advantage Capital

Bridget Tanler

Cardinal Health

For 30 years, CIS of Ohio has worked in high-poverty schools to remove barriers by building one-on-one relationships and providing integrated student supports to vulnerable students that empower them to stay in school and achieve in life.

Our mission is carried out by partnering with school districts to place a skilled site coordinator in each school we serve all day, every day.

Our site coordinators help address nonacademic barriers that often negatively impact a student’s academics, attendance, behavior and mental health. They provide connections to basic needs like food, stable housing, college and career readiness, and social emotional learning (SEL) supports, while collaborating with community organizations, businesses and many others to address the needs of all students.

In addition to the critical work of our in-school site coordinators, CIS of Ohio employs an SEL specialist to address mental health needs and provide SEL skills and resources. We have a housing stabilization coordinator to help students and families find stable housing to support their school attendance and academic needs, and we have a Southside parent engagement coordinator who works specifically with parents to

help them gain necessary skills to support their child’s academic success and connect them to resources.

Our model addresses the whole student. For the 2021–22 school year, we served more than 15,000 students; nearly 1,300 received comprehensive case management services. Of them:

• 99% stayed in school;

• 75% improved in academic areas;

• 81% improved behaviorally;

• 99% of seniors graduated.

In October 2023, we will celebrate our 30th anniversary of making a positive impact in the lives of Ohio students and families.

Photos courtesy Communities in Schools of Ohio

Communities In Schools of Ohio

Community Shelter Board leads a coordinated, community effort to make sure everyone has a place to call home. CSB is the system leader for the prevention of and response to homelessness in Columbus and Franklin County, driving strategy, accountability, collaboration and resources to achieve the best outcomes for people facing homelessness. In 2022, our system of care served 15,000 people, including 5,000 children.

Community Shelter Board exists to serve our community’s most vulnerable members: men, women and children facing homelessness. More than 1,200 people sleep in homeless shelters in Columbus and Franklin County on any given night, while more than 600 are on the streets.

Community Shelter Board’s system of care with homelessness prevention, emergency shelter response and diversified housing programs is especially critical as the cost of living continues increasing rapidly and basic needs like food, transportation and rental payments become a higher burden on the limited budgets of lowincome people.

No one should be without a place to call home, and your support helps provide strategic leadership and coordination of services to ensure housing stability for men, women and families. Support is now more critical than ever, especially

as our community experiences unprecedented economic growth amid a landscape with deepening affordable housing challenges, lagging wages and increasing housing instability.

Your support provides award-winning, life-saving programs that prevent homelessness whenever possible, keep people safe in shelter, and help people find and keep stable housing. These programs serve the most vulnerable people in our community and focus on housing as the solution to homelessness. Over the past 10 years alone, Community Shelter Board’s system of care has housed more than 35,000 people.

Join the fight to protect our community’s most vulnerable and give hope to men, women and children facing homelessness until everyone has a place to call home.

COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD

355 E. Campus View Blvd., Suite 250, Columbus, OH 43235

614-221-9195

csb.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $55.3 million

Number of employees: 35

Established: 1986

Number of locations: 1

communityshelterboard

Community Shelter Board

CommShelterBoard

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Federal, State and Local Public Funders: 90% Private Contributions: 7% United Way of Central Ohio: 2% Other: 1%

LEADERSHIP

Shannon Isom

President and CEO

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Kristina Arcara

Trudy Bartley

Barbara H. Benham

Jon Cardi (Vice Chair)

Susan Carroll-Boser (Chair)

Amy Dawson (Past Chair)

Sonya Higginbotham

Erik Janas

Andy Keller

Alison Marker

Kittrella Mikell

Timothy T. Miller (Treasurer)

Sheila Prillerman

Renee Shumate (Vice Chair)

Stephen M. Smith

Michael Stevens

Sherrice Thomas (Secretary)

Jonathan Welty

Nathan P. Wymer

Photos courtesy Community Shelter Board

HOMEPORT

3443 Agler Road Columbus, OH 43219

614-221-8889

homeportohio.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $6,217,536

Number of employees: 35

Established: 1987

Number of locations: 1

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Rental and Other

Revenue: 33%

Development

Fees: 27%

Contributions and

Pledges: 21%

Government

Grants: 19%

WHO WE ARE

LEADERSHIP

Leah F. Evans

President and CEO

Valorie Schwarzmann

CFO and Senior Vice President, Program Operations

Aaron Wasserman

Vice President, Real Estate Development

Lisa J. Roberson

Vice President, Human Resources

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Emmett M. Kelly

Chair

Robyn Judge

Vice Chair

Larry Price Secretary

Michael Purcell Treasurer

Anthony Anzic

Sam Adams

Tasha Booker

Dawn Carpenter

Robert “Bo” Chilton

Scott Failor

Linda Flickinger

Matthew Keating

Michael Kelley

Cindy Millison

Denise Robinson

Jose Rodriguez

John Rothschild

Brent Swander

Jill Tangeman

Charleta B. Tavares

Kristopher “Kip” Wahlers

Jim Weiler

NON-VOTING BOARD MEMBERS

Stephen R. Buchenroth

Chris L. Hune (past chair)

Sara Neikirk

Homeport is the largest, locally focused nonprofit developer of affordable housing in Central Ohio. Having served the area since 1987, Homeport owns 2,799 affordable rental apartments and homes in 43 communities. Its 6,430 residents— families and seniors—can access a broad range of services ranging from after-school programming to emergency assistance for rent and utilities. Homeport partnerships also link its residents to food, furniture and employment assistance, as well as medical and mental health services. Homeport is a leading provider of homebuyer education and budget and credit counseling for Central Ohio.

WHAT WE DO

Providing a roof over someone’s head is only the start of a stronger home. Homeport surrounds its rental communities with comprehensive support to promote long-term stability and health. With the assistance of partners and volunteers, Homeport organizes out-of-school programs, free produce markets, school supply drives and more for thousands of residents every year.

WHY WE ARE IMPORTANT

Homeport addresses the growing demand of affordable housing in Central Ohio. And the challenge is huge:

• Fifty-four thousand Central Ohio households are paying more than half their incomes for housing.

• The poverty population has grown

at more than three times the rate of the overall population (2009–2014) and extends into Columbus suburbs.

• There is only one affordable rental unit for every three renters in poverty.

• Of the top 10 occupations with the most annual openings, nine do not pay workers enough to afford housing. The one exception is registered nurses.

• More than 17,000 Central Ohioans are on the application list for a rental subsidy.

HOW YOU CAN HELP Homeport

is the answer.

An investment in Homeport is an investment in the lives of Central Ohioans. A decent home is at the center of every important issue, and it has a multiplier effect. Support of affordable housing creates results that extend far beyond and changes the lives of generations.

Photos courtesy Homeport

HomeportOH

Losing someone to suicide can be a uniquely painful and life-upending form of loss. Studies show the likelihood of a survivor of a suicide loss taking their own life increases significantly after the loss. The sooner people can get help, the less likely they are to develop unhealthy coping skills. LOSS (Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors) Community Services exists to instill hope in those bereaved by suicide by providing support, resources and understanding immediately after the loss and in the weeks, months and years to come.

OUR PROGRAMS

• First Responder: A LOSS Team is made up of trained volunteers— many of whom are survivors of a suicide loss themselves—who go to the scene of a suicide to provide support, resources and hope to those who are left behind.

• In-Touch: LOSS journeys alongside survivors through care baskets, personalized grief resources, phone check-ins and personal handwritten cards on important dates.

• Companion: Survivors have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a volunteer who has had a similar experience. This connection can provide a sense of “normalcy” in a very difficult, uncomfortable grief journey.

• Support Groups and Events: It is important to provide opportunities for survivors to gather together as a connected community. This is available through 10-week support groups, an online Tuesday Gath-

ering, quarterly events and other special opportunities.

• Community Education and Advocacy: We collaborate with educators, businesses, agencies, faith communities and many more groups, equipping them to interact with and support those impacted by suicide.

• Community Safety Program: LOSS provides support, training and mentoring for suicide loss survivors to find their voice as a suicide awareness advocate. LOSS offers suicide prevention trainings to community organizations, businesses and faith institutions.

These programs are built on the common principle of creating an emotionally safe venue where survivors can share their experiences, learn from others and receive hope that it is possible to not only survive the death of a loved one to suicide, but also to thrive. We envision a community of suicide loss survivors experiencing a restoration of hope and standing together for suicide awareness.

LOSS COMMUNITY SERVICES

3040 Riverside Drive, Suite 224

Columbus, OH 43224 614-530-8064

losscs.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $435,000

Number of employees: 6

Established: 2014

Number of locations: 1

losscommunityservices

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Grants: 84%

Donations: 9%

Fees for Services: 5% Fundraisers: 2%

LEADERSHIP

Angela Damon

Executive Director

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Glenn Stephenson

President

Adam Craig Treasurer

Dallas Allen

Member at large and coroner’s office representative

Brian Foss Secretary

Ryan Berrigan

Member at large

Jodi Zellers

Member at large

Photos courtesy LOSS Community Services

PRIMARYONE HEALTH

2780 Airport Drive, Suite 100 Columbus, OH 43219

614-645-5500

primaryonehealth.org

ABOUT

Annual revenue: $44,075,520

Number of employees: 350

Established: 1997

Number of locations: 13

PrimaryOneHealth primary1health

primaryonehealth

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Grant

Funding: 43%

Patient Service

Revenue: 29% 340B Pharmacy

Revenue: 25%

Other Revenue: 2%

Donations: 1%

PrimaryOne Health currently serves over 44,000 residents in Central Ohio. A significant number of these residents have barriers in accessing medical; behavioral/mental health; dental; vision; and pediatric, pharmacy, physical therapy, and specialty and support services.

LEADERSHIP

Charleta B. Tavares

Chief Executive Officer

Nichole Gomez

Chief Patient Experience Officer

Dewitt Harrell

Chief Financial Officer

Dr. Jeffrey Marable

Chief Clinical Officer

Andrea Wilson

Chief Community Officer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Upon request

Over the years, PrimaryOne Health has expanded the number of health centers to provide residents with increased access to services at 11 neighborhood health center locations, four mobile health centers and, most recently, two new school-based health centers. We are staying true to our mission: providing access to services that improve the health status of families—including people experiencing financial, social or cultural barriers. Expanding into schools, this will provide families access to behavioral health, dental, vision and primary care services, all while working closely with school counselors and nurses.

JOIN US AT THE HEALTHCARE JUSTICE AWARDS ON NOV. 2, 2023 Advancing Diversity in Health Care

PrimaryOne Health annually recognizes an individual or a partner organization/ agency who embodies the traits of an advocate for health care justice: dedication, determination, leadership and courage. This award was established to celebrate individuals and partners in our community who work to:

• Expand access to health care and wellness services;

• Eliminate health disparities and promote health care justice;

• Promote cultural and linguistic competence in health care;

• Break down cultural and social barriers to quality health care.

Our Beneficiary

Our beneficiary for the ninth annual Healthcare Justice Awards is the Healthcare Justice Scholarship Fund. Started in 2021 at the Columbus Foundation, the Healthcare Justice Scholarship benefits racially, ethnically and culturally underrepresented populations pursuing careers in health care. The scholarship fund will increase opportunities; educate, train and employ more diverse individuals; and allow for more diverse perspectives in the health care field.

For more information on donating to the Healthcare Justice Scholarship Fund, visit primaryonehealth.org/2023-justiceawards or contact Susan Brewer at susan. brewer@primaryonehealth.org.

Photos courtesy PrimaryOne Health

NONPROFITNAVIGATOR OFIT NAVI

BlackGirlRisingInc.

BlackGirlRisingInc.offersBlackgirlsanopportunityto usetheirvoiceandlivedexperiencestoidentifyissuesand concernsthatimpacttheirmentalandemotionalhealth.The organizationempowersgirlswithleadershipskillstodialogue acrossbarriers,thinkcritically,andbuildcommunitywithgirls fromdiverse backgrounds.

IAmBoundlessInc.

Formorethan40years,Boundless, astatewidenonprofit, hasprovided peoplewithintellectualanddevelopmental disabilitiesandbehavioralhealthchallengesthefreedom andopportunitytoliveboundlesslives. We serveallages andabilitiesinautism services,primarycareanddental appointments,jobtraining,counseling andresidentialsupport. Weproudlyprovideperson-centeredcarethatcelebrateseach individualandencouragesthemtobecomeactiveparticipants inthecommunitieswheretheylive,workandplay.

445E.DublinGranvilleRoad

614-300-0323

blackgirlrisinginc@gmail.com blackgirlrising.net

Worthington,OH 43085

800-409-2729

iamboundless.org

®

Boys &Girls ClubsofCentralOhio

Themission of Boys &GirlsClubsofCentralOhioisto enableyoungpeopletoreachtheirfullpotential.Ourtrained professionalstaffgives allK-12members asafe,enriching placetolearn,engage andgrow.Using proven,academically alignedandresearch-informed programs,wehelpour membersachieveoutcomesinthe fourpriorityareasof AcademicSuccess,Character &Leadership,HealthyLifestyles, andMentalHealthand Well-being.

1000ClevelandAve.

Columbus,OH 43201

614-221-8830

bgccentralohio.org

Clintonville-Beechwold CommunityResourcesCenter

CRC wasorganizedin197 1based on the SettlementHouse movementtopromotea positivequality of life forresidentsinthe Clintonville-Beechwoldarea, which quicklyexpandedthroughout FranklinCounty.As acommunity-basedsocial servicesagency CRC offers wraparoundservicesandresourcestohelpindividuals and families buildupontheirstrengths.CRC’s services include FamilyServicesChoice FoodPantry,KinshipCare,Senior Supportive Servicesand Youth ServicesKidsClubprogram.

AdministrativeOffice: 3222N.High St., Columbus,OH 43202

CRCChoiceFoodPantry: 14 W. LakeviewAve., Columbus,OH 43202 614-268-3539 clintonvillecrc.org

NONPROFITNAVIGATOR OFIT NAVI

TheCrawfordCrew

Foundedin2009,TheCrawfordCrew’smissionistoend HPV-relatedcancers.Thesepreventablecancersinclude cervical,headand neck,anal,penile,vulvarandvaginal.TCC takesanactiveroleinthecommunitytohelpsave livesby raisingawarenessofHPV, providingeducationandfunding preventioninterventions.Interventionsincludeaccessto healthcare,HPVscreeningsandpatientsupportprograms. JoinTheCrawfordCrewsimplyby donatingorbecominga volunteertoday!

7385N.StateRt.3,PMB#148

Westerville, OH 43082

614-893-1032

thecrawfordcrew.org

GirlScouts ofOhio’sHeartland

GirlScouts ofOhio’sHeartlandisdedicated tobuildinggirlsof courage,confidenceandcharacter throughopportunitiesand experiencesweprovideto girlsofallwalksoflife. GirlScouts becomeequippedtobuild theircommunities, makeconnections andconfidentlybegintheircareers.Wearedeterminedto break barriersandalloweveryonethe opportunitytoexperiencethe friendship,growthandadventuresGirlScoutsprovides. Visit gsoh.orgtogetinvolved. Donate:gsoh.org/donate.

EastersealsCentral &SoutheastOhio

Easterseals servespeopleofallageslivingwith disabilitiesthroughout28Centraland SoutheastOhio counties.Wechange livesevery daythroughourearly interventionprograms, family support,andadultdayand in-homecareservices.Asanofficialstateof Ohiolongtermcare Ombudsmanagency,wehelp seniors,families andcaregiversnavigatelong-termcarefacilities.Visit eastersealscentralohio.org to learnmore

3830TruemanCourt

Hilliard,OH 43026

614-228-5523

eastersealscentralohio.org

1700WatermarkDrive

Columbus,OH 43215

614-487-8101

gsoh.org

HelpLine

AsNorthernCentralOhio’sonly 24/7resource,wearethego-to forsupportingandempoweringchange.Ourhighlytrained specialistsoffercompassionate supportto anyoneincrisis, connectingthemwiththerightresourcesandempowering themtothrive.Ourpreventionprogramsaddresssuicideand depression,sexualassault,child sexualabuseand family violence.Theseprogramsarerootedinourrelationships withlocalnonprofitsandagencies,givingustheconnections andknowledgetoprovidesupport,educationandvolunteer opportunities.

11N.FranklinSt.

Delaware,OH 43015

740-363-1835

helplinedelmor.org

NONPROFITNAVIGATOR OFIT NAVI

ExecutiveDirector, MAMASecretary

TheHopeCenter

TheHopeCenterisbuiltonthedreamthateveryone initscommunityexperiencesGod’sbestplan fortheir lives.Together,weachievethatdreamthrougheffective compassionministries,byconnectingpeopletovibrant communityrelationshipsandequippingthenextgeneration topursue ahopefulfuture.WeprovideCentralOhioyouth withevents,after-schoolandsummerprogramming,and opportunitiesto formeffectiverelationships.Andlastyear,our CommunityKitchenservedover26,000 mealstocommunity members.

123N.CourtSt. Marysville,OH 43040 937-303-4209

hopecenterohio.org

OhioDominicanUniversity

AnOhioDominicaneducationchangeslives,lifts families, supportsworkforceneedsandtransformscommunities.We areproudto be Columbus’Catholicuniversity.Onein four ODUstudentsis afirst-generationcollegestudent,99percent receivefinancialaidand amajorityofalumniremaininCentral Ohio followinggraduation.Your generosityallowsstudentsto complete acollegeeducation,prepareforcareersuccessand achievefulfillmentinlife.SupportscholarshipsatODUtoday andchange astudent’slifeforever.

1216SunburyRoad

Columbus,OH 43219

614-251-4790

give@ohiodominican.edu

ohiodominican.edu/give

LowerLightsHealth

LowerLightsHealthis aChristian-based, federallyqualified healthcenterand501(c)(3)nonprofit,withsevensitesacross CentralOhio,providing thehighestqualityhealthcaretoall— regardlessofabilityto pay.Weconnectallaspects of health andwellnesstoprovidepatientswithtotalcare.Yourgifts to LowerLightsHealthwillprovidehealth,hopeandhealing for morethan12,000uninsuredandunderinsuredindividualsand familiesinCentralOhio.

1160 W. BroadSt. Columbus,OH 43222 614-274-1455

llchc.org

The PAST Foundation

PAST,anonprofitorganization,is aleaderindesigning innovativeeducationalopportunitiesacrossthenation andaroundtheworld,bringingproblem-basedlearningto educatorsandexperientialprogramstostudents.During PAST’s22years,wehaveimpactedhundredsofthousands ofstudentsandeducators whileengaginghundredsof businessesandindustryleaders.Building acommunityof learnersthat helpsstudentspreparetosolvetheworld’s problemsisourcoremission.

1003KinnearRoad

Columbus,OH 43221 614-340-1208

pastfoundation.org

BeckyBolt

NONPROFITNAVIGATOR OFIT NAVI

ASpecialWishFoundationInc.

Ourmissionistoenhancethequalityoflifeforinfants/ children/adolescentswhoareunder21yearsoldandhave beendiagnosedas having alife-threateningillnessby providingtheopportunity fortheirspecialwishtobegranted. Welendbothemotionalandsocialsupportto thefamilyof thesechildrenbyprovidingtheopportunity forthemtoshare inthewishactivity,enablingthemtogatherlastingmemories tocherishinthefuture.

ThurberHouse

ThurberHousecelebratestheliteraryarts forthe education andentertainmentofthebroadestpossibleaudienceand advancesJamesThurber’sheritageofexcellenceinwriting, cartooningandhumor.Thurberiswhere thecommunity gathersincelebrationofthewrittenword,isignitedby artandunitesinlaughter.AtThurber,writersfindsupport, studentsfindguidance,andcommunity membersfind inspiration.WeareThurberHouse,a communitywhere laughter,learningandliterature meet

620TaylorStationRoad,SuiteJ Gahanna,OH 43230

614-258-3186

aspecialwishfoundation.org

77 JeffersonAve., Columbus,OH 43215

614-464-1032 thurberhouse.org

YWCAColumbus

YWCAColumbusdefiesthe statusquothatputs women, peopleof colorandmarginalizedpopulationsonunequal footing.Withopen dialogueand practical resources,wework toward ourmissionof eliminating racism andempowering womeneachday,initiatingsystematic socialchangethat willleadto aColumbusofpeace,justice,freedomanddignity forall

65S.FourthSt.

Columbus,OH 43215

614-224-9121

ywcacolumbus.org

Annual Networking and Awards Event 2023

Thursday, October 13, 2022 | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM | The Exchange at Bridge Park

Thursday, October 19, 2023 | Hilton Easton | 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM | www.acg.org/columbus

ACG Columbus is hosting the 2023 Annual Networking and Awards Event on Thursday, October 19th at the Hilton Easton. This is the premier networking event of the year, where outstanding companies and service providers that have achieved great things for the Central Ohio economy and community through innovation and excellence in mergers, acquisitions, and corporate finance transactions. ACG honors and acknowledges the deals and deal makers as well as the accountants, bankers, lawyers, private equity firms, and other stakeholders who initiate, structure, and negotiate deals for growing organizations.

ACG Columbus is hosting the 2023 Annual Networking and Awards Event on Thursday, October 19th at the Hilton Easton. This is the premier networking event of the year. Outstanding companies and service providers that achieved great things for the Central Ohio economy and community through innovation and excellence in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance transactions will be recognized for their efforts. ACG honors and acknowledges the deals and deal makers as well as the accountants, bankers, lawyers, private equity firms, and other stakeholders who initiate, structure, and negotiate deals for growing organizations.

Submit your nomination for Deal of the Year or the Innovation Award today!

Premier

https://www.acg.org/columbus/events

Sponsors:

www.acgcolumbus.org/columbus

Breakdown

BY JULANNE HOHBACH

Pension Pain

Last year was a rocky one for investors in general, and public employees in the state of Ohio were no exception. The five public pension funds that oversee retirement, disability and survivor benefits for teachers, municipal employees, first responders and others all saw losses and missed their projected annual return rates in fiscal 2022, according to their most recent financial reports.

Here’s a look at the three biggest and how they fared.

Ohio Public Employees Retirement System

Represents: State, county, municipal, library, public service and other workers

Members: 1,248,000

Net position*: $106.8 billion

Contributions: $4 billion

Net investment loss: $16 billion

Total fund net return: -12.49%

2021 return: 15.2%

Projected annual rate of return:

6.9%

State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio

Represents: Public school teachers and administrators, as well as higher education faculty members

Members: 528,328

Net position*: $87.6 billion

Contributions: $3.6 billion

Net investment loss: $5.3 billion

Total fund net return: -3.73%

2021 return: 29.16%

Projected annual rate of return: 7%

School Employees Retirement System of Ohio

Represents: Non-teaching school employees and bus drivers

Members: 161,181

Net position*: $17.54 billion

Contributions: $954.1 million

Net investment loss: $346.4 million

Total fund net return: -0.5%

2021 return: 26.76%

Projected annual rate of return: 7%

*Net position accounts for total assets and liabilities.

Source: Pension funds’ 2022 annual reports. OPERS’ fiscal year ends Dec. 31, while SERS and STRS end June 30.

The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio on East Broad Street in Downtown Columbus

File

photo by Doral Chenoweth III/The Columbus Dispatch

Locally-Owned with a Focus

integrated real estate investment, management, housing. Our expertise is in buying, renovating, developing and repositioning multifamily properties.

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