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CALL FOR NOMINATIONS Crain’s is accepting nominations for our annual Forty Under 40 section, honoring some of the top business and civic leaders in Northeast Ohio. For more details on how to nominate, see Page 4.

Road to turnpike deal may be rough Indiana operator’s trouble, tight debt market make for a hard sell By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com

Indiana got lucky when it leased the Indiana Toll Road in 2006. “It was the best deal since Manhattan was sold for beads,” Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels told Barron’s

THE GHOSTS OF BUILDINGS PAST More Northeast Ohio sites meet wrecking ball as way to save on tax bill

business weekly in 2009. A for around $3 billion ANALYSIS hopes multinational joint venture for the 241-mile road. paid $3.8 billion for the 157-mile Those comparative numbers could stretch of road between Ohio and make it hard to swing an Ohio deal. Illinois. In part, that’s because the Indiana But Gov. John Kasich won’t do as operation hasn’t performed as well well, it appears, if he tries to peddle as promised, chilling investment the Ohio Turnpike. As it is, he only interest in U.S. infrastructure deals.

ig demolition projects such as razing the old Cleveland Convention Center and 113 St. Clair office building for the Medical Mart and Convention Center project and the Columbia Building on Prospect Avenue for casino-bound visitor parking in downtown Cleveland are attention grabbers. However, wrecking balls also have been swinging with far less fanfare elsewhere around town, like at the old Jim’s Steakhouse on Collision Bend in the Flats. See GHOSTS Page 5 STAN BULLARD PHOTOS/ LAUREN RAFFERTY ILLUSTRATION

Story by STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com

The former Jim’s Steakhouse in the Flats became this empty lot after being demolished.

A tight debt market and a less generous lease deal also will reduce the attractiveness of the Ohio Turnpike. Debtwire, a London newswire affiliated with the Financial Times, reported recently that the Indiana road’s operator, the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co., has been dipping into an interest reserve account to cover debt service because operating See TURNPIKE Page 7

Dots taking aggressive approach to grow brand Backing of veteran retail private equity firm helps By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

With its sights set on planting 1,000 dots on the map and the potential for an eventual public offering of its stock, women’s fashion retailer Dots LLC is working feverishly to take its brand nationwide. Backed by a private equity firm that has helped build retail brands such as New York & Co. and Aeropostale, Dots is doing more renovations and opening more stores this year than it has in any single year, said its CEO, Rick Bunka. At present, Glenwillow-based Dots has 407 stores in 28 states, Bunka all east of the Rocky Mountains, Mr. Bunka said. It now is looking beyond that base. “Our vision here is a much grander vision than historically was the case,” said John Howard, CEO of Irving Place Capital, the New York private equity firm that acquired Dots for an undisclosed price last January. “We think there’s something really special that can be exported here,”

See DOTS Page 6

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SILVER LINING

COMING NEXT WEEK

Recent economic news hasn’t been good, but there was an encouraging statistical nugget in a new data set from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS noted that from December 2009 to December 2010, employment increased in 220 of the 326 largest U.S. counties. In the meantime, the average weekly wage in those counties rose by 3% to $971 in the fourth quarter of 2010. A table in the report looked at the counties where the average weekly wage increased the most, and it included Lorain County. Here’s part of the list. (What are they doing in Olmsted County, Minn.?)

Research revving up Institutions across the area are expanding their research spaces while also attempting to significantly increase their research dollars brought in. This includes schools that traditionally have lagged in this area.

County

Increase in average weekly wage Q4 2009 to Q4 2010

Olmsted (Minn.)

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31.9%

Santa Clara (Calif.)

14.4

Williamson (Tenn.)

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Akron online marketing outfit serves notice Software developer Knotice uses profits to drive company’s desired expansion By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

Five years ago, Knotice Ltd. had nine employees. Soon it expects to have more than 10 times that number. The Akron software developer is in the midst of a growth spurt. The company, which sells software designed to help companies tailor

web, email and mobile marketing messages for specific customers, should employ 92 people by the end of Deagan August, when it finishes filling 23 new positions. The growth is driven by new initiatives within the company and by rising interest in marketing via the Internet and mobile phones, said

Knotice CEO Brian Deagan. Another reason behind the current expansion is that the company now is profitable enough to fund it, Mr. Deagan said. “It’s definitely a bit of an inflection point,” he said. Knotice not only is hiring people throughout the company, but it also is creating two departments. Three employees will form a business intelligence department, which will study data Knotice collects on consumer behavior to

figure out what drives purchasing decisions. That information could influence how Knotice designs future versions of its flagship Concentri software. Two more employees will form a business automation division that will analyze the company’s internal processes, which Mr. Deagan said will prepare it for more growth. Knotice also plans to open a Seattle office by early September. The office will be staffed by two existing employees with ties to the area as well as a few new hires from

the current expansion, Mr. Deagan said. The Seattle office will help the company recruit employees from an area known as a hotbed of IT talent, he said. The company’s growth could accelerate over the next few years should it decide to develop a version of its software that could personalize display advertisements people see while surfing the web, Mr. Deagan said. The company also is thinking about raising equity financing to speed up its growth, he said. See KNOTICE Page 10

INSIGHT

MAC targets home base for more tournaments With eye on athlete experience, Cleveland-based league taps new local facilities for competitions By JOEL HAMMOND jmhammond@crain.com

JASON MILLER

Jim Marra takes a break from a retreat last week for Friends of Breakthrough, an arm of Breakthrough Charter Schools, a Cleveland organization that serves as an adviser to charter schools.

DOING DOUBLE DUTY Longtime private equity exec Jim Marra heeds call to assist fundraising efforts of Breakthrough Charter Schools By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

im Marra is investing in Cleveland, but not in the manner he has in the past. After 23 years in private equity — 20 of them at Blue Point Capital Partners — Mr. Marra is straddling the for-profit and nonprofit worlds in a move he calls an exercise in faith. Still director of business development for Blue Point, he also is the newly minted senior director of corporate and major gifts for Friends of Breakthrough, the fundraising and advocacy arm for Breakthrough Charter Schools in Cleveland. Breakthrough contracts with charter schools to manage their operations and help them grow. Mr. Marra is to be a rainmaker for both organizations. His goal is to develop relationships and persuade people to, in the case of Blue Point, engage in transactions, and in the case of Breakthrough, support the cause. The pay is less, he said, but “this

is for love, not money.” He’s paid full time by Breakthrough, which he joined last month, and via stipend by Blue Point. “I feel like I’m working on a mission that’s really important to the city of Cleveland,” he said. “The more I thought about that, the more it made sense to me that’s where my heart was.” Mr. Marra is, as his Blue Point boss David Given puts it, killing two birds with one stone. Take, for example, a recent conversation over coffee between Mr. Marra and a local investment banker. On the one hand, Mr. Marra said, he discussed with the investment banker how deal flow works at Blue Point. Then, they discussed the investment banker’s desire to volunteer at Breakthrough. Mr. Given, the managing partner who introduced Mr. Marra to charter schools, said he believes Blue Point is “not handicapping ourselves or impeding our new business efforts” by freeing Mr. Marra to serve two masters. See DUTY Page 6

Mid-American Conference schools’ love of Greater Cleveland is unanimous. At least it has been the last two times the presidents of those schools have voted on the futures of neutral-site postseason tournaments staged by the conference. With the Cleveland-based conference’s June 30 announcement that it would bring its baseball tournament to All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon for three years starting next spring, the MAC now holds five tournaments in Northeast Ohio. The only neutral-site championship it doesn’t hold in this region is its football championship game, staged the last seven

years at Ford Field in Detroit, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions. (Golf tournaments typically are held at campus-area courses and hosted by schools.) MAC officials, whose central office is located in Terminal Tower, say there is no concerted effort to bring tournaments here. Rather, the seeming consolidation of these tournaments in Northeast Ohio stems from providing the best possible experience to athletes of its member schools. “These have happened at the right time,” said Ken Mather, the MAC’s assistant commissioner for media and public relations. “The (Lake Erie) Crushers’ stadium (All Pro Freight) is 3 years old, a great facility. The facilities themselves See MAC Page 9

THE WEEK IN QUOTES “The business has the opportunity to take and own the space of fast fashion apparel in strip centers nationally. … We are good at it, and very few people know it.” — Rick Bunka, Dots CEO. Page One

“I really try to raise the bar always, but I think you can do it in a way where people don’t go home on a Friday feeling exhausted.” — 2011 Woman of Note Tricia Griffith, claims group president, Progressive Insurance. Page W-6

“I’m basically maintaining an old car. Even if I replaced the equipment, I still have a building designed for old technology.” — Tom Goins, MetroHealth vice president of facilities and construction. Page 4

“I made it very clear from the beginning, there would be no patronizing of women in this dealership. … I don’t think we have that problem here, because I would ... slap them upside the head.” —2011 Woman of Note Michelle Primm, managing partner, Cascade Auto Group. Page W-11

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Metro eyes wide-ranging upgrade With biggest focus on facilities, hospital hires architect to help balance funds, improvements By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com

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Officials at the MetroHealth System say it’s time to scrounge up hundreds of millions in hard-to-find dollars for campus upgrades or run the risk of falling behind the competition. The county-subsidized health system recently hired HOK Inc., a global architectural and planning firm, to the tune of $520,000 to put together a facilities master plan by year’s end for MetroHealth’s 38-acre Cleveland campus off West 25th Street. The master plan would be the first of its kind that Ronald Fountain can recall in his 14 years on MetroHealth’s board of trustees. “We’ve never had an approach like this — a really comprehensive one,” said Dr. Fountain, who is the Fountain board’s chairman. “We’ve looked at isolated issues around the campus, but never a comprehensive facilities approach.” Officials say it would cost the system as much as $435 million over the next five years just to maintain MetroHealth’s current facilities, much less provide for any expansion. “I’m basically maintaining an old car,” said Tom Goins, MetroHealth’s vice president of facilities and construction. “Even if I replaced the equipment, I still have a building designed for old technology.” Mr. Goins said the Chicago-based HOK will help MetroHealth determine the long-term medical needs of

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the community and the impact health care reform might have on reimbursements. Ultimately, the group will look at what kind of facilities will be needed.

Finding the funds However, Mr. Goins said the money for significant campus upgrades is difficult to come by because of the large volume of uncompensated care the system absorbs each year and because of its dwindling revenue sources, such as its county subsidy and reimbursements from government payers. Last year, the system stomached $109 million in charity care, up from $100 million the previous year, largely due to rising unemployment. Though the county’s subsidy remained stable at $40 million for the last three years, it fell to $36 million in 2011 despite rising health care costs. Dr. Fountain said finding the right balance between offering a robust volume of charity care and bringing in enough revenue to support a campus upgrade “presents a pretty significant challenge.” Dr. Fountain said MetroHealth has no intention of abandoning its mission as Cuyahoga County’s safetynet provider, but the system will need to explore how to expand its patient base by luring more customers with commercial insurance — something new facilities can help attract. With the help of its consultants, MetroHealth also is eyeing its various medical services to determine which ones are bleeding resources and should be cut and which ones are generating revenue. The goal would be to use its dollars more wisely so that it can invest in facility improvements. “In the end you have to make choices in difficult times that provide the most good to the largest number, but there may be a service others provide that we just don’t have enough of a census to make it work,”

Dr. Fountain said. Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald has had his sights on MetroHealth’s financial reports and contracting practices in order to determine whether the health system is appropriately investing taxpayer dollars provided by the county. Dr. Fountain said MetroHealth’s discussions with county officials regarding transparency of its operations are going well and wouldn’t have an impact on any big campus upgrade. “We know for a fact nobody at the county or nobody at the hospital wants to jeopardize the mission of the institution,” he said. “We are working as collaboratively as we can.” David Merriman, a special assistant to Mr. FitzGerald, is leading the charge in reviewing MetroHealth’s finances. He said the county is aware of the health system’s preliminary plans for a campus upgrade, but added the county would decline to comment until a final proposal is hatched.

Laying the foundation Although it could be more than a year before MetroHealth knows exactly what its campus could morph into, it recently acquired a parcel of land from the state that could offer the system breathing room for any future construction. As part of the recently approved state budget, MetroHealth obtained 3.9 acres now housing the Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare building on the southeast side of the health system’s campus next to Interstate 71. The Ohio Department of Mental Health will cover the $3.4 million cost to demolish the building. “If you don’t have an open square, you’re in trouble,” Mr. Goins said. “You need a blank space to get started.” Meanwhile, MetroHealth in the next month plans to invest about $2 million to improve the road near the medical center’s main entrance off MetroHealth Drive. Plans call for ripping up the concrete and installing more lighting to improve patient safety, Mr. Goins said. To accommodate construction, the hospital’s main entrance will be temporarily located off Scranton Road on the south end of its campus. ■

Crain’s seeks nominations for Forty Under 40 section It’s time to dust off your portfolios and strut your stuff as Crain’s Cleveland Business solicits candidates for the 2011 version of its annual Forty Under 40 section. In the Nov. 21 issue, Crain’s will profile 40 individuals under the age of 40 who already have made marks for themselves in Northeast Ohio’s business and civic circles. Candidates can nominate themselves or can be nominated by someone else. The only catch is that their birthdays must be on or after Nov. 22, 1971. To nominate someone via our

website, CrainsCleveland.com, go to “Features” on the toolbar and click on “Forty Under 40,” where you’ll find the “How to Nominate” link. Or, send background information of no more than a single page on your nominee to editor Mark Dodosh via email at mdodosh@crain.com or via regular mail at 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland 44113. No fax submissions, please. Please include the nominee’s date and year of birth. Nominations must be received by the close of business on Monday, Aug. 8. ■

Volume 32, Number 29 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly, except for combined issues on the fourth week of May and fifth week of May, the fourth week of June and first week of July, the third week of December and fourth week of December at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230. Copyright © 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Crain’s Cleveland Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48207-2912. 1-877824-9373.

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Ghosts: Value often found in land, not buildings continued from PAGE 1

The reason Jim’s fell is simple: Thomas Stickney, president of the Scranton Averell real estate company that owns much of the Scranton peninsula, said knocking it down would slash the property’s annual tax bill by $30,000. The landmark had sat empty for years, and he believes it was too costly to repair for reuse. Jim’s has company, and it’s not all small. Empty, obsolete commercial and industrial buildings are coming down throughout Northeast Ohio without immediate plans to replace them as part of redevelopment projects. With a slow and tentative economic recovery under way, it may be years before owners can find new tenants or users. Ford Motor Co. plans to start demolishing soon the 1 millionsquare-foot casting plant at 5600 Henry Ford Boulevard in Brook Park. The automaker closed the foundry last fall.

The automaker has no firm plans for the site, but spokeswoman Stephanie Denby said Ford feels “nothing good” can come from letting an empty factory remain standing. Redeveloping the site is difficult as Ford continues to run two engine plants in other buildings on the north and south sides of the hulking casting plant. When reuse is not an option, Ford demolishes empty factories for safety reasons, Ms. Denby said. But she acknowledged that also Ford demolishes obsolete structures to reduce its carrying costs for utilities and local property taxes. In the case of the 50-year-old casting plant, Cuyahoga County values the 100-acre site at about $4.6 million and the heavy industrial structure at $13.7 million. By eliminating the building from its annual tax bill, Ford stands to slash its property taxes after demolition as much as 67%, to about $105,000

from the tax bill of $345,000 the county is levying this year.

Selling point Demolishing an obsolete building that may be hard to restore also can make marketing sense. That’s how Terry Coyne, senior vice president of real estate broker Grubb & Ellis Co., views the decision by Ohio Bulk Transfer Co. of Cleveland to raze the former Pesano’s restaurant and party center at 5225 Warner Road in Garfield Heights. Razing the structure makes it easier for industrial users to appreciate the opportunities for construction at the 10-acre site near the intersection of Interstates 480 and 77, Mr. Coyne said. Mr. Coyne said he does not know if property taxes dropped along with Pesano’s roof. Most of the value in the property is in the land, anyway, as the county assigned the 28,000-square-foot building a value

Modern Healthcare wants your opinions Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Crain’s Cleveland Business, is seeking participants for the fourth annual Healthcare Purchasing Power Survey. The survey, which is co-sponsored by the National Business Coalition on Health and the Leapfrog Group, measures and ranks the health care pur-

chasing power of major U.S. companies. This year’s survey also asks major employers whether they’re considering dropping health benefits because of alternatives created by the national health care reform law. The survey is open to all U.S. nongovernmental companies and

organizations in any sector of the economy with a minimum of $1 billion in annual revenue. The survey will be sent to all Fortune 1000 companies. The survey period runs from July 11 through Sept. 12. Modern Healthcare will publish the results of the survey in its Nov. 7 issue.

of just $56,000 while it values the ground at $1 million. Leveling the building would reduce the property’s tax bill just 5.4% to $77,572 from $82,000 yearly, according to county tax records. David Browning, managing director of the Cleveland office of CB Richard Ellis, said unlike three years ago — before the advent of the last recession — demolishing a building “is always a part of the conversation” today when a structure goes dark due to a tenant closing or leaving. A Crain’s analysis of online realty data provider CoStar’s demolition records shows more than 300 properties in Cuyahoga, Lake, Geauga, Medina, Portage and Summit counties have been razed since 2006 without immediate follow-on use planned. The goners dated from 1890 to 1970, CoStar reports.

Trash vs. treasure Another big factor in commercial

An electronic version of the questionnaire is available at modern healthcare.com/surveys. It’s also available on the coalition’s website, nbch.org, and the Leapfrog Group’s website, leapfroggroup.org. This year, Modern Healthcare is partnering with several of its sister publications at Crain Communications to distribute the survey. Those publications are Automotive News, Business Insurance, Crain’s Cleveland Business, Crain’s Chicago Business,

and industrial demolitions is the high salvage value of steel and copper, Mr. Coyne said. The salvage element definitely is part of the equation in the demolition planned for much of the former Chrysler stamping plant in Twinsburg. Developers Scannell Properties of Indianapolis and developer/ demolition contractor DiGeronimo Cos. of Valley View, which together last week bought the property, plan to raze a part of the structure to yield land for a vast industrial park. Mr. Coyne thinks the idea of demolishing vacant industrial properties should get wider study. “There are a lot more buildings that should come down,” he said. Likewise, Mr. Browning said he believes the city of Cleveland should revisit its ordinances that require substantial review and approval of potential demolitions by the city’s landmarks and planning commissions. “There are a lot of empty buildings that may never be reused,” particularly office buildings that lack redeeming historic or local value, Mr. Browning said. ■

Crain’s Detroit Business, Crain’s New York Business, Staffing Industry Analysts and Workforce Management. A copy of the survey as well as last year’s results can be obtained from Julie Weissman, research director. You can reach her at (312) 649-5459 or jweissman@modernhealthcare. com. David May, assistant managing editor for features, is the project manager. You can reach him at (312) 649-5451 or dmay@modernhealth care.com. ■

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Duty: Rainmaker brings business knowledge to job continued from PAGE 3

“We’re confident that Jim will figure out the right moments to advocate for Blue Point and the right moments to advocate for Breakthrough Charter Schools,” Mr. Given said.

Daunting task Mr. Marra, 50, is one of several corporate converts working for Breakthrough. He’d known nothing about the charter school mission until an awareness event in 2006 for E Prep, or Entrepreneurship Preparatory School, a charter school served by Breakthrough and located in a renovated factory on East 36th Street. He first served on the E Prep finance committee, then chaired it, and chaired the school’s board in 2009. A large whiteboard in the Friends of Breakthrough office spells out the Friends’ fundraising goal for supporting its schools: $5 million over the next year. So far in the fiscal year that began July 1, $1.1 million has been raised — $700,000 from The Cleveland Foundation and another $400,000 from The George Gund Foundation. The money will cover operations, including teacher salaries and rent. Mr. Marra said Breakthrough also is raising a separate capital fund for buying buildings and setting up an endowment for scholarships. Charter schools receive state and federal money, but do not receive property tax revenue like public school districts. Foundations and private philanthropy are major sources of financial support. Of course, Mr. Marra acknowledged, the fundraising goal is a moving target as Breakthrough and the number of schools it supports

grows. The organization, which serves six schools today, including two that will open in August, aims to serve 20 schools by 2020. To reach that goal, Mr. Marra is organizing an effort to connect with major organizations and entrepreneurs in Cleveland. All 35 board members of Friends of Breakthrough also have been asked to raise $25,000 apiece by the end of the fiscal year.

Treading where many don’t John Zitzner, president of Friends of Breakthrough, is ecstatic to have Mr. Marra on his team. “I think it’s a real feather in his cap that he actually made the move that so many want to make, but don’t,” Mr. Zitzner said. Mr. Marra is motivated by what he calls the dire state of education in Cleveland: the unimpressive graduation rate (a little more than 50% in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District) and the dwindling number of jobs available to those who don’t earn a high school diploma or a college degree. Mr. Marra is inspired, too, by his wife, Joni, who several years ago broke from practicing law to raise funds for University Hospitals. She now is “gainfully retired,” he said. If the model of financing charter schools is changed and new sources of money open up, there may not be a need for someone like him, Mr. Marra acknowledged. But he isn’t looking for an early exit. “I want this to be successful, and after this is successful and we’re having a significant effect on the city of Cleveland, then I’ll figure out the next thing to do,” he said. “I’m here for the long haul.” ■

JULY 18 - 24, 2011

Dots: IPO could help exposure continued from PAGE 1

Mr. Howard said. “This is a business that can grow significantly.” Renovations to existing stores and store openings have accelerated, Mr. Bunka said. Some stores are closing, he said, estimating 25 will be shut this year. None of the closures is in Northeast Ohio. This year alone, 30 stores are slated to open and 50 are designated for remodeling, Mr. Bunka said. The most projects the company previously has done in a year falls in the mid-40s, he noted. “The business has the opportunity to take and own the space of fast fashion apparel in strip centers nationally,” Mr. Bunka said. “We are good at it, and very few people know it.” By “fast fashion,” Mr. Bunka means Dots doesn’t try to predict fashion trends, but monitors them and reacts with product created quickly to capitalize on them. He said Dots has developed a base of suppliers capable of producing merchandise to its specifications.

Dotting the landscape Dots’ first focus is expanding within its current footprint, Mr. Bunka said. Later, about 400 stores will be added in new markets in the West. In three or four years, Mr. Bunka expects the company to have grown at least 50% to 600 or 700 stores. As stores open, the company’s employee count, which currently totals more than 4,000, will grow, Mr. Bunka noted. The number of Dots employees in Northeast Ohio — 360 — should remain fairly stable. Mr. Howard said he hopes to open 50 to 75 Dots stores a year beginning in 2012. Some of Dots’ competitors have more than 1,000 stores, he noted. “There are a lot of places in the

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Jennifer worked with the American Red Cross, Genetech, Merck Pharmaceuticals, The Army, Reston Hospital, Medical College of Virginia, and other organizations in Lean Six Sigma implementation.

United States where there should be Dots stores where currently we don’t have stores,” Mr. Howard said. Neither Mr. Howard nor Mr. Bunka would reveal a dollar figure for the anticipated capital outlay for building the new stores and remodeling the existing ones. “We don’t have a fixed amount,” Mr. Howard said. “We just know that we have to do it. If we’re to present this unified brand, we need to create a more consistent shopping experience.” Since its opening in 1987, Dots has transformed from a closeout retailer similar to Gabriel Brothers to a company with Dots-branded products ranging from denim to shirts and shoes. The company’s mantra is quick fashion at a great value. Stores update their product mix weekly. Many mall-based retailers — The Limited, Forever 21 and H&M — are regarded as Dots’ main competition. So are Target, Walmart and T.J.Maxx. “To certain people who shop at Dots, they are fanatic,” Mr. Howard said. “The question is, how do we communicate to a broader audience?”

Changes inside and out Upgrading the stores is one answer, he said. Within three to four years, all the chain’s older stores should be refurbished. About 130 stores, including 13 in Northeast Ohio, already wear the new look, Mr. Bunka said. By the end of the year, almost half the stores will. The newer look, which features updated colors (more pink, white and gray), new fixtures and flooring and in-store graphics, was chosen in 2007, when the company rebranded itself, Mr. Bunka said. The Dots store in Steelyard Commons in Cleveland was the first to wear the new brand. Also on deck for Dots is the launch of e-commerce, or online purchasing. The company website currently allows people to browse its current fashions, but not to make purchases. A customer loyalty program and a Dots credit card also will be explored, Mr. Howard said. Shortly, a new company board will be in place, Mr. Howard said, and it includes “world-class outsiders who can help” grow the company. Among them are Bernie Zeichner, former chairman and CEO of women’s apparel retailer Charlotte Russe, and Michelle Pearlman, who worked for both Sears and Ann Taylor. The big investment in Dots comes at a time when many lowerend retailers are struggling, said Paul Swinand, lead apparel retailer analyst for Morningstar Inc., an investment research firm in Chicago. While higher-end retailers, such as Nordstrom, are enjoying double-

IPO in its future? Irving Place Capital bought Aeropostale in 1998 when it had about 120 stores and took it public in 2002, Mr. Howard said. Today, the men’s and women’s clothing retailer has more than 1,000 stores. Irving Place, which still owns a controlling stake in 500-store New York & Co., also grew Vitamin Shoppe from nearly 130 stores in 2002 to more than 480 and took it public in October 2009. Are similar plans in store for Dots? A spokeswoman for Irving Place said it’s premature to discuss an exit strategy. While Mr. Bunka, too, said it’s too soon to say, he acknowledged a public stock offering is a possibility. Asked if he’d want that for Dots, he said yes. “I think that it would be a positive next step for the company,” Mr. Bunka said. “By being public, we will expose ourselves to a much larger audience than we do as a private company,” he added, citing access to growth capital and brand awareness. “Most national brands move that direction. At some point, we’ll be ready for it. We haven’t assessed when yet.” Messrs. Howard and Bunka said Dots will remain based in Glenwillow, where it opened its new headquarters just two years ago. Also, by remaining in Northeast Ohio, Dots has access to people in strong fashion programs at area schools, including Kent State University, both men noted. The involvement of a private equity partner that appears to know the retail business is a “checkmark” toward success for Dots, said Robert Antall, managing partner of the Shaker Heights retail management consulting firm, Consumer Centric Consulting. “I think the economy’s right for this kind of expansion because of the availability of retail space, because consumers are looking for high value at low prices,” Mr. Antall said. “Cleveland has lost the vast majority of its retailers over the last 20 years or so,” he said. “It would be nice to have this (growth by Dots), along with companies like JoAnn Stores, spur the growth of other retailers. A growing, healthy retailer is … a great thing. We need more of those in Cleveland.” ■

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digit percentage growth in same-store sales and are expanding where possible, stores such as Payless ShoeSource and Sears have experienced flat to negative sales for several quarters. “Many players are not growing or have scaled back growth plans,” Mr. Swinand said of the apparel retail sector. “So it could be an interesting strategy if (Dots) can fill in where other people are dropping out.”

major news happens, you’ll know ■ Daily headlines: A collection of Crain’s-produced news and blog items from the day ■ Small Business Report: A weekly guide to small business news

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Turnpike: Truckers leery of toll costs continued from PAGE 1

revenue hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t met projections. The company is a joint venture between the Australian Macquarie Group and Cintra SA of Spain. The Indiana road has suffered from a decline in traffic and revenue during the recession. According to a 2010 Macquarie prospectus, toll road revenues â&#x20AC;&#x153;are expected to remain insufficient to cover debt service obligations over the medium term.â&#x20AC;? The situation has raised concerns the company could default on its obligations. The newswire reported but could not confirm that Royal Bank of Scotland, a principal lender, has sent the debt to its workout department. Citing two recent toll increases, the joint venture partners have said payments to bondholders will not be affected. Nonetheless, a stagnant economy and questions surrounding the safety of the bonds that financed the Indiana deal have observers questioning whether Ohio can achieve a turnpike deal that makes financial sense.

Not worth the risk? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right now is probably the worst time they could be talking about doing it,â&#x20AC;? said Kevin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien, director of the Center for Public Management at Cleveland State University and a former municipal finance analyst for Moodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Investor Services. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Maybe two years from now; (the governor) should wait until values are at a reasonably high value.â&#x20AC;? Unless Ohio can get top dollar for the turnpike, it will be difficult for Gov. Kasich to overcome the complaints of critics who argue that leasing or selling the turnpike would be a mistake. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Doing a toll road deal in Ohio, the economics would be challenging,â&#x20AC;? said Tim Offtermatt, a public finance specialist with Stifel Nicolaus Financial Advisors in Pepper Pike. â&#x20AC;&#x153;With the (bond market) where it is, it would be a real challenge to get a deal so compelling youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d have to make a deal.â&#x20AC;? Edward â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nedâ&#x20AC;? Hill, dean of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University, also has broader concerns about selling the turnpike. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To me, the risk is too high and the reward is too small,â&#x20AC;? Dr. Hill said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yeah, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some price out there that would be fantastic (for the state), but the only price that makes sense would bankrupt the company that bought it.â&#x20AC;? Rob Nichols, the governorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spokesman, said the Kasich administration is considering its options. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to look at,â&#x20AC;? Mr. Nichols said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If it makes financial

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Right now is probably the worst time (state leaders) could be talking about (leasing the turnpike).â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Kevin Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien, director of the Center for Public Management, Cleveland State University sense for the state, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll do it; if it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t, we wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t.â&#x20AC;? Mr. Nichols said leasing the turnpike is the most likely option, but he added somewhat cryptically, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are other possibilities,â&#x20AC;? though he would not say what those possibilities are.

Truckers are wary Dr. Hill is concerned that if the state does not control pricing on the turnpike, tolls could rise significantly, which would make it more expensive to move cargo through northern Ohio, especially to and from four major auto plants â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in Toledo, Avon Lake and Lordstown. In Indiana, tolls nearly have doubled during the first five years of the lease. After July 1 of this year, according to the lease, the investors will continue to increase tolls at or above the rate of inflation, likely around 3%. Dr. Hill also wonders whether a private operator would add new interchanges to accommodate businesses, as the Ohio Turnpike Commission did at Lordstown. In addition, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worried about the potential for deteriorating conditions on alternate east-west routes, such as state Route 2, if higher tolls move trucks onto those roads. The trucking industry has similar concerns about turning the Ohio Turnpike over to private hands. Sherry Warren, general counsel of the Ohio Trucking Association said her group, which represents 1,100 trucking companies that use Ohioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roads, isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t opposing the leasing of the turnpike. However, its expectations suggest it wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be happy with the kind of deal that would be attractive to a private operator. It would be especially wary of any agreement that did not put significant restrictions on the ability of a private operator to increase tolls, Ms. Warren said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We believe the turnpike could be operated much more efficiently and the tolls could be reduced to drive traffic back to the turnpikeâ&#x20AC;? if the state maintained control of the highway, Ms. Warren said. The turnpike had a surplus of revenue over expenses of $54.6 million in 2010, according to its annual financial statement. The Missouri-based Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, which has 150,000 truck-driving members, is flatly opposed to any deal.

Southwest taps Eaton as provider Eaton Corp. said it Eaton did not ON THE WEB Story from has been selected estimate the value www.CrainsCleveland.com. by Southwest Airof the contract. lines as one of its component â&#x20AC;&#x153;We believe this expansion of our service providers. relationship with Southwest Airlines Eaton said the companies have is based on our record of providing entered into a contractual agreereliable, high-quality components ment for component repair and backed up by excellent customer overhaul services for the airlineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s support,â&#x20AC;? Eric Alden, vice president fleet of Boeing 737 passenger jets. of customer support for Eatonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s The three-year service contract Aerospace Group, said in a statement. applies to aircraft equipped with Eaton said Southwest Airlines will Eaton-manufactured hydraulic ship components to its aerospace components, including AC motorfacilities for repair and overhaul driven pumps, engine-driven pumps services as part of the contract and hydraulic motors. agreement.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are opposed to leasing existing public highways,â&#x20AC;? public affairs director Norita Taylor said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It usually results in (toll) increases that are unfair to truckers and other highway users.â&#x20AC;?

Evasive action Some truckers already have been favoring alternate routes such as Route 2 since October 2009, when truck tolls on the Ohio Turnpike were increased. The turnpike commission increased to 70 mph from 65 mph the speed limit on the turnpike in April to lure truckers back to the toll road. Talking to reporters July 1, just after he signed the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two-year budget, Gov. Kasich reiterated his desire to lease the turnpike, and said the state probably would get a chunk of money upfront plus a percentage of future toll revenue. He also said he would ensure that toll increases would be capped. The governor has said if he secures $3 billion for the toll road, which would net him about $2.4 billion after repaying existing debt, he would put the money into a fund for building and fixing up infrastructure, such as roadways and bridges. Department of Transportation director Jerry Wray has said Ohio would not agree to a non-compete clause that would limit the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to build and maintain alternate routes to the turnpike, as Indiana did. Any deal would have to be approved by the Legislature. â&#x2013;

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JULY 18 - 24, 2011

PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:

Brian D. Tucker (btucker@crain.com) EDITOR:

Mark Dodosh (mdodosh@crain.com) MANAGING EDITOR:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

OPINION

Crying time

ov. John Kasich has succeeded in pushing the pain of state budget cuts down to the local level, and that’s not all bad. The budget pressures many towns and school districts feel themselves under may force them to push back on the General Assembly to reduce the generous retirement benefits many of their employees enjoy. Municipal leaders and school administrators in many cities must contend with unsustainable methods of compensating their employees, who reap fat payouts upon their retirement with the taxpayer footing a chunk of the bill. Most private sector employees are green with envy when they learn of veteran teachers who retire in their mid to late 50s and rake in as much as 85% of their end-ofcareer salaries in their pensions. The retirement pay of other public employees often is nothing to sneeze at, either. The old excuse for these healthy retirement benefits was that the salaries of public sector workers weren’t in the same league as private sector employees, so public employees made it up at the back of their careers. However, the disparity in pay between comparable jobs in the two sectors often is negligible anymore. Yet, the nice retirement perks for public employees have been allowed to continue. The dirty little secret of public employee management is that it’s easier to maintain labor harmony with powerful public employee unions by laying off their people than by lobbying the Legislature to make workers cover more of their retirement costs. So, when budget crunches come, you repeatedly have headlines of mayors and superintendents crying about the ax they must take to their staffs. Heaven forbid they whisper a word that the pension and health care benefits they must pay are killing them (think of the stink over Senate Bill 5, which curtails the collective bargaining power of public employee unions). The problem for public officials, however, is that their pension burdens are growing so large that they threaten to replicate the awful experience of the U.S. steel and auto industries. That is, cities and schools won’t be able to meet the obligations to their retirees without deep, debilitating layoffs of their active workers, or significant tax increases, or both. Steve Malanga, a former executive editor of our sister paper, Crain’s New York Business, and the author of “Shakedown: The Continuing Conspiracy Against the American Taxpayer,” highlighted the quagmire created by public employee pensions in an op-ed piece that ran June 27 in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Malanga noted that many towns already are spending up to 20% of their budgets on pension costs. He also cited a recent study by California’s Little Hoover Commission, a government oversight body. It noted: “Barring a miraculous market advance and sustained economic expansion, no government entity — especially at the local level — will be able to absorb the blow (from rising pensions) without severe cuts to services.” There is no time to waste for the Legislature to deal with public employee pensions. The alternative is a ticking retirement time bomb.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

School financing remains huge issue

era jewels of the Western Reserve. An ast week, I applauded Cleveland official with Main Street Medina, an Mayor Frank Jackson for his stated organization that works to improve ecowillingness to consider more nomic development while retaining charter schools connected to his Medina’s old-world charm, said people public school system, even though they are drawn to Medina because of the generally are staffed with non-union quality of life and the great schools. teachers. The problem is that the schools are The mayor knows that improving the stressed to the breaking point. schools is the most important New families keep moving into thing he can do to revitalize the BRIAN the new homes being built city. Plenty of young people want TUCKER while voters reject the tax levies to live downtown, something needed to keep the schools at that was shown in the latest their once-excellent level. And census, but then move once they the same thing is happening in start a family. every community in our region. If only other mayors, and The Ohio Supreme Court their citizenry, had the same years ago ordered the General feelings about the schools. But Assembly to reform the school given the fact that our schools financing system because of remain choked by an outmoded its inequity. Instead of doing that, the financing model, we are fated to watch Republican-led Legislature, along with as one school system after another slides Gov. Bob Taft, chose to build and rehab into mediocrity as tax levies are repeatschool buildings across Ohio. edly rejected by voters. So now we have beautiful new school Recently I read a story in The (Medina buildings, but tax-weary residents declining County) Gazette about new and unique to support them. Ohio will not move forshops that had opened in that town’s ward in this new world until we determine historic district, clearly one of the Victorian-

a fair way to finance our schools and return them to the excellence they once had. * * * ** THIS MONTH’S ISSUE OF Golf magazine prints an excerpt from a book (published by Sports Illustrated and written by two senior SI writers) that is, to me, woefully short of the “hilarious new novel” that the editor’s note proclaims. Titled “The Swinger,” the book tells a tale of an African-American golfer who dominated his sport and drove stratospheric TV ratings while leading “another life fueled by drugs and dalliances, deceit and deception.” The golfer (of biracial parents) is married to an Italian bikini model, has a chief rival named “Will Martinsen” rather than Phil Mickelson. Oh, and to put the final cherry on this sundae of unimagination, the golfer is represented by an agent named “Andrew Finkleman, former star of IGM (Intergalactic Golf Marketing).” Is this really the next “hilarious” golf book, or a cheesy exploitation of the Tiger Woods story? I’ve reached my decision, and won’t be wasting my money or my reading time. ■

THE BIG ISSUE What do you think about the United States ending the space shuttle program without a viable way to put our astronauts back in space ourselves (without hitching a ride with the Russians)?

WARREN BLAZY

SCOTT HURLEY

JEFF BOGART

JOHN MCGOVERN

Cleveland

Beachwood

Cleveland

My grandmother told me that the greatest moment of her life ... was the day that man went into space. It’s a shame that generations ahead can’t experience the same thing.

It’s an embarrassment that the Russians have won the space race. I think it’s really a shame we have let it fall so fast.

I don’t think it’s a good idea. Now we’re dependent on foreigners (to go into space) and we know how well that’s worked out in many areas.

I think maybe it’s an opportunity for some global cooperation. Maybe it’s time when we can all work together.

➤➤ Watch more people weigh in by visiting the Multimedia section at www.CrainsCleveland.com.

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Warehouse District eateries just fine ■ I’ve been a subscriber to Crain’s Cleveland Business for about four years now and always appreciated your unbiased professional writers, unlike some of the other rags around town. However, your July 11, Page One story, “Don’t stick a fork in the Warehouse District just yet,” is biased, and in my opinion, lazy journalism. What the story failed to mention was one of the main sources of friction in the Warehouse District was the nightclub Lust, whose lease expires Aug. 31. In its place will be Aces, another new concept as far as restaurants go. Of course, mentioning that portion in the content would have ruined the whole theme to the article. The writer also failed to mention another new conceptual restaurant (at least for downtown) in the form of Tomo. Also, if Public Square is considered part of the Warehouse

LETTER District (based on the mention of John Q’s), then I also didn’t hear any mention about Pura Vida? I didn’t see any mention of violence that has happened in the past in both Tremont and Ohio City. I also didn’t realize that Ohio City was a bastion of culinary excellence. What new concept besides some microbreweries has been introduced in the last 10 years? The only restaurant you could put in that category would be The Flying Fig and now perhaps Crop. So to recap: 1. Crop left for a space that is over four times the size of the space it occupied in the Warehouse District and in its place is a new ethnic restaurant that was sorely needed. In

general, there is a lack of good ethnic restaurants. Both a loss and a gain. 2. Lust, the source of many of the problems in the district, will be replaced by Aces. A huge plus. 3. Waterstreet was replaced with Sixth City Diner. Probably a wash. 4. A run-down closed bathhouse is replaced by a four-story hibachi and sushi restaurant. A huge plus. 5. An average restaurant based on price point replaced by Bar Louie. A wash. 6. A Prime Rib steakhouse in a former pool hall. A huge plus. Yeah, the place is dying. Put a fork in it. If the goal of the article was sensationalism and lack of research, then the writer accomplished her goal. Timothy Higgins Warehouse District resident

MAC: Top facilities outweigh geography continued from PAGE 3

play a big role in our considerations.” Coaches in the respective sports initially make site suggestions to athletic directors, who then make recommendations to presidents, said Joel Nielsen, athletic director at Kent State University. In the case of the baseball tournament, it will be relocated to Avon, home of the independent Lake Erie Crushers, from VA Stadium in Chillicothe, which played host to the baseball tournament for the last four years. Just last February, the conference announced it would bring its volleyball tournament to SPIRE Institute, the sprawling athletic complex in Geneva, starting this fall for two years; that event was held at Seagate Center in downtown Toledo the past five years. Firestone Park in Akron has served as host to the MAC’s softball tournament the past four springs; in the two seasons prior, the four-day tournament was held in Midland, Mich. And the MAC’s popular basketball tournaments since 2001 have been played at Quicken Loans Arena. Mr. Mather told Crain’s in March that those men’s and women’s events collectively attract 1,000 room nights downtown.

Long drive? No problem Western Michigan, located in Kalamazoo, Mich.; Northern Illinois, in De Kalb, Ill.; and Central Michigan, in Mount Pleasant, Mich.; are on average 371 miles from Geneva, 300 from Avon. Kent State and Akron are 70 miles from Geneva, 53 from Avon. Yet the discrepancy in the distance their teams must travel for tournaments has not stopped the MAC’s western outliers from supporting the conference’s moves. “Geographically, we’re at a disadvantage all the time, so we deal with it,” said Debra Boughton, a Northern Illinois associate athletic director and newly appointed senior women’s administrator. More important to NIU, Ms. Boughton said, is placing tournaments where the school’s athletes will be received well. “Basketball’s a good example,” she said. “Fans know where it’s going to be, when it’s going to be. The communities have embraced these tournaments and been gracious to our teams.”

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Midland, Mich., where the softball tournament was held for two years, is 27 miles from Mount Pleasant, yet a Central Michigan spokesman called the staging of the tournaments in Northeast Ohio “absolutely a positive.” “Cleveland is a great city with a lot to offer our fans and participants who attend the tournaments, and it’s an easy drive for us,” said Jason Kaufman, Central Michigan’s director of athletic communications. “But more importantly, we want our student-athletes to have the experience of playing in the best facilities out there.”

This FREE SEMINAR will be held at the Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence. Lunch will be provided for all attendees.

Digging the digs Each school representative cited the quality of the facilities for backing the moves. After a soft opening, SPIRE Institute is receiving national attention, including in a recent ESPN The Magazine “Best of” edition. Also well-regarded is the $12 million All Pro Freight Stadium; besides holding 5,000 fans, it features a turf surface that allows games to be played even in inclement weather. The MAC also holds a special distinction among so-called midmajor conferences by staging its basketball tournaments in an NBA arena. Of the 25 mid-major conferences that play Division I basketball, it’s the only one to do so. “That matters,” said Kent State’s Mr. Nielsen, who cited a graduating men’s basketball player, Rod Sherman, as saying The Q was a big part of why he chose Kent. “Recruits and

prospective recruits see that as an extraordinary opportunity, and these other facilities are first class, as well.” ■

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Knotice: Versatile product stands out continued from PAGE 3

Knotice hasn’t accepted any outside investments since 2006, when it received $500,000 from JumpStart Inc., a nonprofit that assists and invests in startups in Northeast Ohio. “It needs to be a great deal for us to pull the trigger,” Mr. Deagan said. The seeds of Knotice were planted in 2001, when marketing firm Craver Marcom Inc. created a technology division designed to help broadband Internet service providers better communicate with their customers. The company hired Mr. Deagan and Bill Landers, who is Knotice’s chief technology officer, to help run that division, called eMarketing by CMI. In 2003 they ended up buying it from Craver Marcom, which owner Douglas Craver shut down that same year to go into consulting instead. Mr. Craver also connected the startup to Jonathon Grimm and his father, Richard Grimm, who helped finance the launch. Richard Grimm — who was CEO of Technicare Corp., a medical imaging company that closed its Solon plant in 1986 — remains on Knotice’s board of directors. Jonathon Grimm, who previously worked in the investment banking and private equity

fields, today is Knotice’s president and chief financial officer. The company began growing rapidly shortly after receiving the JumpStart investment, which Mr. Deagan said had a “huge” impact on the business. Knotice grew from nine employees in 2006 to 18 at the start of 2007 and 26 a year after that, according to data from the Crain’s lists of local software developers. Knotice employed 35 people on Jan. 1, 2009, and that number grew to 44 people by the start of 2010. Mr. Deagan said Knotice has been profitable since mid 2007. Sales hit $7.5 million in 2010, and Mr. Deagan said he expects revenue this year in a range of $11 million to $12 million. Midway through 2010, the company finished paying back JumpStart’s money, with interest, Mr. Deagan said, noting that JumpStart’s investment never converted to equity because Knotice didn’t raise outside financing.

Happy in Vancouver Mr. Deagan chalks up much of Knotice’s growth to the way it designed its Concentri software. Buyers can use it to customize information that customers see on their websites based on information

such as products those customers have checked out on the websites in the past, where they live and personal details they provide through loyalty programs. The software uses similar information to customize promotional emails and text messages. The ability to customize websites, email and text messages has helped Knotice stand out, Mr. Deagan said. He added that he knows of no competitors that designed all three systems to work together when they originally were built, which allows them to work together seamlessly. “That differentiation has been a big driver,” he said. The software has “definitely boosted sales” at BuildDirect Technologies Inc. since the online building supplies retailer started using it about a year ago, said David Jenkins, vice president of merchandising and conversion for the company, which is based in Vancouver, Canada. One reason BuildDirect chose Concentri was because it could deliver personalized messages via BuildDirect.com and email, Mr. Jenkins said. “We’ve been leveraging it a lot,” he said. ■

JULY 18 - 24, 2011

GOING PLACES JOB CHANGES DISTRIBUTION PARTS ASSOCIATES INC.: Geoff Turner to director of materials and pricing; Andrea Piotrowski to special order buyer; Dean Vecchio to fastener buyer; Joe Dimora to sales support representative.

Walter

Brault

Velkos

Kittoe

Michaels

Ambrose

CARLETON MCKENNA & CO.: Dominic Brault to managing director.

Jackson

Hayes

Richardson

ERNST & YOUNG: Joe Velkos to senior manager, business tax services.

MARKETING

EDUCATION INDIANA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY CLEVELAND: Robin A. Williams to regional faculty recruitment coordinator, Northern Ohio.

FINANCE FIFTH THIRD BANK NORTHEASTERN OHIO: Ted Walter to Akron city president.

FINANCIAL SERVICE AXA ADVISORS: Justin J. Scheeff to financial consultant. BAIRD: John Diemer to vice president, financial adviser.

THOMSON REUTERS: Sara Boyan and Cory Harless to property tax consultants.

GOVERNMENT

nsights

MEDINA COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.: Andrea S. Lyons to marketing director.

FROM A BUSINESS OWNER

“Cox is responsive to our needs because they’re local. And in business, location really is everything.”

HEALTH CARE LAKE HEALTH: Michael E. Kittoe to senior vice president, finance, CFO. METROHEALTH: Dr. J. Scott Williams to Department of Radiology. PREMIER PHYSICIANS CENTERS: Raymond J. Marvar to general counsel. RADIOLOGY AND IMAGING SERVICES INC.: Dr. Troy Blagrave and Dr. Mark Richards to radiologists.

HOSPITALITY BAR CENTO: Michael Nowak to executive chef; Adam Lambert to chef de cuisine. MARKET GARDEN BREWERY AND DISTILLERY: Michael Nowak to executive chef; Mike Foran and Andy Tveekrem to partners.

INSURANCE

Call today and get Internet & Phone with Unlimited Calling for only $65 per month.*

HYLANT GROUP: Tom Kelsey to client service executive, risk management. UNITEDHEALTHCARE: Trisha Horvath to executive director, Employer and Individual in Northern Ohio.

LEGAL WESTON HURD LLP: Karl E. May to partner.

MANUFACTURING

Call 1-866-791-2688 or visit coxbusiness.com *Offer valid until 9/30/11 to new commercial subscribers of Cox Business InternetSM and/or Cox Business VoiceManagerSM in Cox Ohio serviceable locations. Minimum 2-year service contract required. Offer includes monthly service fees for of Cox Business Internet with download/upload speeds of 6 Mbps/2 Mbps, 1 Cox Business Basic VoiceManager with Cox Service Assurance Plan and Unlimited Long Distance). Discounted Phone line, Cox Service Assurance and Unlimited calling plan may be extended up to 8 lines (excludes usage, long distance, Voice Mail and features). Offer does not include installation, construction, inside wiring, usage, equipment, applicable taxes, surcharges or fees. Telephone modem equipment is required. Modem uses electrical power to operate and has backup battery power provided by Cox if electricity is interrupted. Telephone service, including access to e911 service, will not be available during an extended power outage or if modem is moved or inoperable. Telephone services are provided by Cox Ohio Telcom, LLC. Cox cannot guarantee uninterrupted or error-free Internet service or the speed of your service. Actual speeds vary. Rates and bandwidth options vary and are subject to change. Discounts are not valid in combination with or in addition to other promotions and cannot be applied to any other Cox account. Services not available in all areas. Other restrictions apply. ©2011 CoxCom, Inc., d/b/a Cox Communications Ohio. All rights reserved.

CARDPAK: Greg Tisone to president; Jerry Lamm to vice president, CFO; Tom Weber to vice president, general manager; Seth Duckworth to national sales manager. DELTA SYSTEMS INC.: Bill Michaels to business unit manager, outdoor power equipment. MILLWOOD INC.–LIBERTY TECHNOLOGIES: Kirk Ambrose to director of sales. MYERS INDUSTRIES: Ron Ulery to general manager, WEK Industries.

GOLDSTEIN GROUP COMMUNICATIONS: Jennifer A. Jackson to account manager. KNOTICE: John Shelton to web application developer; Kier Selinsky to information architect; Casey Shaulis to senior graphic designer; Kaitlin Bright to marketing coordinator; Anthony Kascak to senior database administrator; Amy Chubbuck to account supervisor; Jeremy Fisher to systems administrator; Chris Johnson to director of business process automation.

NONPROFIT HOUSING RESEARCH & ADVOCACY CENTER: Hilary Mason King to executive director. MARCH OF DIMES FOUNDATION NORTHEAST OHIO: Simone Hayes to division executive director.

REAL ESTATE NRP GROUP: Andrew N. Tanner to chief operating officer.

SERVICE HUMAN ARC: Terri Love to team leader; Joshua Ebel and Nichole Foote to senior client relations specialists; Song Han to client relations specialist; Katie Giganti to facilitator.

TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGEBASE: Mike Cottrill to vice president, marketing.

BOARDS ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION CLEVELAND AREA CHAPTER: Brian Richardson (Sherwin-Williams Co.) to president. OHIO SOCIETY OF CPAS: James D. Gottfried (Ernst & Young LLP) to chair.

AWARDS NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DIABETES AND DIGESTIVE AND KIDNEY DISEASES: John Young-Ling Chiang (Northeast Ohio Medical University) received the Method to Extend Research in Time Award.

Send information for Going Places to dhillyer@crain.com.

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De Sa bb ri ie Fe Do n ld m ley an W -2 W -3

Crain’s honors this year’s class of distinguished ladies who have made a positive impact in Northeast Ohio’s business community

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“It’s not about the architecture anymore. It’s about helping people execute strategy.” – Debbie Donley (below), principal, Vocon Inc.

CONGRATULATIONS Noreen Koppelman Goldstein, our President and Colleague, newly elected President of the Lake County Bar Association and Crain’s 2011 Woman of Note.

Mid-West Materials, Inc. Carbon Flat Rolled Steel Service Center www.midwestmaterials.com

440-259-5200 Processing and distributing superior carbon steel products for 59 years.

Debbie Donley principal

Association Of Steel Distributors

Vocon Inc. By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com

ISO 9001:2000 Certified

Named as Top 100 Metal Service Center in North America

few years after Debbie Donley launched the twoperson Vocon architecture and interior design firm in 1987, she had a dispute with her father and mentor, the late Paul

On behalf of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association

Congratulations to Michelle Primm, Managing Partner of Cascade Auto Group A 2011 honoree for the Crain's Cleveland Business Women of Note Awards.

Voinovich, who was owner of the now-defunct Voinovich Cos. At the time, Voinovich was a power in Cleveland’s architecture and construction scene. “I went to Princeton, N.J., to call on a potential corporate client. Dad said, ‘What are you doing? It’s a waste of time and money.’ But I got interviewed,” Ms. Donley said. “We were included in a request for proposals by UBS Inc. The committee evaluated designs without firm names on them — and we won.” That led to fulfilling UBS’s design needs in a five-state region and a long-term relationship with the financial giant. The job taught her lessons in dealing with corporate clients, and opened doors to more corporations. Fast forward to 2011. Ms. Donley and her brother, also named Paul Voinovich, are the principals of the firm serving as the architect of record for the $160 million Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. corporate headquarters in Akron. Vocon has a staff of 112 people, including seven added over the past year. Do not expect Ms. Donley to spout architectural theory. Neither she nor her brother is an architect. Even though she planned to pursue a career in a creative field, she followed her father’s advice and majored in business administration with a minor in design at Bowling Green State University. Principals at the firm with architecture licenses do the designing and affix state-required architecture stamps. Ms. Donley and Mr. Voinovich run the business. “It’s not about the architecture anymore,” Ms. Donley said of her field. “It’s about helping people execute strategy. Void of strategy, we’re useless to our clients. Take Goodyear. We designed it from the inside out. Goodyear was really looking to change their culture.” As for her role, Ms. Donley sees it as assembling the teams to get jobs done. Within Vocon, Ms. Donley’s role is that of visionary, always looking for the next relationship or the next endeavor for the firm to pursue. She often is termed the firm’s mom and is the arbiter of its culture as a fun shop, where conference rooms take their

names from vodkas. “She’s one of the most harddriving women you will ever meet,” her brother said. “She works tirelessly to be the ringleader for all of the activities in her life. It was (Ms. Donley’s) idea to open a New York office. Her role is to look at the future and see what to do next.” Her background as a Voinovich — the third generation in the business, though Vocon was built from scratch — and as the niece of justretired U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, helped Ms. Donley gained a wealth of contacts dating to her youth. However, that is a two-edged sword. “Everyone always thinks of me as a kid because that is when they met me,” Ms. Donley said. Ms. Donley said her Voinovich antidote was to emphasize networking with people of her own age. That paid benefits as their stars rose. One contact in that category is Chandler Converse, a managing director at CB Richard Ellis’s Cleveland office. He met Ms. Donley when she worked on a project soon after he came here in the late 1980s. “The fact she is doing some of the biggest projects in town reflects her relationship skills and the ability to get work done,” Mr. Converse said. Colleagues describe Ms. Donley as energetic, positive and driven. Emails from her after midnight are common. All the while she worked to grow the business, she was raising three children from her first marriage — a son and two daughters, now 18, 17 and 14. She met Mac Donley, her second husband and a construction contractor, as both worked on the design of the WKYC studio in 2000. Ms. Donley remembers how their relationship turned. She was trying to fix Mr. Donley up with one of her girlfriends when he said, “How about you?” For the future, Ms. Donley’s focus is on helping Vocon grow while continuing what she calls its “fun” culture. The key contribution to that culture was her experience as a mom, she said. “I believe in letting people do the right thing as adults,” she said. “When I ran out of the office to a (child’s) lacrosse game, I did not want to make up a meeting as an excuse.” ■

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Sari Feldman executive director Cuyahoga County Public Library By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com

n 1974, after earning an undergraduate degree in English, Sari Feldman was working at a rape crisis center in Madison, Wis. “I discovered I didn’t want to do counseling as a career, but what I loved was organizing information and educating people about that information,” she recalled of her experience putting together sources of information for the center’s counselors. So Ms. Feldman enrolled in library school at the University of Wisconsin. “Libraries give hope and inspiration,” she said. A professor there named Margaret Monroe had a particularly strong influence. “She understood that libraries had this unique opportunity to take information — at that point it was primarily books — and package it in a way that people needed to use the information, to create a personal learning track that could change people’s lives,” Ms. Feldman said. Dr. Monroe even got Ms. Feldman her first library job while in graduate school.

of the library system since 2003. She was born in South Fallsburg, N.Y., and came to Northeast Ohio in 1997 as head of community

services at the Cleveland Public Library and later as deputy director. A graduate of the State University

of New York at Binghamton, Ms. Feldman spent 14 years with the Onondaga County Public Library in Syracuse, N.Y. “She’s very sensitive to where libraries are going without getting so far ahead of the curve that no one will follow her,” said Marilyn Gell Mason, who brought Ms. Feldman to Cleveland when Ms. Mason was director of the Cleveland Public Library. “She has a nice combination of vision and practicality, and she’s also a wonderful person to work with.” Ms. Mason, who now is a library consultant and photographer in Seattle, lauded Ms. Feldman’s commitment to make libraries more responsive to their communities. “She’s the kind of person who has an intelligent, informed vision and the leadership abilities to

“What sets Benesch apart from other firms is the fact that they’re real people. Everyone I’ve met— every attorney, every partner— really cares about what we’re doing.” DENISE M. ROBINSON President and CEO Alvis House

– Marilyn Gell Mason, former director, Cleveland Public Library “I was a jail librarian in the Dane County (Wis.) correctional facility,” she said. “It was a microcosm of everything I would do for the rest of my life. “I learned a lot about people who were very different from me and I learned how books and information can change peoples’ lives,” she said. Ms. Feldman has taken those lessons to heart, building the Cuyahoga County Public Library system into one of the best in the nation. She has taken it on a course to transform the system with a $70 million-plus building program begun in 2010 that is rebuilding, renovating and relocating 13 outmoded and inefficient branches. The system has broken ground on a new branch in Warrensville Heights and has unveiled plans for a new building in North Royalton and one in Parma that will consolidate two existing branches. The county library system has 28 branches and serves more than a half-million residents in 47 communities in Cuyahoga County. Cardholders circulated a record 20 million items in 2010. A past president (2010) of the Public Library Association, Ms. Feldman has been executive director

achieve that vision,” she said. “She’s very creative and hardworking, and the ability to marry those two is very special.” Unlike most library systems, the Cuyahoga County system does not have a main building. Instead, each of its branches operates like its own community library. “We’re like the solar system,” Ms. Feldman said. “There is a central gravity that holds us together, common polices and common approach to public service. But (the branches) are like individual planets. They have a greater connection to their local communities, and I think that’s a part of our success.” Ms. Feldman and her husband, Matt, live in Shaker Heights. They have two adult daughters, Bridgette and Margaret. ■

MY BENESCH

“She’s the kind of person who has an intelligent, informed vision and the leadership abilities to achieve that vision.”

MY TEAM

Cleveland

To be successful, not-for-profit Alvis House has to stay on top of its business without losing focus on the human side of things. That’s why Denise trusts Benesch. Whether navigating complex financing and real estate deals or consulting on HR and regulatory matters, we share the same goal: to make smart decisions that help Alvis House positively impact people’s lives.

Columbus Indianapolis Philadelphia Shanghai

To learn more about our relationship with Alvis House, visit beneschlaw.com/myteam

White Plains Wilmington www.beneschlaw.com

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“Amy really has proven herself, especially during the Great Recession.”

Amy Gerrity

– Don Stallard, founder and CEO, The Reserves Network

president The Reserves Network By KATHY AMES CARR kcarr@crain.com

my Gerrity has succeeded in her job by placing people in theirs. Her career began in 1984, when entrepreneur Don Stallard hired Ms. Gerrity to help him grow his new recruiting business. The commission-only job offered no benefits at the time, but Ms. Gerrity’s commitment to The Reserves Network since has paid off. Ms. Gerrity, now president and part-owner of the company based in Fairview Park, has helped propel The Reserves Network into an organization with 150 internal employees, more than 1,000 active customers in a variety of industries and more than 30 operating locations in eight states. “We started growing and then grew more through acquisitions,” Ms. Gerrity said. “We’re going to keep expanding.”

The Reserves Network provides staffing, recruiting, training and human resources support services. The firm’s expansion fostered Ms. Gerrity’s professional growth in operations and management; her most recent promotion came in 2007, when she was elevated

from executive vice president to president. Her current role includes ensuring customer satisfaction, overseeing staff, coordinating placement services and monitoring the bottom line. “You never know what to expect,” she said. “We work in so many

industries with thousands of employees, and each employee’s situation is unique. It never gets boring.” Still, Ms. Gerrity sometimes finds herself in a tough position, citing challenges that include labor law issues and the uncertainty surrounding health care reform, both of which impact the firm’s clientele. Enduring the recession, of course, was another matter. “In the staffing industry, when a recession hits, we’re the first to be hit,” she said. “We’re also the first to come back. We’re the bellwether of the economy.” The Reserves Network this year expects to place more than 20,000 employees in temporary and tempto-hire positions, which would be up

WE CONGRATULATE

OUR ADVISORS ON THE BARRON’S TOP 100 WOMEN FINANCIAL ADVISORS LIST.

Merrill Lynch is proud of Kathleen Rosfelder for being recognized on the Barron’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors list. Our Financial Advisors demonstrate every day how a one-on-one relationship, knowledge, insight and one of the broadest platforms in the industry can impact clients’ lives. To see what the power of the right advisor can mean to you, please contact: Kathleen Rosfelder Senior Vice President–Investments Wealth Management Advisor

Merrill Lynch 31095 Chagrin Boulevard Pepper Pike, OH 44124

74% from 11,500 employees in 2009. “Amy really has proven herself, especially during the Great Recession,” said Mr. Stallard, founder and CEO. He attributes the company’s resiliency to his colleague’s leadership and visionary skills. “She implemented some costcutting techniques and helped eliminate redundancies,” he said. “We have made a significant rebound since then.” Indeed, The Reserves Network saw its sales increase last year by about 45%, to $84 million in 2010 from $58 million in 2009. Ms. Gerrity will play a key role in the firm’s ongoing expansion; she said The Reserves Network is eyeing acquisition opportunities in the MidAtlantic region. The organization currently has offices in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. “We’d like to do acquisitions in markets we’re not in,” she said. “We also are hoping to set up more offices in some of those markets.” Ms. Gerrity is a member of the American Staffing Association, Affiliated Staffing Group and the Women Presidents’ Organization Cleveland chapter. Ms. Gerrity in 1978 earned her bachelor’s degree in social work from Cleveland State University and two years later her master’s degree in social administration from Case Western Reserve University. She enjoys boating and collecting seashells on Sanibel Island, Fla., where she frequently travels with her husband, Tim. ■

SPECIALTHANKS Crain’s Cleveland Business would like to thank the staff of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for accommodating this year’s Women of Note. This year’s luncheon, sponsored by PNC and Cleveland.com and presented by Crain’s Cleveland Business and CBiz, will be held this Wednesday, July 20, at LaCentre

Conference and Banquet Facility in Westlake. Tickets still are on sale, but are going fast. Contact Jessica Snyder at 216-771-5388 to purchase tickets. We’ll have coverage, including a photo slideshow, of the luncheon, at www.CrainsCleveland.com., on Wednesday afternoon.

Congratulations to our President SueAnn Naso, Women of Note Finalist 2011... and to all of the outstanding female business leaders.

(216) 292-8040

Source: Barron’s “America’s Top 100 Women Financial Advisors,” June 6, 2011. Barron’s is a trademark of Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. The bull symbol, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management and The Power of the Right Advisor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. Merrill Lynch Wealth Management makes available products and services offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, a registered broker-dealer and member SIPC, and other subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation. © 2011 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. 243505 ARC5Q0A2-06-11 Code 448111PM-0711

www.StaffingSolutionsEnt.com

440-461-1652

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Noreen Koppelman Goldstein president and legal counsel Mid-West Materials Inc. By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com

oreen Koppelman Goldstein grew up answering the phone and writing letters for her father, Joseph Koppelman, as his company grew from a single-office steel brokerage to a steel service center that occupies a 200,000square-foot plant in Perry, Ohio, and employs 55. Today she is president and legal counsel for Mid-West Materials, but there were numerous stops along the way. “When I graduated from Shaker high school, women worked as teachers or nurses and did not think often of pursuing a career after they had children. It never occurred to me as a young woman to join the business,” Ms. Goldstein said. That changed in the 1970s after her parents attended a businesssuccession planning conference where a speaker made the point that female children provided added resources to family firms; her father would ask if she wanted to become part of the business. Ms. Goldstein had spent 20 years on Long Island, N.Y., raising three children and burnishing her educational credentials. Originally a grade school teacher and education consultant with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Case Western Reserve University, she added an MBA from Adelphi University and a law degree from Hofstra University, both on Long Island. From 1976 to 1981, she managed Mid-West’s sales in the Northeast from Long Island. She returned home to Northeast Ohio in 1994, when she joined the firm’s headquarters staff. Although her goal was to practice law in New York City, she found she enjoyed the steel business. She dove into the challenge as her children became adults, Ms. Goldstein said.

“It was nontraditional for her to pursue a career in the steel business. For her to have done it in our generation is even more exceptional.” – Anne Bloomberg, longtime friend of Noreen Koppelman Goldstein Today her father remains chairman of the company, while her son, Brian Robbins, a former Wall Street lawyer, serves as its CEO and manages Mid-West’s sales. Ms. Goldstein’s domain is any of the firm’s legal work and human resources issues; she said she only ventures into sales when there is a dispute. Ms. Goldstein is also busy far from the nursery and farm fields surrounding Mid-West. In June she became president of the Lake County Bar Association. She has run its luncheon programs for 12 years and continues to do so as she serves as head of the 400-member association. Ms. Goldstein had a knack for finding interesting, timely speakers for programs meeting the Ohio Supreme Court’s continuing education requirements for lawyers that impressed Bob Gambol, an assistant Lake County prosecutor who was president of the Lake County Bar in 2006. He asked her to join its board, which led to the presidency. “She knew what she was doing. She was organized. Moreover, as part of a business, she has a different perspective from family practitioners,” Mr. Gambol said. Her interest in self-education continues despite her multiple degrees. While driving to Perry from her Beachwood home, she listens to audio books. She also belongs to a movie club that meets monthly — consider it a cinema version of a local book club — and loves the theater.

When she returned to Cleveland, she worried about missing Broadway, but was pleased with PlayhouseSquare’s busy theater schedule. The grandmother of five also starts her work day with a tai chi class and often ends it watching

a grandchild’s sports game. Anne Bloomberg, a semi-retired government and media relations consultant, has been friends with Ms. Goldstein since the two were students at Shaker. “She is so capable,” Ms.

Bloomberg said. “She was a fine student in high school but was also personable. It was nontraditional for her to pursue a career in the steel business. For her to have done it in our generation is even more exceptional.” ■

Saluting Our Colleague and Partner

Amy S. Leopard | Partner Practice Head—Health Care and Bioscience 2011 Women of Note Honoree

Thanks to Amy’s contributions, our firm is at the forefront of the health care law arena not just locally, but also nationally.

Amy exemplifies the type of professionalism, dedication and expertise that clients have come to expect from Walter Haverfield for nearly 80 years. That’s why we’re proud she’s part of our success story.

Reputation. Strength. Results. www.walterhav.com 216.781.1212

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Tricia Griffith

JULY 18 - 24, 2011

â&#x20AC;&#x153;You get to a title and people automatically think you changed because you have a title. I did their job, and I think I have some built-in respect because of that.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Tricia Griffith (below), claims group president, Progressive Insurance

claims group president Progressive Insurance By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

ricia Griffith may be a powerful executive, but sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the tight-lipped kind. The claims group president who leads 12,000 Progressive Insurance employees across 350 field offices isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too proud to share her mistakes. She tells unexpected stories â&#x20AC;&#x201D; like the time her then-6-year-old son pulled down his pants to feel the seat warmers in a car she was driving â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to remind people that she has â&#x20AC;&#x153;a regular family with regular crazy things that happen.â&#x20AC;? She uses humor in a self-deprecating way. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Probably the biggest comment I get from people after they meet her is: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so normal,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? said Marcia Marsteller, who manages the legal group within the claims organization and reports directly to Ms. Griffith. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come across as being at a different level. Some people would expect a feeling of, well, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an executive, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; When you sit and talk with her, you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel the difference.â&#x20AC;? And it appears that is the difference. The same humor and compassion that catch some by surprise earn Ms. Griffith the respect of those who work for her. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You get to a title and people

automatically think you changed because you have a title,â&#x20AC;? Ms. Griffith said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I did their job, and I think I have some built-in respect because of that. I never forget that.â&#x20AC;? Now 46, Ms. Griffith embarked on her career with Progressive in 1988, not intending for it to be a career at all. The plan had been

to answer the ad in the paper, become a claims representative trainee and go back to school to obtain her MBA shortly thereafter. Within several monthsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; time, however, she was hooked. She liked the ability to impact people positively. A native of an Illinois farming community, Ms. Griffith moved to

Cleveland in 1999 and worked as chief human resources officer for Progressive for six years before she was promoted in 2008 to claims group president. She is the first woman to hold the position, a distinction thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to her because of the example it sets. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hey, you can do this,â&#x20AC;? Ms. Griffith said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can be a man or

a woman.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been 3 Â˝ years since she took the helm, and Rick Sticca, claims general manager for the East region, said the claims group is the most productive it has been in his 25 years with Progressive. The morale is the highest he can recall, too, and he remains impressed by Ms. Griffithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision a few years ago to travel and communicate rather than hole herself up after the company reorganized and let go of a number of people. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She functions like a very good coach,â&#x20AC;? Mr. Sticca said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She uses her humor and her outgoing personality to keep the whole organization loose. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked for a lot of people in this organization,â&#x20AC;? he added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been the most successful leader Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked for in balancing respect for the employee while achieving our goals relative to our customers and our shareholders.â&#x20AC;? That balance is one Ms. Griffith regards with pride. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really try to raise the bar always, but I think you can do it in a way where people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go home on a Friday feeling exhausted,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When you do that, people want to run into the wall for you.â&#x20AC;? She credits her conviction in balance to her father, who encouraged her during her undergraduate career to get good grades but to have fun, too. Ms. Griffith lives in Hudson with her husband, Greg, and three of their children. All eight members of their blended family â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Ms. Griffith, Greg and their six children â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are scuba-certified. They also ski together. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She, to me, is a true example of balancing her work and her personal life,â&#x20AC;? Ms. Marsteller said. â&#x2013;

NOMINATE A CFO

Ratchet Up The Congratulations! Congratulations Pat Taylor, Executive V.P., HR and coowner Wright Tool.

You have until Aug. 12 to make nominations for the CFO of the Year program, which honors top financial officers in Northeast Ohio for their outstanding fiscal leadership and asset management. Awards will be presented in 10 categories: Large, Medium and Small Public Company; Large, Medium

and Small Private Company; and Large, Medium and Small Nonprofit Organization; and Lifetime Achievement Award. All finalists will be profiled in the Oct. 17 issue of Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Winners will be presented at an evening awards reception the week of Oct. 24. Visit www.CrainsCleveland.com for info.

Pat was named a ďŹ nalist for the Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Women of Note. Since 1969

Pat continues to be an inspiration and beacon to the Wright Tool family and it is with pride we proclaim her our winner and our Lady.

Since 1969

Since 1976

Since 2002

AUTO GROUP

Congratulations to Michelle Primm for your outstanding leadership. Made i n t he U S A

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JULY 18 - 24, 2011

Stephanie A.S. Harrington chief operating officer Frantz Medical Group By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

aybe Stephanie A.S. Harrington deserved that Porsche after all. Since joining the Frantz Medical Group of companies in 2005, Ms. Harrington not only has risen to become chief operating officer of Frantz Medical Development Ltd. and several of its subsidiaries, but she also has been a driving force behind the Mentor company’s efforts to commercialize a wider variety of medical devices. Given her accomplishments, it’s funny to think that she wasn’t always an overachiever. She earned A’s and B’s as a student at Woodward High School in Rockville, Md. Doing homework, however, wasn’t her top priority, Ms. Harrington said. That changed when she came home from her first semester at the University of Maryland with a report card full of A’s. After hearing the news, her grandfather, in front of the rest of the family, gave her a challenge: If she could get straight A’s all

ary” at the Frantz Medical Group of companies, which is led by Mark Frantz. Ms. Harrington drove the group — which is best known for producing a pump that feeds liquid food into the stomachs of patients who can’t swallow — to develop more cardiovascular and orthopedic devices, Mr. Frantz said. He lauded Ms. Harrington’s analytical skills, her intuition and her ability to form “collegial, productive teams” with the many companies and institutions that have partnered with Frantz Medical Group to form subsidiaries, joint ventures and spinoffs. “Stephanie is very successful in herding cats,” Mr. Frantz said. Ms. Harrington enjoys working out, visiting family on the east and west coasts and spending time with her two boys, Michael, 14,

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and Trevor, 10. She’s also been interested in chemistry since she was a kid, noting how she’d play with liquid nitrogen while visiting her physicist father’s lab at the National Bureau of Standards, which is now called the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She was a bit out of place as a girl studying chemistry throughout college: She noted how, when she met the professor who taught her Quantum Mechanics 450 class at Stanford, he assumed she was looking for the basic biology class. Though attitudes have changed since then, she still encourages young people to reach for high goals, even if others don’t expect them to. “The worst thing to do is to not take that chance,” she said. ■

“Stephanie is very successful in herding cats.” – Mark Frantz, managing partner, Frantz Medical Group through college, he would buy her whatever car she wanted. Even a Porsche. Shortly thereafter, her grandfather, a German immigrant who started his own tool shop, passed away. Regardless, she kept getting A’s until she earned her chemical engineering degree in 1990. After college, her mother figured she’d make good on the deal, though she convinced her daughter to go with a more practical Mazda MX6. That challenge changed her attitude toward work — a change that still impacts her today. “It allowed me to be self-motivated,” she said. Ms. Harrington earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University in 1994 and that same year was pulled to Cleveland by her now-husband, John Harrington. He and Gil Van Bokkelen, who together founded stem cell technology company Athersys Inc., wanted to move to be closer to genetics researcher Huntington Willard. Ms. Harrington ended up working in Dr. Willard’s lab at Case Western Reserve University. Since then, Ms. Harrington has served as director of laboratory sciences at medical device maker Steris Corp. in Mentor, and she has helped Cleveland-based Imalux Corp. bring its first medical imaging products to market. Today, Ms. Harrington considers herself the “doer behind the vision-

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India Pierce Lee program director for neighborhoods, housing and community development The Cleveland Foundation By JOEL HAMMOND jmhammond@crain.com

ndia Pierce Lee had no community development experience in 1988 when she left her job as an air traffic controller at Cuyahoga County Airport in Richmond Heights. But when she joined the Mount Pleasant neighborhood’s NOW Development Corp., she got a little nudge from then-Mount Pleasant councilman Tyrone Bolden. “‘You’ll learn,’” she said with a chuckle when asked of advice given by the late Mr. Bolden. She had cut her teeth for years in air travel, first in Ypsilanti, Mich., when she was one of 11,000-plus

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unionized air traffic controllers fired in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. She subsequently moved into banking— as a customer service rep and later in mortgage lending — and returned to her native Cleveland in 1983, splitting time in finance and at the airport. But in 1988, a new focus on neighborhood development was taking shape, and Ms. Lee dove in head first. The city just had formed a land bank initiative, and with a group called Cleveland Action to Support Housing, was offering mortgages at 4.99% interest, rather than the 11% to 18% that then was the norm. Mike White, then a city councilman in Ms. Lee’s native Glenville

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neighborhood, also played a key role in the city’s community development efforts, and when he was elected mayor in 1990, committed even more resources to that area. The work was helped by President Bill Clinton’s community empowerment agenda, which granted a combined $1.5 billion to 33 distressed urban communities, of which Cleveland was one. Eighteen years later, after stints at nonprofits Local Initiatives Support Corp. and Neighborhood Progress Inc., Ms. Lee joined the Cleveland Foundation in 2006 as its program director for neighborhoods, housing and community development. In that role, she’s the principal liaison between University Circle’s behemoth institutions and the struggling surrounding neighborhoods, which have a median family income of $18,000. Revitalizing those areas — such as Fairfax, in which the Cleveland Clinic sits — is proving challenging. She said the recent foreclosure mess has “threatened the work we’ve done over 15 years or so,” yet she also sees progress. The Cleveland Foundation, behind CEO Ronn Richard, has made a more concerted effort to communicate with the anchor institutions — to tell them “We’re not trying to change what you’re doing, and (revitalization is) not one (group’s) responsibility” — and they have responded. She said new leaders at some organizations have been more open to conversations. “It’s the most promising work in a long time,” Ms. Lee said. “We’re engaging the anchor institutions and they are looking at the neighborhoods beyond their campuses. It’s a win-win for the institutions and neighborhoods to co-invest.” The collaboration is perhaps best illustrated by Greater University See LEE Page W-14

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wathes of red tape entangle the ever-evolving and oftenbefuddling health care field, but for Amy Leopard, untying those knots is half the fun. As head of the health care and bioscience practice group at Walter & Haverfield LLP in Cleveland, Ms. Leopard characterizes her work as a health care attorney as helping her clients “cross the river without losing a limb.” It’s a demanding job — one that requires she bury her nose in a stack of papers for at least 10 hours a week to brush up on the latest legislative proposals and health care regulations. “Since health reform passed, the industry has changed at lightning pace,” Ms. Leopard said. “There are so many different provisions of the health reform legislation that have rules that come out constantly, but it’s fascinating. I can’t believe people pay me to read that stuff.” Ms. Leopard’s colleagues credit her with elevating Walter & Haverfield’s health care practice to the national stage. Previously, the firm had represented small physician groups, but now handles legal work for health systems around the country. She suggests her ability to transform the firm’s health care practice was due to the strength of her team. And while her boss Ralph Cascarilla agrees, he credits Ms. Leopard’s strength as a communicator as the thing that has led to the firm’s successes in the health care arena. “Lawyers can talk to other lawyers, and certainly Amy does that as well as anyone, but what’s key is that she’s able to translate these concepts into workable and

understandable advice for administrators and other health professionals,” said Mr. Cascarilla, managing partner at Walter & Haverfeld. Although Ms. Leopard has been a health care attorney for about 15 years, it wasn’t her first career choice. While an undergrad at Auburn University, she shadowed an executive at Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, Ala., and decided that’s what she wanted to do for a living. “It was the coolest job ever,” Ms. Leopard said. “He was like the mayor of a little city.” She spent about 10 years as a hos-

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Gena Lovett director of manufacturing, forgings Alcoa Cleveland Works By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com

pital administrator, including stints at a community hospital in Birmingham, Ala., and West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown, W. Va. But while she enjoyed her time as an administrator, Ms. Leopard said she was drawn to the legal and regulatory issues facing health care organizations. She enrolled at Case Western’s law school and said it was like waking up one morning and thinking, “I’ve got to do this, and I’ve got to do it now.” “It was like jumping off a cliff,” Ms. Leopard said about her sudden See LEOPARD Page W-14

ena Lovett used to have a recurring dream within a dream, back in the days when she worked for Ford Motor Co. in Michigan. She would dream that she was taking a job outside her beloved Cleveland — but right then, she would wake up, in a dreamy haze. Thinking she was still comfortably in Cleveland, she felt a huge sense of relief. Then she would wake up again — this time for real — and there she was, far from home and family, working in a job that she really did take after a big move that she really did make. Not that her reality was a bad one. Ms. Lovett was working for a company she dearly loved — and one she says invested the time and resources to take her from being an entry-level supervisor to a “turnaround queen” with the business chops to take on just about any manufacturing management challenge. She just always missed home, she said, no matter how good things were going elsewhere. Ms. Lovett doesn’t need to have that dream anymore. Her real dream has come true, and she’s back home with a job that she loves running Alcoa’s Cleveland Works, where 1,000 people make aircraft parts, wheels for trucks, cars and motorcycles, and other forged aluminum products. And she’s lived up to her reputation since coming to Alcoa in 2007, as she has found plenty of challenges and lots to turn around. For one thing, the unit of Alcoa was not profitable when she came aboard. It also had lousy labor relations, after going through two work stoppages as a result of labor strife the year before she arrived.

Before she could work her magic and fully turn things around, they got worse the following year. Much worse. In August 2008, Alcoa’s 50,000ton forging press, one of the largest in the world, went down. Repairing it would take years and cost $100 million or more. Ms. Lovett’s challenge became greater and more urgent. Now she had to convince Alcoa that investing all that money and time in a plant that was losing money and suffering labor strikes was worth it. She did it by re-establishing a working and cooperative relationship with her union employees — and convincing Alcoa that those employees were an asset — while continuing to improve the plant’s organization, efficiency and profitability. In the end, local community leaders rallied around the plant, too, and Alcoa ponied up the

“Gena can (manage people and drive productivity) and manage a $100 million construction project at the same time.” – Eric Roegner, president, Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions cash to get the press fixed. It is scheduled to come back online this December, Ms. Lovett said, and she is looking very forward to the day when it does. But Alcoa might have been investing in Ms. Lovett as much as in the plant. Her love of her hometown is well known, and her abilities as a manager are unquestioned, said her boss, Eric Roegner, president of Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions. “I’ve seen plant managers who

are great at union relationships, but they don’t drive productivity,” Mr. Roegner said. “And I’ve seen managers who improved productivity, but they lost a lot of good people along the way. Gena can do both — and manage a $100 million construction project at the same time.” Not that she’s all business, though. In addition to her job, Ms. Lovett somehow finds time to sit on five area boards, including the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s advisory board and University Hospitals. She divides the time that’s left between her family and local young women, whom she mentors. After all, says Ms. Lovett, if one girl can come out of East Cleveland and make a big success of herself in the corporate world, so can others. And she’s more than keen to see them follow in her footsteps. “I’m all for girl power,” she says with a grin. ■

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Kimberly Martinez-Giering president and owner KLN Logistics Corp. By CHRISSY KADLECK clbfreelancer@crain.com

imberly Martinez-Giering is the full package. The strategic force behind KLN Logistics, an independently owned and operated division of AIT Worldwide Logistics, Ms. Martinez-Giering is a resourceful, high-energy president and owner. She methodically has grown her logistics business into a 24/7 operation with 16 employees and has increased revenue by more than 125% since purchasing it in 2005. Her strengths are delivering when the stakes are high and the destinations are complex. Ms. Martinez-Giering, 45, oversees an intricate schedule of freight motive, aerospace and medical, she transports that dot the globe and manages 350 next-flight-out shipcontain everything from parts to fix ments a month. idle manufacturing lines costing What’s in the box — be it proscompanies hunthetics that need dreds of thousands “Kim is one of the most to get from New of dollars a day to York to Germany impressive women in critical medical or 1,665 units of Cleveland’s resurgence Star Wars trading and scientific equipment that in the economic move- cards and toys must be delivered from Dallas to ment.” to an exact locaHolland — is not – Scott S. Hardwick, manager as important to tion at an exact of strategic sourcing, Rockwell Ms. Martineztime. Automation In just one speGiering as thinkcialized segment ing outside of it of the Middleburg Heights busito make sure she over-delivers for ness, which customizes logistics her clients. services for industries such as auto“I am extremely hands on,” she

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said. “I worked as a salesperson at AIT for 3 ½ years before I bought the company. I still sell for my business. I am still the one going out and meeting with my customers. I oversee everything. … I even sleep with my BlackBerry right next to me. If there’s a major problem in the middle of the night, I’m involved in fixing it.” Scott S. Hardwick, manager of strategic sourcing and in charge of supplier diversity for Rockwell Automation, met Ms. MartinezGiering three years ago at a networking event at Lorain County Community College. Now she handles more than $2 million of Rockwell’s shipping needs. “Kim is one of the most impressive women in Cleveland’s resurgence in the economic movement,” Mr. Hardwick said. Ms. Martinez-Giering has taken a startup business to more than $5 million in a few short years, growing her customer base to include such customers — and mentors — as Rockwell, Toyota, United Technologies Corp., The Limited and Honda of America Manufacturing. “These companies have been unbelievable to me and so instrumental in the growth of my business and my continuing education,” said Ms. Martinez-Giering, a graduate of the Tuck Executive Education program at Dartmouth University. She attributes her solid work ethic See MARTINEZ-GIERING Page W-14

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Formerly

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com

Shelly Peet vice president

ou often can tell a lot about a person by what they majored in at college. Take Shelly Peet, vice president of Westlake-based Nordson Corp. and head of its she took on something she had human resources and information failed at before. She got A’s in systems. Before earning a master’s physics at her high school in in systems engineering from Case Poland, Ohio, just like she did in Western Reserve University, she ever other subject. She just had to majored in physics at Wittenberg work a little harder. University. Hard work is another thing Ms. Physics is the realm of mega Peet does not shy away from, and thinkers, such as Stephen Hawking she’s always been willing to put in or Albert Einstein — an intimidating the extra time and effort to master subject, to say the new tasks and learn least. Only someone new skills. That drive “Shelly’s efforts really good at it landed her an interncontributed to an would actually ship at NASA, served outstanding year for her well as she rose major in it, right? Wrong. through the ranks of Nordson in 2010.” “I chose physics TRW Inc. and has – Jim Jaye, spokesman, been crucial since for my degree, Nordson Corp. because it was the she joined Nordson hardest subject for in 2003, she said. me in high school,” Ms. Peet said. Most recently, her love of hard Which is why her major does tell work and a challenge landed her an interested observer something positions running Nordson’s human about her — Ms. Peet always has resources department, as well as its been drawn to a challenge. And she’s charitable foundation, which gives accustomed to overcoming them. between $2 million and $3 million a She earned that degree, of year to a variety of causes and charcourse. To be fair, it was not as if ities. As you might guess, they don’t train people to run foundations and HR departments when you’re working on degrees in physics or systems engineering. But Ms. Peet so far has mastered those tasks. And at Nordson, where she reports directly to the CEO, the producer of automated spraying and dispensing equipment gives her credit for part of its overall success. “Shelly’s efforts contributed to an outstanding year for Nordson in 2010, as the company set all-time records for operating profit, net income and earnings per share,” said company spokesman Jim Jaye. Nordson’s challenge might be to find her enough to do. “I still don’t know what I’ll be doing down the road,” jokes Ms. Peet, who says she hasn’t planned out her career. Rather, she’s just accepted what she thought were the most interesting challenges presented to her and thrown herself at them. She likes HR, though, because she said she has come to realize that, as business becomes more competitive, the companies with the best work forces are the ones

Nordson Corp.

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Michelle Primm managing partner Cascade Auto Group By JENNIFER KEIRN clbfreelancer@crain.com

that will survive and grow. It also fits in with one of her personal pursuits outside of work, which is helping to put disadvantaged people back to work. For 12 years she has been an active board member of the nonprofit Towards Employment, which works with former prison inmates, people who have been homeless and others who face an uphill battle to land good jobs. After all, she says, plenty of bosses, co-workers and others have helped her in her career, why not do the same for others? ■

troll around the 8½-acre lot that’s home to Cascade Auto Group in Cuyahoga Falls, and you’ll hear tale after tale of the personal impact Michelle Primm has made on her employees. Like the young man who joined Cascade as a troubled teen, rising to the position of brand manager with Ms. Primm’s mentoring. Or the salesman encouraged to adjust his working hours to join his family for dinner each night. Or the parts manager who, with Ms. Primm’s support, has been successful as the only woman in the service department. Perhaps it’s the female touch in a masculine industry — Ms. Primm is one of only 450 female leaders found among the 17,000 dealerships that comprise the National Automobile Dealers Association. “If there were women (at a dealership), they were the phone operator or the office manager. That’s about it,” said Ms. Primm of her early memories at Cascade, owned since 1969 by her father, Donald Primm. “But times are changing.” As a kid, Ms. Primm recalls searching trade-ins for abandoned pennies and tagging along to car shows in the 1970s. In her teen years, she cleaned bathrooms, filed paperwork and drove the parts truck, but after

college she chose to find a job in finance instead of cars. “I wanted to see what else was out there,” said Ms. Primm, 54. When her dad asked her to come back in 1985, Ms. Primm returned to Cascade and became general manager eight years later. “She’s perfect for the job,” said Donald Primm. “(She) was almost born an adult, very efficient.” To meet Ms. Primm, it’s easy to see why her gender hasn’t inhibited her success in a male-dominated field. She’s confident and personable. She selects her words thoughtfully and uses humor to deflect any residual female stereotypes she finds among customers, car manufacturers and other dealers. “You have to know your facts, speak from facts and pick your battles,” she said. “You have to prove yourself.” Ms. Primm is a dogged supporter of the embattled automotive industry. Never mind that Cascade sells only imports — brands such as Mazda, Audi, Subaru and Porsche. She visited legislators on Capitol Hill no less than 20 times to defend dealers of U.S. brands and the industry. “She is an advocate for dealers, and for minorities (in dealerships),” said Lou Vitantonio, president of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association. “She’s always ready and willing to do what will See PRIMM Page W-14

Congratulations for

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congratulates Marcia J. Wexberg on her selection as a Women of Note finalist and our law firm joins Crain’s in saluting the

Barbara K. Roman

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fter practicing the speech probably 10 times, Barbara K. Roman had become pretty immune to the toughest part. But at the podium in early June, when she spoke the words she’d penned about her late parents, her voice trembled audibly throughout

the banquet hall. Ms. Roman credits her parents, Raymond and Gladys Klein, for driving her to accomplish all that she has: most recently, becoming president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, and before that, graduating from law school and becoming a named partner of the local law firm Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis. “They taught us love,” Ms. Roman said. “They taught us to work hard. When it comes down to it, that’s what’s really important. It’s who we are day to day that really matters.” Ms. Roman’s law partner, Anne L. Meyers, will tell you she’s wellrespected.

Columbus for public government and a labor union. After nearly a decade, the South Euclid native moved home and in the late 1980s joined a private practice. Compassion is a running theme in others’ descriptions of her. “Throughout the whole process of her graduating from college, starting work, then picking herself up, putting herself through law school, through all of her accomplishments, she’s never changed as a person,” said Edrea Lazerick, a friend who has known Ms. Roman since elementary school. “She always has been very true to who she is and has never stepped on anyone to move forward.”

“Throughout the whole process of her graduating from college, starting work ... putting herself through law school, through all of her accomplishments, she’s never changed as a person.” – Edrea Lazerick, friend of Barbara K. Roman But don’t take Ms. Meyers’ word for it, Ms. Meyers herself said. Take the word of the 5,500 Northeast Ohio lawyers who elected Ms. Roman to lead their bar association. “That’s the highest respect,” Ms. Meyers said. “The client doesn’t often know enough about what you’re doing for them. … Your peers, they do know what you’re doing.” Ms. Roman, 61, is only the 11th woman to become bar president in the history of The Cleveland Bar Association and the Cuyahoga County Bar Association, which merged in 2008 to form the CMBA, according to bar spokeswoman Rita Klein. The Cleveland bar dates to 1873, and the Cuyahoga bar to 1927. Ms. Roman became the first in her family to earn a law degree in 1977, when she graduated from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. As she recalls it, she was a member of one of the first classes that had a double-digit number of female students. After graduating, she worked in

In speaking of career moments that reverberate, Ms. Roman recalled how two years ago, after her father had passed away, she opened one card from a stack of sympathy cards and confetti fell out. Inside was the picture of a young man in an ROTC uniform. He wrote to thank her for securing custody of him for his father. It made her cry. “I couldn’t believe I was getting a note 14 years later from an 18-yearold,” she said. “I thought about it. You don’t know when you’re having an impact.” Ms. Roman feels this is the peak of her career. “It can’t get better than this,” she said. Ms. Roman and her husband, Rick Dorman, live in Beachwood. In the nearly 20 years they’ve been married, they’ve traveled to 66 countries. Ms. Roman’s favorite destination is Africa, where she enjoys the culture. She also likes to cook (and doesn’t follow recipes), and learned to love golf so she could spend time on the course with her husband. ■

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Kristie Van Auken senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer Akron-Canton Airport By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com

In the 15 years Kristie Van Auken has led the marketing effort at Akron-Canton Airport, its passenger traffic has more than tripled, from under 500,000 a year to nearly 1.6 million in 2010. She’s reluctant to take a bow for that achievement, calling it the product of a team effort and the relationship between airport management and AirTran Airways, the most active airline at CAK, as the airport is known to pilots and travel agents. But others do give her credit for a big role in the airport’s surge in popularity with travelers. “She was brought in with the specific task in mind of building the airport’s brand and awareness in the community,” said Richard McQueen, the airport’s president and CEO, who has been at the airport since Ms. Van Auken was hired. “You can take a look at the results of the last decade or decade in a half. “As I look around there’s really nobody better at what Kristie does in the airport world than Kristie; she’s the best,” he said. Mr. McQueen describes Ms. Van Auken as a relationship builder. “Watching her at conferences and meetings, I’ve never seen anybody work a room any better than Kristie,” he said. “That’s her job, and that’s why she’s really good at what she does.” A Lansing, Mich., native, Ms. Van Auken earned a bachelor’s degree from Austin College in Sherman, Texas, and a master’s degree in public administration from Western Michigan University. Ms. Van Auken started at AkronCanton in 1996 as director of marketing. She had moved to Akron two years earlier as a trailing spouse to her husband, Mark, and worked as an economic development specialist for the Akron Regional Development Board. They now have two pre-teen children, a daughter and a son. While working on the development board’s aviation committee, the late Akron-Canton leader Fred Krum wooed her to CAK, into an industry that traditionally was dominated by men. It was also a time when airports were attracting low-cost airlines that needed help marketing their service. With no marketing experience in her background, Ms. Van Auken jumped in and learned the business. After her first five years, with the aid of AirTran, Akron-Canton Airport was beginning to grow beyond its original market of southern Summit County and Stark County. In 2001, Delta Airlines came to Akron-Canton, and it became clear to airport management that the airport’s market territory would be expanding. “That was the moment we said we had to tell all of Northeast Ohio about this,” Ms. Van Auken

recalled. But then, before any marketing strategy could be put in place, the industry changed. The terrorist bombings of Sept. 11, 2001, sent a pall over the industry that lasted until 2004. That year, Ms. Van Auken got CAK back in the marketing game with a string of television ads starring a red and yellow inflatable punching bag clown, “Punchy.”

The ads showed Punchy being battered and bewildered in an airport terminal that never was identified as Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, but the inference nonetheless was made. The ads carried the copy, “Remember how you felt the last time you flew out of that big airport?” before touting Akron-Canton as “a better way to go.” The message apparently worked. In 2003, Akron-Canton had 1,164,755 passengers. In 2004, that figure jumped 17% to 1,358,079, during a span when U.S. domestic passenger traffic was up only 7.8%. “I like having the opportunity to take nothing and create something really phenomenal,” Ms. Van Auken said. “To not have any boundaries and not have any previous thinking, that would limit my ability to achieve new heights.” ■

W-13

“I like having the opportunity to take nothing and create something really phenomenal.” – Kristie Van Auken (below), senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer, Akron-Canton Airport

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

JULY 18 - 24, 2011

“She was given an opportunity to co-invent the school. ... She had the creativity and ability to make real changes.”

Mary Ann Vogel

– Rich Clark, president, Saint Martin de Porres High School

founding principal Saint Martin de Porres High School By JOEL HAMMOND jmhammond@crain.com

hen Mary Ann Vogel became the founding principal of Saint Martin de Porres High School, located in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood, she instantly became responsible for 1,900 fewer students. But with the smaller enrollment, Ms. Vogel’s influence on students lives’ has gotten larger. Ms. Vogel joined Saint Martin de Porres in spring 2004 as the 26th person to interview for the job. A part of the 24-member Cristo Rey network of Catholic high schools with their hallmark work-study programs, Saint Martin de Porres

Primm continued from PAGE W-11

help her business and the industry.” The enthusiasm for mentoring that Ms. Primm demonstrates in her dealership follows her home. She and husband, Eric Thomas, serve as volunteers for Youth for Understanding USA, hosting exchange students and training other potential host families. They have opened their home to 15 students from seven

emphasizes personalized learning: Teachers and administrators treat and teach no two students alike. “We want to get to know the kids and find out what they already know,” said Ms. Vogel, who noted the school in August will have its largest enrollment of 475 students. Qualifying students of modest economic means — residing in Cleveland or inner-ring suburbs — are eligible for enrollment and pay tuition between $700 and $2,000 per academic year, depending on need. The students also participate in a work-study program in which

they are paired with a local employer for 400 hours a year and 1,600 hours by the time they graduate. Over 100 Northeast Ohio employers are involved with the program. Ms. Vogel received her bachelor’s degree from Miami University and a master’s degree from Cleveland State; she taught at the old John Hay High School in University Circle, where she said she fell in love with urban education. She then moved to the administration side as an assistant principal at Cleveland South and Collinwood high schools; at the latter, the stu-

countries over the last 10 years. “She’s phenomenal,” said Alka Bhaskar, a Youth for Understanding USA district director. “Michelle is unique because she not only supports international students but also recruits American children … and meets with parents to talk about the importance of studying abroad.” You can still find car dealers out there who don’t take female buyers seriously. Cascade Auto Group isn’t one of them. “I made it very clear from the beginning, there would be no pa-

tronizing of women in this dealership,” said Ms. Primm, adding with a laugh: “I don’t think we have that problem here, because I would go out and slap them upside the head.” That philosophy isn’t just female solidarity; it’s good business. Women influence or make 80% of car decisions in the United States, she estimated, “so you better respect them. “Shame on the dealer who doesn’t appreciate the importance of a woman in the car-buying experience,” she said. ■

All of the employees at Advance Payroll Funding heartily congratulate Judy Nystrom, President of Legacy Staffing and all of the 2011 Crain’s Cleveland Business Women of Note finalists

dent body was 2,000 students strong. Then, in early 2004, she got a call — actually, her parents did — from a familiar voice: Joseph Boznar, her pastor at St. Vitus Catholic Church, with which the new Saint Martin de Porres would be affiliated. Ms. Vogel grew up in the neighborhood and still attends church there; Father Boznar urged her to call Rich Clark, the president of the new school and former principal at St. Ignatius High School. Mr. Clark said Ms. Vogel stood out from the other 25 candidates to whom he spoke because she “was someone completely dedicated to the position. “It was really in her heart,” he said. The new position also allowed Ms. Vogel to have a bigger impact on students’ lives. “She was given an opportunity to co-invent the school,” Mr. Clark said. “It’s every principal’s dream to come in and not live with the past. You get to create all of that. She had the creativity and ability to make real changes.”

Lee

Leopard

continued from PAGE W-8

continued from PAGE W-9

Circle’s cooperative initiative, including the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry. The Cleveland Foundation invested $3 million to launch it and other co-ops, including Ohio Solar and Green City Growers. Ms. Pierce Lee’s ability to help both sides better understand each other has played a key role in the progress, said Chris Ronayne, president of University Circle Inc. “The nature of working in an urban development environment is like (ancient Greek figure) Sisyphus, rolling the rock up the hill,” Mr. Ronayne said. “But she is unique; she’s as comfortable in the board room as she is in the church and the community room. She helps businesses understand the lay of the land better, and helps residents understand the business side, too.” Ms. Pierce Lee said she and her sister, former Cleveland city councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott, take after their parents, both of whom were community activists. Ms. Pierce Lee, who is an administrator at her church in her spare time and with her husband still lives in Glenville, said she remembers her mother helping shut down a seafood market on East 105th Street — as her 13-year-old sister held a picket sign. ■

career change. “I had no idea where it was going to take me, and it was completely different than anything I’d done. ” Ms. Leopard has had no regrets about changing courses and passionately describes her work much like she talks about her 3-year-old grandson, Aiden, who lives with her. Her husband, Karl Wilkens, said when the federal government issues a new regulation, it’s like “Christmas coming early” for his wife. “There are people who are like that who are not fun, but the thing about her that’s wonderful is that she’s a blast to be around,” Mr. Wilkens said. “She can work hard, but she also keeps it light and fun.” Ms. Leopard took a step back from joking about jumping on the bed with her grandson to reveal that one of the things she’s most proud is that she’s the only woman on her firm’s management committee. In a field that traditionally had been dominated by men, she said it’s a remarkable achievement. “It means that our managing partner of our firm understands I’m an important part of the team as a woman and a representative of other women in our firm,” Ms. Leopard said. “I think that’s really cool.” ■

MartinezGiering

the American Cancer Society, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Eastlake Youth Basketball, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Akron Children’s Hospital, Merrick House and Northeast Ohio Fallen Heroes Fund. What sets Ms. Martinez-Giering apart from her competitors is her keen knowledge of the business and her innovative solutions, Rockwell’s Mr. Hardwick said. “She is a very good listener,” he said. “She is definitely a partner with all of her customers and she is well-respected in the industry. It is so easy to recommend her company, and I do so all the time.” ■

continued from PAGE W-10

1-888-651-6500 • 26-831-8900 www.advancepayroll.com

Now, Ms. Vogel hopes to continue the school’s growth. A former butcher shop now is the school’s business office. It owns vacant land around its current footprint on Lausche Avenue, and has a farm on a vacant plot a block south of the school’s main building. The school in June graduated its fourth class, with 100% graduation and college acceptance rates; Ms. Vogel said there now are 265 Saint Martin de Porres alumni, including the 100 students who were part of the school when Ms. Vogel became principal. Ms. Vogel also contributes to the community in other ways. Her parents came to the United States in 1949 and 1951, respectively, after struggles in Yugoslavia; she’s the first female board chair at Slovenksa Pristava, a private club for Slovenian Catholics. She also serves on the board at Facing History — a professional development group for teachers — and is involved with Schools That Can, a local education cooperative. ■

and business acumen to her parents, Ronald and Judith Martinez, who both were entrepreneurs. Her mother ran a car wash and her father was a janitor before starting Janitorial Services Inc. in Cleveland, which now has about 600 employees. Ms. Martinez-Giering also believes in giving back to the community in a big way. She donates her time and support to many local charities and organizations, including

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JULY 18 - 24, 2011

CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

LARGEST ASSISTED-LIVING CENTERS RANKED BY NUMBER OF RESIDENTS(1)

Name Address Rank Phone/Web site

Number of residents

Number of Number of Number of living units RNs (FTE) LPNs (FTE)

Total staff (FTE)

Profit status

Monthly rate in dollars ($)

Year founded

Ownership Administrator

Woodside Village 19455 Rockside Road, Bedford 44146 (440) 439-8666/www.horizonbay.com

182

229

profit

1,900-2,900

1988

Horizon Bay

Abbewood Senior Living Community 1210 S. Abbe Road, Elyria 44035 (440) 366-8980/www.centurypa.com

162

165

profit

1,700

1986

Century Park Associates Inc. Jeff Nieberding

Stone Gardens Assisted Living 27090 Cedar Road, Beachwood 44122 (216) 292-0070/www.stonegardens.org

122

116

nonprofit

3,439-5,647

1994

Board of trustees Ross Wilkoff

Wiggins Place 27070 Cedar Road, Beachwood 44122 (216) 831-2881/www.wigginsplace.org

121

114

nonprofit

2,785-4,292

2004

Board of trustees Nancy Sutula

Rockport Independent and Assisted Living 20375 Center Ridge Road, Rocky River 44116 (440) 356-5444/www.rockportretirement.com

109

125

profit

1,750-3,220

1995

Rockport Retirement Ltd. Penny Kelly

Harbor Court & Annie's Place Memory Care 22900 Center Ridge Road, Rocky River 44116 (440) 356-2282/www.theharborcourt.com

108

118

profit

2,875

1987

Harbor Court Ltd. Donna Zapis

The Gardens at Westlake 27569 Detroit Road, Westlake 44145 (440) 892-9777/www.gardensatwestlake.com

103

profit

3,100-4,100

1988

Spectrum Retirement Communties Christina Melaragno

Judson at University Circle 2181 Ambleside Drive, Cleveland 44106 (216) 721-1234/www.judsonsmartliving.org

102

107

nonprofit

4,800-6,000

1906

Judson Services Inc. Cynthia H. Dunn

St. Augustine Health Campus-Towers Assisted Living 7821 Lake Ave., Cleveland 44102 (216) 634-7444/www.staugustinemanor.org

100

nonprofit

800-1,989

1996

Catholic Charities K. Patrick Gareau

Emeritus at Mentor 5700 Emerald Court, Mentor 44060 (440) 354-5499/www.emeritus.com

profit

2,900-5,000

1999

Emeritus Senior Living Terry Sombat

Elmcroft of Sagamore Hills 997 W. Aurora Road, Sagamore Hills 44067 (330) 908-1166/www.elmcroftal.com

102

profit

2,821-4,673

1999

Senior Care Corp. Jackie Mitchell

The Inn at Belden Village 3927 38th St. NW, Canton 44718 (330) 493-0096/www.theinnatbeldenvillage.com

nonprofit

3,000-4,700

2000

The Cathedral of Life Ministries Nanette Gammill

SOUND SOLUTIONS FOR ASSISTED LIVINGS Contact Mike Mullee + mmullee@maloneynovotny.com + 216.363.0100

Berea Lake Towers Retirement Community 4 Berea Commons, Berea 44017 (440) 243-9050/www.berealaketowers.com

profit

2,100-3,800

1989

Robert M. Coury Trust Tammy Cummins

Wellington Place 4800 Clague Road, North Olmsted 44070 (440) 734-9933/www.wellingtonplace.net

profit

2,250-5,460

2001

John T. O'Neill Rick M. Meserini Patricia Disch

KentRidge at Golden Pond 5241 Sunnybrook Road, Kent 44240 (330) 677-4040/www.kentridgeatgoldenpond.com

profit

2,700-4,480

2005

Inn at Golden Pond LLC Sandy Warner

Marymount Place 5100 Marymount Village Drive, Garfield Heights 44125 (216) 332-1070/www.villageatmarymount.org

104

nonprofit

2,028-3,461

1988

The Village at Marymount Peggy Mathews

Vantage Place Inc. 3105 Franklin Blvd., Cleveland 44113 (216) 566-8707/http://vantageplace.com

profit

878-1,775

Vantage Place Robert L. Royer Jr.

Sunrise of Poland 335 W. Mckinley Way, Poland 44514 (330) 707-1313/www.sunriseseniorliving.com

profit

3,500-4,200

1998

HCP Kerry Collins-Smith

The Fairways 30630 Ridge Road, Wickliffe 44092 (440) 943-2050/www.brookdaleliving.com

profit

3,722-4,447

1998

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. M J Giovanetti

The Weils 16695 Chillicothe Road, Chagrin Falls 44023 (440) 543-4221/www.theweils.org

nonprofit

3,761-6,272

2002

Montefiore Housing Corp. Ella Barney

Crystal Waters Retirement Community 18960 Falling Water Road, Strongsville 44136 (440) 238-3600/www.crystalwatersrc.com

profit

2,700-4,200

2001

Falling Water Retirement Community Inc. Stephanie Chambers

The Village at St. Edward 3131 Smith Road, Fairlawn 44333 (330) 666-1183/www.vased.org

nonprofit

1,053-1,816

1964

The Village at St. Edward Shawn Allan

Sunrise of Parma 7766 Broadview Road, Parma 44134 (216) 447-8909/www.sunriseseniorliving.com

profit

3,000-4,560

1982

Sunrise Senior Living Inc. Rima Hansen

Shepherd of the Valley-Niles 1500 McKinley Ave., Niles 44446 (330) 544-0771/www.shepherdofthevalley.com

nonprofit

1,960-2,780

1972

Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Retirement Services Frederick Mattix

Royalton Woods Retirement Living 14277 State Road, North Royalton 44133 (440) 582-4111/www.royaltonwoods.org

nonprofit

2,100-3,500

2003

Parma Community General Hospital Linda Arduini

Anna Maria of Aurora 889 N. Aurora Road, Aurora 44202 (330) 562-6171/www.annamariaofaurora.com

profit

3,500-4,000

1965

Robert Norton, George Norton Aaron Baker Chris Norton

Shurmer Place at Altenheim 18821 Shurmer Road, Strongsville 44136 (440) 238-9001/www.altenheim.com

nonprofit

2,474-4,058

2001

West Side Deutscher Frauen Verein Inc. John P. Coury

Source: Information is supplied by the companies unless footnoted. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these listings are complete or accurate. We welcome all responses to our lists and will include omitted information or clarifications in coming issues. Individual lists and The Book of Lists are available to purchase at www.crainscleveland.com. (1) All information as of May 1, 2011.

RESEARCHED BY Deborah W. Hillyer

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Contact: Phone: Fax: E-mail:

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

REAL ESTATE

Toni Coleman (216) 522-1383 (216) 694-4264 tcoleman@crain.com

OFFICE?WARHOUSE SPACE

FOR SALE

BANKRUPTCY!

RECEIVER ORDERED

Building & Land For Sale

23K SF of industrial space (20K Warehouse, 3K Office) with 2 cranes at 30 Industry Dr. in Bedford Heights. $600,000!

Approximately 7,000 and 30,000 square feet of warehouse space for rent. Will subdivide. Truck dock available. Easy access to State Route 2. $2.50/square foot including utilities.

SALE Marcella Arms Apartments

Warehouse Equipped, Truck and Forklift. Stys Inc.

61 Units.

216-641-7897

Call 440-946-4767 for details.

330-535-2661

LOW COST FLEX SPACE

WAREHOUSE FOR LEASE

46,000 SQ. FT.

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Will divide. Crane, 2 Truck Loading Docks, near I-490.

I-271 & Rt. 8 ramp. 230 to 23,000 sq. ft.

216.751.3836

1-800-447-2343

CT.HOPSON@GMAIL.COM

Valley View

Richmond Hts,, OH

$1,420,000 W. Greg Reed, Receiver

(614) 833-0602 www.reedrealestatepartners.com

For daily on-line updates, sign up @ CrainsCleveland.com/Daily

Copy Deadline: Wednesdays @ 2:00 p.m. All Ads Pre-Paid: Check or Credit Card

LUXURY PROPERTIES

Eastlake

Call Jerry Fiume or Tom Fox NAI Cummins

JULY 18 - 24, 2011

DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T FORGET: Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cleveland Business on-line @ CrainsCleveland.com For all the latest business news...online

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WANTED: Your subscription to Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cleveland Business To sign up call toll-free at 1-877-824-9373 or on-line @ CrainsCleveland.com Click on â&#x20AC;&#x153;Subscribe Now.â&#x20AC;?

CLASSIFIED PUBLIC NOTICES

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

The Jointly Administered Trust Fund for the Benefit of Lorain City School District Employees is requesting quotes from qualified insurance carriers and/or third party administrators to administer its employee health benefits programs which include medical, pharmacy, dental and vision benefits. Additionally, proposals are invited for wellness, disease management and population management programs. Interested parties can bid on any one or a combination of the above services and programs.

CITY OF INDEPENDENCE, OHIO, USA Requesting Ideas, Concepts, Plans for the redevelopment of the Old Middle School building and/or land in the Downtown Historical District at 6565 Brecksville Rd., Independence, OH 44131 through an RFP process. Receive a copy of the RFP for review and response at the Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Website

www.independenceohio.org/CommercialLife/MiddleSchool.aspx RFP due by 9/2/11 Questions, comments, or additional information requests contact: Ron White, Economic Development Department 216-524-4131 whiter@independenceohio.org

Interested parties should contact Jeff Smith directly for a copy of the request for proposal documents.

Jeff Smith, MAAA, FCA Milliman, Inc. 1335 Dublin Road, Suite 209B Columbus, OH 43215 jeff.smith@milliman.com 614.481.3205 Proposals are due no later than 4:00 pm (EDT) Tuesday, August 2, 2011. Potential bidders should not contact The District or any of The District employees directly.

NOTICE OF BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY The Cleveland Airport System of the City of Cleveland is soliciting Statements of Qualifications from qualified firms to undertake the planning, implementation and management of a comprehensive strategic event planning calendar. Interested parties may obtain a copy of the Request for Qualifications, free of charge, under the Business Information section at www.clevelandairport.com; by calling (216) 265-6086; by written request addressed to Procurement Section, Department of Port Control, 5300 Riverside Drive, P. O. Box 81009, Cleveland, Ohio 44181-0009 or by e-mail to dcartellone@clevelandairport.com. Statements of Qualifications are due by 4:00 p.m. EDT Tuesday, August 23, 2011.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Dance Studio/Martial Arts/Pilates/Yoga/Rehab Services 3000 sq.ft.suite, two separate studios with hardwood floors and waiting room glass viewing, changing rooms, and office. Available immediately for Fall Season. Located center of Solon, Ohio. Short or long term lease. Call Dave at 440-220-0700 for more information

BUSINESS SERVICES

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Take advantage of HUGE First Energy incentives to reduce your lighting energy costs by 50-70%! t "QQMJDBUJPOT mMFE GPS ZPV t /P EJTSVQUJPO UP ZPVS PQFSBUJPO t 1BZCBDL JO NPOUIT t FUNDS ARE LIMITED t , TR GU NJOJNVN

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BUSINESSES FOR SALE

Assisted Living Business & Real Estate For Sale Investors & Owner/Operators Wanted

Lake County 25-Bed Profitable Assisted Living Facility

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Bob Taussig

330-931-3905 Bob@ROI-Energy.com www.ROI-Energy.com

By Appointment Only: 4- Hussman Walk in Freezers Coolers, Toyoda Forklift Pallet Racking in Cleveland Stys Inc.

216-641-7897

38-Bed Profitable Assisted & Independent Living

$895,000

For information on these Confidential Listings Contact: Oreste Realty LLC Chris Foley (614) 915-8835 cfoley@SeniorsFamily.com

TAVERN Business FOR SALE

Warren/ Youngstown Area

Westpark Area

Located in free standing building. Well known establishment. Sunday Liquor License. Large kitchen with pizza oven.

SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT Indians Loge Box

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Share our home plate suite. At cost.

Classified Ads WORK!

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Jen 614-218-3884

Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Executive Recruiter Director for Grants, Research and Development Notre Dame College is seeking a Director for Grants, Research and Development. The successful candidate will have a demonstrated ability in successful researching and writing grant proposals; a basic knowledge of funding opportunities in higher education; creative program development skills; superior writing and editing skills; a basic knowledge of local foundations and program officers who offer support to educational institutions.

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20110718-NEWS--27-NAT-CCI-CL_--

7/15/2011

JULY 18 - 24, 2011

2:00 PM

Page 1

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

THEINSIDER

THEWEEK

REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS

JULY 11 - 17

Cops could go ballistic for these clipboards

The big story: In memory of their daughter,

■ Captain America has a shield he uses to deflect bullets, and a Northeast Ohio company thinks cops, paramedics and others who get shot at ought to at least have a clipboard. “If we save one life with these clipboards, we’re a success,” said Rob Slattery, sales manager of Cleveland-based Impact Armor Technologies. OK, yeah, the concept sounds amusing. But it’s no joke and neither is Impact Armor, which has made bullet-proof briefcases for the Secret Service and other potentially lifesaving armor for the military and police, Mr. Slattery said. Impact Armor’s ballistic clipboards measure about 12 inches square and weigh about a pound and a half, he said. They function like most other clipboards, except they can stop a bullet — even one fired from a .44 Magnum. You remember those — “the most powerful handgun in the world” back when men were men and Clint Eastwood was Dirty Harry. The prospect of fending off a bullet with a clipboard might not sound like a good time, but it’s better than using your bare hands or, say, a pizza box, which is why Mr. Slattery, a former cop, thinks they’ll sell to both law enforcement agencies and others who send employees into risky situations. (You listening, Domino’s?) Law enforcement officials are testing them now — in other words, blasting away at

■ Tech geeks. Volunteers. Rappers. All of the above will be participating in the second annual Ohio Homecoming Festival. The five-day series of events is designed both to entertain and to push Ohio’s citizens to “aspire to greatness,” according to the festival’s website. Among those assigned to help achieve those lofty goals are more than 100 startups scheduled to participate in the 6th City Tech Fest this Saturday, July 23, at Great Lakes Science Center in downtown Cleveland. They’ll get a little bit of help from Bone Thugs ‘N’ Harmony: The rap group, which was started in Cleveland, will perform a reunion concert on Saturday night behind Cleveland Browns Stadium. Opening for Bone Thugs will be Drake, who received two Grammy nominations for the song, “Best I Ever Had.” Before they take the stage, though, 26 of the young companies at the 6th City Tech Fest will make pitches to a panel of judges, who will award the best company a prize package that will include business development services and a cash prize, the size of which had yet to be determined as of last Thursday, July 14. The main point of the Tech Fest, however, is “to get that critical mass of entrepreneurs into one building,” said Dar Caldwell, a partner with LaunchHouse, a business development group that’s organizing that

WHAT’S NEW

BEST OF THE BLOGS

Angie, who died of melanoma at age 14, Fairmount Minerals CEO Chuck Fowler and his wife, Char, have donated $17 million to establish The Angie Fowler Child & Young Adult Cancer Institute at University Hospitals’ Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. The gift is the largest individual donation in Rainbow’s history. UH said the new cancer institute will include a dedicated outpatient treatment facility and an expanded inpatient unit for pediatric and young adult patients, along with a rooftop garden at Rainbow.

Spaced out:

Northeast Ohio will not be home to a new national laboratory designed to make better use of the International Space Station. NASA instead chose to locate the lab at the Kennedy Space Center, which is just east of Orlando, Fla. A joint venture between Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus and Universities Space Research Association of Columbia, Md., had sent NASA a proposal recommending that the lab be located on Euclid Avenue in Midtown Cleveland. The joint venture, Space Laboratory Associates, would have managed the U.S. portion of research on the International Space Station if it had won the contract. NASA Glenn Research Center in Brook Park did not participate in the proposal.

Brazilian connection: Flight Options LLC, a provider of fractional jet ownership programs, has secured a large financing commitment from Brazil’s development bank in order to expand its fleet of aircraft from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. Flight Options said the three-year, $167 million financing agreement with Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES) will help the company finance its purchase of Embraer Phenom 300 jet aircraft. Flight Options in 2007 placed an order for 100 Phenom 300 business jets, plus an option to buy 50 more. The order’s total value exceeds $1.2 billion, at the Phenom 300’s current list price. The men for the job: Two Northeast Ohioans will serve on the board of directors of JobsOhio, the new nonprofit corporation that will take over from state government much of the economic development and job creation effort run by the Ohio Department of Development. James C. Boland, retired vice chairman of Ernst & Young and former president, CEO and vice chairman of the Cavaliers Operating Co., and Dr. C. Martin Harris, chief information officer of the Cleveland Clinic, were among eight people named by Gov. John Kasich to the JobsOhio board.

Fastening down a deal: FFR-DSI Inc., a 49year-old company in Twinsburg that formerly was known as Fasteners for Retail, has changed hands. Olympus Partners, a private equity firm based in Stamford, Conn., said it has acquired FFR-DSI from Cortec Group, a private equity firm in New York. Olympus did not say what it paid for FFR-DSI, which produces point-ofpurchase displays, rack systems, signs and other items for the retail field.

Bits and pieces: CPI-HR, a Solon-based provider of business services, has acquired Summit Payroll Services LLC of New Jersey for an undisclosed price. … To make way for Cleveland’s new casino, the Greater Cleveland Partnership and the Council of Smaller Enterprises over the weekend moved their 100-plus employees from the Higbee Building on Public Square to 1240 Huron Road at PlayhouseSquare. Construction is in progress inside the Higbee Building on the new Horseshoe Casino, with a targeted opening in spring 2012.

them — and when testing is finished they’ll sell for about $150, Mr. Slattery said. — Dan Shingler

A fest within a fest, technically speaking

Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.

Baker Hostetler stars remain team players COMPANY: Eye Lighting International, Mentor PRODUCT: kíaroLED The manufacturer of lighting products is introducing what it describes as a line of “rugged outdoor LED luminaires.” Eye Lighting says the luminaires feature “an exclusive (patent pending) optical design that delivers superior performance in controlling backlight, uplight and glare while increasing light on task and reducing energy consumption.” The product “delivers more light at a lower wattage than competitive LED luminaires, and an increased number of streetside lumens results in better visibility and minimizes the number of required poles.” It’s approved for use on bridges and overpasses. Eye Lighting says kíaroLED’s electrical and optical chambers protect the luminaire “from the intrusion of water, insects and dust.” A thermal protection control feature “monitors the board temperature, assuring that the LEDs do not overheat and the minimized number of critical components prevents further opportunities for premature failure,” according to the company. For information, visit www.EyeLighting.com. Send information about new products to managing editor Scott Suttell at ssuttell@crain .com.

■ Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: An out-of-towner with big bucks tries to recruit a major Cleveland figure with ties to the sports world. Probably ends badly, right? Not according to a recent DealBook blog post from The New York Times. The out-of-towner in this case was a New Jersey law firm, Greenbaum Rowe Smith & Picard Davis, which late last year tried to poach the team at Cleveland’s Baker Hostetler that is unwinding the Bernie Madoff fraud case, The Times reported. The prize: the “enormous stream of legal fees being generated by the Madoff litigation.” (The sports connection is how the Madoff litigation is tied to the financial future of the New York Mets.) Irving H. Picard, the court-appointed Madoff trustee, and his chief counsel, David Sheehan, “carefully considered leaving (Baker) but decided to stay after additional resources were committed to their group,” according to The Times. The Madoff trustee litigation has been a boon for Baker, which has 740 lawyers firmwide. “So far, Mr. Picard has recovered about $10 billion in settlements and asset sales, far more than what legal specialists had expected,” The Times reported. “It has been a hugely profitable assignment, having brought in about $180 million in legal fees for Baker Hostetler. The firm is expected to receive roughly $603 million more for its work from 2011 to 2014.” Mr. Picard, as trustee, has been paid $4.3

portion of the festival. More tech networking will take place at the House of Blues this Thursday evening. Other events on the Ohio Homecoming schedule include a “Celebrity Football Challenge” led by pro athletes from the Cleveland area and a competition among area high school marching bands. — Chuck Soder

Score one for downtown ■ With billions of dollars in construction under way, downtown Cleveland may not be in crisis — things may be looking up, actually. But the center of town soon will be home to a firm specializing in crisis communications nonetheless. Hennes Paynter Communications, a specialty PR firm that industry veteran Bruce Hennes started out of his home in Cleveland Heights nine years ago, is taking 3,000 square feet of office space in the Terminal Tower. But with plans to double a staff of three full-time employees in two years, Mr. Hennes and his partner Barbara Paynter were ready for an office home. “We weren’t convinced (downtown) was where we needed to be,” Mr. Hennes said of his initial space search. But after downtown advocates Joe Marinucci, president and CEO of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, and real estate broker Sandy Coakley started showing Mr. Hennes office space and pitching downtown, he thought otherwise. “There’s absolutely a new energy downtown,” he said. Hennes Paynter plans to open its 32nd floor office in September. — Jay Miller

million through January, according to court records. He stands to make an additional $12.5 million over the next three years.

For small businesses, signs of recovery are few ■ While large public companies are poised to report strong second-quarter profits, small businesses still are grappling with “jittery customers, rising costs and tight credit,” according to a Wall Street Journal story that included comments from two Northeast Ohio firms. The Journal reported that 70% of small businesses “have no plans to expand their staffs over the next 12 months,” according to a recent U.S. Bancorp survey. Tribute Inc. of Hudson, a developer of inventory-management programs, last year “thought it was seeing a rebound when the time required to close deals improved,” The Journal reported. “But by the end of the year, sales had leveled off and the recovery faded.” It’s taking as long as six months to secure new contracts. The company continues to require its 35 employees to take a day of unpaid vacation every month, The Journal reported. It also is delaying investment, putting off buying software that would help manage sales prospects and customers but could cost as much as $50,000. Faucet maker Phoenix Products Inc. of Avon Lake is “proceeding with caution, putting hiring, system upgrades and product updates on hold to conserve cash in case of another downturn,” the newspaper said. President Raymond Arth told The Journal his caution “stems from recent unemployment and housing-market data, as well as the growing federal deficit.” Phoenix Products’ main customers make recreational vehicles and factory-built housing, and if RV buyers get spooked, the newspaper said, “he worries that orders for his faucets will eventually suffer.”

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