Crain's Cleveland Business

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Vol. 35, No. 40

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AIRPORT DESTINATION DILEMMAS Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and the Greater Cleveland Partnership are working to make the airport a much more convenient stop for business travelers. ■ Page 4

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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OCTOBER 6 - 12, 2014

Recent Tri-C hire hopes to be boon for business community

By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com

Meet William H. Gary.

He has worked in health care, information technology, manufacturing and, for the last 14 years, a large community college system in Northern Virginia. Now, he’s in charge of Cuyahoga Community College’s Workforce and Economic Development Division (WEDD) — a position he wasn’t interested in until Tri-C president Alex Johnson pleaded with him to consider the post, one the college had tried to fill for a year.

Gary was intrigued by what Johnson and the college had to offer and began in his new role July 1 — 24 hours after his last day at Northern

Virginia Community College. Since then, he has knocked on doors of local business leaders to find out what his division can do better in preparing the region’s workforce through for-credit and non-credit training programs and certificates.

Johnson has charged Gary with crafting a strategic plan for the division that finds efficiencies among its many programs, boosting the college’s ties with small business and developing new program offerings that will generate revenue for the college and prepare the region’s workers for available jobs. Gary, for example, said he expects Tri-C to boost its hospitality training programs given Cleveland’s renaissance and increased focus on tourism.

“I want to be very careful not to break anything that doesn’t need to be fixed, but add to it, expand it and scale it,” said Gary, who carries the official title of WEDD’s executive vice president.

Gary also is interested in turning Tri-C’s workforce division into one of the main prongs of the region’s economic development strategy.

While in a similar position at Northern Virginia Community College, for instance, Gary played a role in luring Intelsat — a publicly traded telecommunications company — from Washington, D.C., to Virginia. Gary structured a deal that offered Intelsat three years of free workforce training as part of the overall incentive package — some-

thing he could see Tri-C doing more of as the region attempts to attract new businesses.

“I want to see us more influential up front and throughout the life cycle of the economic development initiative of the region,” Gary said.

One of Gary’s tallest orders, meanwhile, will be to keep Tri-C’s Corporate College in the black.

Corporate College, which is moving under Gary’s purview, had operated for the most part in the red since its launch just over a decade ago. Its losses peaked at about $1.3 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2009, and it wasn’t until fiscal 2012 that the endeavor turned a profit. Corporate College, which helps companies devise

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training programs for their employees, has remained profitable, though Gary will be tasked with melding its programs with the rest of WEDD’s offerings.

“Corporate College is a brand we want to retain and enhance,” he said.

While Gary has spent a significant amount of time in the higher education space, about half of his career was spent in the private sector, particularly in human resources and other leadership roles at companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Computer Sciences Corporation, an international IT firm.

“Quite honestly, we’re fortunate to have someone of his caliber at the institution,” Johnson said.

Six Marriott hotels are sold for $78 million

By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com

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In a case of a multimillion-dollar monetary risk reaping a big payday, a portfolio of six Marriott-branded hotels in Northeast Ohio just traded for 60% more than in 2012.

A joint venture by Dallas-based hotel owner and operator Aimbridge Hospitality and investment funds of BlueMountain Capital Management LLC on Sept. 17 shelled out a total of $78 million for the portfolio of Marriott Courtyard and TownePlace Hotels, according to Cuyahoga County land records.

The seller, an affiliate of Bostonbased Cross Harbor Management, had paid a total of $48.6 million for the same properties on June 7, 2012, land records show. The Cuyahoga County hotels changed hands as part of a portfolio of 11 Marriott-branded hotels in Ohio that the AimbridgeBlueMountain venture announced on Sept. 12 that it planned to acquire.

David Sangree, president of Lakewood-based Hotel & Leisure Advisors, said the local deals show “a sizable increase in price” even with a big boost in hotel sale prices nationally and improving market conditions in the hospitality business.

“There is a perception that Marriott hotels are worth more, and when you have Marriott hotels packages with properties in other markets that they are worth more,” Sangree said of the premium price.

The hotels are all the standard, business-focused Courtyard and extended-stay TownePlace formats with about 100 rooms.

Four Courtyard hotels in Independence, Middleburg Heights, North Olmsted and Westlake changed hands in the transaction. The TownePlace properties in Middleburg Heights and Westlake also sold.

The Courtyard and TownePlace hotels adjoin each other on sites on Engle Road in Middleburg and Sperry Drive in Westlake.

In its Sept. 10 news release before the transaction closed, Dave Johnson, president and CEO of Aimbridge, said, “The Marriott Ohio portfolio consists of many strong properties and we expect significant growth opportunity with these additions.”

Aimbridge said it will also manage the properties in the portfolio, which includes inns in Cincinnati and Columbus.

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It has been eight months since United Airlines announced it would end its hub operations at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, cutting the number of daily departures to 72 from 200 and eliminating direct flights to 31 destinations, for many of which it was the only airline offering direct service.

That has meant passengers traveling to those cities first have to fly to a hub airport like Newark Liberty International Airport or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport before getting on a second plane to a destination such as Albany or Rochester, N.Y., or Charleston, S.C. For business travelers, the end of nonstop service especially hurts, since a long layover waiting for a connecting flight could mean having to pack a suitcase for an out-of-town business meeting that previously could have been accomplished with an early morning flight out and a return before bedtime.

However, airport head Ricky Smith and Joe Roman, president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, which has taken a leading role in boosting air service here, believe things have gotten a little better in the months since United began cutting service. And they are optimistic that service for business travelers will improve. “This remains an absolutely critical issue for the region, because we need air service to keep up the momentum we’re seeing in other places,� Roman said, referring to the plans for downtown improvements and the recent upbeat assessments of the city since the announcement that the Republican presidential nominating convention would be held here in summer 2016. “There will be changes over the next year.�

Smith also said his staff and the airlines are studying if there are better ways to configure Hopkins now that United is cutting back service. He said a preliminary report should be ready within a month.

A no-frills future

AIR CHARTER SERVICE AIRCRAFT MANAGEMENT

United’s February announcement that it would drop Hopkins as a hub airport ended service to 39 cities, mostly second-tier destinations. That meant the airport would no longer be a transfer center for the airline, the place where a traveler from, say, Harrisburg, Pa., could transfer to a flight to Dayton. But it also meant that Cleveland travelers would lose nonstop flights to all of those destinations.

The toughest blow of the United contraction was its direct service to Phoenix. Phoenix is one of the top 10 destinations for Cleveland travelers, and it was the only one of the top 10 that lost direct service.

Still, aviation industry consultant Kevin Healy of the Alexandria, Va.-based Campbell-Hill Aviation Group said United is likely to play an important role for business travelers, especially to key business markets like New York and Chicago, despite losing friends over the service cuts to the smaller markets. “United Airlines will remain the dominant carrier in Cleveland for some time, simply because the frequent flyer programs are so effective,� said Healy, who was senior vice president of marketing and planning at AirTran Airways until its merger with Southwest in 2011. “They work really well.�

But it’s not likely that rebuilding the service at Hopkins will mean bringing back the kind of first-class or business-class service that United and other so-called “legacy carriers� traditionally offered to the smaller markets.

Instead, business travelers can expect that if they want to make those business day trips it will be on a plane with fewer frills than they had been accustomed to.

That’s in part because only two legacy carriers other than United remain — American and Delta.

But it’s also because those carriers view the domestic air travel market as mature and crawling with cost-cutters. They instead plan to expand their international ser-

MCKINLEY WILEY

United Airlines eliminated direct flights to 31 destinations from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. vice and leave domestic travel to cities other than international gateways — like New York, Houston and Los Angeles — to others, Smith said. “When they’re bringing on new asset (airplanes) or allocating scarce assets, they’re allocating those assets to the highest-yield (most profitable) routes,� Smith said. “Those highest-yield routes tend to be international routes.�

Don’t forget Southwest So while Smith will continue to woo those airlines to add service to Hopkins, he believes the greater growth will come from carriers like Southwest, Frontier and Spirit.

Frontier and Spirit, two of what the industry calls “ultra low-cost carriers,� have swept into Hopkins with flights to a variety of destinations, though, so far, mostly to cities that airlines like United or others already served.

Frontier first announced it would restore direct service to Phoenix. Since then, American, Southwest and Spirit have said they will be flying directly from Cleveland to Phoenix.

Roman believes the announcements by Frontier and Spirit to bring their service to Hopkins for the first time are only the beginning of air service improvements to come. GCP created an Air Service Demand Task Force in 2011 to find ways to improve air service into Cleveland, and it has been working with the airport’s air service development staff to attract new service to the city.

George Hamlin, an air service consultant and industry veteran, sees Southwest growing as a carrier for business travelers. “One of the great myths of the airline business is that Southwest is a carrier for leisure travelers. That’s simply wrong,� said Hamlin, a Fairfax, Va.-based consultant on market and strategic planning for airlines and airports. “Southwest doesn’t have first class, and if that’s the way you travel, you aren’t taking Southwest. But it is a good, reliable product that offers value for the money.�

He added, “I assume that (the Hopkins air service team) is going after Southwest for additional service. That certainly would be helpful to the business community.�

At your service Beyond adding direct service to key markets, Smith said the airport is working to make life at Hopkins easier for business travelers.

He said he and the airlines are working on what he called a terminal utilization study now that United has downsized. “We’re looking at things like how many security check points do we need, where should they be?� Smith said. “Can we reassign airlines to concourses that work best for them and their passengers?�

He said the first results from that study should be ready in about a month.

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Volume 35, Number 40 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly, except for combined issues on the fourth week of December and fifth week of December at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230. Copyright Š 2014 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. 1-877-824-9373.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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5

Third Frontier’s largest gains have occurred on smaller scale

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

JANET CENTURY

Thirsty Dog owner John Najeway estimates that Northeast Ohio craft breweries will produce about 400,000 barrels annually by 2019.

Overflowing with optimism Local craft brewers are expanding operations to keep up with increased production

By KATHY AMES CARR clbfreelancer@crain.com

In the meantime, the local titans show no signs of reaching a production apex.

The momentum of local craft beer has been well documentTapped out ed, but the next few years could be pivotal for the industry.

Ohio’s three largest craft brewers (apart from the Sam Adams Najeway’s own Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. is quickly maxing production facility in Cincinnati) are Great Lakes Brewing Co., out its 50,000-square-foot facility and is working with the city Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. and Fat Head’s Brewery, all Northeast of Akron to secure a new space.

Ohio-based operations that are undergoing considerable physThe Akron brewer has added a dozen 90-barrel fermenters ical expansions to accommodate their perennial growth. over the last four years, along with new bright tanks and a keg“I look at my other big brothers, and we’re all struggling to ging packaging line. The recent installation of an automated rofind space because we’re all at max capacity,” said Thirsty Dog tary filler is a game-changer, filling 7,000 bottles per hour versus owner John Najeway.

300 prior to the addition. Thirsty Dog even added a biologist Plus, the region’s popular Market Garden Brewery is building who conducts daily air quality control tests on every quadrant a facility that could catapult output from about 2,000 barrels a of the brewer. Those investments all are part of managing qualyear to 70,000, or about half of what Great Lakes produces. ity as production reaches full throttle. The craft brewer currentThese efforts will shore up local craft beer domain, and places ly produces 16,000 barrels a year and plans to keep increasing the local industry within reach of representing the majority of that by a couple thousand each year. the region’s craft beer market share with“We’re in 12 states, but our biggest in the next five years. That milestone growth has been local, and penetradovetails with a vision by area food intion continues to grow,” Najeway dustry stakeholders to shift by 10% desaid. “I would say we’ll continue to The state’s three largest craft brewers, mand of locally made food products grow our market share in Northeast all Northeast Ohio-based, predict future above existing market share.

Ohio by 5% to 7% over the next five production growth. Their volume estimates: A comprehensive report —“Develyears.”

Great Lakes Brewing Co. (150,000 barrels oping a Sustainable Foods Business Similarly, Brew Kettle is actively sold in 2014, increasing 17% to 175,000 in Cluster Roadmap for Cuyahoga looking for space in Northeast Ohio to 2015); Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. (16,000 County” — issued in late August on build a new brewery, said owner Chris barrels in 2014, increasing 12.5 % to 18,000 behalf of Cleveland and Cuyahoga Russo. The Strongsville-based operain 2015) and Fat Head’s (15,000 barrels in County leaders lays out a five-year tion has doubled production twice in 2014, increasing 33% to 20,000 in 2015). blueprint for growing 11 specific food the last 14 months. Current yield is product categories that demonstrate 8,000 barrels per year, and Brew Ketthe most potential for growth in jobs tle expects to hit 11,000 in 2015.

Ohio Craft Brewers Association counts 106 and revenue.

Most of the distribution, which as of breweries in the state. That number has exCraft beer is among the category late September includes canned brew, ploded from the 24 in 2007. There are 36 leaders that present the most market is in Ohio. more craft breweries in the planning stages. share growth potential.

“We’re fighting for that shelf space “People in Ohio want Ohio brands,” said John Currently, local craft brewers comin Northeast Ohio,” Russo said.

Najeway, owner of Thirsty Dog Brewing Co. prise 34% of the region’s craft beer Brew Kettle also is planning to open market, and employ about 500 peoin Amherst a 300-seat brewpub during Northeast Ohio has 22 breweries, or about ple. The majority of the $100 million the first quarter of 2015.

21% of the total state’s share, with craft beer market is being imported plenty more on the way. from other regional and internationGo with the flow al craft beer producers — for now.

Ohio is ranked No. 4 in the U.S. Northeast Ohio breweries last year Great Lakes Brewing Co. has bein craft beer production. produced 223,656 barrels, according come a brand name amid the Midto Najeway, former vice president of west and East Coast, each year posting The state’s craft brewers produced nearly Ohio Craft Brewers Association. He larger production numbers and addi1.1 million barrels, increasing 12% from estimates this number will climb to tional markets. But the nation’s 20ththe nearly 982,000 in 2012. Meanwhile, 275,000 in 2014 and will nearly double largest brewer based on beer sales volnationwide trends suggest craft beer will in five years, to 400,000, with about ume still views Northeast Ohio as an increase year-over-year market share by 75% of that currently being consumed opportunity for further saturation. about 13% between 2013 and 2018. locally. The food cluster roadmap has “We’re very focused on our backyard identified some opportunities to and want to focus on fostering relanudge the industry beyond its rapid tionships with consumers, distributors Sources: Ohio Craft Brewers Association, organic growth, such as creating a reand retailers,” said co-founder Dan “Developing a Sustainable Foods Business gional craft beer sustainability netConway, noting he expects annual Cluster Roadmap for Cuyahoga County” work to foster industry collaboration.

See BEER, page 6

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

The Third Frontier program has helped spark huge growth at startup companies all over Ohio — but it has been far less effective at sparking growth within larger companies, according to a state analysis.

That disparity could influence how the tech-focused economic development program distributes the $300 million remaining on its balance sheet.

No decisions have been made, but several state officials said it might make sense for the Third Frontier to focus even more on startups: Young tech companies that get cash or assistance through the state tend to generate far more jobs than bigger companies that have tackled hightech projects with Third Frontier funding. They also attract more follow-on capital from investors and generate more positive headlines for Ohio, according to an analysis from the Ohio Development Services Agency.

In short, the Third Frontier has had a “transformational” impact on high-tech startups in Ohio, but there’s “no strong evidence” indicating it has done the same for larger companies, according to the agency, which helps manage the state’s economic development initiatives.

Two of the Third Frontier’s many individual programs are clear standouts: the Pre-Seed Fund, which awards money to investment groups that finance startups in Ohio, and the Entrepreneurial Signature Program, which gives money to JumpStart and many other nonprofits that work with entrepreneurs.

Those programs have created or retained more jobs than all other Third Frontier programs combined, according to metrics gathered by the state. And those programs only account for fewer than 18% of the $1 billion in Third Frontier money that had been distributed as of Dec. 31, 2013.

Those programs “are returning better value for the dollars that are being invested by the taxpayers,” said Third Frontier Commission member Bruce Langos, who also is chief operating officer at Teradata Corp., a data analytics software company in Dayton.

But he and other officials noted that the state would not abandon corporations that want help developing new technologies, even if the state does shift more Third Frontier resources toward programs targeting startups.

If that shift occurs, the state likely would steer bigger companies to JobsOhio. The private nonprofit group, which serves as the state’s economic development agency, tends to work with more mature companies, so it might be a more natural fit, according to Langos and other officials who spoke with Crain’s.

And if the Third Frontier does focus more on startups, it would still try to match startups with corporations that could help them develop their products and bring them to market, according to Norm Chagnon, deputy chief of the state’s office of technology investments.

Plus, even if the shift occurs, there’s a good chance that the Third Frontier likely would retain some programming designed specifically for larger companies, Chagnon said.

A fresh start The Third Frontier Commission clearly isn’t against helping more mature businesses: Earlier this month, they gave grants to two major corporations — General Electric and Emerson — that aim to open innovation centers in southwest Ohio.

“Our platform is not going to shift overnight to helping startups,” Chagnon said.

However, the Third Frontier already has shifted toward startups, to a large degree. About 80% of the money that the Third Frontier Commission is planning to award this year is slated to go to startups, organizations that assist them and short-term product commercialization efforts.

Over the course of the Third Frontier’s history, however, only half of its funding went toward those kinds of awards.

However, by 2010 it was already clear that the Pre-Seed Fund and the Entrepreneurial Signature Program were generating more impressive statistics than other pieces of the Third Frontier program. So the Third Frontier started pumping more money into those programs.

And the Third Frontier has made other changes as well.

See THIRD FRONTIER, page 33

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If your Cleveland Browns game-day tradition doesn’t include traveling downtown at the crack of dawn to get set up for a party in the Muni Lot, the team and a relatively new Baltimore company believe they have an alternative.

The Browns have partnered with Parking Panda, which created a free mobile app that helps drivers reserve a parking spot days, or weeks, ahead of time.

The app is pretty simple even for those who aren’t technically inclined. A registered user types in a destination and date, then is able to search, compare prices and reserve a spot with a credit card. “We come to a city, find great partners, and they give us a dedicated number of spaces,� said Bryan Lozano, a partner account manager who has been with Parking Panda since its 2011 launch. “It’s all real time. If we get 100 spaces and those 100 are full, the app will show that it’s sold out.�

The partnership started with the Browns’ second home game of the season, Sept. 21 against the Baltimore Ravens. The team has a link to Parking Panda’s service from its website, as well as the online home of FirstEnergy Stadium.

Parking Panda has partnered with operators of 23 downtown garages and lots, all of which are within a mile of the stadium. Parking Panda gets a percentagebased commission from the parking operators, and the Browns get a cut of that revenue. “It’s really inconsequential,� Browns communications coordinator Rob McBurnett said of the money the team receives from each transaction. “That’s not the reason we’re doing it.�

Instead, McBurnett said, the Browns are trying to make parking “as convenient as possible� for fans.

Lozano said Parking Panda doesn’t disclose the commission it receives from the parking companies. Customers who use the service generally pay rates that are similar to or slightly higher than the garages’ non-reserved rates.

As of Thursday afternoon, Oct. 2, Parking Panda’s website listed starting prices of $16 for parking at each of the Browns’ six remaining home games. For the matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 21, 10 of the 23 lots and garages that have partnered with the company had spaces available for $16. Prices at the remaining 13 locations ranged from $21 to $81, though all but the Nautica Entertainment Complex were at $41 or lower. The 23 locations reserve a total of about 2,500 spaces for Parking Panda customers, Lozano said.

Parking Panda, which also has a New York office, has partnerships with four NFL teams — the Browns, Ravens, Atlanta Falcons and St. Louis Rams. The company established ties with Major League Baseball prior to the 2014 season, and six MLB clubs are clients.

Parking Panda’s only Cleveland business is centered around Browns game days, but Lozano said the company hopes to add daily and monthly parking to the mix.

ABM, a New York-based facility management

ILLUS TRATIO N: FOT OLIA; PARKIN G PAN DA AP P

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10/3/2014

provider with more than 100,000 employees, operates many of the Cleveland lots and garages that have partnered with Parking Panda. Operators at a handful of the garages reached by Crain’s said they weren’t authorized to speak with the media. Chas Strong, ABM’s senior manager of corporate communications, referred all questions to the Browns.

Lozano said Parking Panda’s technology helps operators determine if their pricing is in line with competitors, and they are willing to pay the company a fee because of the extra traffic the partnership can provide.

There is a catch: Because Parking Panda’s current relationships with Cleveland lots and garages are only for event parking, customers are asked to arrive after 11 a.m. (two hours before the start of the game) and leave “up to one hour� after the game’s conclusion.

Parking Panda’s technology provides electronic passes, but customers who reserve a spot are told that the Cleveland lots require them to print and display the reservation on their vehicle’s dashboard.

The city-owned Muni Lot opens much earlier — at 7 a.m. — and has a set fee of $20.

If you’d rather sleep in and know you have a space waiting, Parking Panda is now an option. “You don’t have to worry about parking — just like your seat,� Lozano said. “It makes the fan experience that much better.�

BEER continued from page 5

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local distribution growth of about 5% to 10% each year through 2018.

Meanwhile, Great Lakes is landlocked in Ohio City and is looking at space in Northeast Ohio that could accommodate a 150,000-square-foot warehouse and production facility.

North Olmsted-based Fat Head’s will reach its current production capacity of 20,000 barrels in 2015. The brewer plans to add over the next three years 10 more 170-barrel tanks — on top of seven recently added. “By then, we will have maxed out our equipment,� with production at 33,000 barrels at the operation’s Middleburg Heights facility, brewer Matt Cole said. “At 33,000 barrels, our current brew house would have to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and our bottle filler could not keep up. We will have to build a new

facility.�

While Fat Head’s continues to penetrate its local market share, the brewer also is focusing on increasing its presence in central and southern Ohio, as well as Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Florida.

Microbreweries, though modest in output, are swells in a larger current. Among them, Akron-based Hoppin Frog, Cleveland-based Indigo Imp and Platform Beer Co. in Ohio City all plan to double their production within the next year.

Some intentionally will maintain their small-batch status, while others have loftier aspirations.

Market Garden Brewery’s Sam McNulty and brewmaster Andy Tveekrem have long-term visions of reaching a production capacity that could give other brewers a run for their market share.

“We’re not competing against local craft brewers, but the big regionals,� McNulty said.

Construction already has begun on the 43,000-square-foot Palace of Fermentation, located on West 24th Street behind the Market Garden brew house. Development will occur in stages, with brewing, charcuterie, distilling and cheesemaking representing a chronological phase-in plan. Next year’s anticipated firstphase completion should more than double Market Garden’s brewing production, to about 5,000 barrels a year from 2,000. “It makes my heart go pitter-patter, but we’d like to be at about 25,000 barrels in five years. We’d like to be well-represented in Cuyahoga County and the surrounding counties,� then will spread out distribution from there, Tveekrem said.

Ultimate plans call for a capacity of 70,000 barrels. “We hope to make a bit of a splash,� Tveekrem said.

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Bridgestone Americas helps to battle Ebola Tire company with ties to Liberia, and Northeast Ohio, is fighting to stop the recent outbreak from spreading

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com

As the world grapples with the most terrifying outbreak of Ebola in history, it might find a lesson in how to combat the disease from a U.S. company with strong ties to Northeast Ohio.

Bridgestone Americas has been battling Ebola, and winning, in the stricken West African nation of Liberia. But its fight has come at great costs and is far from over, company representatives say.

If you wonder why a North American tire company is so heavily involved in the problems of a small, impoverished nation that is a shrinking world away, consider its history.

Bridgestone is heavily invested in Liberia and is entrenched there in a role that borders on paternal.

“We’ve been there since 1926, when Harvey Firestone (Bridgestone acquired Firestone in 1988) went there to establish an alternative source of rubber,” said Paul Oakley, Bridgestone Americas’ vice president of communication.

Working closely with the Liberian government, Firestone formed what is today known as the Firestone Natural Rubber Co. Bridgestone acquired the farm via its purchase of Akron-based Firestone.

The operation today essentially is a giant farm that encompasses 200 square miles about 50 miles from Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. It houses about 80,000 people — comprising about 8,000 workers and members of

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

One of the Ebola treatment units that Bridgestone set up on their farm in Liberia to isolate those who had been exposed to the disease. their families — many of whom have worked and lived on the farm for generations, Oakley said. More than 99% of the farm’s workers and administrators are Liberian nationals, not U.S. expats.

It’s that farm where Ebola struck Bridgestone workers.

The first case was at the end of March, said Bridgestone executive vice president of communications Don Darden. It occurred when a worker’s wife returned from traveling elsewhere in Liberia, and then presented with symptoms of Ebola around March 30.

“We contacted the ministry of health, and they said, ‘Basically, you guys need to handle this,’” Darden recalled.

So Bridgestone contacted the World Health

Exposure

•

Expertise

Organization, got some guidelines for what to do, and got to work.

It took an outpatient care building that already was part of its health care service system on the farm, and converted it into an Ebola treatment unit. It tracked down other people with whom the woman had had contact, and put them into isolation and under observation for the required three-week period, to be sure that they were not also affected and able to transmit the disease.

The first patient died, as do many Ebola patients, but the strategy appeared to have worked.

“Everyone thought: ‘We’ve got this under control,’” Darden said. “We went through May without any problems. Then it came

•

Results

back with a vengeance in June.”

This time, it was multiple cases, and they multiplied. Eventually, 72 people on the farm contracted Ebola. Before it was over, 54 of them had died — and it might not be over yet.

But Bridgestone and the people who Oakley and Darden call their “teammates” on the farm, never relented in their fight.

One of the farm’s 27 schools was converted into an isolation unit. An outbuilding of the farm’s hospital was turned into a special Ebola treatment unit. Protective gloves, masks and clothing were immediately shipped in to protect caregivers and stop the disease from spreading. A full-court communications effort that entailed meetings, fliers, broadcasts See EBOLA, page 32

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9

More ‘efficient’ GrafTech is shedding costs

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com

Despite a less-than-stellar performance from its engineered solutions segment so far this year, the CEO of GrafTech International Ltd. still is confident in the business going forward.

“The strategy of the company has not changed,” Joel Hawthorne said in an interview.

Hawthorne has put a strong focus on innovation and collaboration since becoming the company’s president and CEO in January, but he has faced difficulties as the company weathered both a proxy fight that shook up its board and trouble in the markets in which GrafTech operates.

On Sept. 23, the Parma-based maker of graphite electrodes and other carbon-based products reduced its 2014 EBITDA target to a range of $105 million to $115 million from a range of $135 million to $150 million — with about $25 million of that reduction due to the engineered solutions segment. That segment, which includes a variety of advanced materials for products like consumer electronics, had been viewed as a growth area, but GrafTech said it now expects the segment’s revenue this year to be flat compared with 2013.

The company’s stock plummeted the next day, Sept. 24, to $4.96 from a close of $7.28 on Sept. 23. It had fallen further to $4.46 by the close of trading on Wednesday, Oct. 1.

GrafTech on Sept. 23 also announced $30 million in cost reductions, including downsizing its corporate functions and laying off employees. The company initially didn’t disclose details of the layoffs, but in a Sept. 29 letter to the state of Ohio, GrafTech said it expects to lay off about 50 employees by the end of March 2015 at its facility at 12900 Snow Road in Parma. The letter noted there were 186 employees at the Parma location currently. The company has about 2,600 employees worldwide.

In an emailed response to a Crain’s inquiry, the company said the layoffs were part of the larger cost-reduction plan to create a “simplified and efficient organizational structure.”

Overall, these cost-saving mea-

sures, which are expected to benefit GrafTech in 2015, are in addition to previously announced measures to cut about $75 million in the industrial materials segment and another $18 million in engineered solutions, Hawthorne said.

No excess In its release on the lowered earnings guidance, GrafTech said there has been increased demand in the United States in the company’s industrial materials segment, which makes products primarily for the steel industry, but not enough to overcome weakening demand in other regions. On the engineered solutions side, the company said “weak end-market consumer electronic product launches” were to blame for the segment’s negative affect on profitability.

Adam Parr, vice president of policy and communications for the Washington, D.C.-based Steel Manufacturers Association, of which GrafTech is an associate member, couldn’t comment on GrafTech’s specific cost-cutting proposals but said the company is far from alone in struggling of late in the steel industry. There’s significant unused capacity in the market in the U.S., he said, and much of the demand has been consumed by foreign competitors.

“It’s not a time for excess,” he said.

Speaking with Crain’s in August, Hawthorne acknowledged GrafTech was facing a difficult business environment and emphasized the need for the company to focus on innovation, collaboration and the execution of those plans.

Hawthorne said there’s a sense of urgency now, and GrafTech plans to move faster in its decision making.

“Innovation is a big part of who we are,” Hawthorne said.

But Hawthorne said he’s “absolutely” confident in the business going forward. The current change in guidance for the engineered solutions segment is primarily due to a supplier issue: One of the phones the company supplies products for didn’t sell as well as the customer expected, Hawthorne said. Some changes to operations that GrafTech announced Sept. 23 will serve to strengthen that business

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segment, he said.

Picking up the pace GrafTech plans to redesign its extensive research and development department to put an even greater focus on innovation and new product development. The company will move product and quality testing into individual business units and plants and create a Technology and Innovation Center focused on commercialization of new technologies.

The center will pull together scientists and technicians, as well as employees in marketing, customer technical services and application engineering, Hawthorne said. That approach is going to help link the outside market to the research and development being done at GrafTech.

To grow, GrafTech needs to watch developing markets to see if it has technology that fits in along the supply chain and work with external partners and suppliers to track those trends, Hawthorne said in a conversation with Crain’s in August. As a company with new leadership, “we pick that pace up,”

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Thin is in Research and development has long been a focus at GrafTech, something Julian Norley, previously the company’s vice president of corporate research and development and now the leader of its new Technology and Innovation Center, discussed in a conversation in August.

Application-specific labs, like those for lithium-ion batteries or flat-panel TVs, give employees a way to explore how graphite is used or could be used by customers. The

company has to know the customer’s language and “intimately understand how it’s going to be used” in their products, Norley said. While that’s been a priority in the company’s core steel-related business for a long time, it’s become more of a focus in the engineered solutions segment in the past decade, he said.

Graphite is becoming more important as modern electronics grow thinner. It offers a passive way to spread out heat created by products like internal circuit boards in smart phones, as opposed to a bulky fan, Norley said.

Lionel Batty, president of the company’s engineered solutions segment, in August said that type of electronic thermal management in products such as smart phones or plasma display TVs is what’s driving growth now. The company has plenty of space to grow in electronics, he said, and the lithium-ion market is promising, as it uses carbon and graphite materials. The company also is considering getting into silicon carbide technology and graphene products.

“The good news is there is a pipeline coming for us,” Batty said.

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Hawthorne said.

Currently, the research and development department is located in Parma at the same site as the corporate headquarters, but that will change soon. Going forward, the Technology and Innovation Center and the corporate headquarters will each inhabit their own smaller spaces in Northeast Ohio.

Hawthorne said the current headquarters is more than 300,000 square feet. Combined, the new locations will be fewer than 50,000 square feet. Hawthorne said he expects those moves to be complete by the start of 2015.

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PUBLISHER:

John Campanelli (jcampanelli@crain.com) EDITOR:

Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com) MANAGING EDITOR:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

OPINION

Yes on 6 Ask any Cuyahoga County resident whether she or he — or someone they know — has been impacted

by Cuyahoga Community College. Chances are the answer will be yes, considering that more than 900,000 Cuyahoga County residents have enriched their minds at Tri-C during the past half-century.

Since its opening in 1963, Tri-C has proven to be a vital link to educating and training residents in Northeast Ohio — young, old and in-between. That’s especially true today, as the area emerges from the economic downturn that began in 2007.

To continue this important role, we urge voters on Nov. 4 to support Issue 6, a 1.2-mill renewal levy with a 0.9-mill increase for the community college. Approval would require Cuyahoga County property owners to pay an additional $2.63 per month on a $100,000 home. Collection for the 10-year levy would begin in 2015.

As college costs continue to soar, Tri-C provides an affordable way for residents to pursue higher education by offering the second-lowest tuition rate for community colleges in Ohio. Many students use TriC to attain two-year associate degrees or as a lowercost launching pad to a four-year baccalaureate degree at another institution.

Still others — about 12,000 residents — attend Tri-C for workforce training and certification. All together, 60,000 credit and non-credit students enroll in Tri-C each semester. And of those who graduate from the college, 85% continue to work and live in Northeast Ohio, contributing to the economic growth of our region.

Tri-C continues to be a wise investment for taxpayers in Cuyahoga County. We strongly encourage voters to continue their support of this vital link to education and employment in Cuyahoga County.

… and on 4 In 2001, Clevelanders gambled on the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and approved a $1 billion bond issue to fund construction and renovation of Cleveland school buildings. Since that time, 34 schools in the district have been built, and seven have been refurbished.

To continue the vision set forth in 2001, it’s imperative that Clevelanders cast a “yes” on Issue 4, a $200 million school construction bond issue on the Nov. 4 ballot. The new tax will allow the district to extend the construction program that began 13 years ago and build up to 22 new schools and renovate 20 to 23 others. Importantly, if voters approve the issue, property owners will not pay any more for school taxes than they currently pay. And sweetening the pot even more, the state will match more than $2 for every $1 the district spends on new construction.

Voters already are partners in the district’s bold transformation plan, approving a levy two years ago.

That plan has a better chance of succeeding in upto-date facilities ready for academic rigor. A “yes” vote on Issue 4 affirms the partnership and the commitment to Cleveland’s school children.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Health care reform still needs help Businesses will always have to stomChiricosta’s business — insurance — ach uncertainty. is inherently uncertain. It’s the reason Tomorrow may bring severe weather, we buy it in the first place. a blackout, a nasty flu strain, a fire in the He gave me an example recently of warehouse, the acquisition of your best some of the uncertainties he’s facing customer, the resignation of with the implementation of your top salesperson or any of the Affordable Care Act. who-knows-how-many Insurance companies now punches to your company’s must offer coverage to everysolar plexus. one, including the most exGive a business leader the pensive and sickest among us choice of shedding 20 pounds (a positive and popular or shedding some uncertainty, change). The law includes and you can bet he or she will some programs that try to still be wearing Spanx in the protect insurance companies morning (yes, they make from getting clobbered by Spanx for men; don’t ask how JOHN covering too many risky cusI know). tomers.

CAMPANELLI If you can eliminate — or at One of those is called the least minimize — the curverisk adjustment program. Inballs your company may face, you can surance companies with healthier, lessmaximize confidence, investment, innorisky enrollees will pay into a pool of vation and, ultimately, profit. cash.

But what about when the opposite The insurance companies with riskier happens, when uncertainty is added to a customers will then get funds from that business or industry, willingly, by our pool. It’s a zero-sum game. own lawmakers? There’s a word for that.

To find out which companies have to It’s malfeasance. pay and which will collect, all health inYou probably know Rick Chiricosta, surers will have to submit data and docpresident and CEO of Medical Mutual. umentation to the government. And His 80-year-old company makes up part that’s where the problems begin. of the bedrock of Cleveland business: Despite the law passing 4½ years ago, 2,000 local workers, unsurpassed comthe final rules of risk adjustment have mitment to community and civic efforts, not yet been written, even though the award-winning workplace engagement program launched on Jan. 1, 2014. Insurand customer service. ance companies don’t know exactly

what data they will need to submit next spring. And most important, insurers won’t know if they’ll have to pay or if they’ll get paid for this year until later in 2015.

“We could be paying as much as tens of millions of dollars into this thing each year, or we could be receiving tens of millions of dollars,” Chiricosta said.

“That could be the difference between us being profitable or unprofitable. You could have a $30 million to $40 million swing in that number.

“Imagine trying to run your business with a big unknown like that.”

No thanks.

To his credit, Chiricosta is staying positive. Medical Mutual is in strong financial shape with reserves to weather some rockiness.

“We recognize the tremendous amount of uncertainty and we move on,” he said. “We’re not sitting here dwelling on it morning, noon and night because there’s only so much we can do.”

I’m not so level-headed. Our lawmakers have spent years playing politics instead of fixing and clarifying the health care law. Sadly, this risk assessment thing is only one example of the ACA’s festering flaws.

Our representatives are essentially pouring gum into the nation’s economic engine, so maybe we should start calling them what they truly are: vandals.

TALK ON THE WEB Re: Sale of The Alcazar apartment hotel Mixed feelings on this news. The Alcazar has tremendous potential, but it has been home to many for years.

— Ray Murphy It will have to change quickly! The rates will increase fast, and the makeup of the renters will change after the do over.

Look for a much more commercial makeup of the building. Memory and

history will be gone!

— Earl Dworkin

Re: Medicaid fight in 2015 Obviously, health care is a major employment sector in Cuyahoga County and Northeast Ohio.

The Medicaid program in Cuyahoga County, directly and indirectly, supports approximately 25,000 jobs — physicians, nurses, lab techs, etc.

MetroHealth’s pilot project shows that providing quality care can decrease

ER use and uncompensated care. Reducing uncompensated care holds down health care premiums for private employers. Everyone has a stake in this issue.

— Joe Gauntner

Re: Race for Cuyahoga County Executive The narrative and direction in Cuyahoga County must change.

It cannot continue any longer as-is.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

OfficeMax began with Hurwitz I read with interest Stan Bullard’s article about the condition of MaxWellness (Sept. 8, 2014) and was sorry to see that Michael Feuer’s first startup venture was in jeopardy. I have known Mr. Feuer for many years and he is a very capable executive and communicator. He is not, in my experience, the “legend� to which you refer, nor a retail startup maven and certainly not the founder of OfficeMax. OfficeMax was not started with $20,000 in Michael’s basement. It was started by my husband, Bob Hurwitz, with $3 million raised from family and friends and was originally housed in the corporate offices of PhD, Inc., another company that Bob started with colleagues.

I clearly recall the original business plan, over which my husband labored, on and off, for a year before beginning to raise investment capital. My father (Myron Nickman, now deceased) was the first and largest investor along with us and other family members. Over a twoyear period, I was with my husband every step of the way. I traveled to Florida with Bob, where he interviewed individuals and hired the first employee.

When everything was in order, money raised, concept solid, initial store identified and growth plan in place, Michael Feuer was hired as the COO with Bob as the Chair-

man/CEO. Michael Feuer took over control of OfficeMax after it was a well-established chain and he was responsible for its sale to Boise Cascade. — Susan R. Hurwitz Pepper Pike I was rather disturbed to see the lead article of the Sept. 8 edition of Crain’s Cleveland Business, which falsely stated that Michael Feuer was the founder of OfficeMax. The founder of OfficeMax was Robert Hurwitz. I was his attorney at the time. In fact, the initial call regarding the foundation of OfficeMax was when Mr. Hurwtiz called me to explain his idea and seek legal assistance.

A number of us at Kahn Kleinman LPA (now Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP) were also initial investors in OfficeMax through our investment entity, Equity Investors.

We have retained all of the original files, including the incorporation papers, at our offices. Months later, when a person was needed to managed the day-to-day operations of the stores, Mr. Hurwitz contacted and hired Michael Feuer as chief operating officer. We have Mr. Feuer’s original employment contract. Mr. Hurwitz was and remained the chief executive officer.

Why Crain’s Cleveland Business and, frankly, other publications and

media continue to speak of Mr. Feuer as the founder of OfficeMax is beyond my understanding. The early public record is replete with articles from the beginning of the founding showing that it was Robert Hurwitz and not Mr. Feuer who was the founder. Mr. Hurwitz raised all of the funds for the company, not Mr. Feuer.

That is not to say that Mr. Feuer was not an important part of the company or its success, as he was.

However, he was neither the founder nor the person who raised the initial financing. — Michael H. Diamant Shaker Heights

Travelers’ blues I flew into Cleveland late Tuesday night, Sept. 23, and the absence of activity was startling.

I’ve read the complaints that all shops were closed, but there were few security guards and it was if the flying public was on some silent death march to retrieve bags.

Further, in the home of rock and roll, there was NO MUSIC. I had to wait 30 minutes for an airport train downtown and then again out to the East Side. Welcome home to Cleveland, indeed! —Kevin Cronin Cleveland

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known as a poor city.

The banks are robbing folks, then “donating� to public works in their names by fleecing the poor folks. — therealjanedoe

Re: Cleveland’s ATM fees in top 10 nationwide

I can’t wait for a remade Public Square. It looks totally awesome!

I would like to ask if the buses will be rerouted to take all the jaywalk-

Of course — Cleveland is now

Re: KeyBank Foundation gives $4M to Public Square renovation

ers who run out in front of traffic.

This has proven very dangerous.

The city doesn’t have any way to enforce the laws, which is very frustrating.

This is truly an accident waiting to happen. — Tim Kloos Now if Dan Gilbert could pitch in a few dollars, seeing that the casino is on the Square.

That would be a nice civic gesture. — Mark Madere

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GOING PLACES JOB CHANGES ARCHITECTURE THENDESIGN ARCHITECTURE: Wade Kratzer to architectural designer.

CONSTRUCTION GILBANE BUILDING CO.: Veronica Jatsek to project engineer III.

ENGINEERING BARBER & HOFFMAN INC.: James M. Colella and Michael A. Mazzocco to associates.

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Send information for Going Places to dhillyer@crain.com PARAGON ADVISORS INC.: Christine L. Jemison to co-president.

PLANTE MORAN: Denise Gadomski to partner.

SPERO-SMITH INVESTMENT ADVISERS INC.: Stephen A. Malbasa to director, Retirement Plan Services.

HEALTH CARE METROHEALTH: Joanna Brell, M.D., to associate director, cancer center.

LEGAL ROETZEL & ANDRESS LPA: Ilirjan Pipa to associate.

NONPROFIT VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA OF GREATER OHIO: Becky Carlino to development officer; Runako Pitts to director of program operations.

Mazzocco

Gigliotti

German

Gadomski

Brell

Pipa

MARCUS & MILLICHAP: Michael Barron to first vice president, investments; Craig Fuller, Jonathon McClellan and Josh Wintermute to vice presidents, investments.

NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK: Renee Thomason to transaction service specialist.

FINANCIAL SERVICE

EATON: David Bowman to senior vice president, program management.

SIGNET JEWELERS LIMITED: George Murray to president, Zale Division.

MAIN STREET GOURMET: Karl H. Driggs to chief operating officer.

UTILITY

POLYONE CORP.: Javier A. Echevarria to vice president, global sourcing.

NORTHEAST OHIO REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT: Francis Cung to IT business applications analyst; George

BOBER MARKEY FEDOROVICH: Eric D. German to senior manager, Advisory and Assurance Services.

Colella

BASS OHIO REAL ESTATE: Liz Jelepis to administrative assistant.

WELTMAN WEINBERG & REIS CO.: Alexander Sarady to associate.

MANUFACTURING

Kratzer

REAL ESTATE

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE INDUSTRIES INC.: Corey Kuhn to staff engineer.

BEACON FINANCIAL PARTNERS: Jean Gigliotti to financial planning assistant.

OCTOBER 6 - 12, 2014

RETAIL

Argie, Nathaniel Ledbetter, Michael McCormick, Philip Smith, Ryan Tonon and Tyronn Dunn to field technicians; Stephanie Staab to administrative assistant; Galen Adams to administrative clerk; Gerald Gunsley to instrument technician; Jaime Hain to construction technician; Geoffrey Hanson and Eric Nycz to senior construction supervisors; Amanda Jasko to project management systems developer; Wilson Rivera to stormwater main-

tenance coordinator; Kalonji Osaze to security officer; Veronica Pope to infrastructure service representative; Cavan Smith to laboratory assistant.

AWARDS WOMENCERTIFIED INC.: Rebecca Bar-Shain (Cedar Brook Financial Partners LLC) received the Women’s Choice Award.

Supply Chain Equity Partners aquires Sourcing Network International LLC

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com

Cleveland private equity firm Supply Chain Equity Partners has expanded its portfolio further with the acquisition of Sourcing Network International LLC, a Pennsylvaniabased wholesaler and distributor of fashion accessories, travel products and impulse gift items.

Sourcing Network was acquired from Alumni Capital Network, a private equity firm based in New

York.

Supply Chain Equity managing director Jay Greyson declined to disclose terms of the deal. However, he said Sourcing Network already has hired additional sales staff and business development personnel with an investment that followed the deal’s closure. He declined to comment on how many people the company employs or how many additional staff members have been hired.

Chad Hull, managing director of

Boenning & Scattergood, a Philadelphia firm that brokered the deal, said the transaction was completed in late July but wasn’t announced until mid-September.

“Our focus is on partnering with top management teams to help accelerate the growth of the business,” Greyson said.

“That’s why we partnered with these guys. They’re an excellent management team, and they’re the largest platform in this market.”

Supply Chain Equity is dedicated

exclusively to distribution and supply chains. The recent deal is among an estimated 20 similar acquisitions completed in the last five years, Greyson said. He added that the firm and Sourcing Network are in “active” discussions to acquire add-on companies that would complement the Pennsylvania company’s operations.

Sourcing Network supplies products to airports, casinos, resorts, highway travel plazas and cruise ship retailers. The company also

features its own line of branded travel and fashion accessories, including Cloudz travel pillows and B-ICONIC fashion boutiques.

Sourcing Network serves more than 7,000 retail locations across the country, according to a news release from Boenning & Scattergood. It works with most travel and gaming retailers operating in the United States and Canada, including Hudson News, Starboard Cruise Services and MGM Resorts International.

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Matt Schmidt, 37 Program manager, Trust for Public Land Matt Schmidt thought he wanted to be an architect. He went to Kent State University and got both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture.

But, he spent part of his Kent years at the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, and there he learned that while he liked the building process, it wasn’t the actual structures he was interested in designing.

“I realized I liked urban design and city planning work more than actual buildings and architecture, and I was a lot better at it, frankly,” he said. “Buildings weren’t necessarily my forte.”

Now, Schmidt is program manager at the Cleveland office of the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit that helps preserve land for public use. In that role, he is finding ways to retain open spaces in neighborhoods, whether that means parks, gardens or something else.

Schmidt grew up in the Chautauqua region of New York and worked for City Architecture as a city planner and urban designer. He lives in Ohio City.

“Matt brings enthusiasm and imagination to all of his professional work,” said Kim Kimlin, the Trust for Public Land’s local program director. “Matt is a member of our creative class who makes Cleveland a better place to live, play and conduct business every day.”

Schmidt’s worked on projects in the Gordon Square Arts District on Cleveland’s West Side and the Garden Valley Estates housing complex. Now he’s focused on the walking and biking trail in the Flats that will connect the Towpath Trail, which begins in Tuscarawas County, to Wendy Park at the Whiskey Island lakefront.

See SCHMIDT, page 17

Analisa DiFeo, 35 Assistant professor, CWRU School of Medicine

Francis Fungsang, 32 Partner and head, EB-5 Immigrant Investor Practice Group Margaret W. Wong and Associates

Analisa DiFeo chose Cleveland in 2012 over three other cities when she was looking for a place to continue her career in cancer research.

In part, the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center was willing to create an ovarian cancer center so she could continue her research.

After her first visit, the Long Island native decided she could enjoy living here and raise a family here. Her husband, Dr. Goutham Narla, was pleasantly surprised the native New Yorker liked Cleveland enough to leave Manhattan; he was being recruited here to do medical research as well.

DiFeo, who capped an education in biomedical genetics with a doctorate at Mount Sinai’s school of medicine in 2008, is a leading voice in the field of cancer genetics and research. She recently identified a biomarker that could differentiate between women who might respond to standard chemotherapy and those who are at a high risk for recurrence.

The discovery could improve patient treatment plans, prognoses and survival rates, according to Dr. Pamela Davis, dean of CWRU’s medical school.

She focused on cancer because her husband was so excited with his work in prostate cancer research; his work identifying a gene associated with prostate cancer inspired her to look for something similar in ovarian cancer. She also found the cancer that had claimed several relatives was less researched than others. Ovarian cancer has few symptoms so it is often found in its later, deadlier, stages.

“That is one of the reasons,” DiFeo said, “we really want to make a dent in this.”

DiFeo said she uses her family name, which is common among female scientists, to honor her parents because she is the first family

After Francis Fungsang graduated from law school at Ohio State University and passed the bar exam, he knew from an internship that he did not enjoy business litigation. He started working at his aunt’s law firm until he figured out what he wanted to do next.

It’s eight years later, and last year he became the second of two partners at the nine-lawyer firm his aunt launched, Margaret W. Wong and Associates. Over time, he has specialized in employer-based cases helping employees or new hires secure green cards.

He’s also become the firm’s specialist in the U.S. Treasury Department’s EB-5 program, which allows immigrants to receive advanced consideration for green cards if they invest in job-creating businesses in the U.S. Fungsang said he did not grow up planning to become a lawyer. But it always surrounded him.

While attending Shaker Heights High School, he worked summers making copies at his aunt’s Midtown-based law firm. Today, he’s overseeing the interns who are doing the same tasks he was completing not long ago.

And, immigration law and law practice talk also circulated among the family at weekly Wednesday night family dinners at Wong’s home. His mother, Cecilia Fungsang, is Wong’s sister and works in accounting at the firm.

When he started at Brown University as an undergraduate, Fungsang had leaned toward a medical career, but after two semesters of organic chemistry he decided to study psychology and biology as a gateway to graduate or law school.

With a one-attorney office in Manhattan and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Columbus and Nashville, Francis Fungsang is one of

See DIFEO, page 17

See FUNGSANG, page 17

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MCKINLEY WILEY

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Chijioke Asomugha, 34 Director, global head of treasury ERICO International Corp.

Ryan Sommers has structured some of the most complicated multimillion-dollar projects in and around downtown Cleveland, incorporating an arsenal of financing strategies involving public and private entities, as well as nonprofits and community development corporations.

For one, Sommers served as finance director for the $750 million Flats East Bank project, which involved 32 sources of financing. He also structured the public financing for the $180 million redevelopment of the new Ameritrust complex, which opened last month, which involved 17 sources of capital.

All told, Sommers is managing $950 million in real estate development projects as director of financial services for Project Management Consultants.

“Each project is like a Rubik’s Cube,” he said. “In today’s financing

Chijioke Asomugha’s parents moved to the United States from Nigeria in the 1970s.

He was born in Louisiana and grew up in California. He has family in Europe and Africa. And, his career has allowed him to travel the world.

Even so, he didn’t know anything about Cleveland, unless it had to do with the city’s pro sports teams.

But that didn’t stop him from becoming a force for good in the community after moving here in 2009.

Today, Asomugha serves on the board of two nonprofit charter schools that belong to the Breakthrough Schools network, and he mentors urban students. He also serves on a board that advises the county on how it can prepare unemployed residents for jobs.

The former Los Angeles resident said he tries to make a difference wherever he goes.

“Wherever you are, have an impact. Try to change the world,” Asomugha said.

Of course, having been exposed to foreign cultures at such a young age, he’s still interested in what he described as the world beyond his doorstep.

For instance, about a year ago, Asomugha took a job as global head of treasury for ERICO International, a Solon company that makes electrical products. During the job interview, he told the company’s top executives that he wanted to do more than manage ERICO’s cash flow, its capital needs and other financial issues. He also wanted to help the company expand internationally.

He thought that request might have cost him the job. But it didn’t: Now he’s also ERICO’s director of regional development, which means that he helps the company figure out which foreign markets to target.

“They said, ‘That’s exactly what we were looking for,’” he said.

Asomugha developed an interest in business at an early age after watching his mother open a few pharmacies in Los Angeles with the help of his father, a petroleum engineer. He went on to play cornerback for Stanford University (his brother Nnamdi

See SOMMERS, page 17

See ASOMUGHA, page 19

Ryan Sommers, 36 Director of financial services Project Management Consultants

Nicole Steinmetz, 35 Assistant professor of biomedical engineering Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Nicole Steinmetz is an award-winning figure skater turned biomedical engineering assistant professor, who in her current role is studying ways in which nanotechnologies can turn plant viruses into cancer-fighting weapons.

“When I was a biology student during my undergraduate years, I attended a lecture in Germany in which the professor talked about using a biology-inspired approach to fighting viruses and diseases,” she said. “That really framed my career path.”

Nanotechnology involves the ability to see and to control individual atoms and molecules.

She earned her master’s of molecular biotechnology in Germany, a doctorate of bionanotechnology in England and completed post-doctoral research at Scripps Research Institute in California. She joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve University in 2010.

Her lab is currently in the pre-clinical stage of development, during which she and a team of post-doctoral fellows, doctoral students and undergraduate students are analyzing how the nanoparticles formed by harmless plant viruses can be turned into diagnostics and therapeutics.

For example, thousands of contrast agents used for detecting diseases through magnetic resonance imaging can be contained into one tube-shaped nanoparticle. These structures have a higher likelihood of binding to a diseased cell and allowing doctors to more accurately detect a cardiovascular issue or cancer, because they are 10,000 times brighter than the clinical agents currently used in MRIs. See STEINMETZ, page 19

Sandhya Gupta, 38 Of Counsel, The Chandra Law Firm LLC There isn’t a problem too big in the world for Sandhya Gupta to tackle.

As a civil rights attorney at The Chandra Law Firm in Cleveland, she’s helped protect the voting rights of the poor.

On a Fulbright scholarship, she traveled to India and studied women’s issues. In Cleveland, she launched the local chapter of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations — an effort now in its fifth year that recognizes local high school students working to improve race relations in their communities.

Also, she launched an online neighborhood group for her community in Cleveland Heights to bring people together for the betterment of their community. She’d also like to tackle sanitation issues in India, launch additional efforts to promote race relations dialogue in Cleveland and perhaps even help open a health foods store in one of the city’s distressed neighborhoods. She’s also researching how to build a sustainable home.

“I’m constantly in this state of thinking about how I can contribute better than what I’ve been doing,” Gupta said.

“What is my larger purpose here on this planet?”

Despite feeling some pressure to pursue a career in medicine, Gupta gravitated toward one in public affairs and law. She graduated from Princeton University, where her studies were concentrated in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She earned her law degree from Columbia University, and was an articles editor for the Columbia Law Review — something for which she’s immensely proud.

Her studies were influenced by her strong passion for equality and justice. She traces those passions back to a See GUPTA, page 19

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Luis Cartagena, 39 Strategic planning business adviser Minority Business Development Agency Business Center Luis Cartagena and his wife, Jessica, have three children, including a son, Emilio, who was born Sept. 8.

By day, Cartagena is one of the leaders for the Cleveland chapter of the Minority Business Development Agency. By night, he is studying for a CPA license.

“I gotta say, I clap every day for technology,” said Cartagena, who was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Paterson, N.J., when he was 4.

Cartagena’s accounting background comes in handy with the MBDA, a program of the Commission on Economic Inclusion and an arm of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. Cartagena is part of the four-person Cleveland MBDA team responsible for helping minorityowned firms across the state that have annual revenues of at least See CARTAGENA, page 19

Pierre van der Westhuizen, 36 President, CEO, Cleveland International Piano Competition Called a phenom, dynamo and culture ambassador, Pierre van der Westhuizen has not missed a beat since joining the Cleveland International Piano Competition.

The South African pianist is widely credited with the organization’s dramatic turnaround, increasing its visibility and engagement in the region and for hosting its most successful competition — both artistically and financially — in 2013.

Originally recruited in 2011 to be its executive director, van der Westhuizen has been so impressive, the board promoted him to president and CEO at the end of last year. Prior to that, the 36-year-old served on the piano faculty of Heidelberg University and said he “jumped at the chance” to join the worldrenowned competition he’d heard about since he was a student in South Africa.

“My vision for the organization is that it’s a celebration of the art of piano. I decided to change the look and feel of the competition to more a festival atmosphere,” he says.

He also changed the venue of the competition to the Cleve-

Nichelle McCall, 31 CEO, BOLD Guidance Nichelle McCall doesn’t just know about the importance of a college education in a person’s life. She’s lived it.

A Cleveland native, Nichelle’s mother worked three jobs to place her in Laurel School, a private, college-prep school for girls. With guidance from counselors on the college application process, McCall found herself at what was then Baldwin-Wallace College as the first member of her family to attend college.

Several years, scholarships, startups, nonprofits and investors later, McCall is paying it forward. Through BOLD Guidance, a tech-based startup that she’s crafting from the ground up with help from Cleveland business accelerator Flashstarts Inc., McCall is helping aspiring college students find their way into a university setting and to discover the opportunities that higher education brings.

The website, www.boldguidance.com, and a corresponding mobile app help to streamline, track and manage the college application process.

“It’s all just an opportunity to use my work as a service,” McSee MCCALL, page 21

See VAN DER WESTHUIZEN, page 19

cheers!

Congratulations to our friend and colleague, Rob MacKinlay, for being a 2014 Crain’s 40 Under 40 honoree.

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Teleangé Thomas, 34 Program director, Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Missing a few dollars?

(Or maybe more?)

Throughout her 15 years working in public health, focused on health disparities and inequities, Teleangé Thomas says she has had a Cinderella story of steady, swift progression.

From her start as a fresh-faced graduate of Case Western Reserve University, Thomas joined University Hospitals and worked as the first project coordinator for community outreach. She went on to serve in leadership positions at the Cleveland Department of Public Health.

And, in 2009, Thomas joined the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland to head its Healthy Eating/Active Living initiative in Cleveland’s Central neighborhood, working to secure grants to start a mobile food truck service that would help in distributing fresh fruits and vegetables.

“A unique piece to my career and my story is the majority of my positions and the majority of my work has really afforded me the opportunity to create what hasn’t necessarily pre-existed,” says Thomas, who recently was promoted to the position of program director.

Born and raised in Alliance, Thomas’ efforts are directed toward minimizing or eliminating many of the root causes that are driving poor health in the community. She has collaborated with new partners such as the Cleveland Metroparks, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Bike Cleveland and the Cleveland Rowing Foundation to expose residents to new ways

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Ashley Basile Oeken, 29 Executive director, Engage! Cleveland

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President and Chief Operating Officer

When Ashley Basile Oeken moved to Cleveland from Boardman in 2009, she knew she wanted to get involved and make new friends. But it was more difficult than she expected.

Today, however, she spends her time trying to help other young professionals connect with the city as executive director and president of the board for Engage! Cleveland.

She wants to see Cleveland as a competitive city when it comes to attracting young professionals. She doesn’t necessarily want to pit it against the big players like Chicago, but it can be a cool city like a San Antonio or a Portland, she said.

“The culture is just so rich,” Basile Oeken said. “There truly is something for everyone.”

She highlighted the city’s food and arts scenes, along with the lake and the Metroparks. Personally, Basile Oeken said she enjoys the restaurants and likes getting out to some of Cleveland’s once-a-year events — like a parade or festival — when she has free time.

Engage! Cleveland keeps her busy, though, as many of its events are after hours. Basile Oeken, who lives in Olmsted Township with her husband, Aaron, is also a member of the boards for the Greater Cleveland Partnership and St. Luke’s Foundation.

Engage! Cleveland tries to connect young professionals with the city through a variety of programs, including professional development activities and social events. The group also offers services, such as tours highlighting the city from a young professional’s point of view, to help companies retain interns and new hires.

Basile Oeken said she always wants Engage! Cleveland to be run by a young professional, so as a 29-year-old, she’s already thinking about the future transition. She said she has an entrepreneurial spirit, though she doesn’t necessarily want to start her own business.

Basile Oeken’s first job in Cleveland was a fellowship at the Fund for Our Economic Future, which turned into jobs as the fund’s finance and operations associate and later as its manager of finance and administration and secretary of the board.

She graduated in 2007 from Youngstown State University with a degree in marketing and received her MBA a year later. She had always been passionate about helping young people, and when the opportunity arose to lead the newly imagined Engage! Cleveland, she thought it was a good fit.

Basile Oeken has managed to overcome a number of hurdles in getting what is essentially a startup off the ground, said Kim Pesses, vice president of administration at Carnegie Companies Inc. Pesses first met Basile Oeken at the Fund for Our Economic Future, where Pesses was a funder and member of the executive committee. Pesses later

became a founding member of the Engage! Cleveland board.

Basile Oeken is organized, professional and “adaptable,” Pesses said, a necessary trait for anyone working in a changing organization. And she’s passionate about making the organization work and skilled at bringing diverse groups of people together.

“She’s a great Cleveland booster,” Pesses said.

Basile Oeken said when she first came to Cleveland, she expected to spend just a couple of years in the city before moving on. But she soon embraced it.

“Cleveland is home now,” she said.

— Rachel Abbey McCafferty

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SCHMIDT

continued from page 13

He’s also working with the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to create green spaces that help tame storm water runoff.

“What I enjoy the most about what I do is working with communities and neighborhoods and really getting to know a place,” he said. “Throughout my career everything has really been working in urban neighborhoods, talking to residents and business owners and the different institutions, understanding a place and then helping come up with ideas for development or parks or programs to sustain it in the future.”

— Jay Miller

FUNGSANG

continued from page 13

the firm’s traveling lawyers. He recently flew to Atlanta for a hearing the next day and back to Cleveland the next.

The schedule is dictated by when clients have hearings before immigration authorities.

“I like traveling,” Fungsang said. He said his only problem is that he prefers to work in his office to concentrate rather than work on the fly at an airport.

Fungsang said he feels he “can live anywhere” that work might take him.

However, for now, he lives on East Fourth Street downtown because restaurants are nearby and it’s close to work.

“I like Cleveland and enjoy living downtown,” he said.

Wong said she is biased because Fungsang is her nephew, but considers him a gem.

“He’s smart. He’s quick,” Wong said.

“He is ethical and works very, very hard.”

At the firm, he is known for being easygoing and quiet, which covers a “laser-like” focus on practicing law and a sophisticated manner in working with clients and the courts. He regularly speaks to groups of foreign college students and others about immigration issues.

For the future, Fungsang sees his role as helping build a stable law firm following its expansion into new cities.

For fun, he enjoys reading, attending concerts and playing volleyball on the firm’s team through Cleveland Plays.

“We’ve improved, and I hope we’ve not reached our ceiling,” Fungsang joked about the firm’s team.

— Stan Bullard

DIFEO

continued from page 13

member to earn a doctorate. Her parents are Italian immigrants. Her father runs a construction firm and her mother is a Sotheby’s real estate agent.

Colleagues describe DiFeo as generous, compassionate and humble. “If her past is any indication,” Davis said, “she is absolutely poised to continue making huge influences on cancer research and the lives of women across the world.”

Inasmuch as it can with two boys, one 5 years old and the other 8 months, dinner table conversation at DiFeo’s home often revolves around the couple’s shared research work. She is adapting to life as a new homeowner in Pepper Pike after living in apartments here and in a 42-story New York City building.

“We’ve lived in apartments for 14 years. You’d just call the super if you had a leak,” said DiFeo, but she rarely knew her neighbors. “When we moved to Pepper Pike, we were shocked when the neighbors brought over brownies to welcome us.”

— Stan Bullard

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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SOMMERS continued from page 14

market, these large mixed-use projects require multiple layers of financing to close.”

Sommers gravitated to corporate and real estate finance after beginning his career as a certified public accountant at his own consulting practice, Gray Fox Capital. He joined Fairmount Properties in 2011 as vice president of finance before transitioning to Project Management Consultants, a Cleveland-based commercial real estate financing and project consultant.

His accomplishments at Project Management Consultants in less than two years run the gamut. Beyond structuring the financing for the highly visible Ameritrust and Flats East Bank projects, Sommers has spearheaded project financing and accounting for

the new Hilton Cleveland Downtown at the Convention Center and managed financing for the redevelopment of 1220 Huron Road at PlayhouseSquare.

He shepherded Applied Industrial Technologies’ multimillion-dollar public financing and corporate incentives package to purchase its Midtown headquarters from the ClevelandCuyahoga County Port Authority.

“We helped retain a Fortune 1000 company,” he said.

“I can’t reiterate enough how the public partners that I work with, from the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the state of Ohio roll up their sleeves to close the financing gap and make these projects happen. These projects are very important to downtown but also for creating job growth, new taxes and revenue to the econo-

my.”

Part of his strategy involves incorporating underutilized financing programs — such as bond financing that creates capital and tax advantages for complex projects like the Flats East Bank.

He also coordinated a $5 million state Alternative Stormwater Infrastructure Loan issued by the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority to facilitate the Parmatown Mall redevelopment.

“Every project has its own set of challenges,” Sommers said. “The more challenging it is, the more interesting it is.”

Sommers is working on securing financing for Stark Enterprises’ mixeduse project “nuCLEus,” between Prospect Avenue and Huron Road in the Gateway District. The project’s

scope is still being finalized but developers hint at residential, retail and parking.

“Ryan is a master of knowing which public financing vehicles are available, and has close relationships with those entities involved,” said Ezra Stark, chief operating officer of Stark Enterprises. “Plus, he’s just so personable and sharp.”

Moving forward, Sommers hopes to continue architecting transformative development projects here and across the U.S. He currently is a member of the Ohio Society of CPAs, Council of Development Finance Agencies and Urban Land Institute.

Sommers lives in Waite Hill with his wife, Kelly; daughter, Stella, 10; and 7-year-old son, Jack.

— Kathy Ames Carr

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Joan Curran Darkortey, 34 Executive assistant to general counsel Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

Scott Snider, 28 Operating partner, Snider Premier Growth Inc.

On the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s website, Joan Curran Darkortey is an executive assistant, but she functions as so much more.

“The candid truth about most organizations is people typecast people in current roles,” Curran Darkortey said. “I want to be viewed as something greater than what I end up doing. I know that I’ve demonstrated leadership capacity, not only through my service, but through the caliber of work that I’ve done for the organization.”

In addition to helping William D. Fosnight, the Federal Reserve’s senior vice president and general counsel, Curran Darkortey said she has made it her “duty to be involved” in as many areas of the bank as possible — from networking groups, to planning and leadership activities.

“She’s demonstrated a very significant commitment to learning and growing,” Fosnight said. “She’s very interested in expanding her horizons and making herself a better educated person. It’s always very good when you have somebody that shows that kind of drive. It tends to work to their advantage in other things that they do.”

After she was twice rejected in applications to law school, Curran Darkortey, a Liberia native who moved to Cleveland from Atlanta in 2007, took an aptitude test that showed she was best suited to work in communications, business or law.

“I said this law thing is not my friend. Let me try business,” she said.

In May, Curran Darkortey earned a master’s degree and graduated near the top of her class at Cleveland State University’s Monte Ahuja College of Business. She envisions herself working in a management role, preferably at the Federal Reserve, in the coming years, while, as is her nature, remaining involved in many other functions.

Curran Darkortey and her husband, Rufus Darkortey, a senior financial analyst at Forest City Enterprises Inc., launched the Liberia Economic Development Initiative in 2007, the year Curran Darkortey moved from Atlanta and started her job at the Federal Reserve.

The Cleveland-based nonprofit, LEDI for short, has a simple mission: “Reduce poverty and change lives” in the husband-and-wife team’s native country.

“We’re trying to build the first modern library in Liberia,” Curran Darkortey said.

“That’s our goal, because you can’t take everyone out of the country, but you can bring new ideas. You can bring innovation. Some of these people, war is all they’ve known.”

LEDI recently gave out 10 scholarships to Liberian students, including one for a student entering college. Curran Darkortey said the library project was launched in 2011, and she and her husband hope to eventually hold a fundraising gala in Cleveland. Curran Darkortey said Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had agreed to speak at the event, but that was before the Ebola crisis struck the country.

Rufus and Joan Darkortey have a 2-year-old son, Rufus Jr. Curran Darkortey, who immigrated to Atlanta from Liberia when she was 5, serves as the public relations and marketing chair of the Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation, and she is involved in several charitable functions at the Federal Reserve.

“She’s very much a go-getter,” Fosnight said.

Curran Darkortey describes herself in a different manner.

“It’s education vs. homelessness and poverty,” she said. “I’m passionate about education. I’m passionate about helping people.”

— Kevin Kleps

Scott Snider doesn’t have the business college degree that many of his peers possess, but no matter. His entrepreneurial acumen has steered him in the direction of onward and upward.

As operating partner of Snider Premier Growth, a Lakewood-based private equity outfit he manages with his father Chris, Snider handles many facets of the business, including scouting new investments. The firm targets businesses and real estate with $70,000 to $300,000 in annual cash flow, primarily in the fields of entertainment, education and technology.

“We write growth strategies for businesses we’ve purchased that have plateaued but that demonstrate highgrowth potential,” Snider said. “They usually need an injection of capital, management and marketing, and we take on active roles in facilitating their growth.”

Snider also is vice president of the Exit Planning Institute, an international organization of industry professionals, which the private equity firm acquired in 2012.

“I’m leading the chapter developSee SNIDER, page 21

William Tarter Jr., 31 Community engagement specialist OneCommunity William Tarter Jr. cares about what people care about. Networking, engaging and informing the public about civic issues have been at the core of each job position Tarter has held since his college years at Ohio University.

His undergraduate and post-graduate studies in communications and public administration were fascinating enough, but it was his experience as a resident assistant engaging his dorm occupants to vote that really sparked his passion for connecting people. He extended those efforts nationwide, co-founding a program through which RAs and students at 120 colleges watched the 2004 presidential debate and registered to vote.

“That kickstarted my interest in civic engagement,” Tarter said.

Now in his current role as a community engagement specialist at the nonprofit OneCommunity, Tarter is applying a similar strategy by reaching out to governments, schools, community development organizations, libraries, hospitals and business owners across Northeast Ohio to connect them to the regional fiber optic network.

“We have 2,400 miles of fiber optic cables in 24 counties throughout northern Ohio,” meaning the region is one of the largest fiber networks in the U.S., Tarter said. “My job is to help broaden the network by educating these entities on what fiber optic means to economic development.”

Tarter is also initiating talks with real estate brokers about how fiber optics can attract tenants to their buildings.

“This is part of a bigger picture in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio,” he said. “I’m always thinking about how I can contribute to making Cleveland a successful city in five, 10, 20 years from now.”

Tarter has a stream of experience upon which to propel that goal.

Upon receiving his master’s in public administration from Ohio University, Tarter was named a fellow for the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. He then educated underserved populations about issues surrounding Senate Bill 5, the collective bargaining bill, as an outreach specialist for former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Additionally, he was the youngest appointee, nominated by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, to the Cuyahoga County Charter Review Commission.

Tarter also is a past president of the Cleveland Young Professional Senate, a civic education and engagement group. His key accomplishments include establishing an annual conference that promotes collaboration among young professionals and other government and civic leaders.

“William has this great ability to transfer vision into reality,” said Erika Anthony, that group’s board chairwoman.

Tarter is a member of the NAACP’s Cleveland chapter, and a former board member for both Global Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Business Center.

He recently completed a three-year term as board member for Engage! Cleveland, an organization he cofounded to attract young professionals to Cleveland.

During his three-year stint as a business manager for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Tarter formed the Voice of Downtown speaker series, reaching 6,000 individuals. He revitalized the membership program, which saw a 60% increase in revenue.

“I studied the demographic makeup and generational trends across the U.S., trying to figure out where things are, where they are going, and Cleveland fit into the bigger national picture of urban revitalizations,” he said.

Tarter lives in Broadview Heights with his wife, Sarah, — Kathy Ames Carr and their 10-month-old, Abigail.

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played the same position during a successful NFL career) and earn a bachelor’s in economics and public policy in 2002.

Asomugha spent the next four years as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, focusing on cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

“That kind of opened my eyes to high-level business,” said Asomugha, who also has an MBA. He moved to Northeast Ohio when his wife, Eva, began a residency at the Cleveland Clinic. So he took a job at a Cleveland private equity firm called Cyprium Partners.

Not long after moving to town, Asomugha was put in touch with John Zitzner, president of Friends of Breakthrough, a nonprofit that supports the Breakthrough Schools network.

Asomugha has personally mentored several Breakthrough students, Zitzner said, noting that he continued mentoring one even after he left for high school.

“He’s kind of a quiet, servant leader,” he said.

Asomugha also is a board member with The Asomugha Foundation, which was started by his mother. The organization helps widows and orphans in sub-Saharan Africa and has established an 18-month leadership training program for urban children.

“It doesn’t matter where you’re from … anyone can be an A-plus student,” he said.

— Chuck Soder

STEINMETZ continued from page 14

The role of nanotechnologies in medicine is complex, and can be confounding to a nonscientific audience. That’s why she partnered with playwright and multimedia developer Knight and Brinegar to create The Nanoman video series and video game.

“The Nanoman is a teeny, tiny superhero fighting cancer cells,” she said. “We just performed a musical theater performance of The Nanoman at a performing arts venue in Berkeley. The show included a gaming component in which the audience member plays a video game and controls the Nanoman inside the body of the patient.”

“We’re trying to get young students, particularly young girls, excited about science,” Steinmetz said.

Other lab projects focus on developing tissue-targeted therapeutics. Nanoparticles, for example, allow for targeted drug delivery in cancer patients, therefore reducing the side effects of chemotherapy.

Zheng-Rong Lu, a biomedical engineering professor at CWRU, references Steinmetz’s passion as key in energizing her students’ pursuit of nanotechnologies’ role in materials science and medicine.

“She’s this energetic young scientist and a really great mentor for the students,” Lu said.

— Kathy Ames Carr

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CARTAGENA continued from page 15

$500,000.

“In some instances, I may be looking at a financial statement, and in other instances, I’m trying to come up with a social media strategy,” Cartagena said. “I like the fact that it’s always different. What may be a challenge to one company may not be something that another company worries about.”

Cartagena, like the many clients with whom he works, is a budding entrepreneur.

He eventually would like to open a tax practice, which is why he spends many nights and weekends studying for his accounting license.

He absorbs plenty during the day, too.

“My favorite part is I feel like I’m learning from the entrepreneurs that I work with,” Cartagena said. “I’m consistently learning from them, even though I’m providing advice to them as well. I love being part of the process of them being successful.”

Raland Hatchett, executive director of the Cleveland MBDA, said Cartagena’s “skill set” has provided “great value” to the organization.

“He has a mindset to always listen to both sides, and because of that, he’s open to new relationships and he’s open to exploring new cultures,” Hatchett said.

Cartagena moved from New Jersey to Cleveland when he was 16. He graduated from Lincoln West High School and received a master’s degree in financial planning and accounting from Ursuline College.

He may have big plans for himself and his family, but he is also looking at the larger picture when it comes to diversity and other important measures.

“There are a lot of initiatives that are getting our community involved in some of the professional development programs that are going on,” Cartagena said.

“Sometimes there might be 40 individuals, and you may not have a Latino in the program, so I think it’s important for us to not only work on our community and the challenges that we face, but also become part of the bigger picture, which is Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. I think we’re taking steps in that direction.”

Cartagena, a former volunteer of the year at Esperanza, is the treasurer of the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center of Economic Development, is on the board of trustees for the Hispanic Roundtable and the Saint Luke’s Foundation, and he cochairs Convención Hispana, which is held every three years.

Asked if he has any hobbies, the good-natured Cartagena laughed and said, “Studying for the CPA, is that a hobby? I don’t think I even have a time for a stamp — Kevin Kleps collection.”

HOW CAN SOMEONE HAVE ALL YOUR ANSWERS BEFORE THEY ASK ANY QUESTIONS?

GUPTA continued from page 14

research paper she wrote in 10th grade arguing that gays should be allowed to serve in the military — a topic that piqued her interest after reading an article about the issue in 1991 in Time.

“You have to find out what you believe in and follow that thing — and not be deterred by those who don’t believe in you,” Gupta said.

Danny Williams, executive director of The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland, described Gupta as “always willing to be the first one to pick up the shovel and start digging.” He said she has this unique ability to reel people in and get them involved in the issues in which she believes strongly.

“She’s got this irrepressible optimism,” said Williams, who works with Gupta on the Princeton Prize. “She has this demeanor that suggests she’s a bit of an introvert, but the reality of it is that she has this intrepid perseverance that she uses to get things done. She’s very unassuming and hides her power and energy underneath.”

— Timothy Magaw

Clairvoyance isn’t one of our skills.

But curiosity is.

It’s what leads us to listen to you.

To think about what you’re telling us.

And then ask thoughtful questions.

It’s the only way to crack the puzzle.

Because the answers don’t just jump out.

You have to dig. Subordinated debentures, equity infusions and other solutions are all well and good, but when is the right

VAN DER WESTHUIZEN continued from page 15

land Museum of Art and collaborated with fellow arts institutions. Films, lectures and showcase recitals were incorporated, along with an installation of 25 decorated pianos at outdoor locations around University Circle in conjunction with an international street piano program called “Play Me, I’m Yours.”

“That proved to be very successful because a lot of people attended festival events and stayed for the competition rounds or vice versa. And tens of thousands of people visited the website and learned about the competition, which raised the profile of the competition locally.”

Herb Wainer, a board member and donor to the organization, said he has been impressed by van der Westhuizen’s compelling ability to transform the competition into a “dynamic, exciting jewel in the Cleveland musical scene.”

“He is a unique person for these types of organizations in my opinion because he has young eyes,” Wainer says. “Young people with young eyes think there is nothing that can’t be done. He has a sparkle about him and a charm. He is entrepreneurial in the way that he looks at the organization. He has a million ideas and executes on the ideas. He’s on the ground making it happen.”

Van der Westhuizen, who in 2007 completed his doctor of musical arts in piano performance at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, continues to perform and is a part of the Westhuizen Piano Duo, with his wife Sophié. As a duo, they have performed across the U.S. and South Africa, and they did a debut performance in Cleveland in 2012.

They also are the busy parents of three children, who are 5, 3, and 8 months old.

— Chrissy Kadleck

time to use them?

And why?

Shouldn’t your bank want to find out?

We do.

Learn more at 53.com/Commercial We’re Fifth Third Bank.

The curious bank.®

Deposit and credit products provided through Fifth Third Bank. Member FDIC. Lending is subject to credit review and approval.

Equal Housing Lender.

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Neema Mayhugh, 39 Senior director, Cleveland Clinic Innovations

Shanelle Smith, 30 Director, Emerald Cities Cleveland Shanelle Smith is concerned about climate change.

And she believes she can be part of the solution by tempering its impact through energy efficiency.

Smith is director of Emerald Cities Cleveland, a part of a nonprofit network based in Washington, D.C., that works to curb climate change, increase energy efficiency and create jobs in the green-building industry.

The program she runs here, Retrofits for Energy Efficiency Works, or RENEW, provides financing and technical support for building owners who want to improve their bottom lines. It also hopes to teach green energy job skills to provide a pathway into the well-paying construction trades.

“Climate change is real and we need to do something about it,” she said. “Energy efficiency is low-hanging fruit.”

The program brings together partners including Cuyahoga County, the building trade unions, the Council of Smaller Enterprises, Policy Matters Ohio and the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, which offers development finance services.

The first project is a $1.9 million energy efficiency retrofit of municipal buildings in Seven Hills that includes new heating and cooling equipment, improved insulation and energy-efficient lighting.

Her work with RENEW extends Smith’s commitment to sustainability. Smith came to Cleveland in 2009 to work for the BlueGreen Alliance, which also worked to support a green energy economy.

“I started to realize that we can have an impact on cities,” she said. “I saw opportunities to use sustainability as a way to increase revenue to building owners, create good jobs and reduce the region’s carbon footprint.”

A native of Lima in western Ohio, Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Kent State University. She got a master’s degree from the University of Toledo and is working on a doctorate in urban studies at Cleveland State University.

Amy Hanauer, executive director of Policy Matters Ohio, said Smith “is a charismatic young leader, manages an innovative partnership to support energy upgrades in the building stock of 53 cities and municipalities in Cuyahoga County. She has proven adept at navigating complicated national coalitions, repeatedly finding ways to bring federal resources home to — Jay Miller Greater Cleveland.”

Neema Mayhugh is an expert in clinical business.

But her passion is people. Mayhugh, who specializes in ophthalmology, is senior director at Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Since 2005, she has helped in more than 40 deals to bring technologies developed at the Clinic to various markets, from major pharmaceutical firms to consumer product companies.

“At the end of the day, I know it’ll affect the way people’s care is managed,” she said. “Being able to bridge these ideas into things that actually make it into people’s hands to make lives better is something really important to me.”

In 2013, Mayhugh helped secure a $3 million Ohio Third Frontier grant for developing the Ophthalmic Imaging Center at the Cole Eye Institute. The center aims to improve the way eye images are captured during surgery and make the techniques easier and less risky.

Mayhugh also has helped found five Cleveland Clinic spinoff companies, including OptoQuest and Tolera Therapeutics, which are still active today.

Mayhugh is currently studying how the microbes in a person’s stomach react to certain foods. She said they’ve learned a diet rich in meat increases the volume of gas emitted by the same bacteria that contribute to cardiovascular and kidney disease.

She’s working with separate companies to commercialize a device that enables a person to measure that level of gas plus develop a line of foods and even medication that could abate it, especially for people susceptible to those diseases.

Mayhugh jokes about how she once considered opening a yoga-themed café in Shaker Heights. But, she decided her talents were better suited for helping others through medicine, where she believed she could make the most impact.

“It’s all about being able to help people,” Mayhugh said. “It’s a tangible thing where I know patient outcomes will improve as a result of all this.”

Mayhugh’s motivation to help other people is present in everything she does, said Gary Fingerhut, executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations.

“Neema is passionate about commercializing clinical innovations that improve patient care,” he said.

That devotion to people spills into the community as well where she serves on the United Way Women’s Leadership Council and the economic development council for Shaker Heights. She’s also on the board for Cleveland’s Open Doors Academy, a nonprofit enrichment program and leadership academy for adolescents.

After earning her doctorate in pharmacology and toxicology at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College in 2002, Mayhugh jumped into health care consulting work in New York City before being recruited by Pfizer to work on marketing for ophthalmology. Despite her New York roots, she resolved to move to the Cleveland area with her husband, a Shaker Heights native, and eventually joined the staff at Cleveland Clinic Innovations. She currently resides in Shaker Heights with her husband Ryan and three boys Connor, 6, Cameron, 5, and Colby, 2.

Mayhugh said the key to her success has been focus and hard work.

“Always work hard,” she said. “Pursue your passions and always be open to the possibilities that are out there.”

— Jeremy Nobile

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Call said, “because I know college has the opportunity to change the tracks of lives, families and community.”

While still in its infancy, BOLD Guidance already has been put to use in 15 Ohio high schools. McCall’s next goals are to go beyond Ohio — potentially starting with New Orleans — and to add a feature to assist with finding and applying for college financial aid.

McCall is active in Bad Girl Ventures, a microfinance organization that supports female entrepreneurs, and the YWCA of Cleveland.

Bishara Addison, a project manager in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, said she admires McCall for her “tenacity,” adding she “inspires me to do more myself.” Addison said McCall not only is furthering college access, she’s blazing a trail for women of color in the realm of entrepreneurship and tech startups.

“She’s paving the way for other minorities who want to break into that sector,” Addison said. “But what impresses me the most is that she is combining passion, knowledge of technology and connecting people with opportunity and has turned that into a business.”

Evan Ishida, co-founder of startup KnowledgePost, met McCall through networking and was impressed by her presentation at a COSE Business pitch competition during which McCall secured third place and funding for her project.

“She’s a great example of a young person with a great idea who’s able to marshal the resources available to her locally and use that to move her business forward,” Ishida said. “She’s driven by purpose, from what I can tell. It comes through in her pitches, that passion for what she’s doing.”

McCall said some of her childhood friends weren’t as fortunate as her and are at different points in life, referencing the opportunities she was afforded by hard work and a little luck. Those life experiences underscore her purpose today to improve college access across the country so others might enjoy the same opportunities and success.

“I want to help as many students as possible to access education,” she said, “and change their lives.”

— Jeremy Nobile

THOMAS continued from page 16

to get active.

“What I am most proud of is that I have been able to broaden the definition of health so it’s not just viewed as the state of disease or the absence of disease but really looking at healthy holistically as a quality of life conversation for people …,” she said.

Joan Mazzolini, communications officer for the foundation, said Thomas is well respected and well known for her work at the foundation as well as her passion for Cleveland and the region.

“Outside of work, her personal time is devoted to bringing people back to the city and making residents here understand how really great it is and wanting to see it grow and improve,” Mazzolini says.

She is one of the main principals of Ohio Homecoming, which brings together emerging leaders who share a similar commitment and civic-mindedness to the area and want to ensure that promising young professionals “stick and stay and thrive locally as opposed to taking their talent elsewhere.”

In her free time, Thomas is a youth mentor and proud godmother, and she enjoys live music, outdoor concerts and taking in the region’s many assets.

— Chrissy Kadleck

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Michael D. Murphy, 34 Director, marketing and communications, Cleveland Foundation Michael D. Murphy has moved around a lot in a short career, working everywhere from big city PR firms to wellknown TV stations. He was always looking for the next best thing, he said. That is, until he joined the Cleveland Foundation as its director of marketing and communications in 2013.

“And the best thing’s here, in Cleveland, at this foundation,” he said.

Murphy was brought on to help shape the visibility of the foundation’s centennial year, to really “redefine who we are as a community foundation,” he said. The fact that the foundation was the first presenting sponsor of the Gay Games — which Murphy helped bring to Cleveland and Akron — was just a plus.

Murphy was senior vice president, partner and chair of FH Out Front at FleishmanHillard when the cities were working on the bid, and the firm went in and worked on it pro bono.

Winning the games was “such a career highlight,” Murphy said.

Murphy, who grew up in Akron, graduated from Ohio University in 2002 with a degree in journalism and public relations and economics.

He then moved to New York to work at Ketchum public relations, later transferring to Washington, D.C., to work in the company’s corporate social marketing practice, where he worked on issues such as the launch of Medicare Part D. But he had always wanted to work in television, so in 2007 he took an in-house job with the Fox News Channel in D.C. “Why not choose a network where the phone’s always going to be ringing?” he said.

The job took him through the nominations for the 2008 presidential election and the shooting at Virginia Tech, offering him a behind-the-scenes look at how news decisions were made. His gig at FleishmanHillard in Cleveland followed, before he moved back to New York with his now-husband, Frank Congin.

He worked in FleishmanHillard’s New York office for a few months, and then in global public affairs at BursonMarsteller, before he realized he wanted to come home to Ohio. He hadn’t been thinking about the Cleveland Foundation, but the job was ideal and in the backyard of where he grew up. The couple now lives in Hudson, and Murphy said he enjoys the region’s theater and food scenes, in addition to its outdoor amenities.

“It takes different experiences to figure out what it is you want to do,” Murphy said.

Matt Burns, U.S. Southwest market leader and managing

director for Burson-Marsteller, first worked with Murphy when Burns was in communications at UnitedHealthcare, and Murphy was the company’s account leader at FleishmanHillard. Burns said Murphy has a “wonderful understanding of media and marketing” and is “smart, insightful and hardworking.”

So it’s not surprising that Burns was upset when UnitedHealthcare switched firms — so upset that he said he reached out to the new firm UnitedHealthcare was working with, Burson-Marsteller, and encouraged them to bring Murphy on board to continue his work. He was “too valuable” to let go, Burns said. Murphy’s diversity of experience really helps him bring people together, Burns said.

Teamwork is important to Murphy, who was quick to highlight the work at the foundation as a group effort.

“He very quickly endears himself to his colleagues,” Burns — Rachel Abbey McCafferty said.

To those whose drive and passion are making a mark on Northeast Ohio:

SNIDER continued from page 18

ment. We have five currently, and plan to have 15 chapters established through 2015,” Snider said.

Snider approached the transition with a blend of enthusiasm and humility, said Sean Hutchinson, chairman of the Exit Planning Institute’s professional standards committee.

“It couldn’t have been easy for a young person to come in and take over a business that many of us more experienced professionals have been a part of for a long time,” Hutchinson said. “But he listened carefully, and he’s done it right. He’s not just a transition manager, he’s a transformational manager.”

Also, as president of Cleveland Freeze, Snider oversees sales and operations for the professional arena soccer organization that he helped launch in September 2013. The team reached the Final Four in its inaugural league season last year.

Snider’s entrepreneurial spirit stems to his teenage years. At age 17, he formed a landscaping firm that he sold seven years later, in 2010, and found himself at a pivotal point in his professional life.

“My dad and I always wanted to own multiple businesses together, so we partnered up, and went through three, four years of buying,” he said. “I don’t have a formal business degree that many peers do, so everything I really know about business comes from my father and experience.”

The father-son duo plan to finish investing the fund and operate their portfolio companies for three to seven years before selling them. Meanwhile, Snider wants to elevate the influence of Exit Planning Institute.

“We really want to become thought leaders in that business, the type of organization that those in the professional services industry turn to for expertise,” he said. “$10 trillion of wealth will be transitioned in the next 10 years. Over the next five years, 48% of that will transfer, so that’s a very active business.”

The Olmsted Falls resident is a former chair of the Cuyahoga County Next Generation Council, an adviser to the St. Edward High School Entrepreneurship Program, a member of the board of directors for America SCORES Cleveland and the head goalkeeper coach for the St. Edward High School boys soccer team.

— Kathy Ames Carr

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Congratulations.

University Hospitals celebrates the professional success and civic contributions of the 2014 class of Crain’s 40 Under 40 Award honorees, including one of UH’s leading professionals:

R YA N R. C R O S S

Vice President, Institutional Relations & Development and Campaign Director

Ryan’s inspirational commitment to the community and tireless efforts to advance health care in Northeast Ohio are making an impact today that will be felt for generations to come. We applaud Ryan and the entire class of 2014 for their dedication, leadership and ingenuity.

Discover the Difference T H E C A M PA I G N F O R U N I V E R S I T Y H O S P I TA L S

Learn how you can make a difference. Visit UHGiving.org.

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Michael Russell, 27 President, CEO, Russell Equipment Inc. Michael Russell was just out of high school in 2005 when his father Robert’s company, Russell Equipment Inc. in Twinsburg, was going through some personnel upheaval.

Russell Equipment buys and sells used forklifts and other industrial equipment.

The Western Reserve Academy graduate started going into the office to answer the phone. Then, he started doing some sales.

“I was decent at it and kept on going from there,” he said.

He’s been there ever since. Russell took over running the business when his father semi-retired in 2010 and now he’s working to expand the business worldwide.

And it turns out that buying and selling forklifts is a lot like the equities trading career Russell was thinking about before his plans for college and career got sidetracked.

The heart of Russell Equipment’s business is working with banks and other lenders who finance equipment leasing.

“We do a lot of financial advising for leasing companies and banks across the country,” he said. “Before they lease a fleet of forklifts to a company they want to know what they will be worth in five years, just like when you lease a car. So we guide them through that value process and then when those leases expire, they look to us to resell those forklifts all over the world.”

Most of those sales are to other dealerships, though the direct sale business, especially over the Internet, has grown in recent years.

“I find Mike to be an amazing young leader,” said Rich Cochran, president and CEO of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy in an email. “He is the most impressive young businessman I have ever known personally.”

Cochran said he met Russell through the Young Presidents’ Organization, a worldwide network of executives younger than 45.

Now they are working together with Rid-All Green Partnership, a Cleveland nonprofit that created two greenhouses on Cleveland’s East Side that grow produce for sale and train urban young people about farming and healthy eating.

Now, Rid-All and Russell are building a greenhouse on Russell Equipment’s property in Twinsburg.

“I was completely moved by what they’re doing for the city of Cleveland and for the immediate community,” he said. “Not only is there a for-profit side, but there’s also a community awareness side.”

— Jay Miller

John Gadd, 28 CEO, Hotcards After autumn weather put an end to the concrete work John Gadd did the summer after he graduated from Chagrin Falls High School, a friend asked if Gadd was willing to make some cold calls for his family’s printing supply business, Graphco of Solon.

“That’s how I fell into sales,” Gadd said of his niche. “There is a simple rule: The more you work, the more you sell.”

A decade later, Gadd heads an investor group that owns Hotcards, an online-focused printing business in Cleveland’s St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.

“We’ve been focused on bringing Hotcards into its own,” Gadd said. “We’re bringing in the right people and certain core behaviors to make it live and breathe. The idea is to make Hotcards a brand people want to do business with before they know what you do.” Sales are up 23% annually, though he won’t disclose actual figures.

Gadd holds to the idea that anything that can be sold over the Internet will go to the Internet. Instead of going to a printer’s office for fliers, postcards or door hangers, he said, people will increasingly order them online.

“We see this as a technology company,” said Gadd, who has been fascinated by computers since he was a teenager. He has started several businesses over the years: his first was a lawn mowing service, then doing patios and landscaping.

“It was always a means to an end,” Gadd said. “I mowed lawns at 10 to get a go-kart. I did landscaping to buy my first computer.” Some lessons came the hard way; he lost an early deal because he did not wear a tie on a sales call. He later moved to businesses that are scalable. Such was the case at the software firm flozio he launched at age 22 and sold for an undisclosed price.

He also knows how to win attention. Last fall he was among a group of people who, after working with a stuntman, set themselves on fire from a barge on the Cuyahoga River during a company party at Shooters restaurant to raise money for charity. The Hotcards office includes Red, a popular event space for the firm that is also rented out for events.

Gadd still lives in Chagrin Falls, but is selling a century home he has owned since he was 20 as he prefers an apartment above a store on Main Street.

“I call the restaurants in Chagrin my kitchen,” he said. He sometimes bikes to work downtown from Chagrin Falls.

Gadd is thankful for people who have become his mentors over the years, including Frank KenSee GADD, page 24

Jayne Juvan, 34 Partner, Roetzel & Andress LPA During Jayne Juvan’s first year out of law school, her mother was diagnosed with cancer.

She spent the bulk of her time helping her mother navigate what seemed to be an increasingly complex health care system. At the same time, her then employer — Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff — was encouraging lawyers to get out into the community and network more to drum up new business.

But with her mother’s illness, Juvan was unable to get out in the community as much as she’d like, so she turned to social media, particularly Twitter.

“I developed an international network, and when a firm sees you’re making that sort of traction, you’re indispensible to the organization,” Juvan said.

Juvan’s what some might characterize as a super networker. She boasts more than 2,700 Twitter followers — a list that includes journalists from the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNBC and Fortune. She’s also a contributor for ALM’s Law.com, where she writes about developments in corporate law, securities regulation and mergers and acquisitions.

“She jumped on Twitter before most people could spell Twitter,” said Dan DiMarco, who works in business development at Grant Thornton and has known Juvan for about eight years. “Over the last couple years, it’s paid amazing dividends for her.”

Early last year, Juvan joined Roetzel & Andress already on the fast track, making partner more than a year in advance of the normal trajectory of moving from associate to partner. Her current practice is focused on advising public and high-growth private companies, private equity funds and venture capital funds on mergers and acquisitions. She’s advised on deals valued at almost $2 billion.

“There are times in negotiations where a transaction can become very heated, but my job is to make sure some of those short-term disputes between parties don’t hinder long-term objectives,” she said.

“That’s the value I feel like I can bring to the table.”

Juvan is passionate about advocating for women in the legal profession — so much in fact that she founded and chairs Roetzel’s Women of Success initiative. The effort brings together the firm’s female attorneys to hear presentations on various topics relevant to women in law, including business development.

“There’s so much talent to be harnessed with female attorneys,” said Juvan, whose mother is now cancer free. “If firms don’t have that talent, they’re doing themselves and their clients a disservice.”

— Timothy Magaw

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Scott Raybuck, 36 CEO, Steamfire For a story to really tell what Scott Raybuck is like, it should come with a note: Read this as quickly as you can!

That way, you’ll get a little of the feel of Raybuck’s very highenergy, rapid-fire personality, which includes his staccato pace when talking. You might also finish the article before Raybuck accomplishes something else.

“He’s definitely shot out of a cannon, there’s no doubt about that,” quips Raybuck’s longtime friend and business partner Ryan Pojman.

The two formed a company in 2008 called Global Medical Distribution, which was renamed last year to Steamfire LLC. Located in Westlake, the company markets and sells medical devices, as well as laboratory, pharmacology and other medical services. It’s a bit of an entrepreneurial play aimed at helping and capitalizing upon the efforts of other entrepreneurs. And it’s working.

“We’re a sales and marketing consulting firm, and we partner with startup firms to basically be their sales force,” Raybuck said. Steamfire helps other companies that are often too new or too small to have developed their own sales and marketing departments. It sells their products and services through a network of 450 sales representatives across the U.S. and Canada. The sales force is independent — many also selling for other companies — and reports to Steamfire’s staff of 13 here in Ohio.

Steamfire, as well as the salespeople, earns a commission for each sale that is made. In return for giving up some margin in the form of the commission, clients get an active national sales force that they don’t have to recruit, pay or manage, Raybuck said.

Steamfire does not disclose what it earned in commissions last year, but it sold more than $70 million in medical

goods and services. It’s on track to sell $100 million worth of stuff this year, Raybuck said.

Distributors and outside sales forces like Steamfire are a good option for startups — and sometimes their only option, Raybuck said.

“Distributors only get paid when they sell something. If they hire a W-2 sales force, they might have to do another round of fundraising just to have the money to hire that sales force,” he said.

The business is a natural for Raybuck, who grew up in Brecksville with a mother who was a consultant and a father who was a dentist. Before founding his present company with Pojman, Raybuck was selling pharmaceutical products and medical devices for others.

Raybuck is a natural at sales and is a constant source of new ideas and growth strategies, says Pojman, who readily admits that Raybuck is the energetic front man for the company, while Pojman works more behind the scenes on operations.

That’s fine by Pojman. Besides, he says, Raybuck not only has a knack for strategic thinking, but is the ultimate people person, able to win over new clients with relative ease.

“He’s an easy guy to get along with,” Pojman said. “If you can’t get along with him, you probably have problems yourself.”

Raybuck lives in Avon with his wife Danielle and sons Brock and Bradley, with a third child on the way. He loves his job for the work, but also what it affords him to do with his family, he said.

“I love taking my kids skiing and we have a house at Catawba Island . . . we live at Catawba Island in the sum— Dan Shingler mer,” said Raybuck.

Saluting Our Colleague and Partner

congratulations Megan Van Voorhis and to all 2014 Crain’s 40 under 40 award winners

to strengthen, unify and connect greater Cleveland’s arts and culture sector Kevin Patrick Murphy | Partner Real Estate Practice Group Forty Under 40 Class of 2014

From the moment we met Kevin, he impressed us as a great practitioner.

His dynamic personality, aggressive style and entrepreneurial spirit have proven to be major assets not only for his clients, but also our firm.

Kevin exemplifies the type of professionalism, dedication and expertise that clients have come to expect from Walter | Haverfield for more than 80 years.

That’s why we are proud he’s part of our success story.

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

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Sam Pines, 39 Partner, vice president / sales manager, Good Karma Brands / ESPN Cleveland

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

The prize for Cleveland’s devotion to its sports teams is Sam Pines.

Well, kind of.

But the town’s devotion to the Browns, Indians and (again) the Cavaliers is the reason Pines is in town, and he’s definitely a community asset.

In 2007, he and his partners at Good Karma Brands and ESPN Cleveland, a sports event marketing and radio company, purchased radio station WKNR and turned it into a sports station affiliated with the ESPN-TV network.

“To us, and to ESPN, it was a no-brainer — we wanted to be in Cleveland,” Pines said.

Since then, the station and business have taken off. Not only is it one of the top sports radio stations in town, but it does more events than there are days in the year. From remotes at car dealerships to events at live games, Pines and his partners and staff will have held 435 events by the end of this year, assuming they don’t schedule a few more.

Pines says he’s living the dream. Friends thought he was nuts when he left a good job at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, for which he’d gotten a degree in accounting and became a CPA, to go with a risky startup.

“I always tell people, I left to be with the more stable company,” Pines jokes.

Pines’ is well known around the office for his sense of humor and dry wit, says his partner and fellow vice president Keith Williams. But that’s probably not the only reason Pines, who is largely in charge of sales and marketing, has been so successful in growing the company.

“He’s one of the best listeners you’ll ever encounter, he’s level headed and he really cares,” said Williams. “And he’s solution oriented.”

The two met in college, were roommates for a bit after school and then went into business together — they’ve been friends ever since, for more than 15 years now, said Williams.

“He and I were roommates when we started our business in Madison, Wis., for over a year,” Williams said, “until he ditched me for his wife.”

On the bright side, though, Williams got married about a year later, and has gotten to see his friend enjoy a happy family life in the years since they were rooming together. Now, “We’re just work-married,” Williams jokes.

Pines lives in Solon, with his wife Deborah and — Dan Shingler their daughters Zoey and Ellie.

Congratulations to Crain’s Cleveland 40 Under 40!

Analisa DiFeo, PhD Assistant Professor Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Nicole F. Steinmetz, PhD Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Mt. Sinai Scholar

Case Western Reserve salutes our 2014 Crain’s Cleveland 40 Under 40 honorees.

OCTOBER 6 - 12, 2014

Truc Cao, 37 Senior manager, business development Greater Cleveland Partnership When Truc Cao’s family moved in 1995 from California to Cleveland, she didn’t see a lot of diversity.

Cao, whose family emigrated from Vietnam to the United States in 1993 when she was 15, graduated from John Marshall High School and attended John Carroll University. As a freshman at the University Heights institution, she said “there were 10 Asian-American students on a campus of 4,000. And five of those 10 were Japanese exchange students.”

“Now, oh my gosh, we have the Cleveland Asian Festival with over 38,000 attendees, which is huge,” she added. “It promotes diversity in the region.”

Cao joined the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the region’s chamber of commerce, in 2007. Today, she assists companies that are looking to expand or relocate in Northeast Ohio, and helps businesses earn tax credits, grants and loans.

She said she enjoys meeting the many companies with which the GCP works, and she even likes when she has to go on a “cold call.”

Shawn DaVis, the GCP’s senior director of business development, started on the same day Cao joined the team in June 2007.

“We call her the glue that holds the business development team together,” DaVis said of Cao. “She’s excellent at networking, she’s a hard worker, detail oriented and she’s competitive.”

Like the makeup of the region in which she resides, Cao enjoys the diversity her job brings. She said she might tour a manufacturing company with heavy equipment one day, then visit a cheese factory the next.

“It’s all different,” she said.

Cao said the same goes for downtown Cleveland.

She recalled when the Great Lakes Science Center debuted in 1996, not long after she moved to the area, “and then after that, there was a big gap and like nothing in between.”

“In the past five years,” Cao said, “we have seen a lot of development. That’s exciting. With the GCP, we know about a lot of those projects before they come out because they have to secure all the financing. So we have to anticipate all the developments, and there are more to come. I can’t speak on it yet, but it’s pretty cool.”

DaVis said Cao’s Vietnamese roots give the GCP “a different perspective on things,” and the fact that Cao lives downtown also helps.

“We all live in the suburbs,” DaVis said of the rest of the GCP business development team. “She’s just so engaged.”

Cao said she’s “not very athletic,” but she is an avid participant in yoga, aerobics, running and other means of staying fit.

She’s a former board member of MotivAsians, a professional development and networking group for Asian-Americans. She still helps the group when needed, but she now spends more of her time taking care of her parents, Trieu Cao and Vinh Tran.

“Her energy and ability to get the job done really separate her from other people I’ve met in the not-for-profit world,” DaVis said. “When you meet her, she leaves an impression on you.”

— Kevin Kleps

GADD continued from page 22

ner, who served as his Big Brother when he was a boy. Now Gadd serves on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Ohio. He also co-chaired plans for this year’s New Year’s Eve party in downtown Cleveland. He recently spent almost two weeks on a service and mission trip in South Africa with his church.

“Luckily, South Africa is very modern, so I had no problem getting connected to home,” he said, to run his business from afar.

Tim Kehres, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, said he has known Gadd since Gadd was 9 and considers him a “dear friend and partner in making this a better world.”

Kehres described Gadd as the most energetic, hard-working person he has ever met and “fearless and creative” to boot.

— Stan Bullard

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Jose Vasquez, 33 Founder, CEO Quéz Media Marketing

Jason Shefrin, 39 Executive vice president for global sourcing InterDesign Jason Shefrin moves things around — worldwide. But he’s also focused on Northeast Ohio.

Shefrin is executive vice president for global sourcing at InterDesign Inc. in Solon, a houseware design and marketing firm whose kitchen, bath and storage products end up on the shelves of stores such as Target, Home Depot and Kohl’s.

Global sourcing means supply chain, and its efficient operation is important to InterDesign. Products designed by InterDesign designers are sourced in the Far East and then sold into 100 countries. The company has three distribution centers — in Solon, Asia and Europe.

A Columbia, Md., native, Shefrin came to Cleveland in 1997 after getting a double bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He came to work for Cleveland Consulting Associates, a consulting firm that focused on operations analysis, specifically making the supply chain more effiSee SHEFRIN, page 27

When Jose Vasquez isn’t driving innovation at his marketing firm, Quéz Media Marketing, he’s likely mentoring tech entrepreneurs through Build.Brand.Blast., a collective resource he founded to nurture young startups that now has more than 100,000 online subscribers.

He also could be leading the way for national initiatives such as 1 Million Cups to create a network to engage, educate and connect local entrepreneurs in Cleveland, his adopted hometown, like he did this past June.

And if this serial entrepreneur isn’t doing what he loves — all of the above — then this father of four is with his family or relieving the stress of a daunting schedule by taking a 30-mile bike ride with friends.

“For me it’s always been about helping others, to try to find the best way to help as many people be successful as I can,” says Vasquez, who since 2008 has grown his digital-marketing firm to several hundred clients in 11 different states and offices in Cleveland and Latin America.

“My startup consultancy, Build.Brand.Blast., is all about making sure people learn from the mistakes of others, and sharing their entrepreneurial experiences along the way has allowed many organizations around the world see value in the content,” he said. “The idea and premise behind not only the startup consultancy, but also our agency, is how do we help our clients be successful and how do we find untapped revenue streams for organizations to be able to grow.”

Derek Bryan, content marketing manager at Quéz Media, said Vasqeuz stands out in the company of talented business professionals in Cleveland for his dedication to promoting startups, small businesses and new business owners.

“He goes out of his way to share his experience with others who are trying to build enterprises in the city. It’s good from a community standpoint and from an economic standpoint,” says Bryan, who referred to Vasquez as a business mastermind. “Jose has a way of making everything relatable. He can take a very large

complex business problem and reduce it to a simple illustration that captures the essence of the problem.”

As a leader within his own company, Vasquez “has created an atmosphere here where everybody not only can be their best but they want to be their best, because they believe in him and they believe in the company,” says Bryan, adding that what makes Vasquez even more likeable is that he is an extremely humble guy.

“He has accomplished a hell of a lot already and he is doing some great things and you never see him arrogant about it or bragging about it and he’s never above just coming over and having a personal conversation,” Bryan said.

Vasquez lives in Cuyahoga Falls with his wife, Fran, and family.

— Chrissy Kadleck

Edward Paradise, 39 Director, preconstruction, Cleveland Construction There are a lot of jobs where numbers matter — but in Edward Paradise’s job, they’re critical.

As an estimator for a major commercial construction company, Paradise’s work comes into play from the time a project is bid, through the signing of a final contract and even the completion of a job.

Do a bad job at the start, and a client might not be happy and balk at signing a contract. Screw it up at any time in the process, and Paradise’s company could be on the hook to deliver something at a loss. And, on projects that cost many milSee PARADISE, page 30

We think of them not just as Forty under 40 winners but as extremely interesting neighbors.

Congratulations to our Shaker Heights winners

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David Edelman, 33 Co-founder, president, Diabetes Daily Director of product strategy, LabStyle Innovations

Annemarie M. Grassi, 36 CEO, Open Doors Academy Annemarie Grassi likes to prove people wrong. She had her doubters at age 23, for one, when she took on a modest $70,000 budget to build an after-school drop-in program at an East Side church. It was a bold undertaking, but with some blood, sweat and tears, Grassi built what is now known as Open Doors Academy into a roughly $3 million a year operation that serves about 500 middle and high school students.

“This is my life’s work,” Grassi said.

Today, Open Doors Academy, which has grown into something much more than a simple after-school program, has been held up as a best practice in the state and even been recognized nationally. The nonprofit’s students participate in project-based learning experiences and tutoring designed around their needs. The organization offers full-day summer camps and service-learning trips.

Basically, Grassi said Open Doors’ students receive the same experiences as students at elite private schools like Hawken. Grassi, of course, is rarely in her office. She still knows most of the students’ names — something that gets harder each year as the program grows even larger. As CEO, she still takes students on service trips to Honduras.

She keeps in touch with Open Doors’ graduates, and even during her interview with Crain’s, her phone was buzzing with text messages from former students who had some news to share with the person they affectionately call “Miss Annemarie.”

Open Doors’ success is no secret. All of the students who stay with the program for at least three years have graduated from high school. Of those, 97% went on to pursue a post-secondary education. Those figures are particularly impressive because these students aren’t usually from affluent communities or academically enriched backgrounds, according to Earl Pike, a well-known nonprofit consultant in the Cleveland area who now serves as Open Doors’ chief strategy officer.

“She never gives up on a kid,” Pike said. “There are plenty of kids that everyone’s given up on. Annemarie doesn’t.” He added, “She’s a volcano of energy.”

Grassi’s connection with her students is evident. A few years ago, when she defended her Ph.D. thesis at Cleveland State in front of an academic committee, 300 of Open Doors’ students showed up to support her.

Grassi gets asked often whether she’ll ever leave Open Doors for something bigger.

But with support like that from her students, she knows it’d be tough.

“But maybe if the White House called and asked me to be the secretary of education,” — Timothy Magaw she said.

David Edelman pursues so many endeavors it’s hard to understand how he keeps them straight. He works in his family’s plumbing supply business; as director of product strategy for LabStyle Innovations, an Israel-based company that uses a mobile phone technology not yet cleared in the U.S. for blood testing; and he runs a diabetes-focused website with 110,000 members.

A formative moment came in his personal and professional life when Edelman, who is not diabetic, met Elizabeth Zabell, now his ex-wife, and observed her shoulders relaxing as she read online postings from fellow diabetics about their experiences. The two co-founded a website, Diabetesdaily.com, which is a home for news, blogs and forums designed to help people live with diabetes.

A 2003 graduate of Brown University who had started an online magazine for social networking as an undergrad, Edelman has watched the site’s number of visitors climb from 10 people to 50,000 daily.

“With a chronic disease (such as diabetes), focusing on health is not enough,” Edelman said. “You have to live your whole life around it. That resonated with people. When we began getting emails from (companies) wanting to pay us $5,000 to advertise, a light went off: We could use this to help a lot more people. To this day, I am not interested in advertising. I am more involved in health care and wellness.”

The website is in the black, he writes for it daily and it has a full-time editor and a dozen moderators.

After working a year as a management trainee at McMaster Carr Supply Co., he went into the family plumbing supply business in 2004. After suggesting it create a website, it became his task to do it.

“It was the wrong platform, we never got it to work and it taught me more than I ever wanted to know about technology,” Edelman said. The firm now has a site, but he turned the experience into an education in web technology.

A lot of Edelman’s free time, he said, goes to serving as president of the 17-member board of the Hebrew Free Loan Association. The group started 110 years ago to help people who needed small loans for personal emergencies or to buy a push cart or tools to start a business.

Edelman is engaged in raising money for the association to start a loan program with the Hispanic Business Center in Cleveland. The program is designed to provide loans for as much as $25,000 and business planning assistance to help start and grow Hispanic-owned businesses.

In his free time, Edelman spends time with his family and practices piano two hours daily. He enjoys bicycling and belonging to a book club. For vacation this year and last he attended the Burning Man celebration; he views it as a chance to unplug from technology and work alongside creative people.

Friends and colleagues describe Edelman as a funny, enthusiastic person with great curiosity. Ginger Vieira, the edi— Stan Bullard tor of Diabetesdaily.com, said he is “consistently loyal and consistently kind.”

Katherine Golden, 39 Vice president, chief technology officer, OEConnection Katherine Golden still has her first pay stub hanging on the wall in her office.

She was 11 at the time she cashed that first paycheck and was working at one of her family’s businesses — Transcona Country Club — in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It was for $49.38, and she said it serves as a daily reminder that “you can work hard and be valued for your achievements.”

Her parents owned a variety of small businesses, so she started working at a young age, and that work ethic appears to have paid off.

“They took risks,” Golden said of her parents. “They basically always looked at what the market needed and asked, ‘Where can we solve problems?’”

Today, Golden’s among the top executives at one of the region’s fastest-growing technology firms, OEConnection, an automotive software company based in Richfield.

During her career, Golden has held several entrepreneurial and leadership roles. She launched two startups, a catering company and a web technology business. Upon graduating college, she moved to Cleveland to work for American Greetings and in 2009 moved to Seattle to work for Corbis, a company owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. But Golden loved Cleveland, and in 2013 jumped at an opportunity to return to Northeast Ohio to join OEConnection.

“What I loved about Cleveland is that it’s somewhat close to my roots in Canada,” she said. “I love that Midwest mentality.”

Although she’s only been at OEConnection for a little more than a year, the company’s CEO, Chuck Rotuno, said Golden’s already had a demonstrable impact. The company recently launched two new products, and with Golden’s help, developed them in a faster timeframe and with greater quality than anything OEConnection’s produced to date.

“She really hit the cover off the ball,” Rotuno said. “She has a tireless passion for the business. It’s not unlike her to leave a meeting at 5 p.m. and come in the next day with a PowerPoint presentation with her thoughts on the matter.”

Golden also is committed to advancing the region’s IT industry, particularly through engaging young people to pursue careers in the field. At current, she serves as a board member for the Northeast Ohio Regional Information Technology Engagement Board, or RITE Board, an effort that brings together employers and the education community to build a robust pipeline of IT workers.

She often urges students to start building their networks early, as their next job will probably come from someone they know. Then, she hands them her card and says, “I hope to see you again in a few years when you apply for a job — Timothy Magaw with OEConnection.”

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Kate Bang, 34 Employee benefits president, USI Insurance Services

SHEFRIN

Kate Bang’s father gave her the best advice she ever received.

No advice at all.

When she was 15, her father, Pat, asked her to become office manager for his landscaping company in Bowling Green. Not many kids that age know much about things like payroll, bookkeeping, inventory and operations. So naturally, she had a lot of questions.

Her dad’s standard response? “Figure it out.”

Bang said it drove her “completely batty.” But pretty soon, she got good at figuring things out — a skill that has been immensely useful throughout her career.

“That was the most valuable business lesson I ever learned,” she said.

Today, Bang has a bigger management job with USI Insurance Services. Technically, she is president of USI’s employee benefits practice throughout its so-called Cleveland region. But she said her title might as well be “chief problem solver.”

Bang — who also oversees the company’s offices in Beachwood, Youngstown and Erie, Pa. — said her job gives her the chance to figure out the answers to all sorts of questions. Questions about employee relations, managing growth and keeping clients informed on all the changes going on in the world of health care.

“There are an endless number of problems to solve,” she said.

She had a lot of “figuring it out” to do when she was hired by Amer Insurance in Akron in 2004. At the time, the company had no employee benefits division. Bang was tasked with starting one.

“The idea of growing something sounded interesting,” she said.

In 2004 she joined Master Consulting Group, which was later bought by National City Insurance and then by USI. Why stay with one company so long? She loves the people she works with — especially her husband, Kevin Bang — and she loves the work.

“It keeps me challenged and motivated and interested,” she said.

She’s “absolutely extraordinary” at what she does, according to Steven Miller, managing partner at Miller Goler Faeges Lapine LLP, a business and litigation law firm in Cleveland.

For one, she puts the client’s interests ahead of her own, Miller said. For instance, he described how she recommended that some of his firm’s employees buy insurance through the online marketplace created by Obamacare. Even though it meant less revenue for USI. “For Kate, it’s not a selling thing. It’s like a philosophy,” he said.

She enjoys fitness, hiking, gardening and reading, but she doesn’t have much time for hobbies. However, she makes time for things that are important to her, such as her stepchildren, Owen, 10, and Alaire, 8. Bang also reserves time to lead a “Lean In” circle — a group of women who regularly meet to talk about leadership issues and life. And she gives time and money to several charities, including City Mission, the American Heart Association, Junior Achievement and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

She says people should take a page from her dad and push their kids — and themselves — to figure things out on their own.

— Chuck Soder “You’ve got to train that circuitry. It’s a skill to practice,” she said.

cient.

“It was an unbelievable working experience that I thought would be a short-term stay in Cleveland,” he recalled. “I’ve been here, now, 17 years.”

Of course, not long after arriving in Cleveland, Shefrin met his wife, Nicole. They now have three daughters.

After stints at another consulting firm and American Greetings Corp., where he was executive director of global sourcing, Shefrin landed at InterDesign in 2011.

“Professionally I define myself as someone who really loves the world and the operations of the world,” he said. “My goal has always been to make the challenges of global operations disappear. I make the world simple.”

Beyond the office, Shefrin is focused on two nonprofit organizations, Open Doors Academy and Fostering Hope.

Open Doors provides after-school educational enrichment and tutoring programs for Cleveland children. Fostering Hope offers foster children in residential treatment centers a variety of experiences, from birthday and holiday parties to classes in yoga and gardening.

Shefrin is president-elect of Open Doors.

He and Nicole founded Fostering Hope, and she serves as its executive director.

“They are really making result-oriented differences in the lives of children,” he said.

“Both of those organizations are local and you get to see the changes (you’re making) in the city.”

Annemarie Grassi, the executive director of Open Doors, considers Shefrin a true rising star.

“Jason is a remarkable young professional who is committed to making a lasting impact on his professional field as well as on the greater community,” she said. — Jay Miller

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The USI Cleveland nd Office Congratulates our own Kate Bang and the rest of the 2014 Crain’s Forty Under 40 Class

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Kevin Patrick Murphy, 36 Partner, Walter | Haverfield LLP Lake Erie is in clear view from Kevin Patrick Murphy’s window at law firm Walter | Haverfield LLP. And that’s appropriate for Murphy, who has a passion for the development of the waterfront.

Murphy specializes in corporate and commercial real estate as a partner at Walter | Haverfield, where he’s worked since 2010. He always knew law was something he’d be interested in studying, and he met a real estate attorney who gave him an interesting perspective. The attorney said he liked that he could work on a development deal and eventually see something tangible come from it.

“I thought that was a really interesting way to look at it,” Murphy said.

Murphy started his law career at Hurtuk & Daroff Co. LPA, after taking about six months to travel and about a year working in sales in Chile. He had graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Law in 2003, a tough time economically, and attended Miami University for his undergraduate degree in literature and creative writing.

After Hurtuk & Daroff, he went to Calfee, Halter and Griswold LLP, but missed working in real estate and development. Murphy then spent some time at Thompson Hine LLP, before Walter | Haverfield offered him the chance to be a partner.

The firm has grown in the four years he’s been there, and he said he most enjoys working with clients of all sizes to achieve their goals.

“Not only do I have the ability to grow my own practice, but I have a say in the direction of the firm,” Murphy said.

Murphy has worked with DDR Corp. on a number of legal matters over the years, primarily development and leasing issues, said Jerry Cyncynatus, associate general counsel - real estate and leasing. He works smoothly with the group, Cyncynatus said, and his personality leads to “amicable negotiations.” He’s someone you can trust, he said.

Outside of work, Murphy said he enjoys golfing when he can and spending time with his family: his wife of eight years, Morgan, and their three children: Ruari, 6, Keegan, 4, and Finn, 2. The family lives in University Heights, where Murphy grew up and where he served on city council for about five years.

The development of the waterfront is a passion of Murphy’s. He’s done a lot of traveling, and he believes that cities that actively plan access to parks and lakes — like Chicago — see growth.

Another example he gave, Toronto, has a waterfront development corporation dedicated to working on amenities like parks and infrastructure. Murphy said Walter | Haverfield, along with the City Club, brought the head of Waterfront Toronto to Cleveland last year. He said in an email that he drove to Toronto to convince the speaker to come to Cleveland to share his story and then worked with the City Club to put the event together.

Murphy, who attended St. Ignatius High School, said he didn’t even realize the city was on a lake until he was in middle school. He wants his children to be able to use the lake and to come back after college and start families.

He said in an email that he thinks there’s a greater chance of that happening if the waterfront becomes more accessible and public. Waterfront development brings more people to the lake and downtown, he said, which leads to new housing and office space.

“It can generate a lot of activity for a city,” he said. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty

OCTOBER 6 - 12, 2014

Megan Van Voorhis, 37 Chief operating officer Community Partnership for Arts and Culture A passion for the arts and an aptitude for business have allowed Megan Van Voorhis to choreograph an impressive career in double time.

The chief operating officer for the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture, Van Voorhis has been involved with the arts since she was 5 and went on to earn an undergraduate degree in dance from Ohio State University.

“It is a core part of who I am as an individual. For me, being involved in an organization that is really trying to look at the ways in which our community can take advantage of the full benefits provided by arts and culture is hugely exciting, but it’s also really rewarding to see when that can actually happen,” says Van Voorhis, who has worked at CPAC for 11 years since earning her master’s degree in business from Case Western Reserve University. “Cleveland is one of those places where it is really looking for creative ideas to move the city forward.”

She has worked with members of the arts and culture community to develop programs such as the Collaborative Marketing Database and the Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute during her tenure with CPAC. “I love working in the numbers, it’s as interesting to me as anything else that we do and it’s a core part of my work here,” she says. The Collaborative Marketing Database, for example, enables organizations to help attract new and returning customers by working together and sharing information.

Van Voorhis is especially proud of her contribution to the conversation regarding the intersection between Cuyahoga County’s See VAN VOORHIS, page 30

Jennifer Piechowski, 38 Vice president, agency services KeyBank If you can keep your head when all of those around you are losing theirs, you might be Jennifer Piechowski.

So say those who work with the young vice president of KeyBank’s corporate-wide Agency Services Department.

Piechowski’s job is to manage the bank’s corporate lending operations for large, syndicated business loans of between $25 million and $1.2 billion, as well as for its work with large corporate bond issuances.

The stakes are high — loans have to be closed, with a plan for administering them, often according to strict client deadlines — and each loan and its requirements are different from the last.

Doing it well requires working with internal lending officers, the borrowers themselves and sometimes other banks that are participating in the deal.

Piechowski handles it all without breaking a sweat, says Amy Carlson, executive vice president of KeyBanc’s Debt Capital Markets Group. Carlson has known Piechowski for more than 10 years, and met her when the bank was instituting a new loan management system.

“I kept hearing her name: ‘Oh, we work with Jen. If we have questions or a problem, we just call Jen.’ I thought, ‘Who is this person?’ But now I know why everyone called Jen — she’s terrific,” Carlson said. “I just love her to death.”

Piechowski, a Brecksville native, would likely laugh at that, and quickly points out that it’s her team of 22 that deserves the credit. But she admits one thing: She loves what she does and enjoys seeing positive results from her work. That’s true whether it’s a loan or bond package for a Native American casino, a corporate giant, an oil and gas company or a restaurant.

“Every single deal we do is different — it’s always exciting and challenging,” Piechowski said. “I like to see the end result. But, with everything we do, it takes a village to get it done.”

Piechowski is no novice. She’s been helping Key manage its credits for 16 years now, and before that spent three years at National City Corp., before it was taken over by PNC. So she’s well versed at dealing with internal politics.

And ask anyone who’s spent much time inside a big bank holding company, and they’ll tell you it can be a lot like a large high school, with cliques, egos and demanding internal clients who all think their project should be at the top of everyone else’s to-do list.

Piechowski is that rare kid who gets along with everyone. What’s the secret?

“I have a lot of patience,” she says. “The things that make you successful in this job are: Number one, you have to have patience.

Number two, you have to be able to multitask and, number three, I always tell my people — you have to have thick skin.”

— Dan Shingler

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Ryan R. Cross, 39 Vice president and campaign director, institutional relations and development, University Hospitals

Robert D. MacKinlay, 37 President, Private Company Services, Cohen & Company

One of the first fundraising campaigns Ryan Cross led at University Hospitals was a $30 million effort to build a new neonatal intensive care unit at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

“We funded it 100% through philanthropy, through donor support,” Cross said.

“If I have to point to one specific thing (that he’s most proud of), it’s walking through that unit and seeing babies cared for in an environment that best suits their fragile state.”

The Quentin & Elisabeth Alexander Neonatal Intensive Care Unit debuted at Rainbow in 2009, replacing a facility that Cross said was “extremely outdated,” and giving Rainbow surroundings that matched the level of care the patients’ families had grown accustomed to receiving.

Cross, who has been with UH since 2004, is now leading an even greater charge — UH’s $1.5 billion fundraising campaign that coincides with its 150th anniversary in 2016. The campaign is ahead of schedule, with more than $1.2 billion raised, Cross said.

UH’s chief rival, the Cleveland Clinic, recently launched the public phase of its $2 billion campaign, and Akron Children’s Hospital, PlayhouseSquare, Case Western Reserve, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Cleveland Orchestra are all busy asking for help.

“In Northeast Ohio, we’re fortunate to have a lot of great nonprofits, and many of us are in the middle of campaigns right now,” Cross said. “It’s a challenging regional environment. People have a lot of different opportunities to choose to support.”

Cross said he wishes the other organizations success, and added that UH’s greatest challenge “is to make our case why we’re an important charity and campaign to support.”He believes the region’s second-largest health system has longevity and reputation on its side.

“There is tremendous gratitude people have for University Hospitals,” Cross said. “That’s our No. 1 asset.”

Raising funds takes up a lot of Cross’ time, so the Brecksville High School graduate said he decided a while back that he would focus on two areas — health care, and arts and education.

He also is on the board of trustees at his alma mater, Baldwin Wallace University. Cross, who is single, said he is “very involved” with the Cleveland Play House and the Gordon Square Arts District, serving on the board of directors of both organizations.

Sherri Bishop, UH’s chief development officer, said Cross “brings passionate leadership” to his crucial position.

“He is exceptionally strategic and intellectually gifted, and he is prolific in the initiatives he simultaneously advances,” Bishop said. “He loves Rainbow, especially Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, and has been a driving force to help Rainbow be one of the best children’s hospitals in the U.S.” Cross enjoys running and biking, which he said allows him to “take advantage of Cleveland’s great food scene.” He loves to travel — especially during Northeast Ohio’s brutal winters.

“I’m a proud Clevelander who made the decision after college to stay in Cleveland,” Cross said. “I’m very optimistic about where the city is headed.”

— Kevin Kleps

Robert MacKinlay is possibly the first youngster to know he wanted to be an accountant before even hitting adolescence.

In fourth grade, MacKinlay starting selling homemade submarine sandwiches to his fellow students for $5 a piece at lunch.

Then, he began forming a syndication of newspaper routes as he managed not only his deliveries, but voluntarily picked up others. He invested money from those jobs in hockey, baseball and football trading cards.

And after his collection grew, he convinced his friends to work with him all night to inventory the entire assortment into what became a 100-page spreadsheet.

“I’ve always had kind of a weird brain,” he laughs.

“That was the point I figured out that’s not normal, and I should probably be an accountant.”

MacKinlay thanks a love of “technical acumen” for his success as an accountant, which has positioned him as president of Cohen & Company’s Private Company Services, the firm’s largest business unit. He ascended the ranks over time, beginning as a partner with the firm in 2001 and achieving his current position in October 2012.

As evidenced by his ability to corral youngsters to catalog his trading cards, his head may be built for numbers, but his spirit is equally born to lead.

MacKinlay has helped redefine the corporate leadership structure at the firm to better incentivize employees and put young professionals in roles with great responsibility — that’s part of the reason MacKinlay became president at age 35.

He oversees three offices with combined annual revenue of roughly $28 million. In 2013, that segment realized 16.5% organic growth, the largest in the firm’s history.

“I define my role as a leader to give people the opportunities themselves to lead, to make mistakes and to feel empowered,” he said. “That’s what builds strong leaders, and whatever organization has the most leaders is going to win.”

CEO Randy Myeroff, who earned his role 18 years ago at age 33, said there’s a culture in the firm of empowering young leaders. He said MacKinlay is competitive, but carries an “accountable confidence” and “swagger” about him, adding, “He’s the best

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we’ve ever seen.”

“He’s a very young leader of the biggest group we have at a time when we’re growing at the fastest rate we’ve ever seen,” said Myeroff, referencing the firm’s rebound in the wake of the Great Recession. “He was the right guy for us coming out of a down economic cycle because to him, everything is positive.”

MacKinlay also is a leader in the community, serving on boards for Flashes of Hope and the American Red Cross, among other efforts. He’s also an avid hockey fan who played in college at Mercyhurst University, and he both founded and operated the MacKinlay School of Hockey for three years in the early 2000s — the largest hockey camp in the state at one time.

Today, the Kirtland Hills resident still coaches youth hockey in between work and family, which includes his wife Stephanie, daughter Grace, 9, and son Robbie, 7.

“Life is a short thing,” he said. “It’s all about treating people the — Jeremy Nobile right way and trying to help one another.”

Cleveland Construction, Inc. is proud to congratulate our Director of Preconstruction Services, Ed Paradise, for being named one of the honorees for Crain’s 2014 Forty Under 40 Award!

D CONST AN

CTION RU

CLE EL

Since 1999 Ed has played a key role in our company’s growth both locally and nationally. n and raised in Cleveland, Ed is a great ambassador for the city. Ed represents everything that Cleveland stands for.

BRATING 35 YEARS CELE

2015

Cleveland Construction, Inc. 8620 Tyler Blvd.

Mentor, OH 44060 Tel: 440-255-8000 www.clevelandconstruction.com

Scan to learn more about Cleveland Construction

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Gina Morris, 33 Director of marketing and public relations, Downtown Cleveland Alliance Gina M. Morris has been helping people get connected since she was a student ambassador for St. Joseph Academy in Cleveland.

She went on to what was then called the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati, where the woman whose nickname was “Cleveland” did similar ambassador work before graduating in 2003.

Today, her passions are combined as Morris works as the director of marketing and public relations for the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

“I help people understand what’s really happening in downtown Cleveland,” Morris said.

Morris started her career at the Sun Newspapers in community relations and advertising, moving on to Adelphia Communications Corp. after about two years.

She was there during the acquisition by Time Warner Cable — an experience that she likened to a mini-MBA — and started working in creative acquisition marketing for Time Warner. By the time she was 26, she was promoted into management, where the marketing manager was the youngest in Northeast Ohio.

Her responsibilities grew in her time there, and she learned just how much she loved rebranding. She worked on that campaign in the Midwest, working a lot with the company’s entertainment and sports partners like the Cavaliers and Live Nation.

In 2011, she began debating whether to go back to school and was contemplating a move to New York City. The corporate branding team offered her a job, but she realized it wasn’t the path she wanted to take. She soon starting working at the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, where she works on events and shares the city’s story with local and national media.

Morris said she focuses on the features and the benefits of Cleveland when selling the city to people: It’s walkable, safe and clean.

“I approach downtown Cleveland as a product,” she said.

Morris is a “true marketer,” said Colette Jones, the vice president of marketing at Positively Cleveland. The two have worked together on a number of projects, from the Republican National Convention bid to familiarization tours for local media on new Cleveland developments. Jones said Morris is good at explaining things and getting people to buy in.

“Gina is really good at working with all different types of audiences,” Jones said.

Morris, who lives in Mayfield with her fiancé, Danny Tohme, has been busy planning an October wedding and getting her executive MBA at Case Western Reserve University in recent months. She’s also been doing a lot of consulting work for small companies and nonprofits on brand and messaging and plans to open her own planning and brand firm in the next six months, though she expects to remain involved in the Downtown Cleveland Alliance.

She was inspired to start her own company after a business visit to South Africa earlier this year for Case. On the trip, Morris visited businesses and was inspired by the hope and happiness in the small towns she saw. Even though the world is so large, a person can help one individual or one company.

— Rachel Abbey McCafferty “There’s just so much opportunity,” she said.

VAN VOORHIS continued from page 28

arts and culture, and health and human services sectors.

“And, in October, we are going to have this great conference, Creative Minds in Medicine, at the Global Center for Health Innovation,” she said. It’s the first event of its kind to dig into the overlap and collaboration between the arts and medicine locally.

Valerie Schumacher, program coordinator at CPAC, says Van Voorhis is a mentor, community activist, teacher, volunteer and inspiration to those who follow in her footsteps.

“There are eight of us who work here and Megan makes sure that we all participate in every aspect. I’ve participated in two strategic planning processes here and my voice was always heard. As a junior staff member, I think that’s really impressive and amazing and I feel really fortunate to have that kind of voice in an organization like this,” says Schumacher, who first met Van Voorhis when she was adjunct professor in the arts management program at Baldwin Wallace University.

“She has a very strong personal belief in everything that we are doing with arts and culture and really having the ability to change Cleveland, to change lives, to really make it a better place to be.”

— Chrissy Kadleck

PARADISE continued from page 25

lions of dollars, such mistakes can be disastrous.

Or they could be, if Paradise made them, which he does not.

“It’s a lot of math, and I’ve always enjoyed that,” Paradise said.

Of course, he majored in English at John Carroll University. But that dichotomy isn’t surprising to the folks who know Paradise, including his boss, Keith Ziegler.

Ziegler oversees seven estimators, including Paradise, and attests that the job is neither easy nor unimportant. It can take months, maybe years, for an estimator to master the craft, and until that happens they have to work under close supervision.

If not, the company would be taking a huge risk, because it has to stand by the estimates that it and its clients sign off on before construction begins on a project.

“If you miss something, that’s money out of your pocket,” Ziegler said. “So it’s like handing someone your checking account.”

Paradise said he’s long had an interest in construction, but probably gets some of his business acumen and much of his work ethic from his father, a florist with his own small business in their hometown of Mentor.

But he has more than business skills, said Ziegler, who notes that the job requires excellent communications skills, too. After all, an estimator has to talk to not only internal co-workers, but architects, clients, other contractors, possibly lenders — an entire cadre of people necessary to approve and execute a major construction job. Paradise can talk to just about anyone, Ziegler says.

Ziegler, who said he took a chance when he hired Paradise because he did not have the work experience or educational background of most estimators, says he’s been nothing but impressed with his protégé. Even on complex projects, Paradise gets the numbers right and communicates even the most technical details to all of the right people.

“I always look back and think, ‘Wow, an English major walked in and did this,’” Ziegler jokes.

Paradise resides in Pepper Pike with his wife Amanda, daughter Hayley, and sons Elliot and Evan.

— Dan Shingler

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Stephen Anway, 37, Partner, Squire Patton Boggs Not long after Stephen Anway was hired at the law firm that was then called Squire Sanders, he told one of the partners that he “could use a little more work.” Soon, Anway was tossed into his first discussion with the firm’s international arbitration group. And the topic was a doozy: The deregulation of Europe’s natural gas market.

“It was the most complicated thing I had ever heard,” Anway said.

But that didn’t stop him from saying “yes” when George von Mehren — who leads the international dispute resolution practice at Squire Patton Boggs — asked him to rewrite some legal documents related to the issue by 5 a.m. the next day. Anway emailed him the draft at 4:59 and drove home. Thus began what has become a storied career in international arbitration.

Since then, Anway has represented the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia and the Republic of Ecuador in international trade cases often involving hundreds of millions of dollars — sometimes billions. And he regularly wins: Anway and other Squire Patton Boggs lawyers represented the winning party in three of the top 20 international arbitration cases in history.

Anway has “built himself quite a reputation in the international (arbitration) community,” according to von Mehren.

“He’s really kind of a prodigy,” von Mehren said.

The Copley High School graduate got interested in law after taking a few classes in the subject at Bowling Green

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State University. That led him to Ohio State University’s Mortiz College of Law. He made a smart decision while home over Thanksgiving during his first year of law school: He and a friend decided to attend a party that Cleveland’s Hahn Loeser was throwing for law students. But when the food and drinks ran out, they were told to check out the party at Squire Sanders. There, he met an attorney who told him to submit his resume and his grades, once he had them. So he did — and it worked.

For the next two summers, Anway worked at Squire Sanders as a summer associate. After graduation, he spent two years working as a clerk for the late Thomas Moyer, who had been chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, before returning to Squire Sanders. He stays because he loves working with a team of “people who are not only incredibly smart and hardworking, but you like them at the end of the day.” And they like him, too: Anway not only is “tremendously capable,” but he’s “constantly looking to give opportunities to other people in the group,” von Mehren said.

Anway also teaches international arbitration at Case Western Reserve University. Here’s some advice his students rarely take: Want a job? Call up the company and offer to do a little bit of work for free.

“How logical and obvious does that sound?” he said.

Anway and his wife, Amanda, have two children, Cole, 6, and Allison, 8. Allison often sings while Anway jams on the guitar in his basement studio. They’re also big Ohio State fans, according to von Mehren, who said watching a game at their house is “kind of like being in the stadium.”

— Chuck Soder

Jeffrey N. Malbasa, 33 President, chief operating officer Spero-Smith Investment Advisers Inc.

Réka Barabás , 37, Director, Bad Girl Ventures Cleveland Réka Barabás studied education in college, but she never ended up standing in front of a traditional classroom.

Instead, she put her knowledge of the topic to use in creative ways. As director of Bad Girl Ventures Cleveland, Barabás acts as a teacher: She guides female entrepreneurs through the process of turning their ideas into businesses.

Same goes for her other part-time job as director of the Young Entrepreneur Marketplace, a regional initiative run by University School. And in her previous jobs, she was setting up programs designed to help adults expand their horizons.

So even though Barabás didn’t end up teaching the German language in a classroom, she’s still doing what she loves.

“For me, developing the person is always something I enjoy,” she said.

At Bad Girl Ventures, Barabás says her goal is to turn “a good baker into a business owner.” She organizes classes for female entrepreneurs on topics such as marketing, finance and legal issues. And every spring and fall, she runs a nine-week program designed to help 10 women start businesses or take them to the next level. She also helps middle school and high school students launch businesses, through the Young Entrepreneur Marketplace program.

The program gives students from area schools the chance to sell products at local farmers markets. She noted that students from Solon’s Young Innovators’ Society have sold plastic smiley faces and other items made on a 3D printer. But even students selling cupcakes learn lessons about business, Barabás said. After all, they’ve got to figure out how many to make to meet demand, manage money and communicate with customers.

“Basic, basic things that you can practice with — yeah — a cupcake stand,” she said.

Barabás grew up in Hungary, but today she lives in Hudson with her husband, Jeff Moore, and their two young daughters. She met her husband while studying abroad in Germany. He’s from Portage County, so in 2000 she transferred from the University of Debrecen in Hungary to Bowling Green State University.

She earned her master’s in education in 2001 and spent much of the next six years as director of international visitor programs for the Cleveland Council on World Affairs. In that role, she helped professionals from other countries learn from their local counterparts in various industries. She later spent more than three years as the first executive director of TiE Ohio, a networking group for foreign-born entrepreneurs and business owners who do business in other countries.

Barabás is good at starting things, which is one reason why University School hired her, according to Greg Malkin, director of the school’s Entrepreneur Institute. Back then, the Young Entrepreneur Marketplace program consisted of “a piece of paper and some funding,” Malkin said. “The ability to take a vision and make it a reality is an unusual skill,” he said.

And, though she’s from Hungary, the time she’s spent here has turned her into “a Clevelander by love.”

— Chuck Soder

For Jeff Malbasa, the recipe for success is hard work, strong convictions and a bit of luck.

In just over a decade, Malbasa has worked his way up from intern to COO to president of Spero-Smith Investment Advisers Inc., where he currently oversees an estimated $795 million in assets.

He originally was offered an internship by family friend and Spero-Smith CEO and chairman Robert Smith while finishing his undergrad degree at Massachusetts’ Tufts University, where he graduated magna cum laude with degrees in economics and history. Ever since, Malbasa has taken on increasingly challenging management roles since that first job as a college student.

And Malbasa is quick to share credit with his supporters.

“Personally, whether it was parents, teachers, coaches or friends, I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “I’ve always had a lot of people who were genuinely interested and invested in me doing well.”

But his success didn’t come without great effort.

While working on his master’s at Case Western Reserve University, Malbasa would still work daily from 5 p.m. to midnight to stay on top of his work. He’s most proud of the impact he’s made on the company in a relatively short time, including his efforts to help shape and diversify the firm’s latest service offerings. He noted Spero-Smith doesn’t exclusively work with million-dollar clients anymore. He’s also proud to be part of an office with a history of longevity.

“It’s very rare to be able to work for one employer this long,” Malbasa said.

“We have people who want to be here for a long time, and I’m proud to be a part of that.”

“Since joining us, he has continued to take leadership responsibilities on major initiatives while advancing his knowledge,” Smith said. “He earned the respect of his peers as a leader from the time he joined us. Jeff leads by example, being the first in the office, donating his time and talents to various nonprofit boards in the community and doing all this while being a wonderful husband and father.”

Smith said Malbasa epitomizes professionalism and creates an atmosphere that makes not only his peers want to stick around, but customers, too.

“I believe his leadership has been a major influence in the low turnover among our staff leading to a high level of client retention and satisfaction.”

A lifelong Clevelander, Malbasa is also involved in his hometown. He serves on the board of directors for Community Housing Solutions, a nonprofit helping low- and moderate-income families find and afford housing; the LeadDIVERSITY Alumni Committee, a program of the Diversity Center; Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland’s endowment committee; and the United Way pension committee.

Malbasa is also active in his collegiate alumni associations and often advises students interested in careers in financial planning.

“I’m just extremely lucky,” Malbasa said. “I happened to grow up with people who were not so lucky, so I think that inspires any human being with a natural sense of wanting to help others.”

Malbasa resides in Solon with his wife, Tara, and sons Joe, 4; Scott, 2; and a third child on the way. His advice to other aspiring young professionals is simple.

“Do things that interest you,” he said, “and stay true to your values.”

— Jeremy Nobile

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EBOLA continued from page 8

on Bridgestone’s radio station and other efforts, was put into effect.

It was rough going at first, Darden admits. People were terrified.

They didn’t want to go to treatment centers or isolation units because they suspected they would only die in them. Some residents not infected by the disease threatened to stone to death the families of the afflicted unless they left the farm.

Eventually, survivors began to emerge from the farm’s treatment facility, as well as family members who had been in isolation but never contracted the disease.

People began to see that at least some of their friends and neighbors were surviving the disease. More importantly, they began to have faith in the efforts being made to protect them.

“They’re seeing survivors now, which is really helping in terms of people coming forward,” Darden said.

As part of its overall effort, Bridgestone makes it known when a patient or observation subject is sent back to the community, disease free.

“We had three different ceremonies yesterday, where we were re-integrating people into the communities,” Darden said. “We’re making it very clear that these people are OK and they are virus free.”

Today, the entire farm is virus free. There are just a handful of people still in isolation and under observation, but they are not presenting symptoms and those actions are largely precautionary.

The disease tended to strike within families, Darden said, probably because it is spread through close contact with bodily fluids. As a result, there are many children on the

farm now who are orphans, having lost both their mothers and fathers to Ebola.

To continue to fight the disease, Bridgestone is keeping up its own vigilance and efforts — it broadcasts information on Ebola to the region via radio, for example — and is helping to fund organizations working on the ground to fight Ebola in Liberia.

At the end of September, Bridgestone announced it was donating $1 million to UNICEF and Samaritan’s Purse, to be split equally.

But its biggest gift might not be money, it might be the example it set in terms of how to combat both Ebola and the panic that can come with the disease. Its efforts have not gone unnoticed, either.

In September, Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with other CDC officials, visited the farm.

“The CDC has come in and monitored what we’ve done and they want to see it modeled in other places,” Darden said.

The CDC might even write up what happened at Bridgestone, in its weekly report due out Tuesday, Oct. 7, so that even more people can learn from Bridgestone’s experience, Darden said.

Franklin Graham, CEO of Samaritan’s Purse, which has been working on Ebola education in West Africa since April, gave Bridgestone high marks as well.

“Firestone Liberia is working tirelessly to protect and treat the approximately 80,000 people living within this community, and with their support, we’re able to broaden these efforts in the larger Liberian Community,” he said in a statement.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

Above, an Ebola care team in protective gear on site at the farm in Liberia. Below, vehicles and supplies donated to the Margibi County Ebola Response team by Bridgestone.

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29.99%

$1,202,927

16.00%

$1,086,108

2013

51.76%

$1,825,563

32.39%

$1,437,898

8/31/2014

21.27%

$2,213,931

9.88%

$1,519,283

Note: Returns are shown in U.S. dollars after fees. Date of inception for Nowacki Asset Management is May 2nd, 2011.

Nowacki Asset Management (NAM) is a registered investment advisory firm specializing in value-oriented investment management. All client assets are included in one composite and invested using a value-oriented strategy. NAM claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®). Results as of 8/31/2014 are still subject to final verification by an independent third-party. NAM only uses short-term margin or leverage to buy securities after a client commits to deposit funds and the funds are in the process of being transferred, but the money has not yet completed the transfer process. To receive a list of composite descriptions of NAM and/or a presentation that complies with the GIPS standards, contact Michael T. Nowacki at (440) 488-6936 or write Nowacki Asset Management, 29525 Chagrin Blvd.

Suite 301, Pepper Pike, Ohio 44122, or michael@nowackiassetmgmt.com. www.nowackiassetmgmt.com

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THIRD FRONTIER continued from page 5

For instance, years ago it gave away several multi-million dollar grants to create the Wright Centers of Innovation. Those centers, often led by universities, tended to focus on longerterm, research-intensive technology development projects.

Today, however, that program is gone. In its place is the Tech Commercialization Centers program.

Like the Wright Centers program, it awards money in big chunks. But the new tech centers are less focused on research and more focused on taking products to market — which means they should generate more impressive job creation statistics.

The missing link Some Third Frontier programs that target large companies do focus on helping them put new products on the market. But there are a few reasons why the statistics they generate aren’t as impressive.

For one, after getting money from the Third Frontier or an organization funded by the program, startups usually keep raising capital — which helps them grow.

Plus, startups and the groups that help them tend to give the Third Frontier a lot of credit for helping them create jobs. With bigger companies, the link is less tangible, Chagnon said.

For instance, in 2010, the Third Frontier gave GE Aviation a $7.6 million grant to help it build an electrical systems research and development center at the University of Dayton.

But the center, which was recently completed, cost more than $50 million to build.

“How much of that can really be attributed to the part that we played?” Chagnon said.

There have been some strong Third Frontier projects led by more established companies, but they tend to be one-off projects that don’t complement one another, Chagnon said.

On the other hand, the programs targeting startups build upon one another, he said. For instance, entrepreneurs can receive a small amount of capital and a lot of mentoring by going through one of the business accelerators that receive money from the Third Frontier’s ONE Fund.

Then they can get additional assistance from an organization like JumpStart before raising money from a venture capital firm backed by the Third Frontier’s Pre Seed Fund.

“A lot of things come together where there are logical fits and connections,” he said.

Young and hungry Meanwhile, JobsOhio officials have been talking with the Third Frontier Commission to figure out how the two organizations can work together.

It might make sense for the Third Frontier to send JobsOhio the more established companies that are working on high-tech projects, according to John Minor, president and chief investment officer at JobsOhio.

The nonprofit also has been thinking about giving grants and loans to relatively young high-tech companies that have matured to the point where they no longer fit Third Frontier programs designed for startups,

Minor said.

“These younger and newer companies, they drive a lot of the net new job creation,” he said.

The two groups plan to work together to make sure there’s not too much overlap between their efforts.

However, it wouldn’t hurt if JobsOhio joined the Third Frontier in supporting relatively young tech companies, because their needs exceed the resources the state can provide, according to Third Frontier advisory board member Tom Waltermire.

“The Third Frontier does not necessarily completely serve those needs,” said Waltermire, who also is CEO of Team NEO, which works to attract businesses to Northeast Ohio on behalf of JobsOhio.

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

33

Doing the math on the Third Frontier jobs numbers The companies that receive Third Frontier funding say they’ve created 7,900 jobs since 2009 — jobs that probably wouldn’t exist without that funding, according to a study from Battelle.

That number goes up to 22,000 when you include jobs created when those companies buy products and services in Ohio, and when their employees spend their wages here, according to calculations by Battelle, a think tank in Columbus.

Of course, there are some assumptions in the numbers. For one, although companies are told to report only those jobs that wouldn’t exist without the Third Frontier — an economic development program that funds high-tech companies and projects in Ohio — there’s always the chance some of those jobs would have been created anyway.

And the 22,000 number is an estimate.

However, it’s based on a formula used by many

economists: The so-called IMPLAN model estimates the number of jobs a company will create in the broader community, based on the company’s industry.

However, the amount of jobs being created has slowed down: Only 1,000 of the 7,900 direct jobs were created in 2013, the last year the study covers.

That’s down from nearly 2,000 in 2012.

Why the decline? The amount of money distributed by the Third Frontier dropped in 2012 and 2013, which could be one explanation, according to Battelle.

The Third Frontier distributed a total of $763 million between 2009 and 2013. That’s $96,000 for each of the 7,900 jobs.

But that price drops to about $35,000 if you count the full 22,000 job figure. And the price would go down further if the companies that got Third Frontier money keep creating jobs.

— Chuck Soder

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OCTOBER 6 - 12, 2014

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OCTOBER 6 - 12, 2014

THE WEEK SEPTEMBER 29 - OCTOBER 5 The big story: The planned $32 million renovation of Public Square is moving closer to reality. On Oct. 2, trustees of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District approved a $3 million grant for the project. The grant came just two days after the KeyBank Foundation announced a $4 million gift for the Public Square makeover. The sewer district money brings the total raised for the project to $30 million, just $2 million short of the goal.

The Group Plan Commission has partnered with landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations of New York and the local LAND Studio to redesign Public Square by May 2016.

IPO’s a go: Northeast Ohio has a new publicly traded company. Fairmount Santrol of Chesterland, a provider of sand and sand-based products to oil and gas exploration and production companies, went public Oct. 3 with an initial public offering of 25 million shares of common stock at $16 per share, raising $400 million. At the $16 price, Fairmount Santrol has a market capitalization of $2.6 billion. The IPO is smaller than what Fairmount Santrol had signaled in a Sept. 22 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In that filing, Fairmount Santrol indicated it expected to offer 44.5 million shares of common stock priced between $21 and $24 per share.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

35

REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS

Bon Appétit program forks over funds to Chardon farm New Creation Farm brought home some bacon this week.

The Chardon farm was one of 10 small food operations that was awarded a national grant from Bon Appétit Management Co.’s Farm to Fork program.

The $5,000 grant will help operators Scott and Kristen Boehnlein restore a historic barn on their property that will shelter breeding sows and piglets in severe weather. The money also will be used toward processing vegetable oil and facilitating onsite educational programs.

Bon Appétit received more than 171 applications from small farms and food businesses around the country.

The Boehnleins have seven children, six of whom are adopted, and all help out on the farm.

New Creation Farm supplies pork and beef to Bon Appétit cafes at Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin College and other Northeast Ohio corporate locations and restaurants.

In its 15th year, Bon Appetit’s Farm to Fork initiative requires its partner chefs to source at least 20% of their ingredients from local farms. More than 10,300 Bon Appétit guests and employees cast votes in the Midwest to choose that region’s two grant recipients, the other of which is a farm from Minnesota.

— Kathy Ames Carr

Historic preservation tax credit round comes with high stakes in Buckeye State More competition, higher stakes.

That describes the latest round of appli-

cations for Ohio historic preservation tax credits after the state’s deadline for them Sept. 30.

Nathaniel Kaelin, manager for the state historic preservation credit program, said, “This is the most competitive round we’ve had to date, both in the number of applications and dollar amounts requested.”

The state in the current round is evaluating $170 million in credits being sought by 51 applicants for 71 historic buildings. By contrast, $91 million in credits was sought by 49 applicants for 55 buildings in this year’s earlier round, the state said.

At the same time, the amount of tax credits the state can allocate is the same: $30 million. This time, though, there’s an extra wrinkle in Ohio’s new catalytic program, which allows a credit of $25 million for a single large project.

The catalytic designation gives developers with projects that have more than $20 million in qualifying rehabilitation expenses a shot at receiving benefits beyond the standard cap of $5 million per project. If the state anoints a big-ticket project the full $25 million tax credit, it would receive $2.5 million in credits in this round and in each of the twice-annual rounds over the next five years.

In short, 48 projects are vying for the remaining $27.5 million.

At the same time, competition for the catalytic allocation is intense, according to a list of applications the state provided at Crain’s request.

Four projects are competing for the single $25 million catalytic award, and three are from Northeast Ohio. Projects from downtown Cleveland seeking the larger award include the conversion of May Co.’s upper floors to apartments and the massive former Huntington Building, now known as the 925

Euclid Building, to mixed-use.

Also in the hunt for the big allocation are the redo of the former Goodyear headquarters building in Akron and repairs to the Cincinnati Music Hall.

The state will announce which projects will receive credits on or before Dec. 31.

— Stan Bullard

CapMed+ adds to its service offerings It’s like borrowing money to buy a new engine for your car, instead of buying a new car.

That’s how Ric Arcadi describes a financing process his company created with the help of a Philips Healthcare subsidiary called Dunlee.

Now, if a hospital’s CT scanner breaks down because of a faulty tube, they can get financing for a new tube through CapMed+ of Solon.

It’s new territory for the Solon company.

CapMed+ buys and sells medical equipment and parts, and it does provide financing for equipment, but this is the first time it has provided financing for parts.

Arcadi, founder and CEO, has filed for a patent on the process.

“I’ve never actually come up with a product as cool and unique as this,” he said.

Dunlee, which makes X-ray machines and CT scanners, has helped promote the CapMed+ financing process to its clients.

Parts financing is still a small line of business for CapMed+, but Arcadi expects it to grow, given how it’s going over so far with those who try it.

“The ones that do, it’s like crack. Within a year this thing will really sell itself,” he said.

— Chuck Soder

Material event: Lubrizol Advanced Materials Inc. in Brecksville, part of Lubrizol Corp., received approval for a seven-year, 55% tax credit for an expansion project that would create 73 jobs and nearly $7 million in new annual payroll. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved the tax credit for Lubrizol, a producer of advanced specialty polymers, polymer based additives and chemical additives used in consumer and industrial applications.

The proposed Lubrizol project in Brecksville “involves expanding operational capacity,” and the company “anticipates making a fixed asset investment in an existing building.” A Lubrizol spokeswoman said via email that the company expects to decide on its expansion plans by early this week.

MILESTONE

Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.

In the pipeline

On their Radar: Valley City-based Shiloh Industries Inc. acquired Radar Industries of Warren, Mich., for $57.9 million. The acquisition helps expand Shiloh’s manufacturing capacity into Michigan and central Mexico. It includes two metal stamping plants and a sales and technical center in Warren, Mich., along with another metal stamping plant in Celaya, Mexico. Radar has about 325 employees.

Successful shopping trip: DDR Corp. of Beachwood sold three shopping centers in the Salt Lake City market to Excel Trust Inc. for about $223 million. The transaction is aligned with each company’s objectives, given DDR’s desire to exit the Salt Lake City market and Excel’s desire to expand there. The three properties in the deal total about 1.8 million square feet.

Sticking around: Franz Welser-Möst will be the music director of The Cleveland Orchestra through at least 2022, which will make him the second longest-tenured leader of the esteemed ensemble. The orchestra extended WelserMöst’s contract as music director by four years, through the 2021-22 season. With this extension, his tenure will reach at least 20 years and will extend four years beyond the orchestra’s centennial season in 2017-18. With his extended commitment through the 2021-22 season, Welser-Möst’s tenure at the orchestra’s helm will be exceeded only by the legendary George Szell, who led the orchestra from 1946 to 1970.

BEST OF THE BLOGS

The academy office in 1926.

ORGANIZATION: The Academy of Medicine of Cleveland & Northern Ohio OCCASION: Its 190th anniversary The academy, which uses the acronym AMCNO, says its history can be traced back to 1824, with the founding of the 19th Medical District of Ohio. In May of that year, “all the qualified physicians in the district gathered at the hotel of Gaius Boughton on the corner of Water Street (now West 9th Street) and St. Clair Avenue” in Cleveland, according to AMCNO. Dr. David Long, who had arrived in Cleveland right from medical training in New York City in 1810, was elected as the first president of the society.

During the subsequent years, the organization merged with other associations, changing names and locations.

The “Academy of Medicine of Cleveland” was incorporated in August 1924 — 90 years ago AMCNO membership today stands at more than 5,000 physicians, which it says “strengthens the organization’s ability to advocate on the behalf of Northern Ohio physicians.”

Elayne Biddlestone, AMCNO executive vice president and CEO, said the organization “continues to expand its reach and provide members with the data and information necessary to address the many changes going on in medicine today.”

Information is available at www.amcno.org.

A brewery in Belgium is following a path blazed by Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland.

CityLab.com reported that Bruges City Council “just green-lit Brouwerij De Halve Maan’s plans to ferry suds through an underground tube from its center-city brewery to its bottling plant on the outskirts of town.”

CEO Xavier Vanneste said the beer’s 1.86-mile trip will take 10 to 15 minutes through polyethylene tubes, at a rate of 6,000 liters of beer per hour. The pipeline “is expected to take hundreds of delivery trucks off the roads, and its cost will be footed entirely by the brewery,” according to the story.

Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association in the United States, said it’s an unusual solution to a problem, but it’s not unprecedented.

“He also added that Bruges’ pipeline isn’t the first he’s heard of: Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland uses underground tubes to ferry beer from its brewery to its pub across the street,” the story noted.

Land of opportunity The fine blog Urbanophile pointed out some policy inconsistencies that are reinforced by the release of a report, ”Highway Boondoggles,” by U.S. PIRG, a left-leaning activist group.

That report drew attention to 11 highway projects — including Cleveland’s Opportunity Corridor — that U.S. PIRG says are unneeded and will cost taxpayers a collective $13 billion. (It character-

izes Opportunity Corridor as “a $100million-a-mile road … where driving has been stagnant for years, and where residents are calling instead for repairs to existing roads and investment in transit improvements.”)

Urbanophile blogger Aaron Renn argued that highway spending “is clearly a blind spot for conservatives, who often otherwise decry excessive government spending. But as I’ve observed for some time, there’s basically no highway boondoggle big enough that even the most fiscally conservative governor is willing to kill it.”

He concluded, “I happen to think we do need to invest in roads, but there are a lot of massively unneeded projects. I’m not familiar with all of the eleven projects in question, but of those I’ve looked into at all, they do indeed seem dubious, the Opportunity Corridor in Cleveland being one.”

Business takes root Last Monday, Sept. 29, was National Coffee Day, though it really seems that every day is coffee day in our java-obsessed country.

BusinessInsider.com used the occasion to post a list of the best coffee shop in each state, based on expert reviews and local recommendations.

Ohio’s winner: The Root Café in Lakewood, which we can say, from personal experience, is an awesome place.

“As the name implies, The Root operates on a philosophy that coffee should come straight from the source,” BusinessInsider.com said. “The Lakewood shop serves ethically traded, organic coffee and appetizing vegan and nonvegan dishes.”

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