20151026-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/23/2015
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VOL. 36, NO. 43
OCTOBER 26 - NOVEMBER 1, 2015
35th Anniversary
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
NORTHEAST OHIO’S
MOST CONNECTED THEY’RE DEALMAKERS, POWER BROKERS AND PEOPLE TO KNOW SPECIAL SECTION — PAGES 25-3 39
ART: Check out Akron
DREES: Bulking up
JOBS: ACE Report
AUTOS: VW fallout
FOCUS: Workforce
BUSINESS OF LIFE
Museum expands horizons
Developer changes strategy
Region continues slow climb
Local dealers are doing OK
Training tomorrow’s leaders
Lost Nation adds to stable
P. 5
P. 6
P. 8
P. 16
P. 19-24
P. 42-43
BioInnovation Institute shrinks, regroups ABIA looks for sustainable way to spark medical innovation in Akron By Chuck Soder
If only the engineers at the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron could create a medical device that could save the life of a nonprofit. The institute is being run by a skeleton crew while its leaders work to restructure an organization tasked with turning Akron into a hub of biomedical innovation. Its survival is not guaranteed. Interim director Joe Randazzo said that ABIA would only be able to operate
“for a limited time” if it fails to win a grant it recently applied for from one of its longtime partners: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Randazzo described the funding as “critical,” though he added that ABIA would also pursue other funding sources. Thus, he’s hoping that the institute’s new strategy can convince potential funders that the Austen BioInnovation Institute can find a
more sustainable way to spark innovation in Akron. One key to that strategy: Becoming a smaller organization. A few years ago, ABIA employed the equivalent of 40 full-time staff members. Now it has eight. It also employed six executives who made more than $100,000 in 2013, including CEO Frank Douglas, who made more than $630,000, according to a Form 990 ABIA filed with the Inter-
nal Revenue Service. Today, the only one who remains is Randazzo, who became interim director after Douglas left this past January. They didn’t all leave by attrition. The institute cut 12 employees last year, three of whom were offered jobs with Akron Children’s Hospital after it took over the hospital simulation center at ABIA’s headquarters. It kept a few people who could SEE ABIA, PAGE 46