Crain's Cleveland Business by Crain's Cleveland Business

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$2.00/NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

Lending is back for big-ticket property

With skills in demand, area trade schools rise PowerSport Institute, tech college eye growth

But preference goes to newer commercial sites with low vacancy

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com

With a lot of people looking to switch careers or pursue an education in something more pragmatic and potentially profitable than, say, literary history, the Cleveland-based Ohio Technical College and its PowerSport Institute in North Randall have had little trouble finding new students during the economic slump. As a result, the trade schools have continued to grow, said Marc Brenner, the owner of both. Now Mr. Brenner might develop a campus in Cleveland or take over more space in long-suffering Randall Park Mall, where the PowerSport Institute already is the largest tenant. “We’ve got about 1,500 students now,” Mr. Brenner said of the two schools’ combined enrollment. “We hit 1,000 about four years ago, and 10 years ago we were at about 400, so we’re still growing.” Ohio Technical College includes the PowerSport Institute and its 250 students. In total, it already has more students than Hiram, Lake Erie or Ursuline colleges, as well as the Cleveland Institute of Art, Mr. Brenner notes, citing Crain’s research on area schools. The schools teach students skills that will enable them to repair, restore,customize and maintain vehicles ranging from passenger automobiles and trucks to motorcycles, snowmobiles

By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com

In our first Forty Under 40 section — published Oct. 28, 1991 — Crain’s editor Mark Dodosh wrote that “the easy part was the abundance of people under 40 who came to our attention and merit recognition. ... The tough part was

choosing which folks to include.” It’s a challenge we’ve faced for 20 years, picking from a bevy of talented, youthful difference makers in Northeast Ohio. Here, our 20th class, and updates on 60 of our past honorees. Enjoy. PAGES F1-F30

See SCHOOLS Page 41

Commercial real estate lending in Northeast Ohio has begun its journey down the comeback trail, though obstacles remain for developers and property buyers that are keeping the path to loans from being as smooth as it was prior to the 2008 financial crisis. Two recent deals are illustrative of recovery — at least in the Class A, or high, end of the commercial market. First Interstate Properties Ltd., through an affiliate, secured a $5 million mortgage Oct. 18 from Huntington Bank for the last phase of the acquisition of Oakwood Country Club, which straddles the border of Cleveland Heights and South Euclid. First Interstate plans to turn the property into a big-box shopping center in South Euclid and an agerestricted residential and continuing care community in Cleveland Heights. Likewise, Archetype Advisors, a private equity-backed lender in Miami Beach, provided $21 million to Pittsburgh-based PWA Real Estate when it acquired Great Northern Corporate Center in North Olmsted last month from Duke Realty Corp. of Indianapolis. However, the road to a rebound See LENDING Page 6

Founder, new owner of bankrupt software firm play blame game By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

A game of who’s to blame is under way in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of MK2 Technologies LLC, which once was one of the region’s fastest-growing information technology companies.

In one of several documents MK2 filed when it sought Bankruptcy Court protection from creditors in late October, the Cleveland company’s lawyers argue that founder Donald E. Kasper II failed to disclose that MK2 was delinquent on “substantial” obligations when he sold the business to its current

owner in July 2010. In an email to Crain’s, Mr. Kasper said he was “not surprised” by the allegation. “All I can say is that they conducted their due diligence and had full access to everything,” he wrote in the email. MK2 owes creditors $1.5 million

but has only $630,000 in assets, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Cleveland. The creditor that is owed the most money is Huntington National Bank, which has filed both a $410,000 blanket lien on all the company’s assets and a judgment lien for another $245,000, which

MK2 is disputing. The company also owes the federal government $254,000 in unpaid taxes, in addition to another $56,000 in state and local taxes. MK2 — which provides custom software development, hosting and IT staffing services — employs 15 See MK2 Page 42

NEWSPAPER

74470 01032

INSIDE

Akron electric car manufacturer still hopes plan can work — but he’ll need more cash ■ Page 3 PLUS: HEALTH CARE DEVELOPMENT ■ RICK PERRY LESSONS ■ & MORE

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

CORRECTION A Nov. 7, Page 3 story about Constant Aviation Inc. contained an incorrect name for Sky Quest, a charter jet and air service company based at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

REGULAR FEATURES Adviser..........................9 Best of the Blogs .........43 Big Issue .......................8 Classified ....................42 Editorial ........................8 From the publisher ........8 Milestones ..................43 Reporters’ Notebook....43 The Week ....................43

COMING NEXT WEEK Plugged in Smart phone apps are starting to change the event planning business, as more planners find ways to relay event details via mobile channels. Check out the story in our Meeting & Event Planner section.

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NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

KEEPING BUSY Those of you who have a job are working very hard, indeed. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at a 3.1% annual rate during the third quarter of 2011. Output rose 3.8%, while hours worked were up just 0.6%, yielding the impressive productivity gain. Productivity rose at an even faster rate in most of the manufacturing sector. Here’s the third-quarter data breakdown:

Industry Nonfarm business

Productivity Output

Change in hours worked from Q2

3.1%

3.8%

0.6%

Manufacturing

5.4

4.7

-0.8

Nondurable manufacturing

9.9

8.3

-1.4

Durable manufacturing

0.7

1.0

0.4

SOURCE: U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS; WWW.BLS.GOV

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Pitfalls lurk in IRS employee amnesty plan Employers may benefit from reclassification program; advisers warn of possible fallout By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

These are strong incentives for coming clean and starting fresh, but tax partner Bob Burak isn’t alone in cautioning: “Make sure you have your ducks in a row before you pull the trigger.” Mr. Burak’s words of warning

THE WEEK IN QUOTES

relate to a program the Internal Revenue Service launched in late September that levies no interest or penalties on employers that come forward and reclassify workers they previously misclassified on federal payroll tax forms as independent contractors rather than employees. The Voluntary Classification Settlement Program allows employers

to make minimal payments to cover past payroll tax obligations and become compliant with IRS regulations. It is part of a larger “Fresh Start” initiative to help taxpayers and businesses address their tax responsibilities. It is a generous offer, said Mr. Burak, who is partner-in-charge of tax services for accounting and business advisory firm Bober Markey Federovich, based in Fairlawn. However, Mr. Burak and other local tax and law professionals are warning, in blogs and otherwise,

that additional potential liabilities can arise when a company reclassifies its workers. For one, reclassified employees may pursue legal action to seek back benefits and back pay owed to them, said Brian D. Hall, a labor and employment partner in the Columbus office of law firm Porter Wright, which also has an office in Cleveland. “Anytime an employer decides to reclassify its employees … the first question employees will ask is, ‘If it was done wrong before, where’s my money from the past?’” Mr. Hall said.

Plus, while the IRS is offering amnesty, an employer who admits misclassification still could be exposed to action by the state, said Mario Fazio, a partner with Woodmere law firm Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis, who worked for the IRS from 1990 to 1996. According to James Grove, a partner with law firm Nicola, Gudbranson & Cooper LLC in Cleveland, the way a business classifies its work force “has immense ramifications, both in terms of cost and potential See AMNESTY Page 41

INSIGHT

“For the $5 millionand-above deals, there is plenty of money to do deals. I think the banks are continuing to improve lendingwise. They want to make sure borrowers are solid.” — Brock Walter, principal, Pinnacle Financial Group in Independence. Page One

“Experienced metalworkers make on average $40,000 to $75,000 per year. … So I believe the large amount of job openings, combined with the good salaries, is why people are looking into skilled trades.” — Chad Schron, division manager and co-founder, ToolingU. Page One

“Young people are what’s going to make this region successful.” — Todd Goldstein, managing partner, Shaker LaunchHouse. Page F-5

DAN SHINGLER

Dana Myers, former CEO of Akron-based S.D. Myers Inc., has been gearing up for the production of his Myers Motors electric cars. He is trying to raise $30 million in capital to facilitate the process.

IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT Myers Motors founder charged up over potential for his electric car business, which is in the midst of raising capital to fund vehicle production By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com

he road to becoming a successful manufacturer of electric cars has not been without its bumps and potholes, but Myers Motors founder Dana Myers has faith that he will succeed at the endeavor. But he’ll also need some capital,

“When I think about the four walls of my home and the people in it, that’s my sanctuary. The world can have its ups and downs, Hospitals smell success companies have good with local firm’s product and bad fortune. By CHUCK SODER Family is where you csoder@crain.com always come back to.”

he said. So Mr. Myers, who has been working to perfect his small, rechargeable vehicle since purchasing its design and prototype back in 2004, is trying to raise $10 million. That’s the first portion of the $30 million he thinks he’ll need to get the car into full production. See MYERS Page 41

Aromatherapy packets woo Clinic’s Dr. Roizen, investors

— Jennifer R. Hammarlund, regional underwriting executive, PNC Financial Services Group. Page F-6.

Whenever Dr. Tanya Edwards has trouble sleeping, she reaches under her pillow for a little matchbook-size packet of gel that smells like lavender.

A few sniffs, and she’s back to sleep. Heck, once, she didn’t even have time to put the packet back. “The next thing I’m aware of is several hours later, waking up with the thing still pressed against myself,” Dr. Edwards said. That’s why she and her boss — health guru Dr. Michael Roizen, who is chairman of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic — have gotten behind Aeroscena LLC.

The Cleveland company in July started selling a line of five Ascentsbrand aromatherapy packets intended to help people sleep, focus, eat less, calm down or feel energized. It also is testing a product lineup that would allow businesses to deploy scents designed to elicit certain behaviors, from easing customer anxiety to increasing worker productivity. Aeroscena’s tag line — “recom-

mended by doctors, used by hospitals” — says a lot about some of its early supporters. The company has raised more than $400,000 from individual investors, including several local doctors. One of them is Dr. Roizen, who with television’s Dr. Mehmet Oz authored “YOU: The Owners Manual” and other books. Plus, Ascents packets are sold at See ASCENTS Page 42

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NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

Chancellor charts new course without Jack Welch institute By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com

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Chancellor University lost its poster boy when a large, for-profit college operator this month scooped up the Jack Welch Management Institute, an online graduate program launched by its namesake, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric. But for Chancellor president Bob Daugherty, the acquisition of the university’s hallmark program by Virginia-based Strayer Education Inc. has significant upside — mostly, the infusion of millions of dollars of capital and the opportunity to invest in other academic programs at the local, for-profit college. The sale of the Welch institute to Strayer was for $7 million, of which Strayer will pay 70% of the cost and Mr. Welch the other 30%, according to a Strayer spokeswoman. Chancellor officials said the deal, which is expected to close by year’s end, could bring in millions of dollars in royalties over the next few years. Mr. Daugherty said Mr. Welch looked for Strayer to buy the program because he was interested in “having the biggest impact the fastest” and Chancellor simply couldn’t support those ambitions. Strayer has 92 campuses across the United States, compared to Chancellor’s lone campus in Seven Hills. Absent Mr. Welch, the local university is without its most vocal spokesman and visible public figure. But Mr. Daugherty insists Chancellor will be known for its academic programs rather than for the iconic businessman whom many saw as

the savior of the institution formerly known as Myers University.

Life without Jack About 200 of the university’s 555 students are enrolled in the Jack Welch Management Institute, and by Dec. 10 students must decide whether to stick with Chancellor or jump to Mr. Welch’s program at Strayer. Mr. Daugherty is confident many will stick with Chancellor given that’s where “their loyalties” lie. One of Mr. Welch’s longtime associates at General Electric, Steve Kerr, developed much of the Welch institute curriculum, but has decided to remain at Chancellor as its provost. He sees Chancellor’s educational model — one that focuses on hands-on learning — as superior to those of the other more established for-profit colleges. “It’s not all bad (Jack’s) gone because everyone else isn’t in the side ring watching all the action,” Mr. Kerr said. “There’s a lot of energy in the other programs because all of a sudden we need them now because no longer is there a rock star in middle taking all the publicity.” For starters, Chancellor is launching a study abroad program — a rarity among for-profit colleges — this summer. The first one slated for this summer includes trips to Paris, Strasberg, Austria, and Berlin. The school said it also has signed a dozen or more “articulation agreements” with colleges around the country, so credits can transfer easily to Chancellor. Most recently, Chancellor inked a deal with Spokane Community College in Washington. Jeff Silber, a senior analyst at

BMO Capital Markets in New York City who is familiar with the forprofit education industry, said small for-profit outfits such as Chancellor aren’t necessarily finding it difficult to compete with some of the larger institutions, such as Strayer or the University of Phoenix. “Generally, the for-profit market is extremely fragmented,” Mr. Silber said. “While we have a number of national players, in every market there’s a small handful of small players. Honestly, they know local market better than some of those national players, so there’s always room for those smaller players.”

Emerging unscathed? Mr. Daugherty said Chancellor has had a good year. Some of the accomplishments, he noted, were moving the college from its home in Cleveland’s Midtown district to 2,250 square feet of office space off Rockside Road in Seven Hills, and hiring several faculty members. Last March, Chancellor avoided a potential death knell when it learned it had maintained its accreditation from The Higher Learning Commission in Chicago, the accrediting body for the institution. The commission had issued Chancellor a “show-cause” order in early 2010, which gave the university almost a year to show it was deserving of continued accreditation. Mr. Daugherty said now that the accrediting issues are behind the university, it’s putting its best foot forward. “I’m confident what we offer is quality, and I believe we will grow,” he said. ■

Wis. outfit scoops up bankrupt scaffolding firm By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com

Bankrupt Waco Scaffolding & Equipment is still in business following a successful bid for the company by a Wisconsin competitor. Safway Services LLC of Waukesha bid $12.9 million for Clevelandbased Waco, outbidding the stalking horse bidder that had committed $8.15 million. The sale is expected to close in late November. Waco, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in September, designs, manufactures, erects and dismantles scaffolding and related access products and shoring equipment for the construction industry. It has roughly 320 employees in eight U.S. offices and posted $36.7 million in sales in 2010. Safway pursued Waco because it’s been one of its “respected competitors” for a long time, Safway president and CEO Marc Wilson said in a written statement to Crain’s Cleveland Business. Safway provides scaffolding and access services for industrial, infrastructure and commercial con-

struction customers through its network of about 85 branch locations in the United States and Canada. Asked about Safway’s plans for Waco, including how many of its employees will be retained, Mr. Wilson replied: “Due to the nature of the bankruptcy auction and the proceedings surrounding it, we have not had the opportunity to analyze Waco’s business in detail. After the deal closes, and we have the opportunity to evaluate resources, we will develop a detailed integration plan.” Securing a higher purchase price for Waco is great news, attorneys for the buyer and debtor agreed. “The process worked,” said William Schonberg, a partner with Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP and debtors’ counsel. “The company was thoroughly marketed, and the competitive bid process in this sale resulted in a significantly higher bid and purchase price for the company.” Only two companies bid on Waco, and the initial bidder — North American Scaffolding Inc. — had purchased Waco’s senior debt and provided Waco with debtor-in-

possession financing. So, though not the winning bidder, North American Scaffolding holds a claim of about $13.5 million against the bankruptcy estate, according to Mr. Schonberg. That means it will receive all $12.9 million Safway is paying, he said. North American Scaffolding presumably bought the secured loan at a discount, creating the potential for profit, said Christopher Meyer, local counsel for Safway Services and a partner with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. With North American Scaffolding almost paid in full, attorneys now are investigating other remaining potential assets, which could provide further distribution to creditors, including unsecured creditors, said Scott Opincar, a member of McDonald Hopkins LLC, the Cleveland firm representing the official committee of unsecured creditors. When the Waco bid was little more than $8 million and secured debt was more than $13 million, payment to unsecured creditors was unrealistic, said Sean Malloy, also of McDonald Hopkins. ■

Volume 32, Number 47 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly, except for combined issues on the fourth week of May and fifth week of May, the fourth week of June and first week of July, the third week of December and fourth week of December at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230. Copyright © 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Crain’s Cleveland Business, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48207-2912. 1-877-8249373. REPRINT INFORMATION: 800-290-5460 Ext. 136

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Startup targets maze of digital data Prominent downtown Chagrin Falls accelerator’s first spinoff aims to help retailers better market to customers By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

They aim to start a company that would develop software school districts Reach Ventures LLC is could use to analyze how looking for big ideas related long it takes teachers to to big data. respond to emails from The Chagrin Falls business parents or how often faculty accelerator has launched use computers and other the first of what it hopes Bloomenkranz classroom technologies. will be several startups that They also want to develop a aim to make sense of the ocean of tool employers could use to deterdigital data available these days. mine how much time employees The startup, called Gravity, aims spend volunteering or participating to develop custom software that in wellness activities or sustainabiliretailers and other businesses could ty initiatives — activities that could use to create more detailed profiles help companies win tax breaks or of their customers. For instance, the reduce insurance rates, Ms. Weinsoftware could help a retailer map berger said. the locations of its customers’ homes Reach Ventures also is working to and competing stores, or it could help other entrepreneurs turn their figure out which Twitter users are ideas into startups, Ms. Weinberger talking about a company and driving said, noting how the group is working their online followers to buy its on external ideas for two health care products. data analysis tools. The founders of Reach Ventures “The pipeline’s already been filled came up with the idea for Gravity with potential projects,” she said. and hired former Progressive A ‘propensity for success’ Corp. chief marketing officer Larry Bloomenkranz to launch the startup. Reach Ventures got started about The for-profit accelerator aims seven months ago following conto recruit more entrepreneurs to versations between Mr. Wouters launch other companies focused on and Reach Ventures partner Paul mining data for business intelliAllen, both of whom have lived in gence, said Jesse Weinberger, director Silicon Valley, started information of operations for Reach Ventures. technology companies and menThe accelerator — led by Kendall tored other startups. The group Wouters, who has founded multiple decided to focus on “big data” prodigital marketing companies and jects because of their expertise in recently served as an entrepreneur the subject and the demand for data in residence at the Youngstown analysis tools, said Ms. Weinberger, Business Incubator — is working on who previously worked with Mr. several ideas that could become Wouters to launch a nonprofit startups, said Ms. Weinberger, one called Kids of Sudan. of Reach Ventures’ four founders. “This big data thing kept coming

up and kept coming up and kept coming up,” she said. Reach Ventures, which also includes chief financial officer Lisa Buchan, has proprietary data mining software that could be used by several companies it creates. The accelerator plans to take equity stakes in companies it creates with other entrepreneurs in exchange for developing the technology, raising venture capital and finding someone such as Mr. Bloomenkranz to commercialize it, Mr. Weinberger said. It will donate a small portion of its equity to a yet-to-be-formed foundation that will support causes related to health care, education and energy — Reach Ventures’ three main focus areas. Mr. Bloomenkranz said his background as a top marketing executive at Progressive and United Parcel Service should give him an understanding of how best to sell Gravity’s custom software to corporate marketing teams. The big data space is an “exciting, dynamic area” that gets investors’ attention, and Reach Ventures knows it well, Mr. Bloomenkranz said. “That’s going to give us a higher propensity for success,” he said. ■

Tax Insights and Foresights rs as Cleveland’s yea Jew y t h

r ele

Eig

Strategies, updates and predictions

ROUNDTABLE EVENT Wednesday, November 30, 2011 11:30 a.m. to Noon EST – Lunch & Networking

Noon to 1:00 p.m. EST – Roundtable Program Location: McDonald Hopkins, Fifth Third Building 600 Superior Avenue East, Suite 2100 • Downtown Cleveland RSVP: Call 216.348.5400 or visit www.mcdonaldhopkins.com

1931-2011

Frangos lot in foreclosure By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com

A prominent parcel on the south side of Cleveland’s Theater District controlled by USA Parking Co. has slipped into foreclosure. Park View Federal Savings Bank of Solon on Nov. 11 sued in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to foreclose on Prospect Plaza LLC to collect on a $1.5 million loan secured by the one-acre parcel at 1308 Prospect Ave. The parcel is on the southwest corner of East 14th Street and Prospect. The property faces the US Bank Building and Hanna Building Annex; it is near PlayhouseSquare’s restored theaters and adjoins the Erie Street Cemetery. In a case assigned to Judge Jose Villanueva, Park View filed the foreclosure to collect on a demand note that Louis Frangos, a member of Prospect Plaza and CEO of USA Parking, signed for Park View in 2008 that was secured by the property. The parking operator originally had purchased the site in 2006 and later used it as collateral for the Park View note.

Mr. Frangos said in a telephone interview on Friday, Nov. 18, that the loan had expired in April and he was unable to obtain financing to repay Park View the balance outstanding. He said he was current on monthly payments until November, when he did not make a monthly payment because the talks with Park View were not productive. “They’re just protecting themselves,” Mr. Frangos said, noting he hoped to work out a settlement and retain the empty land. Tom Yablonsky, executive vice president of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, said the corner is important because it serves as a gateway to PlayhouseSquare to the north and to the Gateway Historic Neighborhood to its west. The land also borders the historically significant Gray’s Armory, he said. Prospect Plaza LLC originally purchased the property in 2006 for redevelopment, but Mr. Frangos said plans came to naught because he could find no tenants for the site. Robert King, Park View president and CEO, said the bank would not comment on a client matter. ■

Size

Shape

Clarity

Color

Certiﬁcate

Alson Price

.70 ct

Round

SI2

GIA

$2,680

1.00 ct

Round

SI1

GIA

$5,990

1.08 ct

Round

SI1

GIA

$5,750

1.30 ct

Round

SI1

GIA

$6,980

1.44 ct

Round

SI1

GIA

$9,970

1.51 ct

Round

VS2

GIA

$14,660

1.83 ct

Round

VVS2

GIA

$24,870

2.05 ct

Round

VS2

GIA

$16,880

2.19 ct

Round

VS1

GIA

$24,700

2.26 ct

Round

VS2

GIA

$44,500

2.74 ct

Round

VS2

GIA

$17,800

3.01 ct

Round

SI1

GIA

$66,700

3.01 ct

Round

SI1

GIA

$56,800

5.06 ct

Round

VS2

GIA

$169,600

7.41 ct

Round

VVS1

GIA

$348,000

1.09 ct

Princess

VS2

GIA

$5,190

1.70 ct

Princess

SI2

GIA

$8,770

2.45 ct

Princess

VS1

GIA

$29,800

1.52 ct

Emerald Cut

VS2

GIA

$12,900

2.06 ct

Emerald Cut

VVS1

GIA

$19,900

2.14 ct

Ascher Cut

VS2

GIA

$17,980

2.04 ct

Radiant Cut

S12

GIA

$11,890

McDonald Hopkins LLC

1.30 ct

Cushion

SI1

GIA

$7,990

600 Superior Avenue East, Suite 2100, Cleveland, OH 44114 • 216.348.5400

2.01 ct

Cushion

SI1

GIA

$19,900

Carl J. Grassi

Shawn M. Riley

President

Cleveland Managing Member

Chicago • Cleveland • Columbus • Detroit • Miami • West Palm Beach

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NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

Port expects 20% shipping jump Lending: Banks still Cargo tonnage up, buoyed by steel By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com

The economic rebound, particularly in the steel industry, and two rare shipments due in December have Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority officials estimating that cargo handling on its docks will be up as much as 20% in 2011 from last year. David Gutheil, vice president for maritime and logistics at the Port Authority, said overall port tonnage is up nearly 17% for the first 10 months of the year, to 2.3 million tons through October compared with 2 million tons in the like period of 2010. Most of that business, Mr. Gutheil said, is imported specialty steel that isn’t available from regional producers. Also last week, the Lake Carriers Association in Rocky River, which represents U.S. vessels working the Great Lakes, reported a 21% increase in iron ore shipments from the Cleveland docks. Most of that cargo is trans-shipments from the northern

Great Lakes ore fields in Michigan and Minnesota to the ArcelorMittal steel mill upriver. With a bigger maritime marketing effort, the Port Authority is projecting another 5% increase next year. Helping with the 2011 increase will be the tonnage on a ship calling on the Port of Cleveland in early December to pick up five tons of automotive stamping presses coming out of the former Chrysler plant in Twinsburg. Opportunistic shippers already are lining to add their cargos to the load, a rare chance to move product by boat from the Midwest to the Far East. “It’s not every day we get a ship in here going to China,” said Joe McJunkin, who oversees the international docks for Federal Marine Terminals, the Port Authority’s dock contractor. “Everybody wants to get on board.” That reaction supports a Port Authority belief that it can increase shipping through the Cleveland port. Mr. Gutheil, who has been in his job at the Port Authority since last October, said the reaction to a ship to China suggests that inland Midwest manufacturers who make and export heavy machinery would ship through Cleveland, and other

Great Lakes ports, if they could. Another ship from China, bringing general cargo, also is due in December. Right now that business moves through Baltimore or Philadelphia. There is not enough international vessel capacity on the Great Lakes to handle more. Instead, Mr. Gutheil said, manufacturers put their export products on trucks or trains heading for East Coast ports, where they easily can book space on ships bound for Europe and Asia. But, because it’s far and away cheaper, though slower, to move a ton of bulk cargo a mile by ship than by rail or truck, shippers would prefer their cargo spend as much of their trip as possible on the water. The problem is getting more ships to enter the Great Lakes looking for new cargo. Part of the problem is that the Great Lakes ports are hampered by weather and by the limit on the size of boats that can make it through the St. Lawrence Seaway locks. The ships that do work the Great Lakes have established, profitable customers. “They’re not looking for (new) export business. They’re making a lot more money on the export side on agricultural products,” Mr. Gutheil said. ■

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cherry-pick deals based on business potential continued from PAGE 1

has potholes: Lenders want only prime deals involving attractive properties with creditworthy developers or owners. If properties are older, poorly located or have vacancy issues, loans remain tough to secure. “There is a lot more access to capital today than six months ago,” said Jeffrey Wild, vice chairman of the real estate unit at Cleveland law firm Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP. However, Mr. Wild said the access is “limited to the better deals. “To the extent properties are good, income-producing properties, it’s been relatively easier to close financing than it was,” Mr. Wild said. “The bottom line is that for a B or B-minus property, it will be harder to finance.”

Return to (almost) normal Views vary on the point at which the lending market is on the road to recovery. Brock Walter, a principal of Pinnacle Financial Group, a commercial mortgage brokerage in Independence, said lending is “well on the way to normalcy” and more like the market of 2006 than two years ago, when property loans dried up. “For the $5 million-and-above deals, there is plenty of money to do deals,” Mr. Walter said. “I think the banks are continuing to improve lending-wise. They want to make sure borrowers are solid.” For example, Mr. Walter said, the Great Northern Corporate Center sale — which involved a loan Pinnacle placed — was done with about 25% down. That’s an amount typical during the loose lending of the mid2000s, but not during the credit crunch of the last few years. However, one prolific property investor, who spoke on condition he not be identified because he does not want to sour existing banking relationships, said loan underwriting for garden-variety properties or turnaround deals remains scarce. “Banks are focused on the best deals and high-profile developers,” the developer said. “They want to get into your estate planning to do a deal. They are so unwilling to open doors for smaller groups that they should not start using the phrase ‘relationship manager’ again.” Bob Nieto, president of R.G. Nieto Co. in Hinckley, which invests in smaller shopping centers and auctions properties, sees both sides. “I’m getting a lot of calls from banks again looking to do business” compared with none a year ago, he said. But with 25% to 30% equity requirements, he chooses to remain focused on his present portfolio.

“We’ve got a ways to go before we meet in the middle” where lending is workable, Mr. Nieto said.

Haves and have-nots Commercial real estate brokers, whose lifeblood is transactions often financed by debt, say credit conditions are continuing to improve, though lenders remain cautious. Bob Brehmer, managing partner of the NAI Daus brokerage in Beachwood, describes today’s commercial real estate lending as “a world of haves and have-nots. “With a good project with good leasing, banks are open for business,” Mr. Brehmer said. “If the property has environmental problems or the borrower has credit quality issues, it’s difficult.” Lenders are more willing to issue loans secured by commercial property without borrowers signing personally, Benesch’s Mr. Wild and others say. Also, Geoffrey Coyle, managing partner of Ostendorf-Morris Co., said borrowers no longer need to put down 40% cash like last year and even more previously. “It’s not the big issue it was before,” Mr. Coyle said. But the time period for which lenders are willing to extend credit often is nowhere near as long as it was in the not-so-distant past. Mark Munsell, a real estate investor and developer in Beachwood, said he sees a shift in loan amortization from 30 years to 10 or 15 years as profound. “That’s the only real difference I see,” he said. “Lenders want to get the money back as fast as they can.”

Conservative? You bet One indicator of increased normalcy in the lending market is that Mr. Walter, the Pinnacle Financial Group principal, is back to talking about shopping for interest rates when he looks at where to borrow. First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lakewood, a lender that has amped up its presence in the commercial real estate sector the last few years, said its transaction pipeline is growing but that its underwriting standards remain consistent, such as requiring commercial borrowers to sign personally. “Some people call that conservative,” said Ronald R. Webb, First Federal’s chief lending officer. “I call it correct.” Adds Mr. Walter: “We’re in a period of caution and conservatism. That is the rule of thumb for the foreseeable future.” ■ Reporter Michelle Park contributed to this story.

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Health care injects healthy boost for Akron developer Signet invests record $1B in construction projects, bolstered by building in growth sectors, new markets By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com

Tony Manna may not be a household name, but his fingerprints and those of his development firm, Signet Enterprises Inc. in Akron, are all over some of the region’s largest building projects. Signet launched in the mid-1990s with the $31 million development of the Akron Aeros’ baseball stadium, Canal Park. Many in the city, including Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, credit the stadium with the revitalization of a blighted part of downtown. The tentacles of Mr. Manna’s enterprise, however, extend well beyond Northeast Ohio. And they’re only reaching farther. “At the end of the day, we’re interested in looking for new opportunities to grow our business,” said Mr. Manna, Signet’s soft-spoken, 50-year-old chairman. “It’s not like

we need that much fanfare about it, for the lack of a better term.” Driven by a throng of health care building projects, Signet this year has invested about $1 billion in construction — the most in its history. In addition, Signet, which boasts a portfolio of 17 acquired companies, recently opened an office in Shanghai, its seventh overall, to develop projects and acquire companies in Asia. Of note, Signet led the development of Summa Health System’s $25 million health center at Lake Medina, which opened last fall. The company also is developing proton beam cancer therapy centers in California, Georgia and Maryland. Last month, Signet announced a new joint venture with Akron General Health System to develop wellness facilities across the country. “We are definitely growing,” Mr. Manna said. “We’ve never been busier than we are right now.” Health care buildings have com-

Hudson software outfit finds daylight with nursing homes By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

Before Good Samaritan Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center implemented Daylight IQ, there was about a 20% chance that a resident returning from a hospital stay would need to go back within 30 days. Now, the home’s readmission rate is down to 7%, largely because of the software, which is designed to help nursing homes manage patients with multiple medical conditions, said Prentice Thompson, CEO of Foundation Health Services, which manages the Avon nursing home. “We’ve actually had months where it was zero,” said Mr. Thompson, adding that the two other nursing homes the company manages have seen similar results. Results such as those are helping Clinical Outcomes Management Systems LLC quickly expand its customer base. The Hudson-based company, which goes by the name COMS, has had 300 nursing homes and longterm care facilities sign three-year contracts to implement Daylight IQ since COMS released the webbased software 18 months ago, said CEO Edward Tromczynski. Once all those facilities are using the software, they will be generating a total of $7.5 million in annual revenue for COMS, said Mr. Tromczynski, who declined to release the company’s current sales figures. The company — which previously had about 40 customers using an earlier version of the software — recently raised $1.5 million from existing investors, Mr. Tromczynski said. The company has raised $4.9 million in equity financing since 2009, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. COMS will use the money to add to its staff, which consists of 25 employees and a handful of contractors, Mr. Tromczynski said. The company

needs more employees to help customers implement Daylight IQ, he said. Plus, it needs people to attend to existing customers, whom he said represent a big growth opportunity. For instance, COMS provides Daylight IQ to 10 homes run by one company that manages 137 facilities. “For us it’s important to grow from 10 to 100 to 137,” said Mr. Tromczynski, who is best known as co-founder of PlanSoft Corp., which provided online services for the meetings business and employed about 200 in Twinsburg before a series of mergers.

Pitching a payoff The software allows nursing home staff to build detailed medical profiles of each resident, documenting their diseases, their vital signs and the various steps the staff has taken to treat them. It also sends staff members alerts when it sees a pattern that might be indicative of a problem, and it contains libraries of information on 24 disease categories. Data that COMS has collected from several customers show they have an average 30-day hospital readmission rate of 13%, compared to the national average of 24%, according to Mr. Tromczynski. Keeping residents out of the hospital means keeping them in the nursing home, which means more revenue for the home, he noted. If Daylight IQ can help a nursing home increase its occupancy by one resident with complex medical issues — such residents bring in more reimbursement dollars — the new revenue within a year will pay for the product eight times over, according to the company. The company guarantees the software within a year will bring in five times the money customers spend on it. About 50 customers have passed that milestone — some by a lot, Mr. Tromczynski said. “We’re keeping three or four beds full,” he said. ■

PHOTO PROVIDED

Akron-based Signet Enterprises Inc. led the development of Summa Health System’s $25 million health center at Lake Medina, which opened last fall.

petitive services,” Summa CEO Thomas Strauss said. “When we work with them, they do a lot of work with an open book.” Signet’s relationship with San Diego-based Advanced Proton Therapy has been one of the company’s priciest ventures. The proton therapy centers the two companies develop traditionally carry price tags of more than $200 million apiece. The centers, Mr. Manna said, use an advanced form of radiation therapy, whereby accelerated protons are extracted from hydrogen atoms to bombard cancerous tumors throughout the body.

Buy and hold prised much of the company’s development portfolio in recent years. Mr. Manna estimates about 60% of Signet’s $1 billion of investments this year is in the health care sector. The company also does a large amount of development in higher education, including housing projects at the University of Akron.

Not content to sit back Despite concerns among some industry observers of overbuilding in the health care field, Signet’s leadership contends its projects are

infusing the newest technology into the market. “You can’t sit back and worry,” said Mark Corr, Signet’s chief operating officer. “While we’re aware of the uncertainty in the market, you can’t sit back and not try new ventures.” Signet has worked on several projects with Summa, including its 100,000-square-foot SummaCare headquarters on North Main Street in Akron. “We obviously feel strongly they provide high-value, very cost com-

Signet isn’t interested in quickly flipping companies or projects the firm acquires or develops, which Mr. Manna admits is unusual as many firms typically look to sell acquisitions or developments within three to seven years. Since the company’s founding, Mr. Manna said, Signet only has sold one company in its portfolio, which includes manufacturing, insurance and consulting companies. “We want to manage them and make sure they’re good assets,” he said. ■

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PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:

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

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

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

OPINION

Take that

e’d rarely ascribe the word “feisty” to Frank Jackson. However, it was refreshing to hear Cleveland’s mayor lay down a challenge to the business community as he unveiled a new plan for development of the city’s lakefront. Skeptics may not put much stock in the Consolidated Downtown Waterfront Plan. After all, it isn’t the first grand vision for the lakefront put before the public. History shows the ripples from previous plans faded away after their initial big splashes. The fate of this plan may be no different. Nonetheless, we like the plan itself, and we particularly like the spunk Mayor Jackson displayed in presenting it. In an interview with Crain’s government reporter Jay Miller, the mayor said he believes the plan answers the complaints of critics — especially critics in the business community — who say he doesn’t have a vision for future development of the city. Now, he says, the ball is in their court. “Everybody’s always talking about what’s the mayor’s vision, what’s the mayor’s plan and why doesn’t the mayor articulate his plan and why doesn’t the mayor use the bully pulpit of his office to promote it?” Mayor Jackson said. “OK, here. Now, what are you going to do?” It is a pragmatic plan (what else would you expect from Mayor Jackson?) that looks to fill gaping holes in the development of downtown’s lakefront. To be blunt, too much of the city’s prime lakefront space already is taken up by public attractions — Browns Stadium, the Great Lakes Science Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. These are places that people visit, rather than places where people work, live and eat. In order to create a vibrant lakefront with more of a neighborhood feel, the new plan relies heavily on private investment in office and residential properties. That means real estate developers will need to step up, though Mayor Jackson indicates the city would be willing to help make the financing of projects possible through the use of loans and tax abatements. Of course, it isn’t easy to accomplish visions with long time horizons, like the 20 years or more that it likely will take to realize many of the elements of the latest lakefront plan. Lethargy and discouragement can replace enthusiasm and excitement pretty quickly. That’s why it is going to take an active hand from believers in the plan to sustain momentum for it so that this vision doesn’t fade into obscurity like the ones that preceded it. There is evidence it can be done. It is found in downtown’s Warehouse District and East Fourth Street neighborhoods. Both were rundown districts where hardly a soul ventured. After year upon year of neglect, a few adventuresome developers took chances on investing in abandoned properties that they revived as offices, apartments and restaurants. It took a couple decades to turn each neighborhood around, but today they stand as vibrant testaments to what can be done when people are determined to reclaim a neighborhood. It can happen on the lakefront, too. Don’t write it off.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Forty Under 40 honorees have class

to our corner of the world. As you read his evening, Monday, Nov. 21, about what some of the alums have been Thanksgiving Week begins with up to since we first wrote about them, I nearly 500 people joining Crain’s think you’ll quickly agree that we chose staff at Executive Caterers at wisely when first identifying them as Landerhaven for a special reunion celerising stars in our firmament. bration built around one of our most And these are the folks who are likely popular features, “Forty Under 40,” the to remind others that if you pay atten20th anniversary of which is this year. tion right now, you can detect the real This special section of our newspaper, evidence of another renaispublished each year in late sance in our region’s history. November, profiles our region’s BRIAN Steel mills are expanding rising business stars across a TUCKER and creating hundreds of new variety of industries and ecojobs. Our biomedical industry nomic sectors. And this year, continues to be a Midwest we’ve added some stories about leader in attracting investment a few of our alumni from those dollars. two decades, and what they’re Skeletal steel is rising at the up to now. site of the new medical mart In mentioning this, I simply and convention center. Workers want to suggest that this is a are building enhanced parking group that’s likely to see the facilities and readying the interior of the glass half full. When Cleveland and old Higbee’s department store for its Northeast Ohio were down, these people rebirth next year as a casino. The Flats stayed on their feet, forging ahead, and East Bank project of a new office tower their continued success is certainly no and hotel overlooking the Cuyahoga River accident. and Lake Erie is well on its way. Work Read through these pages, and apprecontinues apace on the dramatic expanciate the great talent we have in Northsion of the Cleveland Museum of Art. east Ohio, as well as the loyalty they have

Cleveland State University, already the center of its own rejuvenation, has announced plans for yet another new residential project that will increase the number of our downtown residents. The converted apartment building/ office center that was hewn from an old department store at 668 Euclid Ave. has a waiting list after leasing all its units in a few weeks. The treasure that is PlayhouseSquare Center is about to finish its latest enhancements. Our restaurants and the newest breed of chef/owners continue to attract the attention of the country’s leading food writers. And — gasp — our unemployment rate is lower than both the national and the state average. What this means is that we have many, many reasons to abandon the negativity that so often permeates our region. My guess is that the young leaders who gather with us this evening — as well as many of us who vaguely recall being young — spend more time and energy thinking about what’s good in Northeast Ohio, and how to make it even better. ■

THE BIG ISSUE Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has another big plan for the lakefront. Will this one’s fate be any different than past ones that never happened?

TIFFANY LEISEBERG

MYKIE HRUSOVSKI

RICHARD VAN PETTEN

LAUREN BELL

Cleveland

I want them to because I work at the science center, and I think it would drive more business to downtown Cleveland. It would be better for us if they did it.

I think that the scope is quite large for this project. To develop the entire lakefront, even broken down into a number of phases, it’s going to be a tough one for people to get behind.

I was very doubtful about our mayor when he came to office, but he seems to be growing as a mayor. If anything can happen ... I would be more optimistic about it happening under his leadership.

I don’t really think so. Look at what’s happening now. Nothing’s really changed. Take a look at our schools, for example. (They’re) considered the least successful, the poorest.

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

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Gov. Perry’s gaffe reminds us to think before we speak

t was the silence heard around the world: Rick Perry’s brain freeze. Gov. Perry’s mental cramp during a recent GOP presidential debate stole the show and quickly was hailed as one of the worst memory meltdowns in history. It was a cringe-inducing 53 seconds as he scrambled to recall the name of the third federal agency he’d shut down, to no avail. I’m not focusing on politics here. My interest is in how leaders can prevent their own cases of message meltdown. After many years of observing and serving leaders, I’m convinced brain freeze in public speaking is completely preventable, no matter how nervous you are. Many people’s fear of public speaking and delivering presentations hinges on this issue, so I’d like to share three strategies to conquer it. (With a respectful wink and nod to Gov. Perry, let’s hope I don’t forget the third.) ■ Believe in your message deeply. Your brain’s frontal lobe is sensitive to anxiety. Psychologists say stress hormones can temporarily block your frontal lobe from the rest of your brain. You’re frantically searching for a word, but like a computer file that’s locked, your brain is blocking access to it. Fear is like a virus, infecting your thoughts. It’s guided by selfpreservation. The solution? Don’t rely solely on your brain to deliver a message when the stakes are high. Believe

CONNIEDIEKEN

ADVISER your message deeply. A speech or presentation is a transfer of emotion. Engage both your head and your heart to share your message with others. Tap into your message both intellectually and emotionally. When you deliver from the heart, you free yourself of the susceptibility that anxiety will scramble your brain. ■ Beware of adding new information too close to delivery. Brandspanking new information leaves you vulnerable to drawing a blank. You haven’t fully processed and internalized new info yet. You might as well send a party invitation to your brain inviting message meltdown when you add new information on the fly. But, you ask, what if my boss gives me last-minute information that I have to include? What if I learn something at the last minute that’s important? Of course you should add this type of information to your presentation. But here’s the antidote: Write that information down and keep it right in front of you. Prominently.

During Gov. Perry’s meltdown, he frantically searched his notes, but couldn’t come up with that third agency. Perhaps it was buried in his notes. Perhaps he was off-point. I don’t know. But I do know that a prominently displayed, bulleted list would have saved him from this public humiliation. So save yourself. If you have new, unprocessed information to share, keep it written prominently in front of you. Think of it as an insurance policy. ■ Deliver boldly. Do you fear criticism? Does the concern that someone will take a shot at you linger in the back of your mind during delivery? This is pure poison. The good news is that it’s self-induced, which means you have control over it. Confidence is the expectation of a positive outcome in a specific situation. Breathe deeply, visualize a positive outcome and let go of the fear. Forget perfection — think excellence. Don’t morph into your boring, evil twin in front of an audience. No one wants an automaton delivering a perfectly rote message; they value a person with a passionate point of view. The only true metric of public speaking is the audience’s response. Embrace your opportunity to move others to action. Use these three tips and you’ll replace brain freeze with liquid gold for your audience, and yourself. ■ Ms. Dieken is president of onPoint Communications in Westlake.

BRIGHT SPOTS Bright Spots is a periodic feature in Crain’s, highlighting positive business news in Northeast Ohio. To submit information, please e-mail Scott Suttell at ssuttell@crain.com. ■ Private investment firm Takoda Group LLC of Cleveland said it acquired Danco Metal Products Inc., a company in Avon Lake that has provided metal and plastic fabrication services for more than 70 years. Takoda Group bought 100% of the stock of Danco, though specific financial terms were not disclosed. Danco was founded in 1941 and has nearly 100 employees. It serves customers in the medical, military, construction, aerospace and telecommunications sectors. Glenn Harbold, a Takoda Group operating partner, has assumed the role of president of Danco. He said Takoda Group partners saw “a lot of strengths” in Danco, including its facilities, a high-quality work force and a “strong engineering core.” The company also is able to do powder coating on site, Mr. Harbold said. “The company has grown a lot in the last seven, eight years, but it has the potential to do a lot more,” he said. Mr. Harbold, who joined Takoda Group in January, has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

He said Danco’s third-generation owners, Bill and Georgia Danielson, were looking to retire and sought a buyer “that was focused on a longterm, growth-oriented outlook” for the company. Takoda Group fits the bill, said L.T. Slater, the firm’s principal. “We look forward to adding resources and sophistication to an already great business,” Mr. Slater said. Danco will continue to operate under the company’s original name. Takoda Group focuses on the acquisition of middle-market companies with revenues of $5 million to $100 million and the potential for growth, both from existing operations and through acquisition. Mr. Harbold declined to disclose revenues at Danco. Takoda Group also is the majority owner of Furnace Parts LLC of Cleveland, a maker of specialty industrial thermocouples, and North American Vehicle Components LLC, a Charlotte, N.C.-based producer of steel and aluminum reservoirs and related components for use in heavy trucks, military vehicles, automobiles and motor sports equipment. ■ RSB Spine LLC of Cleveland said it has secured a European patent covering specific design iterations of its line of InterPlate cervical and lumbar intervertebral fusion devices. “Fusion remains one of the most common spinal procedures performed by neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons, despite the introduction of numerous disc replacement implants,” said James M. Moran, chief technical officer

for RSB Spine. The company makes modular fusion products for surgical treatment of degenerative disc disease. The patent “reinforces RSB’s freedom to respond to evolving surgeon preferences and supports our plans for European sales,” he said, adding, “ongoing legal disputes also highlight the need for medical device companies to have the protection of a strong patent portfolio.” In July, the company received a U.S. patent involving the design of interbody devices that prevent stress shielding, complementing a previous European approval for the same concepts. ■ Alan S. Kopit, managing partner of the Cleveland officer of the Hahn Loeser law firm, was named president of the White House Fellows Foundation and Association. The association serves as an alumni group for all former White House Fellows. The purpose of the White House Fellows program “is to provide gifted and highly motivated young Americans with firsthand experience in the process of governing the nation and a sense of personal involvement in the leadership of society,” according to Hahn Loeser. Each year, fellows are assigned by the president to work with cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials. In 1987, Mr. Kopit was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as a White House Fellow. He was assigned as the special assistant to Secretaries of Defense Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci.

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GOING PLACES JOB CHANGES CONSTRUCTION GILBANE BUILDING CO.: Scott Bindel to senior project engineer.

DISTRIBUTION PARTS ASSOCIATES INC.: Michelle Mather to controller.

EDUCATION CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY: Laura Desmond to associate dean of external affairs, Weatherhead School of Management. UNIVERSITY OF AKRON: Wayne Hill to associate vice president, chief marketing officer; Eileen Korey to associate vice president, chief communications officer.

trative assistant; Jill Mesich to tax processor/administrative assistant; Cameron Stephen to assistant network administrator. CEDAR BROOK FINANCIAL PARTNERS LLC: Shannon Barry to client manager, Retirement Plans Division.

Desmond

Hanson

Bolbach

SS&G HEALTHCARE SERVICES LLC: Melissa Lisy to billing specialist.

Dynes

Pattada

Hayes-Nelson

TRAMER, SHORE & ZWICK CPAS: Peter A. Bolbach to partner.

communications.

CORRIGAN KRAUSE: Aaron C. Cherr and Nicole C. Malinowski to associates; Michael C. Wolters to principal. PEASE & ASOCIATES INC.: Jason Steele to staff, tax department.

HEALTH CARE

FINANCE

METROHEALTH: Dr. Megan Brady to Department of Orthopaedics; Dr. Irma Lengu and Dr. Rupa Shah to Department of Surgery; Dr. Mireille Astrid Moise to Heart & Vascular Center.

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CLEVELAND: David W. Hollis to senior vice president, human resources.

PARMA COMMUNITY GENERAL HOSPITAL: Ralph Knull to vice president, human resources.

ENGINEERING PIONEER SOLUTIONS LLC: Curtis J. Hanson to senior manager.

FINANCIAL SERVICE BCG & CO.: Laura Walz to adminis-

PRIORITY HOME HEALTH CARE INC.: Beth Horgan and Barbara Gabalski to client services representatives.

LEGAL JONES DAY: Martin Gates to partner.

OR THE VALUE AFTER IT’S DEHYDRATED AND PURIFIED? IS IT THE VALUE ONCE IT’S AGGREGATED AND COMPRESSED, OR THE VALUE AFTER IT’S TRANSPORTED AND DELIVERED TO MARKET? IT MATTERS. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU’RE A GAS PRODUCER

AND IT MATTERS EVEN MORE WHEN YOU DISAGREE. IN COURT. SO HOW DID WE RESOLVE THE CASE, MAKE THE LANDOWNERS HAPPY,

WE FIGURED IT OUT.

BOARDS GREATER CLEVELAND FILM COMMISSION: Joe A. Iafigliola to treasurer.

MANUFACTURING

AWARDS

TIMKEN CO.: Sandra Rapp to director of business alignment and new technology deployment.

MID-AMERICA ASSOCIATION OF EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM PERSONNEL: Geraldine Hayes-Nelson (Kent State University) received the 2011 Trio Achiever Award.

NONPROFIT

ROTARY INTERNATIONAL: James D. Lechko (First Federal of Lakewood) received the District Rotarian of the Year Award.

LUTHERAN METROPOLITAN MINISTRY: Robert P. Kirschner to vice president, resource development and

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

MAKE OUR CLIENT HAPPY, AND SAVE EVERYONE YEARS OF EXPENSIVE LITIGATION?

WRIS WEB SERVICES: Jim Abbott to client services director.

MARCH OF DIMES FOUNDATION: Donald B. Hayes Jr. (Wells Fargo) to chair.

PSC METALS INC.: Randolph J. Ehret to president.

BASED ON THE VALUE OF GAS.

VANTAGE AGORA: Shawn Young to regional vice president, sales.

THRASHER, DINSMORE & DOLAN LPA: Brandon D.R. Dynes to of counsel.

EATON CORP.: Pavan Pattada to vice president, business development, Industrial Sector.

PAYING ROYALTIES TO 25,000 LANDOWNERS

TECHNOLOGY

TAFT STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER LLP: Michael Wager to partner.

SEELEY, SAVIDGE, EBERT & GOURASH LPA: Brian C. Cruse to attorney.

IS IT THE VALUE WHEN IT COMES OUT OF THE GROUND,

CICERCHI DEVELOPMENT CO.: Katie Murray to office manager; Pat Cicerchi to vice president, development.

GREATER CLEVELAND SOCIETY OF ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVES: James A. Hieb (Marble Institute of America) to president; Vicky Hawke to vice president; Chris Johnson to secretary/treasurer; Lynn L. Mangol to immediate past president; Ellen Kelley to director, industry partners.

PORTER WRIGHT: Christopher J. Diehl to associate.

HOW IS THE VALUE OF NATURAL GAS DETERMINED?

REAL ESTATE

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A Cleveland Clinic ON THE WEB Story from of the two local physician received a philanthropists — www.CrainsCleveland.com. combined $2 million Leonard Horvitz, gift from two Cleveland-area philanwho ran the Horvitz Co. and had a thropists to create an endowed number of other investments, and chair to support bladder Samuel H. Miller, co-chaircancer research. man emeritus of Forest Dr. J. Stephen Jones, City Enterprises. Upon Dr. chairman of the departJones’ retirement, the ment of regional urology in chair will be renamed in the Clinic’s Glickman & his honor. Kidney Institute, will serve “I am humbled by the as the chair, which will generosity of Mr. Horvitz allow him to expand on and Mr. Miller and I apprehis research aimed at ciate the support for our Jones improving the ways of dicontinued efforts to agnosing bladder and prostate improve patient care in urological cancers. oncology,” Dr. Jones said in a stateThe chair will be named in honor ment.

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CHRIS ADAMS Vice president of finance and operations OnX Enterprise Solutions Ltd.

eople used to tell Chris Adams that he should go into sales. After all, that’s what outgoing people do. Instead, when Mr. Adams, 38, enrolled at the University of Toledo, he decided to study something he knew nothing about: accounting. “I’m going to turn a weakness into a strength,” he said. The ability to combine technical knowledge with the people skills he’s always had served him well during his time as chief financial officer of Park Place Technologies LLC, which provides post-warranty maintenance for computer servers and other services. When Mr. Adams joined Park Place in 2006, the growing Chagrin Falls company needed tools to help analyze its sales, budget and various business processes. That meant he had to revamp the company’s entire information technology infrastructure. Now, Park Place can tell how

many customers who request price quotes make purchases — and how long it takes them to pull the trigger. “None of these existed when we started,” he said, flipping through a folder full of charts in mid-September, just before he left Park Place to become vice president of finance and operations at OnX Enterprise Solutions Ltd. OnX, based in Toronto, established an office in Solon when it bought a division of Agilysys Inc. in August.

Of course, the 1991 Mentor High School graduate — who said Alex P. Keaton, the business-minded son from the TV comedy “Family Ties,” sparked his interest in the business world — doesn’t just drop reams of data in front of colleagues and expect them to use it. Instead, he works to extract the key facts they need to know, which he said too few financial professionals do. “They always fall into a trap of not being able to tell the story — just seeing the numbers,” he said. While studying for his MBA at Case Western Reserve University, he spent a year at Nestlé in Solon and another at meeting planning firm CPS in Eastlake before joining business services provider CBiz Inc. in 1998. There, Mr. Adams helped integrate more than 20 businesses that CBiz had acquired and built a division that provided them with back-office services. Chris Spurio, chief operating officer for CBiz’s financial services group, described Mr. Adams as an entrepreneurial guy skilled at dealing with people and technology. Mr. Spurio said he never had to manage Mr. Adams too closely. “He pretty much takes it and runs with it,” Mr. Spurio said. — Chuck Soder

Forty new members. Sixty alumni. Meet the former, and reacquaint yourselves with the latter in our annual section honoring Northeast Ohio’s top young professionals.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JASON MILLER

f you ask her, Antoinette Bacon will tell you the most productive and important time she has spent in the last few years has been the one hour a week in which she turns a group of young kids — Assistant U.S. some of whom had to be shown attorney how to jump into a swimming pool — into a swim team. Office of She taught those kids about everything from loyalty to nutrition the U.S. to gaining a sense of accomplishAttorney ment, to the actual swimming. “Imagine if everyone in Cleveland gave one hour a week,” she said. “I’d rather have my legacy not be Dimora; I’d rather have my legacy Bacon clerked for a Virginia U.S. District Court be a kid going to college,” she said. judge after her graduation from law school in The North Royalton native had to give up 2000, then moved into the U.S. Department of that coaching recently to spend more time Justice’s antitrust division in Washington. on her day job. Ms. Bacon, 36, is an assistant She transferred to the antitrust division’s U.S. attorney, who along with fellow assistant Cleveland office in 2002. Though some of attorney Ann Rowland has been leading the her work in antitrust involved the kind of prosecution of dozens of public officials and price-fixing cases that are the division’s businesspeople charged in the Cuyahoga meat and potatoes, she got her feet wet County corruption case. Their work includes there investigating corruption. It was a short preparing for the coming trial of former jump to handling corruption cases in the county commissioner Jimmy Dimora. separate office of the U.S. Attorney for the But Ms. Bacon would rather keep that Northern District of Ohio. information to herself. No one on her swim “Toni is intense and she brings a real striving team knew what work it was that sometimes for excellence to everything she does,” said made her late for practice. For a long time, Steven Dettelbach, the U.S. Attorney for the even her friends and neighbors didn’t know Northern District of Ohio and Ms. Bacon’s boss. what she did for a living beyond what she Beyond the office, Ms. Bacon spends her would call “white-collar work for the Departtime with her husband, Jim. “I used to have ment of Justice.” a pet turtle,” she said. Then, defensively, she Ms. Bacon has spent most of professional elaborated, “They’re resilient — they have career as a federal prosecutor. A graduate of personalities.” American University in Washington, D.C., and — Jay Miller the University of Virginia School of Law, Ms.

ANTOINETTE T. BACON

CHARLES V. AQUINO Director Western Reserve Partners LLC

t was a college research project that revealed to Charles Aquino that this is the work he wanted to do. Given the task of researching three fields within his major, he chose investment banking. He found it was a good choice. “The more book research I did, the more people I talked to who practiced in the space, I just became fascinated by it,” Mr. Aquino said. At 34, Mr. Aquino is one of three directors with Cleveland investment banking firm Western Reserve Partners LLC, for which he’s worked since its inception in July 2004. He helps clients navigate what is likely one of the most stressful moments of their lives: a merger or sale of their business. “You get a real sense of accomplishment in having a direct involvement in shaping the outcome,” he said. “You’re not just rubber-stamping a transaction. You’re usually guiding your client through what, in many cases, becomes a life-changing event for them.” No two deals are alike, Mr. Aquino said, and no process is over until it’s over. Any one detail can sidetrack — or kill — a transaction, he noted. “That’s stressful,” he said. “This is a career that can really take its toll on you. It involves considerable hours. There’s a steep learning curve.”

Mr. Aquino’s work isn’t only with Western Reserve Partners. He is nearing the end of his two-year term as board president for the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in Bay Village. Catherine Timko, executive director of the center, has worked in nonprofits for two decades and with leaders of varying ages. “With Chuck, you’d think he’d been doing this for 20 years,” Ms. Timko said. “The kind of leadership he’s shown, and the insight and the decisions he’s made on behalf of the center, and the guidance he’s given myself and the board is really remarkable given his age and level of experience working with nonprofits.” Mr. Aquino regards balancing his career and nonprofit work with his family life to be his greatest accomplishment. He lives in Fairview Park with his wife, Krysten, their 5-yearold son and 3-year-old identical twin girls. He graduated valedictorian from Trinity High School in Garfield Heights in 1995 and also graduated first from the Boler School of Business at John Carroll University in 1999. Of his academic success, he said, “I don’t like mediocrity. I don’t settle for it. I don’t strive for it.” — Michelle Park

ROBERT BENTLEY Partner in charge, Northeast Ohio international tax practice Deloitte Tax LLP

ob Bentley has mastered the art of translating tax code. Furthermore, he’s proven he can explain its complex concepts not only to the most experienced corporate executives, but also to people in various roles throughout an organization. That’s not always the best attribute of many tax practitioners, said Craig Donnan, who oversees about 500 Deloitte employees in Cleveland, including Mr. Bentley. “I think it’s an art that he at a very young age has done a very good job of mastering,” said Mr. Donnan, office managing partner for Deloitte in Cleveland. “What’s most impressive is his ability to relate to all levels of clients within an organization.” At 39, Mr. Bentley leads the Northeast Ohio international tax practice for Deloitte Tax LLP, a Deloitte subsidiary. There are five partners-in-charge of practice areas locally for Deloitte. Mr. Bentley became one at 35 — in his mind, his greatest professional accomplishment to date. He oversees a team of 10 that serves the region’s multinational clients, helping them to navigate and pursue business and tax opportunities in different countries. After graduating from John Carroll University in 1994, Mr. Bentley joined Arthur Andersen LLP, where his focus on international tax took root. In 2003, he joined

Deloitte’s Cleveland international tax practice, which at the time numbered three or four people. There are plans to grow today’s larger team of 10 to 12 or 13 people in the next year, Mr. Bentley said. Mr. Bentley’s greatest pride is being a father, a husband and a “true Clevelander,” he said. He lives with his wife, Kimberly, and their son and daughter in North Royalton. “At the end of the day, what I’m put on this earth to do is to be a father, to be a husband,” he said. A Parma native and 1990 Holy Name High School graduate, Mr. Bentley says he’s also passionate about giving back to the community. He’s on the board for Achievement Centers for Children — a reflection, he said, of his passion for families and children. “That’s where our city and most cities in the country are going to make a change,” he said. — Michelle Park

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

DEBORAH BIRK Vice president of global marketing and communications • Investment Management and Advisory Services • Tax and Estate Planning

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Technology Recovery Group Ltd.

eborah Birk describes herself as a contributor. That’s one reason why, after working as a marketing executive at some of the region’s biggest banks, she’s now at a small, growing company called Technology Recovery Group Ltd. The company repairs and sells barcode scanners and other inventory management equipment. Since arriving at Technology Recovery in May, Ms. Birk, 39, has helped the previously quiet Westlake company build a new marketing strategy and has played a role in shaping the growth plan of the company, which employs about 50 people. “What I’m passionate about is watching a business grow … and knowing that I contributed,” said Ms. Birk, who is the company’s vice president of global marketing and communications.

The Strongsville High School graduate had planned to go to law school after earning her bachelor’s in communications at Ohio State University. While at OSU, however, she joined the public relations department of the state attorney general’s office, where she gained a taste for marketing and PR. After graduation in 1994 she

ichael Briggs first got a taste of the business world when he and a friend formed a lawn care service in fourth grade. Though raking leaves was a humble beginning, Mr. Briggs said the experience instilled the entrepreneurial spirit that’s within him. Business owner, executive, manager — Mr. Briggs, 39, has worn all the hats. At present, Mr. Briggs is a vice president for Acxiom Corp.’s division in Independence, which offers employment screening and risk mitigation services around the world. Since Mr. Briggs came on board about seven years ago, the division has doubled its revenue. “Mike is probably one of, if not the most, competent person I’ve come across,” said Mike Cool, president of Acxiom’s local division. Mr. Briggs came to Acxiom when he met Mr. Cool while waiting for a flight seven years ago. Mr. Cool said he immediately was struck by Mr. Briggs’ energy, and a few months later he was on the team at Acxiom, a company based in Little Rock, Ark., that is a provider of information management and marketing services. In the mid-1990s, Mr. Briggs helped buy a struggling wireless retailer that had less than $100,000 in annual sales, but eventually grew into a multilocation enterprise with

MICHAEL BRIGGS Division vice president Acxiom

more than $1 million in annual sales before it was sold in 2001. But for Mr. Briggs, it is failure as much as success that has shaped his career. In 2000, he helped start Nexi.com, a high-speed Internet provider, which nearly folded and was sold to a competitor a year later. “I just don’t give up,” he said. “It sounds … mundane to say that, but after these dot-coms closed up, it was a blow to anybody’s ego not to have a job. But it’s one thing to sit there and wallow in your own sorrow rather than do something about it.” Lately, Mr. Briggs has worked as an adviser for CitizenGroove, a

Jeff Pike Associate Vice President Patient Services

Akron General is proud that Jeff has joined other young professionals throughout Northeast Ohio who have established and proven themselves to be leaders. We salute Jeff and all other recipients being recognized.

BEN BRUGLER Executive vice president Akhia

n a way, Ben Brugler said he feels he has grown up with his employer. A decade ago, the thenunmarried Kent State University graduate joined the relatively young Akhia agency in Hudson as an account coordinator and its eighth employee. Since then, Mr. Brugler, 35, has ascended to become the company’s executive vice president, now is married with two children and is on track to become an owner of the public relations and marketing communications firm.

spent six years at KeyBank. That was the last time she hunted for a job: Afterward, she was recruited to positions at National City, Huntington, Lake Ridge Academy in North Ridgeville and Technology Recovery. At Huntington, she helped lead a successful effort to increase the bank’s visibility in northern Ohio. At the time, Dan Klimas, now the CEO of Lorain National Bank, was regional president for Huntington’s operations in northern Ohio. Mr. Klimas said he was impressed by Ms. Birk’s “incredible work ethic” and her attention to detail. She also played a big role in starting the Huntington Cleveland Harborfest in 2001, Mr. Klimas said. That was the first time the Tall Ships Challenge came to Cleveland. “When she sets out to accomplish something, you can be confident that she’s going to get it done and get it done well,” Mr. Klimas said. Throughout Ms. Birk’s career, one of her goals has been to encourage other employees, regardless of title, to submit ideas that could help the company. “Whether you are the vice president of a business or work in a warehouse, you play an important role,” she said. — Chuck Soder

“I grew up here. The employees here are like my family,” Mr. Brugler said. “My kids go over to (founder) Jan (Gusich)’s all the time. My dad even works here as a proofreader.” Mr. Brugler is quick to cite the support of his family, colleagues and clients as the reason behind his professional success, though his contributions to Akhia no doubt have propelled the firm’s growth over the past 15 years since its establishment. The agency has gone from a two-person outfit to a 29person firm that manages roughly 38 clients. The affable Mr. Brugler has been a vital cog during that development. His current role as an agency manager includes fostering client relationships while identifying new business opportunities. He See BRUGLER Page F-30

local company financed by North Coast Angel Fund that provides software allowing musicians, particularly those beyond the nation’s borders, to audition for conservatories or other parties through a web portal without the hassle of sending DVDs. He has been instrumental in helping the company identify new markets, according to Todd Federman, the angel fund’s executive director who also serves on CitizenGroove’s board. “Mike is very action-oriented,” Mr. Federman said. “He does a lot more doing than talking.” —Timothy Magaw

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

TIMOTHY M. BURKE Chief executive officer, Central region FirstMerit Bank NA

imothy M. Burke stood at the front of the room, poised to begin teaching his first night class, when a woman asked him, “Are you the teacher? Have you ever done this before?” At the time a 25-year-old banker teaching an upper-level finance class at Cleveland State University, Mr. Burke believed his response would set the tone for the semester. “Yes and yes,” he replied, “And we’re starting right now.” Mr. Burke, now 35, sensed a similar need to position himself to meet expectations when he joined FirstMerit in May 2009 as regional

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

CEO. He was half the age of some of those he’d be managing, and the region he would oversee had been handled by three people previously. He said he’d marveled himself at someone his age taking on what he called the “daunting challenge.” But that challenge, he said, was what drove him to do it. Mr. Burke oversees commercial banking in an eight-county region in Northeast Ohio and in the bank’s western Pennsylvania region. The Ohio counties are Ashland, Crawford, Holmes, Medina, Richland, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne. He is proud of how the region was weighted as the bank’s top performer in the second quarter this year. He’s also proud he helped devise the uniform sales process used throughout the bank’s footprint. “I love it,” he said of his job. “Every day’s different. I have the opportunity to speak with cus-

MICHAEL DEEMER Vice president of business development and legal services Downtown Cleveland Alliance

ichael Deemer is one of those lawyers whose legal training is almost incidental to the work he does. Mr. Deemer, 36, sees his ca-

reer as more about building communities than trying cases in court. These days he’s doing the former at Downtown Cleveland Alliance, the nonprofit financed by down-

tomers, go on calls when I want. I have the ability to impact change.” Bankers with Mr. Burke’s maturity and credit knowledge often have 25 years of experience or more, said Paul G. Greig, FirstMerit’s chairman, president and CEO, who recruited Mr. Burke. “He had been a very effective leader in those markets” in which he worked, Mr. Greig said. “Customers really liked him.” Mr. Burke, who graduated from John Carroll University in 1998 and earned his MBA from Case Western Reserve University in 2001, started his career with National City and was the bank’s top-producing commercial banker for three consecutive years. He lives in Medina with his wife, Rita, and their four boys, all under 8 years old. (“We’re all done,” he said. “I’ll have to be center; I’ll have to be point guard.”) — Michelle Park

town property owners that is working to rebuild the center city. As the organization’s director of business development, it’s his job to attract jobs and residents downtown. “Being an attorney, and my legal background, is helpful in everything I do,” he said. “It’s certainly helpful in trying to negotiate real estate deals and interact with commercial real estate brokers and attorneys that are active in the downtown market.” A graduate of Ohio University and Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, Mr. Deemer came to Cleveland from Columbus earlier this year. He was following his wife, Vanessa Coterel, who had taken a job here last year as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. In more than a decade in Columbus Mr. Deemer had worked for a state senator and the Ohio Poverty

BRIAN FEISTHAMEL Director of quality assurance InfoCision

Law Center before becoming chief deputy to Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and then an economic development policy adviser for Gov. Ted Strickland. “Given his experience working directly with businesses on behalf of the state of Ohio and his broad understanding of economic development, we thought he’d be a great choice to help us create our new business development center,” said Joseph Marinucci, president and CEO of the alliance. Mr. Deemer shuttled back and forth along Interstate 71 until the Downtown Cleveland Alliance job came along. “I was looking for an opportunity that would allow me to draw on my work in economic development, my interest in urban development and my interest in law and public policy,” he said. “It just so happened that DCA was starting a business development office.” The alliance sees the office in the Old Arcade as the place to help site selectors learn about downtown and the changes on its horizon, especially the new casino and convention center. “It’s a tremendously exciting time to have $2 billion in development,” Mr. Deemer said. “As I talk to businesses that are locating downtown or growing and looking for additional space, they’re excited in a way I don’t think they have been for a while.” — Jay Miller

he spotlight has never shone brightly on Brian Feisthamel. He wasn’t the quarterback, the candidate or the CEO, but he has supported each of those in their quests for success. Before joining InfoCision, the Akron-based call center operator, Mr. Feisthamel, 38, lived the life of politics. Running and winning state representative campaigns came naturally, but ultimately the decision to settle down with a family led him from the political realm into the corporate world. His aptitude for winning (and not once losing) campaigns translated well into his role at InfoCision, where as director of quality assurance he’s helped cement the company’s reputation as a top-quality call center operator. “In politics, there can’t be a mistake,” Mr. Feisthamel said. “One mistake can cost a campaign. That’s the same mentality I bring here.” Under Mr. Feisthamel’s leadership, InfoCision’s quality assurance team has developed a reputation for monitoring its call centers to ensure top performance, ultimately increasing the return on investment for the company’s clients through increased sales or donations. “People don’t want to be critiqued,”

MARCUS GLOVER Senior vice president and general manager Horseshoe Casino Cleveland

arcus Glover called the shots as a quarterback in high school in Aiken, S.C., and at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Now he does the same as the leader of Horseshoe Casino Cleveland as the $350 million venture races to opening day early next year. When Mr. Glover, 36, joined the nascent Horseshoe Cleveland last April, its staff consisted of eight, including him; by opening day, its staff will swell to 1,500.

The future keeps getting brighter! Congratulations to all 40 bright, young professionals including our own Tim Burke. Thank you for your dedication to our community.

Member FDIC

P E R S ON A L B U S I N E S S C OM M E RC I A L W E A LT H 8 8 8 . 5 5 4 . 4 3 6 2 | F I R S T M E R I T.C OM

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NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

TODD GOLDSTEIN Managing partner Shaker LaunchHouse

said Julie Oddo, InfoCision’s vice president for valued accounts. “He has to deliver it with finesse and be straightforward. We are known for our quality. Without him and his whole department, we wouldn’t be able to do that.” As a former semi-pro soccer player and kicker for the University of Akron football team. Mr. Feisthamel knows the value of teamwork. He said he believes he has put to together a strong network of individuals in his department at InfoCision. “It’s something I learned in politics,” he said. “You can’t just bring in that volunteer that shows up for one hour a week. You have to get

the right people involved and trust they’re going to work with you. That’s how you’re going to be successful.” Because of the reputation InfoCision’s quality assurance department developed, the company — with Mr. Feisthamel’s help — recently launched a subsidiary called Quality Check that acts as an independent third party to evaluate companies’ internal call centers. “By being the leader of quality assurance department, I’m always looking for the next best thing,” Mr. Feisthamel said. “Once you become stagnant and aren’t creative, you’re going to lose your edge.” — Timothy Magaw

His experiences as the product of a management training program at Las Vegas-based Caesars Entertainment Corp., where he was recruited eight years ago after earning an MBA from Duke University, positioned him for this job. Rough and deadlinedriven jobs are not new to Mr. Glover, who helped revive a hurricane-devastated Biloxi, Miss., casino in 2006. “It was very fulfilling to help 1,300 people get their jobs back and see the area recover,” Mr. Glover recalls. John Payne, president of Caesars Entertainment’s central division who hired Mr. Glover out of Duke and was his boss for several years in New Orleans, said the Biloxi work propelled Mr. Glover to a job as vice president of operations at the 1,500-employee St. Louis casino and hotel, which led to Cleveland. Mr. Glover’s ability to quickly form relationships won him the blessing of Caesar’s joint venture partner, Rock Gaming LLC, said Matt Cullen, the Detroit-based chief operating officer of Rock Gaming.

Mr. Glover brings more than gaming and MBA chops here. He worked for Accenture and Deloitte Consulting between graduating from Morehouse College and entering grad school. He said Caesars (then Harrah’s Entertainment) intrigued him at a Duke job fair because its entertainment/ hospitality mix fit his desire to work in pro sports or entertainment. While working at the New Orleans casino, he dated and wed his wife, Candace, whom he had met while he was at Morehouse. Today they have three children, ages 7, 4, and 6 months. For fun, Mr. Glover said he devotes his free time to his children, though he tries to play basketball when he can. Mr. Glover recently joined the Cleveland board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. However, you will find sports talk rather than rock on his car radio. In gaming, he said, his favorite is craps; he likes the game’s active side. — Stan Bullard

ortheast Ohio should embrace young entrepreneurs, according to Todd Goldstein. Exhibit A in that argument could be Mr. Goldstein himself. He and business partner Dar Caldwell are the founders of Shaker LaunchHouse, a business incubator in Shaker Heights where dozens of startup companies work in close proximity. Though LaunchHouse accepts entrepreneurs of all ages, many on its roster are young, which is OK by Mr. Goldstein. He and Mr. Caldwell long have said they want LaunchHouse to attract young, bright minds who otherwise might leave Northeast Ohio. “Young people are what’s going to make this region successful,” he said. Mr. Goldstein, 29, has spent much of his young life preparing to work in the world of startups. He grew up in the family that founded a Cleveland restaurant called The Theatrical, in addition to other companies. He remembers his grandfather trying to teach him about the stock market when he

was 13, helping spark his interest in the business world. After graduating from Brush High School in Lyndhurst in 2000, Mr. Goldstein dove straight into business courses at Johnson & Wales University, where in three years he earned a bachelor’s in financial

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management. In subsequent years he worked as operations manager for a call center company and as a business analyst for Franklin & Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology in Beachwood, which had just raised its first round of venture capital. All the while, Mr. Goldstein was buying and fixing up rental properties. “From that experience (at Franklin & Seidelmann) and the real estate company, I learned what it took to grow a business,” said Mr. Goldstein, who later served as CEO of a local technology startup called Zolio. It was when Franklin & Seidelmann needed some landscaping done that Mr. Goldstein met Dar Caldwell, who at the time was a partner at a local landscaping architecture firm. When Mr. Goldstein hired the company to help him spruce up one of his properties, they realized they shared a passion for entrepreneurship. Mr. Caldwell said he knew he found a business partner when he realized that Mr. Goldstein was willing to give his all to start LaunchHouse. “He definitely loves taking on big challenges,” Mr. Caldwell said. — Chuck Soder

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DIANA GOLOB Vice president Ostendorf-Morris

en crystal awards — three of which are from NAIOP Northern Ohio, the commercial realty trade group — adorn the transom behind Diana Golob’s desk at Ostendorf-Morris, where she is a vice president of corporate services and was the firm’s top producer last year. One NAIOP award, called the “Traveling Gun Award” for work outside the area, is from this year for work as part of a team that sold 55 acres in Thailand for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Others are for work on Goodyear’s corporate

headquarters in Akron for the woman who has done real estate deals in many foreign lands. However, as much of an achievement is being one of the youngest agents to become an O-M vice president. “In an industry that is maledominated, she has risen through the ranks and currently serves as an officer of our firm, which is a fantastic example of the emerging talent in our city that thrives when given the opportunity,” her supervisor, O-M partner David O’Neill, said. With a desire to travel that took

her to Florence, Italy, for a year of study through Kent State University, Ms. Golob, 31, very nearly did not land in Cleveland at all. The Euclid native and graduate of Bowling Green State University, with a bachelor of arts in environmental policy, considered three top-ranked schools for her postgraduate work; she chose Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs over colleges in Portland, Ore., and Madison, Wis. She did so partly because of its reputation and also because of the effort Dr. Wendy Kellogg, an associate dean, put into selling her on CSU. “I was out of here before that,” Ms. Golob said, because she wanted to travel widely and already was changing direction from a legal career. Urban affairs and later commercial brokerage, she decided, aligned closer to her interests. After earning a master’s in urban planning, Ms. Golob worked for the city of Cleveland’s community development department before joining O-M. She is all about efficiency, living on the Gold Coast in Lakewood because of its short commute. She is a board member and a programming committee member of the Commercial Real Estate Women of Cleveland trade group. She also runs and lifts weights. — Stan Bullard

ANDY HALKO CEO ■ Insivia

ndy Halko was not just another young, overzealous entrepreneur whose goal was to start his own company after graduating college. The John Carroll alumnus already had about a half-dozen years of applicable work experience before he set out to launch his own marketing firm in the summer of 2002, after graduation. “A friend and I started the business out of a bedroom in a house in Parma,” said Mr. Halko, CEO of Clevelandbased Insivia, which now calls home a 5,800-square-foot space on the West Bank of Cleveland’s Flats. Mr. Halko, 31, applied the skills he honed working for a computer technology company throughout high school and college on website designs, network installations and the like toward his own enterprise, which at the time provided various electronic and print marketing services. “At first we were on the ‘family and friends’ model,” Mr. Halko said. “And I joined every local networking organization I could.” The 14-employee agency now

serves 30 to 40 active clients, mostly located throughout Northeast Ohio but also scattered across the globe as well. Mr. Halko said as of August the agency’s revenue had grown 50% over last year. “We want to continue this growth without compromising the quality of our services,” Mr. Halko said. “We’re

erek Green remembers back when Jennifer R. Hammarlund was a candidate for her first role with National City Bank. “We couldn’t get her in fast enough,” recalled Mr. Green, who today is executive vice president and chief credit officer for the bank, now PNC. “Boy, did she take the reins. It’s one thing to be identified early as a high potential; it’s another to fulfill it, and she did it.” Ms. Hammarlund is in her 12th year with the bank and in her 10th role. And that’s exactly what she desired to do: Lay roots and climb a corporation’s branches. A chance meeting at a Chicago career fair planted the seed. There, the Wisconsin native first learned of and interviewed with National City. In 1999, Ms. Hammarlund joined the bank. Today as senior vice president, regional underwriting executive, Ms. Hammarlund oversees about 30 commercial loan underwriters in Northeast and Central Ohio. “If you would have told my

husband and me 15 years ago that we would accomplish so much, we would have had no concept,” said Ms. Hammarlund, 39. Ms. Hammarlund began her National City/PNC career in a training program; over the years,

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looking to hire more employees.” The firm’s offerings have progressed, too, originating from broadbrush electronic campaigns such as email marketing to more targeted, integrated digital services, including search engine optimization, video and social media. “The biggest trend I see looking forward is location awareness,” he said. “Your phone, TV and refrigerator will be working together. If you’re out of a bottle of ketchup, an ad will appear on your refrigerator alerting you. “Marketing will be very integrated into our lives,” Mr. Halko said. He takes the accelerating pace of the marketing world evolution in stride. “The business is always transforming, and you have to adapt,” Mr. Halko said. “I would describe our approach as rebuilding an airplane in mid-air. We’re in midflight, but we have to keep moving.” Chris Schmitt, Insivia’s chief operating officer and general counsel, said Mr. Halko’s passion propels both the business and its employees. “With him, there’s a ‘boulder rolling down the hill’ aspect — fall or get out of the way,” Mr. Schmitt said. “It’s contagious.” — Kathy Ames Carr

JENNIFER HAMMARLUND Regional underwriting executive PNC Financial Services Group

she has worked in loan syndications, investor relations and risk management. Named a senior vice president in 2006, she was heavily involved in facilitating in 2009 the transition for the credit team after PNC’s December 2008 acquisition of National City. Ms. Hammarlund possesses the “it factor,” Mr. Green said. “She’s had a very rapid, highly visible career,” he said, noting her work in investor relations. “As you know, visibility is a dual-edged sword. She has handled everything with a lot of class.” Ms. Hammarlund graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and later obtained her MBA from the University of Maryland, College Park. She lives in Rocky River with her husband and college sweetheart, Michael, and their 14-year-old daughter, 8-yearold son, 4-year-old daughter, a yellow lab and an orange cat. They also have a 20-year-old son. “I take my role as a mother and a wife very seriously,” Ms. Hammarlund said. “When I think about the four walls of my home and the people in it, that’s my sanctuary,” she said. “The world can have its ups and downs, companies have good and bad fortune. Family is where you always come back to.” — Michelle Park

GEOFF HARDMAN President SparkBase Inc.

ne of Geoff Hardman’s main goals is to train employees to the point where they could get a better job — even if they end up working somewhere else. They usually stay for a while, though, because employees want to work for companies that help them grow, said Mr. Hardman, who is president of SparkBase Inc., a Cleveland company that processes purchases made with gift and loyalty cards. “I feel if you’ve invested your time, they’re going to stick around,” he said. In addition to helping set SparkBase’s strategic direction, Mr.

Hardman manages its day-to-day operations and its client services division. It’s a good thing Mr. Hardman, 34, likes to help his colleagues, because he has a lot more of them these days. SparkBase employs more than 30 people, up from eight a year ago. They’re all different people, so it’s important to understand what drives each of them to work hard, Mr. Hardman said. “Some people are motivated by money, some are motivated by learning, some are motivated by an extra day off or leniency so they can attend to their family,” he said. It was in Boston that Mr. Hardman found his own motivation to succeed in the business world. After graduating from Shaker Heights High School in 1995, he spent a year at Cleveland State University pursuing his first passion:

theater. However, he dropped out a year later and moved to Boston. The next few months weren’t glamorous — he slept on a friend’s couch — but he did land a job at a store that sold cell phones that were huge by today’s standards. A few promotions later, AT&T started moving him to other Boston-area stores. Those stores then would see a boost in sales, which Mr. Hardman attributed to his focus on building strong teams. He moved back to Northeast Ohio in 2004 to become director of operations for Twinsburg-based NewMarket Solutions Inc., which was owned by a company that employed his brother, Douglas Hardman. In 2007, the elder Hardman bought NewMarket Solutions’ card processing division to form SparkBase and recruited his brother to join him.

“My success,” Geoff Hardman said, “is due to my brother’s, and hopefully his is due to mine and the team here.” —Chuck Soder

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olly Julius figured that she’d spend six months at RNR Consulting, max. After earning her MBA from Kent State University, her plan was to get in, get some experience and then find a job with a Fortune 500 company. She’s glad she didn’t. Today, Ms. Julius is head of RNR Consulting. The Cleveland company — which helps nonprofits, government agencies and some businesses develop strategic plans and get the most out of information technology systems — has 21 employees today, up from just a handful when she started as project manager in 2004. RNR Consulting, she said, constantly was promoting people as it grew, giving her more opportunities than she would have had at a big company like Goodyear or Progressive. “I know if I worked for a company like that, I would still just be analyst,” she said. Since becoming president and CEO in May 2009, Ms. Julius, 32, has led the development of RNR Consulting’s first formal strategic plan and a system for monitoring the company’s progress toward its goals. In addition to the high-level stuff, she also hunts for new clients, meets

with prospects, double-checks the work of her employees and handles the firm’s administrative functions. What she likes most, though, is coming up with new ideas and seeing them implemented. The company’s owner, Rahim N. Rahim, described Ms. Julius as an “intellectually pragmatic” person who is never afraid to descend from broad strategic planning sessions and get into the details. One reason Mr. Rahim chose her to succeed him as CEO was her “unwavering honesty,” he said. “She’s the type to scream and shout back at me in a board meeting if she really believes something,” he said. Ms. Julius, who graduated from Stow-Munroe Falls High School and earned her bachelor’s in business administration at Kent State, enjoys playing with her 2-year-old daughter, Ellie, and is a big fan of Death by Paperwork, the rock band of her husband, Greg. She advises young people to remember that a degree alone doesn’t earn them the right to a good job, and she advises bosses to remember that happy employees do better work. “And they’re going to stay,” she said. — Chuck Soder

cowboy accountant? Yessirree, but not the kind who’s wild and loose with numbers — one who keeps figures and cattle perfectly under control with equal skill, that would be Joe Kelley. Though he’s penned up much of the time these days, Mr. Kelley used to interrupt his work after tax season every year, telling his bosses at the former tax accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand in Cleveland he was bound for Wyoming or Idaho. “When the weather turned nice I said, ‘You guys are crazy for working inside. The real life is a cowboy,’” Mr. Kelley, 39, would tell his bosses every year. Then, when the snows hit the range, Mr. Kelley would come back to Coopers and Lybrand, work through winter and spring, and leave again. After about five years of that cycle, Mr. Kelley finally gave in to the firm’s pleas that he begin working as a CPA year round, and since then his financial career has taken off like a good quarter horse. He went to Chicago, worked with a startup and shepherded it through an initial public offering, got married and eventually went to work for Lincoln Electric Co. in 2003 as director of accounting, before becoming CFO of that company’s European operations. He joined PolyOne in 2009 after he was recruited by CFO Bob Patterson there — a move Mr. Patterson said he still counts as one of his better ones. “Joe has many roles at PolyOne, and he does them all exceptionally well,” Mr. Patterson said. “From an

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hen Dr. Steven Landers first started caring for patients in their homes, his friends jokingly called him Marcus Welby — the likable doctor who made house calls in the 1970s TV drama of the same name. “There were a couple times people would joke and ask whether I was using leeches and bloodletting,” Dr. Landers said with a smile. But while the role might seem like one of a bygone era, Dr. Landers, 36, says the introduction of new technologies and increased pressure to take care of patients in economical ways has made the house call something other than a relic. “Patients are so grateful,” he said. “Home care is truly a needed service for a lot of the frail elders, and you learn a lot about people.” As director of the Cleveland

Clinic’s Center for Home Care and Community Rehabilitation, Dr. Landers oversees more than 500 pharmacists, therapists, nurses and others who visit patients at home. Nurse practitioners and physicians didn’t make house calls when Dr. Landers joined the Clinic in 2008, but since his arrival, that number has grown to more than 3,000 a year. And in between managing the Clinic’s home care unit, Dr. Landers still takes time to see his own patients in their homes — something his wife, Allison, notes that he’ll never give up. “He’s crafted this into such a fine niche, and the response has been so fantastic,” Allison Landers said. Dr. Landers admits his career hasn’t been a straight path. In the midst of attending medical school at Case Western Reserve University, he left Cleveland to earn a master’s

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ileen Saffran takes into account any number of factors when considering a potential candidate to work at The Gathering Place, the Beachwood-based cancer support organization she formed in 2000. But above all, given the groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, she gauges how sensitive and passionate her staff will be when called upon. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When we answer the phone, the person on the other end often is in terrible distress,â&#x20AC;? Ms. Saffran said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;How we react is vitally important.â&#x20AC;? Ben Light, 39, now The Gathering Placeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s director of operations but in 2004 a candidate for a development role, fit the mold.

KARA LEWIS President Winslow Asset Management

K investor relations perspective, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been instrumental in telling our transformation story and building credibility on Wall Street, evidenced by our 160% increase in share price since he joined the company. Joe is the â&#x20AC;&#x153;faceâ&#x20AC;? of PolyOne to our investment community â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a tough and demanding role he handles with unwavering poise.â&#x20AC;? When he isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t climbing the corporate ladder, Mr. Kelley is coaching youth basketball, volunteering at the YWCA or working with his kids on their Soap Box Derby cars. He and his wife, Claire, have four children between the ages of 2 and 8. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more apt to stick around town these days, though not completely, he asserts. After all, every spring still brings in a new generation of cows, and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to be able to tell who they belong to before the next winter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why I asked about the date for this (Forty Under 40) event,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got the fall branding. ... I still try to get out there once a year.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Dan Shingler

ara Lewisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; boss neednâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exaggerate what she has managed to do. Ms. Lewis, he explains, has ascended to firm president by age 38, all the while raising four children under the age of 12. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It ainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy, and she does it very well,â&#x20AC;? said Gerry Goldberg, chairman of Winslow Asset Management Inc. in Beachwood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clearly able to multitask. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to embellish that.â&#x20AC;? Prime example: Mr. Goldberg and Ms. Lewis actually concluded negotiations for her Winslow Asset job while she was on bed rest five years ago, pregnant with her third child, baby monitors on her belly. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The doctors and nurses were floored,â&#x20AC;? Ms. Lewis remembered. A native of Kent and a 1995 graduate of Denison University, Ms. Lewis was promoted to president of Winslow Asset in late 2008. She has been instrumental in the money management firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth, Mr. Goldberg said, because sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s built a network of consultants that refer institutional business to it. The firm, which today counts $500 million in assets under management, directly manages assets for institutional and high-net-worth clients. Its institutional clients grew the most after Ms. Lewis joined the firm. Her given goal was to get the word out to institutional consultants, some of whom sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d built relationships with during her six years with Oak Associates in Akron. Institutional consultants use â&#x20AC;&#x153;menusâ&#x20AC;? to select money managers for institutional clients. Winslow Assetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s number of institutional clients has increased

degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Although originally trained in family medicine, Dr. Landers completed a fellowship in geriatrics at the Clinic, where he eventually helped launch a home-based medical practice. Outside his work at the Clinic, Dr. Landers works with groups such as the National Association for Home Care and Hospice to help shape health policy.

Dr. Michael Modic, chairman of the Clinicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Neurological Institute, noted that Dr. Landersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; understanding of the national health care landscape and abilities as a physician have made him a top innovator at the Clinic. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He has knowledge of the different directions medicine is taking, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s embraced the opportunity for change,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Timothy Magaw

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considerably. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Her achievements and her maturity are beyond her years,â&#x20AC;? Mr. Goldberg said. She recently joined the Akron Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hospital Foundation Board, an involvement rooted in the premature birth of her third child, Cooper. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You would never know,â&#x20AC;? she says of her now 5-year-old son. And growing up riding horses, she also is serving a three-year term on the finance committee for the American Quarter Horse Association, helping to oversee management of a $100 million foundation and pension plan. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Michelle Park

BEN LIGHT Director of operations The Gathering Place

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;He has unique qualities not always evident in men,â&#x20AC;? Ms. Saffran said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He has become a true asset in so many ways.â&#x20AC;? Mr. Light joined the organization after a two-year stint with the Jewish Community Federation; Ms. Saffran had known Mr. Lightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parents, and informed him of the opportunity â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for which he said he â&#x20AC;&#x153;worked harder to get than any other job before.â&#x20AC;? His effort included a mock annual fundraising letter, a new Gathering Place brochure and a PowerPoint presentation. Of course, it was a perfect fit: Mr. Light had worked in the for-profit consulting world â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at giant Arthur See LIGHT Page F-30

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he neighborhood where Eric Logan grew up, around East 123rd Street and Buckeye Road on Cleveland’s East Side, isn’t known as a cradle of successful executives. But he said he always believed that getting a good education would be help him beat the odds — and he was right. “One of the biggest defining moments in my life was when a recruiter from an East Coast boarding school showed up,” he said. That school was the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Mr. Logan already had the academic chops he needed to get in, and the grades to provide a scholarship to boot. Phillips Exeter was followed by Stanford University, and after earning his bachelor’s degree in metallurgy, Mr. Logan wanted to come home. So, in 1997, he got a job at LTV Steel, where he could put his metallurgy degree to work and also help his hometown get its steel mill operating efficiently. “I worked with Eric when he was first out of school; he was a very

ERIC LOGAN Vice president of business strategy Precision Castparts Corp.

personable, energetic guy,” recalls Matt Kremer, a former LTV employee who now is a quality manager at ArcelorMittal. “He’s certainly done a lot since he left, though.” At LTV, Mr. Logan, 37, continued school at night until he earned his

MICHAEL MAKOFSKY Principal McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co.

hink of Michael Makofsky as a kind of marriage counselor. The principal at Cleveland law firm McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co. LPA specializes in loan transactions and merger and acquisition activity. And by representing either lenders or borrowers of bank loans and buyers or sellers in M&A deals, he’s positioned to advise clients calmly in an area where relations haven’t exactly been smooth

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worldwide. He joined as vice president of business strategy for the company’s Forged Products Group in Beachwood, but also has been involved in its operations in West Virginia, as well as New Jersey, where he is general manager for Precision Castparts’ McWilliams Forge Co. But Mr. Logan said Cleveland is still home and he doesn’t plan to change that. His hous is in Shaker Heights, only a few minutes from where Mr. Logan grew up. But it’s a world away in other ways, he said. Mr. Logan said the education that separates those two worlds was a family value. His great uncle, Preston Bowles, had been president of Alcorn A&M College in Mississippi and, though his single mom didn’t have a college degree, she knew the value of one and wanted one for her son. But, Mr. Logan said, it might just have been his grandfather, who also went to college, who convinced him to get a good education. Or else. “My grandfather put the fear of God into me — and I grew up not wanting to let him down,” Mr. Logan said. — Dan Shingler

most intense days, Mr. Makofsky said lenders and M&A dealmakers were aggressive, though the market tightened during the worst of the storm. Now, activity has picked up, “People seem to have short memories,” he said. “You like to see the activity, but you hope it’s being done right.” He also is working to revive a mostly dormant corporate and business law section of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, a task he took on officially in July but unofficially last January. He’s called on colleagues at other firms and asked for participation. The challenge: His one-year term expires next summer, and he’s trying to squeeze in as much as he can. That includes attracting back as many lawyers of what he says should be a membership of 250, and identifying potential future leaders. “We’re trying to bring it back to life,” he said. Kenneth Liffman, the firm’s managing principal, said Mr. Makofsky took on the bar association role on his own, without any prodding, and that initiative is reflected in the younger attorney’s other work. “Bankers love him, and it’s because he has that attention to detail,” Mr. Liffman said. — Joel Hammond

JAY MELLON Partner AtNetPlus Inc.

ttitude comes first. After that, communication. Then accuracy, following by efficiency. Those values, in order, help Jay Mellon and everyone else at AtNetPlus Inc. in Stow shape the decisions they make. So, for instance, the company would hire someone with a good attitude over someone with a bad attitude who was more efficient. That value system is one of many contributions Mr. Mellon, 36, has made to AtNetPlus since he helped start the information technology services company in 1998. Back then, the company was just a group of four IT consultants who for the most part worked independently. By contrast, AtNetPlus today has 24 employees and is a far more organized company. That attention to detail largely is because of Mr. Mellon, said Jim Laber, who with Mr. Mellon bought out the two other co-founders of the company in 2005. Mr. Laber described his business partner as a meticulous guy: Without him, many of AtNetPlus’ proposals probably would have been written with poor English and a mix of fonts, Mr. Laber said with a laugh. But more importantly, Mr. Mellon helped the company implement See MELLON Page F-30

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NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

STEVEN T. MOORE

TANIA MENESSE

President

Director of economic development

J. L. Moore Inc.

hile deployed with the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2006, Steve Moore spent some of his free time writing and fine-tuning computer forms used by J.L. Moore Inc., the general contractor business owned by his family. The practice reflected his circumstances: Mr. Moore, 34, had been preparing to assume leadership of J.L. Moore when he was called back to active duty. After three months of training, he was off to Camp Stryker in Baghdad. Not that there was much time for software. He spent six months running a depot. The next six months he volunteered to command troops protecting supply convoys through

City of Shaker Heights

ania Menesse lives, breathes and works Shaker Heights. She has been the city’s director of economic development for nearly 18 months, and she plans to stay. This is surprising to her now,as she never expected to come back to Shaker after high school. Her family moved to the eastern suburb from Mumbai, India, when she was 4 years old. Ms. Menesse went off to the University of Virginia and, after graduating in 1996, took jobs doing telecommunications sales in Dallas and then Denver. But by 2005, when she was pregnant with her second daughter, she and husband Rick Smith, also a Shaker Heights High School graduate, decided it made sense to come back home and buy a house in Shaker. It has been an eye-opening experience. “I see immense opportunity here,

which is exciting,” she said. In Shaker, she has helped develop LaunchHouse, a business incubator in a former auto dealership. Ms. Menesse also is working on plans to redevelop the community’s commercial districts, which have never been a priority in this largely residential community. But that wasn’t part of the plan. When she returned to Northeast Ohio, Ms. Menesse worked from home for a telecommunications consulting firm after the birth of her daughter. However, a volunteer experience at Towards Employment, a nonprofit that helps everyone from ex-felons to the homeless find their way back into the work force, made her rethink her career choice. “It showed me I was interested in work in the community, but that I was not cut out for social service,” she said. So she went back to school, at

Cleveland State University, where she earned a master’s degree in urban affairs with an emphasis on economic development. While there, she did a work placement at the Cleveland Foundation, helping shape the program now called Global Cleveland, an effort to boost immigration to the region. But Ms. Menesse, 37, never expected to be working full time in the public sector. “It wasn’t that I was against the idea of working for government, but my view of government’s role in economic development had always been negative,” she said. Shaker Heights Mayor Earl Leiken said Ms. Menesse’s life experiences influenced his decision to hire her. He thinks she’s adapted just fine to government work. “She’s more than fulfilled our expectations,” Mayor Leiken said. — Jay Miller

Congratulations Kara H. Lewis For being named one of this year’s Crain’s Cleveland Business “Forty Under 40” Institutional and High Net Worth Asset Manager with $500M in assets under management Specializing in All-Cap, Small-Cap & Balanced Strategies

STEVE MOREY President and CEO Team Lorain County

teve Morey wants the region to raise salmon — at least metaphorically. Of course, he considers himself a prototype of the migratory fish that returns home to spawn. He left this region for work in the South before his return to Northeast Ohio, where he and his wife settled and had two daughters. “One of the best things we could do is say to our young people, ‘Go experience your 20s in different places doing different things,’” he said. “’Then bring what you’ve learned back here.’” The Elyria native spent a decade after graduating from Ohio University working as a banker in Tennessee, Georgia and Ohio. He and his wife, Tara, returned to Northeast Ohio in 2003, when he began working as a small business lender for National City Bank. As a banker, Mr. Morey, 38, found himself wooed to the boards of directors of two of the area’s neighborhood development organizations: Maingate Inc., which serves the commercial and industrial district south of downtown Cleveland, and Kamm’s Corner De-

velopment Corp., in the neighborhood where he and his wife live. Doing his board work, Mr. Morey warmed to the idea of promoting stable residential communities and brokering efforts to build healthy neighborhood economies. He said he realized, too, that his banking skills would transfer well to this nonprofit world. “The more that I participated with these groups, I found out, “Gosh, this is something you could do every day and feed yourself,’” he said. So when the opportunity arose in 2007 to take a job with the new Team Lorain County as an economic development specialist, he jumped. A year later, he became president and CEO of the organization, which was created to woo business investment to Lorain County. Since then, the organization — and Mr. Morey in particular — have been praised for their success in bringing jobs to the county. Roy Church, president of Lorain County Community College, one of two people who nominated Mr. Morey for this year’s 40 Under 40 class, is one of his biggest supporters. “Steve is a rising star in economic development in Northeast Ohio,” said Dr. Church, who is on Team Lorain County’s board of directors. “We need to keep him in our region; he’s got a bright future with us.” — Jay Miller

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NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

the perilous Iraqi countryside. The job kept him in the field so much that at one point he was unable to phone or email his wife, Stacy, for two weeks; he bought chewing gum with a credit card to signal her that he was OK. Asked how he felt about being called back to duty three years after finishing a stint in the Ohio National Guard, Mr. Moore, a captain, put it simply: It was his duty to help protect the nation. However, the 15 months Mr. Moore spent back in the military were the company’s low point, as they took its manager of business development out of the picture just as he was to take the reins from his father. Despite the downturn, the company has been on the rise since. Sales are up 25% this year over last for J.L. Moore, which performs about 80 jobs annually around the nation. But it hasn’t been easy. Headquarters staff was trimmed to eight from 11 in 2008, Mr. Moore

said, “to be as lean as we can be.” Scott Maloney, director of the mbik2m architecture firm in Cleveland, said achieving growth is exceptional because J.L. Moore’s specialty is in the hard-hit commercial construction market. He describes Mr. Moore as diligent and methodical. Mr. Moore said serving in Iraq has given him a different yardstick for measuring life. He said he still works hard but focuses more than in the past on enjoying activities with his three young children. His big outside engagement is as a forum moderator at the invitationonly Entrepreneurs Organization trade group. Building is a way of life for Mr. Moore, as his parents started the firm at their kitchen table when he was 5. Now Mr. Moore wants to build its reputation as a soughtafter contractor, though not a big one, and pass on to his own children. — Stan Bullard

McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co., L.P.A. is pleased to congratulate Michael D. Makofsky

on being named by Crain's Cleveland Business to the Class of 2011 40 Under 40.

udy Nystrom says the temporary staffing business is in her blood. She knew little about it when she interviewed with staffing giant Olsten Corp. on the campus of her alma mater, Bowling Green State University, in 1994. But she immersed herself in it quickly, became an Olsten regional manager for five years and later spent seven years at Snider-Blake Personnel, both positions based in Cleveland. In 2007, Ms. Nystrom had a bigger idea and founded Legacy Staffing, her staffing business based in Garfield Heights. Twenty months later, she formed another company, Legacy MedStaff, which focuses on the health care field. “I had a strong desire to service clients in a better way and better partner with them,” said Ms. Nystrom, 39. Now, she’s continuously on the go, moving among the company’s four Northeast Ohio offices, one in Columbus and, less often, to offices in Georgia, Tennessee and Michigan. “Friends say I’m the crazy staffing girl who’s been doing it for years and years,” she says with a laugh. “But if you love it and excel at it, it’s great work.” Ms. Nystrom said the business has evolved from a strict formula of providing clients with temporary workers to one in which Legacy is a

F-13

JUDY NYSTROM President and owner Legacy Staffing LLC

true adviser to clients. Instead of simply finding a worker, Ms. Nystrom and her staff of 40 — up from, well, one in 2007 — analyzes clients’ operations to spot inefficiencies that can be solved better. That process might involve altering a client’s work schedule to minimize overtime, or analyzing safety issues to avoid losing employees to injuries. Ms. Nystrom said 2011 has been Legacy’s busiest year, as clients are faring better and thus need more assistance from her company. MedStaff has helped immensely, she said, because of health care needs remaining relatively steady through the recession.

Advance Payroll Inc. in Beachwood provides financing and back-office services, such as payroll and billing, to staffing agencies, and CEO Joel Adelman said it was a no-brainer to do business with Legacy — because of Ms. Nystrom. Mr. Adelman said Advance Payroll sees over $1 billion in transactions a year, and Ms. Nystrom and her company stand out in a crowded marketplace. “Judy is at the top of the list in terms of her entrepreneurial drive,” Mr. Adelman said. “She’s committed and persistent, driven like we rarely see in entrepreneurs.” — Joel Hammond

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hen David Payne went off to Ohio State University to study mechanical engineering, he did not expect to come back to the family home-building business. Sure, Mr. Payne had grown up around construction, following around his building supervisor father, Michael, on jobs and working as a sweeper at age 14 and a drywall installer later. Still, Payne & Payne Builders was just getting going under his dad and his uncle, David, while the young man was in college. After the young Mr. Payne graduated from OSU in 1999, an electrical parts manufacturer in Chicago where he had interned offered him a job, but his father asked him to give Payne & Payne a try. “Once I got into it as a committed mindset, it just gelled,” Mr. Payne said. He became the sixth employee at the company, which now has

NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2011

more than 20 employees. Payne & Payne will do more than $20 million in construction and remodeling work this year. It managed to grow in the downturn, in part by focusing on green homes. “One of the gifts being an owner of a company is getting to craft your job,” Mr. Payne said. “I like to do the analytical part, to figure out what is important to clients and how to do it.” He now runs the company’s four-person sales team. He also enjoys the collegial nature of the family business in a one-time century home and general store in Chardon that doubles as a sales center. “When we have a decision, the five owners discuss it. We all bring different ideas and perspectives to the table,” Mr. Payne said. Mr. Payne, 35, served as president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cleveland in 2010,

ursing seemed like a natural career choice for Jeff Pike. As an Akron native, he witnessed the instability of the manufacturing sector as many of his peers lost their jobs when the rubber companies left town. Nursing, however, offered job security while allowing Mr. Pike, 37, to pursue his calling of caring for others. He got a first glance of that calling as a teenager during a mission trip to Mexico, where he and a church group helped convert an old schoolhouse to a hospital. “There’s hope, healing, death (in nursing) — all the things you strive to work for in your life,” said Mr. Pike, associate vice president for patient services at Akron General Health System. Though he said the bedside is where the real magic happens in nursing, Mr. Pike always was drawn

a job that culminated a five-year rise through the trade group’s ranks. His presidency coincided with one of the most challenging periods for the association because of the housing slump, which made the group weather a cash-flow crisis it now has gotten beyond. Bill Sanderson, vice president of joint ventures at Forest City Enterprises Inc. and a past president of HBA, said the group’s presidency is the kind of position people gain not only by working with HBA but also by their willingness to share knowledge with other builders and so win their respect. Payne & Payne’s growth through the downturn is a testament to Mr. Payne and his family, Mr. Sanderson said, because local builders have faced the toughest time in the housing industry as they lack the size and financial resources of publicly traded builders. — Stan Bullard

JEFF PIKE Associate vice president for patient services Akron General Health System

to the administrative side of the health care business — something

he got a taste of when he visited a trustees’ meeting for the Meridia

Congratulations Debbie Birk, on receiving a 2011 Forty Under 40 award from Crain’s Cleveland Business!

We celebrate your achievements

DAVID PAYNE Vice president Payne & Payne Builders

Health System in Cleveland while an undergrad at Kent State University. “You don’t get the same thing in nursing ever,” he said. “It’s not as if you’re producing a piece of machinery or equipment.” Mr. Pike’s career has taken him to Ohio State Medical Center in Columbus, the Cleveland Clinic, Lutheran Hospital and, for the last seven years, Akron General, where he has held a variety of administrative roles. His duties have ranged from opening new clinical units and patching together budgets to caring for patients. Though financial pressures have been placed on the health care field in recent years with the passage of a major industry overhaul and declining government reimbursements, Mr. Pike said the challenge of piecing the financial and clinical aspects of his field together is rewarding. “It’s a giant puzzle, and you have to put it together with the resources you have available to you,” he said. Nick Lambrou, director of finance at Akron General, said Mr. Pike’s energy has made him an asset to the organization. “He is unique in that he does not always just take nursing perspective of things,” Mr. Lambrou said. “He will look at things from view of the physician, the view of the administration, the view of finance and really circle the issue and find the best solution for all involved.” — Timothy Magaw

BRYNN ALLIO POPA Director of government and external relations Council of Smaller Enterprises

dvocating in the public arena for small, mostly unglamorous businesses may not seem exciting in print, but in real life it’s making Brynn Allio Popa very happy and very satisfied. The John Carroll University grad took a job with a homebuilder after graduating with a degree in political science in 2004. While she loved the job and the people, she said it wasn’t quite what she wanted to be doing with her life. So when she heard of a job opening in 2006 at the Council of Smaller Enterprises, the small business advocacy group affiliated with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, she jumped at it. The job was called product manager, and Ms. Popa’s job was to connect member businesses with lower-cost office products and business services. Very quickly, though, she had what she called “a light bulb moment” and began to make it known that she was interested in moving over to COSE’s advocacy office. That office examines public policy issues and helps shape political decisions the organization will take.

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JEREMY RAYL President/CEO JRayl Transport Inc.

eremy Rayl started his career beneath some of the trucks he now manages, but he’s clearly on top of things today. The first job for Mr. Rayl, 33, now CEO of J.Rayl Transport, in Akron, was sweeping floors, changing the oil and greasing the fittings on the trucks at the company his father, Tim, along with partner Jim St. John, founded in 1985. “I worked there from age 12 until college and then took a couple of years off and came back,” Jeremy Rayl said. When he got back, he had a degree in business and some know-how from working in finance at KeyBank — enough that his father made him

company controller when he joined in 2002. “I was going to be a stockbroker. I swore I would never get into” trucking, Mr. Rayl said. Today, in an age where stockbrokers have all but disappeared and there are more trucks on the road than ever, Mr. Rayl thinks he made the right choice. It was apparently the right choice for the company, as well. Mr. Rayl has led it through a string of acquisitions and growth as revenue climbed from $9 million in 2002 to what should be more than $50 million this year. It would be more, had the recession not hit trucking hard, said Mr. Rayl, who became CEO in 2008. He still credits his father and others with much of the company’s current success. “It’s not just me, it was my father, too, and it was certainly a group effort,” Mr. Rayl said.

Still, the younger Mr. Rayl deserves some of the credit. “Jeremy has ... transformed this company from a small family business to a thriving multimillion-dollar enterprise,” said Mr. Rayl’s college friend Matthew Selby, who is the company’s in-house counsel. “He was able to maintain corporate success during historic depressive macro-economic conditions in an industry where most were closing their doors, filing for bankruptcy protection, or making drastic employee layoffs,” Mr. Selby said. Perhaps the fight over which one deserves the least credit is better left to father and son. But, one thing even the younger Mr. Rayl says his father would not disagree with is that his son is in the right place in the company. Or, rather, he’s not in the wrong place — which would be in the cab of a truck. The younger Mr. Rayl said he can

BRIAN J. RICHARDSON Vice president of human resources The Sherwin-Williams Co.

A government relations manager job opened up in May 2008. “I kind of find my way,” she said. “I found the passion I had for public policy with small business advocacy.” In 2009 she got her a master’s degree in public administration from Cleveland State University. Then in early 2010 she moved up to director of government and external relations. Steve Millard, COSE’s president and executive director, said Ms. Popa’s success as a product manager “and her completion of her MPA led us to give her a try in our public policy work, and we have not looked back.” The transition has worked out well for her and for the organization, too. “Brynn has an enthusiasm and optimism about her work that is contagious,” Mr. Millard said. “She has a tenacious work ethic and a real interest in making a personal contribution to the success of small business.” Ms. Popa, 29, said she realizes her contribution on issues that sometimes have economy-wide importance may be small, but it’s still satisfying to her. “I come from a generation that is very mission-based in our professional choices, so I thought I needed to find something I had a connection with,” she recalled. “I set goals high but I celebrate the tiny chips away at the iceberg.” —Jay Miller

rian Richardson is making an impact on the world around him, both inside and outside the company where he works, the Cleveland-based paint and coating giant SherwinWilliams Co. Already a 17-year employee of the company, Mr. Richardson, 39, started there right out of college in the finance department. But he eventually found he was more interested in managing people than money. “It’s a path no one would have thought I would have embarked on, including myself,” he says today. He made the switch at the urging of a friend who worked in human resources and convinced Mr. Richardson he would be good at it as well. Now in charge of the HR function for Sherwin-Williams in seven countries across Europe and North America, Mr. Richardson said it was a good move. But success in the corporate world is not the end of Mr. Richardson’s story. Five years ago, he joined the board of the Alzheimer’s Association Cleveland Area Chapter.

“We were giving a little to a lot of organizations,” Mr. Richardson said of his efforts and those of his wife, Christina, to support local charitable organizations. “It was a little bit of money and a little bit of time (to each organization), and I said, ‘We really need to focus our time and resources to make a difference.’” Mr. Richardson was drawn to the

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handle running the logistics for his fleet of 235 trucks, but he lacks the skills to drive one like his father

did. “No one wants to see me behind the wheel,” he said. — Dan Shingler

Alzheimer’s organization because he’d seen firsthand what the disease could do when it struck his grandfather. “It’s a disease that in some ways is out of control. It’s like cancer was in the 1950s and ’60s,” he said. Mr. Richardson rose as fast in that organization as he did at Sherwin-Williams, and in July he began a two-year term as the chapter’s president. The organization helps family caregivers, provides programs for Alzheimer’s patients and raises money to find a cure. It’s an ongoing mission, Mr. Richardson said, and success is not

yet even in sight. “The hardest part of being associated with Alzheimer’s is when you get with the families and the patients,” he said. “You see on their faces that they are so wanting to hear something new, and there’s just not a breakthrough.” He pushes on, though, working with staff, volunteers, patients, their families, board members and supporters, said his wife, who is also active with the organization. He has one goal, his wife says: “A world without Alzheimer’s.” — Dan Shingler

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JONATHON SAWYER

MICHAEL J. SIKORA III

Chef and owner

Owner

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Sikora Law LLC

f you’re invested in the local food scene, then you know Jonathon Sawyer. Perhaps his name conjures up visions of foie gras, a mysterious fifth-quarter special or slurpalicious noodles. And if you really know Jonathon Sawyer, then you’re aware his passion extends beyond the business of running both of his high-profile, certified-green restaurants, The Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat, both in downtown Cleveland. Mr. Sawyer, 31, also has a contagious zest for wholesome food, sustainable living, Northeast Ohio and his wife and two children. When you ask the chef, who has serious credentials for a relatively young career, what his most important achievement is, without missing a beat he answers, “My family.” “Being a delegate to Slow Foods, Veggie U, James Beard (Foundation) and the Countryside Conservancy is great, but being a parent is the greatest thing,” Mr. Sawyer said. The three-time James Beard Award nominee was named in 2010 one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs. The Greenhouse Tavern also has garnered recognition as one of the top 10 best new restaurants in the United States by Bon Appetit. Mr. Sawyer learned to cook at age 13, and worked during the early years at Mad Cactus in Strongsville. He graduated from the Pennsylvania Institute of Culinary Arts, and his résumé includes gigs at The Biltmore Hotel in Miami and Kitchen 22 in New York. He opened Lolita with Michael Symon before initiating his own

ichael Sikora’s résumé shows he would be a natural as a real estate broker, owner or devel-

oper. He grew up with real estate as a dinner table staple because his parents operated Mike Sikora Real Estate, a Mentor residential brokerage. He majored in finance and, while getting his business degree at Ohio State University, worked for Pizzuti Realty, associated with a big Columbus developer, and, later,

award-winning concept in 2007, Bar Cento, followed by The Greenhouse Tavern in 2009. Mr. Sawyer recently introduced the area’s first pop-up restaurant group, Brick & Mortar Popups. The pop-up concept enables chefs to test a certain restaurant or menu for patrons in a temporal setting. He said he’s also seeking to acquire a plot of farmland from the Countryside Conservancy to foster what he calls America’s first farm-to-pint brewery. Of course, Mr. Sawyer aims to open more eateries, including a concept in Uptown in University Circle and perhaps a “hipster donut shop” downtown. Mr. Symon, who is well-connected with some of the world’s best chefs, said Mr. Sawyer is among a few with integrity and is one of the best chefs he knows. “Johnny’s true to himself. His restaurants have soul,” Mr. Symon said. “It’s one common thread I see in great chefs like Bobby Flay, Mario (Batali), (Jonathan) Waxman. … Their food is an outpouring of who they are, just like Jonathon.” — Kathy Ames Carr

Andersen Consulting. He is a licensed title agent and has a real estate agent’s license, though it is inactive. However, an experience as a Lake Catholic High School senior put him on a different course. He enjoyed preparing and participating in a moot court competition. After graduating from college, he was ready to go to work but said he “felt a harkening to try the law.” He heeded that call, and his first year at Capital University sealed the deal. “I enjoyed it more than any other schooling,” said Mr. Sikora, 38. “I wanted to do what I enjoy doing on a day-today basis.” However, he also had a passion

for real estate. Consequently, he sought jobs with realty-oriented law firms, particularly litigators. He also wanted to own his own enterprise, so the next step was striking out on his own in 2006 in Columbus, where he had most of his contacts and clients. However, his mother, Jean, was being treated for cancer, and he eventually came home to help her and his father. Mr. Sikora set up shop in Mentor and got to be near his mom for the last five years of her life. (She died last year.) Meanwhile, unwilling to forgo his downstate contacts and enjoying relationships with clients, lawyers and judges there, he pursued work

Though she concedes she has been “daddy’s little girl” for most of her life — with “daddy” being mega auto dealer Alan Spitzer — Ms. Spitzer said she always has dreamed of working in international relations. She earned a master’s degree in international communications from American University in Washington D.C., where she graduated with honors after studying in France, Italy, England and even Cuba. International relations still might be in the cards for the future, according to Ms. Spitzer. In the meantime, she has made a splash in national relations, acting on behalf of U.S. auto dealers, including her father, who thought they were treated unfairly when General Motors and Chrysler

took away dealerships in an effort to consolidate distribution networks. With her dad, Ms. Spitzer helped dealers face down not only the automakers, but also the federal government backing the car giants. The two saved hundreds of dealerships nationwide in the process and since have written a book on the subject, called “Grand Theft Auto.” Along the way, her father says, Ms. Spitzer revamped the marketing strategies of his 16 dealerships, including drastically increasing their Internet marketing. “She has gained the respect of seasoned veterans twice her age, not only within our organization, but with executives from the auto manufacturers as well,” Mr. Spitzer said. Ms. Spitzer says she doesn’t know if she’ll spend her entire career in the car industry. But she wanted business experience when she began working with her father in 2007 and figured, “If I was going to help any company grow, it would be my family’s company,” she said. Aside from her career, Ms. Spitzer raises her 2-year-old daughter, Vera, and her baby son, Archer, with her husband, Jeremy Swartz. She might not be done advancing her motherhood career, either. “I’ve always wanted to have four, and my husband would love to have four,” said Ms. Spitzer, who is one of four siblings herself. “But my mom stayed home and was able to completely focus on us. We’ll see how it goes,” she said. “I don’t want my kids to look back and say, ‘My nanny raised me.’” — Dan Shingler

ALISON SPITZER Vice president Spitzer Management

ome might say Alison Spitzer, 31, was born on an easy road into the car business. But it was her own drive that propelled her to the national forefront as an industry force.

Congratulates

Joseph P. Kelley Vice President, Planning and Investor Relations For His Well-Deserved Honor of Being Named One of Crain’s

“Forty Under 40” www.polyone.com

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statewide while he built his practice here. Today, his firm has nine lawyers, including himself, four other employees and satellite offices in Columbus and Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Bob Garber, principal of Cresco realty in Independence, said he admires Mr. Sikora because he is very professional and extremely knowledgeable, particularly about broker lien laws to seek past-due commissions. “When we see an issue looming on the horizon, we consult with him early on about how to protect ourselves,” Mr. Garber said. “He is known for doing seminars in the industry to help professionals.” — Stan Bullard

MICHAEL J. SWALLOW Senior vice president CBiz Retirement Services

t’s an interview about him, but Mike Swallow talks mostly about those in uniform. Those who know what he’s building won’t be surprised. Mr. Swallow, 35, is co-founder and president of The Northeast Ohio Foundation for Patriotism, or NEOPAT, the aim of which is promoting patriotism and support of local military families. NEOPAT’s first fundraising gala this March drew 400 people and raised more than $47,000, and its March 2012 gala has sold out its 500 tickets already. The event’s success is like everything Mr. Swallow does — over the

Brian Feisthamel 2011 Forty Under 40

top, said Brian Dean, executive vice president for CBiz Retirement Plan Services, for which Mr. Swallow is senior vice president. “Mike is all about passion,” he said. “He’s as serious as a heart attack. He’s very, very intense.” Mr. Swallow, who planned NEOPAT for several years and rallied a group of nine to help form it last November, wants to grow it into a premium charity in Northeast Ohio. He’s motivated, in part, by his dad and uncles who served in Vietnam. “It used to be everybody knew someone in the military,” Mr. Swallow said. That’s not the case today, he noted, and NEOPAT is one way to bridge the gap between the local civilian and military populations. Last December, for example, the organization came to know a Brunswick military family grappling with a roof problem. Mr. Swallow’s cousin volunteered four hours to fix it — an example, Mr. Swallow said, of what civilians can do when alerted of military families in need. Mr. Swallow, a native of Maple Heights, graduated in 1998 from John Carroll University with a degree in accounting. When Mr. Dean hired him in 1999 to join Gallery Asset Management — a retirement plan consulting firm later sold to CBiz — Mr. Swallow didn’t know a lot about the business, Mr. Dean said. “He went from not knowing the business to being named as one of the most influential guys in the country in our business,” Mr. Dean said, referring to Mr. Swallow making trade publication 401kWire’s 2010 list of most influential advisers in defined contribution. “That only happens when you have passion.” —Michelle Park

Thank you for your leadership and dedication to InfoCision. Brian Feisthamel Director – Quality Assurance, InfoCision

YOUR STRATEGIC DIRECT MARKETING PARTNER 1-866-670-4IMC

Congratulations Tania Menesse and all of Crain’s Forty under 40. Bringing energy and

DAMON TASEFF

innovation to the

Principal

challenges of tomorrow.

Allegro Realty Advisors Economic Development Director City of Shaker Heights

olleagues of Damon Taseff at real estate consulting firm Allegro Realty Advisors consider him a case of brain gain for Northeast Ohio. That’s because the company hired him in 2004 as he sought to return home from a job at Bank One Corp. in Chicago, where he was a corporate real estate strategist for the bank’s

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real estate decisions. However, much of the gain is very much on the side of the Cleveland community, not just Allegro. Mr. Taseff, 34, serves as chairman of the Ohio City Inc. neighborhood development group, and recently joined the board of the Collegetown District, which serves the Cleveland State See TASEFF Page F-30

1912-2012

www.infocision.com

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LOUIS A. VITANTONIO JR.

BRIAN ZIMMERMAN

President

Executive director

Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association

Cleveland Metroparks

ack in high school and college, Lou Vitantonio did a lot of the heavy lifting while others got much of the limelight. That was when he was an offensive lineman for Solon High School and then the University of Dayton and John Carroll University. Today, he’s still at it, controlling the front lines and protecting not one quarterback, but more than 110 dealers that are members of the Greater Cleveland Automobile Dealers’ Association. The importance of his role as that organization’s president isn’t lost on him, and he says it’s extremely humbling. “It’s a tremendous honor,” he said. “This is no small organization — and I’m 37 years old.” Mr. Vitantonio, the youngest of three boys in his family, grew up loving both cars and sports. At 5’9”, he wasn’t the biggest of lineman. “The quarterbacks probably liked me because they could see over me,” he said. But he has big-time responsibilities today, running one of the largest dealer associations in the country, “including responsibility for the production of the Cleveland Auto Show, which is recognized as one of the top five auto shows in North America,” said attorney Michael Cochran, who nominated Mr. Vitantonio for this year’s Forty Under 40. Former Cleveland-area auto dealer Stuart Zalud introduced Mr. Vitantonio to the auto business, and the dealers’ association head credits Mr. Zalud with helping him navigate a path to his current job. Their friendship began when Mr. Vitantonio was in high

B school. It continued even though he banged up two of Mr. Zalud’s cars, while moving them to be washed, during his time working at the dealership. Mr. Zalud still helped him get his first job related to the auto dealers’ association — selling tickets at the auto show. That led to his 15year (and counting) stint at the group. For a man who has been to nearly every auto show since he was a small child — and kept the new car brochures from every one — the job is a perfect fit. It’s also a perfect fit for someone with the mentality of a good offensive lineman. “This association, it isn’t mine. I’m here at the will of the dealers, the executive committee and the board of directors,” Mr. Vitantonio said. “I’m here to take care of them.” — Dan Shingler

efore he showed up in late 2009 for his face-to-face interviews with Cleveland Metroparks leaders as a candidate to replace longtime executive director Vern Hartenberg, Brian Zimmerman, 39, already had done more than the usual due diligence. He toured about three-quarters of the park system’s reservations and golf courses before his interviews. That extra effort impressed his interviewers. “Our first impression has been a lasting one,” said Mayor Bruce Rinker of Mayfield Village, a member of the three-person board that runs the 22,000-acre park system. The graduate of the University of Wisconsin’s School of Turf Management grew up on a farm, so his commitment to green grass and fresh air came naturally. But an interest in golf pulled him into golf course management. Soon, he was managing Washington County Golf Club, a public course north of Milwaukee. Next he headed north to be a course superintendent in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before returning in 2002 to Milwaukee to run the 16 golf courses operated by the Milwaukee County Parks. In 2007, Mr. Zimmerman became the

park system’s operations manager, the No. 2 job that managed 156 neighborhood parks and the lakefront, in addition to its golf courses. Since arriving in Cleveland with his wife and 8-year-old son in spring 2010, Mr. Zimmerman has been moving ahead with a master plan that anticipates a greater role for the Metroparks system on the lakefront, including linking its existing parks and the Towpath Trail now under construction along the Cuyahoga River with the lakefront. Mr. Zimmerman said he believes the system is setting a high standard for lakefront parks with the transformation of its Huntington Reservation in Bay Village into Lake Erie’s first Blue Wave-certified beach. The Clean Beaches Coalition of Washington D.C., created the Blue Wave designation to encourage the development of clean and safe beaches. When Mr. Hartenberg retired, Mr. Zimmerman thought he was ready to step up, and he believed Cleveland was the right move. “I did a tremendous amount of research on Cleveland and Cleveland Metroparks and found it absolutely fascinating,” he said. “I fell in love with the system.” — Jay Miller

Kent State Congratulates this year’s Forty under 40 Class and acknowledges Kent State’s Forty under 40 Alumni from the past 20 years. Mitchell Schneider Head of First Interstate Properties

Joe Cimperman Councilman, City of Cleveland

Lillian Kuri Program Director for Architecture, Urban Design and Sustainable Development

Deb Janik Senior Vice President, Real Estate and Business Development Greater Cleveland Partnership

Kent State University, Kent State and KSU are registered trademarks and may not be used without permission. 11-2748

www.kent.edu

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THE WILD BUNCH: Entrepreneurs/innovators Rahul Aras

Daniel Conway

Chris Haas

Class of 2007 Then: President and CEO, AcelleRX Therapeutics Inc. Now: President and CEO, Juventas Therapeutics Inc. The name has changed, but the company is the same for Rahul Aras, founding CEO of Juventas Therapeutics Inc., which went by AcelleRX Therapeutics when we profiled a 33-year-old Mr. Aras for the 2007 edition of Forty Under 40. At that time, Mr. Aras was only four months into his job as head of AcelleRX, a Cleveland Clinic spinoff that was developing a drug meant to help the heart lure stem cells so that it can repair itself following a heart attack. Less than a year later, the company announced that it raised nearly $7 million from several venture capital firms as it capitalized on the rising interest in medical innovations based on adult stem cells. This past spring, the company now known as Juventas said its drug, JVS-100, had passed its Phase I safety trial, which suggested it may help patients with heart failure.

Class of 1995 Then: Co-founder and co-owner, Great Lakes Brewing Co. Now: Co-founder and co-owner, Great Lakes Brewing Co. Daniel Conway was a 24-year-old management trainee with Huntington National Bank in Cleveland in 1985 when his older brother, Patrick Conway, then 37, moved back to the city from Chicago with the notion that the pair could pool their resources to open a microbrewery and pub. “We incorporated in 1986, but I stayed at the bank while we spent a lot of time researching and forming a business plan,” the 34-year-old told Crain’s in 1995. The brothers Conway have rode that plan and a simple philosophy a long way since opening in 1988 their Great Lakes Brewing Co. in a three-story, Victorian-era brick building in Cleveland’s Ohio City neighborhood. “We knew that with a high-quality product, we would break through with a larger production and outside distribution network,” Mr. Conway said back then.

Class of 1995 Then: President, All Pro Freight Systems Inc. Now: President and CEO, All Pro Freight Systems Inc. The first two words in the name of his company aptly describe Chris Haas, who was 37 when he appeared in the 1995 Forty Under 40. Mr. Haas had started his trucking and warehousing business just four years before, but already had expanded his fleet to 25 tractors from 10. The company at the time operated from Quigley Road in Cleveland’s Flats, but in 1988 Mr. Haas made a key decision to move the business to Avon. “When we opened (in Avon), it was kind of like, ‘Build it and they will come,’” Mr. Haas said in 1999. “And they sure did. We filled it up.” The “it” he referred to was the company’s warehouse in Avon, and he not only was planning a 60,000-square-foot expansion of that building, but was looking at buying another structure about a mile away because of all the trucking and warehousing business coming his way. Mr. Haas steadily has grown the company over the last decade-plus, both by acquiring smaller truckers and by adding to its warehouse space. All Pro Freight now operates a fleet of about 200 trucks.

Gulam Khan

Steven Marks

Class of 2005 Then: CEO and co-chairman, US Endoscopy Now: CEO and co-chairman, US Endoscopy If you think Gulam Khan has been sitting still since 2005, think again. True, Mr. Khan’s title hasn’t changed. But he has been plenty busy and his company sure has changed, mostly by growing. US Endoscopy has become one of Mentor’s fastest-growing companies and a darling of the local medical device market. The devices it makes — clamps, nets, scalpels and other products that go on the end of endoscopes — are in increasing demand as more noninvasive techniques are created and as the company’s own reputation and market share grows within its industry. The company, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, has grown to employ about 375 people. US Endoscopy sells its products into more than 50 countries and to more than 5,000 customers around the world. It just moved into bigger buildings in Mentor and is going after a new market with products designed to be used by urologists.

Class of 1992 Then: President, Main Street Muffins Now: Co-CEO, Main Street Gourmet Steven Marks became a muffin mogul by rising to the occasion. As we related in 1992, Mr. Marks didn’t plan to be a wholesaler of muffin batter when, six years earlier, he bought an old building in downtown Akron with childhood friend Harvey Nelson for $10,000. Mr. Marks at the time had his own accounting practice and planned to use the building’s second floor for an office. But the city of Akron offered financial incentives to building owners that fixed up their street-level retail space, so the partners decided to give a store a go. “We decided to try a muffin business after taking a vacation in California and seeing the muffin craze there,” Mr. Marks said back then. The muffins were a hit. The partners wound up selling their batter in 10-pound buckets to restaurants and institutional food service providers. Earlier this year, the company that evolved into Main Street Gourmet, a national provider of frozen bakery items including muffins, brownies and specialty desserts, sold a majority interest to Clover Capital Partners LLC, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles and Evanston, Ill.

This being the 20th year we’ve identified and honored Northeast Ohio’s brightest young business professionals and leaders, we thought we’d take a trip down memory lane. We broke down 60 alumni into three groups — the Wild Bunch, In Crowd and Big Cheeses — and caught up with their movement since being profiled. (The old photos, of course, give a glimpse at what else might have changed over the years.)

Michael Baird

Brian Deagan

Packy Hyland Jr.

James Kuras

Chaz Napoli

Class of 1997 Then: Founder, president and CEO, Unicare Corp. Now: CEO, Human Arc The name has changed on the company Michael Baird helped found in 1984, but its mission has not. First as Unicare Corp. and now as Human Arc, the company finds on behalf of hospitals and the people they serve federal programs that help pay the medical costs of uninsured patients. Human Arc’s services range from eligibility enrollment work for patients who often can’t navigate the paperwork required to qualify for government aid to helping Medicare health plans receive maximum reimbursement for members who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Mr. Baird long has seen his work as more than a vocation. “You can really reach out into the community and be profitable,” a 39-year-old Mr. Baird told Crain’s in 1997. It has caused Mr. Baird to involve himself in far more than Human Arc’s business, as he has served as a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Businesses and on the senior advisory board of business attraction group Team NEO.

Class of 2006 Then: CEO and co-founder, Knotice Ltd. Now: CEO and co-founder, Knotice Ltd. Aging is good for Brian Deagan and his Akron software development company, Knotice Ltd. “When you’re 26, it can be hard for someone to take you seriously,” said Mr. Deagan, then 32, when we profiled him in 2006. These days, being taken seriously isn’t an issue for Mr. Deagan or Knotice, which sells software designed to help companies tailor web, email and mobile marketing messages. Knotice is closing in on the 100-employee mark in Akron; five years ago, it employed 15. Mr. Deagan said last July the company’s growth is driven by new initiatives and by rising interest in marketing via the Internet and mobile phones. Also, the company is expanding because it’s now profitable enough to fund the additional staff, Mr. Deagan said. “It’s definitely a bit of an inflection point,” he said. Knotice is considering equity financing to speed its growth, though as Mr. Deagan noted last summer, “It needs to be a great deal for us to pull the trigger.”

Class of 1997 Then: Founder and CEO, Hyland Software Inc. Now: Founder and CEO, Workflow .com LLC A 29-year-old Packy Hyland Jr. sounded every bit like an old man when he recounted for Crain’s back in 1997 his early teenage years. Mr. Hyland recalled that, at age 14, his friends would laugh at his handwritten list of goals, which included starting his own business, becoming a millionaire, marrying, and becoming a dad to several children, all before the age of 30. But there he was, telling us how he had achieved every one of his goals. In 1997, his company’s document management software, OnBase, was on target with customers, enough so that Hyland Software had grown its staff to 64 employees from 31 just nine months earlier. Today, Hyland Software employs 900 people at its headquarters in Westlake and is the crown jewel of Northeast Ohio’s information technology sector. Mr. Hyland, though, moved on in the summer of 2003 to form another business, Workflow.com LLC, a provider of medical records software.

Class of 2000 Then: Vice president of business development, AxioMed Inc. Now: Chief operating officer, AxioMed Spine Corp. “Biomedical industry backers in Cleveland need to find more people like Jim Kuras.” So began our profile of a then 37-year-old Mr. Kuras in 2000. A graduate of Youngstown State University with a degree in electrical engineering, Mr. Kuras only the year before had co-founded AxioMed Inc., a maker of cranial fixation devices and implants used to reconnect bones in the case of trauma. “What prompted us to start our own business is that Cleveland doesn’t have as large a biomedical industry as it should have,” he said. Over the last decade his AxioMed Spine Corp. has worked to develop products aimed at restoring spinal function to patients with degenerative spine disease. In July 2010, the company in Garfield Heights announced it had raised $14.5 million from investors to finish patient enrollment for a U.S. study focused on its Freedom Lumbar Disc implant, which consists of a patented polymer between two metal plates.

Class of 1999 Then: President, Datavantage Inc. Now: Chief operating officer and business development head, iGuiders inc. There’s a saying in the information technology business that a company’s most valuable assets walk out the door each night. The saying is particularly true in the case of people such as Chaz Napoli, whom we first met at age 35 in the 1999 edition of Forty Under 40. Mr. Napoli at the time was president of Datavantage Inc., which he had helped transform from a small retail consulting business to a fastgrowing software company with 185 employees and $28 million in sales. In the spring of 2010, Mr. Napoli became chief operating officer of BrandMuscle Inc., a provider of web-based marketing services in Beachwood, after holding the same title at a division of Micros Systems that specialized in software and services for multichannel retailers. He’s now COO at iGuiders inc. in Beachwood, which is creating software to guide Internet users through their online shopping experiences.

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THE WILD BUNCH: Entrepreneurs/innovators Charu Ramanathan Class of 2007 Then: Vice president for technology development, CardioInsight Technologies Inc. Now: Vice president of scientific affairs, CardioInsight Technologies Inc. When we profiled Charu Ramanathan as one of our Forty Under 40 honorees in 2007, the company she co-founded, CardioInsight Technologies Inc., was just starting to get some legs. But now, the medical device company, which launched in 2006 with three employees, has grown to 20 employees and raised about $10 million. That’s no easy task, according to Dr. Ramanathan, who said the last few years have been crazy. “I think we’ve achieved a lot, and CardioInsight has been very nimble and achieved a lot in that time span,” Dr. Ramanathan said. CardioInsight, which produces medical imaging technology to diagnose heart rhythm problems, struck a deal with Japanese distributor DVx earlier this year to help commercialize the technology. CardioInsight also plans soon to launch its technology in Europe, with regulatory approval in the United States expected to follow next year. “We’re on ... our way to be the noninvasive mapping leader,” she said.

Dan Rose Class of 1996 Then: Co-founder, Vantage One Communications Group Inc. Now: Partner, Metrics Marketing Group LLC/Precision Dialogue Since we wrote about him in 1996, Dan Rose has sold his company, bought back a piece of it, merged it and sold it again. Despite all the change, Mr. Rose is still in the business of digital marketing. Fifteen years ago, Mr. Rose and Tim Mueller were known as the founders of Vantage One Communications Group Inc., a web design and digital marketing firm with 21 employees. In 1999 they sold the company to FutureNext Consulting Inc. of McLean, Va. When the parent company faltered, Mr. Rose bought back its Cleveland office and used it to start Precision Dialogue. That firm evolved into Metrics Marketing Group LLC of Westlake. Kirtland Capital Partners of Beachwood bought the company for an undisclosed price in 2010. Now Metrics Marketing once again does business under the Precision Dialogue brand and employs 70.

Mitchell Schneider Class of 1991 Then: President, First Interstate Development Co. Now: President, First Interstate Properties Ltd. “To watch Mitch Schneider, you wouldn’t know there’s a credit crunch in the real estate business.” Based on the conditions that have existed in the real estate market the last few years, those words sound as though they could have been

written last week. However, they actually were written 20 years ago when we profiled a 32-year-old Mr. Schneider in our first Forty Under 40 section. Back then, the 2-yearold development company that Mr. Schneider founded after working as a real estate lawyer for Kahn, Kleinman, Yanowitz & Arnson was in the midst of building River Street Square, a shopping center in Elyria anchored by a Walmart. We doubt whether Legacy Village in Lyndhurst — Northeast Ohio’s first lifestyle center — was a twinkle in Mr. Schneider’s eye at the time. Same goes for Steelyard Commons, the 700,000-square-foot shopping center built on the site of a former steel mill in the Flats that is by far the largest retail complex in Cleveland proper. However, Mr. Schneider’s company would go on to create both those groundbreaking projects, and several others, in the intervening years.

Colin Scully Class of 2005 Then: Chairman and CEO, Life Line Screening Now: Chairman and CEO, Life Line Screening Probably everyone has heard of the business that Colin Scully built. If you have a radio or a mailbox, chances are you heard or read an advertisement for Life Line Screening, the company in Independence that Mr. Scully bought with his brotherin-law in 1999, when he was just 28. He’s still there — and he’s quite busy. Since we wrote about Mr. Scully initially in 2005, nearly 3 million more people have paid to have Life Line’s MRI scans in an effort to head off strokes and heart attacks by checking their arteries for blockage. Today, the company boasts that it is the “the nation’s leading provider of preventive health screenings.” Its 1,000 employees operate in 48 states, conducting tests for clients via mobile labs that Life Line says represent a new model in health care delivery.

Scott Seidelmann Class of 2007 Then: CEO, Franklin & Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology Services Now: CEO, Radisphere National Radiology Group Inc. Good timing and happenstance played a big role in how Scott Seidelmann ended up leading the teleradiology company his father, Frank Seidelmann, founded with Peter Franklin. After graduating from Cornell University in 1998, the younger Seidelmann was hired by Merrill Lynch, where he helped create the company’s e-commerce strategy. He later joined technology investment firm Ericsson Venture

Partners LLP, as we wrote in his 2007 Forty Under 40 profile. While helping Franklin & Seidelmann’s founders get through some early financial issues, he realized he loved working for the company, which is why he accepted an offer to become CEO. Under Mr. Seidelmann’s watch, the company changed its name to Radisphere and laid the foundation to provide remote and on-site radiology services to community hospitals nationwide. Radisphere now is based in Westport, Conn., but it employs 67 in Beachwood, which is where the company’s near-term growth will take place, a Radisphere official said in September.

Bahman Taheri Class of 2004 Then: Founder and CEO, AlphaMicron Inc. Now: Founder and CEO, AlphaMicron Inc. If it’s good enough for the Navy SEALS, it ought to be good enough for anyone, right? “It” is AlphaMicron’s latest liquid crystal eyewear technology, e-Tint, which is blast-proof and instantly changes when light conditions change. For the SEALS, it eliminates the need for costly time spent changing glasses during training or missions. For 14-year-old Kent-based AlphaMicron, e-Tint is the latest in a line of military uses for its products. Mr. Taheri established the company in response to a U.S. Air Force request for variable transmittance visors for its pilots. Now, AlphaMicron employs about 35 and in 2009 moved into 30,000 square feet inside Kent State University’s Centennial Research Park, more than doubling its space. Mr. Taheri, a native of Iran, recently received the Immigrant Entrepreneur Award for companies generating under $5 million in revenue; that award, given by the Ohio chapter of The International Entrepreneur group, recognizes those entrepreneurs born outside the United States.

Gil Van Bokkelen Class of 1997 Then: President, Athersys Inc. Now: Chairman and CEO, Athersys Inc. In 1997, Athersys Inc. cofounder John Harrington said Gil Van Bokkelen “recognizes that to be great, sometimes you have to take drastic measures.” Indeed, Dr. Van Bokkelen’s whole career has been built on drastic measures, including the decision to move to Cleveland from California to pursue what we characterized as the “biotech dream” when we profiled him as one our Forty Under 40 honorees in 1997. Since then, the company has had a few hiccups, including suspending the development of a once-promising weight-loss drug about which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had raised concerns. However, Dr. Van Bokkelen has kept his eye on the prize, and his company has garnered the interest of major

20 YEARS OF CRAIN’S STAFFERS Dan Shingler Photographed: 1992 Then: Finance reporter Now: Manufacturing reporter Between: Dan left the paper in 1996 to become head of media relations for National City Corp. In 2002, Dan moved to New Mexico, where he worked as a reporter, sports columnist and editor of an Albuquerque business newspaper before returning to Crain’s in 2008.

industry players for its MultiStem technology, an adult stem cell therapy that it’s testing on patients who have suffered from heart attacks, strokes and other conditions. In 2009, the company signed a deal with Pfizer Inc. that granted the pharmaceutical company rights to sell MultiStem to treat patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Kathy Vegh Class of 2005 Then: CEO, Danny Vegh’s Billiards & Home Today: CEO, Danny Vegh’s Billiards & Home If Kathy Vegh was playing poker at one of the tables that Danny Vegh’s Billiards & Home sells, it wouldn’t be surprising to see her keep her cards close to the vest. The CEO of the business that her namesake father started in 1963 with a single store in Cleveland steadily, but coyly, has been turning the company into a retail chain since joining Danny Vegh’s in 2001 at the ripe old age of 24. In fall 2010, when trade magazine Billiards Retailer honored the Danny Vegh’s store at Crocker Park in Westlake with its Best Designed Store award, Ms. Vegh hinted that the concept might be carried beyond the company’s four existing locations, but wouldn’t say more. Finally, last August, she revealed that Danny Vegh’s would be opening a store this fall in Milwaukee, its first out-of-state location. But when asked if the company is considering stores in other cities or more stores in the Milwaukee market, Ms. Vegh kept her poker face going. “Danny Vegh’s is always looking for ways to improve, advance and expand, but this is all done with great caution as we work hard to protect our brand that has been built for nearly 50 years,” she said. Our read of her: Don’t bet against expansion.

Mark Williams Class of 1998 Then: Founder and CEO, Virtual Hold Technologies Inc. Now: President, Virtual Hold Technologies Inc. Uniontown native Mark Williams took his father’s advice and did not follow in the elder man’s footsteps. His dad was a truck driver who worked back-breaking hours “and hated getting in that truck every day,” a 28-year-old Mr. Williams would tell

us for his profile in our 1998 edition of Forty Under 40. “He always said, ‘Take your chances when you’re young.’” The son would do just that. At age 18, he worked as a customer service representative at a call center for Bally Total Fitness while attending the University of Akron at night as he worked on an accounting and finance degree. By age 25, he had started and sold his own 32-employee collection service, Professional Services Inc., so that he could move on to his next venture — a company that would produce software to cut the time customers spent waiting on tollfree phone calls. The company, Virtual Hold Technologies Inc., would find a following pretty quickly for its “virtual queuing” technology among operators of call centers. The business Mr. Williams founded in 1995 today counts among its customers such household names as Bank of America, AT&T and Time Warner Cable.

A. Eddy Zai Class of 2003 Then: CEO, Cleveland Group of Cos. Now: Owner, Cleveland Group of Cos., and CEO, Cleveland Bio Fund “Iran native A. Eddy Zai speaks Farsi, Urdu and French in addition to English. But he’s betting the future of his 4-year-old Cleveland Group of Cos. on the universal language of business and the benefits of service to companies.” It was an apt beginning for our profile of Mr. Zai for the 2003 edition of Forty Under 40. For more than a decade, Mr. Zai and his business consulting firm have seen opportunity in connecting Cleveland and Northeast Ohio to business interests worldwide. In early 2006, for example, the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute designated Cleveland Group as the institute’s preferred U.S. point of contact for small, high-tech companies venturing across the Atlantic for the first time. Mr. Zai also created Cleveland International Fund, an investment fund intended to attract foreign investment dollars to Northeast Ohio. A commitment last year from the fund helped in putting the complex financing together for the stalled Flats East Bank mixed-use project in Cleveland’s Flats. And in September, it was announced that Mr. Zai would head the Cleveland Bio Fund, which is managing a $100 million fund financed by Chinese and American investors looking to back young biomedical companies that want to break into the Chinese market.

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MY ADDRESS DRIVES INNOVATION. Rosetta // 629 Euclid Downtown Cleveland BRAD WERTZ // ROSETTA Rosetta, the nation’s largest independent interactive agency, is transforming 80,000 square feet of the former National City building to meet the needs of their 400 person Cleveland team.

satisfy its workforce of young creative professionals, many of whom will be living Downtown and will seek to extend the conversations of the work day to the bars and restaurants on East 4th street below.

The agency sought out a space that would foster collaboration among its interdisciplinary teams and act as a central hub and headquarters to its offices in several other cities.

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THE IN CROWD: Civic leaders/newsmakers Joseph Cimperman Class of 1999 Then: Ward 13 councilman, city of Cleveland Now: Ward 3 councilman, city of Cleveland A 29-year-old Joseph Cimperman was two years into his tenure as the Cleveland city councilman who represented Ward 13 when we profiled him for the 1999 edition of Forty Under 40. A dozen years later, the former Catholic Charities social worker is viewed as an anchor of City Council who is an omnipresent and indefatigable force in what is now Ward 3, which encompasses downtown and the city’s Ohio City and Tremont neighborhoods, among others. Consider a few of the matters in which he’s involved himself in recent times. He worked with the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, U.S. Department of Justice and restaurant and bar owners in the city’s Warehouse District to develop a plan for managing sometime-troublesome late-night crowds in the district. He introduced legislation to allow property owners in Ohio City to assess themselves for added security and maintenance in their neighborhood. And he took on the role of a feisty advocate for more business and residential development in Cleveland’s Flats as he voiced frustration last winter with what he

considered the dysfunctional and obstructionist ways of Flats Oxbow Association. “There is $2 billion of investment set for the Flats,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I’ll miss the chance to get this right.” That’s no ordinary Joe.

Steve Dettelbach Class of 2005 Then: Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Now: U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steve Dettelbach spent 12 years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., and then in his hometown of Cleveland before leaving the government in 2006 to become a partner in the Cleveland office of Baker & Hostetler LLP. Three years later, though, in 2009, he was back as a federal employee. A former pickup basketball opponent at Harvard Law School, President Barack Obama, nominated him for the top Justice Department job in Cleveland. Once a part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Strike Force while an assistant here, Mr. Dettelbach came back in the midst of his office’s headlinegrabbing investigation into Cuyahoga County corruption. Because clients he had at Baker Hostetler were linked peripherally to that probe, he has not overseen that investigation. However, his office

has prosecuted its share of mortgage fraud, drug trafficking, hate crimes and police misconduct. In addition, he has led an effort to create the Northeast Ohio Business Ethics Coalition to help area businesses stand up to corrupt politicians. His office more recently made headlines with its prosecution of Monroe Beachy, the Holmes County investment adviser known as the “Amish Bernie Madoff.”

Lee Friedman Class of 1995 Then: Executive director, CleanLand, Ohio Now: CEO, College Now Greater Cleveland In introducing readers to a 39year-old Lee Friedman in the 1995 edition of Forty Under 40, we wrote that her background “is well-suited to public service.” We didn’t realize how true those words would be. Sure, we already knew she had been a White House intern at age 22 during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, and that she had served as assistant personnel director in Cleveland City Hall while George Voinovich was mayor. By 1995, she was three years into her stint as executive director of Clean-Land, Ohio, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the health and appearance of Greater Cleveland’s outdoors. But she was just getting started. The next year, she’d become head of Downtown Cleveland Partnership, a nonprofit committed to fostering downtown development. Then, in 2005, she was named president and CEO of the Cleveland Leadership Center, the umbrella organization for such civic programs as Leadership Cleveland and Cleveland Bridge Builders. Since June 2010, she has been CEO of College Now Greater Cleveland, which looks to help high school students and adult learners achieve their dreams of going to college. Well-suited to public service? You bet.

David Gilbert

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Class of 2000 Then: President, Greater Cleveland Sports Commission Now: President and CEO, Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, and president, Positively Cleveland Mr. Cleveland. That’s what David Gilbert’s friends at Ohio State Uni-

versity called him as an undergraduate because, even then, he couldn’t help touting his hometown. “I always had this passion for Cleveland. I knew this was where I wanted to be,” a 33-year-old Mr. Gilbert would tell us for his profile in the 2000 edition of Forty Under 40. Mr. Gilbert had been at the helm of a reborn Greater Cleveland Sports Commission for just one year when we first wrote about him. Over the last decade, he has succeeded in achieving the sports commission’s goal of making Greater Cleveland a prime destination for amateur sporting events and activities. In just the last year alone, Cleveland has played host to the USA Hockey National Championships, the U.S. Open Wrestling Championships, the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships, and the USA Master’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Mr. Gilbert & Co. also have worked to keep the pipeline flowing by creating some of their own events, among them the Continental Cup, an international youth soccer tournament. Now Mr. Gilbert also is bringing his energy to the city’s convention and visitors’ bureau, Positively Cleveland, which he was tapped last year to head under a “coordinated alliance” with the Sports Commission.

Brian Hall Class of 1991 Then: President, Industrial Transport Inc. Now: CEO, Innogistics LLC “Brian E. Hall learned about life and business at his father’s knee, and he’s learned his lessons well.” Those words ring as true today as when they were written 20 years ago in our profile of a 33-year-old Mr. Hall for our inaugural Forty Under 40 section. It was in 1977 when his father, William, and uncle Horace founded Industrial Transport Inc., a freight transfer company. There have been different iterations of the business in the nearly 35 years since its founding, but Mr. Hall has been a constant for many of those years. The company today is known as Innogistics LLC, and it specializes in in-plant logistics services. But Mr. Hall hasn’t been content to mind only his own

business. He has been an adviser to and advocate for black-owned businesses, most notably as a member and former president of The President’s Council, a group he helped establish in 1996 to support entrepreneurial and economic development within the AfricanAmerican community and to foster alliances with CEOs of major corporations. Earlier this year, he was named to the Cuyahoga County Economic Development Commission, a nine-member panel that created an economic development plan for the county.

Jim Haviland Class of 2003 Then: Executive director of MidTown Cleveland Inc. Now: Executive director of MidTown Cleveland Inc. The last eight years have seen Cleveland’s Midtown district, a two-square-mile corridor east of downtown that is dominated by aging industrial and commercial properties, infused with a new excitement. The roadway and sidewalks of Euclid Avenue, the spine of the district, have been rebuilt with a new transit line, and its stations in the middle of the avenue give Midtown a fresh look. Businesses such as Pierre’s Ice Cream Co. are expanding in the district instead of fleeing, property owners are renovating aging structures and developers are putting up new buildings, all betting that Midtown once again will be a thriving commercial district. A large share of the credit for the transformation goes to Jim Haviland and MidTown Cleveland Inc., the nonprofit business development group he runs that is focused on the area between downtown and the Cleveland Clinic. Mr. Haviland guided the organization in 2004 through a redevelopment planning process that focused on taking advantage of the new Healthline bus/rapid transit. The fruits of that hard work are becoming apparent.

Andrew Jackson Class of 1996 Then: Partner, Andersen Consulting Now: Executive director, Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Commission on Economic Inclusion; senior vice president, GCP In his 20-plus years at consulting giant Accenture — the last 11 as a partner — Cleveland native Andrew Jackson was tasked with helping clients achieve greater efficiency and profitability. Now in his fifth year with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, he’s charged with raising the profile of minority professionals and minority-owned businesses as part of commission’s efforts to create jobs and investment. And his work as the executive director of GCP’s Commission on Economic Inclusion appears to be paying off: In September, Mr. Jackson’s group was awarded $1.125 million from the federal Minority Business Development Agency for a local arm of the federal agency, the goal of which will be to assist 60 minority-owned companies win contracts that generate $20 million in new business.

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THE IN CROWD: Civic leaders/newsmakers Deb Janik

Nathan Kelly

Lillian Kuri

Class of 2004 Then: Chief of staff to Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell Now: Senior vice president, Greater Cleveland Partnership When Deb Janik left Cleveland City Hall early in 2005, Crain’s was disappointed because, an editorial in the paper said, “She was among the few public officials in Cleveland who understood how to work with business to promote economic development.” Fortunately, Ms. Janik was taking her experience as Mayor Jane Campbell’s right hand, and her earlier experience in the city’s finance department putting together bond deals, only a few blocks from City Hall as she became vice president for regional development at the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority. The Broadview Heights native wasn’t there long, but it was long enough to begin putting together the financial pieces that have become the Flats East Bank project. In October 2005, Ms. Janik became senior vice president for real estate and business development at the Greater Cleveland Partnership. There, she manages all of GCP’s business development and real estate activities. She also works with GCP’s Cleveland Development Advisors, which raises privatesector capital for local economic development efforts. Most recently, Ms. Janik has been working with the Group Plan Commission, raising private investment for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s plan to redo Public Square.

Class of 2010 Then: Planning director, city of Lakewood Now: Deputy chief of staff, Cuyahoga County Department of Development My, what a difference a year can make. At this time in 2010, a 33-year-old Mr. Kelly was serving as director of planning and development for the city of Lakewood. However, conversation in civic circles already was swirling around what would be next for Mr. Kelly in light of the election just a few weeks before of Lakewood’s mayor, Ed FitzGerald, to the new post of Cuyahoga County executive. Would he follow his boss into county government, which was reeling from an ongoing public corruption scandal, to help with its transformation under a new charter? The answer would be yes. Mr. Kelly is Mr. FitzGerald’s trusted right hand who formally carries the title of deputy chief of staff for the county’s Department of Development. One of his key jobs is developing programs that the county will use to provide businesses with loans, grants and other incentives through a $100 million fund that the county plans to establish. “Up until now, the county didn’t have the means to participate in a meaningful way” in business attraction efforts, he told us just last month. The fund should change that situation.

Class of 2002 Then: Director, Cleveland Public Art Now: Director of special projects, The Cleveland Foundation You could say Lillian Kuri has made good use of her education, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Ms. Kuri holds a master’s degree in architecture and urban design from Harvard University as well as a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Kent State University. For the last four-and-a-half years, she has served as director of special projects for The Cleveland Foundation, and has focused most of her efforts during that time on revitalization of Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. When we profiled her in 2002 for that year’s edition of Forty Under 40, a 32-year-old Ms. Kuri was director of Cleveland Public Art, a nonprofit dedicated to involving the public in the process of creating unique public spaces in the city. She perhaps is best known during that stint for fighting the battle to incorporate bike lanes and a promenade as part of an update of the Detroit-Superior Bridge. In recent times, she has worked to revitalize the residential neighborhoods surrounding University Circle in order to play off $2 billion in new construction by institutions such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and University Hospitals. “This is a moment in time where Cleveland is making huge investments,” she said in a 2007 interview. “We need a deliberate strategy in the area to leverage those dollars.”

PlayhouseSquare Partners salutes 20 years of Forty Under 40 alumni.

The young professional’s group at PlayhouseSquare playhousesquare.org/partners

20 YEARS OF CRAIN’S STAFFERS Stan Bullard Photographed: 1991 Then and now: Real estate reporter In his words: Some say Northeast Ohio’s real estate market changes little compared to other U.S. regions. I disagree. Consider Cleveland at Forty Under 40’s debut: East Fourth Street was a backwater. Few lived downtown. Flats nightspots and plans were the talk of the town. We were also in a realty downturn. But it pales compared to recent carnage.

Nancy Lesic Class of 1998 Then: Press secretary, Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White Now: CEO, Lesic & Camper Communications Anyone who ever crossed the path of Mike White when he was mayor of Cleveland knows that he did not suffer fools, so it is a high compliment that Nancy Lesic, at age 25, was selected to be his press secretary — and still held the job when we profiled her four years later. “Explaining public policy is not an easy job, particularly in a political environment where every answer is scrutinized,” Ms. Lesic told us back then. “But I’m proud that I have never lied and I never guessed at an answer.” Since 2002, Ms. Lesic has been applying her political and communications savvy to the operation of her own public relations agency that has focused on public affairs. She isn’t as visible as she was back in her City Hall days, but Ms. Lesic repeatedly is the guiding hand for many local organizations in their high-profile dealings with the media. In just the last year alone, she handled media relations for the Cleveland Browns as they announced their plans to work with the city to create a waterfront neighborhood around Browns Stadium, and she helped orchestrate the announcement of the best-kept secret in town — the decision by American Greetings Corp. to locate its headquarters in Westlake.

Steve Millard Class of 2000 Then: Executive director, Council of Smaller Enterprises Now: President and executive director, Council of Smaller Enterprises Strategic thinker may be the best two-word way to describe Steve Millard, who for a dozen years has been executive director of the 15,000member Council of Smaller Enterprises. As we wrote of a then-32-year-old Mr. Millard in 2000, he developed his skills as a business strategist during five years with global management and technology consulting firm Andersen Consulting. He’d join COSE in 1997 as director of its growth strategies program, a position in which he was responsible for sales, customer service, member services and product development. A year after assuming COSE’s helm, Mr. Millard would lead a strategic planning

effort that would result in a plan calling for the group to stake out a greater advocacy role on public policy issues of importance to the broader community. “There’s a strong recognition that the status quo is not acceptable,” COSE’s departing chairman, Robert Smith, said back in December 2001 when the plan was unveiled. In the intervening decade, COSE under Mr. Millard’s guidance has stayed true to that enhanced advocacy role, as seen by its endorsement in fall 2009 of the ultimately successful effort to change the form of Cuyahoga County government amid a broad public corruption scandal.

Fred Nance Class of 1991 Then: Partner, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey Now: Regional managing partner, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey; General counsel, Cleveland Browns Twenty years ago, when he was profiled in our first Forty Under 40 section, a 38-year-old Fred Nance said he didn’t mind the burden of being called a role model for aspiring, young black lawyers. But he also said he had no intention of seeking out a media or political spotlight. “Simply my being out there accomplishes something,” Mr. Nance said back then. “I’m really not looking to play a larger role.” But play a larger role he has — far larger than likely he ever could have imagined. Mr. Nance not only would rise to head the Cleveland office of one of the nation’s largest law firms, but he also would become the “go-to” guy when the city was in need of a civic leader to defend its interests. Whether it was serving as then-Mayor Mike White’s right-hand man in securing a replacement franchise for the departed Cleveland Browns or wrestling with the federal government to retain the Cleveland office of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Mr. Nance has been in the thick of the battle. He has been “out there,” all right — and then some.

Sandra Pianalto Class of 1993 Then: Chief operating officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Now: President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland “In a world that only a few years ago was dominated by middle-aged

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males, Sandra Pianalto already is talked about as the future president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.” So began our Forty Under 40 profile of a 39-year-old Ms. Pianalto in 1993. Though she only had been named chief operating officer of the Cleveland Fed that year, there already was reason to believe Ms. Pianalto eventually would ascend to its top post. The native of Italy already had served nearly five years as an economist for the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, the body that sets the nation’s interest rates. And earlier that year she had been appointed by Congress to the National Commission to Ensure a Strong Competitive Airline Industry. But it still would be more than nine years before she would become president in early 2003. A long wait, perhaps. However, she and the Cleveland Fed have made their marks since. Ms. Pianalto in January 2008 issued one of the first warnings of storm clouds in the housing sector, and the Cleveland Fed under her leadership has become known for its research into what went wrong with the housing and debt markets and what can be done to fix them.

institution, gain better traction with its “Green Corps” program, through which students turn vacant city lots into sustainable gardens. In the summer of 2008, the program enlisted 50 students and ran six gardens; now, 65 students take part in the program, which Ms. Ronayne said will be run year-round and through which the participants will be eligible for college credit via a partnership with Cuyahoga Community College. The garden also is taking part in a pilot program run by the U.S. Green Building Council that would expand its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program to landscapes, rather than solely buildings. The botanical garden’s “homework” includes creating its own green roof and rain garden, as well as adopting organic lawn practices. Ms. Ronayne said the hope is to impart

those practices eventually to other University Circle institutions that also are focused on sustainability.

Baiju Shah Class of 2003 Then: Vice president, BioEnterprise Corp. Now: President and CEO, BioEnterprise Corp. Baiju Shah is a 1993 graduate of Yale University, the mascot of which is a bulldog. So, it may not be surprising, then, that Mr. Shah for nearly a decade has shown a bulldoglike determination to build Northeast Ohio’s biotechnology sector as an executive with and a founder of BioEnterprise Corp. It’s the mission

of BioEnterprise to provide young biotech firms with management guidance and help them in finding early-stage capital. Thanks to the perseverance and hard work of Mr. Shah, BioEnterprise has succeeded in turning Northeast Ohio from an afterthought of venture capitalists and private equity firms to a place where many have made significant investments in fledgling companies in the region. Since July 2002, BioEnterprise has aided more than 110 companies that have attracted in excess of $1 billion in new investment. When we first profiled him for the 2003 version of Forty Under 40, the well-traveled Mr. Shah already had visited 15 countries. But, the native of Mayfield Village even then was most interested in Northeast Ohio. “I care a lot about this region,” he said back then. “I want it to be my home for a long time.”

ON THE WEB Forty Under 40 event coverage Crain’s will honor this year’s class tonight, Nov. 21, at a ceremony at Executive Caterers at Landerhaven. For coverage of the event, including video and photo slideshow, visit www.CrainsCleveland .com this week. Additionally, coverage of past events and past classes also can be found at our Forty Under 40 page. There, find stories and photos from past classes, as well as videos and slideshows from past events. For those items, visit www.crainscleveland.com/ marketing/forty.html.

Chris Ronayne Class of 2003 Then: Planning commissioner, city of Cleveland Now: President, University Circle Inc. “To plan is human, to implement is divine.” With those words, Chris Ronayne led off a speech at his alma mater, Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs. The year was 2003, and Mr. Ronayne at the time was the city of Cleveland’s planning commissioner under Mayor Jane Campbell. However, then, as now, the words sum up the mindset and aspirations of Mr. Ronayne — he doesn’t just want to make plans, but wants to see them become reality. Since 2006, Mr. Ronayne has applied his urban planning skills as president of University Circle Inc., the development group that is pursuing an aggressive agenda to step up residential and commercial development among the cultural, academic and medical institutions that are woven into the fabric of the city’s University Circle neighborhood. An example of what Mr. Ronayne is trying to accomplish is found in a $10 million, 59unit apartment complex that WXY Development Inc. of Fairview Park is creating on Hazel Drive near the Western Reserve Historical Society and Cleveland Institute of Art.

Natalie Ronayne Class of 2008 Then: Executive director, Cleveland Botanical Garden Now: Executive director, Cleveland Botanical Garden Natalie Ronayne said her mission as executive director of Cleveland Botanical Garden had become easier by 2008, as sustainability and the “green” movement had become more accepted. That acceptance helped the garden, a University Circle

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THE IN CROWD: Civic leaders/newsmakers Debra Adams Simmons Class of 2003 Then: Vice president and editor, Akron Beacon Journal Now: Editor, The Plain Dealer Debra Adams Simmons has been a trailblazer in her journalism career, ascending to her current role as editor of Ohio’s largest daily newspaper

from what she thought would be a brief internship at the Syracuse Herald-Journal, where she worked after graduating from Syracuse University. Her stops along the way included reporting and editing positions at The Detroit Free Press, The Virginian-Pilot and The Hartford Courant. Ms. Adams Simmons was editor at The Akron Beacon Journal for four years before joining The Plain Dealer in 2007. She was promoted in 2010 to editor from managing editor and became the first black female editor among the nation’s top 20

newspapers. She continues to lead The Plain Dealer’s ongoing quest of providing watchdog reporting and emphasizing local coverage. She is a member of the board of directors of the American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors, the latter of which she is scheduled to become president in 2014. She is vice chairwoman of the board of directors of Athena International, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists and was a Pulitzer Prize juror in 2004, 2005 and 2011.

Metropolitan Bar Association has encouraged local lawyers and residents to mark The David Webster Greener Way to Work Day by taking public transportation, carpooling or biking to work. Mr. Webster, who died in March 2009 at age 46 shortly before he was to serve as president of the bar, was a business litigator and founder of the Clean Air Conservancy. He told us in 1996, “It is so

easy to blame a company for being a polluter, when actually the public — with gas guzzling cars, for instance — has some responsibility for the problems, too.” Now an annual event rallies people to the cause. “I think Dave would have loved it,” said his widow, Beth Webster. “He spent so many years working on environmental issues long before it became a trendy issue to support.”

Historic Gateway Neighborhood groups Clevelanders who love downtown can be thankful Tom Yablonsky chose the career path he did when he was a younger man. He earned a master’s degree in public affairs from Indiana University, but also had completed coursework for a master’s in journalism. So, we asked then, why didn’t he become a newsman? “I found journalists were talkers, while the people in public affairs were doers.” Ouch. Well, we forgive Mr. Yablonsky for

the slap in the face, because he has been a true doer when it comes to restoration efforts in Cleveland’s Warehouse District and Gateway neighborhoods. Cleveland architect Jonathan Sandvick told Crain’s this year that the most accurate title he’s heard is “yenta” — Yiddish for matchmaker. “He brings the right mix of people to the marriage to get a project done, whether it’s developers or expertise or funding sources,” said Mr. Sandvick, a past chairman of the Historic Warehouse District group.

20 YEARS OF CRAIN’S STAFFERS Jay Miller Photographed: 1995 Then: Crain’s freelancer Now: Government reporter Between: Jay was a freelance business and business history writer working for national and regional business newspapers and publishers including The Manufacturer, Inside Business, Advertising Age and Crain's Cleveland Business. Also during this period Jay was Midwest correspondent for Credit Union Times and a correspondent for Reuters News Service covering business and general news.

Brian Tucker The late David Webster Class of 1996 Then: Founder of the Clean Air Conservancy and senior associate at the Cleveland law firm, Kaufman & Cumberland March 2009: President-elect of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association The late David Webster would have been proud to see this, say those who knew him. Every September since 2009, the Cleveland

Thomas Yablonsky Class of 1992 Then: Director of downtown development, Greater Cleveland Growth Association Now: Executive vice president, Downtown Cleveland Alliance; Executive director, Historic Warehouse District and

Photographed: 1996 Then and now: Crain’s publisher and editorial director

THE BIG CHEESES: Bosses/owners Linda Abraham-Silver Class of 2005 Then: President and CEO, Great Lakes Science Center Now: President and CEO, Great Lakes Science Center Linda Abraham-Silver admits that she wasn’t much into science growing up in San Francisco. However, it isn’t entirely out of left field that she wound up becoming president of the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland in August 2004. The science center is big on hands-on exhibits, and as we’d reveal in her profile for our 2005 edition of Forty Under 40, Dr. Abraham-Silver got her hands plenty dirty doing archeological field work in Greece and paleoanthropological work in Spain while working on her undergraduate degree in Classics from UCLA. Last year was big for Dr. Abraham-Silver and the science center, as the latter became the official home of the NASA Glenn Visitors Center — an attraction that she hopes will inspire students to explore aerospace careers. In order to guarantee young people access to its offerings, the science center also began Free Tuesdays, which during its last fiscal year allowed nearly 30,000 students 12th grade and younger to take in the science center for free.

April Boise Class of 2006 Then: Partner, Thompson Hine Now: Vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, Veyance Technologies Inc. April Miller Boise broke ground in Cleveland legal circles in February 2009 when she became partnerin-charge of the Cleveland office of the Thompson Hine law firm. It had been a rarity for a woman to ascend to the top post at any of Northeast Ohio’s larger firms; it had been unheard of for a woman of color to reach such lofty heights. Yet here was Ms. Boise, then 40, assuming the lead role at her firm’s largest office. A bit

more than two years earlier, in our profile of Ms. Boise for the 2006 edition of Forty Under 40, she had expressed concern that too many women were steered toward “women-friendly” jobs and that not enough were entering fields such as law or finance. “To thrive and grow and attract young people to the Midwest, we need to be a lot more diverse,” she said at the time. Ms. Boise since has gone on to diversify her own professional background by accepting the job in late 2010 of vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Veyance Technologies in Fairlawn, a maker of conveyor belts and other industrial rubber products under the Goodyear Engineered Products name.

Bruce Carbonari Class of 1991 Then: President, Moen Inc. Now: Retired chairman and CEO, Fortune Brands Inc. The path to heading Fortune Brands Inc., the consumer products behemoth that was behind such well-known brands as Jim Beam bourbon, Master Lock locks and Titlest golf equipment, led through Northeast Ohio for Bruce Carbonari. He was 35 and had been at plumbing products maker Moen Inc. — then based in Elyria, and later in North Olmsted — for 10 years by the time we profiled him in our initial Forty Under 40 section. Moen had been acquired the prior year by American Brands Inc., which would be renamed Fortune Brands. As Moen’s president, Mr. Carbonari would go on to make a favorable impression on his bosses, and by 2000 would be put in charge of the company’s largest business unit, Fortune Brands Home and Security. He would rise to become CEO of the parent in January 2008 and its chairman in October 2008. Mr. Carbonari retired upon the recent split-up of Fortune Brands into two companies, Fortune Brands Home & Security and Beam Inc.

Jeffrey Christian Class of 1994 Then: Coowner, Christian & Timbers Now: Founder, Number 12 Foundation; founder, Revenue Beast

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By the time we profiled a 38year-old Jeff Christian in our 1994 edition of Forty Under 40, we knew he was a darling of the executive search world who frequently was quoted in The Wall Street Journal and other national publications. Unknown to us and most everyone else is that the dynamic cofounder of the powerhouse Christian & Timbers search firm had been struggling on and off with drug and alcohol addiction since his mid-30s. Mr. Christian would reveal those details last April in an extensive interview with Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about his life since serving a year in prison for his role in the drug overdose death in April 2005 of 31-

year-old Thomas Wasil, who had attended a party at Mr. Christianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Aurora home. Today, Mr. Christianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s two passions are Number 12 Foundation, a nonprofit that Mr. Christian says has a mission of â&#x20AC;&#x153;saving lives and families from the disease of alcoholism and addiction by building bridges to lasting recovery,â&#x20AC;? and a consultancy called Revenue Beast. The latter is in Mr. Christianâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old wheelhouse, as it focuses on accelerating revenue growth for clients. Both are run from a Beachwood office building that shows its age and is a far cry from his fancy former Christian & Timbers office, which, he noted more than once, had a private bathroom.

Chris Coburn

into older industries and to encourage the development of companies driven by burgeoning technologies. Since 2000, Mr. Coburn has led Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the technology commercialization arm of the Cleveland Clinic. Its work has led to the development of 35 spinoff companies that have raised $540 million in equity investment. Mr. Coburn is well-versed in the challenges facing startups, particularly the problems of raising necessary capital. However, Mr. Coburn told Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s late last year that thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a steady stream of success stories emerging in the region and that while not all them might pan out, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are some very compelling technologies and product opportunities I think people can be excited about.â&#x20AC;?

Class of 1994 Then: Executive director, Great Lakes Industrial Technology Center; Vice president of the Technology Partnership Group at Battelle Memorial Institute Now: Executive director, Cleveland Clinic Innovations In recent years, Northeast Ohio has been identified as a hub of biomedical innovation, and almost anyone involved in the burgeoning sector knows that Chris Coburn played a critical role in its development. When we profiled Mr. Coburn for our Forty Under 40 section in 1994, he already had earned accolades for leading the development of the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Thomas Edison Program â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an initiative designed to inject new technologies

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THE BIG CHEESES: Bosses/owners Fred Cummings Class of 1994 Then: First vice president, McDonald & Co. Securities Now: Founder, Elizabeth Park Capital Management Fred Cummings was all of 28 years old when we first profiled him as a member of the Forty Under 40 class of 1994. But by that time, he already had served four years as the primary bank analyst for what was then one of the Midwest’s largest regional securities

Jenniffer Deckard Class of 2005 Then: Chief financial officer, Fairmount Minerals Ltd. Now: President, Fairmount Minerals Ltd. “I think I’ve been good for Fairmount, but they have been phenomenally good for me.” That’s how a 39-

Chris DiSantis Class of 2009 Then: President and chief operating officer, Hawk Corp. Now: CEO, Latrobe Specialty Metals It probably isn’t surprising to most people who know Chris DiSantis that he became a CEO, because he already was climbing the corporate ladder with ease when he was profiled in our Forty Under 40 section in 2009. Mr. DiSantis rose from a working-class

Art Falco

firms, McDonald & Co. As even Mr. Cummings conceded at the time, “timing is very important in this business,” and his timing in 1990 couldn’t have been better. McDonald’s lead bank analyst, Henry Dickson, had left for another firm, so the company brass turned to his 24-year-old protégé to fill the post. “We threw him into the fray,” McDonald CEO Bill Summers said back then. “We felt we had an individual with the

ability to grow into that job, and needless to say, we weren’t disappointed.” These days, it is investors in the bank-focused hedge fund run by Mr. Cummings that are not disappointed. They raved to Crain’s earlier this year about the returns they’ve gotten from entrusting their money to Mr. Cummings and his Elizabeth Park Capital Management, which is named after the north Akron neighborhood in which he grew up.

year-old Jenniffer Deckard summed up her career to that point with Fairmount Minerals Ltd. when we profiled her in the 2005 edition of Forty Under 40. The mutually beneficial relationship has continued, with Ms. Deckard ascending at the start of 2011 to the president’s post at the producer of industrial sands, which are used in so-called fracturing techniques that help extract oil and natural gas from the ground. Just before her promotion, Ms. Deckard helped engineer as Fairmount’s CFO a

complex leveraged buyout that gave American Securities Capital Partners a controlling 51% stake in the company. The deal, financed largely with $700 million in debt, was the talk of investment banking circles in the summer of 2010, as it involved 13 banks and dozens of private investors. It was another feather in the cap of the multidimensional Ms. Deckard, who graduated magna cum laude with a degree in accounting while attending the University of Tulsa on a volleyball scholarship.

neighborhood to Dartmouth and ultimately the corporate boardroom through a combination of hard work, brains and the ability to learn fast. After a short stint in investment banking, Mr. DiSantis found his calling in operating and improving manufacturing operations. He began in the same place he since has ended up, western Pennsylvania; his first job in industry was turning around manufacturing operations for a

group of industrial companies headquartered there. He then ran a brake and clutch materials company, Solon-based Hawk Corp., now known as Carlisle Brake and Friction, as its chief operating officer. Today, he’s the top dog and runs Latrobe Specialty Metals, just southeast of Pittsburgh, where he’s putting his degree in materials science and his business acumen to work simultaneously.

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Class of 1992 Then: President, Playhouse Square Foundation Now: President and CEO, PlayhouseSquare Foundation A 38-year-old Art Falco barely had had the chance to warm the president’s chair at what then was known as the Playhouse Square Foundation when we included him in the second edition of our Forty Under 40 section. Then, as now, Mr. Falco didn’t like to talk about himself. He has preferred instead to stick to the business of creating a successful arts organization. As the accountant by training told Crain’s for a May 2010 profile, “This isn’t ‘The Art Falco Show.’ I don’t need to be in the spotlight.” But in a world where many arts organizations struggle to survive, there’s no denying Mr. Falco has been a force in assuring the stability of the country’s largest performing arts center outside New York. The more than 1 million visitors annually who take in shows and concerts at its six theaters can be glad for the behind-the-scenes roles Mr. Falco has played at PlayhouseSquare for more than a quarter century.

Umberto Fedeli Class of 1991 Then: President, The Fedeli Group Now: President and CEO, The Fedeli Group Anyone who ever has enjoyed a lunchtime feast as a guest of Umberto Fedeli (whose mom does the cooking) in the dining room of The Fedeli Group will understand why he told us in his 1991 Forty Under 40 profile, “If you’d have asked me when I was 18 or 19, I would have guessed I would have been in the food industry.” Mr. Fedeli, who at the time was 31, didn’t expect selling insurance — the job he took

at age 19 to help pay for his college education at John Carroll University — would translate into a career. However, he already had gotten quite good at it by the time we profiled him as president of what was then a 35-person insurance brokerage. The business has continued to grow and its staff now numbers 80, but its CEO is known more for what he has done outside The Fedeli Group than within it. During his tenure as chairman of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, he set the wheels in motion to widen much of the roadway to three lanes from two. More recently, he has become a sometimes-vocal activist investor in smaller, publicly traded banks that he believes are underperforming.

Michael Goldberg Class of 2007 Then: Co-founder, Bridge Investment Fund LP Now: Co-founder of Bridge Investment Fund LP; Adjunct professor, Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management Back in 2007, we noted how Michael Goldberg’s professional travels had spanned the globe, and how he’d traveled as a child. Today, he’s preparing to globetrot again. Now an adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, Mr. Goldberg is a Fulbright award recipient and will move his family next semester to Vietnam, where he will teach what he teaches here: entrepreneurial finance. “I’m excited,” he said. “It gives me a chance to deepen some of my ties in the early-stage investment community in Asia.” Earlier this year, Mr. Goldberg also was asked to serve as a senior adviser for a Chinese venture capital fund. In the years since his 40 Under 40 profile, his company, Bridge Investment Fund LP, has invested in two more companies for a total of five, including one that went public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2011.

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Alan Jaffa Class of 2008 Then: Chief operating officer, Safeguard Properties Now: CEO, Safeguard Properties The most exciting change since Alan Jaffa was profiled in our Forty Under 40 in 2008 is his ascension to CEO, Mr. Jaffa says. Mr. Jaffaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s No. 1 rank has him devising strategy and spending a lot more time engaging with the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clients â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the top mortgage servicers in the country. He has hired a handful of additional executives to help continue to build Safeguard, a company founded by his father-in-law that maintains foreclosed homes. Back when he was profiled, it was noted how Safeguard had grown from 35 employees in 1995 when Mr. Jaffa joined to 600 in 2008. In June of this year, Mr. Jaffa told Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new growth is on the way, as the company planned to add 70 employees to its existing 875. Company officials, he explained, expect foreclosures to increase as foreclosure moratoriums end. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Those floodgates are about to begin opening,â&#x20AC;? Mr. Jaffa said then.

Daryl Laisure Class of 1997 Then: CEO, Aerospace Design and Fabrication Inc. Now: CEO, Zin Technologies and Zin Medical Like it did in 1997, when it was referred to as â&#x20AC;&#x153;ADF,â&#x20AC;? Zin Technologies Inc. still provides a lot of hardware engineering services to NASA Glenn Research Center in Brook Park. However, the company that Daryl Laisure heads has pushed over the years to broaden its horizons. The most prominent example of that is Zin Medical; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a company Zin Technologies formed with the help of the Cleveland Clinic. Zin Medical aims to transform sensor technology originally developed to help NASA monitor the vital signs of astronauts into commercial products that, for instance, could help doctors monitor patients. Zin Technologies also has done business with the U.S. Department of Defense and private businesses. The company hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ignored NASA Glenn, though, as evidenced by a contract won in 2008 that could amount to $94.5 million in work over five years. The contract involves designing, building, testing and operating a broad array of space flight projects.

Cynthia Moore-Hardy Class of 1995 Then: Executive vice president and chief operating officer, Lake Hospital System Now: President and CEO, Lake Health You might say Ralph Sorrell knew an eventual successor when he saw one. It was the fall of 1995, and a Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reporter was interviewing Mr. Sorrell about Cynthia MooreHardy, who only a few months

before had been named executive vice president and chief operating officer of what then was known as Lake Hospital System. The 37-yearold Ms. Moore-Hardy steadily had been rising up the management ranks at the two-hospital health system after joining the organization in 1988 as its assistant administrator for cardiology services. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my good right hand and sometimes my good left and right hand,â&#x20AC;? Mr. Sorrell told Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s for his colleagueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Forty Under 40 profile. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I would expect sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be a CEO someday.â&#x20AC;? As it turns out, â&#x20AC;&#x153;somedayâ&#x20AC;? would come two years later for Ms. Moore-Hardy. And, for the last 14 years, she has guided what is now Lake Health through the oftenturbulent water of health care in the 21st century. A key milestone during her tenure was construction late last decade of the $155 million TriPoint Medical Center in Concord Township, which replaced the aged Lake East Hospital in Painesville.

Michael Petras Jr. Class of 2000 Then: President and CEO, GELcore LLC Now: CEO, HGI Global Holdings Inc. It is safe to say Michael Petras isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afraid of a challenge. When we profiled Mr. Petras, then 33, for the 2000 edition of Forty Under 40, he was at the helm of GELcore, a joint venture formed just 18 months earlier by GE Lighting in Cleveland and Emcore Corp., an electronics material producer. Mr. Petras already had worked for GE Lighting for seven years before taking the reins at a company that was using a new technology known as light-emitting diodes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; commonly known today as LEDs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to create energy-saving lighting products. He obviously impressed the brass at General Electric, as he would rise just a few years later to become president and CEO of GE Lighting. Mr. Petras seemed to be on track to be a career GE employee, but then came the surprise announcement last March that he had taken the CEO post at HGI Global Holdings Inc., the company that owns Edgepark Medical Supplies and Independence Medical in Northeast Ohio. Paul Pressler, chairman of HGI Global, crowed about his prize catch, calling Mr. Petras â&#x20AC;&#x153;a proven business builder with a passion for growing businesses and leading large, complex enterprises to new levels of financial and operating performance excellence.â&#x20AC;?

Jean Robertson Class of 2002 Then: Partner, McDonald, Hopkins, Burke & Haber Co. Now: Partner, Calfee Halter & Griswold Jean Robertson, a 1990 graduate of Ohio State Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moritz College of Law, had envisioned while in school that she would become a labor lawyer or lawyer associated with a love of her life, the arts. However, an internship she would serve in the early 1990s for Joseph Cosetti, chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania,

would steer her career in a different direction. As a 37-year-old Ms. Robertson would tell us for the 2002 edition of Forty Under 40, she found it satisfying to work with companies in ill financial health to get them well again and back on the road to profitability. And so began her life as a bankruptcy attorney, first at Hahn Loeser & Parks, then at McDonald Hopkins, and now with Calfee Halter & Griswold, which she joined in May 2007 and where she serves as chair of the law firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Business Restructuring and Insolvency practice group. A past chair of the Bankruptcy and Commercial Law Section of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, Ms. Robertson is a frequently quoted expert (especially by this newspaper) on bankruptcy issues.

Marcella Kanfer Rolnick Class of 2007 Then: Vice chair, Gojo Industries Inc. Now: Vice chair, Gojo Industries Inc. As many individuals who work in a family business know, there is no room for complacency, especially when a company is oriented toward global market growth. As vice chairwoman of Akron-based Gojo Industries Inc., Marcella Kanfer Rolnick continues to work toward long-

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20 YEARS OF CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S STAFFERS Mark Dodosh Photographed: 2000 Then and now: Editor In his words: Over the last decade, everything has changed about our business, and nothing has changed. Our staff still gathers news, but how you read the stuff we produce varies all over the map. Perhaps youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still a print reader. But maybe you click on stories from one of our email newsletters, check out a link from a tweet or download what now is called our â&#x20AC;&#x153;contentâ&#x20AC;? to your smart phone. My hope is that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re meeting your needs. Let me know if we are (or arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t) at mdodosh@crain.com. Put â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hey, Markâ&#x20AC;? in the subject line.

term strategic goals that will â&#x20AC;&#x153;lead to success five, 10, 20 years from now as a globalizing family company,â&#x20AC;? she said. She said sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passionate about the continuity of the privately held producer of skin health and hygiene products â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the most prominent of which is Purell hand sanitizer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for the benefit of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stakeholders, employees, customers and suppliers. Ms. Rolnickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

philanthropic outreach also continues to be a tenet in her career. She is an advisory board member at the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at Case Western Reserve University; a board member of Jewish Community Board of Akron, The Lippman School and American Jewish World Service; and is chairwoman and president of the Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation.

Congratulations Fred Nance

For more than 30 years, Fred Nance has had the privilege of providing service and leadership to the Cleveland community. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey joins our community in congratulating Fred for his many years of public service and honoring all of the Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cleveland Business 40 Under 40 alumni.

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THE BIG CHEESES: Bosses/owners Chuck Rotuno Class of 2001 Then: President and CEO, OEConnection Now: President and CEO, OEConnection Right part. Right place. Right time. Right kind of innovation. That’s the slogan of OEConnection, a company based in Richfield that has created online systems to provide car dealers and collision repair shops with auto replacement parts on a timely basis. In the case of Chuck Rotuno, who has led the

Sally Babcock Schriner Class of 2007 Then: Senior vice president and general manager, American Greetings Interactive Now: President, American Greetings Interactive The greeting has evolved from type on a two-dimensional card to

Travis Smith Class of 2009 Then: Chief operating officer, Jo-Ann Stores Inc. Now: President and CEO, Jo-Ann Stores Inc. Travis Smith has made a definite impression on Darrell Webb, and has benefited from it. The Oregon native first caught Mr. Webb’s attention a decade ago, when Mr. Smith was overseeing non-food merchandising at the

BRUGLER continued from PAGE F-2

business since its start in 2000, the slogan would be “right guy.” When we profiled Mr. Rotuno, then 37, for the 2001 edition of Forty Under 40, OEConnection was a fledgling joint venture of automakers Ford Motor, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler plus Bell & Howell Publishing Services, a publisher of electronic auto parts catalogs. Only six months before, it had introduced its first product, CollisionLink, which enabled dealerships to sell parts to body shops

online. It soon followed with D2DLink, connecting dealerships so they could buy and sell parts among themselves. OEConnection steadily has gained a following, counting automakers such as Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan and Honda among its customers. By May 2009, it broke into the trucking world by adding Navistar Inc. as a customer, with Daimler Trucks North America to follow. Last February, Mr. Rotuno announced the opening of an office in Columbus.

cyber messages rich with video and graphics delivered through a multitude of digital platforms, thanks in large part to the leadership of Sally Babcock Schriner. The president of American Greetings Interactive, American Greetings’ online division, joined the company in 1999 and was promoted to the general manager spot in 2004. When she was honored as a Crain’s Forty Under 40 member in 2007, American Greetings’ websites had reached a paying membership roster of 3.4 million subscribers, a 70% increase

under her direction. She later was named vice president and general manager of digital photography before becoming president. She is responsible for all things digital in her current role, including the company’s e-card subscription sites, which serve more than four million subscribers. She also directs the growth of other products, such as the mobile greeting app justWink, which was introduced in summer, and the offering of paper cards online with the latest venture, Cardstore.com.

Portland-based Fred Meyer grocery chain. Mr. Webb was Fred Meyer’s president — at least until the summer of 2006, when he came to Ohio to run Hudson-based fabric and craft retailer Jo-Ann Stores Inc. Soon thereafter, Mr. Webb brought Mr. Smith aboard at Jo-Ann, which he joined as executive vice president of merchandising and marketing. He had risen to the post of chief operating officer

at Jo-Ann by the time we profiled the 37-year-old in 2009, and would add the title of president a few months later. Last August, when Mr. Webb became interim CEO of sporting goods retailer Sports Authority, Mr. Smith was named CEO of Jo-Ann. Both companies are owned by private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, which acquired Jo-Ann early this year.

also led the company’s foray into social media during the last couple years and has worked to incorporate the various platforms into clients’ core marketing capabilities. “I’ve been lucky enough to be put in this position by Jan, and I owe her all the credit. I can’t say enough about the people I work with, either,” Mr. Brugler said. Colleagues, in turn, recognize Mr. Brugler as a mentor and industry visionary who sets an example for others. “Ben is pretty much like everything to this firm,” said Ms. Gusich, Akhia’s president. “I’ve been in the

LIGHT continued from PAGE F-9

Andersen and later a tech consulting outfit — after graduating from Washington University in St. Louis. And while he enjoyed that scene, he desired a more intimate work setting. So he joined the Jewish Community Federation seeking a better mission, inspired in part by his parents’ service to others: Mr. Light’s father was a pediatrician and his mother a social worker. When he moved to The Gathering Place, Mr. Light knew much about its mission: Mr. Light’s mother, 46 at the time, died in 1992 of cancer when he was 20; four years later, his 58-year-old father also died, leaving Mr. Light to take care of his younger

MELLON continued from PAGE F-10

the business processes it needed as it grew, Mr. Laber said, referring to its value system, which appears on signs throughout the company’s office. “Every time we come across a customer issue, we go right back to our service standards,” he said. Though methodical, Mr. Mellon isn’t afraid to improvise. Mr. Mellon — who grew up fascinated by computers and programming — was studying construction management at North Dakota State University in the mid-1990s when, through a friend, he learned that IBM was looking for a network consultant. The position would require him to

TASEFF continued from PAGE F-17

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University area, the site of Allegro’s headquarters. Moreover, Mr. Taseff, his wife, Ashley, and their three children, all less than 4, live within shouting distance of Garrett Morgan School of Science in Ohio City. Mr. Taseff and his wife, who met when they were attending St. Edward High School in Lakewood and Magnificat in Rocky River, respectively, recently opted to stay in the city as their children reach school age. Friends say the couple made the decision with the same studied analysis Mr. Taseff performs when helping clients decide how best to handle their real estate or where to locate operations. Mr. Taseff, who grew up in North Ridgeville and graduated from Ohio University, said he decided to come back to Cleveland in 2004 because he was ready to start graduate school. “If I did not make the cut then, all

business 30 years, and Ben is one of the most talented strategic marketing planners I’ve ever met. Combine that with the fact that he’s an extremely likeable person.” Mr. Brugler also works closely with Kent State University’s public relations department and has assisted students’ careers in various ways; he hopes to build on those efforts by braiding Akhia’s influence into students’ educational experiences. Mr. Brugler is a former president of Cleveland’s Direct Marketing Association, where he spearheaded that organization’s involvement in social media. He qualifies himself as a pop culture buff and frequently tweets about related subjects. — Kathy Ames Carr

sister. (Now 31, she holds a doctorate from New York University and is a professor there.) “I didn’t get (when my mom died) how young 46 is,” he said. “They still influence my life, and instilled in us good values. They put us in a situation where we were OK after they left. “Everything I’ve learned from them has been invaluable. I’d unlearn it all to have them back, but they prepared me well.” Mr. Light and his wife, Jamie — also a Washington University graduate — live in Beachwood with their 8-year-old daughter, Hannah, of whom he says, “There’s nothing better than watching your child have fun.” — Joel Hammond

travel nationwide working for Fortune 500 companies. Taking it would mean he’d need to drop out of college. In the end, that’s what he did. It was a tough choice, but it turned out to be the right one, Mr. Mellon said. If he hadn’t joined IBM, he never would have moved to Northeast Ohio to work on the company’s contract with Goodyear. AtNetPlus wouldn’t exist, and he never would have met his wife, Katina. They have one son, Henry, 5. Kids growing up need to have a little bit of that freedom, too, if they are to figure out what their true passions are, Mr. Mellon said. “Let them explore and find out what gets them excited,” he said. — Chuck Soder

my contacts from business school would be in Chicago and that would keep me there,” Mr. Taseff said. He landed a job with Allegro to return home and got his MBA from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. Mr. Taseff last year was named a principal at Allegro, making him one of five owners of the firm. He is also the only principal who was not at the firm at its startup stage. George Hutchinson, Allegro CEO, said Mr. Taseff earned a place as a principal with an overwhelming commitment to the firm. “His fingers are all over Allegro in terms of making improvements and getting things done,” Mr. Hutchinson said. Though Mr. Taseff does not like to discuss specific engagements, Mr. Hutchinson credits him with Allegro landing a big plum: a contract with Cuyahoga County to study its space needs and recommend headquarters options. — Stan Bullard

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Amnesty: Information sharing productive continued from PAGE 3

liability. “Getting it right is critically important for the business in the long term,” Mr. Grove said.

Share and share alike In speaking to the need for a careful approach to the amnesty program, several attorneys also cited a recently signed memorandum of understanding between the IRS and the U.S. Department of Labor. The agreement provides for enhanced information sharing between the two agencies to reduce worker misclassification, among other problems. The possibility exists, the attorneys say, that the IRS could share which employers are reclassifying workers with the Labor Department, which then could dole out its own penalties. However, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department said the department would not receive information about companies voluntarily settling with the IRS. Brian Spitz, who represents

HOW DOES IT WORK? ■ Eligibility: The new Internal Revenue Service program is available to many businesses, tax-exempt organizations and government entities that erroneously have treated their workers, or a class or group of workers, as nonemployees or independent contractors. Applicants must have treated workers consistently in the past as nonemployees; must have filed all required 1099 forms for the workers in the previous three years; and must not currently be under audit by the IRS or the U.S. Department of Labor or a state agency. ■ Savings: Employers accepted

employees in such matters, considers the sharing of information a positive, as he said it could render employers less likely to “steal money from employees. “Historically, one of the problems

into the program will pay an amount effectively equaling just more than 1% of the wages paid to the reclassified workers for the past year. No interest or penalties will be due, and the employers will not be audited on payroll taxes for prior years. ■ Caveat: Instead of the usual three-year statute of limitations that generally applies to payroll taxes, participating employers, for the first three years under the program, will be subject to a special six-year statute of limitations. ■ To apply: File Form 8952 at least 60 days before you want to begin treating the workers as employees.

we’ve had in the country is we have different government entities that don’t share information,” said Mr. Spitz, managing attorney for The Spitz Law Firm LLC in South Euclid. Both federal and state bodies

have ramped up efforts to identify employers who misrepresent workers as independent contractors and subsequently avoid paying into such funds as state unemployment and workers’ compensation, Crain’s Cleveland Business reported last November.

Not so fast Businesses that tend to use a lot of independent contractors include security, trucking and construction companies. Classification is not black and white, attorneys say. The IRS has a 20-factor test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor; meanwhile, other agencies have their own tests. “People can look at the same situation and come up with different results,” Mr. Fazio said. So, companies need to be calculating — and perhaps seek professional guidance — before agreeing to reclassify, local advisers say. Nicola Gudbranson’s Mr. Grove said he believes it’s possible for com-

panies that haven’t misclassified their people to participate mistakenly in the IRS program. “Let’s face it: This is a revenuegenerating mechanism,” Mr. Grove said. “I think that the IRS will be applying its standards in a way that facilitates that revenue generation. “Companies that have work forces that are questionable just need to examine it thoroughly before they automatically assume this is going to be the right thing for them,” said Mr. Grove, who noted that his firm has received calls from a few companies wondering whether they’ve classified workers properly. It isn’t that these attorneys are advising everyone against reclassification. If an employer knows it has misclassified workers, participate now, they say. “It is a significant savings for the employer when you consider the tax savings and … the ability to start fresh,” Mr. Grove said. “That’s huge.” Mr. Hall recommends that those who end up reclassifying make a change in workers’ job duties and benefits, too. “Hopefully, that makes it easier for employees to accept the change,” he said. ■

Schools: Expansion in works? Myers: Years of contemplation, continued from PAGE 1

and personal watercraft. It has relationships with manufacturers such as BMW and Yamaha, and it boasts an 85% placement rate, even in recent years, Mr. Brenner said. The growth in large part is because more students are seeking educations in trades they are familiar with — and which they see are in demand — as opposed to seeking a traditional college degree, Mr. Brenner said. Another factor: A fair number of adults are changing careers or are out of work and need new job skills, he said.

Filling a void North Randall Mayor David Smith said the PowerSport Institute is a hallmark of the city’s recent economic development efforts and is “the first thing I show visitors to the city when they come to see me.” But to show visitors the PowerSport Institute storefront or its interior of vehicles and state-of-the-art repair facilities and classrooms, the mayor also must show them Randall Park Mall. Aside from the institute and a Burlington Coat Factory, the mall is largely empty — which the mayor hopes to change by encouraging Mr. Brenner to expand. The PowerSport Institute moved into a former JCPenney store in the mall in 2007. It initially occupied only the basement of the building, but it since has expanded to take up most of the former store’s 207,000 square feet on two floors. That’s probably all the space the PowerSport Institute needs for itself and its approximately 250 students, said the school’s campus director, Bernie Thompson. But Ohio Technical College might have other operations that could fit into the mall, according to Mr. Brenner. He said he only now was thinking about the concept, after hearing just recently of Mayor Smith’s desire for the college to expand there. “It’s possible. We’re going to need a space of about 100,000 square feet for our restyling program,” Mr. Brenner said, referring to a new school he wants to start as part of Ohio Technical College. That school would teach students how to customize cars and trucks. A dormitory also would be advantageous, Mr. Brenner said, because the school draws students from all around the country who, for the most part, aren’t familiar with Cleveland.

Street view If Mr. Brenner is to expand at Randall Park, the city first must secure ownership of the mall or get it into the hands of a cooperative developer, according to Mayor Smith. If it succeeds in achieving either outcome, the city will attempt to work with Ohio Technical

College on a more formal basis, he said. Meanwhile, Mr. Brenner has his own ideas for his school. He’d like to get the city of Cleveland to close East 49th Street between St. Clair and Euclid avenues, where Ohio Technical College is located, so he can develop the school and the area around it into a proper campus. As it stands, the college is in a neighborhood that’s residential and industrial, and where parking often is difficult to find, Mr. Brenner said. “We own all of (that section of) East 49th, with the exception of one building,” said Mr. Brenner, who has been buying property in the area and continues to do so. “We’d like to own that whole street, close it off and perhaps create a real college campus.” Ohio Technical College has yet to ask the city about such a plan, he said, but the city and, in particular, Cleveland economic development director Tracey Nichols, have been supportive of the school and helpful in providing what it needs to grow. Cleveland spokeswoman Andrea Taylor said the city had not received a plan from the school yet, so she couldn’t say whether it would support such an effort, though she didn’t rule it out. “We support both local residents and the school in finding ways for them to coexist,” Ms. Taylor said.

Good trade The school seems destined to need more space, though. Its existing classes are attracting more students, and it’s considering expanding its curriculum to meet demand for workers from other fields, such as auto customization. The demand isn’t a surprise to Chad Schron, another nontraditional educator, who said his online school “is also seeing a boom right now.” “We are going to finish 2011 up considerably over 2010 and are hiring as fast as we can,” said Mr. Schron, division manager and cofounder of ToolingU, a Cleveland-based school that teaches machining and other industrial skills to existing workers and new job seekers. Many in manufacturing and other bluecollar fields have been saying in recent years that they’d like to see more students attend trade schools, rather than traditional colleges. There is demand for jobs such as machinists and expert welders, they say, as well as jobs that pay well. Mr. Schron agrees with them. “Experienced metalworkers make on average $40,000 to $75,000 per year. That is more than the average (person) with a degree,” Mr. Schron said. “So I believe the large amount of job openings, combined with the good salaries, is why people are looking into skilled trades.” ■

research have preceded car venture

continued from PAGE 3

Mr. Myers is no newcomer to the business arena — he was previously CEO of Akronbased S.D. Myers Inc., a large, private company that provides transformer and substation maintenance to electric utilities. But he’s an extremely small player in a field contested by the likes of General Motors and Nissan. That hasn’t dissuaded Mr. Myers, though, who came up with the idea to get into the electric car business in 2003, after reading a book called The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail, which he picked up at a discount at a used bookstore. That book was about how new inventions and technologies can create mega trends, and one chapter was on electric vehicles. “I’ve never been into cars in my life, but I couldn’t put it down,” Mr. Myers said. The book piqued his interest, but Mr. Myers, a religious man, wanted something more convincing. He asked God for a sign — and says he got one. Within two months of reading the book and praying on the matter, Mr. Myers said he received interesting and unexpected news at S.D. Myers. The company previously had won a free-trade case against Canada, but the country refused to pay up. Suddenly, the Canadian government just said “here’s your money,” Mr. Meyers recalls. “I was very happy.” Immediately, Canada sent the company a check for more than $8 million, Mr. Myers said. At that point, he quit his job as CEO of his family’s company and devoted himself fully to the electric car business. “I was like one of those Greek commanders who give the orders to burn the boats,” said Mr. Myers — there was no turning back.

Getting the lead out The first part was fairly easy. In 2004, Mr. Myers found a California electric car company that had failed because its former owner ran out of capital, not because its designs or ideas were flawed — he thought — and bought the assets of that company out of bankruptcy using only a small portion of his newfound capital. However, he soon found that the car’s design not only was imperfect, but it also needed a significant redo. The biggest hurdle to overcome was that the car was designed to run on lead acid batteries, even though lithium ion batteries since had replaced them as the preferred method for powering electric vehicles because they provide more power with

less weight. Mr. Myers said he realized quickly a change had to be made. A history major himself, Mr. Myers hired and went through three electrical engineers over a period of about five years before he finally found the help he needed at the University of Akron in the form of professor Tom Hartley. Mr. Hartley said he helped Myers Motors figure out a power management system for lithium batteries — a breakthrough that not only was critically important, but also was no small task. Unlike lead acid batteries, Mr. Hartley said, “Lithium is much more complicated. If you undercharge it, you damage it. If you overcharge it, you damage it. If it gets too hot, you damage it.”

An engineer in love Now, Mr. Myers said, the next step is for the company to go into production. To date, it has produced only a handful of cars for people who order them individually at a cost of about $30,000, provided they are willing to wait about two months to have their cars made by hand. That’s not going to work in the long run, acknowledged Mr. Myers, who said he thinks he can produce the cars for $20,000 or less if he can get them into assembly-line production. Will it happen? It’s too soon to tell, because Mr. Myers doesn’t know yet if he’ll be able to raise all the money he needs. “The challenge in raising money is that when people think of highway-legal vehicles, they typically think of a robotics (fill) plant that costs $1 billion to build,” Mr. Myers said. But, he added, “We are confident we will find an investor that recognizes that the world of building vehicles is changing.” Mr. Hartley, who said he has worked with Myers Motors informally, believes Mr. Myers has a chance of succeeding. The car is a good one, he said, with a decent range of 75 to 90 miles. It’s also eye-catching and fun to drive. “I love the car,” Mr. Hartley said. “I love the simplicity of the design — it’s easy to work on and elegantly simple … and it works.” Mr. Hartley noted that Mr. Myers already is producing a car cheaper than the big automakers, even if it isn’t quite as refined yet, despite its assembly by hand. “A Chevy Volt is about $42,000 and the Nissan Leaf is about $32,000,” Mr. Hartley said. “He’s cheaper, for sure, and simpler — and the range of his vehicle is approaching that of the Leaf.” ■

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Ascents: Germany work may move here MK2: Company roster has Dr. Edwards said the thing that sets Ascents packets apart is that the scent is contained in a gel. Other products require people to rub oil on themselves, which she said is a bad option for people who don’t want to wear that scent all day. Aeroscena, which employs four people full time and three part time, buys its oils through distributor Aroma de Terra in Garfield Heights and then sends them to Germany, where the oil is “polymerized” into a gel. As sales increase, Aeroscena may move that work to Northeast Ohio, which would allow the company to avoid a 4% tariff on imports, said Mr. Kohoot, its CEO. A company in New Jersey shapes the gel, which then is shipped to Macedonia, where AGS Custom Graphics packages it.

continued from PAGE 3

gift shops in the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in addition to a few other locations, said CEO Mark Kohoot, who is planning a national launch in 2012. Dr. Roizen’s daughter, Jennifer, a Ph.D. organic chemist, is the company’s scientific adviser. He did not respond to an email Crain’s sent last week. Though Dr. Edwards is not an investor, she said Kohoot the decision to serve as one of the company’s two medical directors in exchange for a small amount of Aeroscena stock was “a no brainer.” Several studies have shown the biological impact scents can have on people, said Dr. Edwards, who is medical director for the Center for Integrative Medicine at the Clinic’s Wellness Institute.

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dropped over last two years continued from PAGE 1

people, according to the bankruptcy documents. The company two years ago had about 50 employees, though most of them worked at other companies on a contract basis, according to a Crain’s story from June 2009. At least some of the reduction in staff took place while Mr. Kasper owned the company, he said, attributing the cuts to the economic downtown. A lawyer for the company declined to answer several questions about the bankruptcy. Mr. Kasper, who also is listed as a creditor owed $130,000, identified MK2’s new owner as Bruce Tizes, who is listed in the filings as the company’s president and managing member. Mr. Tizes also is director of IT consulting services provider Calance Corp. of New Jersey and managing

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Aeroscena also has exclusive U.S. rights to distribute scent dispersion systems sold by Scentcommunication of Cologne, Germany. Aeroscena today is testing the systems in a few dentist offices, a few car dealerships and a call center, said Mr. Kohoot, who was executive director of the Northeast Ohio French-American Chamber of Commerce in the mid1990s and has held sales positions at various companies. For now, most of the firm’s sales come from the $5 Ascents packets, which are “taking off” in the few locations where they are sold, Mr. Kohoot said, noting that the company expects to have “solid five-figure sales” in the fourth quarter. No formal marketing plan is in place yet, but Mr. Kohoot said he’s confident he’ll get marketing help from Dr. Roizen once the packets are available in stores. “We’re counting on it,” he said. ■

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partner of investment advisory firm Galt Capital LLP, which is based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to websites for the two companies. Calance Corp. has an office in Cleveland that shares an address with MK2’s headquarters on West Sixth Street. Mr. Tizes did not respond to multiple emails and phone messages. Mr. Kasper, who founded MK2 in January 2006, has helped start various IT firms in the region over the years. In 1995, he co-founded IT consulting firm Geschke, Kasper & Associates, which was sold in 1998. He co-founded IT consulting and staffing firm eXLTech LLC in 2000 and left that business in 2005. He also was one of the original investors in IT services firm Fathom IT Solutions, which sold its custom software development and staffing divisions to MK2 in 2007. ■

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THEINSIDER

THEWEEK

REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS

NOVEMBER 14 - 20

Rolling stone Iannone to gather some moss

The big story: Lorain is about to get nearly

■ Don Iannone, a Clevelander who has had a long career as an economic development consultant with a national practice, is planning to stick closer to home. He’s winding down his consulting practice and phasing in as executive director of Garfield Heights-based Sourcing Office, a regional council of governments that serves as a group purchasing office for its members and others. Mr. Iannone said in an email that he’s ready to settle down and help his hometown region. “I would like to focus this part of my career on helping move a Northeast Ohio organization ahead,” he wrote from Hattiesburg, Miss., where he was hired by the University of Southern Mississippi to evaluate its economic development master’s degree program. “The Sourcing Office opportunity is innovative with its emphasis on regional and governmental collaboration.” David Akers, who founded the organization as the Northeast Ohio Sourcing Office in 2005 and now serves it as a consultant, said 458 governments, nonprofits and even some businesses in Ohio purchase commodities and services through the co-operative. He’s especially proud of an information and telecommunications technology service that allows all members of the cooperative

■ Joe Morford, managing partner of Tucker Ellis & West LLP, saw firsthand this month how the Third World lives. Mr. Morford and his daughter, Samantha, spent five days in early November in El Salvador. They traveled with nine others to deliver supplies, including medicine, during a mission trip of St. Dominic, a Catholic parish in Shaker Heights. Though it was Mr. Morford’s first mission trip, the parish has sent teams three times a year for several years to visit the Santo Domingo Parish in Chiltiupan, Father Tom Fanta said. Mr. Morford volunteered after his daughter asked if he’d go with her. “I had never imagined myself going, frankly, and now I’m really glad that I did,” he said. The team also distributed ovens to help the people — who cook with fire — reduce the amount of wood they need and the amount of smoke they inhale. “I found it more meaningful to spend time rather than write a check to someone having a fundraiser,” Mr. Morford said. — Michelle Park

MILESTONES

BEST OF THE BLOGS

THE COMPANY: Leff Electric, Brooklyn Heights THE OCCASION: Its 90th anniversary

Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.

450 new jobs thanks to a planned, $85 million investment by Republic Steel. Canton-based Republic said it will install a new electric arc furnace and supporting equipment at the Lorain plant, adding 449 jobs to its existing work force of 480. The Republic plant makes highly engineered steel, which has the strength and other qualities needed for transmissions, drivetrains and other automotive and industrial uses, and produces seamless steel tubing used in natural gas exploration.

Down to business: With the goal of creating at least 3,000 jobs in Northeast Ohio over the next five years, two foundations announced a combined $3.2 million investment in the region to support emerging entrepreneurs. The donation — $1.6 million from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation in Hudson and another $1.6 million from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation in New York City — will establish the “Blackstone LaunchPad” at Case Western Reserve University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Kent State University and Lorain County Community College. The idea is to offer students and faculty — regardless of their discipline — coaches to get new businesses off the ground.

When one door closes …: Athersys Inc. lost one partner and gained another. The adult stem cell therapy developer based in Cleveland said it terminated its product development agreement with struggling Canadian biotech company Angiotech Pharmaceuticals Inc., and struck an agreement to sell up to $20 million in stock over the next two years to Aspire Capital Fund LLC, a Chicago-based investment fund. Angiotech had been helping fund clinical trials to test Athersys’ MultiStem therapy in patients who had suffered heart attacks.

On the western front: The Cleveland Clinic acquired North Coast Cancer Care, a full-service treatment center in Sandusky, which will become a department within the Clinic’s lauded Taussig Cancer Institute. North Coast’s former president, Dr. Steven Roshon, will serve as the department chair and will report to Dr. Brian Bolwell, chairman of the Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute. North Coast, which has 70 total employees and seven physicians, serves patients in Ashland, Crawford, Erie, Huron, Lorain, Sandusky and Seneca counties.

Something in the water: Opening Day for the aquarium that is under construction inside the Powerhouse in Cleveland’s Flats has been set. The Greater Cleveland Aquarium said it will open its doors to the public on Saturday, Jan. 21, with special passholder preview days on Thursday and Friday, Jan. 19 and 20. The aquarium, designed and built by Marinescape New Zealand, is the only free-standing aquarium in Ohio. It will be home to more than 5,000 freshwater and saltwater fish. This and that: Private equity firm Blue Point Capital Partners of Cleveland acquired Selmet Inc., an Oregon company that makes complex titanium investment castings for the aerospace and defense industries. Selmet, formed in 1983, has about 200 employees. … The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission announced that Scott Van Pelt, an ESPN SportsCenter anchor and host of ESPN Radio’s “The Scott Van Pelt Show,” will host the 2011 Greater Cleveland Sports Awards on Feb. 2, 2012, at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel.

Leff, a third-generation, family-owned electrical supply distributor founded in 1921, has grown to employ more than 110 people in eight locations throughout Northeast Ohio. Harry Leff started the company as a small appliance and housewares business. With $2,000 and a $400 credit he saved, he bought his first building at 5123 Woodland Ave. The company expanded with new buildings in Cleveland on three occasions over the years. In 2007, to support Leff Electric’s continued growth, the company moved to its current headquarters at 4700 Spring Road in Brooklyn Heights. The 90th anniversary milestone “does not happen by accident or good fortune,” says current president Bruce Leff, noting the efforts of employees, customers and suppliers have been critical to the company’s longevity. Leff Electric has more than 15,000 items in stock and represents about 500 manufacturers. For information, visit www.LeffElectric.com.

THE COMPANY: Paytime Integrated Payroll Solutions, Solon THE OCCASION: Its 30th anniversary Paytime is marking 30 years in business with the launch of a new website, www.Pay time.com. The provider of payroll services said the website offers visitors “more streamlined and intuitive navigation as well as a one-click quote feature.” In addition, the site offers an exclusive section at www.Paytime ForRestaurants.com for its growing restaurant client base.

to operate compatible systems. That way, a municipality and the school district that serves it, for example, can share management systems. — Jay Miller

A trip south that wasn’t a vacation

If you want to enjoy fast 4G, Cleveland’s a good place to be ■ Cleveland is one of the top cities in America for people who want 4G mobile data speeds. So said a company called RootMetrics, which bills itself as an independent service that measures “mobile experience from a consumer’s point of view.” Since March, RootMetrics said it has been testing mobile data speeds in 27 markets, including Cleveland, performing a total of more than 238,000 data tests. Nineteen of the 27 cities met RootMetrics’ threshold to be considered a “4G city” — offering download speeds greater than 3 Mbps in more than 50% of tests. Cleveland was one of 11 markets that earned “upper tier” 4G status, as 51.4% of the tests RootMetrics performed here met the 4G speed criteria. The fastest data downloads were in Denver, where 61.8% of the tests hit the speed mark. Eight other cities qualified for “second tier” status, hitting the speed requirement 40% to 50% of the time. Eight markets missed the 4G threshold, including major metropolitan areas such as Boston, Miami, New York City and Washington, D.C.

This room with a view comes at a good price ■ The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is part of a nationwide trend of government bodies buying properties rather than renting or building them to take advantage of the weak sales markets. “While some state and local governments

Cleveland lawyer steps up to chair Federal Bar section ■ One of Northeast Ohio’s own is chairing a new Federal Bar Association section that’s dedicated to civil rights law. Diane Citrino, a founding shareholder of Thacker Martinsek LPA in Cleveland, now is the only Northeast Ohio attorney currently heading an FBA section, according to Sherwin Valerio, manager of sections and divisions. Ms. Citrino began her one-year term as section chairwoman in September. Based in Arlington, Va., the Federal Bar represents the federal legal profession and consists of more than 15,000 federal lawyers, including 1,200 federal judges. With the addition of the civil rights law section, there now are 20 sections, which serve as avenues for information-sharing. According to Mr. Valerio, the newest section was formed because a recent poll of Federal Bar members revealed they wanted one dedicated to civil rights law. Ms. Citrino said she was chosen to lead because she had expressed interest in doing so in her FBA survey response. “The attorneys and judges who are participating in the section are just great colleagues to bounce ideas off of,” she said. One of the first ideas the section’s growing member base has is to compile a bank of jury instructions that could serve as model instructions for those working civil rights jury cases, Ms. Citrino said. “It’s important it be organized in a way that gives value to the members so that it’s a robust section,” she said. — Michelle Park

are selling office buildings and other properties to deal with the downturn, others are taking a different” approach, The Wall Street Journal reported. “In parts of the country where values have remained anemic, governments are buying buildings out of foreclosure or simply taking advantage of the multitude of properties on the block.” One example cited was the Port Authority’s $3.1 million purchase in July of a warehouse building at 1100 W. Ninth St. that looks out to Lake Erie. “When it relocates its headquarters there in 2014 it will reduce operating expenses and get rent from other tenants that will yield a return of about 8%, according to Brent Leslie, the authority’s chief financial officer,” The Journal reported. Mr. Leslie in July told Crain’s the purchase could end up saving the Port Authority $270,000 a year.

CWRU prof paints a picture of a notable new museum ■ An art history professor at Case Western Reserve University provided some context for an Associated Press story about a major new art museum in Bentonville, Ark. Bentonville is the home of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and the museum, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, is the vision of Alice Walton, a Wal-Mart fortune heir. Ms. Walton’s collection provided a “sort of instant museum,” said Henry Adams of CWRU. Rather than starting with a small collection and slowly expanding, Crystal Bridges was fully formed from day one, The AP noted. “You usually don’t have a museum that appears out of nowhere,” said Prof. Adams, who ranks the new place “somewhere between the top and the middle” of American museums.

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