Crain's Cleveland Business, June 10, 2024

LABOR MARKET LOSSES

The accelerating retirement rate of increasingly older workers presents another hurdle for employers. PAGE 9

Portfolio company accuses Society Brands of fraud UH CEO views quality over quantity approach

Primal Life Organics founder sues Amazon aggregator

By Jeremy Nobile

Society Brands, a self-described tech-enabled consumer products company, made “serial misrepresentations” about its enterprise that allegedly induced a smallbusiness owner in Fairlawn to agree to a sale that she otherwise wouldn’t have, according to a lawsuit led in the Stark County Court of Common Pleas.

Trina Felber, the founder of Primal Life Organics, a maker of natural and organic skincare and den-

tal products, is accusing Society and its leaders in this case of fraud, fraud in the inducement, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract, among other things.

Felber claims that she and the business she founded 12 years ago have su ered damages “in excess of” $15 million since Primal Life was acquired by Society just months ago.

Society asserts that any claims against it are meritless.

See FRAUD on Page 17

Says health system is a leader in value-based care

By Paige Bennett

e phrase “quality over quantity” is a cliche, but proponents of value-based care — including University Hospitals CEO Dr. Cli Megerian — believe applying that philosophy to health care reimbursement is a key to improving overall care.

With a value-based health care model, providers are compensated based on patient health outcomes, encouraging both improved and more e cient means of care. Me-

Developer with track record of Ohio City projects readies apartments and rehab near West Side Market.

Cleveland Charge are leaving Wolstein Center

gerian, who has been at the helm at UH since 2021, said the health system views itself as a national leader in the model.  e Cleveland-based health system, which encompasses 21 hospitals and boasts a workforce of roughly 32,000, is a participant in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Shared Savings Program.

Under that program, hospitals, doctors and other health care

See HEALTH on Page 16

University Hospitals CEO Dr. Cliff Megerian | UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS

Developer plans apartments and rehab near West Side Market

By Stan Bullard

AHA Development, a Cleveland realty developer with a track record of Ohio City projects, has surfaced with a plan to rehab an 1880 vintage frame building at 2621 Lorain Ave. and add new apartments.

e project is valued at more than $1 million, according to an online Cleveland city building department application to upgrade four suites in the existing structure and add another ve apartments.

e project adds another thread to the remaking of lower Lorain with new apartments and rejuvenated retail.

dition is being designed by Horton Harper Architects of Cleveland, which has designed dozens of realty developments in the region.

e relatively small scale of Market House may be a prelude to what's to come in the real estate development world after the Federal Reserve Bank hiked interest rates from record lows during the pandemic to ght in ation. Smaller projects require lessnancing than big ones.

More community banks might be willing to undertake projects of smaller scale than large ones as lenders pull back from the go-go realty market of the past four years.

The project adds another thread to the remaking of lower Lorain with new apartments and rejuvenated retail.

James Asimes, a principal of AHA, led the application for the latest project dubbed the AHA Market House in city records. He declined to discuss the project on Friday morning, May 31. An email response to questions on the project was not received by 1:20 p.m. Friday.

Real estate developers are frequently shy about discussing projects before airing them with Cleveland building and planning o ces, the local block club, and area community development corporations — in this case, Ohio City Inc.

Chris Schmidt, interim executive director of Ohio City Inc., declined comment on the project because his sta has not yet met with Asimes or his team.

The proposed three-story ad -

AHA already has put its in ll stamp on the famous Ohio City historic district. It replaced the longempty Ohio City Furniture store at West 44th Street and Lorain Avenue with a two-story building with secondoor o ce space.

Called Harbor 44, that project seized a rare opportunity: It snagged a Sherwin-Williams paint store as its rst- oor tenant. e store was forced to relocate when its former location in a shopping center across Lorain from the West Side Market was demolished to produce the site for what's now the award-winning Intro mixeduse project.

AHA also completed Clermont, a 15-suite apartment on Fulton just south of Lorain. While not big-ticket commercial deals, especially those of late by others, they are vital to the block-byblock e orts it takes to provide more housing and investment on pint-sized lots available in the neighborhood.

Two downtown apartment buildings run into lender woes

Stan Bullard

Real estate investors may get the chance to pursue two distressed apartments in downtown Cleveland after e Luckman's luck ran out with a foreclosure proceeding and e Grant apartments were deeded to a lender.

An a liate of Marlin Spring U.S., one of the BAZ Group of companies of Toronto, is the subject of a May 30 foreclosure proceeding led by BSprt JPL LLC, a New York City-based lender, seeking to foreclose at the Luckman, located at 1801 E. 12th St., because loan payments weren't received since April.

As for e Grant, Jason Friedman, who owned the apartments through an LLC named after the building, on May 31 transferred ownership of the structure at 248 Euclid Ave. to an a liate of orofare Capital of Los Angeles. e Cuyahoga County transfer form included a checkmark on a line indicating the transfer was to pay o a debt, and no money changed hands.

Downtown insiders say both properties traded near the top of the apartment market.

e Luckman's default was no surprise, given recent challenges at the property. However, the Grant, with apartments in a former dime store, was a surprise because Friedman's family has owned apartments for decades.

Cuyahoga County land records show orofare provided an $11.8 million loan to the Friedman-led W.T. Grant Apartments LLC to renance the property in 2021. at was two years after the Friedman's group undertook a name change to e Grant and other improvements after buying it for $9.9 million in August 2019.

e Grant — most of it originally a six-story W.T. Grant store

and two other buildings of two and three stories — was renovated to apartments in 2002. e storefronts on the rst oor are separately owned by an a liate of MRN Ltd. of Cleveland.

In Luckman's case, the building su ered a re and required substantial repairs besides other challenges.

rough Sphere LLC, Marlin Spring acquired the building for an undisclosed amount in 2018, with a $35.9 million loan from BSprt JPL LLC.

In a case assigned to Judge Kevin Kelley, the lender asked for the appointment of a receiver and the sale of the building. It said it had not received payments on the loan in April and May, which constituted a default on

the mortgage.

Luckman rises 20 stories, has 407 apartments and dates from 1968, according to CoStar and county records.

Marlin Spring and Friedman each did not reply to two phone messages and an email about the foreclosure case and building giveback, respectively.

Ralph McGreevy, executive vice president of the Northern Ohio Apartment Association, said in a phone interview that the Luckman case re ects a traditional mantra in real estate: "Don't buy at the top of the market no matter how good the deal looks. We've seen it again and again." He declined to comment on e Grant as he was unfamiliar with the transaction.

The commercial building at 2621 Lorain Ave. with apartments behind it would be updated and a three-story apartment building attached behind it. | COSTAR

The Grant, which includes three buildings on lower Euclid Avenue, has been surrendered to a lender based in Los Angeles. | STAN BULLARD

A lender has sued the owner of The Luckman, a 407-suite apartment building, to foreclose on the property and authorize a sale to recoup its investment. COSTAR

Several Cleveland companies land on Fortune 500 list

By Crain's Staff

e newest edition of the Fortune 500 is here and, once again, a number of Northeast Ohio companies — including a handful based in Cleveland — have made the list, ranking the biggest companies in the United States based on revenue.

In all, Ohio saw 27 companies make the 500, with the highestranking being, unsurprisingly, Cardinal Health. With a reported revenue (by Fortune) of $205 billion, the Dublin-based health care giant had no change in its ranking. It also recently made its way into the Cleveland-area market with its purchase of Specialty Networks.

As for companies headquartered in Northeast Ohio, Progressive made a 26-spot jump to rank 62nd overall, with a Fortunereported revenue of $62 billion, a whopping 25.2% growth.  Cleveland's Sherwin-Williams ranks 176th with a $23 billion revenue (a 4.1% change and a small hop up two spots).

Another giant, Cleveland-Cli s, ranks 185th with $22 billion in revenues reported — though it's a 15-spot drop from before, re ecting a reported -4.3% change in revenue. ( ough if CEO Lauren-

Steris announces layoffs as part of restructuring

By Paige Bennett

Medical equipment company Steris (NYSE: STE) plans to eliminate less than 300 positions as part of a previously announced restructuring plan.

Steris said in an SEC ling last week that the move comes as part of a strategic shift in its approach to the health care surgical business in Europe, product rationalizations, facility consolidations and the impairment of an internally developed X-ray accelerator.

It expects most of the actions to be completed by the end of scal year 2025 and result in improvements in income from operations of about $25 million annually.

e moves will enhance pro tability and improve e ciency, the company says. Steris said it anticipates most of the bene t of the restructuring to occur in scal year 2026 and beyond.

Steris is based in Dublin, Ireland, with U.S. operations headquartered in Mentor. It sells medical equipment such as surgical tables, sterilizers and washers. In April, the company agreed to sell its dental segment to private investment rm Peak Rock

Capital for nearly $800 million in cash. It said it expected to complete that sale in the rst quarter of its 2025 scal year.

e company said it has incurred $44.4 million in pre-tax expenses related to its restructuring in scal year 2024. It expects to incur approximately $55.3 million in additional restructuring expenses, including $36.2 million related to severe and other compensation costs, $15.3 million related to lease and other contract termination costs and $3.8 million related to accelerated depreciation and amortization.

e company employed more than 18,000 worldwide during scal 2024, according to the SEC ling. e majority of those employees (11,419) were in the company’s health care segment.

In May, Steris announced a U.S. GAAP net loss for the scal 2024 fourth quarter of $1.4 million, or 1 cent per diluted share. Total revenue for the fourth quarter increased 10% to $1.5 billion compared to $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter of scal year 2023.

A company spokesperson did not immediately return a message from Crain's seeking comment Monday morning, June 3.

co Goncalves gets his wish of swooping in to snatch U.S. Steel, it seems the company stands to bounce higher next year.)

e other two Cleveland-based companies (at least according to

Fortune) that made the 2024 500 both saw big jumps. Parker-Hanni n ($19 billion revenue, 20.2% increase) jumped 45 spots to No. 216 and KeyCorp ($10.4 billion revenue, 27.9% in-

crease) climbed 73 spots to No. 386.

Other Northeast Ohio companies making the 500 are:

No. 204: Goodyear Tire & Rubber ($20 billion revenue, -3.6% change, 13-spot drop).

No. 331: FirstEnergy ($12.5 billion revenue, 3.3% change, 12-spot jump).

No. 446: J.M. Smucker ($8.6 billion, 6.6% change, 19-spot jump).

No. 450: Avery Dennison ($8.4 billion, -7.5% change, 29-spot drop).

No. 492: RPM International ($7.3 billion, 8.2% change, no change in ranking).

While not nding themselves in the rari ed air of the Fortune 500, other Northeast companies that earned rankings on Fortune's list of biggest companies include TransDigm (No. 537), Timken (No. 662), Applied Industrial Technologies (No. 696), Lincoln Electric (No. 722), Hyster-Yale (No. 733), Medical Mutual of Ohio (No. 773), Diebold Nixdorf (No. 779), Avient (No. 863), MasterBrand (No. 951) and Nordson (No. 972).

The new Sherwin-Williams building rises in downtown Cleveland as the company remains among Ohio’s top-ranking companies on the Fortune 500. | DAN SHINGLER

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April reportedly the best month for Cleveland hotels in city’s history

By Joe Scalzo

As David Gilbert likes to say, Destination Cleveland’s job is to get a lot of rst dates for Cleveland and then turn them into long-term relationships.

is spring, a lot of those dates ended up back in a hotel room.

Powered by the Women’s Final Four, the total solar eclipse and the Cleveland Guardians’ home opener, the city’s hotels were fuller than a Jaw Breaker corned beef sandwich from Danny’s Deli.

“In April, our hotels had the best month in the history of this city,” said Gilbert, the president and CEO of Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission (GCSC). “Our hotels are doing extraordinarily well, and our job is to try and keep it that way.”

Visits to Cuyahoga County have increased by 20% since 2011, Gilbert said in a presentation to Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday, June 4. In eight of the last 10 years, visits to Cuyahoga County have increased at a rate greater than domestic travel visitation growth, he said.

Cuyahoga County had 17.9 million visitors in 2022 — the latest year Destination Cleveland has full data — which was 112% higher than 2021 and 92% of the 2019 total, the last “normal” year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gilbert expects the city to top the long-coveted 20 million once the 2023 numbers are released later this year.

“Bottom line, we’re growing. We’re growing a lot,” he said. “We always say our job is not to ll the hotel rooms. Our job is to get people to come to Cleveland and

it will turn the turnstiles at the Rock Hall. It will get more people in the neighborhoods. It will ll more hotel rooms.”

Sports continue to be the main drivers for Cleveland tourism, something that will continue this summer with July’s PanAmerican Masters Games, which will include 3,000 to 4,000 athletes from 50 countries. Also, August’s WWE SummerSlam event at Cleveland Browns Stadium has already sold more than 40,000 tickets, with 60% of those sales coming from people who live outside Cuyahoga County.

bert said. “We are now truly a signi cant midsize convention city, and we are beating major players around the country every week.”

Destination Cleveland spends about 36% of its $19.5 million annual budget on marketing, which included spreading the word about April's eclipse and the Women's Final Four.

"We didn't create the eclipse, but we made sure the media knew that our community was the epicenter for eclipse traveling across the country," Gilbert said. "We started working on that years ahead of time. ese things don't happen by accident."

“We didn’t create the eclipse, but we made sure the media knew that our community was the epicenter for eclipse traveling across the country.”

David

Gilbert,

president and CEO of Destination Cleveland and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission

e GCSC also has attracted its share of smaller sporting events, like the NCAA Division III baseball championships (which is going on now in Eastlake), USA Wrestling’s 2024 U23 Nationals and U20 World Team Trials at Spire Institute & Academy (which ran from May 31 to June 2), the NCAA Division II swimming and diving championships and four di erent youth volleyball championships.

“We are a big sports town,” Gilbert said. “Sports are a big driver.”

Convention sales also are up, to the tune of 240 events totaling 224,691 total room nights.

“Convention sales, our team is knocking it out of the park,” Gil-

Destination Cleveland also spends a lot of time and money researching whether outsiders would consider visiting Cleveland, and the organization said the city’s perception continues to change for the better.

Cleveland’s brand engagement score in 2023 was 66, a sevenpoint increase over the previous year. ( e baseline score is 40.)

More than six million people visited Destination Cleveland’s website in 2023, a 24% increase year over year.

“When you look at aspirational cities — the ones where you say the name of the city and people think, ‘I’d love to go there’ — we’re not there yet,” Gilbert said. “What we do know from research is, when people come here, their perception changes drastically. But based on the research we’ve done, we’re so far ahead of where we were 10 years ago.”

Spectators watch the total solar eclipse at Voinovich Bicentennial Park in downtown Cleveland. | GRACEMCCONNELL

Cleveland Soccer Group co-founder promises ‘competitive bid’ for NWSL expansion team

Like Brandi Chastain lining up a penalty kick, Cleveland Soccer Group (CSG) co-founder and CEO Michael Murphy nally has his goal in sight — and he’s approaching it with con dence.

Following “productive discussions with our private sector partners” over funding for a new downtown stadium, Murphy said CSG is con dent it will submit a strong bid for a National Women’s Soccer League expansion team.

Joe Scalzo league’s owners’ meetings in November of 2022 in hopes of joining the NWSL as an expansion team in 2024. But Cleveland was the rst group eliminated, with the league citing concerns over its stadium situation. e NWSL ultimately chose San Francisco as its 14th team, edging bids from Tampa and Boston. Last September, the NWSL awarded Boston the expansion rights to the league’s 15th team. Boston’s team will begin play in 2026.

“We knew going through the

“Our job at this point is to land all the planes at the same time,” Murphy said in an interview with Crain’s Cleveland Business. “In order to have a competitive bid, you have to have the right ownership group, the right facility plan, the right practice facility and the right market.

“We’re excited to say that after 18 months of hard work, we’ll have a competitive bid.”

CSG announced earlier this year that it is seeking $90 million in public money for a $150 million, 12,500-seat South Gateway stadium located immediately south of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse and Progressive Field. e stadium also would serve as the home eld for Cleveland’s MLS Next Pro team, which is scheduled to begin play in 2025.

CSG has pledged $60 million for the stadium along with an additional $133 million for a training facility for the incoming MLS Next Pro team and the expansion NWSL team, which would begin play in 2026. e public funding would come through admissions taxes and public revenue bonds, which would include the city, county and state, CSG said.

When asked if he could share any details about how much public funding CSG has secured, Murphy said, “We are not prepared to disclose specifics at this time to maintain our strategic advantage in a competitive landscape.”

NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman told ESPN in April that the league will choose the location and ownership group for its 16th team at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Unlike 2022, when the league elded inquiries from 60 cities, the NWSL is taking a more curated approach in 2024, with about a dozen prospective ownership groups signing non-disclosure agreements.

“We know enough to advance the process,” she said. “It’s self-selecting people who understand what the expectations are for investment. We wouldn’t want anyone to waste their time; we don’t want to waste anyone else’s time.”

Cleveland was one of four groups that presented at the

process last time was going to be important for us because we got to know a lot of the players in the league and the owners of the league, and we got to see the process play out,” Murphy said. “We know that when we presented last time, we were able to shine a very favorable light on Northeast Ohio. e market is fantastic. We’ll be able to be the top, preeminent soccer brand in a major American city with lots of runway.

“ is facility we’re talking about building is really critical for the

If your business is

league. What we’re trying to do here would make Cleveland one of two teams in the league (along with Kansas City) with control over their own facility. Last time, we weren’t as far along at all in the facility plans. We’ve made incredible progress over the last 18 months and we’ll continue to do so.”

Murphy said there is still a lot of work to do on CSG’s bid, since “not everything is buttoned up and dialed in.” For instance, the Ohio House approved $1 million

in funding for the stadium earlier this year, but the Senate is still working on its version of the bill.

CSG will also continue to seek season-ticket pledges for its “Back the Bid” campaign. Murphy expects to have 14,000 pledges by the time CSG submits its bid.

“We’ll keep pushing and raising the pro le of our bid,” he said. “Women’s sports continue to generate a lot of positive momentum. All you have to do is look at the WNBA right now and all the stories about Caitlin Clark. I think that’s symbolic of what’s going on across women’s sports and not just at the professional level. And now we have new NCAA rules coming out and things are changing. I think there’s a lot of opportunities out there for Cleveland.”

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Cleveland Charge moving to Public Auditorium in new deal

By Joe Scalzo

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ G League affiliate is on the move again — about 1.3 miles to the west, to be exact.

The Cleveland Charge will leave the Wolstein Center to play home games at Public Auditorium, after an emergency ordinance was approved by Cleveland City Council at its meeting on Monday, June 3.

"We are thrilled to welcome the Charge and their fans to Public Auditorium," Mayor Justin Bibb said in a news release. "This move underscores our commitment to leveraging incredible historic assets like Public Auditorium and bringing more people to downtown Cleveland. We look forward to a great season and a successful partnership."

The six-year agreement, which begins with the 2024-25 season, requires the Charge to make $3 million in improvements to the facility and also pay for labor during each game. The work includes architectural and design improvements to existing locker rooms, plumbing, electrical and mechanical systems. Those renovations will begin this summer.

“I’m excited the Cavaliers continue to invest in downtown Cleveland, this time using the historic Public Auditorium for its Cleveland Charge team,” Council President Blaine A. Griffin said. “Not only are they investing millions in renovations, but bringing life back to Public Auditorium which has been used for sporting events going back to at least 1936, when 11,000 watched boxer Joe Louis defeat Eddie Simms.”

In exchange for those improvements, the city will credit rent and labor costs up to $1 million over the term of the agreement.

“Any building we play in needs to be at G League standards from a basketball standpoint, so that’s going to be the main focus of our investment,” said Mike Ostrowski, president of franchise properties for Rock Entertainment Group. “We think it can be a very viable arena.”

The Charge have spent the last three seasons at the Wolstein Center, having moved downtown ahead of the 202122 season after a decade in Canton. (The Charge played the 2020-21 season in Orlando due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)

The Charge averaged 3,383 fans per game this season, which was not only about 500 more fans per game than last season but also more than the team averaged at any point during its decade in Canton.

Among G-League teams,

they finished in the top 10 in attendance, sellouts and ticket revenue, and in the top 15 in sponsorship revenue. But the Charge wanted to find a facility where they could be the main basketball tenant and have more flexibility with their ingame setup.

“We had three good years there (at the Wolstein Center) and it helped get our franchise to a great spot, but we’re really excited about this potential opportunity at Public Hall,” said Ostrowski, who oversees both the Charge and the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters. “As we saw the growth of the franchise, we were looking for viable locations and, ultimately, Public Hall was sitting right there for us. It’s a great building with great history and great architecture and great, great bones.”

CSU for being flexible — they even played some doubleheaders with the CSU men’s and women’s basketball team — they preferred a venue with more available dates.

“At Public Auditorium, there’s not a competing basketball entity and, really, not a major competing winter sports entity,” Maragas said. “So we were able to pick and choose from a number of dates. They still have a lot of things they’re booking in the space from time to time, but during this short process where we’ve been working with them, they’ve been very open and really willing to work with us to make sure this is a joint venture that’s a win-win for everybody.

The six-year agreement, which begins with the 2024-25 season, requires the Charge to make $3 million in improvements to the facility and also pay for labor during each home game.

Public Hall has a 10,000-seat capacity, with about 6,500 fixed seats. (The Wolstein Center’s capacity is 8,500, but the Charge condensed the arena to about 4,500 seats for most games.) The Charge are particularly excited about the expansive floor level, which allows them to offer the same courtside setup as the Wolstein Center — including the extra 150 premium seats they added near the end of last season — and add extra floor-level seating. They can also use the space between the court and the stage as a fan engagement area for kids and families, as well as a premium club offering all-inclusive access.

“We’re just trying to take what we’ve done — and, really, what we’ve been doing since we acquired the franchise — and build on it,” said Rocco Maragas, the Charge’s senior vice president and chief operating officer. “We want to stake that claim to being really unique, really fun, really engaging to fans and provide access.

“That giant floor … provides so much access for people to come and have fun at Charge games and it gives us a lot of optionality with what we can do. We put a beach over at the Wolstein Center. Who knows what we’ll do with this much space.”

Although the Charge praised

In a letter supporting the emergency ordinance’s passage, Frank D. Williams, the city’s director of the department of public works, wrote that the Charge need to relocate quickly due to the scheduled demolition of the Wolstein Center. But sources with the Charge and the Cavaliers said that did not play a part in the team’s decision and Cleveland State said there are no immediate plans to demolish the facility.

CSU's campus master plan, which was approved by its board of trustees and unveiled to the public in 2022, does include provisions for a multiuse arena, parking garage and mixed-use district, "however no final decisions about the future of the Wolstein Center have been made," a CSU spokesperson said. The Charge notified CSU on May 31 that it would not extend its lease.

"We are thankful for our successful three-year partnership with the Charge and wish them the best," CSU said in a statement.

Ostrowski and Maragas repeatedly praised CSU for its cooperation over the last three years, calling them “great partners.” But they’re also excited for the chance to host “24 strong parties” each year at Public Auditorium.

“Some people call them games, but we like to have a party and make sure people have a good time,” Maragas said. “It’s a beautiful spot. The building itself is gorgeous and some of the areas, it’s just a matter of transforming them into basketball spaces as opposed to usable general spaces. But as it sits, it’s gorgeous. You can tell that there was a massive sense of pride in the people who put those blocks together.”

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SUSTAINABILITY

Embracing change for a brighter, more sustainable future FirstEnergy’s role in the green energy transformation

WADE SMITH President FirstEnergy Utilities

A 35-year electric industry veteran, Wade leads FirstEnergy’s state electric company businesses, transmission companies and rates and regulatory functions.

Green energy transition: it’s a phrase I hear frequently today. With greater numbers of people experiencing physical impacts of climate change, including more frequent and impactful storms, a 2023 Pew Research Center report shows that a majority of Americans now support policies that prioritize renewable power sources and advance a more sustainable energy landscape. Even so, questions remain about how to make this energy transition a reality.

Electricity is the lifeblood of our society. Without it, people can’t come together in a connected workplace. ey can’t care for their children and elderly, feed their families or keep themselves safe. Local electric companies like FirstEnergy are exploring what we can do to better prepare for a reduced-carbon economy and help ensure our customers and communities thrive.

We stand at the forefront of a new era – an era de ned by innovation, collaboration and responsible business. With a keen understanding of our customers’ needs, FirstEnergy’s

leaders are engaging at the national and local levels to foster healthier communities by illuminating the path to a stronger, more sustainable future. Although FirstEnergy no longer generates electricity in Ohio, we are helping make that future possible by investing in a resilient, exible and technologically advanced grid that supports the energy transition, reliably integrates all types of energy sources and balances customer needs for reliability and a ordability.

ese investments in the electric grid of the future are designed to help enable a new-energy economy where Ohio businesses and residents can access the bene ts of a cleaner, more sustainable energy landscape.

According to an Environment America report, Ohio is 5th in the nation for potential bene ts and emission reductions from “electri cation” - the move to substitute fossil fuel. e data suggests that “completely repowering Ohio’s homes and businesses with electricity by 2050 would result in emissions reductions of 13.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — equal

to taking 3 million cars o of the road.”

FirstEnergy is taking steps to help make our communities the heart of an electri ed future. Our multi-year grid evolution initiative, Energize365, is focused on delivering the power our customers depend on today while also meeting the challenges of tomorrow.

With our recently announced $26 billion investment plan across our six-state distribution and transmission system between 2024 and 2028, FirstEnergy is forging a smarter, more secure and reliable grid that can accommodate electric vehicles, the electri cation of homes and businesses and clean energy sources.

As we expand these customer-focused investments, we’re also keeping a careful eye on a ordability.

Recognized as one of the nation’s leading utilities in promoting largescale development, FirstEnergy is also poised to support new residential, commercial and industrial growth –including the power-intensive needs of data centers in our region. Working closely with state, regional and local economic development organizations,

FirstEnergy proudly facilitates economic development e orts to help Ohio communities grow and thrive.

Innovation, collaboration and responsible business only get you so far. You also need a team of dedicated and engaged employees who are committed to building the sustainable future we all envision. FirstEnergy’s commitment to sustainability extends beyond our operational activities; it’s deeply ingrained in our culture through our Core Value of Stewardship. Our employee-led Ohio Green Teams are a prime example, leading the charge to donate or plant nearly 8,000 trees in 2023 alone, with a focus on underserved areas.

A sustainable future requires change from all of us — not to mention hard work. By embracing change together, we can achieve the cleaner planet and the brighter future we – and our children – all deserve.

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Majority of middle-class Americans say they face economic hardship

By Alex Tanzi, Bloomberg

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Almost two-thirds of Americans considered middle class said they are facing economic hardship and don’t anticipate a change for the rest of their lives, according to a poll commissioned by the National True Cost of Living Coalition.

About 40% of respondents were unable to plan beyond their next paycheck, and 46% didn’t have $500 saved. e February poll found that more than half said it’s at least somewhat dicult to manage current levels of debt.

The quick rise in interest rates, coupled with high levels of outstanding debt, helps explain the disconnect between economic indicators and how many Americans feel financially.

By many traditional measures, the US economy is strong, with robust labor, housing and stock markets, as well as solid gross domestic product growth. But the data don’t capture the nancial insecurity of millions of households who worry about their future and are unable to save, according to the group, created this year to come up with cost-of-living tools that help gauge economic well-being.

In the large poll of 2,500 adults, 65% of people who earn more than 200% of the federal poverty level — that’s at least $60,000 for a family of four, often considered middle class — said they are struggling nancially.

A sizable share of higherincome Americans also feelnancially insecure. e survey shows that a quarter of people making over ve times the federal poverty level — an annual income of more than $150,000 for a family of four — worry about paying their bills.

Overall, regardless of the income level, almost 6 in 10 respondents feel that they are currently nancially struggling.

“ e economy is booming, and yet many Americans are still gasping for air nancially,” said Jennifer Jones Austin, chief executive o cer of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, an anti-poverty advocacy organization that is part of the team that commissioned the poll. “ ey simply don’t have the breathing room to plan beyond their present needs.”

e poll, conducted by Seven Letter Insight, also highlights the divide between debt-free households who are sheltered from the impact of rising rates and families who are overwhelmed with ballooning loan and credit-card payments. One third of the respondents said they have no debt at all.

e responses on savings also show wide disparities. About one in ve respondents have at least $10,000 saved, but 28% have no savings at all. Overall, one in six said they have to make tough decisions on which bill to pay rst on a regular basis.

David Jones, co-chair of the National True Cost of Living Coalition, said the polling results crossed party lines.

“It was Republicans, Independents, Democrats expressing the same kinds of issues,” he said. “It’s not going away no matter who becomes president.”

Some of the ndings tracked with the Federal Reserve’s annual survey of household economics and decisionmaking, published last month. In that poll, close to half of respondents could cover a $2,000 expense, but 18% of adults said the largest emergency cost they could handle right now using only savings was under $100, and 14% said they could a ord an expense of $100 to $499.

AGING WORKFORCE

IDan Shingler

f you thought the “great resignation” that followed the 2020 pandemic was a problem, which it was: Brace yourself.

Because the “great retirement” is likely to be broader, deeper, more permanent and more di cult to reverse and it’s already underway.

ere’s no stopping it. America’s workforce is old, or at least much older than it used to be. In some sectors, such as manufacturing, the issue is particularly acute, but it’s evident even in professional service providers like law rms and professional settings like hospitals.

“It’s real,” said Ned Hill, an economist who has long followed the Northeast Ohio and statewide economies. “And it’s all over the place.”

A former dean of the Levin College of Public A airs at Cleveland State University, Hill recently retired as a professor of economic development at e Ohio State University.

“But I left at 72 — not 65,” Hill noted, citing himself as anecdotal evidence of a trend that’s more than apparent in the statistics. More jobs are held by people 55 and older, and more of those people are working longer.

LABOR MARKET LOSSES

The accelerating retirement rate of increasingly older workers presents another hiring hurdle for employers

Top: Instead of looking for trained machinists or other skilled workers, Solon-based Swagelok works to recruit people whom it thinks will be good employees and works to develop talent in-house. |

Right: There’s been a large in ux of new immigrants in Akron, where the nonpro t International Institute works to help them nd places to live and work and to integrate into the local community with things like English-language instruction. | GUS CHAN

Talent shortages

Lightcast, an international market analytics rm referenced by everyone from Hill to Federal Reserve researchers, economic developers and workforce advocates, focused on the trend in its report “ e Demographic Drought/ Bridging the Gap in Our Labor Force,” issued in 2021 and since updated.

Lightcast found that “surging Baby Boomer retirements, declines in labor force participation amongst millennials, ebbing birth rates and falling immigration numbers help explain why the U.S. is facing talent shortages.”

e number of younger workers age 16 to 24 has been declining for more than 10 years, Lightcast found, while the number of people 55 and older retiring has risen from about 80 million a year in 2011 to nearly 100 million in 2021, as baby boomers shu e o in record numbers.

Meanwhile, the number of “prime age” workers 24-54 has been stuck at just above 126 million for several years.  ose national numbers are cause for concern, experts say. And the situation in Northeast Ohio is a bit worse.

“It was really happening here before it was happening other places in the U.S.,

See WORKERS on Page 14

SWAGELOK

AGING WORKFORCE

One recruiting solution: Welcome a newcomer

By Dan Shingler

As Northeast Ohio employers grapple with a tight and tightening employment market in what one economist terms the era of the “baby-bust generations,” there is one source of employees that many overlook.

It’s not a new source of talent. In fact, it’s the same source that Northeast Ohio, and much of the nation, has always turned to when it needed more workers: immigrants.

ey helped build the Brooklyn Bridge, the nation’s canal systems and the railroads that took the U.S. coast to coast. Now their advocates say they can work in jobs ranging from basic labor to skilled positions in information technology and health care.

No one needs to tell Joe Cimperman that.  e former Cleveland city councilman is now CEO of the nonpro t Global Cleveland, which seeks to bring more immigrants to the region, prepare them for jobs and connect them to local employers.

Cimperman says the U.S. needs more immigrants, not fewer. He’d like to see the nation open up and welcome more, and for local employers to be more open about hiring them.

“Our economy is 50 years ahead of our immigration policy,” Cimperman said. “ is idea that we can have this quality of life, this innovation of health care, this speed of commerce and business, this advancement in technologies and industries that Northeast Ohio is known for — based on the native-born population having four kids? It’s just not so.”

ere’s also been a large in ux of new immigrants in Akron, where the nonpro t International Institute works to help them nd places to live and work and to integrate into the local community with things like English-language instruction.

“You need multi-pronged strategies to help the people who are here and also to bring more people in.”

Jacob Duritsky, Team NEO vice president

And he says that as the region is attracting more immigrants than it has in decades. ose immigrants represent a strength in the local economic landscape, not a weakness, he says.

“What Northeast Ohio has, what Ohio has, is we are attracting immigrants. We are attracting newcomers,” Cimperman said. “Last year was the biggest year for international newcomers coming to Cleveland since … just after World War II.”

Global Cleveland says the census data shows that, in the city’s heyday, Cleveland had far more immigrants than it did a few decades later and it has yet to catch back up.

“In the 1950 census, 14.6% of Cleveland was foreign born, which back then accounted for 132,880 people (this was the pre-suburb era when a far larger percentage of the metro area lived in the city proper),” Global Cleveland marketing director Gwendolyn Kochur said via email.

“ e comparable gure was down to 4.1% by 1990, only 20,975 people,” she added. Since then, immigration has picked up enough to drive some population growth.

“In the decade between 2012 and 2022, the foreign-born population of the Cleveland metro area increased by 7,922, an increase of 6.97%. e same gure saw an increase of 10,887 in Cuyahoga County. In the state of Ohio as a whole the gure increased by 134,608, a 29% increase,” Kochur said. “All of these gures represent a much higher growth rate than the overall population, which saw minor changes during that 10year period — down 1.8% for the metro area, and up 1.8% for the state.”

e institute’s Director of Job Development and Education, Joli Magnus, said her agency helped settle 500 refugees in Akron last year, most of whom are now working at area companies and organizations.

“Back in the day the numbers would be half that,” Magnus said.

“For Akron, that is de nitely a big number.”

Today, those refugees are more likely to be from Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Just look at where there is war and political vio-

lence today if you want to see who the immigrants of tomorrow will be, Cimperman and Magnus say.

“I tell people ‘read the paper and then wait a year or so — they will show up at our doors,’” Magnus said.

eir chief challenges lie with local employers reluctant to hire them. But most workers are accustomed to dealing with cultural di erences, said Sondra Palivoda, director of research at Team NEO, an economic development nonpro t that also supports immigration and immigrant employment.

“We have three to four generations working side by side and there are already cultural divides between those generations,” Palivoda said.

Potential employers also often have the false impression that immigrants are unedu-

cated and unskilled. In fact, the opposite is often true, advocates say — the poorest people in most nations can’t a ord to migrate, so those who do are often educated and skilled. “ at’s the thing about a war or political con ict. It puts everyone on an even playing eld. We get a vast variety of skill levels,” Magnus said. “In one of our English classes the other day there was an engineer, a medical EMT and an IT person. ey were all on the same lower English level at the moment, but half the class had college degrees.”

Cimperman echoes that sentiment and says local employers are missing the boat.

He bristles when he remembers people like the data analytics expert who couldn’t nd a job in Northeast, but was quickly hired by a company in Utah. “She wanted to stay here,” Cimperman said.

“We hear from businesses: ‘We need people, we need people,” he said. “Meanwhile President (Laura) Bloomberg is turning out more international students than Cleveland State (University) has ever done and Case Western (Reserve University) continues to be a leader. We’ve got the people. It’s not a matter of is the fuel for the future coming through to the engine or not — it’s a question of can the engine process the kind of fuel that’s here.”

Some employers are doing just that.

“You send one employee to a new company and, at rst, they might say ‘I don’t know, their English is a little rough,’ ” Magnus said. “ en they start working and they say ‘can you send me 10 more?’ ”

One Akron employer alone has already hired more than 40 immigrants via the International Institute, Magnus said. ings are changing, but slowly. Employers will need to pick up the pace to fully bene t from the new residents, which economic developers say is just one important tool that needs to be brought to bear to deal with workforce shortages.

“You need multi-pronged strategies to help the people who are here and also to bring more people in,” said Team NEO vice president Jacob Duritsky. “ ere are policy challenges, real and perceived ... but yes, immigration has to be part of the solution.”

Joli Magnus, the International Institute’s director of job development and education, said her agency helped settle 500 refugees in Akron last year, most of whom are now working at area companies or organizations. PHOTOS BY GUS CHAN

Amy Strainer, an instructor with the International Institute in Akron, plays a Jeopardy-style game with attendees of an English language class.

ere is a population of workers who o er unlimited potential

“Where are the workers?” is is a question that Northeast Ohio companies have been shouting from the rooftops. While it is true that we need to do a better job as a region to maintain and attract young workers, there is currently an untapped population that is begging to live, work and grow in Northeast Ohio.

I’m talking, of course, about a population of dreamers, doers and entrepreneurs: international newcomers.

Joe Cimperman is president and CEO of Global Cleveland.

To immigrate is an entrepreneurial act. It is the act of embracing the unknown; of taking what little you may have and journeying to a foreign place in order to make a better life for yourself and your family. It’s no secret that with their unique perspectives, work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit, immigrants and refugees have added countless value to our communities, companies, and culture.

And right now, we need to embrace our international populations more than ever. Northeast Ohio’s population is not growing fast enough, our workforce is aging and young professionals are migrating out of the state. Yet, our international population continues to grow. According to the American Community Survey, the overall population has declined by about 7.5% since 2012. However, the foreign-born population in our city has increased during that time,

from 16,792 to 22,646. is is a growth of 34.86% over the last decade.

e international population includes immigrants who venture to our state to receive an education from our many renowned universities. In fact, Gateways for Growth reported that nearly 7,000 students, many whom graduate with STEM degrees, pursue their higher education degrees in Ohio.

Our international population consists of hardworking refugees and immigrants, including international students, graduates and skilled workers who are eager to build careers and lives for themselves in our region. And this population continues to grow. So, where’s the rub?

To put it simply, our international newcomers are being overlooked.

At Global Cleveland, our mission is to grow Northeast Ohio’s economy by welcoming and connecting international people to opportunities and foster a more inviting community for those seeking a place to call home. In this line of work, you meet incredible individuals, each with a unique history and perspective. You hear stories of courage, resilience, sacri ce, sorrows and triumphs.

One of the more disheartening stories we hear is of the international newcomers who are desperate to build their lives in our re-

gion, but cannot seem to nd that one opportunity that will let them thrive.

Maybe it’s the highly educated Afghan refugee who aided our troops, resettled in Cuyahoga County with his family, and sent out dozens and dozens of resumes without

Or it could be the immigrant who, despite her quali cations, is turned away at a job fair booth simply because she is an immigrant.

ese are the types of stories that we hear all too often, and as a region where it is projected that there won’t be enough educated workers for in-demand jobs by 2025 (Aligning Opportunities in the Northeast Ohio Region), these are narratives we cannot a ord to hear repeated.

Our international population consists of hardworking refugees and immigrants who are eager to build careers and lives for themselves in our region.

success. Or perhaps it’s the young woman who received her master’s degree at a Northeast Ohio university who was determined to stay in Cleveland, but couldn’t nd a job, and ended up moving to Utah where she was o ered a position in nance.

From where you are

We need to demystify the negative connotations that surround the words “international” and “visa” on resumes. While Global Cleveland has continued to meet with more and more international-friendly employers with fantastic international-hire success stories, there are still many organizations who are unaware of the potential they’re missing. It’s too often that we speak with companies that are surprised to hear that not all talent even requires a sponsored visa due to green cards, Employment Authorization Documents, and temporary work visas following graduation. Cleveland is on the up-and-up, and there are dozens of organizations working to make sure our city is more than a “best-kept secret,” but a city known worldwide as an amazing place to live. As we continue to grow and evolve, it’s crucial that we embrace, welcome, attract and retain our international talent — just imagine how much we will grow.

How to nd new workers: Provide training

By Dan Shingler

One of the ways to get more people working at Northeast Ohio companies and organizations is simple: Train more people for better jobs.

Employers routinely complain that the people most di cult to nd are those with advanced skills, whether that’s an IT person up to date on the latest technologies or a manufacturing worker who’s a skilled machinist or a registered nurse.

And economists and workforce experts say people with stimulating and challenging jobs tend to want to work more than people in lower-skilled roles, so giving people skills increases the number of people participating in the workforce.

“If you look at the work participation rates for younger people with degrees, it’s already extremely high,” said economist Ned Hill, a former Ohio State University professor and former dean of Cleveland State’s Levin College of Urban A airs.

Some employers, along with workforce development organizations, are taking a proactive approach.

Support education

One way to expand: Help employees gain new skills by supporting their educational e orts, giving challenged populations new opportunities and o ering apprenticeship programs that once were a mainstay of manufacturing.

Brodie Longo, 22, is in one such local apprenticeship program. He got involved in it through AWT, or Alliance for Working Together, a Lake County nonpro t that works with area manufacturers, schools and others to expose young people to manufacturing and provide them training opportunities.

oor and I would have access.”

e kid who once looked in awe at things such as CNC milling machines now works with them as a young adult and an apprentice at Rimeco Products in Lost Nation.

He’s not yet a journeyman machinist, but he will be when he completes the program early next year. He said he’s already learned a lot though.

“I’m responsible for setting up the four (CNC) machines, he said.

He’s also helping to train men older than he is to run them and supports their work as well: “As my skill set has grown, I’ve evolved to helping people in the other cells.”

Longo speaks about his job with an obvious enthusiasm. But apprenticeships are less common than they used to be. People like Hill say companies don’t train people like they used to, and that’s hurting them and the labor pool generally.

“The one thing that has helped the most is we changed the dynamics of the people we recruit.”

Lindsay Domingo, Swagelok vice president of talent and communications at Swagelok

Except Longo didn’t need any exposure; he came to AWT a few years ago and already knew that he wanted to work in manufacturing and to gain the skills he’d need to succeed.

“All of my experience comes from my mother,” Longo said, noting that his mom worked in the shipping departments of a few local manufacturers when he was growing up. “As early as I can remember, from elementary school, the places she worked would have Christmas parties on the shop

Sometimes, they are already too short-handed to do training programs like apprenticeships.

“A lot of employers don’t use older workers as mentors and trainers for workers who are coming up,” Hill said. “Particularly in manufacturing, their margins are so tough they say, ‘I need them as a full-time employee, working.’ ”

Longo is evidence that such training works to provide a company with the skills it needs — he will have learned his trade doing exactly what Rimeco needs him to do, after all.

He’s also evidence that apprenticeship programs are recruiting tools, particularly for workers who are the most eager to get into

manufacturing, learn new skills and move up.

“ at was one of my main driving priorities and why I took this job: knowing I could get my journeyman certi cate after I nish this program,” Longo said.

Encourage current employees

Other manufacturers are also taking a new approach to their recruiting and hiring, and have found their e orts are more successful if they broaden their reach, including Solon-based Swagelok.

“ e one thing that has helped the most is we changed the dynamics of the people we recruit. Years ago, it was about attracting talent that had manufacturing knowledge,” said Lindsay Domingo, Swagelok vice president of talent and communications. “Now, we’ve had to look at that di erently and we’ve focused for three to four years now on developing talent in-house.”

Instead of looking for trained machinists or other skilled workers, Swagelok instead works to recruit people whom it thinks will be good employees. ey might not have ever worked in a manufacturing plant before, it doesn’t matter, the company has found.

“We can teach manufacturing,” Domingo said.

Employers in other sectors hard-hit by workforce shortages are also amping up training and outreach e orts. e phrase “meet them where they are” is a mantra for many. Develop partnerships

Local hospitals such as University Hospi-

Community colleges adapt to ll workforce needs

e challenges facing Northeast Ohio businesses are no mystery. Workers are aging and there is a talent gap to ll open positions, creating a labor shortage for indemand jobs. In addition, automation is changing the way we work. Employers will eventually need other ways to look outside the usual talent pipelines. But regional businesses won’t face these challenges alone. Community colleges are here to serve the community as an instrument

Michael A. Baston, J.D., Ed.D., is the fth president of Tri-C.

for workforce development and economic growth. Since opening in 1963, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) has continually played a vital role in that work as a community partner. We’re in this together.

Tri-C draws students from across the region, nation and globe, with 85% of our graduates living and working right here in Northeast Ohio. Our impact continues to grow as our Workforce, Community and Economic Devel-

tals, MetroHealth and the Cleveland Clinic provide apprenticeship programs for skilled nurses and other positions.

“We bring in close to 200 annually,” said Kim Shelnick, UH’s vice president of talent acquisition.

e three hospitals have even been collaborating on workforce e orts despite being competitors.

“Because the shortages are so severe, we all have a health care sector partnership,” Shelnick said. That would never have happened 20 years ago, she said, “but now we do it and we work very well together.”

UH has been actively going into the community to recruit people, targeting lowincome ZIP codes and working with the nonpro t New Bridge Cleveland to get them their initial training.

New Bridge trains local residents, nearly all of whom are Black women, to become phlebotomists, sterile processing technicians and medical assistants, said CEO Bethany Friedlander.

Relying on a combination of corporate support, philanthropy and some money from the state of Ohio, New Bridge trains about 150 people a year, Friedlander said. It charges nothing, and even provides transportation she said. Part of the program’s premise is that it does not cause students to incur debt or use any Pell Grant funding they might have, so that they can use those grants for degree programs later.

New Bridge is in the process of expanding, Friedlander said. It will soon be o ering training in new elds, such as nursing and behavioral health.

“In 2024 we acquired an LPN school, Central School for Practical Nursing,” she said. “We acquired the school after it struggled during COVID, like a lot of places did. We also required it because it represents the next level of training for us.”

e nonpro t is also planning to move in 2026, from two locations with a combined 32,000 square feet to a single new o ce that’s more than twice that size in Cleveland’s former Case Elementary School on Superior Avenue.

Friedlander said the demand for her students is strong — 94% of them are hired right after they complete a program. But the demand for training from community residents might be even stronger, which is a reason New Bridge is expanding.

“I will receive close to 1,700 applications this year for those 150 training slots,” she said. “That tells me my community sees the value of working in the health care industry. They also realize the training they need.”

opment division forges and strengthens partnerships with local companies to align our training programs with industry needs and prepares our students for the future of work.

By collaborating with industry stakeholders — including business owners, workers and employers — Tri-C can identify workforce trends and ensure that our curricula reflect employer needs in a shifting landscape. Throughout our classrooms, labs and workshops, we’re teaching the necessary skills and incorporating learning experiences so graduates are

To address staf ng shortages, University Hospitals has been going into the community to recruit health care workers and partnering with the nonpro t New Bridge Cleveland on training. NEW BRIDGE

Want to kick-start a career in manufacturing? Try boot camp.

Northeast Ohio companies, particularly those in the manufacturing sector, face signi cant workforce challenges. e region’s manufacturing industry—a cornerstone of its economy—is under pressure to address the skills gap created by retiring workers while attracting future generations to enter the sector.

According to a 2024 study by Deloitte, “ e net need for new employees in manufacturing could be around 3.8 million between 2024 and 2033. And, around half of these open jobs (1.9 million) could remain unlled if manufacturers are not able to address the skills gap and the applicant gap.”

As manufacturing continues to grow in Northeast Ohio, there is still a critical shortage of skilled workers to satisfy growing demand and replace the baby boomer generation in the workforce. Regional training centers like the AWT Transformation Training Center in Mentor are critical for the area’s economic health and workforce sustainability by training the next generation of workers.

thrive in the manufacturing sector. Creating and expanding pathways to careers in manufacturing ensures that the sector will continue to succeed and that workers will be connected to rewarding and ful lling careers. is collaborative approach has grown the alliance to a robust group of 500+ manufacturing companies, community organizations and educational members promoting careers through STEMto-career educational programs, including short-term credential training, pre-apprenticeship pathways and apprenticeship programs for the manufacturing community. AWT serves as both the training provider for manufacturing and the intermediary connecting the community to careers in manufacturing through collaboration with community and educational partners.

e AWT Foundation is uniquely positioned to serve as a hub for workforce development in Northeast Ohio through the state-of-the-art AWT Transformation Training Center built in 2022, which is well-equipped to provide hands-on training for workers of all experience levels.

AWT realizes the need for educators, counselors, parents and others to understand the importance of manufacturing as a viable career path.

Over the past two decades, a group of Northeast Ohio manufacturers have been working together to promote rewarding careers in manufacturing. In early 2002, the group saw the importance of collaboration to help address the need for skilled workers. Since then, the AWT Foundation has been hard at work to change the overall perception of manufacturing.

e group realizes the need for educators, counselors, parents and others to understand the importance of manufacturing as a viable career path. It is essential to expose students to STEM during their K-12 education and AWT aims to provide not only this exposure but also the ability to work with and shadow manufacturers through career exploration.

Additionally, collaborative training programs allow adults from entry-level to journeyman apprenticeship to enter and

Continued upskilling of the incumbent manufacturing workforce is vital to the region. Equally important is the focus on attracting new talent to manufacturing. e development of interactive, hands-on, entry-level programs is key to attracting new talent and providing them with the tools to get started and succeed in manufacturing positions.

By providing a short boot camp training program geared toward those who have little to no prior manufacturing experience, participants get a jump-start on some of the basics and connect with employers who are ready to hire. Training in a manufacturing environment equips new hires so they feel con dent and ready to start in a manufacturing role.

Providing students and adults alike with easily accessible training for manufacturing careers is made possible through programs o ered at regional training centers and allows for the growth of not only the individual but also the economy and the workforce. When we provide avenues for people to get back to work or explore new career pathways, it directly bene ts the companies, the community and the region.

“real-world ready” when they enter the workforce.

We’re also helping to assimilate gig workers into the region’s workforce as a labor resource. In October 2023, Tri-C produced a report highlighting how gig workers can provide solutions to the region’s talent pipeline challenges.

e report, “ e Gig Workforce Isn’t Just Delivering Dinner,” found that there are 87,000 gig workers right here in Northeast Ohio. Many are on par with traditional workers in terms of their education level, having at least an associate degree or some technical training, and the skill sets of these gig workers coincide with the needs of businesses.

Addressing talent challenges is key to region’s economic growth

Northeast Ohio’s economy stands at a pivotal juncture. We have promising opportunities for economic growth and face significant challenges, namely an aging labor force, disparate outcomes for underrepresented communities and the need to diversify our industry base.

How we address these challenges will shape our economic trajectory.

Recent federal funding for the Regional Innovation Engine (NSF Engines) led by Case Western Reserve University and the sustainable polymer hub in Akron is driving investment in advanced manufacturing across Northeast Ohio. Innovators such as Lincoln Electric and Integra Mission Critical LLC are launching products like EV (Electric Vehicle) fast chargers and modular cooling and electrical units for data centers. And as economic giants like Intel and Honda double down on Ohio, we are seeing more interest in Northeast Ohio as a business destination.

For Northeast Ohio to realize the full potential of these and to build a vibrant, sustainable and equitable economy, it is crucial that we address long-standing challenges like closing the talent supply/demand gap and addressing disparities in workforce participation by all underrepresented communities in high-growth industries.

Our success depends on our ability to build a more robust, talented worker population.

In 2016, Team NEO began measuring the talent supply-demand gap with the Aligning Opportunities report. Since then, we have seen a 53% increase in demand across IT, manufacturing, health care and other industries. At the same time, our aging population has led to a decline in our labor force.

Our core working-age population (2544) declined 11% in the early 2000s. While this cohort has rebounded nearly 3% since 2020, outpacing state and national growth, it is projected to grow just 1% over the next decade. And we anticipate a decline in the number of people 24 and younger.

Notably, this challenge is not unique to Northeast Ohio. Economies worldwide are wrestling with the fact that the baby boomer generation, which at its peak was the largest in history, is leaving the workforce, and low birth rates are not keeping up with our aging population. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the total fertility rate in the United States dropped to 1.62 births per woman in 2023, the lowest rate ever documented.

We’re also supporting gig workers’ desire to increase their skill sets through our Center for Entrepreneurs at Corporate College. Gig workers can find courses and workshops, such as mentoring programs, professional development and networking opportunities.

In addition, Corporate College offers a suite of training for different industry sectors tailored to specific business situations to meet their productivity needs.

More than 10,000 people from 30 different organizations participated in leadership courses, development training, DEI, team-building and other organizational development training.

Major corporations in Northeast Ohio

Despite these demographic headwinds, GDP is continuing to grow, albeit at a slower pace than in the past. On our current trajectory, we project Northeast Ohio will add nearly 13,000 new jobs and grow GDP by $20.2 billion by 2030. However, if we as a region work collaboratively on key strategies designed to bend the curve of our current trajectory, we could mirror the growth of the US, leading to the creation of more than 36,000 new jobs. is would generate nearly $32 billion in GDP expansion — results rivaling national forecasts.

Realizing this accelerated growth hinges on our ability to maximize opportunities for our current and potential workforce. Over 35,000 college graduates enter the regional talent pool annually, enough to bridge the existing supply/demand gap. Yet too many leave Northeast Ohio, underscoring the imperative of retention e orts such as the Cleveland Talent Alliance’s goal to retain 55% of graduates by 2030, with an emphasis on graduates in highgrowth elds, including information technology, nance and health care.

Moreover, our ability to bend the curve lies in equitable workforce development. Team NEO’s Vibrant Economy Index (VEI) tracks our regional economic performance and that of 12 peer markets. e data suggest that if we create e ective pathways to career success for women, people of color and all underrepresented people in our workforce, we can close the talent gap, increase individual prosperity and enhance our region’s competitiveness, and, neutralize the impact that an aging workforce.

Achieving this vision will require strategic alignment and a shared commitment across Northeast Ohio’s civic, business, and economic development leadership. is fall, Team NEO will release a dynamic interactive VEI tool that will empower our stakeholders to dive deep into the VEI metrics and discover actionable insights on how they can make a signi cant impact locally.   e demographic headwinds may be daunting, but our region’s destiny remains unwritten. rough innovative workforce development strategies purposefully designed to cultivate and equitably harness our homegrown talent, Northeast Ohio can forge a prosperous path catalyzed by emerging industries.  An aging population’s stranglehold on economic growth can be conquered, ensuring a vibrant future for decades to come.

have used Corporate College as a space to re-engage employees through off-site training, company retreats and conferences, and more. In the 2022-2023 academic year, we hosted 646 events for businesses, and 166 companies hosted gatherings at Corporate College East. One thing is clear: The skills needed for today’s workforce are rapidly changing, requiring more training for current talent, and finding new and different ways of sourcing talent.

We are at a moment where businesses and Tri-C can modernize Northeast Ohio’s workforce and drive economic growth. It’s time to meet that moment together.

Teresa Simons is the executive director of the Alliance for Working Together Foundation.

Jacob Duritsky is vice president of strategy and research at TeamNEO.

AGING

WORKERS

said Jacob Duritsky, vice president for strategy, research, and talent at the Team NEO economic development organization.

“Even in 2005 we were 3.5 years older than the country as a whole.”

en there is the fact that Ohio, and particularly Northeast Ohio, has been losing population. e state gained a bit more than 26,000 residents last year, after losing residents for three straight years, but many expect to see population declines in the years ahead. Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland and has about 1.23 million residents, has been losing people for years. Its population was about at in 2023, but is reportedly down 31,600 people from the 2020 census.

at may paint a rosier picture than actually exists, too. Hill said many of the socalled “new” residents in Ohio are retirees who moved out, spent their savings and then moved back to be closer to family and other means of support.

“We have a positive in ux for people 80 and above,” Hill said. “ ey go to Florida spend their money and come back to Ohio.”

And while the nation as a whole is facing a challenge of an aging workforce, that problem is more acute in places that are losing population than it is in places like the Carolinas that have seen population gains in recent years. Fewer people means fewer new workers to replace those who retire, Hill notes.

“ at gives (southern states with growth) a competitive advantage,” he said. “ ere’s a younger labor pool in the South. eir labor pool is growing, while ours is shrinking.”

Strain on companies

Ultimately, Hill said, the aging workforce is a big problem for the nation, and much of the world, because it means there will be fewer working people to support social programs like Social Security and Medicare that assist older people.

But employers are facing the issue already.

Manufacturing and health care are particularly a ected, Duritsky said, with 31% of the region’s manufacturing employees and about 26% of its health care workers now 55 or older.

Workforce challenges are not new to those sectors, though. Northeast Ohio manufacturers have complained for decades that quali ed workers were hard to nd, especially for skilled positions such as machinists and welders. Health care’s struggles to nd enough nurses and doctors has been a national topic as well.

But everyone seems to be watching their workforce age these days, from governments and nonpro ts to professional service providers like major law rms — some of which have reportedly raised their retirement ages in recent years.

Vorys, a Cleveland business law rm with 35 lawyers, hasn’t raised its retirement age, but it has seen its workforce trend older in recent years, said Cleveland managing partner Bryan Falk.

“We de nitely see it,” Falk said. “ ere are kind of two groups of older attorneys that we’re seeing right now. One group is retiring sooner than we anticipated, in large part due to COVID. ey saw, in many instances, that life is short and some had tragic losses. ey realized ‘I want to take as much of my retirement as I can’ and they accelerated their plans.

“ en you have people who just love being attorneys … they thrive in that environ-

Northeast

Ohio

workers 55 years

or older

More than 28,000 workers aged 55 or older left the workforce in 2020.

Population trends

In Northeast Ohio, those 55 and older account for more than a third of the total population.

Under 5555 years and older

SOURCE: TEAM NEO

ment, and we value them at the rm.”

Falk said he’s had at least three attorneys retire earlier than they had previously planned, sometimes by several years. at might not seem like a big number, but it’s nearly 10% of the rm and not insigni cant, Falk said, and he knows other rms have faced the same challenges.

e risk for a law rm or other professional service providers is not only the loss of horsepower, but also the loss of institutional and client knowledge that senior lawyers, accountants and others have built over decades.

At some law rms, younger lawyers might welcome such a trend — law rms are notorious for having partners hang on as long as possible, sharing in the rm’s pro ts but also preventing younger lawyers from moving into equity positions.

Falk said his rm combats that by not compensating lawyers based on the work they originate, and ensuring younger lawyers successfully gain experience early.

“We’re constantly working on succession planning,” Falk said. “We have teams that constantly expose younger lawyers not only to practice areas but to speci c clients … so, it wasn’t as a big a blow for us as it could have been at other rms.”

e other group of lawyers, however, wants nothing more than to continue working, which they can do at Vorys up to age 70, Falk said. But even after that they might be involved with the rm or its clients.

Falk said he worries more about the impact of an aging workforce on others, including his clients, than about its e ect on Vorys.

“We work with many clients going through this — we work with many accounting and investment rms as well … and the aging of America is a ecting everyone,” he said.

Combining forces

In health care, some entities have been facing sta ng challenges for years and some have come up with strategies they say are helping them deal with the additional challenges presented by the aging workforce.

“We’re all aware of that (challenge) in Northeast Ohio, and there’s a lot of collaboration going on within the community to address it, because it is pretty severe,” said Kim Shelnick, vice president of talent acquisition for University Hospitals.

Shelnick said UH attacks the problem in two ways: by nding ways to keep its existing nurses and other health care providers longer, and by creating new graduates and trained specialists rather than waiting for them to show up with resumes.

On that rst front, UH has adopted a program it calls “55 and 10,” which allows employees who are 55 or older and have 10 years of service to switch to part-time work, but still receive full-time bene ts.

“ at’s been a really positive program for our caregivers at UH, because when you get older and want a more exible schedule, we want to keep you,” Shelnick said.

On the other front, UH has taken its recruiting e orts out into the community “to meet people where they are” and also been working with workforce development agencies like the nonpro t New Bridge Cleveland, which trains mostly local Black women to become phlebotomists, sterile processing technicians and medical assistants.

New Bridge trains 150 people a year in its certi cate programs, many of whom go on to continue their education to become nurses or other health care professionals, said CEO Bethany Friedlander.

Manufacturers, as indicated by Du-

ritsky’s statistics, might have it the toughest, though.

Employers in that sector are facing a huge increase in retirements, said Ethan Karp, CEO of the Cleveland manufacturing advocacy and consulting nonpro t Magnet.

“After ve years of tracking this data, a record-high number of companies report a wave of imminent retirements. Twentytwo percent of manufacturing companies say that at least 16% of their workforce will likely retire in the next three years,” Karp said of Magnet’s survey data. “In total, we can expect to see 16,000-34,000 people retire — that’s six to 13% of the manufacturing workforce — in the next several years. Historically, companies have underestimated retirements, and they now seem to be nally bracing for the silver tsunami.”

Hill said that’s no surprise as workers in manufacturing, construction and similar elds can’t work as long as some others.

“For a white-collar worker in a nonphysically demanding job, working to 70 is something you can do,” Hill said. “But for someone in the skilled trades … by the time they get to their mid- to late 50s, they have some body damage.”

New strategies can help

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

For example, one reason Cuyahoga County might have seen its population atten last year, after years of population loss, is because some young people have moved back to take advantage of things like the low cost of housing, Duritsky said.

“ ere are really encouraging signs in the younger demographic, 25-34,” he said. “Post-pandemic you saw people from much more expensive markets coming back to Northeast Ohio and you saw a small increase in the percentage of college graduates we’re retaining.”

e region might be ahead of some others, in that employers here have been dealing with workforce challenges for a long time due to a declining population. Duritsky said that, along the way, some strategies and programs have been developed that give him hope.

For example, the Cleveland Talent Alliance, with which Duritsky is also involved, began working in 2023 to convince more local college graduates to stay in the region and work after they graduate.

Making them “sticky” can be as simple as getting them out to local events, like Guardians’ games, or otherwise involved with the community, he said — and if they take a job here, the chances they’ll stay immediately increase.

“ e young-people demographic, which is going to replace some of these older workers, is growing,” he said.

The entire region is focused on the issue, Duritsky said, from well-known entitles like the Greater Cleveland Partnership and Destination Cleveland, to smaller nonprofits and individual businesses.

ere’s still much to be done he said — more minorities need to be incorporated into the workforce with training and sometimes assistance, for example.

But, overall, Duritsky said he’s heartened.

“My own sentiment toward this topic has changed in the last few years,” he said, noting that he used be fairly defeatist about the topic.

“But now, there are some good small data points on how we might reverse this trend over time,” he said. “ at’s not to say everything is solved, but it o ers something to build o of.”

HIGHEST-PAID NON-CEOS CRAIN’S LIST

1. BankspreviouslyservedaspresidentandCOO. 2. Mapesservedaschairman,presidentandchiefexecutivethroughDec.31,2023. 3. PetzwasnamedchiefexecutiveasofJan.1,2024.Sheformerly servedaschiefoperatingof cer. 4. RankinservedaschiefexecutivethroughMay9,2023,andthentransitionedtoexecutivechairman. 5. ButierretiredasCEO,effectiveSept.1,2023. 6. Smithpreviously servedasexecutivevicepresidentandCOO. 7. Carestiopreviouslyservedasseniorvicepresidentandchiefoperatingof cer. 8. WellsretiredasofFeb.29,2024. 9. Kocipreviouslyservedasexecutive vice president and CFO. 10. Hedlund served as chief operating of cer through Dec. 31, 2023.

providers work together to provide coordinated care to patients on Medicare, with an emphasis on giving the right care at the right time and avoiding unnecessary costs. Providers that successfully deliver high-quality care while lowering costs can bene t from additional revenue.

Along with emphasizing valuebased care, UH has focused on optimizing the patient experience and the health system’s portfolio and becoming a powerhouse for translational research, Megerian said. In an interview with Crain’s, he discussed the ways UH is looking to di erentiate itself in a challenging health care environment.

As a Shared Savings Program member, Megerian said UH allows the federal agency to measure its quality in a number of metrics. at number is then divided by the cost of delivering care. Megerian said health care costs tend to be greater when a provider is dealing with unnecessary admissions or a lack of proper management of chronic disease states.

In 2023, UH received a $10 million gift from e Veale Foundation to establish the Veale Initiative for Health Care Innovation at University Hospitals. rough that work, the health system is engaging in deep conversations with

commercial and government agencies to demonstrate how the value-based model could be embedded within the way hospitals are paid, Megerian said.

“Our goal is to work with our government payers and private insurers to nd a way that they recognize the savings and the improvement in the quality of life given to their patients … to quantify the value given and make that part of the overall economic engine that pays for health care,” he said.

e term “value-based care”

was introduced by scholars in 2006, but the concept has been discussed as a potential solution for reining in escalating health care costs in the U.S. for 30 to 40 years, said omas Campanella, health care executive-in-residence at Baldwin Wallace University.

With the passage of the A ordable Care Act came the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, an organization designed to develop and test innovative health care payment and delivery service models. e number of patients receiving health care under value-

based arrangements has grown by 2.3 million over the last decade, according to a 2023 report by Humana.

Multiple value-based programs have rolled out in Ohio recently.

In January, Buckeye Health Plan announced a new partnership with value-based care company Cityblock to bring communitycentered care to 10,000 Medicaid patients in the Cleveland, Akron and Canton areas. Meanwhile, Yuvo Health, a New York-based startup that provides value-based care services to community health

centers, announced last fall its rst Ohio partnership with My Community Health Center in Canton.

While the industry at large has been getting closer to value-based care, Campanella said there is still a long way to go before it creates real value in regard to services provided. e base reimbursement system for providers, he said, is a fee-for-service model. at means the more services a provider renders, the more reimbursement they receive. As long as that model remains the focus, Campanella said, it’s di cult for

the U.S. health care industry to incentivize value-based care.  e other major challenge with implementing value-based care, Campanella said, is quantifying outcomes.

“How would you rate this outcome of a knee surgery versus this outcome?” he asked. “Is it just the individual’s ability to be able to walk well? What about that individual who doesn’t do the physical therapy they’re supposed to do? Or you’re doing value-based, and you’re working with somebody that has diabetes or heart issues, and they’re not necessarily engaged. How do you quantify that?”

Competition plays an important part in assessing value, Campanella said, and U.S. health care has struggled with price transparency. When a consumer is buying a cellphone or computer, they typically look at the cost compared to the quality of the product. If the quality doesn’t measure up to the price, they will probably buy from a competitor instead. Without price transparency, however, it’s tough to incentivize value-based care in the marketplace, Campanella said.

Creating friction-free access

An “economic tsunami” rolled into the health care industry in 2022, Megerian said. Hospitals face increasing costs for labor, medication and supplies. In today’s environment, it’s critical to develop a vision that’s practical and ful lls consumer needs, he said.

“ e notion of the patient who is a consumer wanting better access, better service, better transparency, is very, very important now in the health care sphere,” Megerian said.

Delivering a quality patient experience means providing “friction-free access” to appointments. In October, UH made the transition to the Epic electronic health record, a process that converted more than 5.6 million patient records and scheduling systems into one system.

Megerian said the transition was necessary for UH and that going with Epic allowed the system to bring all the necessary components of patient care under one package. It also gives physicians the ability to access patient records from other health systems immediately.

“ is was a massive transition all at one time,” Megerian said. “I would say it went swimmingly well as opposed to some places where there are major hiccups in patient care, the hospital has to shut down for a while or care is not delivered for months at a time.”

By May, UH anticipated having between 250,000 and 300,000 patients sign up for MyChart, but that number ended up being closer to 700,000. Megerian said UH is continuing to ne-tune aspects of Epic, he said, and resolving minor hiccups that have occurred post-transition. e health system is working to have nearly every physician have access to the MyChart portal for appointments.

Providing that compassionate brand of care also means creating a diverse caregiver workforce, Megerian said. UH wants to invest in the pipeline to bring more underrepresented minorities into medicine. It was one of 17 health systems nationwide (including Cleveland Clinic and MetroHealth) to sign Healthcare Anchor Network’s Impact Workforce Commitment last year, committing to reaching at least 10% of new hires annually from economically disadvantaged areas.

In 2023, 25% of UH hires were from disadvantaged zip codes, and 88% were minorities, Megerian said. at’s an 18% increase over the previous year. ese workers have a retention rate of roughly 80%.

“We know that when folks are treated by someone who looks like them or of their same background, they actually do better.

ey have more trust,” Megerian said. “So, this is something we’re very, very deliberate in doing.”

Implementing strategies to improve patient care

UH’s portfolio has grown signi cantly over the last 10 to 15 years. In 2021, UH merged with the Lake Health System, the largest addition in the organization’s history. is year, the health system opened the UH Amherst Health Center, expanding services for Lorain County residents.

With a portfolio spread across nearly two dozen counties, Megerian said it’s important to ensure best practices are implemented into standard operating procedures. UH is creating Systems of Care, or specialized programs that approach care using the same “playbook” or guidelines across its portfolios. Megerian said the strategy is designed to ensure care delivery is both cost and quality e ective.

Megerian said pairing attentive care with cutting-edge research gives patients access to the latest treatments. UH has more than 3,500 active clinical trials, he said.

Last fall, the health system partnered with the University of Oxford to launch the OxfordHarrington Rare Disease Centre erapeutics Accelerator. rough the 10-year a liation, the institutions have an ambitious goal of developing 40 new treatments for rare diseases.

e accelerator operates using a nonpro t/for-pro t model. It builds o the model of UH's Harrington Discovery Institute, which was founded through a gift from philanthropist Ron Harrington. (Harrington was one of Crain's 8 over 80 this year). Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is serving as chair of the accelerator's advisory board.

Megerian said the organizations recently put out a call for researchers to apply for the program. ough the work is only getting started, he said the organizations are con dent it will make a di erence in people’s lives.

Building a small acquisition empire

Society, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Canton, is led by brothers Michael Sirpilla, CEO, and Justin Sirpilla, president, as well as co-founder and Chief Operating O cer Shawn Dougherty. It acquires companies that have a large presence selling on e-commerce platforms like Amazon.

With recent deals involving the brands Vitality Now, Clarion and Cleanomic, Society has acquired at least a dozen brands since it was formed. In February, Society reported that combined revenue from its portfolio companies had topped $100 million.

In March 2022, Society raised $204 million to support its acquisition strategy in a funding round led by New York’s i80 Group. A press release at the time stated that investment helped position Society as “one of the best-funded Amazon aggregators in the world.”

In fall 2023, Society raised another $25 million in equity nancing featuring venture investors such as North Coast Ventures (Cleveland), Gullane Capital (Memphis, Tennessee) and Callais Capital ( ibodaux, Louisiana), according to court documents.

“We believe Society Brands’ business model to develop lasting and meaningful relationships with the sellers to grow their business and, as a result, Society Brands’ overall portfolio, is a formula for success,” said Gullane founder Trip Miller in a statement at the time.

A deal that allegedly 'turned into a nightmare'

Since Felber founded Primal Life in her home in 2012, the business’ annual sales have been as high as $12.5 million, according to court documents.

Primal Life, operated by Primal Life Holdings, was acquired by Society late last year in a deal that was publicly celebrated in January.

In what appears to be standard for Society and its portfolio companies, Felber was to continue running her business as a brand president under the Society umbrella. Society was to provide support that would enable additional growth beyond what Felber might otherwise be able to achieve without a well-capitalized partner in consumer packaged goods.

" is strategic partnership marks a signi cant milestone and will undoubtedly propel my mission to new heights and our commitment to provide natural, organic and sustainable products to enhance the well-being of individuals globally,” said Felber in a press release at the time.

Since her deal, however, Felber has become disillusioned

with Society, according to a lawsuit led on May 17 against the company, related entities such as SBI Alpha Fund, the Sirpillas and Dougherty.

“Relying on Sirpillas’ false representations, Felber eventually agreed to sell (Primal Life) to defendants in December 2023,” according to the complaint. “Felber relied on Sirpillas’ speci c and repeated representations that their company’s ‘tech-enabled platform’ and their ‘team of experts’ would help her grow and supercharge her company, while Felber would continue to run her company as ‘as usual.’ ”

“Instead, after closing the transaction, Felber’s experience rapidly turned into a nightmare,” according to the lawsuit.

Felber alleges that Society has failed to provide the sort of support that she was expecting post-acquisition, including additional employees and marketing help. Her advertising budget was allegedly cut in

half just weeks after the deal closed, according to the complaint.

Felber further claims that Society’s purported tech stack, which was expected to help “supercharge” her company, according to the complaint, barely exists.

As Felber allegedly raised questions and concerns with the Sirpillas about issues like these and the plan for growing her brand, they “quickly turned hostile, concocting a litany of false grounds to terminate Felber for cause,” according to the lawsuit.

“Astonishingly, within four months of selling her company to the Sirpillas, Felber found herself thrown out of the company she had spent 12 years building. But defendants’ fraud was still not complete,” according to the allegations. “Relying on their fabricated termination ‘for cause,’ defendants are currently attempting to invoke a penalty clause to accelerate

Continued on next page

in

Ohio, to

as part of the client engagement team, working with

consultants and engagement leaders to identify and define the analytical needs and outcomes required to support clients, and to participate in all data related aspects of the consulting engagement life cycle, including discovery, implementation,

modeling extracts for Continuous Improvement Models, services and custom tools for online models and client facing interfaces; act as the primary team interface with various levels of executives and lead the presentation of final deliverables; and engage in team management (recruiting, training, coaching and performance management).

a minimum Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science or related field (or the equivalent in work experience (24 months) as a Database Developer, ETL Developer, or similar data engineering or analytics role) and six months of experience with SQLServer T-SQL, SSIS or Python, Azure DataBricks, Azure Data

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

To place your listing, visit www.crainscleveland.com/people-on-the-move or, for more information, contact Debora Stein at 917.226.5470 / dstein@crain.com

ENGINEERING / CONSULTING

CT Consultants,

A Verdantas Company

Jennifer Brown has been promoted to Client Development Lead at CT Consultants, a Verdantas Company. In this role, Jennifer will focus on growing our account footprint in the Great Lakes Region and furthering the development and delivery of successful strategies to achieve our growth goals. Jennifer, a shareholder of the rm, has previously served as an economic development and funding strategist, which contributes to her unique ability to cultivate trusted relationships with our clients.

LAW

McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co., LPA

Barberton

the acquisition of the remainder of Felber’s company at a fraction of its value ... this was defendant’s fraudulent plan from the beginning.”

Felber is being represented in the case by Tucker Ellis attorneys William Stavole, Anthony Vacanti and Izaak Horstemeier-Zrnich, according to court records.

Felber and her counsel declined to comment.

ere is not yet an attorney listed for Society on the court docket.

its fair market value,” according to the case.

One of the factors used to terminate Felber, according to the complaint, was an accusation that Felber was no longer a registered nurse and “therefore (Primal Life) was falsely advertising its products were ‘nurse made,’” according to court documents. Felber’s complaint describes this accusation as “patently false.”

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Ancora

Ancora is happy to announce that Mitch Green has joined the rm as the Director of Operations, where he will oversee the day-to-day operational functions of the rm. Mitch brings over ten years of industry experience to Ancora, working most recently with Clearstead Advisors as director of institutional operations, where he oversaw the rm’s client service associates and institutional portfolio managers. Mitch earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from California State University Northridge.

PROMOTE.

Why not?

According to an online registry, Felber’s nurse license was issued in September 1992 and is unencumbered — meaning there are no restrictions on it. It does not expire until Oct. 31, 2025.

Felber alleges that another factor cited in her termination was her use of the title CEO on her Primal Life email signature and LinkedIn pro le.

McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co., LPA is pleased to announce that Carianne S. Staudt will be joining the rm’s Business & Corporate, Taxation, and Trusts & Estates groups as a Principal attorney. Carianne possesses extensive expertise in both federal and state tax law, representing clients with business related tax issues in Ohio. Additionally, Carianne provides comprehensive estate planning advice tailored to high-net-worth individuals and closely held business owners.

LAW

Roetzel & Andress

Roetzel & Andress is proud to announce that Diana Feitl has been promoted to Practice Group Manager of the Public Law, Regulatory & Finance Group. She joined Roetzel in 2015 as an associate and was named a shareholder in 2021. Diana received her J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law and earned dual B.A.s from American University in Political Science and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Celebrate your success with promotional products!

Barberton Community Foundation is pleased to welcome Gil Gonzales, Director of Economic Development. He previously worked for California Governor Jerry Brown in the Of ce of Economic and Business Development. In his new role, Gonzales will lead initiatives to grow Barberton’s economic base and build out Newell Street Industrial site. Gonzales said, “We can show the nation what one small community can do through collaboration, rolling up our sleeves and doing the hard work ahead.”

NONPROFITS

Three Arches Foundation

Gina Gavlak has been elected board chair of Three Arches Foundation, a community-focused grant making foundation. She will lead the Foundation as it carries out its work of investing in the advancement of initiatives that impact equitable access to behavioral and physical health care. Gavlak is vice president of development for Neighborhood Family Practice.

Philanthropy Ohio elected three new members to its Board of Trustees, including Three Arches Foundation president and CEO, Kristin Broadbent. Philanthropy Ohio is a statewide membership association that provides the network, tools, and knowledge to help people engaged in philanthropy become more effective, powerful change agents in their communities.

However, the company provided the following statement via email: “Society Brands is aware of the lawsuit led by Primal Life Holdings and Ms. Felber. We have spent countless hours to build Society Brands from the ground up through hard work and dedication and are very proud of the success and reputation we have today, including the relationships we have with brand founders. We believe the claims made in this lawsuit are completely meritless and we look forward to defending our actions, reputation, and presenting our side of the story through the proper legal channels.”

Lawsuit details

e acquisition agreement between Society and Primal Life was signed on Dec. 14, 2023, according to the lawsuit, which notes that Felber was “impressed” with Society’s pitch to support her company and accelerate its growth.

“After closing, Felber began to discover the Sirpillas’ representations had been false,” according to the complaint. “ ere was no team of experts. ere was no integration into a tech-enabled platform. No plan or resources to grow (Felber’s) company.”

Felber claims in her lawsuit that two weeks after her deal with Society, the company’s chief technology o cer was quitting because Society “would not spend money to build out a technology platform.” She also alleges that there was no “Amazon team” as promised, or if there was, those employees were “let go long before” Primal Life was acquired.

By February 2024, Felber claims that she was pushing back and asking question of Society about how they planned to help her the business. Felber alleges that she was “quickly reprimanded” and directed to report to Dougherty, according to the case.

“Dougherty was tasked with running Felber out of the company, making Felber’s job impossible at the time [and] looking for any possible angle to manufacture grounds to terminate Felber ‘for cause,’” court lings show.

Firing Felber “for cause” reportedly would result in a “trigger event” allowing Society to avoid paying Felber’s $125,000 severance and enable the Sirpillas to accelerate the acquisition of the remainder of Primal Life for “millions of dollars less than

“ is one allegation was particularly absurd and shows the Sirpillas' bad faith as they could have simply picked up the phone, texted, or emailed Felber at any time to request that she x her email signature block,” according to the complaint.

Felber was allegedly terminated by Society on April 15. By May 6, according to the complaint, Society informed Felber that it was exercising a 50% penalty under the acquisition agreement enabling it to purchase the remainder of Felber’s shares in Primal Life for $402,212. Society reportedly valued the company at $1.6 million at this point.

When Society purchased its controlling stake in Primal Life in December 2023, however, it valued the business at roughly $16 million, according to court documents. is steep decrease in value is ascribed to a decline in sales that reportedly occurred under Society’s ownership. Felber alleges that this was intentional and part of a plot by Society to justify terminating her and buying out the remaining equity stake in her brand for half the price.

“Plainly, the Sirpillas and Society Brands are playing out the nal step in their fraudulent scheme to steal Felber’s company,” according to the complaint. “Felber’s termination for cause was manufactured and in bad faith.”

According to complaint details, Felber withdrew Society’s right to use her name image and likeness in connection with the sale of Primal Life products. However, Felber claims that Society continued to send out mass marketing emails purported to be from her that included images of her and her family.

Felber allegedly told Dougherty that “had she known how Society Brands actually operates, she would never have sold (Primal Life) to the Sirpillas, and they had lied to her,” according to the complaint.

Felber is asking the court for a recession of the purchase agreement between her brand and Society as well as recompense for lost pro ts, wages and other nancial damages.

Broadbent

Gavlak

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