Crain's Cleveland Business

Great Day Improvements is on its way to becoming a national brand.

Quest to regulate R-PACE lending

BY JEREMY NOBILE

An e ort by controversial California company Ygrene Energy Solutions to o er a nancing program for energy-e cient home improvement projects across Ohio that can be paid for through property tax bills — otherwise known as property assessed clean energy (PACE) loans — has stalled out before it ever got started. ere are two types of PACEnancing: residential and commercial. PACE lenders may o er both. R-PACE refers to the residential versions that are available to homeowners.

Absent the passage of Ohio’s House Bill 646, which aims to regulate several aspects of how R-PACE nancing is conducted, the fact no R-PACE loans are being o ered on a statewide basis may be for the best, according to a coalition of consumer,

housing and lending industry ocials who have lobbied for the legislation.

at group includes the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, the Ohio Mortgage Bankers Association, the Greater Cleveland Reinvestment Coalition, and Ohio REALTORS, among others.

However, while Ygrene and PACENation, a national trade group for PACE nancing companies, suggest PACE lenders are not against consumer protections, they have claimed the Ohio legislation has anti-competitive components pushed for by the mortgage lending industry that don’t need to be there.

According to statehouse testimony, Ygrene has argued certain restrictions could prevent R-PACE programs from functioning at all.

A TRADITIONAL TABOO

Broker tackles disclosing illness in commercial real estate

BY STAN BULLARD

In what he characterizes as his best year as a broker, Newmark managing director David Hollister is surprisingly seeking ways to reduce his workload.

Hollister, 61, in March was diagnosed with degenerative motor

neurological disease, part of a family of illnesses associated with ALS.

For his own reasons, Hollister is violating an unwritten rule within the local commercial brokerage community: Do not disclose any illness, as competitors might steal your business.

In a commission business, where

the main determinant of survival, much less success, is performance, it is a widely held perspective that knowledge of serious illness may be potentially damaging professionally, though some agents say it is less common today than in the past.

These

Newmark managing director David Hollister was diagnosed with degenerative motor neurological disease in March.

| DANA HOLLISTER

Ohio House Bill 646 would put restrictions in place to control how loan nancing companies could operate

Great Day Improvements strives for national reach

RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY

Great Day Improvements LLC in Macedonia wants to be a national home improvement brand.

And after a few years of impressive growth, it’s well on its way.

In a fragmented industry like home remodeling, brand recognition is important. Executive chairman Ed Weinfurtner said larger companies, like the one Great Day has been building through organic and acquis itive growth, can create standard, re peatable processes.

“So the companies that are build ing scale are developing some com petitive advantages,” he said.

Great Day has certainly been do ing that in recent years, notably by acquiring two of its largest competi tors in 2021.

And, because Great Day has been focused on analytics and investing in the type of marketing that it knows works, the company has been able to grow faster than the remodeling in dustry overall, Weinfurtner said.

Demand in the remodeling indus try is still strong but returning to preCOVID levels, said Aaron En nger, national secretary for Illinois-based National Association of the Remod

eling Industry. Demand during the height of the pandemic was “white hot,” said En nger, who is also chief operations o cer for e Cleary Co. in Columbus, which does design and remodeling work. No one knows for sure why that was, he noted, but the general thought is that people were

at home more and spending less money outside of those homes.

Regardless, COVID “pulled for ward” some of the demand in re modeling, En nger said. And now, outside factors like rising interest rates and unstable energy costs are cooling that demand a bit, at least for the remodeling industry at large. En nger did not comment directly on Great Day Improvements.

Weinfurtner joined Great Day Im provements in 2014. He had been in terested in purchasing what became Great Day a few years prior, but other buyers had prevailed and formed the parent company over the Patio En closures and Stanek Windows brands. But he met with the buyer and shared what he had planned to do with the company; when Great Day hit what Weinfurtner called a “rough patch” a few years later, the team reached out.

Today, Weinfurtner is part owner of privately held Great Day Improve ments. Revenue in 2014, the year he arrived, was $44 million, according to data from Crain’s Privately Held Companies list. In 2021, it was $922.3 million.

“It became clear to us that there was a much bigger opportunity here

than met the eye,” Weinfurtner said.

Great Day Improvements is a di rect-to-consumer company, a mar ket that has changed dramatically in the wake of the internet. Weinfurtner compared it to baseball.

“People have been playing base ball for a hundred years,” he said. “But analytics has changed the game.”

Great Day Improvements’ model is to “control the entire process,” Wein

From shaping the leaders of today to developing the leaders of tomorrow.

Thank you to the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation. The Foundation’s support at Cleveland Clinic has ensured research breakthroughs, patient-centered clinical care and the development of tomorrow’s healthcare leaders.

We deeply appreciate the Mandel Foundation’s recent gift that endows the Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair and the Morton L. Mandel Innovation Fund. This gift provides resources for innovation and advances our leadership’s top priorities in our second century as an integrated healthcare system worldwide.

For leadership giving that drives leadership. For every care in the world.

Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic and holder of the Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair, and Morton L. Mandel, CEO and Chair of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation in March 2019.

Ed Weinfurtner is executive chairman of Great Day Improvements. | TRG MULTIMEDIA

furtner said, from design to manufacturing to installation. e company makes most of its own products, with some being made by partners. Not only does that allow for quality control, but it’s also given the company plenty of opportunity to analyze its work and its relationship with customers. Great Day started to delve into how its customers found it, so it could create models to predict behavior and repeat what works.

“We wanted to understand, and we wanted to get better at it,” he said.

And it was working. e company had re ned its business to what it did best — windows and patio enclosures, doing away with some of the other home improvement work the company had previously diversi ed into — and it was seeing growth. In 2018, Great Day began opening new locations, expanding within its current geographic boundaries. Weinfurtner said the goal was to take what the company had learned about marketing and driving interest and see if they could apply it to new markets.

“ e answer was yes,” he said.

WHAT’S AT STAKE?: Akron’s Sequoia Financial Group sold a minority equity stake in its business to San Francisco private equity rm

Valeas Capital Partners. Total nancial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. However, Valeas said it is committing $200 million in capital to Sequoia in support of its strategic growth plans. e deal is slated to close on Oct. 31. Sequoia, founded in 1991, will continue to be led by CEO Tom Haught and remain a majority employee-owned rm, according to the company.

STAY A WHILE: e six-story Extended Stay America Premier Suites in Independence sold for $7.27 million, according to Cuyahoga County land records.

Aimbridge Hospitality, the huge

e expansion continued in 2019, though this time, Great Day intentionally pushed its boundaries to the south, adding warmer winter locations to its portfolio. In 2018, there were 12 Patio Enclosures locations.

Now, there are about 60. And Weinfurtner expects that to reach 100 locations within the next two years. While the company has expanded beyond just patio enclosures, it’s the most complex home improvement project it o ers, Weinfurtner said. If the company can successfully o er it, it can add on its other services and products, too, in those new markets.

e year 2019 was also signi cant in that it marked when the company made its rst acquisition since Weinfurtner joined, of Hartshorn Custom Contracting Inc. in Florida. e purchase added a new product, but also showed that Great Day could successfully complete such a deal.

en in 2020, the company decided to intentionally grow its replacement window business. at’s more of a need, Weinfurtner said, as opposed to a want, like the patio enclosure business tends to serve. at

Plano, Texas, hotel management company, announced it will manage the property for the new owner, TWC Independence LLC, an a liate of ree Wall Capital of New York City. Aimbridge already managed the hotel for the prior owner, a Chicago investment group that held it under the name LSREF3/AH Chicago LLC. In a re ection on post-pandemic hotel values, LSREF3 paid more than ree Wall Capital, shelling out $12 million. County records also show ree Wall Capital paid less than the market value the county assigns it for property taxes, $9 million.

FLIGHT PLAN: e Sherwin-Williams Co. plans to build a company-owned airplane hangar at Cleveland Hopkins International

would provide a more stable stream of business. Great Day acquired Apex Energy Solutions in the fall of 2020.

e following year brought signi cant acquisitions in Universal Windows Direct near Cleveland (as well as another brand, Bath Authority, that came with that purchase) and Champion Windows near Cincinnati. e purchase of both was “transformative,” Weinfurtner said, bringing two of the company’s main competitors under its roof.

“We thought, boy, if we could get one of those, that would be amazing,” he said.

Beyond adding products and revenue, the acquisitions also added employees. Currently, Great Day employs about 455 regionally and almost 2,700 in total.

And Weinfurtner expects the company’s growth to continue as it builds its national footprint.

“We’ve got a lot of locations to open,” he said. “We’ll be busy for a while.”

Rachel Abbey McCa erty: (216) 7715379, rmcca erty@crain.com

Airport, where the coatings giant currently leases space for its jets. Legislation introduced at Cleveland City Council on Monday, Oct. 17, details a proposed groundlease deal at the city-owned airport. e property is 5.8 acres along West Hangar Road, at the northwestern end of the airport near a UPS air facility, a parcel map shows. e lease with the city would run for at least 30 years.

Sherwin-Williams would pay fair-market rent for the land, based on an appraisal, plus fees for pumping fuel and using aircraft lubricants. e publicly traded company wouldn’t disclose the cost of the hangar. A company spokeswoman noted the project will not involve a request for public funding.

Great Day Improvements specializes in making and installing enclosed patios and in window replacements. | CONTRIBUTED

Expanding the IT pipeline by taking the show on the road

BY KIM PALMER

e Greater Cleveland Partnership’s IT Careers Expo returned, after a two-year pandemic hiatus, as part of the organization’s annual Tech Week, which ran Oct. 18-20.

e expo, designed to bring students and graduates together with local tech employers to expand the pipeline of talent, added an o -site mobile program aimed at helping adults in minority communities nd a way into an IT career.

Its career-focused events at the I-X Center attracted more than 1,000 high school and college students from across the region to help drive them toward either an IT degree or career — and, as GCP’s managing director of tech economy initiatives, Courtney DeOreo, pointed out, to encourage those workers to stay in Northeast Ohio.

e expo on Tuesday morning, Oct. 18, brought in high school students for “Passport to IT Careers,” and then in the afternoon assembled college and university students and recent graduates for “Linking Talent to Opportunity.”

“For high schoolers, we call it an exposure and exploration program. ... We are just trying to generate awareness of the industry,” DeOreo said. “For the college and university students, we push an interest in IT jobs and internships. It’s more of a traditional career fair.”

e expo unveiled a Best of NEO map that allows attendees to visualize all IT opportunities available to them in region, which DeOreo said is another tool to help keep potential IT professionals here. It also branched out to address high school students who are not necessarily on a college path and might be better o going directly into entry-level IT jobs, which DeOreo noted still require formalized skills training or short-term credentials.

“We have realized that we were previously leaving these students out of the conversation, and we wanted to be more responsive to them,” she said.

e objective is to drive interest in IT careers regardless of the path, with organizations such as GCP’s IT workforce sector partnership looking to create a continuum of workers entering the eld with di erent skills at di erent levels — but as soon as possible.

As the expo at the I-X Center focused on a traditional path from education to employment, Craig Platt, GCP’s IT sector partnership managing director, was out in the community for two days with the Bridges to IT Roadshow. at program is aimed at adults in their 20s to mid-40s who live and work in communities underrepresented in the industry.

Minorities make up 23% of the population and 19% of the workforce in Northeast Ohio, according to Team NEO with data from 18 counties. However, Black workers hold only 12% of the jobs in the region, and only 8% in computer-related occupations.

e pilot program, created in January, was designed to develop and deliver a more diverse IT talent pipeline to employers, Platt said.

e goal is to bring to those communities a less formal, fundamental awareness of potential IT careers.

e two-day roadshow o ered four, 25-minute sessions that began with a robot demonstration, moved to a presentation of basic information about cybersecurity and a hands-on simulation of drone ying, and concluded with an introduction to a free coding app that attendees could use to assess their skills.

“We show them an industrial production robot and some drones,” Platt said. “After the demo with the robot, we then point out that those simple, repetitive movements are achieved using just 12 lines of computer code.”

Introducing tech that comes from only 12 lines of code or showing a cute robot run by the AI from a smartphone helps reach people, Platt said, and avoids having them shut down as the tech concepts become more complex.

“For so long, we were starting in the middle with more advanced technical foundational training versus really exploring interests and assessing skills that t each person,” Platt said.

He said motivating the region’s “untapped talent” toward IT careers and hoping for better outcomes for underrepresented communities required a step back to look for ways to make people comfortable learning basic IT skills.

“All too often, people expect candidates to jump into an IT career just because they point out that it is a great opportunity, but how can they if they really don’t know what it is or how to start?” Platt asked.

e di culty of taking that rst

step is the reason the roadshow started with what Platt calls “exposure and exploration.” Only after participants know what IT can do are they presented with any type of skill testing or assessment.

With the free app, called SNAP, attendees for the last 25 minutes of the roadshow were introduced to a program that uses logic-based sequencing skills to build simple computer code. Platt said the app helps many people realize they have an aptitude for skills that are the underlying path for IT jobs.

Another integral part of the Bridges to IT program, Platt said, is the partnership among minority-owned service providers and tech experts from Urban City Codes, We Can Code and the Minority Technology Alliance who teach the tech, and community-based organizations — JumpStart, Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Towards Employment, El Barrio and the Cuyahoga County Public Library — that provide coaching, job placement and funding for more training.

Using private, public and philanthropic funding available for both tech training and underserved communities, the Bridges to IT program can help with credentials for entry-level IT positions in customer service and quality assurance, Platt said.

“When you o er funding and support from the community, people are more con dent and comfortable, and these careers do not seem like such a pipe dream,” Platt said.

Kim Palmer: kpalmer@crain.com, (216) 771-5384, @kimfouro ve

Platt

DeOreo

The Bridges to IT Roadshow included hands-on simulations.

| GREATER CLEVELAND PARTNERSHIP

Flats Industrial Railroad looks to make tracks for the last time

BY STAN BULLARD

Taking a step closer to nal departure from Cleveland’s Flats and the near West Side, the Flats Industrial Railroad Co. has led with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to request authority to abandon and rip up its 2-mile track from Columbus Road to West 41st Street.

Flats Industrial led the request Oct. 11 with STB, formerly the Interstate Commerce Commission, in Washington, D.C. If no one les documents in the unlikely event they need the rail service or for a potential rails and trails use, the agency’s o ce of proceedings could approve the request. If objections or other plans are led, STB would open a 20-day period when other opinions on the issue could be submitted. Legal notices about the ling have already been printed in area newspapers of general circulation.

In the unlikely event the request draws opposition, STB records say the proposal might be forwarded to the board under past practices.

In the request, Beth Fournier, president of Flats Industrial, led a sworn statement saying it had carried no tra c on its line for at least two years.

e move follows the 2020 move by Grain Craft of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to shut its mill on Merwin Avenue, the last customer for the rail service. e railroad’s other customers for bulk shipments had disappeared over the years as the Flats became less industrial and more of a mixed-use recreation and entertainment district.

Should STB approve the request, the application said that Flats Industrial would remove and salvage the track from the 2-mile route. Multiple local, state and federal agencies have

The Flats Industrial Railroad is seeking federal approval to abandon and remove its railroad tracks and sell its land. The short-line railroad has operated since 1996. The tracks have served the area since the late 1880s. If the railroad closes, the roadbed may become part of Cleveland’s growing trail network.

CarnegieAvenue

BUSINESS VIA DATAWRAPPER

While the city and riverfront stakeholder groups prepared the Vision for the Valley master plan, what role the railroad land might play in the future was in play, but the uncertainty of its status crippled planning e orts.

“ ere is an interest, especially as part of the Vision for the Valley, for the rail line to become a public trail,” Haviland said.

e railroad property includes a bridge over the Cuyahoga River that could aid planning e orts or present a nuisance.

“I’m optimistic because Flats Industrial Railroad has been engaged with the community and talked about ongoing plans in the Flats,” Haviland said, including having a representative at planning meetings and contact with others in the Flats.

e railroad has already sold o a crucial part of its property north of Columbus Road near the closed grain operation.

wood at the same time acquired 3,749 square feet from the railroad to aid potential redevelopment of properties it owns at 1776 Columbus Road.

Dan Siegel, a principal of Integrity Realty, said in a phone interview that his company, as an abutting property owner, was noti ed by letter of the railroad’s plan to get authorization to shut down.

“ is is great for the area,” Siegel said, as it removes a potential impediment to new private and public projects.

However, Siegel also noted that rising interest rates and construction costs have for the time being put his own rm’s real estate development plans on hold.

e railroad also owns riverfront land on Columbus Road. e site holds a small cement-block o ce building above a train garage there. Its last diesel engine is parked outside.

been advised of the railroad’s plans in case they have concerns about the abandonment or impact on the area. None had been led by Wednesday evening, Oct. 19.

e Flats railroad is a privately operated short-line railroad. It was created in 1996 to provide rail service for clients that Conrail, as it was known then, wanted to drop as part of national railroad deregulation.

e line bisects the Scranton Peninsula and crosses the privately held underbird master development site on half the peninsula. Sites at underbird have been sold for a potential operation of Great Lakes Brewing Co. and one of two proposed apartment developments overlooking the river and downtown.

“We’ve worked to assure the high-

est and best reuse of the land and maximize development opportunities,” said Jim Haviland, executive director of nonpro t neighborhood group Flats Forward Inc. “ is is an opportunity and a challenge.”

Cleveland Metroparks last May acquired an acre from the railroad for $930,000 to expand its adjoining Rivergate Park, increase green space and for potential trail connections.

Integrity Realty Group of Beach-

Flats Industrial Railroad did not return three phone messages or an email from Crain’s Cleveland Business by noon ursday, Oct. 20.

Stan Bullard: sbullard@crain.com, (216) 771-5228, @CrainRltywriter

Ohio electricity rates are set to spike next June

DAN SHINGLER

e situation surrounding Ohio’s electricity market is getting far worse, with interest in bidding on the state’s power needs agging and energy ex perts predicting a huge increase in the default rate of Ohio utilities next June — and price increases ahead for all.

e utility default rates, also known as standard service o erings (SSOs), are the rates utilities charge customers if they don’t have con tracts to purchase power or if those customers are not part of some ag gregated system, such as NOPEC in Northeast Ohio.

Based on the results of recent auc tions — in which generators bid to provide the power needed by utilities to serve their default-rate customers — the default rates of Ohio utilities are expected to double when they take e ect next June and could last for years.

“ ese consequences of what’s happening in these markets will be with us for some time,” said Noah Dormady, an associate professor who researches energy policy at Ohio State University.

Matt Brakey, head of Brakey Ener gy, a Chagrin Falls energy consulting rm that works with large industrial customers, agrees the pain will be widespread.

“Power prices are going to go up for all these customers come late spring — it’s just a matter of how much,” Brakey said.

ose who are alert and proactive will be able to avoid some of the coming price hikes if they enter into competitive contracts with power providers, but not all of the pain, he said.

“I suspect residential and small commercial customers will find contracts in the 6- to 8-cent (per kilowatt hour) range, compared to the standard service offering that will be well north of 12 cents,” Brakey said.

That would mean those custom ers could see only an increase of 15% to 33% over a current default rate of about 6 cents/KWh. Today, the most savvy residential and small commer cial customers pay about 5 cents/ KWh on their existing contracts, Brakey said.

While the pending doubling of the default rate is a major concern, it’s only a symptom of a larger problem that has emerged and already im pacted the state’s SSO auctions, in which power companies bid to pro vide as much power as customers de mand under the default rate.

Dormady said he’s been alarmed by what he’s seen in recent Ohio SSO auctions for FirstEnergy and Duke.

In the case of the Oct. 4 FirstEnergy auction, only seven bidders partici pated in an event that normally draws about a dozen. Fewer bidders typically results in higher prices, Dormady said, and that auction came in at $120/MWh, which is what’s resulting in the default rate for FirstEnergy to be set at more than 12 cents/KWh.

“ e way I kind of put this into per spective is, let’s say you were selling your house and you had an auction. Would you get a better price if two bidders showed up or 200 showed up?” Dormady said.

Power prices in Ohio are spiking

But what was even more alarming, he said, was Duke’s Sept. 20 auction. It drew only six bidders, but, as Dor mady said several times during an interview about various aspects of the energy situation, “it’s even worse than that.” ere were 40 tranches of standard service o ering supply up for bid in that auction, and only 20 were sold.

at’s a rst, and it’s now unclear how power will be procured to meet demand beyond what was sold at that auction.

“ is is unprecedented, and we (as a state) don’t know what to do. e (Public Utilities Commission of Ohio) is going to have to make a deci sion. It’s never happened,” said Dor mady.

Brakey also said that the situation was worrisome.

“ e unsold tranches are some what concerning, and the PUCO is going to have to gure out how to handle that,” Brakey said. “I don’t know what the PUCO will do, be cause to my knowledge it’s never happened before.”

e PUCO did not respond to an email asking if it had decided on a course of action.

e results of both auctions point to the same problem, Brakey and Dormady said: Generators have lost interest in bidding to provide Ohio with power, at least for the on-de mand unlimited amounts of power they would provide as winners of an SSO auction tranche.

That’s because of the same situa tion that recently played out with NOPEC here in Northeast Ohio. NOPEC buys much of its power on the open market, at current prices, and then charges its customers ac cordingly. When those open-mar ket rates went to 12 cents/KWh this year, they were double the default rate charged by utilities like FirstEnergy — rates that were based on auction prices from before the war in Ukraine and the spike in prices.

NOPEC returned more than half a million customers to their utilities’ default rates in order to save them money, the nonpro t said when it took the action in August. at meant that the winners of the previous SSO auctions have to pro vide power, at a loss, to all of the cus tomers who migrated to the default rate.

Other energy companies were no doubt watching the situation in Ohio and determined they’d rather not risk getting caught in a similar situa tion, Dormady said.

“ ey may just be saying, ‘I’m go ing to hold out and take my chances in the wholesale market,’” Dormady said, rather than take an open-ended risk.

Brakey agreed.

“The suppliers that are bidding into these SSOs, in my personal opinion, are in total risk-off mode,” Brakey said. “They are scared of the Ohio market and the risk that’s in

herent in it.”

e situation is not NOPEC’s fault, they said; its customers were already leaving en masse when it made its August decision, and NOPEC doesn’t even have substantial operations in the territory covered by the worst auctions, Duke’s.

NOPEC’s situation was merely an illustration of what, for energy sup pliers, is a greater risk: the fact that under Ohio’s current rules customers can abandon aggregators like NO PEC and return to the default rate whenever they choose.

“It’s not just NOPEC, it’s the entire market in Ohio where people move easily,” Brakey said.

Whether and how that will be changed is anyone’s guess.

As for what’s at the root of the problem, that’s really the market for natural gas, said Dormady. Natural gas now generates so much of America’s electricity that prices for both now move in near-lockstep, he said.

Ned Hill, professor of economic development at Ohio State Univer sity, said that when Ohio deregulat ed its electric market, it thought it could count on natural gas prices

convinced that high natural gas prices are stable, after many were burned when prices plummeted during the shale gas boom, Hill said. Again, though, it’s even worse than that.

Not only are American drillers not producing as much gas as they might, at the same time the nation’s new LNG terminals are enabling the shipment of the nation’s lique ed natural gas to other nations, driving up the price at home.

at’s something the Industrial Energy Consumers of America has begun to complain about.

“Today, IECA sent a letter to the Senate and House Energy Commit tees urging them to address exces sive LNG exports that have resulted in prolonged systemic energy in a tion for domestic consumers and to examine the national security and economic implications of China’s actions to contract for (a) signi cant volume of U.S. LNG for periods of up to 20 years,” the industry group said in an Oct. 18 email.

According to the IECA, China has contracted to buy 44% of the LNG the U.S. has sold since September of 2021, leading to a 290% increase in natural gas prices — and a spike in electricity prices — while the price of gasoline only went up 45% over the same period.

“ ey should be up in arms,” Dor mady said, noting that the more LNG the U.S. exports, the less it will be shielded from global price spikes.

As for how the situation will re solve itself, and when, that’s any one’s guess.

Hill and Dormady said that if the price of gas stays high long enough, drillers are bound to begin produc ing more of the stu .

But drillers are about two years behind in terms of making new wells, and now they’re having trou ble nding labor, Hill said. ey also now have to gure into their calcula tions whether the current LNG sales will be stable, or whether Europe will again to turn to Russia for its gas and the U.S. limits sales to nations like China.

Brakey said he thinks that the companies brave enough to bid on the current and upcoming SSO auc tions are going to be in the catbird seat when open-market prices fall again, which he thinks could hap pen next year.

“I suspect the win ning suppliers will make so much more money because of how scared everyone else is,” Brakey said. “So I expect this SSO in crease to be a one-year blip.”

staying low nationally. That’s not proving to be the case.

“It was always with the assump tion that the natural gas markets would be pretty loose and the in credible amount of shale gas we have would be accessed in a reason able manner … and as the price went up, drilling would start again,” Hill said. “But the drillers are actual ly showing discipline, and they’re not opening their capped wells or drilling new wells.”

ey may not, either, until they’re

In the meantime, he’s advising smaller business clients and residential users he knows to study their alternatives in terms of picking an electric supplier for a contract and then to lock in that contract be fore next May’s meter-reading cycle and the jump in the default rate that he and others say will take e ect next June.

In the meantime, “It’s going to be a tough winter — it has to be,” said Hill.

Dan Shingler: dshingler@crain.com, (216) 771-5290

Average

prices,

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS GRAPHIC

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“I SUSPECT THE WINNING SUPPLIERS WILL MAKE SO MUCH MORE MONEY BECAUSE OF HOW SCARED EVERYONE ELSE IS. SO I EXPECT THIS SSO INCREASE TO BE A ONE-YEAR BLIMP.”

—Matt Brakey, head of Brakey Energy, a Chagrin Falls energy consulting rm

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What would you like the power to do?

Wherever you are with your goals, we’re right here in the Cleveland area to help

Tim Ryan, by a nose

There was an instructive online conversation last week in e New York Times, hosted by one of the paper’s conservative columnists and featuring editors at Tablet and Reason magazines, focused on how they and other “po litically homeless” voters — those with heterodox views on policy, the state of politics and the two major parties — think about the midterm elections.

In short: e never-easy choices are getting tougher as Democrats take a sharp policy turn left and Republicans veer even further right on substance, and indicate they’d much rather ght culture wars than govern.

We’re still, at heart, chamber of commerce-style centrists, looking for growth-oriented economic policies and compe tence in (not hostility to) governance with a minimum of so cial upheaval. Neither party o ers exactly what we’re looking for. at’s why we tend to bounce around in endorsements, backing both Republicans (Gov. Mike DeWine this year for re-election, U.S. Sen. Rob Portman when he ran in 2016) and Democrats (Chris Ronayne for Cuyahoga County Executive, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in years past) who aren’t necessarily perfect ideological ts, but have the experience and outlook that suggest they will do their best to represent all constitu ents.

Fanciful in this polarized era? No doubt some would say so. But we believe the country can do better.

We’re looking for a senator who takes the job seriously, works constructively within the system to advocate for Ohio, and is willing to compromise and on occasion work with the other party to advance good ideas. Someone along the lines of Portman, who angered Democrats a good bit of the time and frustrated Republicans occasionally, but was a smart and e ective senator. If Portman were running again, we’d en dorse him. But he stepped aside — a sign he didn’t think his brand of conservatism would cut it in a 2022 GOP primary — and Republicans nominated lawyer/venture capitalist/au thor JD Vance to take on Democrat Tim Ryan, the longtime congressman from the Youngstown area.

Our preference here, slightly, is Ryan, whose record is not perfect (he has, per Vance’s critique, been more liberal than his labeling would lead you to believe) but who has a history

as a hard worker on behalf of the state and signals an ability to work with Republicans on major economic issues. It’s telling that Ryan last week bought Sen. Joe Manchin to the state for an event; it’s not a stretch to see Ryan playing a similar role in the Senate as the West Virginia centrist.

e Senate recently pulled together meaningful bipartisan pieces of legislation, such as the infrastructure bill and a mea sure to support domestic semiconductor research and pro duction. We see Ryan as being far more likely than Vance to play a constructive role in working through such legislation.

Vance wound up in the general election race thanks to bil lionaire Peter iel’s money and former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in the primary, and though he cuts a much more thoughtful gure than many of the other GOP Senate nominees this year, it’s hard to see him as anything other than an unwavering Republican vote. If that’s what you’re looking for, have at it. Republicans these days de ne themselves almost exclusively by what they’re against — in ation, illegal immigration, “wokeness” — than what they are for or by explaining how they would address the problems they identify.

A little more than a year ago, Vance told e American Conservative, “I think our people hate the right people,” and while that might have just been bravado before a GOP pri mary, it’s an unfortunate encapsulation of a sentiment we loathe.

None of this should imply that we have great enthusiasm for Ryan or his party. Democrats of late haven’t done much on the economy to earn anyone’s trust. Virtually all markers of economic health have weakened this year. In ation, the issue most prominent on people’s minds, is a global phenom enon — check out the new U.K. in ation gures — but Dem ocrats’ spending practices contributed to it in the U.S., and they haven’t been able to tame it. Federal Reserve moves to increase interest rates to ght in ation haven’t worked yet, other than to slow down other areas of the economy.

We hope that Ryan, if elected, is not afraid to buck his party when needed. e country is not in a great place. It needs leaders, not partisans, and we believe Ryan is a better t for that role.

Executive Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)

Managing Editor: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com) Contact Crain’s: 216-522-1383

Read Crain’s online: crainscleveland.com

PERSONAL VIEW

Make New Markets Tax Credit program permanent YVETTE ITTU

Over the past two decades, Greater Cleveland has bene ted from millions of dollars of allocations from a well-regard ed 20-year-old federal program — the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) pro gram. is program has provided jobs and opportunity to those living and working across the region through tar geted community development that makes a di erence.

Ittu is president of Cleveland Development Advisors.

Cleveland Development Advisors (CDA), an a liate of the Greater Cleve land Partnership (GCP), has provided $265 million allocations of NMTCs to transformative spaces over the last 20 years. is includes a $5 million allocation of NMTCs to sup port MAGNET as it develops its new headquarters sched uled to open this week in Cleveland’s growing MidTown neighborhood. MAGNET is a Cleveland-based nonpro t whose mission is dedicated to driving innovation, growth and workforce development for Greater Cleveland’s manu facturing economy.

e NMTC allocation provides critical capital to the proj ect, which included renovating a vacant Cleveland school building to house MAGNET’s o ces, as well as a Manufac turing Innovation, Technology and Job Center. e new headquarters will feature a partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which will occupy part of the building for deep dive manufacturing education. e total project cost for the 57,000-square-foot development is $18.7 million.

CDA’s involvement in the project comes from the $50 mil lion NMTC award it received in late 2021 from the U.S. Trea sury Department. NMTCs were created by the federal gov ernment to attract private investment for catalytic projects that create positive economic impacts in low-income com munities, such as workforce development, quality employ ment and neighborhood revitalization.

One of the most e cient community economic develop ment tools for low-income communities ever enacted, NMTCs have leveraged an unprecedented level of invest ment to both rural and urban low-income communities, generating over $120 billion in total capital investment through public-private partnerships and creating more than one million jobs. e NMTC has an outstanding track re cord of revitalizing some of the poorest, most disinvested communities in our country — and it has the potential to achieve even greater impact.

In addition to the MAGNET headquarters project, CDA has also leveraged NMTCs on two other nearby projects. In Cleveland’s MidTown neighborhood, the emerging Health Tech corridor provides a holistic campus-style social service hub for area residents conveniently located along a worldclass bus-rapid transit line and a major thoroughfare. Two key organizations in the corridor — University Hospitals and Dave’s MidTown Market and Eatery — recently used New Markets Tax Credit nancing to expand and improve their services. University Hospitals had outgrown the space for their Rainbow Ambulatory Facility and MacDonald Women’s Health Clinic. Meanwhile, nearby Dave’s Super markets opened a new agship store to accommodate 21st century shopper expectations.

A key factor for both UH and Dave’s was the ability to combine client services in one location while partnering to promote health and wellness.

Write us: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing ClevEdit@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.

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BLOOMBERG

Community Health Centers play critical role in addressing health disparities

BY DOMONIC HOPSON

My family roots trace back to the Mississippi Delta, where my grandfather was born into a sharecropping family. He grew up less than 40 miles from Mound Bayou, Mississippi, where the rst Federally Quali ed Health Center (FQHC) was established in 1965. FQHCs, also called Community Health Centers (CHCs), were created as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Having experienced poverty rsthand, and seen the impact that limited access to quality health care has had on my family, it’s a personal mission for me to ght for health equity and access to high-quality health care for everyone.

My childhood informed my understanding of how people navigate through poverty. It instilled in me an empathy for what people endure just to get by. It also in uenced my education and career choices, leading me to a master’s degree in public health and my current position as president and chief executive o cer of Neighborhood Family Practice (NFP), a CHC with eight locations across Cleveland’s near West Side to Lakewood.

About CHCs

CHCs like Neighborhood Family Practice are nonpro t, patient-governed organizations that provide health care to America’s medically underserved communities, serving all patients regardless of income or insurance status.

According to the National Association of Community Health Centers, in 2021, for the rst time in a single year, America’s nearly 1,400 CHCs provided care at more than 14,000 locations to over 30 million patients.

e Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) funds the CHCs and look-alike organizations that deliver this care. at funding has helped to position many of them (including NFP, which receives only 20% of our overall funding from HRSA) to achieve Patient-Centered Medical Home recognition. In the case of NFP, the additional funding enables the organization to o er health services which augment primary health care, including dental, behavioral health and midwifery. ese services can address problematic health disparities. For example, in 2019, Black babies delivered by NFP midwifes had a 4.7% low birth weight rate, versus 13.5% for all mothers in Cleveland.

e 30 million+ CHC patients translate to one in 11 Americans, of whom:

• 20% are uninsured;

59% are publicly insured;

65% are members of racial and/or ethnic minority groups;

and 90% are low income.

Since 1981, NFP’s mission and e orts have focused on ensuring that every patient and our community neighbors have access to high-quality health care and the ability to make informed decisions about their care.

Hopson is president and CEO of Neighborhood Family Practice.

In 2021, nearly 22,400 patients received care at NFP via more than 84,500 appointments for everything from primary and preventive care to behavioral health, midwifery, pharmacy and dental services. Since 2010, NFP has been the only provider of initial health screenings for refugees upon their arrival into Cuyahoga County, many of whom choose to continue to receive care from NFP beyond the screenings that NFP is required to perform.

Nearly 75% of NFP’s patients qualify for federal assistance, with about 63% at or below the federal poverty level. More than half (55%) receive Medicaid, with the remainder split between private health insurance (24%), Medicare (11%) or uninsured (10%). Nearly a quarter of our patients speak a preferred language other than English, from an assortment of 59 di erent languages. We provide language interpretation services for these patients at no cost to them — an expense not covered by our federal funding.

Impact of CHCs on public health

Because CHCs are so intertwined with the neighborhoods they serve, they are often able to identify health needs earlier, and design e ective community-based solutions. People residing in a particular area share similar health risks, social and economic conditions — factors such as poverty, nutrition, crime, education, language and transportation. CHCs strive to o er comprehensive, patients centered and culturally competent models of care to meet all of these needs of the patient.

In addition, CHCs have answered the call to action in times of great need by leveraging existing networks, relationships and knowledge to respond in e ective and innovative ways. e COVID-19 pandemic is a great example, with health centers taking the lead to ensure equitable access to tests, vaccines and treatments. rough data collected by Better Health Partnership, racial and ethnic minorities were signi cantly more likely to be vaccinated by a CHC in Cleveland than by another provider. For example, in Cleveland, a Hispanic/Latinx individual was twice as likely to be vaccinated at a CHC than at another health care institution.

e same can be said of the opioid and mental health crises in the U.S. Nearly all CHCs (including NFP) provide mental health services, and more than half (including NFP) o er substance abuse treatment.

According to the Health Resources & Services Administration, 79% of health centers meet or exceed national clinical benchmarks. By providing comprehensive preventive care and helping patients monitor chronic conditions, CHCs help lower medical costs by reducing expensive emergency room visits and hospital stays, generating billions of dollars in savings for the U.S. health care system each year.

e COVID-19 pandemic shined a light on health disparities and inequities that have existed in the U.S. for decades, resulting in increased action from legislators, philanthropists, foundations and large for-pro t and nonpro t institutions to address health equity and improve community health. Solving these complex issues will require local knowledge and extensive collaboration between government, social services agencies, community leaders, and large and small health care organizations. NFP, like most CHCs, has an expansive network of partners. We have earned the trust of the community we serve, and we have decades of experience doing this work.

I urge all who are interested in improving the health of their community to consider investing in their local CHC by applying for or referring candidates for job opportunities; volunteering their time; contacting the organization for a meeting; or donating capital or technical resources.

Reducing these disparities will not be easy or quick, by we are committed to seeing it through.

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Diversity, equity and inclusion are not merely nice words and concepts. It is also a real-world bene t. “ e evidence supports that organizations with more inclusive leadership are high performing organizations,” said Jacqui Robertson, the Cleveland Clinic’s lead executive for diversity and inclusion.

e challenge comes in ensuring that the voices of those in leadership positions are speaking clearly on the importance of DEI. “Not just cognitively, but also in their spirit and in their hearts,” Robertson said in an interview on the Clinic website. “Otherwise, it’s too easy for bias to creep in.” Which is why those featured in Crain’s Notable Executives in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion program are so important in the community. ey are not just talking some talk. ey are walking the walk when it comes to making their workplace and the entire community a more welcoming and inclusive culture.

DEI as a concept has great meaning, but it’s when businesses follow through that meaning becomes impact. All on our list of 20 executives are working actively and with intentionality to promote understanding and generate diversity and inclusion, for the bene t of all.

— Pat McManamon

METHODOLOGY: The honorees do not pay to be included. Their pro les were drawn from the nomination materials submitted. This list is not comprehensive. It includes only individuals for whom nominations were submitted and accepted after a review by editors. To qualify for the list, nominees must be based in Northeast Ohio. They must be currently employed full time in a senior-level role and should have demonstrated that they made an impact in advancing DEI at their companies and in the workplace. They must be active in the community and/or philanthropic activities, mentoring programs and/or diversity and inclusion initiatives.

KEVIN CLAYTON

Senior VP, head of social impact and equity Cleveland Cavaliers

Kevin Clayton believes everyone in an organiza tion is part of the diversity and inclusion landscape, and all can play a role in improving situations.

Clayton is charged with developing and guid ing the DEI strategic plan for Cavaliers proper ties, including Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. He is one of four executives in his position from the 147 major professional sports teams.

From 2019 until 2022, Clayton worked as the Cav properties’ vice president of diversity, in clusion and engagement, where he implement ed the DEI Scorecard, making the Cavaliers the only major sports team to use this strategy.

e scorecard applies metrics to ve key areas of the business: team member representation,

YVETTE MCGEE BROWN

Partner-in-charge of diversity, inclusion & advancement

Jones Day

Jones Day prides itself on hiring attorneys from diverse back grounds, who go on to lead client engagements, practice groups and o ces worldwide. On the forefront of this work is Yvette McGee Brown, whose mantra is the aggressive hir ing, retraining and development of legal talent from historically un derrepresented groups.

A former Ohio Supreme Court justice, Brown partners with the rm’s leadership on DEI strate gies, while assisting clients in the development of their diversity planning. With a focus on legal guardrails for implementation, Brown helps Jones Day meet the demands of an increasingly di verse world.

Far from box-checking, the firm’s DEI approach is integral to recruiting, hiring, staffing, mentoring and advancing each lawyer. Promoting women, peo ple of color, those with disabili ties and members of the LGBTQ+ community taps the unique strengths and experienc es of a previously marginalized talent stream.

Tools that build this foundation include an annual diversity con ference that brings together Jones Day attorneys, clients and rstyear law students for two days of networking and presentations.

e organization also o ers a n ity groups across races, genders and sexual orientations, with groups holding regular events de signed to foster career develop ment.

e numbers illustrate Jones Day’s commitment to diversity: 64% of the rm’s o ces are led by women or people from other un derserved backgrounds. Jones Day is also cultivating a skilled core of diverse attorneys — about 54% of new lawyers in the rm’s 2021 class were women.

— Douglas J. Guth

culture (including training and education), supplier di versity, marketplace en gagement and community engagement. All are geared toward ensuring underrep resented and underserved populations are included in the team’s business.

Clayton had previously developed the rst of its kind “Diversity Pro t Center” as corpo rate vice president of global diversity at Russell Corp. the parent company of Russell Athlet ic, Bike, Spalding and Brooks. e center fos tered a $30 million revenue increase and was featured in the 2005 Harvard Business Review.

A Cleveland native, Clayton is vice chair of the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. He has four daughters, one grandson and one granddaughter.

— Pat McManamon

TIFFANY COLLINS

Global director of diversity, equity & inclusion Avery Dennison

Ti any Collins is a Northeast Ohio changemak er, advancing diversity, equity and inclusion strat egy at leading companies since 2007, when she joined Progressive Corp. and created, developed and implemented the DEI e orts of a now bestin-class program, according to the nomination.

After Progressive, Collins held high-level hu man resources roles at Timken, Goodyear and Avery Dennison, where today she is responsible for leading a team to create and execute on glob al DEI strategies for the Mentor-based materials science company. Over the years, the nomina tion said, Collins has championed DEI through her leadership and coaching and by developing corporate education, training and processes.

Outside the o ce, Collins sits on the board of Step stone Academy, a K-6 char ter school serving the diverse neighborhoods of Greater Cleveland. She is also an ac tive member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s Zeta eta Omega chapter in Akron and serves as the health and wellness co-chair raising community awareness of critical health issues impacting the African American community, such as breast cancer, heart health, nutrition and care for caregivers.

Collins holds a master’s degree in organiza tional development and change from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and a human re source degree from the University of Akron.

— Judy Stringer

Case Western Reserve University congratulates

Adrianne M. Fletcher for her leadership in diversity and inclusion at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and, this year, at the Ohio Supreme Court.

Thank you for all you do for our campus, community and throughout the state.

VERONICA COOK-EUELL President and CEO

Euell Construction & Consulting Group

Success comes easy to some people, but usually only according to other people.

In truth, it’s rarely as easy as it looks. Certainly not as easy as Veronica Cook-Euell makes it look.

Accomplishment followed Cook-Euell from early days of entrepreneurship to her trailblazing work at Kent State University to the establishment of Euell Construction & Consulting Group, a strategic supplier diversity rm helping companies diversify spending in support of minority-owned businesses.

Her previous position with the Akron Urban League, and later as supplier diversity director at KSU from 2011 to 2020, won her deserved recognition for accelerating minority business opportunity.

She became a featured presenter on the topic of supplier diversity, including a 2019 speaking engagement in Brazil at the invitation of the U.S. Consulate. Among her published articles is “Ten Steps to Advocacy in Supplier Diversity,” written for the National Association of Educational Procurement.

Her leadership was critical in Kent State’s placement in the Greater Cleveland Partnership’s Equity and Inclusion Hall of Fame in 2020.

In case she had any open mantel space, Kent State’s Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship named her its 2022 Spirit of Women in Business award winner.

— Bud Shaw

76% OF EMPLOYEES AND JOB SEEKERS SAID DIVERSITY WAS IMPORTANT WHEN CONSIDERING JOB OFFERS.

—Washington Post

STAY IN THE KNOW with

CELINA CUNANAN

Chief diversity, equity and belonging o cer University Hospitals

Celina Cunanan’s experience and approach were perfect ts for a job that includes the responsibilities of a chief belonging o cer.

When University Hospitals announced it was appointing Cunanan in September 2022, it speci cally stated she had been charged with championing a culture of equity and belonging within the hospital system and in the diverse communities UH serves.

In choosing Cunanan, UH CEO Cli Megerian said it found a leader who could create trust and build a values-based, inclusive environment.

Cunanan is an expert in the eld of racial disparities in maternity care and has given many presentations on the importance of health care systems understanding the roles of racism and unconscious bias in maternal and neonatal outcomes. She founded the nonpro t Babies Need Boxes Ohio, which provides safe sleep education and supplies to families, and was appointed to the Ohio Minority Health Commission in 2020.

Cunanan worked as director of the UH O ce of Community Impact, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion from 2020 until 2022. In that work, Cunanan expanded UH’s Food for Life Markets, grew the Cook Ross Bias Training program and started the Departmental Equity O cers Program.

Cunanan has worked as a clinician for UH in obstetrics and gynecology for 21 years.

— Pat McManamon

FOR FREE by visiting CrainsCleveland.com/enewsletters

leading the way in DE&I.

The exceptional leaders celebrated this year are best-in-class executives whose efforts have advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion in their companies and in the community.

At KeyBank, we know that teammates thrive in a culture where every person feels included, valued, and empowered.

Congratulations to all honorees, including our very own Helena Haynes-Carter, for being named among the 2022 Notable DE&I Executives.

Helena Haynes-Carter Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer

PEGGY ZONE FISHER President and CEO

The Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio

Peggy Zone Fisher is a 30-year business and community leader in Cleveland currently direct ing programming at e Diversity Center of Northeast Ohio. e human relations organiza tion is dedicated to elimi nating bias, bigotry and rac ism in the U.S. Each year, the nonpro t’s programs serve 10,000 students and educa tors from over 150 regional schools.

Fisher joined e Diver sity Center in 2006, since then building initiatives like LeadDIVERSITY, an e ort that connects profes sionals with regional leaders to raise awareness around DEI.

School and youth programming, meanwhile, provides year-round workshops, camps and conferences centered on diversity. Participating students learn how to become leaders and in u ence change in their schools and communities.

Over her long career, Fisher has served on more than a dozen community boards, includ ing the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. To day, she is a director for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, and co-chair of a diversi ty and inclusion task force at Cleveland State University.

In 2018, Fisher won the Eleanor R. Gerson Leadership in Social Justice Award from Greater Cleveland Community Shares. A Cleveland na tive, she also received the 2021 Richard W. Pogue Award for Excellence in Community Leadership and Engagement from the Cleveland Bar Associ ation, alongside her husband, Lee Fisher.

— Douglas J. Guth

ADRIANNE M. FLETCHER

Director of diversity, equity and inclusion Supreme Court of Ohio Fierce advocate. Voice of serenity and calm.

Descriptions of Adrianne M. Fletcher might seem contradictory, but not if you’ve listened to her speak on topics ranging from im plicit bias in the child welfare system to advice for parents trying to talk to their children about racism in America.

Fletcher’s appearanc es on WKYC and “ e List” TV show in the summer of 2020 helped families navigate conversations arising from national and in ternational protests that followed the death of George Floyd. “ e List” segment has aired several times since its original taping in June of that year.

When Case Western Reserve University honored Fletcher with a 2021 ink Big Leadership award, the university recog nized her major contributions in minority a airs and credited her vigilance with re ducing discrimination on campus and in the community. e award honored her as ‘‘the change agent we all want to be.”

Recognition of her work stretched be yond the university’s Mandel School of Ap plied Sciences. In May 2022, Fletcher took a leave of absence from her roles as assistant professor and the school’s inaugural assis tant director of diversity, equity and inclu sion to become the rst DEI director in the history of the Supreme Court of Ohio.

— Bud Shaw

TERRI FORD

Director of diversity, equity & inclusion and corporate responsibility Nesco Resource

In 2021, Terri Ford leaned in to formalize and lead Nesco Resource’s burgeoning di versity, equity & inclusion program, just one year after the May eld Heights sta ng and em ployment agency com mitted to becoming “a company where every one can freely share and contribute” and “a place where the diversity of in dividuals and groups are both represented and ap preciated,” according to a news release.

In her newly created role, Ford is responsible for developing strategies to deepen the organi zation’s commitment to DEI within the work place and the community and for working with Nesco leadership and an internal DEI commit tee to design, implement and monitor initia tives aimed at building a diverse workforce and advancing a culture of equity and inclusion.

She also is charged with helping the busi ness reach a goal of having people of color account for at least 40% of its management and above leadership positions.

Ford joined Nesco in 2018 as a corporate recruiter and most recently worked within Nesco’s medical division, Home Care by Cal los, as a recruitment development manager.

Before joining Nesco, the Ohio State Univer sity graduate was director of sales and opera tions at All About People, a minority-owned sta ng agency, where she managed business development and recruiting e orts.

— Judy Stringer

AMOABA GOODEN

Vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion

Kent State University

Amoaba Gooden was named Kent State’s vice president for diversity, equity and inclu sion in 2021. Gooden has been at Kent State for 16 years.

She is a key member of the school’s anti-racism task force and helped de velop the school’s diver sity strategic plan for the future.

Gooden earned bach elor’s and master’s de grees in history from the University of Guelph in Ontario (she grew up in Toronto). She also has a master’s and a doctorate in African-American Studies from Temple University, as well as a certi cate in Women’s Studies from Temple.

At Kent State, Gooden, a professor in Afri cana Studies, has worked as chair of the De partment of Pan-African Studies. She had been serving in the DEI role in an interim capacity for a year before being named to lead the e ort.

Gooden’s DEI e orts at Kent State are em powered by the focus of president Todd Di acon, who called DEI a “core institutional value.”

“I’ve learned that when there are barriers that seem insurmountable, having some one to assist in removing those barriers matters,” Gooden said. “By using my privi lege and knowledge and education, I can help remove barriers and allow people to be successful.”

— Pat McManamon

We salute you.

Congratulations to Jacqui Robertson on being recognized as a Crain’s Notable DEI Executive

Having committed nearly 20 years to leading diversity and inclusion strategies, Jacqui’s expertise is fundamental in helping Cleveland Clinic build a culture of belonging. Thank you, Jacqui, for your dedication; you serve as an inspiration to all.

ClevelandClinic.org/Diversity

Jacqui Robertson

Chief of Diversity and Inclusion, Cleveland Clinic

‘We need all voices to promote DEI’

Amoaba Gooden was 9 when she read a book about Harriett Tubman. at book “sparked a re” in her, she said, a re that carried her to her present job as vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Kent State University. — Pat McManamon

 What does diversity and inclusion mean to you?

It means creating a space in the world where everybody has equal access to opportunity and the chance to nd their way to success.

 Where did you grow up and what were your experiences?

I was born in Jamaica and our family migrated to Canada (Toronto) when I was a child. We lived in a very diverse area with many ethnic backgrounds represented. The majority of our teachers were white, though. I saw teachers trying to create a healthy atmosphere for newcomers, but I didn’t see a lot of role models that looked like me.

 You held a yearlong series of discussions in the university community after you took the position. What did you learn?

More than 3,500 people attended the town halls. We learned there is a passion and commitment to DEI at Kent State, and everyone is at a di erent level of understanding. We need to meet people where they are. For some, it might mean joining a book club. Others might want to sit on a task force. We want to give them the tools to make this happen.

 What are your methods for achieving DEI goals?

At Kent State we are in the process of a university-wide diversity plan, with all units on campus designing a plan to advance goals related to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are working to promote an increased sense of belonging, an increased climate of understanding. I keep re ecting on the idea that the work is based on the individual but is the collective responsibility of all.

 Is it enough to just state the campus is diverse?

No, there should be action. The university in 2020 set up an anti-racism task force with 195 individuals. Fifteen subcommittees made 109 recommendations. Approximately 21% of them have been completed. Our anti-racism conference was one of the recommendations we implemented; that will be a yearly conference. We have a diversity syllabus statement that was approved by the faculty senate in the spring. We are in the process of creating a faculty and sta recruitment, selection and hiring toolkit to advance equity in our hiring process. We’re creating a cultural calendar that will alert faculty to some of the major holidays that they wouldn’t necessarily recognize, and they can make assignments accordingly.

 Whose voices do we need to elevate to promote diversity and inclusion?

We need all voices to promote DEI, but in particular we need the voices of those who hold positions of power and that have privilege. Often that does mean white Americans. I know there are a lot of con icted reactions when people hear the word privilege, and I wish there was another word. As a straight, able-bodied woman of color in the middle class, I recognize my privilege. We all have blind spots based on our privilege, but we all can be a voice to advance.

Executive vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion o cer KeyCorp

Helena Haynes-Carter was tapped to be Cleveland-based KeyCorp’s diversity, equity and inclusion chief earlier this year, bringing with her more than two decades of energy and experience in fostering diversity and inclusion through such organizations as UnitedHealth Group, U.S. Bank and the Rocky Mountain Minority Supplier Development Council.

Most recently, she led UnitedHealth Group’s strategic and business DEI initiatives, where, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Haynes-Carter orchestrated a $14 million response with community-based organizations throughout the U.S., deploying over 30,000 COVID-19 tests, wraparound services and care referrals, according to a news release.

At Key, she oversees enterprise-wide DEI programs and e orts. ose include a public commitment to increase representation of people of color in senior leadership ranks by 25% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030, and an extension of the bank’s National Community Bene ts Plan that now invests more than $40 billion in diverse communities.

Haynes-Carter holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing management from the University of Colorado and an MBA from Hamline University.

She is actively involved in several community organizations and industry councils, and currently serves on the board of St. Louis-based National INROADS, the nation’s largest nonpro t source of paid internships for undergraduate diverse youth.

— Judy Stringer

KATHRYN M. HALL

Vice president, diversity and inclusion

JACK Entertainment

A September post on Kathryn Hall’s Facebook page declared, “All is right with the world again in Cleveland.”

Included was the only proof a lifelong Cleveland sports fan ever needs to show: A celebration picture under the words, “Browns top Steelers.”

Championing the underdog may have started with her love of Cleveland sports, but it certainly hasn’t ended there.

When JACK Entertainment named Hall as vice president of diversity and inclusion in 2020, company president Brian Eby cited her “passion” and her “impressive expertise in the eld of diversity and inclusion.”

Hall, who received her master’s in psychology from Cleveland State University, joined JACK Entertainment from the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, where, as manager of diversity, she guided the award-winning district’s strategic priorities, including the identi cation and development of diverse talent.

From 2004 to 2007, she was Case Western Reserve University’s assistant vice president of diversity and equity. e YWCA Greater Cleveland named Hall one of its Women of Achievement in 2021.

She’s as much an advocate for her hometown as for the teams that play here. A post she shared celebrating the rst game of the 2022 MLB playo s showed a packed ballpark and the slogan, “Cleveland … e Land of Anything Is Possible.”

— Bud Shaw

—Gallup

I employ Y.O.U. youth “ because we can help set up youth for a lifetime career. We give them the opportunity to see if they like dental assisting. No matter what it gives them a life skill. We train them on the little things and they become familiar with the dental office, and they can become comfortable in this space. They can go as far as they want within the profession.”

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HELENA HAYNES-CARTER

ONLY 41% OF U.S. MANAGERS SAID THEY HAD RECEIVED TRAINING OR EDUCATION AROUND DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, RACISM, RACIAL JUSTICE OR OTHER RELATED TOPICS.

e triple upheavals of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic turmoil and social unrest have led to DEI’s elevation across industries. Monica Jackson arrived at Eaton Corp. in 2020, at the cusp of a historic disruption that is changing shop oors and corporate boardrooms alike.

As a DEI leader for the multinational power manage ment company, Jackson helped pivot Eaton’s eight in clusion resource groups online to maintain connection with homebound employees.

Jackson also believes in building DEI e orts beyond the initiative stage. Under her direction, Eaton is bring ing company leaders into conversations about inclu sive leadership skills and capabilities. Processes and practices such as talent management, sourcing and assessment must be baked into the organizational culture, Jackson be lieves.

Just as critically, Jackson is making inclusivity a stated commitment at Eaton. DEI must continue to work within every aspect of the company — from talent acquisition to workforce analytics to employee relations and health and wellness.

Prior to joining Eaton, Jackson served as the global diversity and inclu sion leader for General Electric. e Dallas native began her HR career at Procter & Gamble, where she held both corporate and line roles. In Cleve land, Jackson has board responsibilities with the Greater Cleveland Part nership, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland and the Cuyahoga Com munity College Foundation.

— Douglas J. Guth

CONNECT WITH

Eric Logan is the partner sponsor and lead of the Inclusion and Diversity Council in Cleveland for KPMG LLC, a global network of rms providing audit, tax and advisory services.

Logan also lls the same role on a wider scale for KPMG’s Columbus hub, which includes o ces in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville.

Logan’s professional work focus is on operational ef ciency and manufacturing strategy, primarily for the aerospace and industrial clients of KPMG.

A native Clevelander, Logan grew up near East 123rd Street and Buckeye Road. His family focus on educa tion became part of his DNA. Logan’s great-uncle, Pres ton Bowles, had been president of Alcorn A&M College (now Alcorn State University) in Mississippi, and his grandfather stressed education, which led him to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He went on to earn a B.S. in materials science and engineering from Stanford, then returned to Cleveland to earn his MBA from the Weather head School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

While growing up, Logan was the youth lead of the Southeast Coalition Against Drugs. His numerous community e orts include serving as a member of the Equity and Inclusion Engagement Committee for the Great er Cleveland Partnership.

— Pat McManamon

FRED NANCE

Global managing partner and global DEI counsel Squire Patton Boggs

Cleveland’s formative role in Fred Nance’s life and career came long be fore he led the litigation and negotiation that brought the Browns back to town after Art Modell’s move to Baltimore.

Raised on East 135th Street and Kinsman Road, and a witness to the Hough riots in the summer of 1966, Nance decided at age 12 to one day become a lawyer to ght for social justice “as a result of seeing my hometown ablaze.” at initial inspiration gave ground to life at a big law rm spent representing clients at top levels of govern ment, business, sports and entertainment. In 2006, Nance was a nalist for the job of commissioner of the National Football League. He still serves as counsel to LeBron James, comedian Dave Chappelle and others in the entertainment industry.

As global managing partner with Squire Patton Boggs, Nance calls it “no small irony” that another tense summer following the death of George Floyd led him to become his rm’s global diversity, equity & inclusion counsel. Nance, who has held board seats for various organizations includ ing the Cleveland Foundation, Team NEO and the Greater Cleveland Part nership (where he served as chairman), moves into the global DEI counsel role full time in January.

— Bud Shaw

CrainsCleveland.com

Congratulations to Adrian Thompson for being recognized among the 2022 Notable Executives in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Adrian D. Thompson Co-Partner-in-Charge, Cleveland Taft Chief Diversity Of cer

ERIC LOGAN

Principal, advisory strategy KPMG

MONICA JACKSON

Vice president of inclusion & diversity Eaton

35% OF HR LEADERS SAY DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION ARE AMONG THEIR TOP PRIORITIES IN 2022. —Gartner

LEA PETTY Human resources and safety manager Redmond Waltz Electric

Lea Petty has taken the reins of what was a small role in a small company, according to the nomination, and made it into what it is today: a dynamic platform of employee em powerment.

When working on re writing the Redmond Waltz handbook, Petty worked with CEO Jenni fer Ake-Marriott to en sure that old policies were scrubbed of any outdated language that could be perceived as sexist, ableist or any other form of discrimi nation.

She championed new policies to give paid time o for employees to vote and vol unteer, along with the addition of religious holidays, and her concerted e ort to hire women and minorities — even as the com pany operates in the male-dominated man ufacturing sector — has led to a more di verse and inclusive environment “that genuinely listens to employees and re sponds with respect, empathy and action,” the nomination said.

Petty joined Redmond Waltz in 2015 as the o ce manager and has since created her own job description with the support of company leadership. She is currently re-at tending Cuyahoga Community College to further her education in DEI and human re sources.

Her outreach work includes volunteering with the Cleveland Asian Festival, Destina tion Cleveland and the St. Clair-Superior Development Corp., a community develop ment group for Redmond Waltz’s neighbor hood.

— Judy Stringer

—McKinsey

ANNE RICHARDS President and CEO Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio

Goodwill is one of the largest nonpro t or ganizations in Northeast Ohio, encompass ing 22 retail stores as well as multiple pro grams serving tens of thousands of residents.

Anne Richards is at the forefront of meeting the community where it lives, forging key diversi ty e orts for the nonprof it both internally and ex ternally.

Richards recently de veloped a vice president of DEI role at Good will, a position charged with creating aware ness and competence around organizational diversity. rough this work, all 700 Goodwill employees in Northeast Ohio take part in monthly DEI training and awareness activi ties.

According to the nomination, Richards has also worked on issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community. Local and national or ganizations have tasked Richards to speak on her personal experience around these con cerns, with Goodwill’s larger DEI plan now used as a model across its o ces nationwide.

“Anne recognized early in her career that her own experience as a member of the LGBTQ+ community could provide invalu able opportunity to impact and lead others,” the nomination said.

Nationally, Richards acts as chairwoman of the organization’s large-scale DEI activi ties, representing 155 Goodwills across the U.S. and Canada. She has also served on the boards of numerous nonpro ts including Coming Together for Stark County, Red Rib bon Connect and e Workshops Inc.

— Douglas J. Guth

JACQUELINE ROBERTSON Chief of diversity and inclusion Cleveland Clinic

Jacqueline (Jacqui) Robertson was ap pointed to her position with the Cleve land Clinic in March of 2022. She de scribed her role as having a “relentless focus on building a pipeline for new tal ent, welcoming them to Cleveland Clinic in a manner that under scores our commit ment to building a cul ture of belonging.”

Prior to joining the Clinic, Robertson had 20 years of national and international ex perience in DEI strategies in financial services and industrial supply business es.

Robertson worked at William Blair & Co. in Chicago as global head of talent, diversity and inclusion from 2016 to 2022. Prior to that, she was a senior director of inclusion and diversity at W.W. Grainger. From 2008 to 2011, she was global head of diversity and inclusion for ING in Am sterdam. She returned to the United States as ING’s vice president of market ing and business development.

Robertson has a B.A. in behavioral sci ences from the University of Chicago and is a certified facilitator in several training programs, including mitigation ap proaches for unconscious bias and coaching for minorities and re-entry workers.

She serves as chair of the Institute for Corporate Productivity’s Chief Diversity Officer Board and is on the board of The Chicago Sinfonietta, an orchestra recog nized for its advocacy of DEI.

— Pat McManamon

COMPANIES IN THE TOP QUARTILE FOR RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY ARE 35% MORE LIKELY TO HAVE FINANCIAL RETURNS ABOVE THEIR RESPECTIVE NATIONAL INDUSTRY MEDIUMS.

GLEN SHUMATE Executive vice president

Construction Employers Association

Over 25 years of leadership in marketing, communications and DEI work has brought Glen Shumate into the construction indus try, where he develops programs and initia tives for underserved communities.

Shumate is founder of the Contractors Assis tance Association (CAA), dedicated to strengthening employ ment opportunities in the industry for women and minorities. Sec tor-leading activities he has orchestrated at CAA include the ACE Mentorship Program of Cleveland, which offers STEM educa tion, scholarships and internships for high school students.

Last year, Shumate won the Ohio Depart ment of Transportation Director’s Award for Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Advo cacy. e award recognized Shumate for his work in uplifting and embracing the value of diversity and inclusion.

Shumate is involved in numerous civic and industry organizations as well — the Ur ban League of Greater Cleveland, Business Volunteers Unlimited, the Cleveland Lake front Development Infrastructure Commit tee, and more.

“Glen is a mentor to those looking to start in the construction community, as well as a friend to everyone who crosses his path,” the nomination said.

— Douglas J. Guth

ADRIAN D. THOMPSON

Co-partner-in-charge and chief diversity o cer Taft Stettinius & Hollister

A tip when congratulating Adrian omp son on another professional honor next time you see him: Be speci c. Narrow it down some.

In addition to being named a Crain’s Notable Executive in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, ompson has an Oct. 29 date at the Metropolitan at e 9 hotel, where he will receive the 2022 Judge Ronald N. Adrine Trailblazer Award, recog nizing members of the Black legal communi ty for signi cant contributions to advancing diversity.

In June, ompson was elected the 202223 president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, where he also co-chairs the diversity & inclusion strategies committee.

ompson joined Taft’s Cleveland o ce in 2006 after eight years as chief legal counsel for the Cleveland Metropolitan School Dis trict. His experience earned him a listing in the Best Lawyers in America for Education Law.

In 2019, he was appointed to the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct by the Su preme Court of Ohio. He serves on the Su preme Court of Ohio’s Task Force on Com mercial Dockets and the Advisory Group for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, presumably in his spare time.

— Bud Shaw

SADIE WINLOCK

Chief equity, education and engagement o cer Cleveland Public Library

Sadie Winlock developed the rst DEI policy in the Cleveland Public Library’s 153-year history.

Her starting point: interviews with 13 leaders of major corporations and organizations in Cleve land. Her drive: to under stand how community lead ers de ned DEI, as well as their approaches, opportu nities and challenges in im plementing DEI.

Winlock’s work led CPL to focus on ensuring inclusion of all employees at every lev el and establishing a DEI committee made up of internal and external stake holders in the venerated Cleveland institution.

Winlock increased the engagement of external partners in delivering DEI, increased the programs available to patrons and helped reimagine the li brary’s future by developing the Innovation Com mittee. She also set up a Supplier Diversity Policy to ensure minority businesses were included as CPL vendors.

“She de nes herself as a continuous student of diversity, equity, inclusion,” the nomination said.

Winlock earned her undergraduate degree from North Carolina Central University, a graduate de gree from Myers University and a doctorate from the University of Phoenix. Prior to joining CPL in 2019, she worked as CEO of the Akron Urban League and chief operating o cer of the YWCA Greater Cleveland.

Winlock served as co-chair of the Diversity Com mittee for Ohio Means Jobs and was chair of the American Library Association Diversity Committee.

— Pat McManamon

FOR EVERY 10% INCREASE IN RACIAL AND ETHNIC DIVERSITY ON THE SENIOREXECUTIVE TEAM, EARNINGS BEFORE INTEREST AND TAXES RISE 0.8%.

—McKinsey

Alside turns 75 as new owner invests in capacity, R&D

CATHERINE KAVANAUGH PLASTICS NEWS

SVP Global LLC, the new owner of Cuyahoga Falls-based Associated Materials LLC, is investing tens of millions of dollars to add capacity and bolster research and develop ment as the company celebrates its 75th anniversary as a building prod ucts manufacturer.

Founded in 1947 as Alside Inc. — Alside is now an Associated Materials brand — the company launched its rst big product of baked enamel aluminum siding after building on developments that came out of World War II. Other innovations followed, including vinyl siding in 1979, vinyl windows and doors, some of the rst Energy Star-rated products and, more recently, Ascend-brand com posite siding.

Named the “most innovative building material” of 2021 at the vir tual International Builders’ Show, Ascend combines a glass-reinforced polymer with graphite-infused poly styrene to produce a Class A re-rat ed cladding that also resists strong winds and impact.

Ascend is up to 75% lighter in weight than other sidings so it can be installed easier and faster, while the graphite polystyrene adds strength, energy e ciency and wind load re sistance to 180 miles per hour.

Expanding capacity for Ascend is

part of the investment plan for SVP Global, Associated Materials CEO James Drexinger said in a phone in terview.

e Greenwich, Connecti cut-based investment rm acquired Associated Materials in January, see ing new opportunities for the legacy company and its 4,700 employees, Drexinger added.

“We have launched an internal transformation with a signi cant number of initiatives to improve our customer experience,” said Drexinger, who has been CEO since June.

With $1.6 billion in annual sales,

Associated Materials is a vertically integrated company that manufac tures vinyl windows, vinyl siding, and metal siding and trim for the residen tial and commercial remodeling and new construction markets under the brands Alside, Gentek, Preservation and Alpine.

An estimated $335 million of sales comes from plastic pro les, making Associated Materials the 15th-largest pipe, pro le and tubing extruder in North America, according to Plastics News’ latest ranking, and No. 6 among pro les processors.

e company operates 11 manu

facturing facilities in North America and has more than 125 supply cen ters that move product to customers.

ree plants produce plastic prod ucts: West Salem, Ohio; Ennis, Texas; and Burlington, Ontario.

Drexinger said he couldn’t be spe ci c about the amount of investment that will be made or how it will be spent for competitive reasons. But he did say capacity was being added for Ascend and that expansion projects are underway at several plants in the form of either additional production lines or upgraded equipment to in crease productivity.

“Multiple times the dollar invested in the business over the last ve years will be invested in the next three,” Drexinger said. “A lot of it is upgrad ing the equipment in our manufac turing locations and automation. It’s signi cant. at’s why this was an at tractive investment for SVP Global. ere are so many opportunities from the investment side of the equa tion.”

Associated Materials operates as a portfolio company of SVP Global, which has more than $18 billion of assets under management.

Even during a time of rising interest rates and economic uncertainty, espe cially in the housing market, SVP Glob al is investing in Associated Materials. e portfolio company has the right products for growing markets as well as installation partners, Drexinger said.

SEC climate disclosure requirements

In addition to Ascend, he pointed to the Mezzo-brand full-frame re placement window system intro duced in 2019. e system consists of Energy Star-rated Mezzo-brand vinyl windows, a frame with a nailing ange for ashing and water man agement, and decorative trim for a consistent look on all replaced win dows.

e Mezzo system can save up to 40 minutes of installation time per window.

“On a home installation, for every 10 windows, you could end up saving 3-7 hours of installation time for the contractor,” Drexinger said. “ at’s good for the homeowner in terms of a faster installation and good for our contractor customers because they can manage more projects over the course of their scheduling.”

With the labor shortage showing no end in sight, contractors and home owners are looking to save time and money with products like Mezzo and Ascend, the latter of which can be in stalled with fewer laborers and needs no sealing, joint ashing or caulking.

“Approximately 70% of our busi ness is in the repair-and-remodel segment, which we love for a good number of reasons,” Drexinger said. “It’s not quite as cyclical in terms of the peaks and valleys that new resi dential construction can have.”

Questions and considerations regarding public company climate disclosures proposed by the SEC

By Deloitte & Touche LLP

A new era for SEC disclosure requirements

On March 21, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a proposed rule that would enhance and standardize climate disclosure requirements provided by public companies. The new regulation would require organizations to provide certain climate disclosures in its registration statements and annual reports, including climate-related financial impact and expenditure metrics as well as a discussion of climate-related impacts on financial estimates and assumptions in the financial statements.

Ready to enhance your climate-related disclosures?

Start by reviewing what’s in store for your organization and our considerations for getting prepared.

Climate risk disclosure FAQs

1. What is the anticipated timeline for implementation?

If the SEC meets its goal of adopting the climate disclosure rule by the end of 2022, the compliance date for disclosure for calendar year-end registrants would be:

• For large, accelerated lers, 2023 ( led in 2024)

• For accelerated and nonaccelerated lers, 2024 ( led in 2025)

• For smaller reporting companies (SRCs), 2025 ( led in 2026)

2. My company is already voluntarily reporting climate/ESG data. What is different now?

If the proposed rule goes into effect, for the rst time in the U.S., public companies will be required to disclose speci c ESG information on governance, risk management, targets, and

goals, and report and obtain assurance on their impact on climate through mainstream nancial lings.

3. Will the new proposed rule require quarterly updates on climate disclosures?

The proposed nancial statement disclosures would only be required in the annual audited nancial statements and thus would not be included in interim nancial statements led on Form 10-Q (for domestic registrants) or Form 6-K (for foreign registrants).

4. Are there any accommodations for a “smaller reporting company,” “emerging growth company,” or private companies undertaking an IPO?

At this time, private companies are not subject to the proposed

rule. However, private companies that undertake an IPO or SPAC merger, or are the target of a public company in a merger that requires the ling of a proxy statement or registration statement, would be required to comply with the proposed rule. Therefore, private companies may consider standardizing their climate disclosure processes.

5. How might the role of the nance organization evolve if the SEC disclosure requirement proposal is adopted?

As climate disclosures move from voluntary to required, the role of the nance organization will likely become increasingly important. Companies may need to adapt quickly to advance their climate data measurement and reporting and to drive decision-making regarding the allocation of resources.

Companies that take immediate action may be better posi tioned to comply with any rule that is ultimately adopted, address increased investor expectation, integrate the role of assurance and seize emerging market opportunities.

Contact Nick Accordino, Account Advisory & Transformation Services Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP, at naccordino@ deloitte.com 216.589.5237 or Zach Stephens, Account Advisory & Transformation Services and ESG Services Partner, zstephens@deloitte.com 216.589.5133 to learn more.

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This advertising-supported section/feature is produced by Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain’s Content Studio content.

Associated Materials manufactures vinyl windows, vinyl siding (seen above), and metal siding and trim for the residential and commercial remodeling and new construction markets under the brands Alside, Gentek, Preservation and Alpine. | ASSOCIATED MATERIALS LLC

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Business is booming for Cavs — and Barlage wants to keep it that way

BY JOE SCALZO

Outside of the LeBron James era(s), Cleveland Cavaliers fans enter this winter with more optimism than at any point since Mark Price was splitting double teams at Rich eld Coliseum.

In some cities, this would be a good thing.

In Cleveland, well, it recalls Red’s famous “Shawshank Redemption” quote: “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”

Just don’t tell that to Nic Barlage, who is entering his rst season as the CEO of the Cavaliers, Rock Entertainment Group (REG) and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (RMFH).

“We’ve got to kick that feeling,” said Barlage, who was promoted to replace Len Komoroski in April after ve years as president of business operations. “We want people saying, ‘Damn it, I’m a Cleveland fan and it feels damn good to be one.’”

Cavaliers fans already were feeling hopeful after the team’s surprising 2021-22 season that saw them double their win total from the year before and earn a spot in the play-in tournament.

ey then went full Andy Dufresne — “Hope is a good thing; maybe the best of things” — after Cleveland made one of the o season’s biggest acquisitions, trading three players (forward Lauri Markkanen, rookie wing Ochai Agbaji and guard Collin Sexton), three unprotected rstround picks and two rst-round pick swaps for Utah Jazz All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell.

Consequently, the Cavs’ business side had a better summer than Tom Cruise. To wit:

 e team sold four times as many Cavs United (season ticket) memberships than it does in an average year, equating to the second-highest number of new membership sales in franchise history.

 e Cavs sold four times the number of single-game tickets and group tickets than it did at this time last year.

 ey’ve added 10 new corporate partners for this season, highlighted by the new jersey patch partner, Cleveland-Cli s.

 Cavs.com has seen a 41% increase in page views and unique visitors.

 e team’s social media pages on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook have seen a 49% increase in total impressions, 82.7% increase in overall engagements and 195% increase in video views. Instagram video views are up 605% over the same time frame last year.

 e Cavs’ mobile app has seen a 65% increase in page views, 58% increase in unique users and 94% increase in engagement time within the app.

“ ere has been a lot of excitement, but I’m constantly reminding our team, ‘OK, we’ve gotta earn this,’” Barlage said. “One step in front of the other. It’s good to be excited, but we want to make sure we do it the right way.”

Barlage, who also previously served as REG’s chief operating o cer, spoke about the impact of the Mitchell trade, the new additions to RMFH and more in a phone interview on Oct. 17, two days before the Cavs’ season opener against the Raptors in Toronto.

 What was your reaction to the Donovan Mitchell trade?

One, it’s incredibly di cult to get a player of that magnitude, and to couple it with the pieces we already have — Darius, Evan, Jarrett, Kevin and the whole group — makes it even more special. I will say that we’ve seen an incredible uptick in business earlier in the o season than we normally would, and that’s based on the unique timing of the deal. And we’ve really seen just an incredible amount of engagement. When he got here, we had a big event for him at the hangar at Burke Lakefront Airport just to welcome him. We had almost 500 fans there to welcome him. The press conference right after. We turned a bunch of the billboards in and around the city to welcome him into the city as well. We’ve seen great interest. Coming o of last year, we had some really strong momentum in the business

as it was, just because of last year’s success. This just kind of gave us another catalytic moment. It’s typically a slower period in the NBA cycle, August and September, but we sold four times the amount of memberships year-over-year than we would in an average year.

 This is really the rst true o season the NBA has had since before the pandemic. What did you work on in the o season?

I feel like when you have moments like this in sports, you want to really make sure you make the most of the momentum that’s been created organically by our team last year. We spent the entire summer trying to get back to some normal business protocols. We had a ton of events for our members. We had a ton of corporate partner engagements. We really were trying to activate a 365-day-a-year membership model, which we had done really well before the pandemic, and the pandemic put a halt to all those things. We were excited to be out in front of our fans earlier and more often and more fruitfully than we have in the past few years. If you think about it, last year at this time we had just received our protocols from the NBA in regards to seating, what we could do, who had to wear masks, who didn’t have to wear masks, vaccination versus not. Fast forward a year, it’s almost a 180 degree di erence to where the business is at, where it’s positioned, and our market here deserves a lot of credit. We’ve got incredible fans, an incredible following across all of our major sports teams, the Guardians, the Browns and ourselves. To have more optimism just gives us even more tailwinds in the business to reach new heights.

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Health, dental bene t packages provide fully integrated products that are ‘Better Together’

Medical Mutual/SDC integration brings expanded network, enhanced offerings

By Kimberly Bonvissuto, Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland

Leveraging the bene ts of a partnership four years in the making, Medical Mutual is looking to expand its dental presence not only in Ohio, but across the nation.

The partnership – dubbed “Better Together” – combines Medical Mutual’s health bene ts with Superior Dental Care’s experts and specialty products, creating a fully integrated, all-in-one group bene t package.

Medical Mutual acquired Superior Dental Care (SDC), a regional dental bene ts carrier created by dentists and headquartered in the Dayton area, in 2018. Since joining forces, SDC has expanded Medical Mutual’s dental network to more than 17,000 participating provider locations within Ohio and 607,650 total locations nationwide.

That allows Medical Mutual to competitively provide its dental products to national companies with employees throughout the country, according to Jim McGonagle, vice president of specialty products.

The acquisition also set in motion plans for Medical Mutual to expand its overall health services. For employers that bundle health and dental coverage, Medical Mutual can better coordinate contracts for participants enrolled in care management programs. Participants with diabetes or other chronic conditions that can be impacted by oral health, for example, could have access to enhanced dental bene ts, like extra of ce visits or cleanings, to provide better outcomes.

“Health and dental have traditionally been regarded as completely separate bene ts. We’re working to bridge that gap for employers and

ultimately draw better outcomes for the overall health for their employees,” McGonagle said.

With the purchase of SDC, Medical Mutual now has a unit that solely recruits dental providers to the Medical Mutual network, giving members more options for care, McGonagle said. Since acquiring SDC, Medical Mutual has expanded its number of dental providers by 16%.

McGonagle said the expansion allows Medical Mutual to build on its work in the dental insurance business. Medical Mutual traditionally has offered its own dental product, MedMutual Dental, in the small group market, where employers want one-stop shopping. That will continue. The addition of Superior Dental Care expands Medical Mutual’s approach. It can offer health insurance, a

standalone dental product or a bundle of services, to employer groups.

“It’s just an enhancement over what we’ve done so well in the past,” he said. “We’ve always given our dental customers great service and great providers, with quick access to claims. Now, with SDC, we have an account management team that knows the nuances of dental products and insurance, as well as a member portal built out speci cally for dental.”

In preparation for the expansion, Medical Mutual added distribution channels and integrated billing capabilities — all under the Medical Mutual umbrella — to make for a streamlined experience for members.

“It’s one bill and one experience for our members,” McGonagle said.

This advertising-supported section/feature is produced by Crain’s Content Studio-Cleveland, the marketing storytelling arm of Crain’s Cleveland Business. The Crain’s Cleveland Business newsroom is not involved in creating Crain’s Content Studio content.

“We’ve always given our dental customers great service and great providers, with quick access to claims. Now, with SDC, we have an account management team that knows the nuances of dental products and insurance, as well as a member portal built out speci cally for dental.”

— Jim McGonagle, vice president, specialty products

Nic Barlage is the CEO of the Cavaliers, Rock Entertainment Group and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

 How about you personally? This is your rst season as CEO, taking over for Len. How is your life di erent than it’s been the last few years?

I’ve had the bene t of being in and around the organization for over a decade now, so I know a lot about our team. For me, it’s more about, “How can we continue to push and grow and develop our fan base and develop ourselves as leaders in the community?” Our chairman, Dan Gilbert, talks all the time about how the Cavaliers and Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse are community assets. So for us, it’s now focused on how can we be authentically woven into the DNA of Northeast Ohio and help in myriad di erent ways? We spent some time this summer putting together a Hoops After Dark program in collaboration with Mayor Bibb that tried to thwart gun violence in and around the city of Cleveland. It was an eight-week program and we had over 140 participants. We’ve tried to lean into what we call societal issues in town. We hosted a Taste of Black Cleveland here in August to engage with some local restaurateurs, which was the most successful event we’ve had by three-fold, and we’ve been doing this now for four or ve years. For me, it’s really about how do we build upon the strong foundation that we’ve had in Northeast Ohio, and how do we do that while staying focused on how we build our business and our brand back from the obstacles that we faced during the pandemic?

 The other thing that’s di erent is that I’m sure the last ve years or so have been focused on Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse’s major renovation or preparing for the NBA

All-Star Game. Those two things are now behind you. Is there something major on the horizon, and is it di erent not having those two things occupying a huge amount of your time?

Yeah, to your point, this is really the rst traditional o season we’ve had in ve years. So for us, we try not to take our foot o the gas and try to gure out ways to innovate or be creative with the fan experience. We’ve got some fun surprises for opening night and I’ll leave it at that, but we also are constructing our sportsbook in the northwest corner of the building with our partner in Caesar’s, so we’re excited about what that could mean for our business from a fan engagement perspective. Having a high-end sportsbook with a restaurant wrapped around it 365 days out of the year gives us an incredible amount of opportunities. Our team shop is being renovated as we speak, and we’re working on enhancing the ingress on the east side of our building, adjacent to the Cleveland-Cli s entrance. We don’t ever want to rest on our laurels. We think we’ve got an incredible building. The transformation yielded that for us. But we always want to be thinking about what’s next for our fans. Because, ultimately, the entertainment dollar is a very competitive dollar. We want to be able to really be world-class and put Cleveland and Northeast Ohio in the national and international spotlight for the right reasons and help to bring people downtown for a concert or a show or a game.

 I’m sure you and your team go to di erent arenas. Is there something at any of those places where you say, “I would love to have this” or “It’s really cool what they have

in Indiana or what they have in Chicago or in L.A.”?

I think what we have in Cleveland is really special, really unique. I’m really proud of what we have. I think Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is a world-class venue. We’re constantly guring out ways to diversify that and create a wider spectrum of o erings for our fans, but we feel like we’ve got a great thing going here. It’s also hyper-focused on the game-day experience. We want every fan, every time they walk through those doors at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, to have an incredible experience. We spent a ton of time training our front-line workers this o season. We’ve got what we call the “CLE,” which is Care, Lead and Engage, a program that we’ve developed through the years to help with all of our game-day experiences for our fans. Whether we win or we lose, we want people to leave with a memorable memory. That’s something that we’ve tried to make a calling card of ours for all fans of all demographics that come here. We think what we have is a really strong o ering. For us, it’s not about trying to keep up with everyone else. For us, it’s really trying to nd what’s next, what can be cutting-edge and how to leverage technology for a frictionless fan experience. We know what we see today will be di erent tomorrow, so we want to be leaders in that space.

 I get the sense that you guys aren’t afraid to try something that might not work. You might try something and say, “OK, this didn’t take o the way we’d like, but it was worth giving it a shot.” Can you speak to that mentality? Look, we will be beta-ing a bunch of technology on opening night. We’re

constantly looking for what’s the next generation of the fan experience. We moved to all-digital ticketing during the pandemic and we were already pretty much there. We really want to create a driveway-to-arena experience. We can do that in a streamlined fashion with our Cavaliers app. We obviously are also rolling out Bally Sports+ with our partners at Bally’s to help more of our fans be able to experience our games and our broadcasts. We actually purchased subscriptions for all of our full- and half-season Cavs United members and corporate partners. For us, it’s about, “How we can add a value proposition for our most vested fans and for our members?” That’s something that we’re constantly evaluating, constantly trying new things, constantly working with new partners to try to do those things. Those are a few examples that we’re pretty excited about.

 Tell me more about what you think the Bally Sports+ streaming option can do for you, because that’s obviously something that’s frustrated people the last few years if they didn’t have cable or satellite and they couldn’t see games. This opens that up a little. Right now, we’re in the middle of such a incredible amount of good disruption from a media perspective. What I think the outcome will be is you’ll have very prescriptive, customized options for people. I think Bally Sports+ is exactly that. It’s the option to really customize and cater your viewing experience to what you want to watch at the end of the day. As we continue to go through this stage of what I call good disruption from a media perspective, there’s got to be innovation and there’s got to be

evolution. I think the Bally Sports+ app is an opportunity for us to get more fans at the end of the day. We know that not everybody invests in the cable bundle, even though we love the cable bundle and there’s a lot of great o erings in that. We’ve said we always want to have an option across the spectrum. I think Bally Sports+ just gives our fans another option to consume our games and our content. That’s the lifeblood of who we are as a sports team.

 Obviously your life is about to go through a very busy stretch with the Cavs starting and lot of indoor events (at RMFH), so do you do anything special beforehand? Do you take your wife out one last night before the season starts or do you take your family to Disneyland for a day just to say, “Sorry, I’m not going to see you very much for the next 6-9 months”?

Look, I’m very fortunate to have a wife that understands our industry and our business, and I’ve got two little girls that love to come to Cavs games. We do try to make it a point to get out and enjoy a moment here and a moment there, but she always knows when Labor Day hits and we ramp up to the season (that it’s going to be busy). Thanksgiving will be here before we know it and it’ll be a great time to enjoy each other and enjoy our family and we make it a priority to do that. But right now, we’re really focused on how we can make this season start o as great as possible. There’s a lot of great work that’s going into from the entire team, so it’s really about me supporting them. (Laughs.) And when I get home, it’s about supporting her and following orders from that point on in my day.

GIVING HIM THE TOOLS TO EXPLORE OUR WORLD SO HE CAN HELP SHAPE ITS FUTURE.

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PRIVATE HIGH SCHOOLS

STUDENTS (GRADES 9-12) FALL 2022/ FALL 2021

RANKSCHOOL

SAINT IGNATIUS HIGH SCHOOL, Cleveland 216-651-0222/ignatius.edu

WALSH JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL, Cuyahoga Falls 330-929-4205/walshjesuit.org

ST. EDWARD HIGH SCHOOL, Lakewood 216-221-3776/sehs.net

ARCHBISHOP HOBAN HIGH SCHOOL, Akron 330-773-6658/hoban.org

PADUA FRANCISCAN HIGH SCHOOL, Parma 440-845-2444/paduafranciscan.com

MAGNIFICAT HIGH SCHOOL, Rocky River 440-331-1572/magni caths.org

NOTRE DAME-CATHEDRAL LATIN SCHOOL, Chardon 440-286-6226/ndcl.org

AVERAGE TUITION BEFORE AID/ AFTER AID

1,427 1,436 $19,000 $11,000

978 1,010 $13,800 $8,345

ACCEPT STATE VOUCHERS?TYPE(ROOM AND BOARD)

STUDENT: TEACHER RATIO

# FACULTY/ % ADV. DEGREE

YBoys only; Day school13:1112 90%

% GRADS 4-YEAR COLLEGERELIGIOUS?HEAD OF SCHOOL

100%Y/Catholic The Rev.RaymondP.Guiao, president

YCoed; Day school10:199 79% 99%Y/Catholic KarlErtle, president

915 910 $18,750 YBoys only; Day school13:170 82% 93%Y/Catholic KCMcKenna, president

800 820 $12,700 $5,960

730 760 $13,550 $7,500

707 705 $17,700 $11,000

YCoed; Day school11:170 75% 87%Y/Catholic ChrisDiMauro, president

YCoed; Day school10:176 72% 99%Y/Catholic DavidG.Stec, president

YGirls only; Day school9:185 70% 99%Y/Catholic MoiraClark, president

706 731 $15,050 YCoed; Day school13:154 58% 99%Y/Catholic Dr.MichaelJ.Bates, president; JosephA. Waler, principal

SAINT JOSEPH ACADEMY, Cleveland 216-251-6788/sja1890.org 685 685 $17,000 $12,326

ST. VINCENT-ST. MARY HIGH SCHOOL, Akron 330-253-9113/stvm.com 661 642 $12,500 $9,500

HAWKEN UPPER SCHOOL AND THE MASTERY SCHOOL OF HAWKEN, Gates Mills 440-423-4446/hawken.edu

YGirls only; Day school11:164 83% 92%Y/Catholic KathrynH.Purcell, president

YCoed; Day school11:160 67%

95%Y/Catholic LeoP.Hyland, president

623 585 $29,140 $18,725 Y 1 Coed; Day school7:190 80% 100%N D.ScottLooney, head of school

CUYAHOGA VALLEY CHRISTIAN ACADEMY, Cuyahoga Falls 330-929-0575/cvcaroyals.org 594 564 $12,000 YCoed; Day school12:157 66% 98%Y/Nondenominational Christian

HOLY NAME HIGH SCHOOL, Parma Heights 440-886-0300/holynamehs.com 570 552 $11,100 $8,400

expertise.

talent.

LUTHERAN HIGH SCHOOL WEST, Rocky River 440-333-1660/lutheranwest.com

GILMOUR ACADEMY, Gates Mills 440-473-8050/gilmour.org

CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL, Elyria 440-365-1821/elyriacatholic.com

ANGELA-ST. JOSEPH HIGH SCHOOL, Cleveland

CATHOLIC

RESERVE ACADEMY

517 $12,000 YCoed; Day school12:142 92%Y/Lutheran

498 $31,275 $14,375 NCoed; Boarding and day school($17,980) 10:151

$9,000 YCoed; Day school12:139

$10,200 NCoed; Day school12:137

$11,300 YCoed; Day school15:136

JasonSpodnik, president

, president; LorenzoM.

YCoed; Day school15:139 67% 90%Y/Catholic ShelbreyL.Blanc, president; KarenL. Carter, principal

ChrisSteinmann, superintendent, CEO, Cleveland Lutheran High School Association; MichaelWaugh, principal

100%Y/Catholic KathleenC.Kenny, head of school

98%Y/Catholic AnnieHeidersbach, president

maloneynovotny.com

Priciest private high schools rarely accept vouchers

BY CHUCK SODER

If you’d like your son or daughter to attend one of the more expensive private high schools in Northeast Ohio, don’t count on using a state voucher. Only one of the 10 most expensive schools on Crain’s annual Private High Schools list accepts vouchers nanced by state tax dollars. Hawken accepts them for its Mastery School in Cleveland, but not at its Upper School in Gates Mills.

By contrast, vouchers are accepted at almost every other school on the full digital version of the list, which contains 39 high schools.

Of the 29 schools with sticker-price tuition below $24,000, all but two accept state vouchers.

at’s not a coincidence, according to Dan Dodd, executive director of the Ohio Association of Independent Schools.

e state’s main voucher programs give eligible high school students $7,500 that they can apply toward tuition costs at participating schools.

If the di erence between that $7,500 and a school’s tuition is great, the school is unlikely to accept vouchers, Dodd said.

Accepting them can put schools in a “ nancial quandary,” he said. For instance, if a student applies to attend using a non-income-based voucher through Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program, the school is al-

lowed to charge them tuition for any remaining amount not covered by the voucher.

But if they accept those vouchers, they also must accept income-based EdChoice vouchers, and state rules prevent schools from charging those students for the rest of their tuition bill. at di erence can be large at more expensive schools.

e program also doesn’t let schools limit how many voucher applicants they’ll accept or accept them for some grades but not others. us, accepting vouchers could put a signi cant dent in a school’s tuition revenue.

“ e all-or-nothing nature of it makes it di cult,” said Dodd, who noted that his organization hasn’t advocated that the state change its rules.

Schools also are more likely to accept vouchers if they’re located near

a greater number of students who might use them. at’s doubly true if they’re in the city of Cleveland, which since 1996 has had a dedicated state voucher program called the Cleveland Scholarship Program.

Schools in that program are allowed to charge students in grades 9-12 for any tuition not covered by the program. Of six Cleveland schools on the full digital list, ve accept some form of voucher.

Almost all schools accepting vouchers also have a religious a liation, but that may be because those schools tend to charge less in tuition, Dodd suggested.

On that teacher shortage

Education organizations nationwide have been talking about teacher shortages, but local private high schools

seem to be doing OK on that front.

e number of faculty members employed by schools on the list has been increasing at least in small amounts since 2018, even though enrollment has decreased slightly since then. is year the number of faculty members employed by schools on the list rose 2.2%, while enrollment fell 1%.

We also asked schools this question: Over the past year has it become easier or harder to recruit and retain teachers?

Yes, 17 of the 25 schools who answered the question picked one of the three options indicating it has gotten harder, but nine of them picked the weakest of those three options, “slightly harder.”

We also asked what actions they’ve taken to recruit and retain teachers over the past year. Nine of the 22 respondents picked “raised salaries beyond cost-of-living increases,” making it the most popular choice out of eight options. Five respondents (who were allowed to choose multiple answers) picked “recruiting from new geographies,” making it the second-most popular choice.

e full digital list is available exclusively to Crain’s Data Members.

To learn more, visit CrainsCleveland. com/data.

Chuck Soder: csoder@crain.com, (216) 771-5374, @ChuckSoder

whatyour ' s story

What economic clouds?

Private aviation sees blue skies

THOMAS BLACK BLOOMBERG OPINION

e speculation and hand-wring ing that the U.S. is headed for a reces sion hasn’t yet reached the private-jet set, which is gathering this week in Florida for what promises to be an upbeat conference.

ere will be little doom and gloom in the conversations among attendees who will be swilling cham pagne and munching on hors d’oeu vres at the chalets that overtake the Orlando Executive Airport and show case aircraft and services.

Private-jet sales and ying activity have been robust since the pandemic hit in early 2020 and the wealthy es chewed commercial airliners. Flight hours continue to increase this year even after a banner 2021 and next year will likely surpass the industry’s high-water mark in 2007, according to Honeywell International Inc., which makes aircraft components from jet engines to cockpit controls.

e sector was hammered by the Great Recession and has never fully recovered if measured by the num ber of annual new plane deliveries.

at fear of economic calamity just doesn’t exist this year in an industry that pays close attention to the nan

cial markets. is is a crowd of astute investors who already knew trouble was brewing in early 2008 when Bear Stearns went bust and were hitting the exits of the business-aviation in dustry by September, when Lehman Brothers failed and credit markets locked up.

e 2008 nancial collapse im pacted businesses and consumers alike. Companies were forced to cut costs amid plummeting sales and a scramble to secure credit. Corporate jets were among the rst things to go. e industry’s reputation got a stain that took years to fade after the CEOs of automakers ew their corporate jets to attend a hearing on Capitol Hill in which they urged Congress to bail out their companies.

e vibe is much di erent now even though the S&P 500 Index has lost a quarter of its value this year, in ation rages at a four-decade high and the Federal Reserve is aggres sively raising interest rates to subdue price increases. e shift of demand patterns during the pandemic cou pled with the e ect of government stimulus made many rich people even wealthier, and they’re feeling somewhat insulated from the im pacts of rising interest rates and an economic slowdown.

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e upbeat mood is re ected in Honeywell’s annual survey of private jet operators, which forecasts 8,500 new business jets will be delivered over the next decade at a value of $274 billion. at’s a 15% increase from last year’s delivery forecast and 12% higher from the pre-pandemic survey in 2019. Flight hours are ex pected to close this year up 9% from a banner year in 2021, and that growth will settle at a normal pace of 2% in 2023, but at a new plateau that matches or surpasses a record year in 2007, said Javier Jimenez Serrano, who as strategy and market research manager at Honeywell’s aerospace unit is in charge of the survey.

Besides increased demand stoked by the stimulus-driven wealth that accumulated at the top, a hoard of new yers entered the business-avia tion market after the pandemic prac tically shut down commercial airlin ers in 2020. ese newcomers are well-heeled passengers who would traditionally travel in rst-class seats but never thought they needed to y privately. After getting a taste of the service — skipping the disruption of canceled ights, crowded airports and Transportation Security Admin istration workers barking to take o shoes and belts — many are hooked. Often, they start with chartered ights and then take the plunge to buy an aircraft. ose new customers

are sticking around even as commer cial ights rebound.

is has made pre-owned planes scarce, especially for the midsize and large-cabin aircraft. e plane manu facturers, including General Dynam

ics Corp.’s Gulfstream, Textron Inc. and Embraer SA, all have large back logs and are beginning to crank up production as much as the supply chain will allow. e demand is strong although large corporations

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The 2022 NBAA-BACE static aircraft display at Orlando Executive Airport.

| NBAA-BACE

haven’t yet fully returned to the market. Even if there is a downturn in the economy, pent-up demand will keep the deliveries going, Jimenez Serrano said.

Honeywell expects new-jet output to rise to as much as 820 next year from about 700 this year. In 2019, deliveries were 720 but fell to a low of 565 in 2020.

While the super-rich have the option to pay cash for aircraft and remain immune to the economic slowdown so far, demand for preowned planes at the lower end of the market — jets that cost less than $15 million — is cooling o , said Janine Iannarelli, founder of the aircraft brokerage Par Avion Ltd. It’s not just the price of the plane and higher interest rates that factor into a purchase decision. An owner has to constantly shell out for pilots, fuel, maintenance, hangar space and other expenses, which are now all experiencing the e ects of in ation.

purpose acquisition company to sell shares to the public for the rst time in Richmond Heights-based Flexjet, which operates a eet of more than 250 private aircraft and o ers fractional ownership, leasing and jet-card services. Flight revenue hours have jumped 60% at the business-jet operator since 2019, the company has customers waiting to buy ying time and “business has never been stronger,’’ said Ricci, chairman of Flexjet.

e “frugal wealthy,’’ as Ricci dubs the newcomers to private aviation, will stick around, elevating the customer base over the long term even if the economy stumbles. When downturns hit, private aviation is one of the rst industries to take the hit and one of the last to recover, Ricci said. No one is headed for the exits yet, he said.

“I’m optimistically paranoid,” Ricci said. “ ese are really good times, but I don’t think you should get over your skis right now.”

It’s easy to take shots at the business aircraft world. ese are expensive and sometimes luxurious machines in which a vast majority of people will never set foot.

While 2008 was “bearish and somber,” that’s not the sentiment at this year’s show, Iannarelli said. Some buyers are waiting on the sidelines for a correction in the pre-owned market to pull the trigger. e upbeat music may stop at some point next year if large economies slip into recession, but no one is talking about a crash, she said. ere could be a urry of deals in the U.S. before the end of the year because of the end of socalled bonus depreciation in which the full value of a business aircraft can be deducted immediately from taxes instead of over several years.

Any downturn in the market would create more acquisition targets for investor Kenn Ricci.

He’s raising as much as $430 million of capital by using a special

ese aircraft also burn much more fuel per passenger than commercial airliners. Still, business aviation in the U.S. supports more than 1 million jobs, including about 105,000 manufacturing jobs, and it’s one of the few U.S. industries that has a positive trade balance, according to the National Business Aviation Association, which is the organizer of this week’s conference. Many aircraft innovations are rst adopted by business jets.

The economic pain of inflation and rising interest rates that’s squeezing the middle class isn’t having as large an impact on the wealthy as 2008-2009 recession did, a potential sign that a downturn may be short-lived. If business aviation is a canary in the coal mine, this bird is still alive and flying.

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LYMAN CAMPUS BUTLER CAMPUS Shaker Heights Russell Township

Attention Ohio Businesses

can

Not holding any

If

an

“I’M OPTIMISTICALLY PARANOID. THESE ARE REALLY GOOD TIMES, BUT I DON’T THINK YOU SHOULD GET OVER YOUR SKIS RIGHT NOW.”

—Kenn Ricci, chairman of Flexjet

In Hollister’s case, he noticed some thing was wrong a year ago. He felt something was o with his gait.

“My right foot was going ‘clomp’,” he said, pounding a table in front of him. “Not that loud. But that’s how it felt.” Last December, cutting to the heart of the matter, he told his doctor what was wrong with him before his physician was prepared to draw the same conclusion.

After his self-diagnosis was later cor roborated, he sought a second opin ion. He chose Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston over the other top candidates. He said he is now under the primary care of Dr. Merit Cudko wicz of the Healey Center for ALS at Mass General with strong support from Cleveland Clinic.

Hollister said Cudkowicz takes the approach of hitting the disease with ev erything “including the kitchen sink,” consisting of a battery of meds and strategies. Hollister and his wife, Dana, said Cudkowicz is pleased with his dis ease’s slow pace of progression.

Anyone who doubts the existence of the sentiment to keep an illness quiet should consider a tale told by Alec Pacella, president of NAI Pleas ant Valley in Independence. He re calls a morning meeting 30 years ago at a di erent brokerage where a bro ker told his colleagues he would not be in the o ce much the next few months due to a health issue. e nal statement, corroborated by oth ers, was: “If I hear one word of any one sharing one word about this to anyone, I will hunt you down …” e secret was maintained. at broker’s level of professional success continued unabated.

Privately, others have related that major owners who are prized clients have advised agents not to disclose ill nesses to protect their book of busi ness. Few agents have publicly shared their health challenges, although some, including Hollister, believe the sentiment is less typical among younger generations of agents and that the brokerage community has a more evolved attitude about a col league’s illness than decades ago.

Hollister has said he wants to pub licly share the diagnosis for three rea sons.

First, he said, “I feel a responsibility to raise awareness. e more this dis ease is discussed in public, the more research there will be to help people who have it, especially at the Healey Center at Mass General, which is at the forefront for neurological disorders performing ground-breaking research funded by grants and philanthropy.”

Moreover, cases in the ALS family are expected to grow in occurrence as Baby Boomers age. In terms of his familiarity with the disease’s fre quency, Hollister said it is akin to the phenomenon “when you are looking at buying a new car where once you

When Bob Nosal died in late 2021, his passing at 64 hit even former colleagues as a surprise. He had been in the brokerage business in Cleveland for more than 40 years. | CONTRIBUTED

have your eye on one, that model is suddenly everywhere.”

Second, to grapple with his situa tion, he is limiting his business to se lected clients of long standing. Paring down his business is necessary as he has a limp that is becoming more pro nounced. One staple of commercial real estate brokerage remains a chal lenge: the building tour. at is where agents accompany clients on physical tours of buildings. Long halls. Large warehouses. Stairs aplenty. In such a setting, it’s hard to cloak a limp.

Paraphrasing that description of Bernie Kosar running attributed to Miami columnist Jenny Kellner, Hol lister said, “On a bad day, I walk like a gira e on Quaaludes.” Hollister took crutches on a recent building tour, but it proved more di cult than ex pected. He now uses a cane. His col leagues at Newmark have helped him by handling building tours.

“ ey’ve been incredible, espe cially (Newmark vice chairman) Ter ry Coyne,” Hollister said.

His third reason for sharing his ex perience is counterintuitive for someone sitting for an interview: He wishes to maintain his privacy. He does not want people to bring up the subject. He said that he wants to live life as normally as possible.

“ e topic sucks up enough oxy gen on its own without also having to eld questions about it at the grocery store.” Hollister said. He harbors the hope that once it is covered, even re ported publicly, it will be “one and done” in terms of having it be a topic for discussion.

Such an approach di ers radically from typical practice.

Tom Jelepis, vice president of busi ness brokerage who also practices in the transaction and public sector areas at Hanna Commercial, is regarded as one of the rst to make no public secret of his illness among his mates. He said keeping it quiet never occurred to him.

“No one said that to me, but this is how I’m built,” said Jelepis, a former mayor of Bay Village who is more used to public discourse than many people.

“In 2010 I had non-Hodgkin’s lympho

ly, the site features a full pharmacy, as well as a bank branch.

ma. I had chemo, a spleen removed and a stem-cell transplant. But I had my own business and experience. I had good backup, not only from my faith and my family, but the industry. is industry is built on relationships. If you did that (negative selling for health reasons) today, you’d be ex posed for it.”

Myrna Previte, a senior vice presi dent at Kowit & Co. of May eld Heights, believes that the industry has changed since she had breast cancer in 2003. e typical broker is younger now than then, and the illnesses and deaths of high-pro le agents and owners the last

been in the brokerage business here for 40 years and previously captained Newmark’s Cleveland o ce for two decades.

Joan Nosal, his widow, has begun her own brokerage career since his passing. She said there was concern about news of his bladder cancer costing him business but felt that Bob similarly kept his health issues quiet, out of his own sense of privacy.

“Two days before he died, Bob was quickly changing the subject to call ers, asking, ‘How about you?’ At the end, he was hardly able to speak and telling me what to respond in text messages. His condition was well guarded. Earlier there was a feeling he would beat it, and he did not want to make things about him. Everyone in the end makes their own choices.”

Another factor that may change the way such news is managed is that the internet and the rise of online listing services has made impossible the 1980s practice by some brokers of hiding les in locked drawers, and later, when personal computers took hold, locking screens when leaving their desk.

Pacella noted technological changes have changed brokerage.

“You can function now with calls and emails, while in the past it was a face-to-face business,” Pacella said. “ e practice may not be as profound now, as more of the business is remote. Also, there are fewer of us (brokers) to day, and we cover a lot more territory.”

New York tenure. He worked as a bond trader for what is now Credit Suisse. He has an MBA from New York University following an under graduate degree in geology from Am herst College in Massachusetts. at course of study let him spend a sum mer working as a geologist in Alaska for what was then Sohio.

He returned to Cleveland after running into Dana, and they became a couple. He knew her since middle school.

“She is my rock,” Hollister said. “She was also my girlfriend in sixth grade, but she didn’t know it.”

As he decided to return home, he chose to pursue commercial real es tate, as it combined both his sales and quantitative backgrounds. He did not say so, but he also has a list of contacts dating back to University School that is golden in many real estate circles.

“I’m a generalist” as a realty agent, Hollister said. Originally, he did a lot of gas-well deals. Later, he moved into of ce and industrial leasing and sales, and he even has done some retail.

His favorite part of the realty busi ness is the closing.

“It reminds me of bond trading,” Hollister said. “It is similar to an athlet ic event. You just keep pushing until either you win or you lose.”

Dave’s works with chefs and nutri tionists from UH to provide healthy cooking classes in the community room, which also serves as a meeting space for residents, nonpro ts and other community groups. e mod ern store provides a full-service su permarket in a federally designated food desert complete with prepared foods, including a selection of local restaurateurs, and lls healthy food prescriptions for UH patients. Final

At UH, the facility goes beyond serving the basic functions of pediat ric and women’s health services. It provides patient navigation services to help meet health-related social needs such as housing and utilities, legal services, group care and inte grated mental and behavioral health, preventative dental care, nutrition education and a WIC o ce all under one roof.

Over the 20-year history of the NMTC program, CDA has been award ed a total of $265 million in credits.

—Myrna Previte, a senior vice president at Kowit & Co., had breast cancer in 2003

few years have changed the way illness in the brokerage business is received. at was not the case, she said, 20 years ago, when a high-pro le client advised her to tell no one of her diagnosis, and she went to extreme measures to do so.

“Until I was better, no one other than very few knew about it, until I took my wig o ,” she recalled. “At that point, my clients knew the worst was over. Phone calls started going to my clients. e callers acted as if they were passing along inside information. But my cli ents knew the situation.”

Surviving breast cancer changed how Previte, who handles o ce leas ing for major downtown buildings, approached her practice. “Rather than 20, I limited it to a few and make the same amount of money through my loyalty,” she said.

At the same time, she said she would “probably” still advise that younger version of herself with just two years in the business to keep it private.

When o ce-leasing expert Bob Nosal died in late 2021, his passing at 64 hit even former colleagues as a sur prise. Nosal, who was executive vice president at NAI Pleasant Valley, had

At the close of 2020, the NMTC was set to expire. Instead, it received a ve-year, $25 billion annual exten sion in the Consolidated Appropria tions Act of 2021, the largest exten sion in the history of the tax credit.

is extension will provide much-needed investment and ad vancement opportunities for under served communities across the country and those right here in Cleveland.

During the current Congress, both the Senate and House introduced bills (S. 456 and H.R. 1321) with bi partisan support to make the NMTC

Coping with dis ease from the ALS family is becoming increasingly com mon and presents di erent challeng es and possibilities from other illness es.

According to John Hopkins Medicine, an online source from Johns Hopkins Hospital and associated institutions in Balti more, the ALS disease group a ects as many as 30,000 in the United States, with 5,000 new cases each year. Typi cally, it a ects people from 40 to 70 but may occur at a younger age.

Johns Hopkins Medicine notes eight types of ALS that manifest in di verse ways. However, it said ALS and associated diseases do not impair a person’s intellectual reasoning, vi sion, hearing or senses.

Mass General’s Healey Center on its website said the personal varia tions of the disease have made it elude cure, but new therapies are starting to support the ability of pa tients to live a productive life

Like many realty brokers, Hollister pursued other work before becoming part of the local brokerage communi ty. Hollister has been at Newmark since entering the commercial real estate business here in 2005. He joined the brokerage soon after he came home from New York City.

“I served my 20 and was paroled,” Hollister deadpanned regarding his

extension permanent. Establishing permanence will provide certainty in delivering resources to low-income and marginalized communities, cre ating jobs, increasing economic op portunity, and improving lives at a time when underserved communi ties face signi cant challenges.

e unique beauty of the New Markets Tax Credit program is that it is used e ectively to support good jobs and strong wages and has his torically held bipartisan support. In addition to creating high quality manufacturing jobs, NMTCs create and expand access to health care,

As he faces his current limitations, he is picking his spots judiciously, but the work pace remains prodigious. e week before he was interviewed, he closed an industrial sale, two o ce leases and is in continued negotiations for potential sale of a suburban ex (of ce/warehouse) property.

Hollister savors the irony about hav ing a sparkling year deal-wise given his new personal challenges. Hollister got an email about potential business during the interview. at same kind of work hard, play hard attitude de nes how he and Dana confront his illness.

“It’s carpe diem,” Hollister said. “We traveled a lot this summer, while mo bility permits.” Stops included eight states and three countries. He said that the frequency of his “out of o ce” noti cation has “attracted some notice.”

Planned future trips include three more states, as well as three more countries. e couple plan to continue grabbing travel memories as long as circumstances allow.

“All the fun stu ,” Dana Hollister said of the travels. While con ning the word about her husband’s illness to her family and a few close friends since March is not a route she might have chosen, she said she respects his approach.

She said there are days when they both forget his illness. “Until he starts walking,” she added.

Asked how he feels about his ill ness, Hollister pauses and upon some re ection, says, “I can either meet it head on or shrink from it. I prefer to meet it head on. It’s an obvi ous choice to just soldier on.”

Stan Bullard: sbullard@crain.com, (216) 771-5228, @CrainRltywriter

early childcare and schools, job training, groceries, telecommunica tions, energy, arts, recreation and in frastructure in ways that traditional private sector nancing cannot e ec tively meet.

Ohio’s congressional delegation boasts 11 members who have sup ported e orts to make the tax credit permanent. e Ohio members of Congress should continue to ensure this resource is available — perma nently — and integrate the NMTC into America’s plan to help under served and marginalized communi ties in Ohio and across the country.

“UNTIL I WAS BETTER, NO ONE OTHER THAN VERY FEW KNEW ABOUT IT, UNTIL I TOOK MY WIG OFF. AT THAT POINT, MY CLIENTS KNEW THE WORST WAS OVER.”

Myrna Previte, a senior vice president at Kowit & Co. of May eld Heights, believes the industry has changed since she had breast cancer in 2003.

| JASON MILLER/ PIXELATE PHOTOGRAPHY

LENDING

Proposed regulations groups such as Ygrene and PACENation have ex pressed the most issues with include those requiring a mortgage lender’s consent before a borrower can work with a PACE provider and making the related tax lien subordinate to a mortgage.

“HB 646 is important because it places much needed regulations on R-PACE lending, which has been shown to be detrimental to the inter ests of Ohio’s homeowners,” said state Rep. Al Cutrona, R-Can eld, who introduced the bill. “As the housing market uctuates, now it is more important than ever for Ohio ans to be able to stay in their homes without a confusing, unregulated program shaking things up even more.”

R-PACE lending is not entirely un regulated in the areas where it takes place. After all, it is only permitted where local governments are able to and agree to allow it.

e bigger question is what kind of regulations are needed and what they should control.

So what is PACE?

PACE programs have been pro moted in years past by former Presi dent Barack Obama and groups such as the Sierra Club and the NAACP.

R-PACE nancing has been touted as a creative option for homeowners to pay for “green” upgrades that may dually bene t the environment — and therefore the greater public — and lower energy bills.

Applicable projects can include upgrades like new windows, a new roof, installation of solar panels, or a new HVAC system.

But while commercial PACE loans are viewed as generally good and not predatory, there have been some controversies reported with R-PACE lending in states including California and Missouri that have raised con cerns and resulted in greater con sumer-focused regulations.

In a way, Ohio is trying to follow in those footsteps in the hope of pre venting any issues before they hap pen.

Concerns arise

For all the good R-PACE lending could potentially do, the for-pro t programs have been criticized for how they could possibly take advan tage of borrowers.

e nancing companies have not been intrinsically required to comply with typical mortgage-grade protec tions, such as scrutinizing a borrow er’s ability to repay a debt.

And the fact that the debt is col lected through a property tax assess ment can also be confusing to some people, who may be drawn in by an o er to upgrade their homes with no upfront costs.

A key issue, consumer advocates say, is that borrowers may agree to R-PACE nancing without truly un derstanding what they are signing up for.

According to the National Con sumer Law Center, some homeown ers have reportedly been known to agree to a project with little to no physical documentation of what they will owe.

Some of this can come down to the way contractors employed by PACE lenders have sold homeowners on R-PACE projects in states like Califor nia, said Scott Dick, government af

fairs director for the Bakers eld As sociation of REALTORS.

ere are many examples of R-PACE nancing working e ectively.

However, the way the products have been sold in some markets — by contractors working for PACE lend ers — has allowed for an unscrupu lous and opaque way of doing busi ness that may take advantage of unsavvy homeowners, said Steve Sharpe, a Cincinnati-based sta at torney with the National Consumer Law Center.

“ is is something that looks like a mortgage but without the same un derwriting process,” Sharpe said. “And that is bad for folks.”

e NCLC has reported that it has “seen this particularly impact older consumers who are on a xed in come and who have particular chal lenges understanding or reading the ne print on a mobile tablet.”

e more questionably and possi bly predatory side of R-PACE nanc ing was also documented in a 2021 investigation by ProPublica, which found R-PACE products in Missouri “disproportionately” burdened “bor rowers in predominantly Black neighborhoods.”

Ygrene’s average interest rate is about 7.98% plus a 3% origination fee. e repayments can be stretched over two decades or more.

Its average R-PACE project size, ac cording to Ohio statehouse testimo ny, is about $23,000 with a median annual payment amount around $2,000.

Nonetheless, ProPublica reported that with fees and interest rates lay ered in, there were occasionally in stances where a borrower’s loan over its life may exceed the total value of their home.

is could lead to situations where borrowers are caught by surprise when they see a massive jump on their biannual property tax bills, or increased escrow payments if they have a mortgage. Dozens of com plaints have been led with the Bet ter Business Bureau from borrowers who say they feel they have been scammed, though they would repre sent a fraction of customers.

For its part, Ygrene representatives have emphasized that the company

has improved its practices in recent years and that its protocols are much more consumer friendly.

In November 2021, PACENation announced the rollout of nearly two dozen new consumer-protection policies that would be applied to R-PACE lending nationwide. And protocols have been largely changed so contractors are not explaining nancing to people but instead con necting them with lender representa tives.

As for Ohio …

Ohio enacted basic PACE-enabling legislation in 2009. But local munici palities must opt into their own pro gram through what’s known as a spe cial improvement district.

In 2016, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority authorized the launch of a pilot R-PACE program overseen by the Lucas County Land Bank.

Eventually, the decision was made to partner with a for-pro t R-PACE lender with the resources to help scale up that pilot program, ex plained David Mann, president and CEO of the Lucas County Land Bank. at company was going to be Cal ifornia’s Renovate America. But Ren ovate went bankrupt before it could nance any projects in Lucas County. Major drivers of this included tough er rules and myriad lawsuits, accord ing to Bloomberg.

Renovate’s assets were acquired by Ygrene, which was named the vendor for the land bank’s program in 2021. at program has helped several dozen homeowners without major issues over the years since it was rst implemented.

Its apparent success seemingly played a part in Ygrene’s e orts to try and expand the program further across the state.

But issues raised by groups like the NCLC and ProPublica, among oth ers, have led to wariness about Ygrene and R-PACE programs that are not strictly regulated.

In January, Summit County passed on adopting the Lucas County pro gram for these very reasons.

Frank Ford, a senior policy adviser with Cleveland’s Fair Housing Center for Rights and Research and chair of

VAPAC (Vacant and Abandoned Property Action Council), said that a core reason Lucas County’s program has worked well comes down to its built-in consumer protections that go above and beyond Ygrene’s intrin sic practices.

e Land Bank itself screens a bor rower’s ability to repay the loan, pre-approves contractors and in spects the work done before the con tractor is fully paid out, for example.

Other protections include that a PACE loan cannot exceed 20% of the value of the property, while the an nual payment cannot exceed 10% of the property owner’s annual income.

Part of the purpose of House Bill 646 is to build some consumer pro tections like these into state law to regulate the actions of lenders inter ested in o ering R-PACE nancing throughout Ohio.

at includes measures like re quiring a PACE lender to conduct a nancial assessment of a borrower’s ability to repay their debt, requiring disclosures spelling out what a bor rower’s costs will be and placing caps on a loan’s total size.

But the legislation could also cre ate the only instance in state law where a tax assessment becomes subordinate to private nancing.

Juan Martinez, R-PACE managing director for PACENation, said that’s the anti-competitive piece the PACE industry takes issue with that is moti vated by mortgage lenders wanting control over selling their own prod ucts to nance home improvements.

“In states that have enacted poli cies that place PACE liens subordi nate to rst mortgages or that require lender consent (Colorado, Vermont and Oklahoma as examples), resi dent PACE has never been able to get o the ground,” said Matt Koppitch, a former Ygrene lobbyist and lawyer with Bricker & Eckler, according to statehouse testimony from May 31.

“No state with a subordinate PACE lien has ever funded a PACE project.”

Because an R-PACE lien otherwise takes priority over an existing mort gage, another concern is a home owner who suddenly can’t a ord their PACE bill could lose their home to foreclosure. e liens could also make it harder for a property owner to sell or re nance.

ese factors could have a detri mental impact on the housing mar ket, said Ohio REALTORS lobbyist Beth Wanless.

Koppitch, however, has testi ed that Ygrene has yet to foreclose on someone who couldn’t a ord their PACE assessment.

If not Ygrene, then who?

Ygrene recently paused new PACE nancing in its three core markets of California, Missouri and Florida, which may be due to rising interest rates and a lack of capital.

“Signi cant changes in the nan cial markets have made it impossible for Ygrene to continue o ering PACE nancing. Due to these unexpected and rapidly evolving circumstances, Ygrene has suspended all residential and commercial PACE nancing ef fective Oct. 3,” said the company in an emailed statement provided by Koppitch. “Ygrene is working dili gently to identify a funding source so that we can resume operations as soon as possible.”

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, Ygrene has said it is pausing on R-PACE loans for a year due to higher interest rates, general eco nomic conditions and changes in Missouri laws.

Even if Ygrene goes dormant, an other PACE lender could certainly look to operate in the Ohio market. at is why proponents of the con sumer protections in House Bill 646 say the legislation still needs passed.

Ygrene o cials have refused to discuss the state of the company or the Ohio legislation beyond state ments provided primarily through a third-party public relations manager, whose contract with the company was canceled this fall.

Koppitch is also no longer working on behalf of the company.

Martinez said there are at least three other PACE lenders — FortiFi, Renew Financial and Home Run Fi nancing — that could step in if Ygrene is unable to provide R-PACE loans.

But whether they do will likely de pend on what happens with House Bill 646.

Jeremy Nobile: jnobile@crain.com, (216) 771-5362, @JeremyNobile

Applicable R-PACE projects can include upgrades like new windows, a new roof, installation of solar panels, or a new HVAC system. VIVINT SOLAR/UNSPLASH

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

ARCHITECTURE

HBM Architects, LLC

HBM Architects is pleased to welcome Emily Dallmeyer to the rm as a project architect. Emily joins us from Charlotte, NC and brings with her a wealth of experience in the design of public / civic buildings. She has already jumped in on library projects in St. Petersburg, FL and Cabarrus County, NC.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

St. Clair Advisors LLC

St. Clair Advisors LLC is pleased to announce that Joanna Lograsso has joined the rm as a nancial planning associate. In her role, Joanna works directly with the client service team to provide tax and wealth planning assistance to our client families. Prior to joining St. Clair Advisors, Joanna spent several years in the wealth management industry with a variety of responsibilities. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Cleveland State University.

LAW

Walter Haver eld

Ryan Coady brings nearly a decade of experience to Walter Haver eld’s Cleveland, Ohio-based Business Services Group. His practice focuses on representing small to medium-sized clients in a range of business matters including contracts, mergers and acquisitions and transactions involving real estate, nancing, employment, corporate organization and governance. Ryan also advises businesses on general corporate matters on a frequent basis.

NONPROFITS

Step Forward

Angela Graves has joined Step Forward, the designated anti-poverty agency for Cuyahoga County, as the Director of Communications and Outreach. Graves will help build the legacy, momentum and growth of Step Forward’s brand through her positive storytelling and marketing. Graves has more than a decade of experience in communications. She is an award-winning journalist who has worked across the country, and most recently, in Indianapolis, Indiana, as a news anchor and investigative reporter.

Homeowners have some equity built up over the last decade or two and they’re using it to make improvements that increase energy e ciency and update aesthetics rather than upgrade to a new house.

“We’re seeing continued demand for replacement windows and exterior cladding. Our Ascend products and vinyl cladding and metal products t in the economic environment we’re in at this point,” Drexinger said. “ at’s not to say we won’t face a soft patch or a deeper economic impact, but our plans are based on solid business cases and the owners are going to make those investments regardless of the economic environment. We’re in this for the medium- and long-term. At 75 years, we’re starting our next chapter with a signicant level of investment.”

New CEO

Drexinger succeeded Brian Strauss, who had the CEO position since May 2014. He said his goal is to empower Alside sta to produce quality products that provide energy e ciency and beauty.

called a changing marketplace, Alside developed its rst vinyl replacement windows in 1980.

e company entered the new construction market for vinyl windows in 1995 with its launch of its Performance series, which was followed in 1996 by the introduction of its premier vinyl siding, the Charter Oak series.

In 1998, Alside became a partner in a new program established by the Department of Energy called Energy Star.

e company completed construction of a new vinyl extrusion plant in Freeport, Texas, named Freeport Vinyl Technologies, in 1999.

In 2000, Alside purchased Alpine Window of Bothell, Washington, bringing the total number of window manufacturing facilities to four and providing a West Coast presence.

e company introduced its Prodigy-brand line of insulated siding in 2005, o ering a clapboard siding with a true at face, an extended length and fade resistance.

Alside introduced its FrameWorks window collection in 2010 and three years later was out with a new polyurethane coating technology to o er more than 80 interior and exterior nish combinations.

LAW

Walter Haver eld

LAW

Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP

The Firm welcomed back Jacqueline Meese-Martinez, an associate attorney focusing on complex commercial litigation with robust appellate experience.

Jacqui represents corporate clients in a wide range of industries, from health insurance to technology manufacturing.

She recently completed a one-year clerkship with Judge Dan Polster in U.S. District Court.

Judge Polster and Jacqui are co-teaching a class on judicial politics at Case Western Reserve.

Jacqui earned her J.D. from CUNY School of Law.

As a member of the Walter Haver eld Real Estate Group, Cory Novak focuses his practice on a broad range of matters, such as the leasing, development, acquisition and disposition of real estate and the environmental aspects of real estate and commercial transactions. Prior to Walter Haver eld, Cory worked as a law clerk for both the Ohio Attorney General’s Of ce and Ohio’s Eighth District Court of Appeals.

LAW

Walter Haver eld

As a member of the Walter Haver eld Real Estate Group, Nicholas Ortiz drafts and negotiates commercial real estate documents, including purchase and sale agreements, leases, lease amendments, easements, declarations, subordination non-disturbance and attornment agreements, as well as estoppel certi cates. Nick previously served as a paralegal for the United States Air Force.

“ e mission is really enhancing where we live and work and we’re literally looking to do that one place at a time for generations to come,” Drexinger said.

He has previously served as CEO of American Construction Source; division president and general manager of stock building supplier BMC; senior vice president at Nibco Inc.; and various general manager roles at Armstrong World Industries.

Drexinger said there’s an underlying reason why his career has been focused on building products and that he now has a role at Associated Materials.

“We’re in a noble industry. At the end of the day, we play a small part in helping build the places where families and individuals live,” Drexinger said. “We’re also at a beautiful in ection point with our 75th year of celebration. We’re respectful of all this company and the teams have accomplished and we’re using it as a springboard for the next chapter of innovation and service to our customers.”

Reaching this point

e Alside company was founded by brothers Jerome and Manual Kaufman and their associates in 1947. ey unveiled their rst big product that year — baked enamel aluminum siding invented by Jerome Kaufman, who was inspired by the paint-bonding processes used for Word War II plane fuselages.

In 1955, Alside opened the rst company-owned supply centers in Indianapolis, Pittsburgh and Chicago. e company became one of the largest users of sheet aluminum in the world.

Alside was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961. Four years later all outstanding stock was acquired by U.S. Steel.

In the 1970s, Alside began distributing and then manufacturing aluminum windows and doors. en, in 1979, the company entered the vinyl siding market with the construction of a new manufacturing facility in West Salem, Ohio.

To meet the needs of what it

Also in 2013, Alside started to offer insulated siding veri ed for energy performance and color retention, and it launched a Charter Oak siding featuring graphite polystyrene Neopor-brand thermal foam technology.

In 2018, Alside launched its 1700 and 1900 series of vinyl windows for new construction, which was followed in 2019 with the introduction of its Mezzo system and in 2020 the launch of Ascend.

Going forward

Ascend composite planks consist of a glass-reinforced polymer extruded with weatherable pigments and impact modi ers that are then adhered to a graphite-infused polystyrene foam.

e glass bers are provided through the composite technology from Tundra Cos., a White Bear Lake, Minnesota-based material science company.

Just like its early days, Alside sta took a known technology and incorporated it into a siding product.

ose days aren’t over. Drexinger said some of the latest investments also will go toward research and development.

“To stay competitive we’re continuing to increase our focus on more innovative products,” he said. “We’re making an investment on the development side of the equation, too.”

Company o cials are moving forward with con dence, Drexinger added.

“We have a long history and even back in the 2008-09 nancial crisis and other soft patches since then, the company has always performed solid through downturns,” Drexinger said. “I think it’s the innovative products we have, the product mix we have, and the end markets we have with a network of supply centers working in partner with local contractors every day. We continue to have a beautifully integrated model where we manufacture our products and we move them through our company distribution systems. at’s unique in the industry but it’s a model that served us incredibly well.”

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REAL ESTATE FORUM

Public, private, and philanthropic resources are coalescing around an ambitious vision for Cleveland’s waterfront, just as the federal government is pumping out cash for pandemic relief and infrastructure work. What will it take for a new crop of investors, and fresh civic leadership, to create compelling and broadly accessible connections to Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River?

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