Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 39, NO. 18

APRIL 30 - MAY 6, 2018

Source Lunch

The List Private equity and venture capital firms Page 19

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Michael Gaffney, Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio Page 23

These remarkable Northeast Ohioans have left an indelible imprint on the region. Their stories begin on Page 10

Frances S. Buchholzer, 83; Page 11

Rev. E.T. Caviness, 89; Page 12

Bracy Lewis, 80; Page 14

William Conway, 90; Page 13

Jane Schierloh, 80; Page 15

J. William Doane, 83; Page 16

Rosemary Corcoran, 83; Page 17

Ernest P. Mansour, 87; Page 18

MANUFACTURING

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Superior Arts District gets Magnet turns a corner a major lift from GBX Group after a trying few years

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

With the dramatic renovation of one of the handful of buildings along Superior Avenue now in its portfolio, and even a new name, GBX Group is poised to be a major player in the redevelopment of what is called the Superior Arts District.

The firm, which until this year was called global X, recently redeveloped the four-story building at 2101 Superior. In March, it moved its 42 employees into the top three floors of what was known, when it opened in 1913, as the Empire Improvement Building. More recently, the building was the home of the Daffy Dan’s T-shirt business.

GBX cut out sections on all three floors for a

dramatic staircase and covered many walls with artist-drawn chalkboards that tell of the company’s evolution from a kitchen table consulting firm to a major player in historic real estate preservation.

But CEO Drew Sparacia doesn’t want the firm to be called a “real estate developer,” and it’s certainly not limiting its work to Superior Avenue.

“We’re a little bit sensitive about saying we’re a developer because we don’t want to compete with people we’re working with,” Sparacia said.

“We take ownership and work with developers.

And whenever we say we, we mean us and our investors, not just the folks in this building.”

The firm provides tax and financial advice to investors — now a total of more than 500 — through investment funds.

Entire contents © 2018 by Crain Communications Inc.

SEE GBX, PAGE 21

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

In recent years, Magnet — the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network — has undergone a leadership transition, faced higher than usual employee turnover and revamped the way it works with local manufacturers.

It also had four years in a row in which its tax filings showed the organization spent more than it brought in. However, the Cleveland nonprofit appears to be turning a corner and is planning to grow.

Magnet is dedicated to helping local manufacturers, but the way it’s done that has evolved

over the years. Today, its focus is on long-term relationships rather than one-off service contracts. That shift started a few years ago under then-president and CEO Daniel Berry.

Ethan Karp, the current president and CEO, took on that role in May 2015 after about a yearand-a-half as the organization’s vice president of client services and marketing. He had been hired from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. to oversee the Prism program, which focused heavily on building relationships with manufacturers and connecting them with resources in the region.

Karp said he believes he was brought in to serve as a “change agent.” Prism wasn’t just a new program, he said. It and other initiatives were “fundamental rethinks of how the organization needed to go.”

SEE MAGNET, PAGE 21

Akron Canton’s Royal Docks Brewing Co. is one of the fastest-growing craft brewers in the U.S. Page 20

Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s

EIGHT OVER 80

CONTENT

SPONSORED BY

NEWS AND TRENDS FROM NORTHEAST OHIO’S TECHNOLOGY SECTOR

TECH MATTERS THE

POWER OF EDGE COMPUTING I

n the age of instantaneous information flow, data analytics informs critical decisions. A surgeon who questions a particular aspect of a patient’s medical history can get the answer from a connected device, stat. An autonomous car can navigate on its own because of immediate data input that tells it where to go or when to stop. The interdependency between human and machine means the velocity of information transfer in real time is essential.

“Milliseconds matter in the digital age,” said Kevin Goodman, managing director and partner of BlueBridge Networks, a Clevelandbased cloud computing services firm.

Edge computing makes it happen. The latest manifestation of computing, edge computing brings a significant portion of processing done in the cloud closer to the edge of the connected device, be it a self-driving car, drone, self-adjusting sensor or robot. The proliferation of artificial

ON THE EDGE Edge computing serves as a decentralized extension of campus networks, cellular networks, data center networks or the cloud. According to Gartner, a global research company, about

centers, retail organizations and office spaces.

To that extent, its primary solutions complement each other. Its Sapphire Eye Wi-Fi ceiling-mounted sensors are installed in WiFi centric places such as hospitals to monitor performance. Results are stored in the cloud.

If any user experience problem is sensed, an alert is triggered. “This sophisticated sensor is an edge device,” Wangler said. Similarly, the mobile SaaS (software-as-a-service) product also monitors Wi-Fi for laptops and smartphones, which helps the mobile workforce stay connected and productive.

Again, results are stored in the cloud, while problems are reported from the device.

“We’ve been adding more intelligence into the mobile software agent as more real-time data is processed,” Wangler said.

The complexity and scale of the digital landscape has impacted the acceleration of

intelligence and Internet of Things devices is driving the shift of certain kinds of data processing from the cloud to the “edge” of a sensor or device.

“Edge computing reduces latency of data transfer by making sure data is processed quickly, reliably and securely,” Goodman said.

In the case of a self-driving car, which generates 1 gigabyte of data per second, it is impractical to send gobs of data for interpretation to a centralized cloud or data center because of the processing lag time. “In that case, seconds may have passed and the self-driving car may have hit a pedestrian,” said Russell Wangler, chief technology officer of 7SIGNAL, an Independence-based tech company.

Both edge and cloud computing are essential to the entities for which 7SIGNAL provides Wi-Fi performance monitoring, including workstations on wheels, point-of-sale devices, hospital tablets, manufacturing and distribution

10% of enterprisegenerated data is created and processed outside a traditional centralized data center or cloud. The company predicts that figure will rise to

50% by 2022.

edge in the computing space, but that’s not to say edge computing will replace cloud computing, tech leaders say. Rather, edge and cloud computing are part of the continuum in the evolution of computing power.

“The edge won’t replace the cloud. It’s a supplement. It’s a different way of aggregating and analyzing data,” said Brad Nellis, director of market strategy at Expedient, which provides data center services in Cleveland and in other cities throughout the U.S.

INVESTING IN NE OHIO’S DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

C

leveland is well-poised to be a strong player in edge computing,” says Kevin Goodman, managing director and partner of BlueBridge Networks.

Its economy — bolstered by such industries as manufacturing, health care, finance, IT, bioscience — and its educated workforce position the city and Northeast Ohio region to take advantage of

CALENDAR OF

EVENTS

centers” or “micro-data centers” to populate the region, tech leaders say.

More investments in the region’s digital infrastructure will be necessary to facilitate the growth in edge and cloud computing. Benjamin Kohn, innovation lead at DigitalC, a Clevelandbased civic tech collaborative, sees opportunities in terms of forming smart partnerships between

the increasing prevalence of edge computing. Its recognition as a great data center location with little risk to business disruption from severe weather and disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes helps the cause.

As the migration toward edge and cloud computing continues, expect more localized data centers — also known as “baby data

civic organizations, industries tied to edge computing and Internet Service Providers.

“There needs to be a tight relationship” between these entities, Kohn says. “We should be looking at what are best use cases for edge computing, what are the benefits, what does the investment horizon look like, and how can we lead in the space of edge computing?”

MAY 11-13

MAY 17

MAY 21-23

GIVEBACKHACK — StartMart, 50 Public Square, Suite 200, Cleveland. Do you have an idea or innovation that could help improve the community? Engaged citizens, designers, developers, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs and change makers all are invited to collaborate and figure out how to make their idea a reality. Info: givebackhack.com/cleveland/

IN THE COMPANY OF WOMEN: A CELEBRATION OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS — 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Ariel International Center, 1163 E. 40th St., Cleveland. Presented by the Women’s Business Centers of Ohio, this event celebrates members, volunteers and women in the community. Members will showcase their products, services and awards.

Info: wbcohio.org/events/cleveland-and-northern-ohio

OHIO SAS USERS CONFERENCE AND TRAINING — 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Crowne Plaza Cleveland South, 5300 Rockside Road, Independence.

This three-day event features a one-day conference, followed by several intensive training courses relating to software system use over the next two days. Info: clevesug.org

A PRODUCT OF

CRAIN CONTENT STUDIO C l eve l a n d

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PA G E 3

Colm created ‘lasting’ Wire-Net structure

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

Wire-Net has never really had to look for a new leader. After all, John P. Colm has been leading the manufacturing-focused economic development organization since before it was incorporated in the late-1980s.

But that’s about to change.

Last Thursday, April 26, Colm, Wire-Net's president and executive director, announced his plans to retire in early 2019. Colm became president of what’s now known as Wire-Net in November 1986, about two years before it was incorporated. Prior to that, Wire-Net was a project of the now-defunct Industrial States Policy Center, aimed at gathering a group together to support manufacturers on Cleveland’s West Side at a time when many companies were moving to locations like Mexico.

Colm earned a degree in environmental design and planning at the University at Buffalo before starting a career in citizen action, working at the Seattle tenants union and on political campaigns. He found his way to Wire-Net and has been with the organization ever since.

Jay O’Neill, regional general manager for Lane Steel Co. and chair of Wire-Net’s board, said Colm is an “entrepreneur by nature.” There used to be a lot of manufacturers located in neighborhoods, he said, and a lot of community groups to support them. Many of those — both the manufacturers and the community organizations — have shut their doors over the years. But Colm found ways to help Wire-Net sustain itself and grow, O’Neill said.

“He took this seed of an idea and created a lasting organization out of it that will survive long after he’s gone,” O’Neill said. “And it’s served many thousands of people and companies over those 30 years. It’s just part of the fabric of Cleveland at this point.”

Colm said he’s proud of the organization’s loyal membership, of which there are about 325 companies, because it means they’re finding value in the group. The average Wire-Net member is a 40-employee company, Colm said, noting that the companies are family owned businesses that are rooted in the community.

“That’s like the engine that drives everything,” he said.

Gary Davis, president of Aetna Plastics Corp., who will take on the role of chair of Wire-Net’s board in June, said he credits Wire-Net with helping him learn the industry of manufacturing. Aetna Plastics had largely been an industrial distributor before acquiring some manufacturing operations in the early 2000s, and Davis said he found the group gave him “tremendous tools,” like a seminar on lean manufacturing, to run that part of the business he wouldn’t have otherwise had.

Wire-Net has not been stagnant over the years. It has changed and adapted to the needs of its members and to the community.

“It seemed like every few years it was just morphing and transforming in very interesting ways,” Colm said.

Major changes came around 2006 and 2007, when the city of Cleveland asked Wire-Net to take over the Cleveland Industrial Retention Initiative. That expanded the organiza-

tion’s scope beyond the West Side to all of Cleveland.

Around the same time, Wire-Net won a state grant supporting a project around the wind energy supColm ply chain.

And much of Wire-Net’s work in recent years has focused on workforce, specifically the organization’s work at Max S. Hayes High School in Cleveland.

Colm is proud of the work WireNet has done with Max Hayes, which he called “ground-breaking.”

“It was built around a vision of intense business involvement ... which

only makes sense at a career-tech high school to have business really hand in glove with the students and the faculty, and a lot of learning taking place outside of the building and in an actual workplace or in the community or both,” Colm said.

As the new building was being built for the career-tech school, WireNet was one of the partners that worked on creating the programming students would learn. The partnership has continued through the Friends of Max Hayes group, and Colm said Wire-Net is looking to replicate its work at that school at other schools across the region.

Workforce development is a large goal under Wire-Net’s 2020 Vision Strategic Direction, a plan approved in 2017 that outlines the organiza-

tion’s priorities for the coming years.

According to the executive summary, the top goals include helping members with workforce development and leadership succession, as well as with the adoption of technology like the industrial internet of things.

“I think that the organization has a good, solid direction defined,” Colm said.

And the next leader could benefit from the sheer fact that there’s public interest in manufacturing again, a trend Colm didn’t see when he took on the role in the ’80s.

Officially, Colm’s last day will be Jan. 11, 2019. The search for his replacement will be opened in August, with interviews in the fall. Colm said the goal is to have the next leader named by mid-December so they

can take on that role in January when he steps down. O’Neill said the board has been working with Business Volunteers Unlimited to get advice on the process, since it hasn’t had to do this before. Colm said he thinks the goal will be to find someone who can carry out the 2020 strategic plan and who has a strong background in economic development. Exposure to manufacturing would be a plus, but it’s not a necessity, he said.

Colm said he’ll be available to help with the transition. Post-retirement, he said he plans to stay involved with the Friends of Max Hayes, and he and his wife, Janice McCourt — who Colm said actually helped write the proposal that won the grant to form Wire-Net at an old job — will be “learning how to travel.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Discount Drug Mart Inc.’s newest store in Concord Township in Lake County is 57 miles away from its first one, which remains at the same site it opened at on Abbe Road in Elyria in 1969.

The new store on Concord’s Crile Road is the now Medina-based chain’s 73rd, and it will be joined within the year by another in Plain Township, near Canton. The formula remains about the same as when the late Parviz Boodjeh, a pharmacist, launched the company with the idea of providing basic retail needs as well as prescription medicine, which led to stores selling 25,000 general retail items (not counting pharmaceuticals). Concord, like most of its predecessors, is a fringe area experiencing residential growth.

However, the company behind the well-known “save you the runaround” phrase that now surrounds Northeast Ohio has great scope and ranked as the nation’s 10th-largest drug store chain according to the Drug Store Management trade magazine’s latest 2017 ranking based on 2016 sales. (Cleveland-based Marc’s ranked eighth.) Its 2017 sales were $700 million, and it has more than 2,300 associates.

A big change is also under way at the company since April 1, 2017, for it began making the move from a family owned chain to an employee stock ownership company from family ownership, which will take several years.

Three of Boodjeh’s sons — David, Don and Doug — remain its top executives, though the company declined to disclose their exact titles.

The sons are themselves in their 50s or 60s, so the succession plan has several levels, although about 15 family members work in the concern.

John Gans, Drug Mart president, said in an interview that the ESOP will allow the company to remain independent and perpetuate itself, along with the culture of thrift that Parviz Boodjeh used to build the company.

“This also instills the pride of ownership he felt was so important for the company and rewards long-term employees,” Gans said.

He should know. Gans has been with the firm for 40 years, starting as a stock boy at the North Olmsted store. He introduces himself as “stock clerk-in-chief.”

The company’s Concord store reflects how the company’s process of finding underserved locations has changed over the years. Concord Township officials sought out the

company for the growing, land-rich suburb in eastern Lake County.

Christopher Galloway, a Concord trustee, remembers that when township members first met with Drug Mart management seven years ago “they almost seemed embarrassed we weren’t on their radar.”

Galloway said the township was eagerly seeking a drugstore to locate there because the closest ones were in Mentor and Chardon.

“The national chains said we did not fit their model, which made me question their model,” Galloway said in an interview. “When we first met with Drug Mart, they brought their entire management team.”

The company’s DNA matched Concord’s needs: It appreciated the population of 20,000 people and ma-

“Many of our baby boomer residents say they don’t want to drive more than half an hour in traffic to fill prescriptions. I think Drug Mart will have an opportunity to build loyalty from our residents because it is here.”

— Christopher Galloway, Concord Township trustee

jor medical facilities without a drugstore. Drug Mart also was willing to make a Crile Road location work, as it’s located on a marginal road, not the corner location that Galloway said the nationals required.

The location that Canton-based Giltz Corp. created for Drug Mart expanded an existing commercial building to accommodate the retailer. Much of the original long-empty building was converted to four storefronts with most of the 28,000-square-foot Drug Mart a new addition to the property.

“It’s a great redevelopment of an eyesore,” Galloway said. “Many of our baby boomer residents say they don’t want to drive more than half an hour in traffic to fill prescriptions. I think Drug Mart will have an opportunity to build loyalty from our residents because it is here.”

That is very different from the way the chain started out scouting its sites.

Thomas McConnell, a consultant and former long-time chief financial officer of the company, said many of its original stores repurposed small-format A&P grocery stores left

empty from the chain’s late-1960s exit from the region. McConnell said the late founder often would scout locations himself.

McConnell recalled that when the site of its current Drug Mart at Nagel and Detroit roads in Avon was acquired more than 20 years ago, Parviz Boodjeh predicted the site would be golden for the company. He felt there would someday be an interchange at Nagel and Insterstate 90, McConnell said. And that was long before developer Richard Jacobs began buying land and advocating for the interchange that opened in 2012.

Not all its stores made a go of things, however. The company followed Interstate 71 south from its Medina headquarters and distribution center in the 1990s and gained stores it kept at a location in Mason, Ohio, and four in the Dayton area, according to Michael Eby, Drug Mart’s chief financial officer. However, it shut two stores in the Columbus market, the most recent one last December when its lease expired.

“There was too much retail competition in Columbus,” Gans said.

“One broker told me that Columbus is fool’s gold for retailers. They all think they have to be there and no one makes money.”

The general test of expansion now is how far out the next store is from a current one, Eby said, noting the company wants to continue to capitalize on its 200,000-square-foot warehouse and corporate headquarters on Commerce Drive in Medina.

However, evolution of health care is also creating growth opportunities for Drug Mart. Today it views itself as a wellness location, adding in recent years divisions that provide home health care products such as scooters and hospital beds as well as a specialty pharmacy, which Eby said provides high-cost prescriptions that require special monitoring. About 70% of the chain’s revenues are from medicine and 30% from general retail sales, he said.

Ironically, adding one location put Drug Mart into adding more fresh food, something many retailers are embracing because of the onset of online shopping. When the company added its Independence store in 1979, it agreed to the municipality’s request it stock food because the original Brecksville Road location was a former grocery store.

“It was a humbling experience,” Gans said. “Everything about the grocery business was different, including the size of the (shipping containers.)”

However, Drug Mart got the hang of it when it found former grocery execs to join its team. That arguably might have put it ahead of a trend.

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PA G E 5

Hospitals cry foul over Medicaid tweaks

By LYDIA COUTRÉ lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

Hospitals stand alongside many advocate organizations in opposing the state’s proposal to impose work requirements for the Medicaid expansion population to maintain their health coverage.

As mandated by state lawmakers, the Ohio Department of Medicaid is submitting in the coming weeks a request for a 1115 Demonstration Waiver to receive permission from the federal government to implement this requirement, which includes a number of exemptions for certain groups.

The proposal would require that, in order to receive benefits, Medicaid recipients either work or participate in approved community engagement activities.

Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals all submitted comments raising a number of concerns from access and delivery to reimbursements to the opioid epidemic.

“It is our belief, and that of our member hospitals, that, if approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), these changes to Ohio’s Medicaid program will result in waves of disenrollment, greater administrative costs and a disruption of care at the provider level,” Philip Mazanec, interim president and CEO of the Center for Health Affairs, wrote in the organization’s comments to the state.

The center is a nonprofit hospital association that represents 39 providers across Northeast Ohio. Tony Gutowski, director of government relations for the center, said he isn’t aware of any hospitals in the region supporting the waiver.

While hospitals are leery of the proposed waiver to require Medicaid beneficiaries work, the state argues that the requirement would encourage work and community engagement efforts that help improve health outcomes and promote the goals of the Medicaid program.

In January, CMS announced guidelines for states to test incentives that require work or other community engagement for continued Medicaid eligibility. Since then, the feds have approved three states’ waivers.

Several other states, including Ohio, are working on their own proposals.

Given the appetite of CMS for such incentives, many agree it is likely that Ohio’s waiver will be approved.

According to the Ohio Department of Medicaid, of the 700,000 Ohioans enrolled in the Medicaid expansion, 58% earned income in the previous year, and 44% currently meet the work requirement.

The waiver includes a number of exemptions, including for pregnant women, those 50 years of age or older, individuals who are physically or mentally unfit for employment and more.

The department believes that only 5%, or about 36,000, current Medicaid expansion enrollees will need to comply with the work requirement or face disenrollment. The state is estimating that roughly half of those 36,000 individuals subject to the requirement will not comply and lose their eligibility for Medicaid.

Hospitals and advocacy groups, however, are questioning this math and believe that the number who lose coverage will be much greater.

For example, Jen Johns, director of government relations for Cleveland Clinic, said she worries that many

people may not even receive the letter informing them they need to take steps to comply. The population is transient and can be hard to reach.

“I think that’s the most difficult piece of all this is reaching the impacted population, educating them on the change and letting them know what the exemptions will be,” said Tracy Carter, vice president of government relations for MetroHealth.

In its letter to the state, the Center for Health Affairs noted the waiver will negatively affect the health care delivery system by disrupting the continuity of care and, as a result of lost coverage, force patients back to relying on the emergency department for primary care needs — a much costlier route.

“Additionally, the disruption in

coverage will result in a more burdensome process for hospital administrators to navigate, since hospitals are obligated by law to care for each patient that walks through their doors,” the Center for Health Affairs’ letter reads. “The result could be poorer health outcomes for patients and greater financial liabilities for health care providers considering more patients will be uninsured.”

The administrative burden is not limited to health care providers.

The Center for Community Solutions, a local nonpartisan think tank, estimates county departments of job and family services would need to provide case management services for nearly 234,000 enrollees a year at a cost of more than $378 million over the course of the five-year waiver. It

estimates that Cuyahoga County would incur the largest cost in the state if the proposal goes into effect — more than $10.8 million over a five-year period. It would cost Summit County nearly $3.9 million.

David Merriman, assistant director of Cuyahoga County Department of Health and Human Services, said he’s concerned about how disadvantaged, marginalized people will be affected by the loss of Medicaid or the threat of a loss of Medicaid. The client and community perspective “has to be the most important thing we think about,” he said.

“But the other half is administratively, this is an unfunded mandate,” Merriman said, estimating that the county will have to assess between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals. “Un-

fortunately, I believe the state and the feds will expect county dollars to be used to carry this program, to find the resources to do the case management and the referral. And those are dollars we’re going to pull from another program or we’re not going to have those resources available.”

Johns highlights two main concerns of the Clinic: how reimbursement will work under this model, and ensuring individuals have access to coverage, particularly for things like primary care or chronic condition management.

“If our patients don’t have access to that, then they’re going to get sicker,” Johns said. “And what’s kind of ironic about this is that the sicker they get, the harder it’s going to be for them to hold a job.”

CO NGRATU LATI O NS F RANCE S BU CHHO LZE R

C ELEB R AT I NG C R AI N’S C LEV ELAND EI GHT OV ER 8 0 The Cleveland Museum of Natural History congratulates Fran Buchholzer, Museum Trustee, and all of the honorees named to Crain’s Cleveland Eight Over 80.

I NNOVAT I V E LEADER S HI P. B OLD V I S I ON. T R ANS FOR M I NG T HE F U T U R E. Building on a foundation of excellence in scientific discovery and STEM education, our vision for the Museum is to fully integrate our world-renowned collections and the field-leading research of our curators into the visitor experience. With new discoveries at every turn, our Museum will spark visitors’ curiosity about science and the natural world for generations to come.

Learn how we are transforming for our next century at cmnh.org.

Above, center: Museum Trustee Fran Buchholzer with Acting CEO and Executive Director Sonia M. Winner (left) and Director of Partnerships and Programs and Curator of Paleobotany and Paleoecology Dr. Denise F. Su (right).

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At the Table

Wild Mango to bring ‘truly fine dining’ to new east side location Word’s out that after nearly 20 years on Cleveland’s west side, Wild Mango Restaurant and Bar will add another Northeast Ohio location — at Legacy Village in Lyndhurst.

What’s not been reported is that founder and Joe chef-owner Jia Wei promis- Crea es no less than the most sophisticated and elegant Chinese restaurant our region has seen. “My goal is to bring truly fine dining to Cleveland,� he said confidently.

Fans of the all-but-hidden eatery at Great Northern Mall in North Olmsted have long known Wild Mango as one of the consistently best restaurants in the region. The spot has earned a host of honors. In addition to returning routinely in my professional capacity, my family and I dine there often simply because the food is that good.

Jia Wei (he goes by his full name, drawn from the names of both his parents) has one of those success stories that are hard to improve on. After leaving his native Beijing in 1990 to study trumpet at Oberlin College, a part-time job at the Mandarin Chinese Restaurant awakened in him the entrepreneurial spirit. On the eve of his senior year, he withdrew from school and returned to China to work in a hotel to hone his cooking skills.

Returning to the States, and Oberlin, he and a friend, Connie Luu, took over the Mandarin’s lease and in 1998 transformed it into the upscale Weia Teia. In 2000, they opened a second Weia Teia at Great Northern that was soon rechristened Wild Mango.

But Great Northern was never his first choice, Jia Wei said. “It was a jumping point,� he explained. “Creating really true ‘fine dining’ can be nearly impossible, and there’s not enough people supporting fine dining on the west side of Cleveland, so we kept it to a casual dining concept. You must give people what they want, and we are grateful. They have been very loyal to us over the years.�

Still, that desire for fine dining never subsided. So when Stir Crazy an-

nounced it was closing its Legacy Village restaurant after 13 years in business, “we jumped,� Jia Wei said.

It’s a perfect location for the luxe concept he envisions, he added. “It’s right in the center ‌ and Legacy Village pursues really high standards, from the architecture to the way they put the center together. It’s really different from other shopping malls and plazas in this area. Very high-end. It feels very comfortable for our concept,â€? Jia Wei said.

That concept, he added, will be “like visiting a private mansion.� “We will completely gut the space (roughly 6,000 square feet) and rebuild it from scratch,� he said.

Current plans include a 178-seat dining room, a nine-seat bar as well as sofa areas, and a 20-seat patio area.

The plan is to divide that space into different sections made into private dining rooms. Those familiar with the Great Northern location will remember the design involves curtained seating areas that provide an immediate sense of intimacy. “We’ll stay away from the industrial looks, which most big-box spots go for, and instead make it more intimate so you feel as if you’re in a million-dollar home,� he said. “There will be Asian artworks and other touches.

Very homey, but as though you’re in a mansion. Much more elaborate.�

As for the menu, that’s in the works and under wraps, but he described it as “multicultural-influenced cuisine, but bringing it up another notch with better ingredients, greater presentation and better service.� “It will be ingredient driven, and the prices will be higher,� he added. “Seafood will be overnighted from Hawaii, so the prices will reflect those prices for those really, really fresh fish. Not many restaurants in the Cleveland area offer that. “My philosophy is, if I wouldn’t eat it myself, I wouldn’t serve it to my customers.�

Expect Wild Mango East to open before Christmas, he said, adding that Wild Mango West will continue to operate.

Chef-owner Jia Wei’s Wild Mango restaurant in North Olmsted soon will get a more upscale, sister location in Lyndhurst’s Legacy Village. (Crain’s file photo)

Meatballs on the roll The former River Dog Cafe has a new tenant. The space at 19900 Detroit Road in Rocky River will soon be home to Polpetta. It’s the creation of partner chefs (and brothers-in-law) Brian Okin and Adam Bostwick and for a long time found a home at Porco Lounge on the edge of Ohio City. The “build your own bowl� concept, a la Chipotle (pick your choice of meatballs, sauce and side) is expected to open in June.

City Girl goodbye City Girl Donuts was a short-lived experience. Soon after joining the team as pastry chef and kitchen manager, Maggie Downey sustained an injury that put her out of commission, and in short order, bakery owner Barbara Fazio decided to shutter the business.

Downey, meanwhile, landed on her feet. She’s joined the team at Normandy Catering in Wickliffe as corporate pastry chef. “I’m managing pastry production for multiple business lines and will be focusing on elevating the eating line and introducing new items featuring seasonal ingredients,� she said.

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PA G E 8

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Opinion From the Akron Editor

Roll with the changes, Akron

Editorial

Like the arts?

Based on reports of the pushback that erupted over the last year or so at Cuyahoga Arts & Culture board meetings, the casual arts observer might surmise that the local creative community was in turmoil. At issue, of course, were the steps taken by CAC concerning how to fairly distribute a shrinking pool of cigarette tax dollars to a growing number of arts and cultural organizations in Cuyahoga County.

The story has much more nuance than that, but one thing is clear: Cuyahoga County’s arts and culture landscape is thriving.

It, too, is at a critical turning point, and it’s time for everyone invested in maintaining the arts in the region to pay attention.

Karen Gahl-Mills, CAC’s leader of the last eight years, recently announced she would step down in June to focus on teaching and consulting in Chicago — a city where she has deep ties.

Gahl-Mills, of course, is the individual who took the brunt of the criticism concerning CAC’s ongoing retooling of a popular grants program for individual artists. The same could be said for CAC’s move to dole out a smaller chunk of funding — a move some organizations were apparently blindsided by despite the well-known fact that cigarette sales are plummeting.

Gahl-Mills, the former president of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, brought some much-needed stability to CAC after its first executive director resigned after only two years. She also — along with a host of other community leaders, namely Tom Schorgl, the former head of Community Partnership for Arts and Culture — made the case for renewing cigarette-tax levy in 2015. It passed with 75% of the vote (the first go-around garnered about 56%).

But now is the time to look forward — not to past squabbles or even successes.

There needs to be a county-wide conversation about the future of funding for the arts, and an appropriate way to kick off that discussion is through the hiring of a new leader of CAC. Gahl-Mills’ departure, as we’ve noted in coverage, comes in the wake of other retirements in the local arts community, including Schorgl, the Cleveland Foundation’s Kathleen Cerveny and the Gund Foundation’s Deena Epstein.

CAC, of course, needs a visionary grantmaker familiar with the richness of Cuyahoga County’s arts and cultural landscape.

Also, and more importantly, this individual must be cognizant of the challenges presented by the funding stream on which local cultural organizations have come to depend.

Yes on Issue 1

In February, we praised the state House and Senate for backing a serious effort to reform the way Ohio draws congressional districts. By margins of 83-10 (in the House) and 31-0 (in the Senate), lawmakers voted to place on the May 8 ballot a constitutional amendment to reduce the practice of manipulating congressional district boundaries that’s commonly known as gerrymandering.

The overwhelming bipartisan support for a measure on the most partisan of subjects was unusual, and it was a fair indicator that what’s now known as Issue 1 is a good first step toward introducing more balance to the drawing of Ohio’s political map. We encourage a “yes” vote on the amendment.

Congressional boundaries have been distorted by a number of factors, most prominently greater technological sophistication that enables political parties to identify likely voters with a high degree of precision. Parties — Republicans of late, though this shifts over time — have responded by drawing districts for maximum political advantage. This increasingly has drawn the attention of federal and state courts, as well it should, since gerrymandering that leads to highly skewed districts undermines voters’ faith in the democratic process.

The proposal facing Ohio voters would require three-fifths support of the Legislature to pass a map for use over 10 years, and that three-fifths must include 50% of members of the minority party. It also would establish a maximum number of counties that can be split by congressional districts.

There are many things wrong with our politics these days. Issue 1 helps address one of them.

Publisher and Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Managing Editor:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

Sections Editor:

Timothy Magaw (tmagaw@crain.com)

Contact Crain’s:

216-522-1383

Here we go again.

That’s what many people in Akron might be thinking as two of the region’s biggest institutions — the University of Akron and the Akron-Canton Airport — begin national searches for new leaders, and a third, the Greater Akron Chamber, soon will welcome a fresh face at the top of its ranks.

After all, it was only a year ago that Crain’s chronicled what some called a “once-in-alifetime” wave of change at the top of corporations, government and local entities.

Now the Akron-Canton Airport is looking for a successor for retiring president and CEO Rick McQueen, and University of Akron must find a new leader yet again as president Matt Wilson, after just two years on the job, will step down and rejoin UA’s Sue School of Law in July. Steve Millard, execuWalton tive vice president of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, is slated to take over the top spot at the Greater Akron Chamber after long-serving head Dan Colantone stepped down last year.

Add moves at Leadership Akron, the Akron-Summit County Public Library and Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens, and it sure seems like that wave of change hasn’t stopped.

There’s a reason people say change is the only constant in life: It’s unrelenting and unyielding, and we can’t stop it. So we better get used to it.

It can be hard, though. On a personal level, we find comfort in what we know. On the bigger civic and corporate levels, the stakes of change can be much higher. Shifts in leadership can make it challenging to preserve continuity in strategic vision, corporate culture and performance.

That’s certainly not to say that good things can’t come from change.

Compared to his predecessor, Akron mayor Dan Horrigan is a youngster in the city’s top governing role, yet he has come up with innovative initiatives that might not have happened without the change that brought him into the mayor’s office.

Akron voters elected Horrigan in November 2015, the first time in 28 years citizens had tapped someone other than Don Plusquellic to lead the city. That’s a tough act to follow, yet Horrigan wasn’t content to keep the status quo of his predecessor. He introduced a citywide property tax abatement program to spur residential development and boost the city’s population. He also ushered in the city’s Bounce Innovation Hub, which will propel the city’s innovation-driven economic strategy and hopefully include local companies and area colleges in its mission.

And while Wilson’s tenure atop struggling UA will be short-lived, he’s made some significant improvements, including introducing a plan to schedule most classes Monday through Thursday, leaving Fridays open so students can participate in hands-on learning and internships, both vital for those entering the workforce.

So change can bring about some great things, but it’s important to navigate the shifts wisely. In life, we change jobs, neighborhoods, even partners, yet hold tight to our values and beliefs.

On the bigger corporate and civic scene, Akron has to hold onto its values, too.

What are those values? Since I’ve started covering Akron, the Rubber City has shown itself as a tight-knight and collaborative place. There’s a sense of trust among its leaders, and a knowledge that people will step up to work together for the good of the region. People are proud of how the city’s players work together.

And as the cycle of change continues, it’s up to the incumbent leaders to show the new ones what Akron is all about, to educate them about those values, to work together. That’s the key to continuity.

No, you can’t stop change, Akron, but you can still keep your identity.

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.

Sound off: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com.

Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Letters

Books@Work’s program is grounded in the idea of celebrating our diversity Starbucks’ groundbreaking announcement that it will close its stores for bias training has put diversity and inclusion on front pages all over the country. We applaud Crain’s editors and reporters for highlighting the importance of this critical topic in this week’s special issue and for demonstrating that diversity is not just about hiring and quotas. As Tim Magaw writes: “It’s about taking a long-term view toward diversity and inclusion by ensuring that all points of view are represented and respected.”

At Books@Work, we couldn’t agree more. Our work is grounded in the idea that celebrating our differences is imperative to eradicating division. Sharing different viewpoints and motivations helps us question assumptions about ourselves and each other, and allows us to build the deeper, authentic social relationships that undergird an inclusive workplace. Ultimately, these connections help us find common ground and create the conditions to fuel innovation and productivity.

At Books@Work, we build these relationships, using literature as a platform to explore the human condition and present characters and situations that trigger thoughtful and reflective conversations. The text is both provocateur and pressure valve, inviting participants to share the deeply held beliefs and perspectives they rarely share at work. As one participant described, “We really do touch on some very sensitive things at times — racial issues, religious issues, and they’re brought up in a way that we can have this open discussion in a safe environment ... What you’re getting is this human interactive piece, actually being able to confront things that you weren’t going to confront any other way.”

Creating an inclusive culture is hard work — and as Magaw writes, it doesn’t happen overnight. Leveraging a diverse workforce requires an ongoing mechanism for inclusion that invites us all to share the very things that make us different. Closing all stores for an afternoon is an unprecedented and impressive start.

But it’s just a start. Eliminating bias requires us to see people anew, to find the things that unite rather than divide us. This takes practice. When we put in the work and the time, we make meaningful inroads to neutralize bias, eradicate division and amplify every voice.

Ann Kowal Smith Founder & Executive Director, Books@Work

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Regulatory overhaul needed in cosmetology I am a licensed hair stylist, business owner and educator with three decades of experience in the beauty industry, and, with my husband, own and operate Paul Mitchell The School private cosmetology schools in Cleveland and Columbus.

We love helping our passionate students learn their trade and want them to successfully enter the workforce to employ their skills as soon as they have the training and education they need. But our industry needs a regulation overhaul, and House Bill 189 and Senate Bill 129 in the Ohio General Assembly would do that by reforming the training requirements for Ohio cosmetology students.

Notably, students attending private cosmetology schools like ours are required to complete 1,500 hours of training before sitting for their licensing exam. But cosmetologists who attend public high school vocational centers are able to become licensed after about 1,000 hours of cosmetology specific training — which, according to independent research, is entirely sufficient.

Keeping cosmetologists in training programs longer than necessary delays their opportunities to gain real-world experience and earn the money they need to support themselves and their families, and I am fully confident that 1,000 required hours will equip them with the tools they need.

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ICONIC LIVING AT THE 9 grow and expand without handouts? Maybe then we won’t stay stagnant and will actually grow as a region. — Max This has been a work in progress since the early 1970s, and it may take another 50 years to change.

Cleveland was a large manufacturing town, with skilled, non-skilled, low-skilled, nearly all unionized labor, tied to machine tools, autos, steel and businesses that supported these industries. ... The town boomed from the mid-1870s to the early 1970s, and now it’s changing into something else.

— JPM

Maybe it’s the local media never criticizing any government agency or project (see the recent Crain’s article praising Cleveland-Hopkins airport, which is growing DESPITE its filth and poor design)?

Could Crain’s instead investigate what the cost is for businesses to deal with zoning, taxes and multiple levels of bureaucracy? Could Crain’s examine the price paid for spreading our region and infrastructure farther and farther out without growing our population?

Re: April 23 Diversity in the Workplace section

Could Crain’s stop supporting any shiny, new, big project and instead push for creating a business environment where LOCAL businesses can start,

We need more skilled legal immigrants to keep this economic engine running.

— Bob Scaccia

Diversity in the workplace does not end by hiring people of diverse racial backgrounds, or women who seek equality. Diversity and inclusion also means hiring people with a variety of disabilities.

Until this happens, inclusion will only serve a percentage of people seeking employment.

— marilync

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Focus Frances S. Buchholzer, 83: She’s held many roles at Cleveland’s natural history museum, but ‘ambassador’ may be the most fitting title. Page 11

Rev. E.T. Caviness, 89: Seeing that plenty of work remains, this venerable civil rights leader has shown little interest in slowing down. Page 12

William Conway, 90: Building a billion-dollar company was only worthwhile if Conway could lift the community at the same time. Page 13

Bracy Lewis, 80: A stalwart in local finance circles, Lewis now centers his philanthropic efforts on the well-being of others. Page 14

Jane Schierloh, 80: Lifting Clevelanders out of poverty has been life-long passion for this Cuyahoga Community College educator. Page 15

J. William Doane, 83: This long-time innovator still considers himself lucky for getting into liquid crystal research on the ground floor. Page 16

Rosemary Corcoran, 83: The arts have been center stage in Corcoran’s life for more than 70 years. Page 17

Ernest P. Mansour, 87: 60-plus years after his firm’s launch, Mansour is still the one to turn on the office’s lights each morning. Page 18

Eight over

80 G

rowing older is an inevitable part of life, but for these eight individuals, it hardly defines who they are. After all, their contributions — past, present and future — are what define them in Northeast Ohio. This group includes a venerable civil rights pioneer, a researcher whose influence spans the globe, a philanthropist dedicated to saving nature’s wonders, a lifelong patron of the arts, the man who built one of Northeast Ohio’s most successful companies and others.

Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s

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EIGHT OVER 80

Frances S. Buchholzer, 83

She’s held many roles at Cleveland’s natural history museum, but ‘ambassador’ may be the most fitting title

S

chedule an interview with Frances “Fran� Buchholzer and be prepared to field a few questions from her first — the crux of which is “When was the last time you were at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History?� and “How soon can you meet me there?�

Since 2011, Buchholzer has served on the natural history museum’s board and as a member of the executive committee. She also sits on its natural areas committee and chairs the government relations committee.

But the best title for Buchholzer’s efforts and impact might be more along the lines of “ambassador,� said Harvey Webster, the museum’s chief wildlife officer. “When she’s out of the community, Fran is always promoting the mission of the institution. She is always reminding people of the outstanding work that is done here and why the natural history museum is so important and relevant,� Webster said.

Buchholzer’s initial link to the natural history museum was through her work with the GreenCityBlueLake Institute, an advisory group within the museum that promotes sustainability. When the museum was ready to embark on an aggressive renovation and expansion, however, her unique skill set and experience made Buchholzer a natural fit to play a larger role.

In the early 90s, Gov. George Voinovich named Buchholzer the state’s Director of Natural Resources (the first woman to hold that post.) Before that, she had held government relations roles at B.F. Goodrich Co. and the Ohio Petroleum Council. “She is very skilled with respect to

“We are not going to beat nature. That’s why today I think it is so very important we learn how to live compatibly with the natural systems.�

Buchholzer has sought to protect the natural world but also endear the public to it. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

understanding how Columbus works and that has been invaluable to the institution,� said Webster, citing Buchholzer as a key player in securing state aid to help — among other upgrades — build the new Perkins Wildlife Center and Woods Garden.

Beyond this political prowess, Buchholzer brings an almost infectious conviction to the museum’s educational mission, said acting CEO and executive director Sonia Winner. “She understands the important role that science plays in nurturing

the next generation of scientists,�

Winner said, “and she is constantly driving us here at the museum to create a forum for that.�

Buchholzer, who lives in Akron, grew up on several hundred acres in Northfield, and she credits this rustic upbringing with igniting a passion for conserving and protecting the environment. After a brief teaching career, the University of Akron graduate went back to college to earn a master’s degree in geomorphology at the University of Iowa.

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“That’s when I realized nature is in control. We are not going to beat nature,� Buchholzer said. “That’s why today I think it is so very important we learn how to live compatibly with the natural systems.�

Over the years — particularly during her appointment at ODNR, her subsequent 18 years as Summit County Metro Parks Commissioner and now with the museum — Buchholzer said she sought to not only protect the natural world, but endear her constituents to it.

“If you are going to want to conserve something, you have to have passion to do so and that’s what getting people outdoors into the parks or into a center like Perkins does,� she said.

More recently, Buchholzer is championing biomimicry, a field that studies nature for solutions to human challenges. A board member of the nonprofit Great Lakes Biomimicry, she orchestrated a natural history museum visit with the organization’s “corporate fellows,� area professional enrolled in the University of Akron’s Integrated Biosciences Ph.D. program. The visit resulted in a partnership in which the natural history museum’s insect-related archives are being digitized so that NASA Glenn researchers will one day soon be able mine the data for nature-inspired applications to “next generation spacecrafts and advanced materials,� Buchholzer said. “To me personally, this is one of the most exit things the museum is doing because it is futuristic,� she said, “and another way we can show that natural history museums are not just about the past, but can help solve problems today and into the future.� — Judy Stringer

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Rev. E.T. Caviness, 89

Seeing that plenty of work remains, this venerable civil rights leader has shown little interest in slowing down

E.T.

Caviness is closing on his 90th birthday this May, a milestone he’s anticipating with a mixture of optimism and trepidation, along with a touch of gallows humor.

“It’s a paradoxical situation, because you’re happy you made it this far, but you know it’s overtime,” Caviness said. “You have to seize the moment when you have it.”

The Glenville resident is not only seizing the moment, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

2018 marks Caviness’ 57th year as pastor of Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church, where he preaches a brand of social gospel that marries community activism with spirituality. Caviness has lived to see his long decades of civil rights work bear fruit, although there is more to accomplish before America reaches what his friend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously called the Promised Land.

A former Cleveland city councilman, Caviness’ experience includes membership on then-Mayor George Voinovich’s executive cabinet, a stint as president of Cleveland’s zoning board and a leadership position with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. When Carl Stokes ran for Cleveland mayor in 1967, Caviness rallied the support of the local ministry — as well as that of King — resulting in the election of the first black mayor of a major U.S. city.

Caviness became part of Stokes’ inner circle, playing similarly strategic roles in the campaigns of mayors Michael White and Frank Jackson.

Bringing about change did not come without hardship. A national pattern of racial tension and frustration in the 1960s produced violence in Cleveland and other parts of the

“It’s a paradoxical situation, because you’re happy you made it this far, but you know it’s overtime.”

2018 marks Caviness’ 57th year as pastor of the Greater Abyssinia Baptist Church. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

country. During this same period, Caviness sent a delegation to former Mayor Ralph Locher’s office to discuss the lack of cabinet positions for African-Americans, fueling a fire for new leadership that ended in Stokes’ election. Caviness, a believer in King’s dedication to non-violent protest, maintains that understanding the American dream is ensuring you’re part of the process.

“I’ve always worked from the motive of doing the best I can for the

best interests of society,” Caviness said. “You have to love the hell out of people, not beat the hell out of them.”

Caviness and his family arrived in Cleveland in July 1961 following his pastorship at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in East St. Louis, Ill.. While happy to be in the city among so many African-Americans, numerous facilities here were closed to black people, and there were certain neighborhoods — like Little Italy, for instance — that were completely off limits.

Growing up in unapologetically segregated Marshall, Texas, Caviness knew well the toxic impact of racism.

However, his early experiences with Cleveland’s prejudice were more subtle, if no less harmful.

“In the south there was an outright understanding of where African-Americans belonged,” Caviness said. “In Cleveland, it was more under the covers — a de facto segregation.”

Stokes’ mayorship became a signal for minority advancement in politics

and society as a whole, with Barack Obama’s election a shining example of progress. But problems still exist, such as high poverty rates among African-Americans and Hispanics and a presidential administration that Caviness believes has dredged up some dangerously backward ideologies.

Though concerned about the future, Caviness clings to the words of King, who spoke profusely of the importance of the vote.

“Rev. King said if you give us the vote, we can change things,” Caviness said. “Injustice anywhere is injustice for all of us.”

Civil rights attorney Avery Friedman remembers Caviness’ tireless search for justice when an African-American family on Mentor-onthe-Lake was targeted with racial slurs and intimidation in 2004.

“He called me and said let’s go after the perpetrators,” Friedman said.

“He’s always been a lion of the local civil rights movement.”

As a community leader, Caviness is a perfectly balanced combination of political heft and spiritual strength, one difficult to find in today’s society, said Friedman.

“The reverend was one of the people standing up in the dark period of the 1960s,” he said. “He’s been a defining leader in Cleveland. There really is nobody like him.” — Douglas J. Guth

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 13

EIGHT OVER 80

William Conway, 90

Building a billion-dollar company was only worthwhile if Conway could lift the community at the same time

B

ill Conway bought a small silica sand producer and turned it into a billion-dollar company.

He did so at the age of 50.

“I had a very successful career in the so-called C-suite,” he said. “And yet, I wanted to do something on my own.”

With the help of friends, he was able to finance the purchase of Walter C. Best Inc. in Chardon. That became the foundation of what is now Fairmont Santrol.

After graduating from Yale University, Conway went to work for then Pickands Mather & Co., a major Cleveland-based supplier of raw materials to the steel industry and one of the nation’s four major ore houses. Around 1965, he was sent to Australia to open an iron ore mine. The experience gave him a taste, and whet his appetite, for running his own company.

When he bought Best Sand in 1978, Conway went from working for large corporations to owning a private mining operation with about 65 employees. Even though he owned a small firm, Conway recognized it was important to run it like a large one.

He developed a board of directors so he could have experienced advisers as he grew the company.

“When opportunities came our way, because of my experience and my education, I was able to see the chances to grow, and I took advantage of those opportunities with the help of a lot of other people,” he said.

In 1980-81, Best Sand started supplying fracturing sand to Halliburton Services. That introduced the company to the oil and gas market, now a significant portion of Fairmount Santrol’s business.

“You can’t operate in a silo. Your business activities and your actions need to take care of the community.”

Conway wasn’t satisfied with a career in the C-suite, so he built a company of his own. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

A few years later, Conway partnered with Chuck Fowler, an industrial sand veteran and president of sand operations at Martin Marietta Corp. to purchase Wedron Silica in Wedron, Ill.. They merged Best Sand and Wedron Silica to create Fairmount Minerals in 1986. Then, in 1991, Fairmount purchased Technisand Inc. and Santrol from British Industrial Sand, along with its sand-coating technologies.

Conway stepped down from being

president and CEO in 2013, a year before the company changed its name to Fairmount Santrol and became a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is in the process of merging with Unimin Corp., a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of Belgium’s SCR-Sibelco NV. Conway still serves on the board of directors and as an active consultant for the company.

“In no way did I anticipate we would end up as a New York Stock

Exchange-listed mining company with over $1 billion in listed sales and over 1,000 employees throughout the country,” he said. “It has grown well beyond my wildest dreams, and obviously I’m proud of that, but I’m most proud of the people who made it happen.”

He is also proud of the fact that the company can support the communities where it operates, part of Conway’s lifelong “Do good, do well” commitment.

Since his time at Pickands Mather, he has been involved with the United Way. In the mid-2000s, he chaired a task force looking at opportunities to grow Geauga County. The group concluded businesses had to take a more active role and subsequently established the Geauga Growth Partnership in 2010 to make sure more businesses helped each other.

“You can’t operate in a silo,” he said. “Your business activities and your actions need to take care of the community. Any business is dependent, in many ways, of that community, whether it be through public services or supplying the workforce.”

Tracy Jemison, a former Geauga County commissioner, said Conway has been a longtime cheerleader for economic development in Geauga County and Northeast Ohio. Jemison worked with Conway on the task force and now serves as president of Geauga Growth Partnership.

“The vision he offered at those meetings is truly one of the main reasons why Geauga Growth Partnership now has 170 members and is recognized as the leading business organization in the county,” Jemison said. “It’s because we had people like Bill who had that passion to move the community forward.” — Nicole Stempak

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PA G E 14

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Bracy Lewis, 80

A stalwart in local finance circles, Lewis now centers his philanthropic efforts on the well-being of others

B

racy Lewis is a long-time advocate for seniors and African-Americans, dedicating his professional career as well as his retirement to caring for populations often marginalized by wider society.

A former banking industry stalwart — and one of the first African-Americans locally to hold numerous C-suite positions in finance — Lewis now spends his time and resources at Eliza Bryant Village, a senior care community in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood.

On the contributions side, Lewis purchased benches and tables for an outdoor courtyard at Eliza Bryant where residents relax and socialize.

The East Cleveland resident can often be found sitting on one of the benches he bought, chatting with his fellow seniors about current events, books, movies or other topics.

“I want to get to know people, not just write a check,” Lewis said. “These people get lonely and may not have someone to relate to them. That’s really important. I hope I have someone to have conversations with as I get older.”

Lewis’ relationship with Eliza Bryant began more than 20 years ago, when he spearheaded the former Bank One’s community improvement efforts as a senior vice president. Upon tabbing funding for the organization, he got to enjoy the company of the people living there, too.

“One thing we need to have is a living history (of people),” Lewis said.

“There are lots of people who will go to their graves without us knowing all they’ve accomplished.”

Centering his work around the

“I want to get to know people, not just write a check. These people get lonely and may not have someone to relate to them. That’s really important. I hope I have someone to have conversations with as I get older.”

Lewis’ relationship with Eliza Bryant Village goes back more than two decades. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

well-being of others was a primary motivator of Lewis’s working life.

Hired by Quincy Savings & Loan in 1963 after graduating from Finn College (now Cleveland State University), he gave home loans to African-Americans refused by the banks.

“People paid us back even if they

could only give $100 a month,” he said. “They had to pay back their loans, because they saw it as a reflection of themselves in the community.”

Lewis’ 13 years with the company taught him about human nature, first and foremost the importance of treating all people with dignity. These

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lessons helped Lewis as he rose within the industry, where he served on multiple nonprofit boards and committees — often as the only African-American — while leading collaborative efforts in lending and equity financing for historic rehabilitation, community and economic development.

No matter what board he devoted himself to — be it Huron Hospital, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association’s Government Affairs Committee, or The Music School Settlement — Lewis promoted diversity as a means of strengthening the organization. Nor did he need to push the issue.

“It’s a matter of personality,” Lewis said. “I learned from my parents and grandparents that everyone’s the

same, that your britches aren’t bigger than anyone else. I know what I can say and how much I can say it.”

Lewis’ civic leadership earned him many accolades, among them a state humanitarian award from former Ohio Governor George Voinovich and a key to the city of Cleveland from then-Mayor Michael White.

Though Lewis is reluctant to trumpet his accomplishments, Eliza Bryant president and CEO Danny Williams is not so shy.

Williams points to Lewis’ humility and emotional intelligence as rare qualities that have endeared him to colleagues and friends alike.

“Bracy doesn’t need to be the loudest voice in the room,” Williams said. “He’s able to blend into so many different environments, often when he was only one of the very few like him in that environment.”

As a pioneer in the banking industry, Lewis spread wealth to underserved areas of Cleveland, and brought stable housing to underrepresented people.

“The legacy he’ll leave is one of dignified, dedicated service,” Williams said. “At 80, Bracy is still focused on communities that don’t have the level of champion they deserve.”

Lewis continues to try and live unselfishly, a way of being that has served him well thus far.

“If I’d been selfish, I don’t know if I would have received the blessings I have in life,” he said. — Douglas J. Guth

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 15

EIGHT OVER 80

Jane Schierloh, 80

Lifting Clevelanders out of poverty has been life-long passion for this Cuyahoga Community College educator

A

s a young bride in the ‘50s, Jane Schierloh accompanied her husband — a Methodist minister — to a church-sponsored life-planning seminar. Participants were asked to write down what world problem they would like to address during their lifetime.

“I wrote down poverty and racism,” the longtime educator chuckled. “I was 25, and I did not pick one big problem, I picked two.”

To say Schierloh fulfilled that promise — as difficult and as daunting as those social challenges are — is not an overstatement. Over more than a half century, the Toledo native helped hundreds of Clevelanders climb out of poverty by teaching illiterate adults to read and creating GED curriculum; tutoring first-generation college students in algebra and/or helping them apply to a four-year university; and even starting a scholarship fund in the name of her late parents to provide money for tuition and other educational expenses.

From her Willoughby residence earlier this month, Schierloh said her life work all ties back to that seminar and an early recognition of the relationship between poverty, racism and education.

“I set out to improve the education of people in the Cleveland area,” she said. “And that’s what I have done, not by myself but with the help of many people.”

Schierloh’s work in education began as a school teacher. With an undergraduate degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master’s in education from Harvard University, she taught in schools in Akron and Fairview Park before taking an 11year hiatus to raise three children.

In the mid-‘60s, Schierloh accepted a position at Merrick House in Tremont where she landed a grant from the George Gund Foundation to start a GED program for area adults and authored her own GED writing prep book. From there, she joined Project Learn, and with grants from Gund and the Cleveland Foundation, expanded the Cleveland adult literacy program with new classes in literature, history and letter writing.

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“I set out to improve the education of people in the Cleveland area. And that’s what I have done, not by myself but with the help of many people.”

Schierloh is known for working in the trenches with students who needed her most. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

“Gun control was a big issue then, and we wrote letters to the Plain Dealer for and against,” she recalled.

“Three of them were published. Well, you can image when they saw their letters in the newspaper. It was very empowering.”

In 1995, after earning a doctorate at Kent State University, Schierloh joined Cuyahoga Community College’s Student Support Services (SSS) program, which provides a variety of support services to low-income/first generation students. Her official title was student adviser, but longtime colleague Gerry Nemeth, a math tutor, said she did “so much more.”

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math, according to Nemeth, so Schierloh attended Ti-C math classes and wrote study guides and supplements for students. (She self-published nine paperback guides on beginning algebra including one called “I Hate Word

Problems!”) If a student needed a form or signature from a Tri-C department they did not know, Schierloh wouldn’t just give directions, she would walk with them. She encouraged dozens of Tri-C students to transfer to a four-year college,

assisting them with applications, finding scholarships and even driving them to campus visits.

Such is the case of Magda Gomez.

Schierloh escorted Gomez, a single mother of two when she enrolled at Tri-C in the mid-90s, to John Carroll University. She assisted Gomez with the JCU application and, most importantly, identified scholarship opportunities.

“I did not think I could afford to go to JCU,” said Gomez, who today is Tri-C’s director of diversity and inclusion. “When I won a scholarship from a Chagrin Valley women’s group, which she helped me apply for, Dr. Schierloh went with me to accept the award.”

In 2014, Gomez said, students, alumni and colleagues surprised Schierloh with a pre-retirement ceremony. She was just one partygoer who shared stories of Schierloh’s impact, which also included one man for whom Schierloh and her husband provided a scholarship.

“She had the credentials to work anywhere,” Nemeth said, “but she liked working in the trenches with students who really needed her expertise the most.” — Judy Stringer

PA G E 16

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

J. William Doane, 83

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Bill Doane of Kent Displays holds a liquid crystal portrait of himself on a Boogie Board. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

J.

William “Bill� Doane would have us believe that he is the fortunate one. Lucky to have come to Kent State University as an assistant professor in 1965, the same year the university’s Liquid Crystal Institute (LCI) was founded. Lucky to get into liquid crystal research “on the ground floor� just as the field was taking root. Lucky to have had so many great colleagues, grad students and post-docs during his 13 years as LCI director.

But, John West, who worked with Doane for 34 years and eventually succeeded him as LCI director, says the institute, the university and even the liquid crystal community at large are really the fortunate ones. “LCI would not be here today without Bill Doane,â€? he said, “at least not in its current form. ‌ He’s responsible for making it the worldclass institute it is today.â€?

LCI was the world’s first research center focused on the basic and applied science of liquid crystals. Research inside it walls ushered in — among other applications — the proliferation of flat panel displays used widely in some of today’s most popular consumer devices like TVs, cell phones, tablets and smart watches. When Doane took the reins in 1983, however, the fledgling enterprise was well known in research circles but that was about it.

Doane set a new direction for the institute, West said, putting a strong emphasis on building interactions between LCI researchers and indus-

try, and ensuring students were looking for applications of their research. “I always thought it was very important for a research institute, in order to progress and grow, to spin off companies,� Doane said. “I taught my students to make their ideas relevant to the problems of the day.�

Under his tutelage, for example, LCI applied its polymer-dispersed liquid crystals technology to the creation of a glass that can change from clear to opaque. The institute locked in first licensing fees and joint research programs with General Mo-

“Because it’s a technology I developed, I’ve always kept in tune with it.� tors, 3M and others.

In 1990, Doane established and directed the Center for Advanced Liquid Crystalline Optical Materials (ALCOM), which had a profound impact not only the flat panel display industry but the growth and reputation of LCI. West estimates that the 11-year National Science Foundation grant to seed ALCOM and supplemental funding for the science and technology center brought in about $50 million.

Three years later, Doane co-founded Kent Displays with venture capitalist William Manning. The startup leveraged a cholesteric liquid-crystal

display technology Doane and his students had invented in the lab to manufacture electronic writing tablets. To date, the company has sold more than 11 million e-writers, under the brand name Boogie Board, in 30 countries around the world. Other LCI spinoffs followed including AlphaMicron and Crystal Diagnostics.

Doane retired from LCI in 1996 to work full time at Kent Displays, where he still oversees intellectual property even after formally retiring from the company in 2017. “Because it’s a technology I developed, I’ve always kept in tune with it,� he said. “I don’t go out to the institute as much, but I still have an office there and occasionally will stop in to visit people and see what’s going on, especially as it relates to the company.�

Doane grew up in Nebraska and received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1965. Later that year, he and his wife, Shirley, moved to Kent for his job at the university. Shirley, a former high school teacher, died in 2015. “I have to say my wife was very helpful in my career. I don’t know if I could have done it without her,� he said.

Looking back, Doane added, the most rewarding moments at LCI and later with Kent Displays were not the research breakthroughs or big contracts but time spent with students and colleges. Among his more than 240 publications and 25 patents, “you will never see one that does not have other names on it beside mine,� he said. — Judy Stringer

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 17

EIGHT OVER 80

Rosemary Corcoran, 83

For more than 70 years, Northeast Ohio’s arts organizations have taken center stage in Corcoran’s life The course of Rosemary Corcoran’s life was forever altered by a brochure for Cain Park’s children’s theater. The pamphlet caught her dad’s eye more than 70 years ago, when he worked repairing the boilers at the Cleveland Public Theatre.

Soon after expressing an interest, Corcoran was enrolled in acting classes.

“Why I do this is because my father, who loved the arts — and we were so tight — exposed me to the theater, and I was never the same,” Corcoran said.

“I cannot imagine what my life would have been without this piece.”

Corcoran has never strayed too far from theater. In 1987, she joined the board of directors at the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood. She’s also worked regionally, dedicating her life to exposing children to the arts.

By age 13, Corcoran would leave her family’s West Park home at 7:30 a.m. to catch the street car — an hourand-a-half ride — to Cain Park in Cleveland Heights. Though she loved the program’s energy, she soon found herself bored with her classes and began walking around, exploring and taking note of all the components that go into bringing productions to life.

After befriending the stage manager, she landed a role in a main stage production of Lute Song — a 1946 musical based on the 14th Century Chinese play Tale of the Pipa. She continued acting, surrounded by well-known actors of the 1950s and teachers coming out of drama school. But it turned out

“Why I do this is because my father, who loved the arts — and we were so tight — exposed me to the theater, and I was never the same.”

Corcoran was the first woman to chair the Beck Center for the Arts’ board. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

going to college wasn’t in the cards.

Corcoran’s mother, Loretta, had been diagnosed with cancer, so she began working just out of high school, making costumes for Krause Costume Co. In 1956, Corcoran’s family grew.

She got married and had three sons.

Theater found her once again when her church, St. Angela Merici in Fairview Park, started producing mu-

sicals in 1970.

She ended up directing musicals, like "Hello Dolly," "The Sound of Music" and "Funny Girl." She also began working on productions at Clague Playhouse.

Corcoran would also volunteer for the Great Lakes Theater Festival after retiring for the first time from a long career in several finance roles.

Corcoran is proud of her accom-

plishments, but her laid-back attitude and humble nature is a thread weaving through her entire life.

“I sort of sit back and shut up until I’m asked to do something or for my opinion,” she said. She figures, she wants younger people to be involved and to make it their own life’s mission to spread a love of the arts.

In 1990, Corcoran became the first

woman to chair the Beck Center’s board, a four-year period during which she hired longtime artistic director Scott Spence. Her list of accomplishments also includes a dedication to fundraising; guiding the theater to becoming a professional equity theater — one that hires professional, union actors — with enhanced sets and props; as well as through several transitions. She stepped up to chair the board for a second time in 2005.

“She has absolutely been unwavering in her support of this place,” said the Beck Center’s president and CEO, Cindy Einhouse, who came on board in 2007 — a time when there were concerns about whether or not the theater complex, operating in several forms since the 1930s, would survive.

Corcoran remains active on the Beck’s board, as well as with groups like the Music and Drama Club and the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. She also is a member of arts organizations and women’s committees throughout region. —Nicole Hennessy

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PA G E 18

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

EIGHT OVER 80

Ernest P. Mansour, 87

60-plus years after his firm’s launch, Mansour is still the one to turn on the office’s lights each morning

E

rnest P. Mansour sat in his downtown Cleveland office, his back toward the FREE stamp, and reflected on how he became a lawyer.

“If you want the honest answer, I’ll give it to you,” Mansour said, his eyes smiling. “My mother and father, from the day I could understand, said, ‘You’re either going to be a lawyer or a doctor.’

When I went to college and then had to decide, I thought about waking up in the middle of the night to go to somebody’s sick bed. Then I thought about being a lawyer, sitting at a desk, having your feet up and answering the phone. I said, ‘That’s what I want to be.’”

The youngest child of Lebanese immigrants, Mansour was born and raised in Cleveland. He attended Saint Ignatius High School then went off to study at Saint Francis University in Loretto, Pa., where he met his wife.

Mansour studied law at Western Reserve University, where he made friends with classmate Michael Gavin.

After graduation, they started their own law firm, Mansour Gavin LPA. Both their wives worked and supported them when they first started their practice. Eventually, they began getting business, thanks in part — and much to his surprise — of Mansour’s golf hobby that he picked up in law school.

They started their practice in Terminal Tower, were one of the first tenants in 55 Public Square and eventually moved to North Point Tower. Today, the firm has 28 lawyers and is based on Mansour and Gavin’s beginning

“I would say don’t draw the line based upon your age as to when you’re going to retire.”

Despite Mansour’s love of family and golf, he still can’t stay away from the office. (Jason Miller for Crain’s)

philosophy to remain small and to meet the client where they are.

Jeffrey M. Embleton has worked with Mansour Gavin for 43 years. He said Mansour taught him how to be a lawyer, a businessperson, a partner and, most importantly, a friend.

“He doesn’t think like a lawyer, and that’s what he’s taught me: Don’t talk to people like a lawyer, talk to

them like a human being,” said Embleton, now a partner at the firm and its managing director.

Gavin specialized in real estate, and Mansour tried cases for insurance companies on personal injuries. After a while, Mansour tired of trying lawsuits, so he started litigating on behalf of corporations. Mansour has tried cases in Australia, Germany, United Kingdom and in

front of the Supreme Court of the United States on three separate occasions.

His major client was Crawford Fitting Co., now known as Swagelok. He was the company's lawyer and represented it worldwide. The most difficult antitrust case he ever tried was against Joe Alioto, former mayor of San Francisco.

The trial lasted two months and went up to the Supreme Court. He

says the pressure to win was very high because if he had lost, it would have dramatically changed the way Swagelok operated. Mansour won.

Mansour doesn’t try cases any more but is in the office every day by 5:30 a.m.

“I got an email from him this morning at 6:27 a.m. saying ‘What time are you going to be in?’” Embleton said. “I wasn’t joking when I said he still turns the lights on.”

Mansour and his wife of more than 60 years have seven children and several grandchildren. They have a second home in Naples, Fla. He belongs to the Golf Club in Pepper Pike, The Pepper Pike Club, Golf Club of the Everglades and LaPlaya Golf Club in Naples.

Despite Mansour’s love of family and golf, he can only manage to be gone for a few days before he misses the law firm.

He has no plans or desire to retire, a topic he’s vocal and passionate about.

“I would say don’t draw the line based upon your age as to when you’re going to retire,” he said. “Decide to retire when it doesn’t become fun to do what you’re doing. A lot of corporations, and a lot of law firms, have a timeline. Lawyers and CEOs who have a great deal of talent are required to retire. I think that’s a shame.” — Nicole Stempak

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 19

THE LIST

Private Equity and Venture Capital Firms FIRM NAME

INVESTMENT: MINIMUM/ PREFERRED (THOUSANDS)

CAPITAL UNDER MGMT GEOGRAPHY (MILLIONS) PREFERENCES

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N.E. OUT OF OHIO AREA PORTFOLIO COMPANIES

TOP EXECUTIVE

Align Capital Partners, Beachwood (216) 505-6463/www.aligncp.com

$10,000 $25,000

$325.0

U.S., Canada

B2B manufacturing, distribution, business services

0

4

Alliance Source Testing, International Systems of America, Barrow-Agee Laboratories, Lewellyn Technology

Steve Dyke Chris Jones, managing partners

Blue Point Capital Partners, Cleveland (216) 535-4700/www.bluepointcapital.com

$10,000 $40,000

$1,971.1

U.S., Canada

Manufacturing, business services, distribution

0

3

Alco, AWP, PNA, Selmet

Chip Chaikin, John Kirby, John LeMay, Sean Ward, partners

Canal Holdings LLC, Twinsburg (330) 425-1225/www.canalcapital.com

$2,000 $2,000-7,000

$50.0

Ohio, eastern half of U.S.

Services (business/health care), manufacturing, distribution

0

0

American Heritage, VSI Global, Speedgrip Chuck, Micorp Custom Auto & Truck

Kevin Coyne, founder, CEO

CapitalWorks LLC, Cleveland (216) 781-3233/www.capitalworks.net

$3,000 $5,000-9,000

NA

East of the Rocky Mountains

Manufacturing, business services, value added distribution

0

1

CWindows, Bancsource, Chemtron, GEM

Richard Hollington III, managing director, CEO

$5,000 $15,000-25,000

$104.0

Midwest, Southeast

Real estate (shopping centers)

0

3

Various real estate properties

Andy Kline Yoel Mayerfeld, co-CEOs

Cleveland International Fund Ltd., Cleveland (216) 245-0606/clevelandinternationalfund.com

$3,000 $10,000

$144.5

Ohio, western Pennsylvania

Real estate (commercial, health care, education)

1

0

Westin Hotel, Crocker Park, The Edison at Gordon Square, One University Circle

Stephen Strnisha, CEO

Coventry League Capital Partners, Cleveland (415) 570-2057/www.coventryleague.com

$250 $1,500

NA

U.S., Canada

Tech-enabled businesses, niche manufacturing, food/beverages

0

2

NA

Joseph Kane, principal

Cyprium Investment Partners LLC, Cleveland (216) 453-4500/www.cyprium.com

$10,000 $10,000-40,000

$960.0

U.S., Canada

Manufacturing, service, distribution, food and beverage

0

2

NA

John Sinnenberg, chairman

$25 $250

$20.0

National

Software (analytics, SaaS, B2B, finance)

1

9

Scout, Astronomer, Lob, CompanionLabs

Morris Wheeler, founder, president

Edgewater Capital Partners, Independence (216) 292-3838/www.edgewatercapital.com

$1,000 $6,000

$91.0

U.S.

Specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, materials

0

1

Tri-Tec Seal, Far Chemical, Callery, DanChem

Christopher Childres, Ryan Meany, managing partners

Evolution Capital Partners LLC, Beachwood (216) 593-0402/www.evolutioncp.com

$3,000 $4,000-8,000

NA

U.S., Canada

Small businesses; training, techenabled business services

1

1

Heavy Equipment Training, Renascent Salvage, Federos Software, Budco Financial

Brendan Anderson, Jeffrey Kadlic, managing partners

Flashstarts Inc., Cleveland (216) 220-0200/www.flashstarts.com

$25 $25-50

$10.0

Ohio, Midwest, U.S., international

IT, sensors, electronics, advanced manufacturing, medical devices

2

0

Complion, Remesh, We Can Code IT, Vlipsy

Charles Stack, CEO; Jennifer Neundorfer, CFO, COO

JumpStart Inc., Cleveland (216) 363-3400/www.jumpstartinc.org

$250 $250-500

NA

NE Ohio, Ohio

Information technology, health care tech

5

6

Complion, Revenue Conduit, BioMendics, StreamLink

Raymond Leach, CEO

$2,000 $5,000

NA

Great Lakes region

B2B, process and manufacturing sectors

1

0

WH Smith Company, EnviroScience Inc., Allegheny Performance Plastics

Marc Walinsky, managing director

$1,000 $2,000-10,000

$100.0

U.S., Canada

Manufacturing, business services, distribution

1

1

SmartSource, Form Tech

Thomas Littman, CEO

$2,500 $5,000-9,000

$107.0

United States

Income-producing real estate (multifamily focus)

0

4

Various real estate properties

David St. Pierre, managing director

Linsalata Capital Partners, Mayfield Heights (440) 684-1400/www.linsalatacapital.com

$15,000 $20,000-35,000

$500.0

North America

Industrial, business services, consumer products, health care

0

0

Happy Floors, Home Helpers, Glynlyon, RANDYS

Frank Linsalata, chairman; Stephen Perry, Eric Bacon, copresidents

MavenHill Capital, Chagrin Falls (440) 490-6170/https://mavenhillcapital.com

$2,000 $3,000-15,000

NA

North America

Manufacturing, business services, distribution, health care

0

1

Connecticut Coining

Rhodes McKee, Jay Studdard, managing partners

Max-Ventures LLC, Pepper Pike (440) 729-1345/None

$1,000 $3,000-10,000

NA

United States

Retail, consumer products, service providers to retail, online concepts

1

1

Did not disclose

Michael Feuer, CEO, senior managing director

$4,000 $5,000-8,000

$125.0

North America

Manufacturers selling to OEMs; distribution

0

1

Torsion Group, Performance Plastics, RMB Products, American Home Products

Mark Mansour, senior managing partner

$10,000 $10,000-50,000

NA

North America

High-value manufacturing, industrial services

1

3

dlhBOWLES Inc., Polytek Development Inc., DreamLine, Bettcher Industries

Peter Taft, partner

Mutual Capital Partners, Westlake (216) 577-4408/mutualcapitalpartners.com

$1,000 $3,000-10,000

$85.0

U.S., except NYC/ Silicon Valley north

Technology, health care

0

0

7signal, OrthAlign, RevLocal, enosiX

Bill Trainor, Wayne Wallace, general partners

North Coast Angel Fund, Mayfield Heights (216) 555-1212/northcoastangelfund.com

$250 $250

$22.0

Ohio

SaaS, life sciences, instruments, controls

4

1

OnShift, Ahalogy, StreamLink, Remesh

Todd Federman, Clay Rankin, managing directors

North Coast Venture Fund, Mayfield Heights (216) 262-0478/northcoastventurefund.com

$250 $500

$20.0

Ohio

Software, life sciences

3

2

OnShift, StreamLink, Neuros Medical

Todd Federman, managing director

$2,000 $20,000

$1,000.0

None

Communication and other infrastructure

1

5

Horvath Towers, Omega Wireless

F. Howard Mandel Ryan Lepene, co-presidents

$100 $100

NA

NA

Tech

0

260 (1)

Remesh, OWKIN, Gyant

Saeed Amidi, CEO

PNC Erieview Capital, Cleveland (216) 222-2491/www.pncerieview.com

$5,000 $5,000-40,000

$1,000.0

United States

None

0

7

Listing on website

Edward Pentecost, managing director, president

Primus Capital Partners, Mayfield Heights (440) 684-7300/www.primuscapital.com

$15,000 $25,000-50,000

$1,049.0

U.S., Canada

Tech-enabled services, software, health care

0

4

Hyperwallet, SkillSurvey, Payspan, EnableComp

Phillip Molner II, managing partner

Resilience Capital Partners, Beachwood (216) 292-0200/www.resiliencecapital.com

$5,000 $15,000

$685.0

Eastern half of U.S. and Canada

Special situations, divestitures, industrial, aerospace

1

7

Flight Options/Flex Jet, Hallmark Lighting, Trialon

Bassem Mansour Steven Rosen, co-CEOs

The Riverside Co., Cleveland (216) 344-1040/www.riversidecompany.com

$1,000 $1,000-400,000

$7,300.0

N. America, Europe, Australasia region

Generalists with seven formal industry specializations

1

43

Shaker, Parker Products, Area Wide Protective

Stewart Kohl Bela Szigethy, co-CEOs

Rockwood Equity Partners LLC, Beachwood (216) 342-1790/www.rockwoodequity.com

$2,000 $3,000-10,000

NA

North America

Aerospace, defense, health care, process control

0

1

BJG Electronics, Altimate Medical, AMACS

Brett Keith, managing partner

Signet LLC, Akron (330) 762-9102/www.signetllc.com

$2,500 $5,000-50,000

$375.0

Midwest, Southeast, global

Commercial real estate, new technologies, manufacturing

1

5

Signet Accel, Creative Polymer Solutions, Blue Grass Chemicals, IWP

Anthony Manna, chairman

Squire Ridge Company LLC, Beachwood (216) 839-5123 /squireridgecompany.com

$500 $1,500

NA

Midwest

High performance plastics, specialty materials

1

0

Allegheny Performance Plastics, EnviroScience Inc

Steven Ross, president

Valley Growth Ventures, Youngstown (708) 557-2113/valleygrowthventures.com

$200 $250

$6.1

Mahoning Valley, NE Ohio, Ohio

Software, energy, materials, health care, additive manufacturing

0

0

None

Ernie Knight, managing director

$5,000 $20,000

NA

North America

Manufacturers/distributors of industrial/consumer products

0

0

None

Mike Faremouth, Jim Guddy, Eric Bacon, managing directors

$50 $100-500

NA

NE Ohio, Midwest, East Coast

Tech (SaaS, media, elder care, sales/marketing)

0

1

Futuri, GenomOncology, Groupmatics, Ads in Motion

Lee Zapis, president Rich Bongorno, CFO

Chase Properties, Beachwood (216) 464-6626/www.chaseprop.com

Drummond Road Capital, Beachwood (216) 910-1702/None

JWI Capital LLC, Twinsburg (440) 823-5109/www.jwicapital.com Kirtland Capital Partners, Beachwood (216) 593-0100/www.kirtlandcapital.com Legacy Capital Partners, Lyndhurst (216) 381-2303/www.LCP1.com

MCM Capital Partners, Beachwood (216) 514-1840/www.mcmcapital.com Morgenthaler Private Equity, Cleveland (216) 416-7500/www.mpepartners.com

Peppertree Capital Management, Chagrin Falls (440) 528-0333/www.peppertreecapital.com Plug and Play Cleveland, Cleveland (216) 534-8771/plugandplaytechcenter.com

Watervale Equity Partners, Beachwood (216) 233-8855/www.watervalepartners.com Zapis Capital Group LLC, Westlake (440) 871-1300/www.zapiscapital.com

RESEARCHED BY CHUCK SODER (CSODER@CRAIN.COM) Information is supplied by the companies. Deal numbers exclude follow-on investments in existing portfolio companies. (1) Silicon Valley-based Plug and Play made these investments before opening its Cleveland office.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

AKRON

Royal Docks brews up growth in own way

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

For John Bikis and Dave Sutula, running a successful craft brewery is more about following their guts than a clear business plan.

The duo opened Royal Docks Brewing Co. in September 2015 and have grown the business in a surprisingly fast and somewhat unconventional way.

Their spike in production garnered recent accolades from the nonprofit Brewers Association, which dubbed Royal Docks the fifth fastest-growing craft brewer in the country. The recognition comes as the firm moves along with a $2.5 million expansion that will create a new production facility and event space not far from its flagship Stark County taproom.

Bikis, 37, worked in sales for the past decade or so. Sutula, 46, is a professional brewer of 25 years who has authored books on beer and sold his own marketing firm. Yet both joke about how their approach to Royal Docks seems to go against most agreed-upon business tenets.

Not having a clear business plan, for one, created some challenges as the pair sought financing for the expansion. They were turned down by about 10 banks — a lender from Huntington Bank decided to give them a shot — and have struggled to get financial support from government sources, which they have found frustrating, even though it could be for the same reasons banks have shied away.

“We have a product in over 4,000 retail spots across Ohio,” Bikis said.

“It’s like no one understands we’re doing something locally, offering jobs. I’m having a hard time understanding why they’re not seeing what we’re doing as an opportunity. It sounds like I’m being negative, but that’s what we’re facing.”

Despite challenges on the financing front, Royal Docks has seen most things fall in its favor. Bikis credits its quick success to hard work from staff;

Royal Docks founder John Bikis, left, and brewmaster Dave Sutula take a break from the brewery's expansion in Canton. (Shane Wynn for Crain’s)

support from partners at Heidelberg Distributing Co., a Columbus brewery whose space enabled them to amp up production; and a bit of luck.

The brewery’s name and iconography reference the Royal Docks shipping area of London. The brewery logo shows cranes from the shipyards in a pattern resembling a crown.

Bikis, who immigrated to the Canton area from Romania when he was 10, lived in London for about a year for work and frequented a microbrewer called Brew by Numbers. It was a small space that brewed during the week and opened up the garage door to wel-

come patrons on weekends.

Inspired by his London experience and enamored with the culture there, Bikis resolved to recreate that sort of brewery back in Canton.

This was in 2014, when Sutula — a Canton native who had run Cornerstone Pub; sold a marketing firm, Peeps Creative, in 2012; and worked at multiple breweries — was helping open Canton Brewing Co. as its head brewer. After a local newspaper story mentioned Sutula’s plans in a piece about Canton Brewing, the two connected and met upon Bikis’ return to the States in 2014.

Sutula, a self-described Anglophile who studied brewing science in Scotland, loved Bikis’ idea for Royal Docks. He had left Canton Brewing.

So the duo focused on the 3,800-square-foot, seven-barrel brewery and taproom off Fulton Drive, which cost about $750,000 to get off the ground. It was all personally financed.

With the initial facility up and running, Bikis and others drove around the state selling kegs directly. Their product quickly gained popularity.

“If there was a plan, it was to do this thing in a garage and raise up the doors on the weekend,” Bikis said.

“People say, ‘Well, your business plan must’ve been awesome.’ But at the end of the day, we were just trying to get this thing started. We didn’t really have a grand vision.”

Royal Docks partnered with Four String Brewing Co. in Columbus last year to increase production and package in cans. Later, the firm brought on Heidelberg as its distributor.

Growth came fast after that. The brewery, which has about 34 employees and a portfolio of about 14 beers, produced 79 barrels of beer in 2015.

Production jumped to 2,200 barrels in 2016 and 3,570 barrels in 2017.

Some of the early moves weren’t terribly cost-effective, though, like canning in Columbus or self-distributing (prior to Heidelberg).

However, the pair’s approach seems to be working for them. The brewery saw revenue roughly double in 2017 to $1.5 million.

“I never thought we’d be this far,” Sutula said, “because we never really approached this with much of a plan.”

The expansion came together as the firm hit capacity at its current facility.

There is high demand for events, but Bikis doesn’t like the idea of closing the taproom to regulars for private parties.

An expansion made sense.

The production facility under construction features a pricey 30-barrel, Italian-made state-of-the-art Simatec brewhouse (it costs roughly 30% to 40% more than a domestically made system) and a $350,000 canning line.

The 22,400-square-foot building, a former skating rink that sat empty for 15 years, also will serve as Royal Docks’ main private event space, with room for nearly 300 visitors.

There will be a new kitchen and staging area for catered events, plus a patio and roll-up garage door connecting the inside and outside spaces.

The brewery’s current space on Fulton Road will be branded as the taproom and kitchen, while the new space will be called the Royal Docks Brewhouse and Cannery Facility. Production is expected to begin there on May 7.

Sutula, who’s been in the industry a while, said he’s a bit concerned about the surge in craft breweries, but thinks there’s still room to grow.

“I was brewing during the first bubble in the mid- to late ’90s, but when that bubble burst it was because of junk beer. Now, that’s different. People know how to make beer, and chances are everyone’s stuff is at least drinkable,” he said. “There were maybe 1,000 breweries at that time, and now there are 6,600. So a saturation point, that’s got to be coming. And the growth overall has definitely slowed.

But there is some point at which the industry is going to start to contract.

We don’t want to be one of those.”

The brewery is keenly focused on Ohio and isn’t plotting sales outside the state yet. Plans do call for several new beers, though.

Despite having a big mortgage to pay, Sutula and Bikis — who say they’re having more fun running Royal Docks than they’ve ever had in other jobs — aren’t overly concerned with numbers.

Getting rich was never the plan, considering there wasn’t much of a plan at all at the start.

“I’m not sure what all the hype is about growth,” Sutula said. “Isn’t there a certain point when you are what you are, everyone is making a good living, we can drive decent cars and go on vacation twice a year? I’d just like to get there.”

“We’re just doing our thing right now,” Bikis said. “Our focus is on drinkability and quality beer.”

Orrville mast company rises into global market

By JUDY STRINGER clbfreelancer@crain.com

Want to play stump the boss with longtime Will-Burt Co. CEO Jeff Evans? Ask him what the century-old Orrville manufacturer will look like in 50 years.

“We know that the mast business will not be our dominate business in 50 years, or at least not likely,” Evans said. “We are not sure what it will be.”

The uncertainty is from experience, not naiveté. Will-Burt, named in 1918 after founders William Tschantz and Burton Cope, has gone through its share of reiterations. The company started as a general repair shop, made and sold equipment for the water-well drilling industry in the early 1900s, was a contract manufacturer for the U.S. military during World War II and cornered the market in coal-fired heating devices in the ’50s and ’60s.

In 1970, Will-Burt purchased Thomas Mold & Die Co., because of its tool-making capabilities. The Wooster firm, however, also was making telescoping masts for the U.S. Army. The purchase set the stage for Will-Burt’s

primary business today, what Evans calls “mobile elevation products.”

“If you have seen a TV news station report on the scene, they park their truck and raise up our mast, and that is how they do live, remote broadcasts,” he said.

Along with broadcast news, other markets for its masts include military, entertainment, law enforcement, fire and rescue, oil and gas, and cellular and mobile communications. In each case, Will-Burt’s nestled, highstrength aluminum or carbon fiber tubes are used to lift pricey payloads of satellite dishes, cameras, sensors, lights and antennas.

Mobile cell trucks outfitted with Will-Burt masts, for example, are often parked next to The Q during playoff games to boost cell coverage. Its masts support high-sensitivity sensors used to detect incoming missiles as part of the Patriot mobile air defense system.

“We are even part of the virtual wall,” Evans said. “We don’t build a cement block wall down in Texas, but our units are used by a lot of vehicles that drive out into different areas and lift the mast up quickly to look around

and see if there are any undocumented (immigrants) coming into the country.”

Will-Burt’s masts are used widely because they are “best of breed,” according to Thomas Jennings, president of Auburn, Mass.-based Accelerated Media Technologies, which builds communications vehicles for broadcasting and homeland security.

“It is really the industry standard, and it has been difficult over the years for any other company to really break in,” he said. “They can’t support the product the way that Will-Burt can.”

In recent years, much of Will-Burt’s strategy has involved adding on its mast platform. In 2016, it bought a U.K. manufacturer named Metham Aviation Design (MAD), which produced pan and tilt positioners and cameras that could be packaged as add-on accessories. The company sourced compressors, generators, access control and other add-ons.

The latest outgrowth of the add-on strategy is a line of trailers that comes equipped with a mast, tilt system, generator and other accessories.

“Pretty much everything but the payload,” Evans said. “That is our cus-

tomer, and we are not going to compete with our customers.

“If six or seven defense contracts, for example, are all trying to win a federal contract — each having its own solution as to the radar technologies or sensors or whatever — but they all use a Will-Burt Mast, we don’t care who wins. We still win,” he said.

Will-Burt employs roughly 350 people with manufacturing sites in Germany, South England and Tulsa, Okla., in addition to its Orville headquarters, where about 275 of the employees are based. With close to $100 million in annual revenue, it also has sales reps stationed around the world and 70 global distributors.

“A few years ago, we hit the tipping point where we do more business outside of the U.S. than inside it,” Evans said. That tipping point signaled an important transition for Evans, who has led Will-Burt as its CEO and president for 15 and 17 years, respectively.

His background in finance and strategy was the right fit, he said, but as the company expands outside of the U.S. “having an international leader with more of a sales and distribution background is what we need.”

So it was announced in January that Richard Lewin would become the company’s seventh CEO after a planned transition period. Initially hired to be the commercial director at Will-Burt EU in the United Kingdom, Lewin has spent the last seven years in a variety of corporate roles.

Along with masts, Will-Burt’s other primary business is contract manufacturing with metal fabrications and powder-coating capabilities. Over the years, it has made components for Volvo, Caterpillar and JLG, but has focused more recently on supplying “higher-end products” to defense manufacturers, according to Evans.

In many cases, Evans said the contract manufacturing business “is able to be more or less leveraged off the history of the quality of masts.”

Which brings us back to the question of what role masts might play Will-Burt’s future. For now, Evans said, the company will continue to invest in the mast business as a platform and add-on products to the side.

“But we are keeping our eyes open for what is the next thing we can build on using our capabilities,” he said, “but, no, I don’t know what that is yet.”

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

MAGNET

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Since then, Magnet has added a host of other new programs and services, from the Early College Early Career program, which took its workforce development efforts directly into high schools, to its revamped Magnet Incubation Center, which focuses more on services than on offering physical space to startups.

After four years of operating in the red, the organization appears to be profitable once again. For the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017, Magnet is reporting about $225,000 in profits, according to documents provided by Karp. Magnet has yet to officially file its tax documents covering that fiscal year.

Program revenue, which in part accounts for the work Magnet does with clients, showed a dip on the tax documents for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016, but the estimated figures provided show that increasing significantly for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017, from about $1.4 million to about $1.9 million. The year before those two was about $1.6 million.

Karp said the goal is to double the program service revenue in the next three years. “The goal of doing that is not, again, for our bottom line — our bottom line is going to stay around zero — but that means we’re doing more work with more manufacturers using about the same amount of grants,� Karp said.

Magnet also tracks the impact it’s having on clients in terms of metrics like sales created or retained or cost savings achieved, which are self-reported by clients and collected by a third party. An internal document created for a board retreat showed those measures growing substantially from 2015 to 2016. In an email, Karp said the 2017 impact figures were not yet ready.

Magnet has moved from offering specific, one-time services, like a Kaizen event, to a more holistic approach that helps companies grow, said board chair Felix Brueck, a retired McKinsey partner, in an email. “In many ways, we were at the time still heavily focused on cost reduction and operational excellence — the themes that were critical in the ’80s and ’90s to compete against the Japanese,� Brueck said. “Today, those themes are still relevant, but not sufficient. For companies to not only survive but thrive, they need to grow through innovation, new sales and marketing approaches, and new operating models.�

Ed Nolan, Magnet’s vice president of product development and engineering services, said the organization has adapted to industry needs over the years. Twenty-five years ago, when he started with the organization that became Magnet, companies needed help with approaches

like lean; 15 years ago, the focus was on new products, he said. Nolan said the shift to forming long-term relationships with clients is a good one, and he thinks the old model contributed to Magnet’s recent financial struggles. “You’ve got to be selling Karp the right thing,� he said.

Brueck did categorize this as a “hard change,� but one that's “critical.� He said it required some “new capability,� which led to Karp being brought in as the head of Prism. And, since he performed well there, it gave the board the confidence to make him CEO after Berry’s retirement.

An internal churn But all these changes in approach did lead to “higher than usual turnover� in terms of employees, Brueck said. “Some of our team members opted out of this strategic pivot. Not many, but some,� he said. “Then as we grew rapidly, we needed to bring new people on board and had a mixed record with that.�

Magnet now has close to 30 employees, along with some open positions. In recent years, there have been unexpected losses of employees, including three who passed away and one who chose to leave after a serious illness, Karp said. Overall, Karp said the number of full-time-equivalent employees has remained relatively stable in recent years.

Also contributing to the turnover was the retirement of three individuals, a trend Mike O’Donnell, the nonprofit’s vice president of operations, expects will continue in the next five to 10 years. And the organization is trying to plan for that. For example, Nolan plans to retire at the start of September 2018. He has been using his network to build up the sales pipeline and helping to turn clients over to new growth advisers, training them along the way.

Hiring has been a learning experience for Karp as a first-time CEO. “The reality is, if you go into a situation where, because of changes you’re making to the organization, coupled with the retirements, those numbers put together means a lot of open jobs. It means you’re not going to get them all right,� Karp said.

Brueck said the organization has now reviewed and updated its hiring and on-boarding practices, which he said seems to have made a difference in turnover.

And the changes aren’t done yet. Although Magnet is an organization designed to help manufacturers, less than half of the organiza-

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PA G E 21

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GBX

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Its funds have invested more than $400 million into 100 redevelopment projects in 14 states in the eastern part of country. The firm started with a handful of people in 2001 at Sparacia’s kitchen table as a tax consulting firm, doing the kind of work he did at Ernst & Young and Steris Corp.

GBX has evolved to become a specialist at finding historic buildings in need of rehabilitation. It puts together financing packages that take advantage of the many federal, state and local tax incentives used to encourage the redevelopment of historically significant buildings in urban cores. “We started with just a few people kicking around the idea of tax consulting, (with the idea of ) bringing tax planning being done by large companies, banks and accounting firms down to mid-market companies and individuals,�

Sparacia said. “We got involved with a lot of the tax credit programs at the state level, and it just bloomed from there.�

The Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, for example, provides a state tax credit of up to 25% of qualified rehabilitation expenditures incurred during the substantial rehabilitation of buildings identified as having some historic value. Federal tax law offers a 20% federal tax credit for the rehabilitation of historic buildings, and a 10% tax credit for the rehabilitation of non-historic buildings built before 1936.

In both cases, the credits are dollar-for-dollar reductions of taxes owed.

Sparacia said it was an easy niche to get involved in after a career doing what he now calls “soulless tax planning.�

David Swentor, GBX’s president of real estate, said the firm saw the demographic and social changes around the country and in Cleveland that have lured people — millennials and empty-nesters, in particular — back into urban cores. “Cities like Cleveland, they have all these great buildings with assets embedded in them, but (redeveloping them is) expensive, complicated and difficult to do,� Swentor said. “So it’s created a niche and a tremendous opportunity.�

GBX now takes advantage not only of historic preservation tax credits, but tax credits offered to investors in low-income housing and renewable energy and tax incentives for cleaning up environmentally damaged industrial sites.

In Atlanta, the firm found the Medical Arts Building, a 1920s-era, 12-story office building on the northern edge of downtown that has been vacant for decades. Sparacia said Atlantans call it the city’s “tallest eyesore."

G lion fice cred mill don guar buil B Atla mot toric said eral arou “I in,� C GBX

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CRAIN'S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PAGE 21

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tion’s board is made up of people actually in the industry.

Karp estimates that about 45% of the board represents manufacturing, counting a pending board member, members who retired from the field and an open position typically filled by an Eaton representative. Not counting those, there are currently nine active manufacturers on the board, closer to 35% representation. Magnet has expanded the cap on its board to 35 members, Karp said. Its membership is currently in the mid-20s.

Going forward, one of Karp’s goals is to add more manufacturers, including those from outside Cuyahoga County, to the board, so they comprise 60% to 70% of it. The board is a diverse one in terms of industry representation, made up of educators, consultants and manufacturers. Karp highlighted the benefits to that approach, like the creation of the Prism program, which came from the consultants and small business members on the board.

Overall, funders seem pleased with the new direction. Contributions and grants are expected to be up to about $6.3 million on the tax filing for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2017, according to Magnet’s estimate, up from about $5.9 million reported for the year prior.

The Cleveland Foundation has most recently supported Magnet’s Early College Early Career program, at a cost of almost $1 million from 2015 to 2018, said Shilpa Kedar, the foundation’s program director for economic and workforce development. And it has supported other Magnet programs in recent years, including Prism.

When the foundation makes an investment, it looks at an organization’s financials, mission and leadership, Kedar said. And Magnet’s leadership is strong enough that the foundation has made it a partner in its economic development strategy in recent years. Both Karp and Brueck have the necessary vision and collaborative skills, she said, and they’ve been able to hire the right people, like Terrence Robinson, vice president for workforce development and economic inclusion, who overseas Early College Early Career.

The Cleveland-based Fund for our Economic Future has given Magnet about $1.22 million over the last three years.

Brad Whitehead, the Fund’s president, said the organization has been particularly excited about the Prism program and Magnet’s model of partnering with companies that have the potential to grow.

He said he wasn’t surprised that a shift in approach led to some short-term challenges.

Magnet needed the right team in place to carry out its “bold vision,� he said. And he thinks they have that now, along with an engaged board and a clear strategy. “We’re upbeat,� Whitehead said.

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GBX

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

GBX now is in the midst of a $40 million rehab to turn it into a modern office building. In addition to historic tax credits, a key to the financing is a $3 million façade easement, which is a donation to a qualified nonprofit that guarantees the historic character of a building in exchange for a tax credit.

Boyd Coons, executive director of the Atlanta Preservation Center, which promotes the preservation of Atlanta’s historic architecture and neighborhoods, said he met a firm “property scout” several years ago and showed her buildings around town that he wanted to save.

“It was very nice to have global X come in,” Coons said, using the former name of GBX. “They have the sophistication to

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

understand the potential, which, we in most cases, lack. They have an understanding of how to economically use the incentives that are in place. They provided the money and found the developer.”

In Columbus, GBX worked with developer Brad DeHays to redevelop the Stoddard Block on the south edge of the city’s downtown. DeHays turned the building, which was built to house a furniture company, into studio apartments using a conservation easement GBX identified to assist the financing.

Antonin Robert, GBX’s president of community development, said the firm often gets involved in projects through historic preservation organizations like Heritage Ohio and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“They are being approached by developers, who are saying things like,

ADVERTISING SECTION

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To place your listing or for more information, please call Debora Stein at (212) 210-0274 or email dstein@crain.com

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town, including the Superior Arts District, has long seen the stretch of Superior as a prime residential neighborhood.

It just needed investment.

Redevelopment plans are getting underway for GBX’s Superior buildings, which will include creating apartments at lower price points than what is now available downtown.

“They are great stakeholders,” said Campus District executive director Mark Lammon.

Campus District led the campaign to create the Superior Arts District, which brings with it increased safety and cleaning patrols. In addition, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency committed $8.3 million in federal money to streetscaping that will create a “midway,” a bikeway along the center of Superior from Public Square to East 55th Street.

MBA

LAW

Timothy B. Clepper

Jeanne A. Gombeda

Akron Children’s Foundation Board

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz

Kaulig Companies Limited Kaulig Companies Limited announced today that Tim Clepper, President, has accepted the position on the Akron’s Children’s Hospital’s Foundation Board. He will serve on multiple committees involving marketing & finance.

Clepper’s philanthropic support of Akron Children’s Hospital began in 2012 with the founding of Santa PICsU, an organization dedicated to bringing the healing power of giving to children and families in traumatic situations on a year-round basis.

Chief Operating Officer Kohrman Jackson & Krantz welcomes Jeanne Gombeda as Chief Operating Officer. She oversees professional legal staff, strategic initiatives, talent recruitment, compensation and benefits, and physical plant operations for offices in Cleveland and Columbus. Jeanne brings more than 20 years of experience in administration and human resources within the legal industry, and is a past president of the Association of Legal Administrators. She holds a business degree from the University of Akron.

LAW Jennifer L. Shankleton Chief Marketing Officer

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz

TECHNOLOGY Tom Bernot Vice President

Falls Digital Falls Digital, a fast-growing strategic digital transformation agency located in Cleveland, OH adds industry veteran Tom Bernot as vice president. In his new role, Bernot will leverage Falls Digital’s recently evolved offerings around world-class digital strategies and customer experience to establish strategic relationships and partnerships. Bernot brings 20+ years of experience, holding leadership positions in consumer products, manufacturing, distribution, and professional service industries.

ON ONS

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On Superior, investment groups led by GBX own a growing portfolio of properties. In 2014, the firm engineered the purchase of five buildings from the Roy Group, including the ArtCraft Building, built in 1919. Earlier, it led the purchase of properties from Dan “Daffy Dan” Gray.

These purchases followed the firm’s 2009 acquisition of the former Edwin Hotel, 1303 Prospect Ave., on what Sparacia described as a desolate street that has since come alive with projects such as the Residences at the Hanna, which opened in 2013.

“In 1303, we were first in that neighborhood, and then we started buying properties (on Superior),” Sparacia said. “We’re comfortable going first.”

Campus District Inc., the community development organization that oversees a wide swath of properties east of down-

WEATHERHEAD SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

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‘Were looking to develop a hotel (in an older building), who and what resources exist?’ ” Robert said. “The organizations know what we bring to the table.”

Swentor added that the firm also can provide historic preservation oversight, to ensure that the rehabilitation meets requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Service and state tax departments for tax credit awards.

In March, GBX acquired Silverlode Consulting, a corporate site selection and economic development consulting firm that had been located up the street at 3043 Superior Ave. Sparacia said that consultancy, led by Dennis McAndrew, will allow GBX to expand its financing options. As a consultant to businesses seeking to expand, Silverlode has become familiar with the financial incentives that state and local governments offer to businesses.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Kohrman Jackson & Krantz is pleased to welcome Jennifer Shankleton as Chief Marketing Officer. She brings more than 20 years of marketing experience to her position, including expertise in business and practice development, branding and client service initiatives. Jennifer is a past president of the Ohio Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, and holds a degree in business with a focus on organizational communications and public relations from the University of Akron.

LAW Kenneth M. Rock Associate

Kushner & Hamed Co., LPA Kushner & Hamed is pleased to announce the addition of Kenneth M. Rock to the firm. Ken has extensive experience in commercial litigation acquired at major national and international law firms. He was a law clerk to the Honorable Vanessa L. Bryant of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and graduated from New York University School of Law, wwhere he was executive articles editor of the NYU Annual Survey of American Law.

RETAIL

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Sean Kennedy

Chief Technology Officer

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WOW! Internet Cable and Phone

APG Office Furnishings

Matt is an engineering, operations and technology leader with more than 20 years of telecommunications industry experience.

As chief technology officer, he will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of WOW!’s residential and business products. Matt will drive the development of the WOW! technology roadmap to fulfill WOW!’s mission to provide best-in-class products and services that matter most to our customers.

The Cleveland branch of APG Office Furnishings is pleased to announce and welcome Sean Kennedy as Business Development Manager. Sean will be instrumental in building and maintaining client relationships along with the Cleveland team, located in the APG showroom in the Tyler Village area just east of downtown Cleveland.

APG, a Certified Herman Miller dealer, is focused on helping businesses become more efficient, productive, and successful through innovative workspace solutions.

FINANCIAL SERVICES Christopher Farnham Assistant Vice President, Alternatives Analyst

Ancora Ancora extends a warm welcome to Mr. Christopher Farnham who has joined the firm as an Assistant Vice President, Alternatives Analyst. Chris assists with all stages of the research process in both the fundamental long/short and activist investment verticals of the multi-strategy fund. Chris brings his experience performing sell-side equity research to Ancora after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Miami University. We are happy to have Chris join our team.

FINANCIAL SERVICES Conor Sweeney Assistant Vice President, Alternatives Analyst

Ancora Ancora is happy to announce that Mr. Conor Sweeney has joined the firm as an Assistant Vice President, Alternatives Analyst. Conor will provide research for sourcing, due diligence, modeling and investment monitoring. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, majoring in both Finance and Economics, from John Carroll University and brings his experience as an equity analyst to the firm. We look forward to working with Conor in his new role and welcome him to the Ancora team.

KNOW SOMEONE ON THE MOVE?

For more information or questions regarding advertising in this section, please call Debora Stein at (212) 210-0274 or email: dstein@crain.com

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Michael Gaffney

President, Junior Achievement of N. Central Ohio All educators have tough jobs these days, since there are a lot of students out there to teach, often with limited resources.

But Michael Gaffney has a special challenge: He’s charged with reaching the students not in one class or even one school, but at all schools across much of the region. ¶ As president of Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio, Gaffney works from the organization’s offices on Firestone Parkway, near the intersection of South Main Street and Archwood Avenue in Akron. He has been on the job since 2013 and had a long history of working with area nonprofits before that, including more than a decade at United Way of Summit County. But he says working with students and teachers in his current jobs means he still learns something new almost every day. ¶ He’s often on the road, visiting teachers, principals, superintendents and students at hundreds of schools. And if he’s not doing that, there’s a good chance he’s at a company in the region, drumming up volunteers to teach classes and to share their experience with students, or raising money for JA’s annual budget of about $650,000. — Dan Shingler

Five things You mentioned you play guitar.

What kind?

I usually play an Ovation acoustic.

And do you have a favorite guitarist/songwriter?

Yep. John Denver

What are you involved with outside of work and family?

Community theater

Is there a book you're currently reading?

"The Daily Show: An Oral History as Told by Jon Stewart, the Correspondents, Staff and Guests"

Where might we find you on a day off in nice weather?

Playing golf at Chenoweth Golf Course

Lunch spot Walk in the Park Café 1491 Aster Ave. Akron, OH 44301

The meal We went in mid-afternoon, so it was more of a mid-day treat than a meal.

One had an iced salted-caramel coffee and the other had a strawberry-mango smoothie, both of which got high marks.

The vibe Casualness is brought to an art form here. While the place is very clean and tidy, it’s also as comfortable as a beanbag chair — and even has a tree trunk in the middle.

The bill $8.50

Running Junior Achievement seems like a unique challenge.

What prepared you for it?

I spent 14 years as a marketing and communications guy for United Way of Summit County. Before that, the first half of my career was in public relations, advertising and copywriting and all that. Then I got a chance to work at a small nonprofit hospital up in Cleveland. It’s now part of the Cleveland Clinic. I liked the nonprofit thing, and so then I worked at United Way and thought maybe someday it would be fun to run a nonprofit. This opportunity came along, and here I am. … My predecessor had been here for 30 years before I got the job.

Most people probably realize that JA works with young people, but what’s your local mission?

We cover 12 counties out of our office here, and we continue to work to find more volunteers and more funding to reach more students. Our goal is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in the global economy, so it’s a pretty cool mission. Our three pillars are entrepreneurship, workforce readiness and financial literacy.

Do local companies embrace your goals?

I don’t think there’s anyone I sit across the table from who doesn’t find something in that that they care about. … I was at Diebold today, they want financial literacy, because they want more banks. … All employers have concerns. Go to any manufacturing place and they have jobs open because they can’t find people to fill them.

How many students are you able to reach?

In our 12-county area, we did about 1,100 programs last year with about 24,000 students. We reach about 11% of the student population in our territory, but it always needs to grow.

There were approximately 13,000 students and about 625 programs in Summit County last year.

Which grade levels do you work with?

Kindergarten through Grade 12, so all elementary schools and high schools. … There are some schools that have us in for every grade at the school.

What new approaches do you take?

For one thing, it's not all about

college. You can make a good living as an electrician, a carpenter or a welder today. So we’re working a lot more with the trades and bringing them in to talk to students. … That’s one of the things I like about what the college and career academies at Akron Public Schools are doing. If you can get kids into an area of interest, that’s when they want to learn.

Which is the most difficult part of your job?

There are three main parts. Getting the superintendent or principal or the teacher to say “Oh, JA, that’s cool, let’s do it.” That’s the easy part, because we teach financial literacy and bring community people into the classroom, and they see the value in that. … Finding volunteers is a little bit harder, but it’s not terrible. We have good relationships with the banks, Goodyear and others. The hardest part always is raising the money.

How much money do you raise?

We start over every year raising money, so we have to raise our budget of $650,000 or so each year from local supporters.

What is your biggest source of support?

The Burton D. Morgan Foundation (in Hudson) is our biggest supporter; thank them for us. Entrepreneurship is their thing. ... We love the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.

What’s the best thing about your job?

One of the things I like about JA is that these kids want to know more about what their future is going to look like.

They’re asking questions about that all the time. Helping them learn about career clusters or how to research government websites and see what’s growing and what’s not — that’s all interesting and rewarding stuff.

Are you optimistic about today’s students and their potential?

Absolutely. They’re kids, they have their moments, sure, but when you see that light bulb go off, it’s all worth it. … I’m very encouraged by them. I think with today’s kids the sky is the limit, and they’re very excited about the opportunities ahead of them. … You talk to kids now and they’re excited about the future, and they tell you, “I want to make a difference.”

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Volume 39, Number 18 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 441131230. Copyright © 2018 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00.

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April 30, 2018

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Turning Passion Into Purpose W I T H C L E V E L A N D F O U N D AT I O N O R G A N I Z AT I O N A L F U N D P A R T N E R S

CELEBRATING ORGANIZATIONAL FUND PARTNER APPRECIATION WEEK

The Cleveland Foundation salutes the ORGANIZATIONAL FUND PARTNER organizations listed here for taking the important step in establishing funds that support their long-term mission, enhance our nonprofit landscape and present numerous giving opportunities for caring donors.

To learn more about how an Organizational Fund can strengthen a nonprofit you believe in, or to contribute to a fund listed here, visit www.ClevelandFoundation.org/OrgFund and follow #CLEFund.

United Macedonian Diaspora

New Directions

Wildcat Community Foundation

North Coast Community Homes, Inc.

The Woman’s Club of Chagrin Valley

NorthEast Ohio Neighborhood Health Services

Zeta Omega Scholarship Fund

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES Adoption Network Cleveland American Society of Andrology Association of Indian Physicians Blossom Hill Foundation, Inc. The Center for Community Solutions The Centers for Families and Children Cleveland Eye Bank Foundation Cleveland Rape Crisis Center Cornerstone of Hope Cornucopia, Inc. Crossroads

ARTS & CULTURE Apollo’s Fire Art House, Inc. BAYarts The City Club of Cleveland Cleveland Arts Prize Cleveland International Film Festival Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra Cleveland Play House Cleveland Public Theatre Collective Arts Network (CAN) Dobama Theatre Fine Arts Association Musical Theater Project Near West Theatre

Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation

Deepwood Foundation

Business Volunteers Unlimited

Domestic Violence & Child Advocacy Center

Cadiz High School Alumni

East End Neighborhood House

Cleveland Leadership Center

Easter Seals Northern Ohio, Inc.

Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Foundation

Euclid Hunger Task Force, Inc.

College Club of Cleveland

Family Planning Association of Northeast Ohio, Inc.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Early Childhood Enrichment Center, Inc. Esperanza, Inc. Euclid Public Library Foundation Family Connections of Northeast Ohio Foundation Center Friendly Inn Settlement Friends of Breakthrough Schools

Front Steps Housing and Services Greater Cleveland Food Bank, Inc.

Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland Lake County Council on Aging

Singing Angels

Hawken School

Slowik Music Institute dba Credo Music

International Partners in Mission

SPACES

Lake/Geauga Educational Assistance Foundation (LEAF)

American Orff-Schulwerk The Andy Nowacki Foundation Andrews Osborne Academy Assad Abood Foundation Bay Village Educational Foundation Bay Village Public Schools Alumni Foundation

Nature Center at Shaker Lakes Polonia Foundation of Ohio, Inc. Reaching Heights Saint Edward High School Shaker Heights Public Library South Suburban Montessori Association Union of Poles Boosters and Sports Committee

Ronald McDonald House of Cleveland The Salvation Army of Greater Cleveland Scarborough House, Inc. Shoes and Clothes for Kids, Inc. Stella Maris United Way Services of Geauga County Ursuline Piazza

Lake Humane Society

Linking Employment Abilities & Potential (LEAP) Long Term Care Ombudsman Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry Magnolia Clubhouse Make-A-Wish Northeast Ohio MedWish International Merrick House Milestones Autism Resources NAMI Greater Cleveland National Society to Prevent Blindless New Avenues to Independence

Historic Gateway Neighborhood JumpStart, Inc. League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland MidTown Cleveland Princeton Alumni Association Project Hope for the Homeless Tremont West Development Corporation Union Miles Development Corporation University Circle, Inc. Western Reserve Junior Service League Western Reserve Land Conservancy Westlake Porter Public Library Foundation

RECREATION Cleveland Championship 2000

Womankind, Inc.

Foundation for Geauga Parks

WomenSafe, Inc.

The Great Geauga County Fair Foundation

Zonta Club of Cleveland Foundation

RELIGION

HISTORY & PRESERVATION Bedford Historical Society

Geauga County Historical Society Intermuseum Conservation Association Lake County Historical Society Lakewood Historical Society Siegel & Shuster Society Western Reserve Historical Society

NEIGHBORHOODS, COMMUNITY & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Bay Village Foundation Burton-Middlefield Rotary Club

Antioch Baptist Church Bethany Baptist Church Building Hope in the City Cleveland Church of Christ East View United Church of Christ Faith Cumberland Presbyterian Church Forest Hill Presbyterian Church Lee Memorial Endowment Incorporated The Lutheran Chaplaincy Service of Greater Cleveland dba Chaplain Partnership Olivet Institutional Baptist Church Saint James A.M.E. Church The Word Church

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT Dress for Success Forum for Volunteer Administrators Geauga Growth Partnership, Inc. NewBridge Cleveland Center for Arts and Technology United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland

Cleveland Metroparks

Vocational Guidance Services

Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Charity Foundation

YOUTH

Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization

Aiki Extensions, Inc. First Tee of Cleveland

Downtown Cleveland Alliance

Ginn Foundation

Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation

Girl Scouts of North East Ohio

To learn more about giving through the Cleveland Foundation, please call 877-554-5054.

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with assets of $2.45 billion and annual grants of more than $90 million.

Green Ribbon Coalition

Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Lifebanc Lifeline Inc.

Greater Cleveland Sports Commission

Volunteers of America of Greater Ohio

East Cleveland Township Cemetery Foundation

Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Greater Cleveland

Alpha Omega Foundation, Inc.

Red Tulip Project of Geauga

Hopewell

Harvey Alumni Association

Adhesion Society, Inc.

Recovery Resources

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad

The Lakewood Foundation

National Black MBA Association, Cleveland Chapter

Ravenwood Mental Health Center

HELP Foundation, Inc.

Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity

Metro Catholic School

Prayers From Maria Foundation

Cleveland Grays

Fund for the Future of Heights Libraries

EDUCATION

Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio

Healthnetwork Foundation

Rabbit Run Community Arts Association

The Literacy Cooperative

Phillis Wheatley Association

Canalway Partners

Polish-American Cultural Center

Zygote Press

PeopleBeatingCancer

Hattie Larlham Foundation

Friends of Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library

Scottish-American Cultural Society

The Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness

Famicos Foundation, Inc.

Youth Challenge