Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 38, NO. 28

JULY 10 - 16, 2017

Crain’s 2017

Women of Note

Source Lunch

At the Table

Jarrod Tudor, dean of Wayne College, University of Akron

Another Michael Symon milestone: 20 years of restaurant success.

Page 35

Page 9

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

GOVERNMENT

SPORTS BUSINESS

Cities are uniting against budget

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

The new state general fund budget, signed by Gov. John Kasich at the end of June (though he vetoed a handful of line items), is sparking the leaders in the state’s metropolitan areas to press their issues more vigorously in the halls of the Ohio Statehouse.

The budget continues a trend to

Hall of Fame Village is more like a town Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium is nearing the end of Phase II of its three-year, $137 million renovation. (Contributed photo)

Massive project, now up to $700 million, keeps expanding — as does the optimism

By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps

David Baker understands any skepticism that’s directed at the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s massive renovation project — now up to nine main components and an estimated price tag of $700 million.

“There are always going to be people who believe it can’t happen,” said Baker, in his fourth year as the Canton landmark’s president. “ ‘You can’t win. Why are you doing it?’ ” At that point, Baker brings up a crucial part of Theodore Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech: “At the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and

Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc.

timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Baker and his colleagues aren’t predicting the Hall of Fame Village — which includes a football-themed hotel, a spruced-up Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, a youth sports complex, an athletic training and educational complex, plus retail, restaurant and office spaces — will flop. Their message, rather, is that

even if the bar for a project that was initially approved in late 2014 proves to be set too high, what’s left still will be a huge improvement and will have a significant economic impact.

“If we stopped today, we’d be better off (than before),” Baker said.

Make no mistake, though. If anything, the project might get even more grand.

SEE HALL, PAGE 33

Akron Kenmore hopes to thrive as music district.

Page 32

Inside Editorial: Gov. Kasich’s budgets have been hard on Ohio cities. Page 10

discount the needs of cities, they believe.

“There’s been a complete erosion over the last six years as it relates to state funding” of local government, said state Sen. Matt Dolan, a Republican who represents Cuyahoga County suburbs that surround Cleveland.

“The continuous cuts over the years, leading up to this budget, puts local governments in a bind.”

For example, the budget diverts $35 million from the state’s Local Government Fund, long earmarked to support basic operations of incorporated municipalities, to be included in a $176 million fight against the state’s opioid crisis. Another $24 million in Local Government Fund dollars is being shifted from cities to support villages and townships. In moving the money, the Senate leadership argued that the 80-year-old Local Government Fund, now 1.66% of state revenue, is an anachronism, a vestige of the days before cities could levy income taxes.

SEE BUDGET, PAGE 31

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Citizens can make it ‘rain’ with Della Ratta Rhode Island-based bank believes Midwest presents big opportunity, with Western Reserve head as leader

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

A key element to Citizens Bank growing its commercial business in Ohio rests in the hands of one of Cleveland’s veteran investment bankers.

Citizens Financial Group Inc., the Rhode Island-based parent company of the $150 billion-in-assets Citizens Bank, has pegged the Midwest as a major growth area for its commercial bank. It’s one of the bank’s top-three targeted regions, along with the Southeast and New York City area.

However, in the bank's Midwest market, which comprises Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, executives say the Buckeye State is ripe with opportunity to accelerate growth in the commercial segment.

But beyond some features of the market itself, like a bevy of strong middle market companies performing well and hungering for capital, much of that optimism is being attributed to what Cleveland’s Ralph Della Ratta can bring to the table.

“It’s all about opening doors, being a rainmaker and making things happen for everyone in the organization,” Della Ratta said.

Citizens acquired Della Ratta’s Cleveland-based M&A advisory firm Western Reserve Partners in May, marking the company’s first pur-

“It’s all about opening doors, being a rainmaker and making things happen for everyone in the organization.”

— Ralph Della Ratta

chase in support of its Citizens Capital Markets Inc. group, which added broker-dealer capabilities to the bank’s existing capital markets platform when that entity was launched in 2016.

The Western Reserve operation has gone unchanged, retaining its staff, name and managing directors since the deal.

Della Ratta remains stationed in Cleveland and continues to head that business in addition to now serving as Citizens’ Ohio market president.

He took on that role in June, filling a void created by his predecessor in the position, Joseph DiRocco. DiRocco joined Fifth Third Bank as a regional president for Northeast Ohio under Jerry Kelsheimer, who took on an expanded regional vice chairman role.

The two jobs share some natural similarities. In each, Della Ratta is getting a sense of a company’s overall trajectory and desires for capital or ways to spend it. Asked whether running the M&A business and a statewide market for the commercial

bank is too much, Della Ratta confidently said, “I feel I can do both roles properly.”

Executives like Donald McCree, Citizens vice chairman and head of commercial banking, have confidence in Della Ratta capitalizing on the opportunities the bank already sees here. Della Ratta’s connections as a veteran investment banker give him a unique platform to build from.

“Ohio is a large market where we feel the commercial bank has room to grow,” McCree said.

“The same is true for Michigan and other Midwest states. There are some very strong middle-market and larger companies based in the Midwest,” he said. “We have client relationships with some of them, but we are looking to expand those relationships where it makes sense and to add new clients. I think the acquisition of Western Reserve Partners will help deepen our relationship with some companies, and it certainly expands our capabilities in M&A advisory.”

Della Ratta said he’s continuing a move by Citizens to hire additional

commercial bankers in the market.

As far as specific goals, he said those are in discussion, and nothing too formal has been laid out just yet. A hands-off approach probably works well in this case.

Citizens executives have said, “Ralph, come to us with good ideas, and we’ll support you,” Della Ratta said.

Northeast Ohio, of course, is a market he’s quite familiar with, in which longstanding relationships are likely to convert into new business.

That’s what McCree is counting on.

And it’s a logical way the bank — which on the retail front is the fourth-largest in Northeast Ohio by deposit market share and seventh-largest in the state — expects to convert market share.

Yet, in an already fragmented market growing increasingly competitive as banking giants and growing community banks alike move deeper into Cleveland proper — like Geauga Savings Bank, which embarked on a move of its corporate headquarters from Newbury to Beachwood this year in a push for commercial business — Citizens’ connections to Della Ratta and Western Reserve could be a differentiator in the marketplace.

That all spells a lot of opportunity for the bank in both Northeast Ohio and the state.

However, when it comes to markets within the state, there are re-

gions Della Ratta has his eyes on.

He said the large markets of Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati are offering “nice traction.” Of course, most of Ohio’s big banks like to play there and would likely say the same thing.

Akron, though, is another area Della Ratta specifically named as a promising place in which to grow market share.

“We do have a strong interest in growing not just in Northeast Ohio, but the entire state,” he said. “There is some great pockets of business activity even outside Northeast Ohio. Columbus and Cincinnati are very vibrant right now. And I’ve seen more business opportunities in Toledo right now than I’ve seen in my entire career.”

A fairly strong regional economy is helping lift those expectations as well.

“Ohio has become a much stronger state in many ways in the last five years. Cleveland, Akron, Northeast Ohio are doing very well. I get a kick out of how people are discussing Cleveland as a great city today. We’ve known that for many years,” Della Ratta said. “Now the outside world is figuring that out. This is our time to prioritize our time with getting in front of the right people with the right message.”

He added, “The good news is we see a lot more wind behind our back than we do in front of us. That’s for sure.”

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New Risk International CEO raises the bar

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

Consulting firm Risk International has been surging in growth in recent years, and the Fairlawn-based company may only be scratching the surface of its potential.

Business has been strong, particularly as rising private equity activity has created more demand for the sort of consulting services that help squeeze additional value out of investments by finding and carving out extraneous costs.

And remaining independent, with no business lines selling products of their own, gives Risk International a differentiator in the marketplace, helping the Northeast Ohio company gain an international reputation that usually would be associated with firms in metros like New York or Boston.

CEO Todd Miller, who replaced Michael Davis in the role July 1 but first joined the firm from Oswald Cos. in 2015 as chief growth officer and executive vice president, said Risk International targets 17.5% organic growth annually. It has exceeded that goal, realizing growth closer to 20% the past few years.

This year, the firm is planning to exceed $20 million in annual revenues by a “fairly significant margin,” Miller said, with potential to go as high as $26 million “if we blow some things out.”

As Miller takes on the top executive role, the goal isn’t to reinvent the wheel there, but evolve its offerings to

Fairlawn-based Risk International has been growing at a 20% rate in recent years. (Contributed photo)

serve more than the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies it has traditionally focused on and reach more middle-market operations — an untapped reservoir Miller for the business.

“I’m not a big proponent of if it’s not broke, break it,” Miller said.

Involvement with some significant private equity deals has been a boon for the business. Miller wouldn’t disclose exactly what deals or companies Risk International has been involved with, but he said the firm has had a hand in some of the world’s largest leveraged buyouts of the past few years.

Some of its clients include the largest private equity shops worldwide. Risk

International usually is brought in to consult on savings in risk and benefits.

The firm's benefits division, Risk International Benefits Advisors, has stated plans to double its own revenues in 2017 and again in 2019, largely leveraging opportunities in the private equity space. RIBA president Eric Krieg told Crain’s in December that 35% of Risk International’s overall growth has come from that business.

So when it comes to realizing that 20% annual growth at a company that continues to expand — making that target a little harder to hit each time — the plan is to replicate its services for business downstream.

Miller referenced a $130 million heavy-equipment manufacturer in Michigan that, five years ago, might’ve been too small for Risk International to have an impact on.

“We’ve retooled processes and the

way we capture value, and more importantly, we’re retooling the way we communicate how we capture that value, which is important,” he said.

“Now we can do the project and really communicate the value we create.

That’s something where I think we have a major focus now.”

As the company grows, it’s planning to expand its Fairlawn headquarters slightly. The firm has 74 employees today and should top 80 by the end of the year. The firm is targeting total staff growth between 10% and 15% annually. Beyond its home base, Risk International has offices in Cleveland, Charleston, S.C., and Charlotte, with smaller operations in Columbus and overseas in London and Ho Chi Minh City.

As the volume of private equity activity in Europe grows, Risk International expects to get in on that action. Here in

the states, extending the risk management and actuarial business services to those middle market companies will be a key strategy for success.

The firm’s last acquisition, meanwhile, came with Bartlett Actuarial Group in South Carolina in 2015. That business is being rebranded this summer as Risk International Actuarial Services. Part of the delay in rebranding is a reflection of the transition period. The firm didn’t immediately want to pull the Bartlett name from the marketplace. But the shift underscores a move to market those actuarial services to existing clients, which should in turn translate to further boosts in sales and revenue.

Firms with a scope of expertise like Risk International are somewhat uncommon and would be natural acquisition targets. Miller said Risk International gets calls about being acquired “more than you might think.” Yet, he asserts there is zero interest in selling.

“From our perspective it’s flattering. We think it’s a great endorsement of our business,” Miller said. “But I don’t think at this point we’re ready to take on a partner.”

Its targeted, seemingly lofty growth pace is absolutely sustainable, Miller emphasized. Odds are likely they’ll even outpace their current expectations — assuming everything goes according to plan.

“Even as much as we’ve grown, with what we’re doing right now,” Miller said, “we are literally just scratching the surface of what our size and potential could be.”

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Emergency grants aid college retention rates

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY

$7.2 million

rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

Dash Emergency Grants to four-year colleges and universities in 32 states, including 11 in Ohio.

An unexpected root canal or a sudden car repair might just be an inconvenience to many, but for students who are already financially pressed, those kind of small emergencies can have long-lasting effects. “Students drop out because of things like that,� said Heike Heinrich, director of student success programs at Cleveland State University.

Cleveland State is one of a small number of local four-year colleges and universities that will this fall begin offering the Dash Emergency Grant through Madison, Wis.-based Great Lakes Higher Education Corp. & Affiliates. The small grants are designed to improve retention and graduation rates for students in need, but they've previously been made available only to two-year schools.

Emergency aid programs already exist on campuses, but they’re not often well-known, said Amy Kerwin, vice president of community investments for Great Lakes. The Dash grants can help increase visibility and give universities a common platform.

Great Lakes, a nonprofit organization that primarily helps students manage federal loans, last month awarded $7.2 million of Dash Emergency Grants to four-year colleges and universities in 32 states, including 11 in Ohio.

Locally, the University of Akron received $630,000, one of the biggest grants in this round. Cleveland State received $262,500, and Notre Dame College in South Euclid received $113,400. The grants are for two years. Kerwin said participating colleges and universities have to match Great Lakes funding by 10% to support student funds the first year and 15% the second.

Some required criteria for the Dash grant are that students must have an expected family contribution, as determined by FAFSA (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid), of less than $7,000. That makes it need-based, Kerwin said. Students must also be undergraduates and must have experienced an unexpect-

$630,000 To the University of Akron

$262,500 To Cleveland State University

$113,400 To Notre Dame College

ed expense, like car repairs or unforeseen child care costs. Often, colleges pay the third parties directly, Kerwin said, though schools may sometimes give students a gas or grocery card. The emergency grant can be for up to $1,000 at the four-year schools.

The program was rolled out in 2012 at Wisconsin’s 16 community colleges, which showed strong retention rates for recipients after three years.

The schools reported that of the Pell-eligible students who received the awards in that time, 73% had graduated or stayed in school, according to a Great Lakes report.

The program granted two-year awards to two-year schools outside of Wisconsin in 2016. Northeast Ohio schools included Lakeland Community College, Lorain County Community College and Stark State College.

Marisa R. Rohn, executive director of advancement, marketing and the Stark State College Foundation, said the college has some other emergency fund programs, but the Dash grants allowed for a much larger effort. And it has been successful so far. Rohn said that 100% of the students who received the Dash grants at Stark State finished the semester they were in.

With the expansion to four-year schools, Great Lakes will look for differences between two- and four-year institutions, Kerwin said. There are different student populations, but there may also be different ways the program needs to become embedded in the institution, so that it can continue after the two years of fund-

ing are up.

The University of Akron and Notre Dame already have experience, albeit on a smaller level, with these types of grants. Indeed, Akron’s Family Helping Family emergency grant fund is what made applying for the Great Lakes grant a “no-brainer,� said Ron Bowman, assistant vice president for student success and university registrar. The university already knows what a difference it can make. “It’s just too important of an opportunity to pass up,� he said.

With the Dash grant, the University of Akron will have the opportunity to help more than 300 students a year, Bowman said. The university plans to spread the word about the program through faculty, staff, academic advisers and student leaders on campus, instead of marketing directly to the general student population. The idea is that students will turn to those staff or student leaders they already feel safe confiding in, as opposed to asking them to seek out a particular office.

This kind of emergency grant program will be new to Cleveland State, but the university has put more of a focus on wraparound services, instead of just academic support, in recent years, Heinrich said. She said this focus on wraparound services has been growing as colleges and universities put a stronger emphasis on retention and graduation rates.

Heinrich hopes the Dash application process will lead to more conversations with students so the university can identify hurdles they face and connect them with resources beyond a one-time grant.

At Notre Dame, the college has students fill out special circumstance forms if they’re having financial difficulties. The forms help the college determine if students might be eligible for more financial aid, but they also often detail needs like car repairs, said Katie McMahon, director of student success. Previously, the college couldn’t do much about those issues, even with its small Caring Hearts Fund emergency grants.

Many students are just one crisis away from leaving college, McMahon said, noting that Notre Dame receives at least 150 of these forms each year.

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Teaching nursing students about the complexities of health care quality and safety through traditional textbooks can be difficult. “Most education in textbooks is, ‘Well here’s the ideal. Here’s how it should be,’ � said Mary Dolansky, director of the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) Institute at Case Western Reserve University. “It does not integrate the complexity of health care today.�

The QSEN Institute has partnered with educational software developer Shadow Health to bring web-based virtual patient simulations to students, who can interact with digital patients to perform assessments and practice documentation, while demonstrating critical thinking.

Shadow Health, based in Gainesville, Fla., has developed Digital Clinical Experiences designed to augment courses for nursing and allied health programs. In the fall, Shadow Health will launch the first simulation developed in full partnership with the QSEN Institute, titled “Undergraduate Mental Health and Gerontology Digital Clinical Experiences.�

Since 2012, more than 1,300 programs across the country have used Digital Clinical Experiences in their courses. Shadow Health wanted to infuse QSEN competencies into their product. “We are obviously masters at the technology of the simulation,� said Rob Kade, chief marketing officer at

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to help uniformly apply QSEN standards to nursing education.

Shadow Health has already developed Digital Clinical Experiences for advanced health assessment, health assessment and pharmacology.

Through consulting, the QSEN Institute has helped Shadow Health add quality and safety standards into their existing products.

But through the full partnership, which began in January and was announced in June, they’ve worked together to create an entirely new product with built-in competencies around quality and safety. This product, focusing on mental health and gerontology, will launch in around 50 schools in the fall.

Adopting QSEN competencies embedded into Shadow Health’s simulation “really provides the schools throughout the country that opportunity to have a resources that reinforces those knowledge, skills and attitudes,� Kade said.

Beyond the interactions with digital patients, Dolansky said the platform can promote interprofessional collaboration and encourage students to think more broadly about a health care system.

As a student addresses a concern at the individual level, the simulation will prompt them to think about whether this is a problem across the unit, look at data, consult with other health care professionals and consider how to improve quality and safety beyond that one patient and one room. “It really deepens the experience and really integrates those learning concepts for the students,� Dolansky said.

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Shadow Health. “But we really look to thought leaders and influential groups like QSEN to help us show the students through the simulation, the overarching why are we doing this?�

The QSEN Institute will offer advice and expertise to Shadow Health as its team builds virtual patient simulations for graduate and undergraduate nursing courses. The international institute focuses on education practice and scholarship with the goal of improving quality and safety in health care systems.

The new simulation, which the two created from scratch, will help textbooks “come alive,� as students have to apply fundamental concepts of quality and safety to situations in the platform, said Dolansky, who’s also an associate professor of nursing at Case Western Reserve’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.

It will also help to uniformly teach nursing students quality and safety competencies, which right now, they see in their clinical experiences. Of course, there’s no guarantee of standardization in such settings, she said. “You have to rely on these things occurring for the student to learn them,â€? Dolansky said. “Whereas if you have these simulated experiences at the fingertips of the student, you can have the patient fall right in front of them ‌ and then evaluate the responses and ensure or measure their competency.â€?

The simulation connects the dots between nursing care and quality and safety competencies, said David Massias, CEO of Shadow Health and a Case Western Reserve alum. It aims

Wall Street may be holding Beachwood-based DDR Corp. in disfavor with a low stock price, but insiders are showing they like it by opening their checking accounts big time.

Five insiders bought a total of 732,325 shares in June as the openair shopping center company’s stock price fluttered between $8.37 and $8.83 per share.

They made those investments as the real estate investment trust’s stock flirted with 52-week lows. The shopping center concern’s shares troughed on June 22 at $8.11 each, off 59% from its one-year high of $19.92 on Aug. 1, 2016, according to data from Yahoo Finance.

The biggest buyer was DDR’s largest individual shareholder, Alexander Otto and his family, who on June 2 bought 600,000 shares for $8.80 per share, in addition to a total of 1 million shares purchased May 9 and April 10 for $9.52 and $10.91, respectively.

David Lukes, who on March 3 became DDR’s third CEO in the last two years, shelled out $500,000 on June 21 as he bought 60,000 shares for $8.37 a share. He also bought 170,000 shares for $9.48 each, a total of $1.6 million, on May 12.

Otto is the CEO of Hamburg, Germany-based ECE Group, which owns 199 shopping centers globally as part of a diversified commercial property portfolio. He gained his board seat, along with another he controls, in 2009, when DDR was desperate for a cash infusion and he bought 30 million shares for $112 million. He has continued to buy since then and now controls 45 million shares of DDR after his most recent acquisitions, according to a June 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other significant insider buys were made by Terry Ahern, chairman of DDR’s board and CEO of Cleveland-based Townsend Group, and Michael Makinen, DDR’s chief operating officer and one of the executives who joined the REIT with Lukes last spring.

Ahern paid an estimated $499,730 June 22 as he acquired 59,000 shares at $8.47 each. Makinen paid a total of $99,799 on June 2 for 11,325 shares at $8.83 each.

Wes Golladay, a research analyst in the Solon office of RBC Capital Markets who follows DDR, said the cluster of insider buying shows more support for the company’s merit than a one-off investment by a single board member or executive. “It’s clearly a good sign,� Golladay said in a July 6 phone interview. “I don’t know if it’s coordinated, but it’s clearly demonstrating support for the

stock at the board and executive level.�

DDR stock has fallen more than its peers as it has suffered management turmoil the past two years, Golladay said. All the bricks and mortar homes for retailers in shopping center REITs were buffeted by a weakening environment for their retailer tenants as the growth of internet buying sends shock waves through traditional retailing.

Although there might have been support for DDR as a dividend play and secure alternative to bonds because of long-term tenant commitments to buildings, the current environment has undercut even that. “There is not a whole lot of appetite because there is such uncertainty,� Golladay said. “Many of the companies in the (REIT) space are down 20%.� None, he noted, have fallen as much as DDR. Otto, Ahern and Lukes did not return phone calls or emails from Crain’s Cleveland Business by deadline last week.

Matthew Ostrower, an executive vice president and chief financial officer of DDR, said the executives and board members declined comment for this story on insider trades. “We’re really not going to be commenting to the press,� Ostrower said in a phone interview.

From a headquarters at 3300 Enterprise Parkway in Science Park, DDR operates 309 shopping centers in 35 states and Puerto Rico.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Developer Redwood Living is spreading out

By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Add Redwood Living to the short list of large and growing Northeast Ohio apartment development and ownership firms.

The outfit traces its origin to 1991, when Redwood founder and CEO Steve Kimmelman bought a community of single-floor apartments in Akron and Elyria produced by Cardinal Industries, a defunct real estate owner and developer that prefabricated the properties at a factory in Columbus.

Living in one of the suites in Akron, Kimmelman realized its intrinsic benefits. “No one lives above you or below you,� he recalled. “It’s the single-family home everyone wants.�

He decided to single-mindedly focus on the single-family model. The company created its own one-story designs for two-bedroom suites with attached garages and patios that it hires contractors to build on site.

Redwood today has a total of 7,000 units in Ohio and four other states: Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and South Carolina.

In Northeast Ohio, its 24 properties are in cities ranging from Vermilion to Hudson, and it has new communities in Avon, Brimfield and Wadsworth. It

Monthly rents start at $1,099 at Lakes of Ridgecrest, an apartment complex in North Ridgeville. (Contributed photo)

has about 50 construction projects underway, most at existing communities, although 20 are new ones.

Kimmelman likes to point out the advantages of his model to typical multi-story garden apartments. “My competitors may have 300 units in (one) building. We have that many in three,� Kimmelman said. The company organizes each of its developments as a stand-alone company, with its own mortgage and investor group. It works with a cadre of 39 lenders.

As a result, Redwood has to focus on creating efficient systems so its managers can cover communities spread over

large areas and emphasizes hiring staffers with what amounts to a service-oriented philosophy.

With properties with extensive landscaping, stone accents, private entrances and granite-countered kitchens, the properties also fetch a premium rent: $1,200 to $2,200 monthly.

It’s also a singular product, one that homebuilders typically offered as a last resort when they could not sell out a condo or townhouse development. Most apartment owners seek larger scale for each project and much greater density.

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Gary Cooper, a Colliers International senior vice president of investment sales with 30 years of multifamily experience, said, “There’s really no one else doing it that way in the Midwest.� The result, he estimates, is a unit costing about $170,000 to build might, depending on its location, be appraised for a bank loan of $200,000. “It’s amazing,� Cooper said. A report Cooper developed using data from New York-based Real Capital Analytics estimates the Redwood portfolio, including undeveloped sites, is worth more than $250 million.

For his part, Kimmelman declined to discuss the company’s financials.

As a result of its growth, David Conwill, Redwood’s president, faces the challenge of most real estate developers, for sites, and a newer one faced by businesses, for staff.

Redwood Living has a dedicated land group of four securing the development sites. Land acquisition has changed over the past few years. “We compete with everyone for land now, from home builders to apartment developers,� Conwill said.

About five years ago, the company was able to grow rapidly because it was able to buy land from lenders with approvals for condo developments that cities might consider zoning for multifamily for Redwood. That explains part of the company’s vast geographic reach. It’s in search of large land parcels on the fringes of developed areas with strong demographics.

Kimmelman and Conwill said Redwood may expand from states where it currently operates in order to continue finding growth, but no additional states are currently in the company’s targets.

Conwill said the other big challenge is “finding staff that will buy into what you are trying to do.� With a total of 300 employees across its footprint and more homes on the way, he said it’s

constantly hiring and offers current employees a $300 bonus if they bring in a new hire. Redwood had 27 openings as of last Thursday, July 6.

Staffing also prompted a breakthe-mold move for Redwood.

Previously on Commerce Park Road in Beachwood, it moved in January to 7510 Pleasant Valley Road in Independence. Typically east suburban companies move east or west suburban ones move west, but Redwood moved south.

The move was prompted by need for more space, and Redwood expanded to 17,000 square feet from 11,000, Conwill said. Redwood chose Independence for its central location. “We can recruit from a larger area from here,� Conwill said. “We’ve seen the results already.�

Redwood’s primary owners are Kimmelman and Conwill, but Conwill said it also has a total of about 100 investors who vary from deal to deal.

Kimmelman in the 1980s worked for a time as an apartment sales specialist for real estate broker Victor Voinovich, now based in Macedonia, who describes Kimmelman as a “whiz at numbers.�

While it wants to grow, Kimmelman said it won’t do so by starting to acquire properties or do multistory projects. He wants to keep a sharp focus on its one-story apartments, he said, because tenants appreciate the offering. He also doesn’t point to a fixed goal in terms of size.

During a 2011 interview, Kimmelman discussed the long-term desire to take Redwood public. No more. “We don’t want to be subject to outside control or have to meet shortterm goals. We have long-term goals,�

Conwill said.

Make that very long term. “Our goal is to build a company for the 22nd century,� Kimmelman said, later adding, “I’m not kidding.�

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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PA G E 9

At the Table

Marking 20 years of Lola and Symon’s influence Surviving in the restaurant industry is one of the great crapshoots. So while I don’t routinely mark anniversaries — after all, virtually every business celebrates them — it seems important to observe this landmark: Lola Bistro turns 20 this year. One could argue that its opening was the rising tide that helped lift Cleveland’s culinary scene.

When Michael Symon opened his flagship restaurant in 1997, he and his wife, Liz, could not have imagined the landslide of success that would follow.

A year later, the budding chef was named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s best new chefs in America.

Next came honors from Gourmet magazine, which listed Lola among America’s best restaurants for 2000.

Along the way, Symon landed a debut gig on Food Network, then eventually won a career-shaping competition series, becoming an Iron Chef America. Other TV series, honors and a procession of cookbooks followed.

The attention Symon brought to his hometown, and the implicit challenge his success levied, coaxed many of his fellow Northeast Ohio chefs to up their own games — all of which gradually helped the region’s profile to rise nationally.

Today, Symon is probably best known (at least by a national audience) as co-host of ABC-TV’s daytime hit “The Chew.” The exuberant

Joe Crea

Cleveland Alliance, an organization that supports downtown residents, property owners and others seeking to improve the city center. Scene magazine is the event co-sponsor.

Interested? Purchase tickets at clevescenetickets.com. Learn more about the event, or book reservations for groups of six or more by emailing budandburgers@clevescene.com

chef recently opened Angeline

by Michael Symon at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., and his chain of B Spot restaurants continues to grow.

So he’s got that

Another chain CLE bound: “Chipotle-style concept” has become a solid descriptor for any restaurant operation that beckons its customers to get in line for their turn to have a customized meal built for them.

So get ready for another Chipotle-style operator to enter Northeast Ohio.

Columbus-based Bibibop Asian Grill will debut this summer in the University Circle area, reports Columbus Business First.

Based on the classic Korean dish of the same name, Bibibop lets diners combine rice bowls with an array of meats, vegetables, sauces and other toppings. The concept is aimed at health-conscious millennials.

The chain’s locations are currently situated in Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton, but owner Gosh Enterprises Inc. (which includes the 600unit Charley’s Philly Steaks chain) is already expanding with locations in Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Chicago.

Entering the Cleveland market,

going for him, too.

Burgers and a Bud: With so much shaking in the world of craft beers, it’s easy to lose sight of the old-school brewers. That may be why Anheuser-Busch is making a push for its Bud & Burgers pop-up restaurant and fundraiser, set for Tuesday, July 11, through Friday, July 14, in the Flats East Bank (1051 West 10th Street, Cleveland).

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, guests who’ve purchased a $4 ticket will get a cold Budweiser, plus a “one of a kind” burger and a side dish from a local chef. Participating names include Demetrios Atheneos (Bold, Forage Public House and The Oak Barrel), Zack Bruell (Alley Cat Oyster Bar and eight other Cleveland restaurants), Mike Mariola (The Rail, City Square Steakhouse in Wooster); Shawn Monday (FlipSide and One Red Door in Hudson) and Eric Williams (Momocho, El Carnicero).

Proceeds will benefit Downtown

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Bibibop will join Piada Italian Street Food, Choolaah Indian BBQ and, of course, Chipotle’s increasingly ubiquitous Mexican-style chain.

Bibibop won’t be the first Asian chain expanding in Northeast Ohio.

Panda Express, known to shopping

mall food court visitors nationwide, recently created free-standing locations in Parma and South Euclid, with one under construction in Cuyahoga Falls. Before that, Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken opened on Broadview Road in Seven Hills.

Nominations Open!

40 CRAIN’S

Michael Symon’s Lola Bistro will turn 20 this year. (Craig Mackey)

NOMINATION DEADLINE:

Sunday, July 30, 2017

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Now in its 26th year, Crain’s Forty Under 40 program has honored 1,000 individuals for their professional successes and civic contributions.

Do you know a mover and shaker who is younger than 40 and has made a mark on Northeast Ohio?

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PA G E 10

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Opinion From the Editor

Take a stand for kids who can’t speak up

Editorial

Cities sicker It’s too soon to fully assess the legacy of John Kasich as Ohio’s governor, since he’ll still occupy the office until the end of next year, but this much is clear: His two terms have been particularly rough on cities.

The new, $133 billion state biennial budget reinforces this point.

As Crain's government reporter Jay Miller points out in a Page One story this week, the governor and state lawmakers once again dipped into the Local Government Fund to support other priorities. Specifically, the budget pulls $35 million from the Local Government Fund and applies it to the state’s efforts to fight opioid abuse, and it shifts $24 million from cities to support villages and townships. While the addiction battle and smaller communities are worthy of more funding, their gains shouldn’t have to come at the expense of the state’s big cities.

As we pointed out in an editorial in February, the Local Government Fund already has lost “hundreds of millions of dollars since 2010, due largely to changes in revenue-sharing and tax priorities, including the cutting of state income taxes and the elimination of the estate tax.”

We’re not surprised, then, that the state broke into the fund’s piggy bank. But we’re frustrated by, as Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish puts it, “the rural-urban policy divide” that somehow always manages to shortchange cities.

That’s not the only problematic area of the budget, which includes a plan to allow (though not require) businesses to file local income tax returns through a centralized state collection process — another blow for municipal autonomy. Put that on top of the Legislature’s continued efforts to weaken local home rule, a battle seen in the fight over Cleveland’s Fannie Lewis Law requiring city construction contracts to include some local workers, and you have an environment that makes it even tougher for cities to provide services while maintaining a healthy tax base.

About 30 mayors of the state’s largest cities have come together to form the Ohio Mayor’s Alliance. The group aims to make urban centers more prominent players in policy discus-

sions through “collaboration, communication, improved advocacy and stronger partnerships” with lawmakers. This is a nowhere-to-go-but-up situation, to be sure, but it’s well-timed as the race for Ohio’s next governor kicks off ahead of the election in November 2018.

Ohio needs a fresh start in cities’ relationships with the governor. An active effort by mayors with experience in contending with state neglect is a good start.

Speak up

It was encouraging to see U.S. Sen. Rob Portman of Cincinnati oppose the Senate leadership’s health care proposal to replace Barack Obama’s defining legislative achievement, though the Ohio Republican’s timing left plenty to be desired.

Publicly, Portman had described himself as undecided on the bill until it was declared temporarily dead after a group of other senators vowed to vote no on the legislation. While we appreciate Portman’s hesitance to support such a deeply flawed piece of legislation, we would have preferred to see a little more backbone from the senator USA Today recently described as “Mr. Maybe.”

In the wake of Portman’s big re-election victory in November, we wrote that we hoped he would be able to find his voice to make the case for Donald Trump’s policies he supports and to speak out against those he opposes. His approach to the recent health care proposal fails on both counts.

As Ohio’s junior senator, he should be well aware of what worked with Obamacare — notably, the Medicaid expansion — and what didn’t. As the heads of the state’s hospitals — some of the best in the nation, we might add — would tell you, Obama’s health care law did little to curb the rising cost of care.

In the coming weeks, we urge Portman to make a very public case for what he believes can improve our nation’s health care system while protecting Ohio’s most vulnerable.

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

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Managing Editor:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

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Timothy Magaw (tmagaw@crain.com)

Contact Crain’s:

216-522-1383

As one of the longest-tenured hospital CEOs in the country, Bill Considine has been keeping a close eye on Congressional efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. What he has found alarming in the ongoing debate is what’s missing — and it’s what he’s been passionate about for most of his professional life — health care access for children.

Considine has served as president and CEO of Akron Children’s Hospital since 1979, so he has seen firsthand the evolution of the Medicaid program, which started in 1965 primarily for low-income children. Over time, Medicaid has grown to cover nursing homes and adults who are not yet eligible for Medicare — primarily those who are disabled or low-income.

“Medicaid is no longer about kids,” he told a Elizabeth recent gathering of Crain’s Cleveland Business McIntyre reporters and editors. “Forty to 45% of everyone on Medicaid is a child, but they get less than 20% of the spend.”

That seems disproportionate to Considine, as conversations about Republican efforts to replace the ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare, have centered around the impact of Medicaid cuts on adults, not children.

A recent Los Angeles Times article bears that out: Since Medicaid’s founding in the mid-1960s, the federal government has paid a share of all medical expenses incurred by patients in the program, nearly half of whom are poor children.

But the Republican legislation in the House and Senate would end that open-ended flow of money, replacing it with fixed payments to states, no matter how much patient care costs.

The funding cap in the Senate bill would increase only at the rate of inflation, leaving states with an increasingly larger share of medical costs, which have typically increased faster than inflation.

And because the same flow of federal Medicaid money covers care for children as well as for poor seniors and the disabled, deep cuts would probably force states to decide who is more deserving of medical care.

Considine rightfully worries about that projected impact on children. He’s at the helm of the one of the largest independent pediatric hospitals in the U.S., serving 27 counties. Akron Children’s saw more than 1 million patient visits last year, a record for the system. A portion of that growth, Considine explained, comes from partnerships and collaborations with health systems that primarily treat adult patients.

For Considine, access to health care for children isn’t a partisan issue. It’s strictly humanitarian.

“We don’t register kids as Republican or Democrat when they come to our hospitals,” he said.

They just treat them.

It would be wise for Washington to listen to what Considine is saying.

Compromise appears to be a lost art in the nation’s capital, where bombast turns policy makers into swamp creatures and maneuvering takes precedence over negotiating.

For a reminder of the meaning of public service, Washington, look at the kids struggling to survive at Akron Children’s. The kids who will conquer cancer, defeat diabetes, control their asthma. If repeal or replace fails to help them, then the process has failed.

And if they suffer for the sake of tax cuts, we should be ashamed.

Considine fears that reform may mean rationing care for children. We are better than that. Children don’t vote, but we, their parents and grandparents, do. It’s our job to protect our kids from that which threatens them. National health care policy can’t be one of those threats. Legislators need to hear that. Now.

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 letters@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.

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PA G E 11

Personal View

Playhouse Square proposal is another disappointment from out-of-town architect

By WILLIAM T. EBERHARD

the same time, Northeast Ohio architects, who account for only 28% of the state’s architects, have garThe damaging trend of awarding important com- nered 54% of the annual design awards from the Ohio missions to out-of-town architects has left Northeast Chapter of the American Institute of Architects over Ohio with a mixed landscape of mediocre buildings the past 25 years. So despite a lack of appropriate supand drained billions of dollars from our local econo- port, Northeast Ohio somehow has a disproportionate my. The Playhouse Square Foundation’s announce- supply of talented architects, hiding in plain sight.

What is Playhouse Square CEO and president Art ment of a proposed apartment tower and garage is yet another such project with a design that completely Falco’s justification for hiring an average out-of-town firm for this $135 million tower? An apartment buildfails to relate to its context.

The proposed design is a tall glass box with no scale ing and parking garage is not a complex design chalor genuine articulation designed by the Chicago firm of lenge that is beyond the ability of dozens of capable SCB. Chicago Tribune critic Blair Kamin characterizes local architects. Who did PSF consider for this assignSCB as a “workhorse” firm, which Plain Dealer art/ ar- ment? What was the criteria for selection? Was a forchitecture critic Steven Litt observes is “a less than ring- mal evaluation of firms done? How many were intering endorsement.” The project’s design defects include: viewed? Why did PSF seek out a mediocre out-of-town firm for such a large and important project?

In 1996, Litt wrote that Cleveland has a weak design Scale: The proposed 34-story building towers over the distinguished 20-story Keith Building at East 17th culture. In the years since, while there have been some and Euclid Avenue. The new building could achieve its notable exceptions — Case Western Reserve University’s Student Center by Ralph density with a more complimentary, Johnson of Perkins + Will, lower mass that stretches farther What is Playhouse Cleveland State University’s west, which would, in fact, deliver Square CEO and College of Education by NBBJ more units with lake views — a from Columbus, Ralph Perk benchmark of apartment value and president Art Falco’s at Chester Commons by desirability. justification for hiring Plaza Balsley Associates from New York, and Uptown by Stanley Materiality: Playhouse Square’s an average out-ofSaitowitz and Natoma Archibuildings are all stone and terra cotta masses — sturdy, timeless materials town firm for this tects of San Francisco — our — with punched glazed openings. $135 million tower? community has continued to The only exception is the universally be victimized by significant disrespected U.S. Bank building at East 14th — the failures from out-of-town architects.

“Darth Vader building” — which delivers a heavy and The decades-old Peter Lewis letter to Cleveland Magarbitrary form with its brown glass façade. The pro- azine regarding a lack of leadership in Cleveland’s instiposed SCB glass tower is scaleless, cheap and inappro- tutions still rings true. The boards and leaders of our institutions, public and private, have too many people priate for its context. who lack an education or understanding of design exForm/shape: The small planar shifts in the tower’s cellence. Because of this, during the development and plan do nothing to break up its sizable bulk or give it architect selection process, such clients too often resort real character — or acknowledge the visual rhythm to an axiom that plagues Cleveland more than Pittsand proportions of its neighbors. This is a gimmick of burgh, Cincinnati or Columbus: “Just hire an out-oftown firm. Then it will look like we looked at local firms architects who are not skilled in composition. (when they did not) and were not satisfied, so we are off Streetscape experience: The parking garage the hook.” Even the city of Cleveland’s Downtown Destretching along Euclid is another serious blow to the sign Review Committee lacks an adequate supply of goal of redeveloping a vibrant streetscape for Euclid Av- talented architects to render effective judgment on proenue. If built, it will create a dead zone from the new posed projects to protect us from dismal results.

The Playhouse Square tower is another important tower to the Hanna building for the next 100 years. The proposed window boxes are, literally, a shallow re- project entrusted to a C-tier out-of-town firm that prominder of Cleveland’s failure to maintain its urban form ceeded to slap something together without adequate — thanks to PSF — with office and retail occupancies care, passion or skill. And unlike other cities where along Euclid and parking behind which are serviced off there is genuine debate and accountability about maof Prospect and Chester. The Playhouse Square Foun- jor projects that are presented in half-baked form, dation could relocate its own offices to the ground floor here in Cleveland, we build them — half-baked.

These results dilute the architectural integrity of our there and at least create a presence and add some life to community and shoot our economy with our own gun Euclid Avenue. by displacing hundreds of millions of our dollars in fee Details: Unlike the existing Playhouse Square build- income to communities far from Northeast Ohio. You ings, the proposed tower is essentially void of detail. cannot become or remain a great community with The architects propose colored light on the underside third-rate architecture. You cannot become or remain a of the 4’ projections on floors 8 and 20. Glowing 4’ fa- vibrant community and pretend you care about your cade projections? That’s it? Another gimmick mas- arts community when you do not support their workers who live here, work here, shop here, worship here and querading as “design.” care deeply about the integrity of our communities.

Playhouse Square has an exceptional architectural PSF fails at stewardship: PSF is proposing another mediocre major project for downtown from an out-of- heritage and vernacular. As a district, it is too small to town firm. When will it end? A study undertaken by tolerate this proposed tower, which fails to even acthe nonprofit Design Forum of Cleveland, with data knowledge its context, let alone respect it or attempt to purchased from authenticated construction reports, fit in. identified that Northeast Ohio conservatively has spent $100 million a year for the past 20 years on fees Eberhard is managing partner of Eberhard Architects paid to out-of-town architects doing projects here. At in Cleveland.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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J U LY 10 - 16 , 2 017

Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

E

ach year, Crain’s Cleveland Business honors a group of women who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to Northeast Ohio. In many cases, these individuals have risen above adversity and, most importantly, the so-called “glass ceiling.”

This year’s class, which was selected by a panel of Crain’s edi-

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PA G E 13

tors, was culled from a pool of several hundred nominations. In addition, our partner, The Cleveland Foundation, selected KeyCorp CEO Beth E. Mooney as the recipient of this year’s Women of Note Legacy Award. For more coverage and to see a roster of previous winners, visit CrainsCleveland.com.

LEGACY AWARD WINNER

PRESENTED BY THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION

Beth E. Mooney

Michelle Tomallo

Anne P. Noonan

Doreen Cannon

Patricia Shlonsky

Jodi L. Berg

Lauren Rich Fine

Colleen Cotter

Erica Calderas

Kirsten M. Ellenbogen

Elizabeth Newman

Constance Hill-Johnson

Kelly Falcone-Hall

Gina Cronin

Halle Jones Capers

Sharlene Ramos-Chesnes

Chairman and CEO, KeyCorp, Page 14

Cleveland partner-in-charge, Ulmer & Berne, Page 18

Partner, Hahn Loeser & Parks, Page 22

President and CEO, Western Reserve Historical Society, Page 26

CRAIN’S

President and co-founder, Fit Technologies, Page 15

President and CEO, Vitamix, Page 19

President and CEO, Great Lakes Science Center, Page 23

Executive director, Global Leadership and Learning Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Page 27

WOMEN OF NOTE AWARDS PRESENTING SPONSOR:

President and CEO, Omnova Solutions, Page 16

Managing director, Gries Financial LLC, Page 20

President and CEO, Centers for Families and Children, Page 24

SVP, operations; manager, transportation, G. Stephens Inc., Page 28

President, Plumbers Local 55, Page 17

Executive director, Legal Aid Society, Page 20

Owner and CEO, Visiting Angels, Cleveland, Page 24

President and CEO, InterChez, Page29

Tuesday, July 18, 2017 Luncheon and program: 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

FirstEnergy Stadium - City Club Level 100 Alfred Lerner Way, Cleveland For event & registration questions, contact Megan Lemke at 216-771-5182 or mlemke@crain.com

PA G E 14

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Crain’s 2017 Women of Note LEGACY AWARD WINNER | PRESENTED BY THE CLEVELAND FOUNDATION

Beth E. Mooney Five things Last book she read: “A Gentleman in Moscow” by Amor Towles Currently watching: “House of Cards” season five In her fridge: She doesn’t cook.

Besides a meal-delivery service and eating out, it’s bottled water, G2 (Gatorade) and yogurt.

Favorite food: Chinese food

Contributed photo

People would be surprised to know: “When there’s music playing somewhere, I will break out in dance. I can’t help myself.”

Chairman and CEO, KeyCorp

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

Beth Mooney, who is known for opening metaphorical doors for her own employees at KeyCorp, once had countless very real doors shut in her face.

It was conservative Texas in the mid-1970s. A young Mooney, a history major at the top of her class, rejected the typical career paths laid

out for women. Being a teacher or nurse, as society often funneled women into, didn’t inspire her. She sought out the business world, applying at a bank where she landed a job as a secretary.

Her collegiate success was underwhelming to interviewers. They only cared about how fast she could type.

She aspired to much more.

So she went knocking on doors at nearly every bank in Dallas seeking an inroad to a management training program. Besides being female, she had no business degree. Those things made it easy for the men with whom she interviewed to turn her down.

Undeterred, a bank eventually lined her up with its head of human resources. That man, Mooney recalled, was more interested in lunch with friends than the meeting.

“But I was focused on this notion that it was almost like this window was closing on me and if I didn’t pull this off, I wasn’t going to see a path forward,” Mooney said.

Going in, Mooney said she was insistent on being hired then and there.

Where prior meetings were cut short with closed doors, this one took three hours.

“I think I just got even more insistent and willing to talk my way through any door or obstacle he could put up,” she said.

At the end of the meeting, “he looked at me and said, ‘I’ve never seen someone who wants something so badly. I don’t think you’re going to succeed. I don’t think you have the skills for the job. But if I tell you no, I’m not going to sleep tonight,’” Mooney recalled. She was in.

Mooney would go to night school to earn her master’s, take a pay cut next to others in the program (because she was deemed an underqualified woman) and was flat out told if she flubbed anything, “you’re out of here.”

Needless to say, the rest is history.

Today, Mooney — who, when asked, jokes about the bits of glass still stuck in her hair from the ceiling she helped shatter — is now the top executive at one of the country’s largest banks. She’s routinely honored as one of the most powerful women in banking and lauded for her company’s advancement of women and minorities under her direction. The company is bigger and stronger than ever, having navigated through the wake of the economic downturn with Mooney as its captain.

Known as the epitome of tough but fair, the tenacity she displayed at that interview would set the tone for her illustrious career in the finance world. But behind this powerful banking executive is a woman who loves to break out into dance, charm meetings with humor and wit and binge on Netflix and works of fiction.

It’s that balance that her friends and colleagues say have made her such a capable, respected and successful leader running a $135 billion-asset bank in a way others should aspire to.

“Beth is the epitome of a strong, compassionate leader — two qualities that don’t always have a harmonious relationship,” said KeyBank CIO Amy Brady.

SEE MOONEY, PAGE 23

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Michelle Tomallo President and co-founder, Fit Technologies

By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps

A video on Fit Technologies’ website shows employees taking turns standing up between their cubicles, with such amusing captions as “spends his weekend binge-watching network traffic” and “designs better coverage than the Seahawks’ secondary.”

The video concludes by showing co-founders and partners Micki Tubbs and Michelle Tomallo — with the respective captions of “brings donuts” and “exceeds 99.9% uptime.”

“I think it’s very much part of the culture of who we are as business owners,” Tomallo said. “People that we bring here really like the work that they do, so I think it’s easy for them to feel that way. And then I think the other thing that is unique to here is how much people generally care about each other.”

The Cleveland IT services firm has 63 employees, which Tomallo said marks an increase of almost 30% in the last couple years.

Just as important to the company co-founder is the aforementioned culture.

As an LGBT, women-owned tech company, Fit Technologies takes an extra sense of pride in its successes.

And the Northeast Ohio LGBT community is beyond appreciative of the work of the 50-year-old Tomallo, who is the board president of Plexus, the LGBT’s local chamber of commerce, and assists such organizations as Engage! Cleveland.

“She’s definitely one of the leading voices for championing business equality in this space,” Alana Jochum, Equality Ohio’s executive director, said of Tomallo.

Mary Zaller — the director of business development for Imagine Exhibitions and a former Equality Ohio development officer — worked extensively with Tomallo in the run-up to Cleveland’s stint as the host of the

Five things Script fit for a movie: The story behind Tomallo and her partner, Micki Tubbs, starting Fit Technologies “should be a Lifetime movie," Tomallo said.

“Her enthusiasm, her contagious energy — that fills a room and inspires. It doesn’t matter which room she’s entering.

You know she’s there in a loving and energetic way.”

Ideas abound: Fit Technologies moved in 2007 into its third-floor space in the Idea Center building at Playhouse Square.

Green thumb: Tomallo is one of Cleveland’s community garden leaders.

Always on the move: She runs a couple times per week, plus rides a bike and spins. She’s gearing up for the VeloSano race later this month.

Favorite Cleveland spots: The Tremont Tap House, XYZ the Tavern and L’Albatros

— Alana Jochum, Equality Ohio’s executive director.

2014 Gay Games. Zaller, the Games’ development director, said Tomallo transitioned from being a board member of the event to an advisory capacity, because it was a role in which she felt she could be the most helpful.

“She went on to be hugely influential in the organization,” Zaller said.

“She helped us make connections with a lot of the neighborhood groups — Tremont West, Ohio City Inc.” The Games were the most successful in the event’s history, and the region was lauded for being an embracing host.

“I feel like Michelle takes the message and delivers it in such a way that the business case is made and people get it,” Zaller said.

Tomallo believes Northeast Ohio “made amazing strides” in being an inclusive community leading up to the Gay Games. But she said there’s still “significant work to do,” pointing out that Ohio is one of the states with no protections for LGBT individuals in employment and housing.

“It’s still legal to fire somebody because they’re gay,” Tomallo said.

Still, the Dayton native calls herself a “part-time cheerleader” for Cleveland.

“I think the city has so much heart,” she said. “I mean that from a philanthropic standpoint. What has been done in Cleveland, especially when we think about this milestone of 100year organizations — whether it’s the

Jason Miller for Crain’s

United Way or the Cleveland Foundation or the Metroparks — this heart that we have to support the greater good ... I think we’re seeing that play out in some ways with the renaissance that’s happening here.”

The business she founded with Tubbs has survived the burst of the dotcom bubble and the economic downturn, and has transitioned from strictly servicing schools to a portfolio that Tomallo said is about 52% schools, with businesses, nonprofits and health care institutions, among others, mixed in.

And while Tomallo is often referred to as a city cheerleader, she has plenty of peers celebrating her accomplishments.

“Her enthusiasm, her contagious energy — that fills a room and inspires,” said Jochum, Equality Ohio’s executive director. “It doesn’t matter which room she’s entering. You know she’s there in a loving and energetic way.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Anne P. Noonan President and CEO, Omnova Solutions

Five things Favorite films: “This is going to sound bad, but I like Mafia movies. I love ‘The Godfather.’”

Favorite place to visit: Tokyo

By DAN SHINGLER

Favorite U.S. city: She loves the hustle and bustle of New York City.

dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

Favorite Irish meal: A leg of lamb

If it weren’t for a stern and cautious father, Northeast Ohio might not have one of its most prominent female executives — Omnova president and CEO Anne P. Noonan.

Born in the United States to Irish immigrants, Noonan’s family moved to Dublin when she was 7. When she was 16, Noonan graduated from high school and was prepared to head off to college.

“I had full intention of going to Dublin City (University). Luckily I had a wise father who refused to allow his 16-year-old daughter to go to Dublin City,” she said.

She added, “I was not very happy with my father. He drove me to the community college and said pick something, and my finger landed on chemistry.”

The teenager’s slightly rebellious nonchalance was fortuitous, though.

Noonan not only spent more than 25 years as a chemist — during which time she helped develop the artificial sweetener, Splenda — she acquired a love for not only her field but for business generally.

Noonan joined Omnova as president of its performance chemicals unit in 2014, impressed her CEO and board, and was named CEO herself at the end of 2016.

Bill Seelbach, who was one of the people instrumental in bringing Noonan to Omnova, said

Favorite Cleveland restaurant: She lives downtown, so Osteria for Italian. For steak, it’d be Red.

Jason Miller for Crain’s

she was hired with an eye toward her becoming the company’s next CEO. "We hired Anne to come in and run our largest set of businesses. She was running all of the chemical businesses, which are about 75% of our revenues and the same amount of earnings ... It was a grooming position,” Seelbach said.

He said he sees three key characteristics of Noonan that helps her succeed: She has a strong “action orientation,” she is a big believer in personal accountability and she is open to input from both her board and her subordinates.

To get to where she is today, Noonan had to chart new territory. No one in her family was a

chemist or even an engineer. Her parents ran a corner store and deli in Dublin.

What’s more, she made it in an industry still dominated by men, let alone when she began her career.

“I was just at the American Chemistry Council meeting with my CFO and he was laughing saying, ‘It’s getting better but there are hardly any women here.’ I said, ‘You should have seen it 10 years ago,’” she said with a laugh.

But, she added, she’s never felt like being a woman made her career more difficult. Results have always trumped anything else, she said.

For about the last 20 years, though, Noonan

has worked more on the business side. She loves working on things like acquisitions, but most of all loves being able to guide an entire organization.

“I really enjoyed M&A work, because it was the art of the deal and the adrenalin of doing deals,” she said.

Today, she said chemical and engineering fields can still be viable avenues to success, not just for women but for everyone if they have an aptitude and love for it. But, she added, it’s not for everyone. She advised her two sons not to go into engineering, simply because she did not think it was a good fit for their personalities.

Her own parents guided her career thinking as well. While it may have been her father who drove her to a career in chemistry, her mother shaped her thinking as well.

Noonan often recalls the story of asking her mother why she didn’t use leftovers in the salads her mother served every day at the family deli.

Her mother pointed to the line of people waiting for salads and explained they would not be there if the salads weren’t as fresh as possible.

That, Noonan said, gave her an understanding of the concept of a “value proposition” that still guides her today.

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PA G E 17

Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2017 Women of Note

Doreen Cannon President , Plumbers Local 55

Five things Favorite movie: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Shawshank Redemptionâ&#x20AC;?

What she wanted to be when she grew up: Probably a teacher. She said she played school a lot and â&#x20AC;&#x153;liked to be bossy,â&#x20AC;? a characteristic that hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t changed, she said with a laugh.

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

How she fills her spare time: She enjoys line dancing and going for walks.

Starting a career in plumbing was a â&#x20AC;&#x153;big turnaroundâ&#x20AC;? for Doreen Cannon. She had worked long hours in retail for years, where, as a woman, it wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t guaranteed that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d receive the same pay as men. As a plumber, she had a set, equal pay. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can prepare,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can plan for your future.â&#x20AC;?

Today, Cannon is president of Plumbers Local 55, and an instructor at the training center.

And educating other women about the opportunities the trades offer is one of Cannonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passions. As president, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been able to attend and speak at conferences for tradeswomen. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Holding an office in the union has really opened up other doors for me to get involved with tradeswomen across the country,â&#x20AC;? Cannon said.

Cannon started the five-year plumbing apprenticeship program in 1998, when her son, Tommy, was starting all-day kindergarten. Her first career had been in retail management. But after staying home for five years to raise her son, she decided it was time to follow her passion. Cannon had always liked working with her hands and wanted to learn a trade. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no better personal satisfaction than being able to stand back and look at something and say that you did that,â&#x20AC;? Cannon said.

As a journey-level plumber, Cannon worked

Role model: Rocky Hwasta, a carpenter who helped Cannon start the Tradeswomen Committee Secret talent: She can play the piano.

Jason Miller for Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

in the field at Northern Ohio Plumbing. Then, in 2012, Cannon became a full-time instructor at the training center.

And Cannon made sure to get involved with the union outside of her day job. When she was an apprentice, one of the journeymen mentored her and stressed the importance of being involved in the union. So she made sure to get involved with committees and eventually ran and got elected to the executive board. She believes she was the first woman to hold an elected office in the union. After that success, she ran for president in 2011 and is now in her third term, which is set to expire in June 2019.

Cannon goes above and beyond as president and as an instructor, said Jason Shank, training director for the union and a longtime colleague.

Shank is her supervisor in the apprenticeship program, and the two were apprentices together themselves. They also worked together at the same company in the field. Cannonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to work with, Shank said, and when given a project, she does it and does it well. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She just goes right in,â&#x20AC;? Shank said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nothing half about her.â&#x20AC;?

Cannon is also the chair of the Tradeswomen Committee, which she helped start at the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades

Council, a group of unions serving the construction industry in the region. The goal of the committee is to educate women about opportunities in the trades.

Though the equal pay is a big plus, tradeswomen still face challenges, Cannon said.

Some will argue that they get laid off before the men they work beside. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s often a sense of having to prove oneself. The sites can be cold and dirty. And it can be isolating. Cannon said she was often the only plumber who was a woman â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or even the only woman on a construction site, period. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The women who really make it in this career, and who have become very successful, are women who knew and understood what it was all about,â&#x20AC;? Cannon said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the main things we try to do when we do those outreach events is to let women know.â&#x20AC;?

She added, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The women are very blunt when they talk to the women and explain to them what itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like, what the atmosphere is like, because the women that succeed are the women that realized all that.â&#x20AC;?

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Patricia Shlonsky Cleveland partner-in-charge; chair, tax and employee benefits groups, Ulmer & Berne

By STAN BULLARD

Five things

sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltyWriter

Greatest living American novelist: Philip Roth

In Patricia Shlonsky’s seventh-grade yearbook, she said she wanted to be a lawyer. She has accomplished that and much more.

Before October 2016, Ulmer did not have a partner-in-charge for Cleveland because its former managing partner, Harold “Kip” Reader, for more than 20 years was based here. Reader’s successor as managing partner, Scott Kadish, is in the firm’s Cincinnati office and selected Shlonsky to be the partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office, the largest of the firm’s five offices.

Shlonsky jokes that Reader was so effective that it took two people to do his job.

When asked why he chose Shlonsky for such a key role, Kadish asked, “Who else would I pick? She’s served on the management committee for more than 10 years. She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met, and she has a good heart.”

Moreover, through the years, Kadish learned to respect her often differing opinion on issues as well as her ability to divine things about business situations valuable to the firm.

Shlonsky said she moved into management because she likes the firm — she has been there more than 30 years — and wants to ensure that other attorneys have the same positive experience there. Besides overseeing the operation and setting the vision for the office, she also handles recruiting laterals for the Cleveland office. It’s something she knows well, because she joined the firm’s employee benefits practice as an associate in 1986 after spending two years in the general tax area at what’s now the KPMG accounting firm.

As partner-in-charge, she serves as the firm’s representative in the community, which she prizes because she appreciates the opportunities the firm’s support for community engage-

Favorite vacation: Captiva Island, Fla. “It’s quiet, beautiful and the weather is always good. I can read there without interruption.”

What’s on the car radio: A CD of Bette Midler in “Hello Dolly” in preparation for seeing the show. “Otherwise, I listen to different kinds of music.”

Favorite movie: “The Graduate” If she were a superhero, she’d be: Wonder Woman

Jason Miller for Crain’s

ment has allowed her. She serves as vice chair of the Center for Community Solutions, which allows her to bring her employee benefits experience to matters that affect the public. She’s also on the board of BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence and is vice president of the Cuyahoga County Public Library’s board of trustees.

Shlonsky’s service on the library board is a tip-off to her being a self-described “crazy reader.” She joined the board in 2013 after serving on its foundation board, which she joined be-

cause she enjoyed its writer’s series, which brings authors to town.

“I thought, ‘This is great. I want to be a part of it,’” Shlonsky recalled. Friends and colleagues so often asked her for recommendations, she began blogging about books in a blog called From Briefs to Books. The blog features photos of Shlonsky in her other element besides the firm: standing between shelves of library books.

It’s fitting, for as a girl in Columbus she would go up and down library shelves looking for

things to read. She also recently went on the board of the City Club of Cleveland after helping it launch a book club.

Shlonsky enjoys literary fiction.

“I like to read books that are well written,” Shlonsky said. “If they’re not, I feel I’ve wasted my time.”

The blog reviews are incisive and pointed.

When moderating comments on the blog, she once observed that one book by novelist Joyce Carol Oates would have been better as a “short short story.”

That puts into context what attracted this voracious reader and smart-watch wearing partner-in-charge to the law.

“It’s disciplined. It’s very analytical. I actually feel I’m helping people,” Shlonsky said, and adds: “It’s a great way to use your mind.”

Shari Feldman, executive director of Cuyahoga County Library, appreciates the professional and economic perspective Shlonsky brings to the library board and prizes contributions of someone who loves reading.

“She is a woman of strong opinions,” Feldman said. “However, as a leader she listens to the opinions of others. She is known to many of our staff members as a regular visitor. We can hardly keep this woman in books.”

Gries Financial congratulates all of the inspiring Women of Note and our own Lauren Rich Fine on their well-deserved recognition. Lauren’s professional accomplishments, philanthropic commitments, and tireless dedication to her family and her clients keep us marveling at her energy and passion.

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Jodi L. Berg President and CEO, Vitamix

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY

Five things

rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

Favorite Vitamix recipe: What she calls “must-go soup and must-go smoothies” to use up leftovers

When Vitamix president and CEO Jodi L. Berg is given opportunities to speak publicly, she often chooses events that will allow her to directly address women. That’s because women tend to feel more restricted in terms of opportunities, she said, whether that’s due to outside pressures or limitations they put on themselves.

And despite parents she described as consistently supportive, Berg wasn’t immune to that feeling.

When her father told her he was getting ready to retire from Olmsted Township-based Vitamix and was looking for a successor, Berg immediately said she’d be happy to help. When her father clarified and said he thought she would be the one to take over, Berg laughed.

She didn’t know how to run a business and had never been a CEO. “And it was then that it struck me that that limitation was completely self-imposed,” Berg said. “Because nobody had ever told me that I couldn’t do anything that I set my mind out to.”

Eventually, she agreed to take on the challenge and became president of the popular blender maker in 2009, adding the title of CEO in 2011. But she keeps that lesson close to her heart and shares it with other women. And that message ties in closely to Berg’s larger passion.

“My personal purpose is to help people find their wings and give them an opportunity to fly,” Berg said.

When people are working toward something that matters to them, instead of toward something someone else thinks they should do, they’ll give it their all, she said. This is more than an inspirational idea to Berg, who wrote her Ph.D. thesis on personal and company purpose and how that interacts with engagement and work satisfaction.

1.50

Her hobbies: Hiking or walking Mottos she lives by: “Live with purpose” and “lose the guilt” World traveler: She’s been to 30 countries so far, but don’t ask her to pick a favorite. “I have fallen in love with something in every country I go to.”

Daily must-have: She wears something every day — usually a necklace — that reminds her of her family.

Jason Miller for Crain’s

Berg’s “energy and passion” make a strong first impression, said Richard Boyatzis, distinguished university professor at Case Western Reserve University and Berg’s thesis adviser.

People leave conversations with her excited about life, he added.

“She’s the real thing,” Boyatzis said.

Berg had sworn she would never be in the family business. She wanted to be in the hospitality

industry, work in the quality field and do business internationally. In her eyes, that wasn’t Vitamix — at first. For instance, she had the chance to work in the company’s quality division as it was just getting started and to lead its international division at the very beginning of its growth.

In 2004, shortly after Berg became the head of Vitamix’s then-struggling household division, the company began to change. That was when Berg

said she realized how “transformative” having the right tools can be when it comes to eating healthy and when the U.S. conversation around food started to shit toward more healthy options. A Vitamix blender is one of the tools people can use to make healthy eating easy, she said. The company wasn’t going to have to educate consumers as much about the merits of its products.

An extra incentive to join the family business and stay in the area was the man who is now her husband of 20 years, Frank. The couple has two teenage daughters, Emily and Sydney.

And while Vitamix may not be directly involved in hospitality, like the hotel companies where she had worked at different points in her career, Berg was able to shape how the company thinks about its customers, applying those principles. She encouraged the company to think of customers as guests. Part of Vitamix’s mission is to forge “relationships for life,” and its values — created with employee input — place customers and quality at its heart.

And Berg never wants the company to lose that personal touch.

“It’s one big community of people that are trying to change the way the world thinks about food,” she said.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

We Congratulate the

2017 Crain’s Cleveland Business “Women of Note” Honorees

Lauren Rich Fine Managing director, Gries Financial LLC

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

We join with the community in applauding your achievements. myNYCB.com • (877) 786-6560

LEARN ARN MORE TODAY ABOUT HOW CRAIN’S CAN HELP YOU AND YOUR CONTENT MARKETING PROGRAM. Contact Amy Stoessel at 216.771.5155 or astoessel@crain.com.

When Lauren Rich Fine was growing up in Shaker Heights she was publishing a newspaper on a small printing press at home.

A few decades later, she was on Wall Street, the topped ranked securities analyst covering newspapers and other media and the advertising and marketing industry for Merrill Lynch.

In 2000, in the midst of her nearly decade-long run as the leading media analyst on Institutional Investor magazine’s All-America Research Team, a Wall Street source said of her, “When she speaks, she has something important to say, and you can usually take action on it.”

That’s still the case now that she’s a partner in Gries Financial LLC — a Cleveland investment management firm providing wealth management services to individuals and small institutions and family office services — and a sought-after nonprofit and startup board member.

In addition to her work at Gries, Fine serves on the board of the Chautauqua Foundation, the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Cleveland Museum of Art, College Now Greater Cleveland, ideastream, and MOCA Cleveland.

She also finds herself advising young

women starting new businesses.

“I think she’s one of the most interesting women I’ve met,” said Kate Volzer, CEO and co-founder of Wisr, a software platform that connects college students with career counseling staff and alumni to boost student retention, graduation rates and post-graduate success.

Fine is on Wisr’s board of directors.

“As a startup you get a lot of advice, but not many are proactive about their help, but Lauren is one of those,” she said. “One of the challenges of moving back (to Cleveland from Chicago) for a younger female leader like me is getting connected to the community, and she’s been a positive connector for me and I think she’s done that for a lot of people, giving good advice along the way.”

She left Merrill Lynch in 2007 but she had decamped from Wall Street 11 years before, working instead from a third-floor office in her home in Shaker Heights.

“In 1996 I asked Merrill Lynch if I could move to Cleveland,” she said. “I did that because we wanted to raise our children here; my first husband was also from Cleveland.”

Returning home, not only has she immersed herself into family life, now with second husband Gary Giller and their blended family of five children, she has spread her wings into Northeast Ohio’s civic life.

After leaving Merrill Lynch, Fine was

Colleen Cotter Executive director, Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

INSPIRATION. LEADERSHIP. ACHIEVEMENT. Hylant proudly salutes all Women of Note who make Northeast Ohio a great place to work and live.

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On a corner of Colleen Cotter’s work desk sits a tiny, stuffed, white bunny. Its ears are as long as it is tall.

Pink and white ribbons form a bow around its neck. The stuffed toy has had a home in whatever office she’s occupied for the past 20 years.

But the bunny is much more than a charming desk accoutrement.

It’s a gift from a client she represented decades ago: a woman with chronic health issues at high risk of heart attack. She needed access to Medicaid. And while it wasn’t an overly complicated case, because of Cotter, she received it.

Cotter received the toy along with a note that reads, “Thank you. You saved my life.”

Today, it’s one of a series of daily reminders of why Cotter gives her life to the nonprofit world of legal aid, one where attorneys devote their careers to the marginalized and downtrodden over the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

“What really, every day, inspires all of us are the clients,” Cotter said. “The clients we serve, the differences we make in their lives, the differences they make in our lives as a group and as individuals — these are inspiring people who, in spite of great obstacles, continue to move forward.”

Cotter has been executive director of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland for the past 12 years. She doesn’t work with individual clients like she used to. Her job today focuses more on overseeing the Cleveland legal aid chapter, which amounts to its own midsize law firm with its team of 40 attorneys serving low-income people in five Northeast Ohio counties.

But it’s the individual cases her organization works on, she said, that make the job so rewarding.

A native of Indiana, Cotter sought out law school with the sole intent of getting involved in legal aid. The youngest of six kids, she grew up in a family where social justice was instilled in them. Her father was a reporter with the South Bend Tribune.

Her mother stayed at home with the kids, eventually working at the library at Indiana University South Bend (her mom went to school there when Cotter went to college herself ).

“I tried to formulate what role I could have in the world to make it a better place. I saw people who were pushed aside, who didn’t have access to opportunities because they didn’t have money,” she said. “I thought becoming a lawyer would help give people a voice.”

Cotter clerked on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals out of college, worked in legal service in rural Maine for a couple years and spent 10 years at Indiana Legal Services Inc. prior to

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Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2017 Women of Note

Five things Hobby sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most passionate about: Seeing movies, in particular at the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Cedar Lee Theatre Role model: Her mother. She went back to school when Fine was in elementary school and got her Ph.D. in psychology. She had a full-time private practice, was involved in the community and was a great mom.

Book sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reading: â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Fortunesâ&#x20AC;?

by Peter Ho Davies. She reads an average of two books a week.

Favorite local restaurant: Sweet Melissaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

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Best advice sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s received: Be your own advocate.

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practioner-in-residence at Kent State Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College of Communication and Information, teaching a class and helping the school shape its curriculum as the media world was changing.

From there, beginning in 2010 she spent five years as an executive search consultant at Howard &

Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Brien, focusing on C-suite and board searches. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I love people, and so to be paid to go out and find searches and (talk to) candidates, I really enjoyed it,â&#x20AC;? she said.

After four years there, she was ready for something new. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exhaust my brain

enough,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What I really wanted was to be a part of a company, on the leadership team and do something challenging.â&#x20AC;?

That led her to Sally Gries, the founder of Gries Financial, who was ready to retire and in the midst of executing a succession plan. Fine joined the firm earlier this year as one of five partners in the firm, focusing on business development.

Jeffrey Palmer, the firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s senior managing director, describes Fine as someone who has broken both gender stereotypes and glass ceilings. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Professionally and philanthropically, Lauren has made a meaningful positive impact on the community around her,â&#x20AC;? he wrote in nominating Fine. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She is a trusted adviser to our individual and institutional clients as she plays an integral role in moving the firm forward.â&#x20AC;?

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Favorite actor: Katharine Hepburn Weekly routine: Going for a long walk with her dog Strummer (named after Joe Strummer of The Clash).

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Favorite walking places: Lake View Cemetery and Rocky River Reservation If she werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t in law, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Probably working with plants, something in gardening or horticulture. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always found it fascinating.

And my grandparents were farmers.â&#x20AC;?

Jason Miller for Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

doing some consulting work and eventually landing the job that brought her to Cleveland.

The legal aid network is a generally interconnected group. Her reputation and devotion for nonprofit legal service preceded her and quickly garnered her lasting respect in Northeast Ohio. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It would be easy to get burned out

knowing day after day, year after year youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re facing huge demand for service, which seems to grow, not diminish, while financial resources are always stressed to the max,â&#x20AC;? said Rebecca Rupert McMahon, executive director of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, which works closely with legal aid. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Notwithstanding those pressures, she walks in as

excited today as she was 11 years ago.â&#x20AC;?

Working with clients is so important to Cotter that she hesitated taking her more administrative role in Cleveland. But she found she had a personal skill in mentoring others and guiding them in helping those in search of legal help. â&#x20AC;&#x153;To me, it all has to be about the end result of having better lives, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still totally grounded in that,â&#x20AC;?

Cotter said.

That kind of enthusiasm and dedication is infinitely inspiring to others, McMahon said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;She feels so passionately about the work her team does and the good they are doing and changing peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives that it literally brings her to tears,â&#x20AC;? McMahon said.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no surprise that little bunny on her desk holds so much meaning.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Erica Calderas Partner, Hahn Loeser & Parks

By JUDY STRINGER clbfreelancer@crain.com

Erica Calderas has never been afraid to forge her own path.

When Calderas suspected a career aptitude assessment in middle school would suggest she pursue teaching or business, she said she skewed her answers to assure it would “spit out lawyer.” While most of her college-bound Warren G. Harding High School peers applied to Kent State, Youngstown State or the University of Akron, Calderas set her sights on — and was admitted to — Cornell University.

And, upon completing law school at Northwestern University, Calderas said she didn’t follow fellow grads into one of Chicago’s big-name law firms “just to get the name” on her resume. She returned to Northeast Ohio to work for Hahn Loeser & Parks, a Cleveland firm most of her law school friends had never heard of.

“I was a summer associate at Hahn Loeser before my third year of law school, so I already knew it is a fantastic place,” Calderas said.

“The fit felt right. This is a place where people care about you as a person.’”

As a 23-year commercial litigator at Hahn Loeser, Calderas harnesses that tenacity today to fight for her clients in contract cases, business torts and complicated class action law suits. In recent years, the later has become an area of specialty.

Because class action lawsuits have the power to invoke huge

Jason Miller for Crain’s

Five things Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela Eggnog, anyone?: Her favorite holiday is Christmas.

Go-to dish: Carne mechada Last movie watched: “Wonder Women” Secret superpower: Outthinking and outmaneuvering the other side

Proud to recognize 2017 Women of Note Honorees

judgments, companies who find themselves in the cross hairs of a class action typically try to resolve it before trial. Thus, few attorneys have experience actually trying these cases before a judge or jury.

Calderas, however, has been involved in two class-action trials, including a Chicago case in which the judgment in favor of her clients was affirmed by the Illinois Supreme Court.

“The fact that Erica has had the experience of two (class-action) trials at this stage in her career, in addition to another 100 class action cases that she has worked on, is a tremendous asset to our team,” said Steven Goldfarb, co-chair of Hahn Loeser’s litigation practice and a member of the firm’s board of di-

rectors. “There are not many people around that have that kind of experience and or those kinds of skills.”

Calderas said working on class-action cases gives her the opportunity to do what she loves most — problem solving.

“People can come to you with what is the biggest problem in their lives at the moment and no clear path to solve it,” she said. “On our end, it is something that I deal with it on a daily basis. I’ve seen that before, I’ve experienced that before. I already have ideas on how to solve it.”

In addition to her class action expertise, Calderas is an excellent legal writer, Goldfarb said, and “an important role model to young female associates” as a member of firm’s management and board of directors. Seeing women like Calderas stand not only in front of courtrooms but also boardrooms is “critical to increasing the diversity in our field,” he said.

Outside of the courtroom and the boardroom, Calderas has participated in the leadership of a several community nonprofits.

One particularly close to her heart is Summer in the Cuyahoga, which recruits college students from prestigious universities, like her alma mater Cornell, for summer internships in Cleveland with the goal of having talented young people make connections and settle in Northeast Ohio after graduation.

Having recently rolled off the Summer in the Cuyahoga board, Calderas is focused on her family on top of her demanding legal career.

“My children’s view of me is that I am incredibly hard working. Every Mother’s Day card, every birthday card, it’s always ‘We love you and wow you work hard for us,’” Calderas said. She’s pleased to model a strong work ethic for her children but wants “that to be evenly matched with other things, like making family a priority.”

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Kirsten M. Ellenbogen President and CEO, Great Lakes Science Center

By CHUCK SODER

Five things

ccoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

Office decor: Two limited edition Lego sets featuring female scientists

After 1991, there would be no stopping Kirsten Ellenbogen.

Sure, by that point, she was already moving head-first toward a career in the world of science, a subject she’d been immersed in since she was a kid.

But if she ever had any doubts about whether she’d succeed, her mother vanquished them that year — when they both graduated from college.

It was a long road for her mother.

After graduating from Lourdes Academy, a now-defunct high school in Cleveland, she attended the University of Detroit but ended up leaving for financial and family reasons.

But she went back roughly 15 years later, just as Ellenbogen was about to enter her teen years.

Growing up with a mom who was passionate about science and technology was inspirational enough. It’s a big reason why Ellenbogen spent so much time growing crystals and preserving cicadas as a kid.

But watching her finally earn her degree in computer science took it to another level.

“It was definitely — ‘Nobody’s going to tell me what I can’t do,’” she said.

Now she spends her days trying to inspire the people who visit the Great Lakes Science Center.

Of course, as CEO, she’s no longer one of the people who gets to create mini explosions or physically shock patrons in the name of science. Nowadays she’s more focused on things like building relationships with donors, crafting strategic plans and managing operations. But she will enthusiastically tell you all about the science center’s new Lego Built It! exhibit and her personal favorite, the Cleveland Creates Zone, which encourages visitors to build air rockets, cars and other contraptions.

Why is that exhibit her favorite? Consider the rocket building station: Most people can’t get their first prototype to hit the ceiling. But instead of giving up,

MOONEY

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

“Being CEO requires tough decisions ... that can derail their career.

Beth’s wisdom and real gift lies in her ability to not only make difficult decisions, but do so in a way that engenders support from those around her and throughout the organization,” Brady said.

While a drive for something more than what society had laid out brought her to the business world, it’s a passion for people that inspires her today.

“If you can unleash that feeling in people of being included, of being authentic and being their best, then they can see themselves in the broader purpose of what a company does,” she said. “To me, that’s the highest value a CEO can do: lift up a group of people to embrace the company mission and strategy, and doing so from a place that’s highly personal.”

And while Mooney’s accomplishments are all the more impressive when stacked against the backdrop

Fan of local theater: She said productions are often edgier and tackle weightier issues.

She admits it: She played Dungeons & Dragons. And so did her mom.

But it’s not her favorite game: That would be Sequence.

Swapping labs for science centers: “I want to say that I’ve changed what counts as learning.”

many visitors dust themselves off and build a better one — without the encouragement of an instructor.

“That’s like the brass ring of science centers,” she said.

Despite the influences of her technophile mom and her tinkering grandfather, Ellenbogen originally wanted to be a lawyer. But two chance encounters set her straight.

First, a high school biology teacher told her about a program that helped teenage girls get jobs at local laboratories. Soon she was running an electron microscope at the Michigan Cancer Foundation. Then, while competing in a local science fair, she met the CEO of the Detroit Science Center.

“He walked up to me afterward and said, ‘Would you like a job at the Detroit Science Center?’” she recalled.

Over the years, she’s developed exhibits and conducted research to figure out better ways to design them.

Ellenbogen was senior director of Lifelong Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota before coming to Cleveland in 2013.

She picked Cleveland in classic nerd fashion: She and her husband Charles, a teacher, created a decision matrix to weigh the pros and cons.

Among the pros: He liked the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s transformation plan, and they loved the area’s theaters and museums.

Plus, the cab drivers and waitresses

“Beth is the epitome of a strong, compassionate leader — two qualities that don’t always have a harmonious relationship” — Amy Brady, KeyBank CIO

of an industry still overwhelmingly dominated by old white men, Mooney awaits the day that the gender factor is but an asterisk in her story.

“We want to be known for doing the right things in the right way,” she said. “We care about clients, and community and building something rewarding for shareholders. And at the end of the day, those leadership values will be based in a true north.

That’s my legacy.

“But also, I was the first woman CEO of a top 20 U.S. bank. That was the headline,” Mooney added. “For diversity, it will matter that when I’m done, that’s a footnote. Not a headline.”

Jason Miller for Crain’s

seemed excited about the city’s future when Ellenbogen came to visit.

Contrast that with her trip to San Diego.

“They talked about the weather. ...

It was a little weird because that’s all they talked about,” she said.

Ellenbogen describes herself as a

data-driven decision maker, but she also knows how to get people excited about the science center’s mission, according to board member Mary Beth Holdford.

“She has a way of pulling you in and making you feel that you’re part of something bigger,” said Holdford,

who serves as division manager of external communications at ArcelorMittal in Cleveland.

Ellenbogen and her husband live in Shaker Heights with their two kids: Zoe, 12, and Ezra, 10. And as you might expect, both of them have been going to science camps since they were 4.

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CRAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2017 Women of Note

Elizabeth Newman President and CEO, Centers for Families and Children

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh

Erica L. Calderas, Partner and Member, Board of Directors Complex and Commercial Litigation Practice

Dedication. Commitment. Leadership.

Congratulations to Erica L. Calderas and the entire 2017 class of Women of Note for their accomplishments as leaders who have made Northeast Ohio a better place to live and work.

As a leader within our firm and the community, Erica is a champion and mentor for other women. She inspires those around her to be bold, to rise to the challenge, and to strive for excellence in everything they do.

Erica exemplifies what it means to be part of our communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Women of Note.

www.hahnlaw.com CLEVELAND â&#x20AC;˘ COLUMBUS â&#x20AC;˘ NAPLES â&#x20AC;˘ FORT MYERS â&#x20AC;˘ SAN DIEGO â&#x20AC;˘ CHICAGO

Sometimes when Elizabeth Newman is in Columbus, talking to state officials and others, usually about funding, sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s had on more than one occasion a conversation that goes like this: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We love you guys!â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do you know what we do?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Something with kids.â&#x20AC;?

Well, yes, but the Centers for Families and Children Newman leads is much more than that. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a group of 500 people who provide a variety of early learning, health and wellness and workforce services to 25,000 people annually. Among its programs are eight early learning centers, serving the littlest infants to Head Start for preschoolers; jobs programs at two El Barrio Centers for Workforce Development, including Hire Local, a program in Clevelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood that prepares residents for jobs available

a short walk or bus ride from their homes; services for families in need, such as providing emergency food, foster parent support and respite help; health services including primary care, pharmacy services and psychiatry; and Ease@Work, an employee assistance service.

The organization has a budget approaching $60 million, more than 60% of which is made up of government grants and reimbursement for services such as Head Start and for services covered by Medicaid. It also receives charitable contributions, including from United Way. That wide array of services is the result of decades of social service consolidation, most recently a merger Newman led that brought El Barrio, which provides workforce training, and the West Side Ecumenical Ministries (WSEM), which offered early learning, food distribution and behavioral health care into the Centers fold in 2011. It's a merger that Newman led â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and part of the reason sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ended up in the job sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in.

Newman joined the Centers as vice

Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP

Constance Hill-Johnson NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR 2017 Crainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cleveland Businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; award and recognition programs honor those throughout the Northeast Ohio community who are excelling and thriving in their industry.

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Owner, CEO; Visiting Angels, Cleveland

By MICHELLE PARK LAZETTE

Five things

clbfreelancer@crain.com

Fond childhood memory: Sitting with her siblings around the color TV in the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basement, watching â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Wizard of Oz.â&#x20AC;?

Laid off years ago by a hospital hundreds of miles from her native Cleveland, Connie Hill-Johnson had an entrepreneur encourage her to create her next job by becoming an entrepreneur herself.

Hill-Johnson took the advice â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but first a survey. After she created a profile and shared her interests, a website generated a list of franchises that fit both. Among them was Visiting Angels, an organization that assists seniors, primarily in their homes, with hygienic care and light cooking, transportation and errands, and companionship.

Hill-Johnson, who had overseen the nonclinical support departments at a hospital in St. Louis before the downsizing, wanted to stay in health care, and she could see that senior care had growth potential. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I clicked on it and read about it and decided to jump in,â&#x20AC;? she said, noting she moved back in with her mother in Cleveland to minimize her risk. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If everything falls apart, your mother is not going to put you out on the street,â&#x20AC;? was the thought.

That was 2002. Visiting Angels Senior Home Care in Cleveland has regularly employed at any one time 75 to 80 caregivers and serves people in eastern Cuyahoga County, most of them 70 years old and up. â&#x20AC;&#x153;What better business could you be in than serving seniors who are, next to children, the most vulnerable in our society?â&#x20AC;? Hill-Johnson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Aging is not always easy. Many times it comes with chronic illnesses.â&#x20AC;?

It also can come with loneliness, Hill-Johnson has learned. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For many of the seniors we serve, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all they have,â&#x20AC;? she began. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize how many seniors are alone un-

Aging gracefully looks like: Being willing to accept help gratefully when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needed rather than resisting it Favorite meal: A good steak. Cooked medium-plus.

Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happiest when: Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s encouraging others.

Ohio has this on California (she attended grad school at USC): The seasons. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Granted, as I get older, the winter is starting to wear on me. But I like corduroys and turtlenecks. I like the fall.â&#x20AC;?

til I got into this. So the importance and the value of what we do is huge.â&#x20AC;?

Hill-Johnsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s father died not long before she started her Visiting Angels franchise. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d been receiving some services at home, so she was familiar with what that entailed. She also knew the strain her mother sometimes felt. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Back in the day when we grew up, families were in the same community,â&#x20AC;? said Hill-Johnson, who grew up in Clevelandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Glenville neighborhood. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Now kids go off to college and they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come back, so what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re seeing is a lot of long-distance caregiving.â&#x20AC;?

Her advice to those caring for seniors? Seek resources. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It took me a long time to recognize that I am not superwoman,â&#x20AC;? she continued. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It really is OK to say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;I cannot do this, therefore I need to seek help.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

Hill-Johnson is 57 and at work planning her â&#x20AC;&#x153;next career.â&#x20AC;? Remember how she worked out of her momâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s basement for two years to start a business after sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d turned 40? She aims to forge a public speaking career, speak-

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note Five things Hobby she’s most passionate about: Travel. Day-trips, long weekends, overseas.

Spots she wants to visit: Cuba and Tokyo Book she’s reading: “Theft by Finding” by David Sedaris When she was in high school, she thought she’d be: Playwright Best advice she’s received: She had a professor in college who would always tell her to stop swinging and hit the ball (he would add an expletive).

That has always stayed with her, the idea that at some point you have to stop thinking or planning and act.

Jason Miller for Crain’s

president for program strategy in 2012. At the time, she was a consultant at KPMG, working with governments and nonprofits, including the Centers.

The organization was integrating El Barrio and WSEM into the organization

and the consultant it had hired wasn’t working out. At the time, Newman was there a day a week working on a small information technology project.

“Somebody walked in and said, ‘This fell apart, can you help us with

this?” she said. “They were first my client, and then I fell I love with this place.”

She was promoted to chief operating officer in 2013 and to CEO in 2015 when CEO Sharon Sobol Jordan left

to become chief of staff to newly elected Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish.

“We needed someone committed to the mission of the Centers, but even more importantly, we needed an exceptional and strategic business leader, as our agency was — and is — facing a period of unprecedented uncertainty,” said Jerome Grisko, president and CEO of CBIZ Inc. and a member of the Centers’ board who nominated Newman. “We have found that in Elizabeth.”

The uncertainty, Newman said,

C l b ti

Jason Miller for Crain’s

ing about reinventing oneself.

Hill-Johnson lives with her husband, Kevin, in Bratenahl. They give of their time and money, the latter including a donor-advised fund focused on education. Hill-Johnson is on the African American Philanthropy Committee of The Cleveland Foundation and is on the board for the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, among others.

It’s clear Hill-Johnson cares, in how she’s abundantly direct in her feedback to help others succeed, in how she eats, sleeps, and breathes her business, and in how she gives,

said Monique Tinsley, a Visiting Angels case manager.

That giving extends beyond her fund’s scholarships and her service on boards. A caregiver who worked for Hill-Johnson had health issues and was a single mother without family she could call upon, Tinsley began.

“Connie rearranged her schedule last year and this year to make sure she (the caregiver) went to see the doctors she needed to see,” Tinsley said. “Connie would block out her schedule and pick her up, take her to doctors, advocate for her. Not everybody does that.”

their organizations and Northeast Ohio.

The women business leaders in our community inspire us and encourage us to push past limits and achieve our dreams.

ThompsonHine.com

comes from its reliance on the budget turmoil and the state and federal governments.

Newman believes the Centers is a unique organization in Northeast Ohio because of its breadth of services. The organization can trace its roots back to 19th century religious social service groups and the continuing consolidation of social services under its umbrella. That consolidation resulting into the creation of, first, the Family Service Association in 1945 and, eventually, after several interim mergers, into the Centers for Families and Children in 2011.

“When a family comes in to us, we can touch that family in all kinds of ways that can be meaningful,” she said. “But one of the challenges we have is to remain focused. When you’re asked to do more, you can end up spreading yourself too thin, so we really refined our focus and that’s required shutting some programs, someone else has got to do those.”

Newman grew up in Chardon, went to Brown University for her undergraduate degree before earning master’s degrees from Ohio State and Cleveland State universities. She and her husband, Marty McGann, senior vice president of government affairs at the Greater Cleveland Partnership, are raising two daughters in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood.

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Congratulations, Elizabeth!

Crain’s Women of Note 2017 The Centers Board of Directors and Staff

Kelly Falcone-Hall

Brag.

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President and CEO, Western Reserve Historical Society

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By DOUGLAS G. GUTH

Contact Nicole Mastrangelo • nmastrangelo@crain.com • 216-771-5158

clbfreelancer@crain.com

Entrepreneur • Savvy Business Woman • Philanthropist • Speaker

The Visiting Angels Team Congratulates

Connie Hill-Johnson 2017 Crain’s Women of Note Awardee “Preparing for your own future, or the future of aging parents can be daunting.”

www.VisitingAngels.com/cleveland

216-231-6400

As president and CEO of Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS), Kelly Falcone-Hall knows the “house” front and back, including every department and practically every hallway of the organization’s six campuses spread across Northeast Ohio.

Falcone-Hall gained that knowledge over 22 years with WRHS, beginning in 1995 when she received a three-month paid internship from the regional historical society to process dusty government records and other documents. A staffing increase at the WRHS library in 1996 put Falcone-Hall on staff full time, and the rest, to turn a cliché on its ear, is quite literally history.

“To be here 22 years later and leading the institution is a very humbling experience,” Falcone-Hall said. “If I think too much about it, it can be a little overwhelming.”

Falcone-Hall prefers instead to concentrate on her work, which includes oversight of a 150-year-old cultural organization that collects, preserves and shares items and information related to Northeast Ohio’s past. Under the institution’s purview are 39 historical structures, 32 of them at Hale Farm & Village in Bath. The institution’s library and museum carry millions of items related to the American experience — photographs, documents, clothing, art, automobiles, aircraft and more.

Since being named CEO in 2014, Falcone-Hall has worked to make the society more accessible to the region’s residents. As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, WRHS is opening a permanent “Cleveland Starts Here” exhibit at

the Cleveland History Center in University Circle. Set to launch in November, the multimedia collection will take visitors on a tour of Cleveland’s beginnings through its modern renaissance, and include exhibits on art, city leaders, immigration, medicine and education. Harnessing the society’s extensive archives to bring local history to life is part of a newly realized external focus led

by Falcone-Hall.

“We had a reputation as a sleepy organization sitting at our desks and putting numbers on artifacts,” Falcone-Hall said. “We’ve turned that on its head. We want to be in touch and top-of-mind.”

Connecting with the community is an enormous responsibility for which Falcone-Hall believes she is well prepared. The Westlake resident started working for WRHS just two days after graduating with a master’s degree in history from Cleveland State University. Most of her career involved balancing the budget and daily operations of Hale Farm, an outdoor museum that educates visitors about 19th century life.

Falcone-Hall also has held roles such as vice president for institutional advancement and chief operating officer.

Through it all, she’s been able to indulge a love for history, one sparked by a family heritage descending from Italy, Ireland and England. In college, Falcone-Hall interviewed her relatives on their respective immigrant journeys, giving her context for Cleveland’s own immigrant-fueled growth.

“I made these connections and understood how my family got here,” Falcone-Hall said. “In understanding that history, I was able to understand Cleveland and Clevelanders better.”

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Gina Cronin Executive director, Global Leadership and Learning Institute, Cleveland Clinic

Jason Miller for Crain’s

Five things Favorite item in the WRHS collection: The Ferro mural Most interesting Cleveland fact: Moses Cleaveland never lived here.

His initial vision for the area was that it would be as big as Windham, Conn., which has a population today of about 25,000 Favorite musical artist: Her daughter, Alexandra, who plays the violin. And Bono.

Favorite books: “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy Favorite hot spot: Crostatas Rustic Pizza

Angie Lowrie, director of the Cleveland History Center, has collaborated with Falcone-Hall on numerous projects since 2005. “Cleveland Starts Here” is their latest and greatest effort, but fundraising events, traveling exhibitions and preservation programs are among the day-to-day projects the duo has helped develop.

“Kelly demonstrates dedication to the organization, to her peers, and to her family,” Lowrie said. “She’s quick to share credit and strives to ensure we have the resources needed to succeed.”

Even as a self-described introvert who enjoys nothing more than being surrounded by piles of historical documents, Falcone-Hall recognizes the necessity of continued public outreach. Preserving all things related to Cleveland and the Western Reserve, which, according to WRHS, was comprised of 3.3 million acres in what is now Northeast Ohio, requires an understanding of what makes the region so special.

“I can be valuable as CEO because I grew up here and was immersed in the organization,” Falcone-Hall said.

“I’m here to capture and reflect the essence of Cleveland.”

By LYDIA COUTRÉ

Five things

lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

Mentors: Linda McHugh, Clinic president and CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove, and Dr. Bruce Lytle, former chairman of the Clinic’s Heart & Vascular Institute

When someone in the hiring process points out that a candidate has a young family, or isn’t a cultural fit, Gina Cronin wants to know what they really mean.

Are they saying that someone with kids shouldn’t be considered? What specific skills or behaviors make someone not fit with the culture?

Through unbiased conscious training she has helped to implement at Cleveland Clinic, managers are asking themselves those questions.

“It makes you a little bit vulnerable,” said Cronin, executive director of the Clinic’s Global Leadership and Learning Institute. “So you’ve got to realize that it doesn’t make you a good or bad person, that everyone has these unconscious biases.”

But they need to be addressed, she said. She sees the challenge women can face in re-entering the workforce after taking years off to have children, and was very purposeful in her decision to not leave work beyond a few months of maternity leave to have her three children.

“I think sadly that the corporate culture in America has been driven by men,” she said. “Corporations have to realize that we can’t disenfranchise 50% of our brain power because women want to have babies.”

The problem exists in every industry and corporation across the country, but where Cronin can make a difference is at the Clinic. Across the enterprise this year, the Clinic has launched talent reviews — a sort of inventory to find high-potential talent, successors at all levels and potential employees to develop and advance.

And with each of those reviews, Cronin said, managers are employing the skills they’ve learned in the unconscious bias training she developed with Le Joyce Naylor, the Clinic’s chief diversity and inclusion officer.

“What does their area look like across race and gender?” Cronin said.

“What does their leadership team look like across race and gender? And what does the pool of talent they’re nominating look like. So they can be very intentional to ensure they’re mirroring what they want it to look like.”

Linda McHugh, the Clinic’s chief human resource officer, has worked with Cronin for more than 20 years in various roles at the Clinic. Her advocacy for women and minorities has helped the organization learn and understand unconscious biases.

“Gina is a person that I think of that has more capacity than anyone I know to learn new things, take on huge projects and make them happen in a very simple fashion,” McHugh said. “She’s got a talent for getting right to the heart of it and figuring out how to make it happen.”

In addition to Cronin’s work with the Global Leadership and Learning Institute (GLLI), she has for several years led the Clinic’s administrative fellowship program, working with a handful of grad students from around the country and world every year.

It’s the same fellowship that first brought her to the Clinic in 1992 for what she thought would be a one-year management stint post-graduation.

But she has been at the Clinic ever since, working largely as a department

Favorite author: Toni Morrison Hobbies: Playing golf, running, spending time with her family Secret skills: Juggling, long-drive golf contests and coaching basketball Advice to young women: Find several mentors and don’t be afraid to ask for their guidance, “because they get as much out of it as you do if not more. “ And take time to reflect and then be proactive about your next steps.

Jason Miller for Crain’s

or institution administrator before being tapped two years ago to lead GLLI. She’s passionate about helping people advance in their careers and about working toward more women in leadership. To get there, women leaders who ascend need to create opportunities for women — and men — to have adaptive careers.

As the fellowship wraps up every year, Cronin takes the female fellows to lunch to discuss being a leader, growing a career and raising a family as a woman. Women need to help navigate that a bit more, she said.

For years, women have paved a path for others who have followed, but gaps still exist.

“I think this is why we have to push so hard,” she said. “I think we have to be not only intentional, but we have to raise a ruckus about it and demand our male leaders that it has to change.

We can’t presume it’s going to.”

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Halle Jones Capers

CONGRATULATIONS

Senior vice president of operations; manager of transportation, G. Stephens Inc.

WOMEN OF NOTE

By JUDY STRINGER

Congratulations to this year’s Women of Note honorees, who have made extraordinary contributions to Northeast Ohio.

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Whether it’s a small meeting of project managers or a high-level engineering conference, Halle Jones Capers is used to being the only African-American in the room.

“Maybe, if I’m lucky, there is another female or two,” said Capers, who is passionate about enhancing diversity and inclusion in engineering. “Between minority engineering and women in engineering, I have had a focus over my lifetime of working to attract women and under-represented minorities to the field. I tell people I am looking for more Halles.”

This Halle traces her journey to engineering back to childhood. As a young girl, Capers liked science and math and loved to take things apart and put them back together.

At the time, STEM-based programs had not yet taken root in classrooms, but Capers’ father — an industrial arts teacher — recognized her natural affinity for math and science and nudged her toward engineering.

“The dean at the (University of Akron) College of Engineering, the late Louis Hill, kind of took me to that next step and introduced me to civil engineering. He was a lifetime friend and mentor,” she said.

Capers graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering in 1990.

While at the university, she was a founding member and first president of the university’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers. As an alumna, Capers served as a mentor for the university’s Women in Engineering Program.

She also took a break from working directly in the engineering field in 2003 to become director of the Women in Engineering Program — a position she held for four years.

Now, she’s chair of the IDEAs Advisory Council at the University of Akron. IDEAs stands for Increasing Diversity in Engineering Academics, and is basically the minority engineering program.

In the field of civil engineering, Capers has held a number of leadership positions. She has been the highway department manager for DLZ Ohio, the director of transportation engineering at the Ralph Tyler Cos. and the deputy director of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s highway operations division.

Capers joined Akron-based construction management firm G. Stephens three years ago. As senior vice president of operations, she oversees hiring, human resources policies, training and scheduling.

Capers is also the face of G. Stephens for all of its transportation contracts with the likes of ODOT, the Ohio Turnpike, the city of Akron, Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and Akron-Canton Airport.

“Undoubtedly, Halle has shattered many glass ceilings in the engineering field — a field that is and has always been predominantly

Five things Hometown: She was raised in Springfield Township.

Out in the AK: Crave in downtown Akron is her favorite lunch spot.

Bucket-list activity: Visiting Italy and Greece to see the ancient ruins Guilty pleasure: “Downtime!”

Most people know: “I can sew. We sewed most of our clothes as children.”

male, especially where the leadership is concerned,” said Anthony Spring, senior project engineer at Karpinski Engineering in Cleveland.

Spring graduated from the University of Akron with Capers and served with her in its National Society of Black Engineers chapter.

He believes Capers leadership roles and her willingness to mentor and share her story has been an

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Crain’s 2017 Women of Note

Sharlene Ramos-Chesnes President and CEO, InterChez

By JUDY STRINGER clbfreelancer@crain.com

Jason Miller for Crain’s

“inspiration to many women interested in obtaining education and careers in engineering and STEM fields.”

Capers said seeing young female engineers — and young black engineers, for that matter — out in the field and in the classrooms is one of the most rewarding aspects of her professional life. The other is seeing the roads, bridges, train stations and airports she has helped build in use.

“That is very exciting. I know it probably drives my son crazy. We drive past certain areas and I yell ‘I designed that,’” she said.

A proponent of lifetime learning, Capers said she may consider returning to school for an advanced degree once her son is out of the nest. For now, however, she is focused on supporting him in his schooling and athletics and continuing “to help our company grow and to improve our operations.”

Sharlene Ramos-Chesnes took what many would agree is a very nontraditional path to entrepreneurship.

The daughter of Puerto Rican immigrants, Ramos-Chesnes grew up in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood on Cleveland’s near West Side.

She spoke Spanish at home, at school and at church and attended a bilingual school. The first time she ate non-Spanish food was as a freshman at Kent State University, where she studied fashion merchandising.

After college, Ramos-Chesnes designed department store windows in downtown Cleveland until many of those shops disappeared. She then managed a nonprofit family resource center in Ashtabula County and later ran the foreign language department at Old Trail School in Bath. In the early 2000s, however, Ramos-Chesnes spotted a market need and made the leap to business owner.

At the time, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was still relatively new, and American companies were figuring out how to manage the emerging business opportunities with their southern neighbors. Language was a big hurdle, according to Ramos-Chesnes, who was moonlighting as a translator on calls between the logistics company where her husband, Mark, worked, and its Mexican customers.

Communication was “just something people did not think about when trade opened up,” she said. “It just made sense that we should open a company that offered language and logistics together. … We were doing it anyway. We might as well do it for ourselves.”

The couple launched InterChez in 2002 out of their Stow basement.

Now, in its 15th year and with 30 employees, InterChez is a family of companies that does everything from helping businesses with translation and interpretation to managing their transportation needs and auditing their freight bills.

“We are the only logistics company today that still continues to offer language, and we have over 150 dialects represented,” said Ramos-Chesnes, who believes much of the company’s success is tied to its lean operation.

“Everything we have done as we have grown has been due to our customers asking us to do it.”

As a business owner, Ramos-Chesnes attributes her personal drive to a desire to create a “vibrant company,” where employees can prosper and support themselves and their families. Growing up, she said, new Puerto Rican immigrants were welcome in her home and lived with the family. Her father often took young immigrants to work with him and made sure the newcomers got a job of their own. The impulse to pay it forward, she said, is ingrained.

She also calls upon the lessons learned in the five years she operated a nonprofit family resource center out of the former Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Ashtabula — not the least of which is the importance of using local resources.

The Kent State grad has a close relationship with her alma mater. Many of Kent State’s graduate-level translation students, for example, intern

Jason Miller for Crain’s

Five things Full house: She is the youngest of six.

Ideal meal: Rice and beans and a pastel Must-watch TV: “The Handmaid’s Tale” Perfect getaway: Anywhere waterside Can’t live without: Music

with InterChez. Some are offered jobs following the internship, while InterChez has become the first customer for a handful of others who

chose to open their own translation businesses.

Ramos-Chesnes also recently completed a one-year appointment as the university’s 2016 President’s Ambassador, where she was charged with helping promote cultural and mutual respect among diverse constituencies of students, staff, faculty and administrators, and she established the Chesnes Family Endowment Scholarship in 2014. The scholarship is given annually to an “under-resourced” Hispanic collegian at Kent State.

Geraldine Nelson, executive director of human resources, employ-

ee engagement and outreach for Kent State, has sat with Ramos-Chesnes on speaker panels and worked alongside the executive as part of the college’s Latino Networking Caucus. Nelson said the university has been fortunate to have the support of a grad like Ramos-Chesnes, who as easily connects with minority students as business school professors and university officials.

“When Sharlene comes to the table what you see is someone being very proud of bringing the Hispanic culture to light and keeping that culture alive,” Nelson said.

Congratulations, Gina Cronin 2017 Crain’s Women of Note Award Honoree

Gina Cronin Executive Director, Global Leadership and Learning Institute

Same-day appointments 216.444.CARE clevelandclinic.org

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PRESENTED BY: PRESEN

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CO-PRESENTING CO PRESENTIN SPONSORS

WOMEN OF NOTE AWARDS DATE: July 18, 2017

FirstEnergy Stadium – City Club Level FOR TICKETS AND INFORMATION,

VENUE SPONSOR:

visit www.crainscleveland.com/WON

2017 HONOREES JODI L. BERG, President and CEO, Vita-Mix Corporation (Vitamix)

KELLY FALCONE-HALL, President and CEO, Western Reserve Historical Society

ERICA L. CALDERAS, Partner, Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP

CONSTANCE HILL-JOHNSON, Owner and CEO, Visiting Angels, Cleveland

DOREEN CANNON, President, Plumbers Local 55 and Chair, Cleveland Building Trades Tradeswomen Committee

ELIZABETH NEWMAN, President and CEO, Centers for Families and Children

HALLE JONES CAPERS, SVP, Operations and manager, Transportation, G. Stephens Inc. COLLEEN M. COTTER, Executive director, Legal Aid Society GINA M. CRONIN, Executive director — Global Leadership and Learning Institute, Cleveland Clinic KIRSTEN M. ELLENBOGEN, President and CEO, Great Lakes Science Center

ANNE P. NOONAN, President and CEO, OMNOVA Solutions SHARLENE RAMOS-CHESNES, President and CEO, InterChez LAUREN RICH FINE, CFA managing director, Gries Financial LLC PATRICIA SHLONSKY, Partner-in-charge, Ulmer & Berne LLP; chair, Tax Group; chair, Employee Benefits MICHELLE TOMALLO, President and co-founder, FIT Technologies

Cleveland Foundation Women of Note Legacy Award Winner BETH MOONEY, Chairman and CEO, KeyCorp TURNING PASSION INTO PURPOSE FOR GENERATIONS OF WOMEN Event/Registration Questions: Megan Lemke at 216-771-5182 or mlemke@crain.com Sponsorship Opportunities: Nicole Mastrangelo at 216-771-5158 or nmastrangelo@crain.com

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Ohio’s population is 78% urban and 22% rural, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 calculation.

More than 6.1 million of the state’s 11.6 million people, or about 53%, live in the state’s 10 largest urban counties. While political divisions play a role in legislative decisions, many urban leaders from both parties believe the state’s metro areas aren’t getting their fair share from the Legislature.

“One of the biggest divides in the Legislature is the rural-urban policy divide,” said Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, a former Democratic state legislator. “Those legislators who are in the positions of leadership and power tend not to understand the needs of urban, metropolitan areas.”

Budish was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2007 to 2014, and he served as speaker from 2009 to 2011. And to his point, none of the current 10 members of the majority leadership (Republicans control both the Ohio House of Representatives and the Senate) are from any of the state’s 10 largest cities. Three are from metropolitan suburbs, two from small cities and five live in townships.

Dolan was especially bothered by

what appears to be a losing battle over the collection of municipal business income taxes. The new budget introduces a plan to allow businesses to file their local income tax returns through a centralized, state collection process. The Kasich administration had sought to make the centralized filing mandatory, but the Legislature compromised, at least for now, since the state collection system is not beefed up to handle all local business municipal tax filings.

Seeing that battle and the likely future expansion of state municipal income tax collection, Dolan sent a letter to Ohio’s mayors through the Ohio Municipal League, which represents cities and villages, expressing his intent to work to rebuild the standing of cities in Columbus.

“I am hoping that throughout the rest of the year, we can work to strengthen the cities’ position in the collection arena,” he wrote. “This destruction of the relationship between state and local governments needs to end.”

The loss of local control is not just budgetary.

The Legislature has been chipping away at local home rule for several decades. Home rule, enshrined in the state constitution more than a century ago, grants cities broad powers of self government, specifically including the right to enforce

78

predatory lending. A 2004 law took away the right of cities to regulate oil-and-gas drilling. Laws in ClevePercentage of Ohio’s population land and elsewhere that sought to considered to live in urban areas, require firearms registration were according to 2010 figures from the overruled in 2006.

U.S. Census Bureau.

One home rule battle is continuing: Cleveland’s effort to enforce its Fannie Lewis Law, which requires a percentage of local hiring on pubNumber of Ohio’s 11.6 million people lic projects. In 2016, Kasich signed living in the state’s 10 largest urban a bill that would have barred cities counties, about 53%. from enacting local hiring regula“One of the biggest divides in tions in contracts the Legislature is the rural-urban for public improvements. policy divide. Those legislators Downstate conwho are in the positions of tracting firms leadership and power tend not to convinced the Legislature that understand the needs of urban, the law unfairly hurt their ability metropolitan areas.” to compete for work with the — Armond Budish, Cuyahoga County Executive city. and a former Democratic state legislator Cleveland local police, sanitary, and other sim- sued to block that legislation, and a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas ilar regulations and own utilities.

The Legislature, with the aid of Court in January sided with the city. the Ohio Supreme Court, has been The state is appealing that decision.

This battle is not just an Ohio narrowing the powers of cities since the 1980s, when legislation over- fight, and it’s not simply urban vs. ruled cities’ collective bargaining rural. It’s also a tug of war between laws. But the loss of municipal home Republican state legislators and rule powers has taken off in the 21st Democratic city mayors. Ohio is one of 24 states where Republicans have century.

In 2002, the Legislature took away total control in the state capital — from the cities the right to regulate both houses of the legislature and

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the governorship.

But the formation of a new advocacy group makes clear the Ohio skirmishes between the cities and the Legislature aren’t strictly red versus blue.

Late last year, a bipartisan group of mayors came together as the Ohio Mayors Alliance to drive home the economic impact of the state’s cities. In announcing the organization in November, the group pointed to research that showed that Ohio’s 11 largest cities generate 90% of the state’s Gross Domestic Product and create 84% of the new jobs.

“Ohio is a state of cities. We have a large number of urban centers, and the mayors’ voices have just not been a big part of the policymaking conversation in Columbus. That’s what we’re trying to change,” said Keary McCarthy, executive director of the alliance. “There’s a lot of education that needs to happen to folks who come from smaller communities about what those larger cities face.”

Among the members are the mayors of Akron, Cleveland Heights, Cuyahoga Falls, Elyria, Euclid, Lakewood, Lorain and Parma. Ten of the mayors are Republicans, 20 are Democrats. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has not joined the group. A request for a comment did not receive a response by deadline last week.

DATA ANALYSIS

Data: Female owners treated differently

By CHUCK SODER

Online

csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

Find the Crain’s women-owned business directory at crainscleveland.com/section/wob.

It isn’t hard to find female business owners who say they’re at least sometimes treated differently because of their gender.

We found 113 of them while collecting data for our online Women-Owned Business Directory.

They account for 48% of the 232 women who answered this question: “Do you feel as though clients/coworkers/business partners treat you differently because you are a woman?”

Only 6% of respondents chose “frequently,” but a whopping 42% picked “sometimes.”

As for the other 52%, their responses were fairly evenly spread across the other three choices: “rarely,” “almost never” and “never.”

So are woman-owned businesses suffering because of this difference?

For the most part, no, judging by the way they answered the next question: “Do you feel like your company is at an advantage or a disadvantage because it is woman-owned?”

Nearly 44% of the 233 women who answered the question chose “no difference.” Another 31% picked either “advantage” or “slight advantage.”

Though 21% picked “slight disadvantage,” only 3.4% (eight people) picked “disadvantage.”

Caveat: The directory isn’t a random sample of all women-owned businesses in Northeast Ohio.

Although it includes a wide array of businesses, many of them are small, service-focused companies.

For instance, the largest industry category is marketing and public relations (which accounts for 11% of all 455 companies in the directory). The

next biggest category is management consulting (which accounts for 9%).

But there are larger companies in the directory. Of the 265 companies that gave us an updated employment figure, the biggest is Millennium Capital and Recovery Corp., a Hudson-based financial services firm with 140 full-time local employees.

Coming in second with 132 local employees is NAE/NWAN of Strongsville, which provides administrative services to automotive, RV and powersports dealerships.

In total, those 265 companies have 2,870 local employees (including the owner-employees).

Business owners overseeing at least 20 local employees were somewhat more likely to report being treated differently (only one of the 33 respondents in that group said they are “never” treated differently).

Their responses also differed when we asked whether the state of Ohio should begin offering paid family and medical leave to people who work for companies with at least 50 employees, by creating an insurance program funded by employee payroll deductions.

Responses to that question (which was based on a state bill introduced in April 2016) were all over the map.

The most popular choice was “maybe” — until you looked at the 32 respondents with 20-plus employees.

Twelve of them, 37.5%, said they were skeptical. Add the six who said “no,” and you’re above 50%. Only four people said the state should consider it, and just three said “yes.”

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AKRON

Kenmore hopes to thrive as music district

By JUDY STRINGER clbfreelancer@crain.com

It’s 8:15 a.m. on a sunny Tuesday in mid-June. Most of the shops in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood are closed. Many of them appear abandoned, nondescript or even boarded up. Others — Chinese takeout, a sports bar, a hobby shop, a dentist — aren’t yet open for the day.

The front door of the newly renovated Rialto Theatre on Kenmore Boulevard, however, is propped wide open — a literal and figurative nod to what owners Seth and Nate Vaill would like to see up and down Kenmore’s main drag.

“If we open up our doors and invite the community in,” Seth said, “maybe other business owners will do the same.”

The new Rialto, which debuted in May 2015, is fast becoming the centerpiece of an ambitious plan to rewrite Kenmore’s narrative from a forgotten and impoverished neighborhood to a thriving music district.

That begins with raising awareness about Kenmore’s cultural assets, according to resident Tina Boyes, vice president of marketing and communication for the Akron Community Foundation. The foundation is spearheading a Better Block project on Kenmore Boulevard during Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-2, hoping others will tune into the neighborhood’s melodic atmosphere.

In addition to the Rialto — with its live performance stage, seating area and two recording studios — two of Kenmore Boulevard’s “nondescript” storefronts conceal professional music production businesses, Boyes said. The two privately owned studios operate quietly but are wellknown to local musicians.

The boulevard is also home to famed guitar restorer Lay’s Guitar Shop and instrument retailer The Guitar Department, while Jim Ballard, a prolific local songwriter, musician and producer, lives a few blocks off the main strip, as does string instrument craftsman Joe Heindel.

There’s more. Less than a mile southwest of Kenmore’s historic downtown sits Panyard Inc., one of

Brothers Nate and Seth Vaill, right, have breathed new life into the old Rialto Theatre on Kenmore Boulevard. The venue has become a cornerstone in the district’s music scene. (Shane Wynn for Crain’s)

Dan Shinn, left, owns Lay’s Guitar Shop, a mainstay in Kenmore’s music scene for decades. His brother, Joel, works out of the shop and has his own line of custom guitars.

the world’s leading makers of steel drums. Open Tone Music, a Cleveland-based nonprofit, provides free instrument lessons and an invitation-only music academy for middle schoolers out of Kenmore’s Compass Church, and Kenmore resident Ameer Williamson (aka “A-Minus”), a hip-hop artist, is founder of the Akron-wide musical mentoring program New Way Project.

“Many residents in the community don’t realize the extent of the musical talent and capabilities that are here,

let alone people outside of it,” said Angela Miller, who also lives in Kenmore and is community outreach coordinator for Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.

Part of the problem, Miller and others admit, is that Kenmore Boulevard doesn’t look so vibrant. The Rialto’s shiny new marquee stands in stark contrast to the many unkempt buildings. Persuading hidden studios to emerge from the shadows and perhaps even hang out a shingle could be a step in the right direction,

according to Seth Vaill, who hopes the Rialto’s restoration might provide some momentum.

“Once you see one person stick his neck out, you say, ‘OK, that person did it and he’s got $150,000 worth of equipment. We can do it, too,’ ” he said.

“We aren’t necessarily trying to out these studios or call attention to their specific buildings,” Boyes added. “We just want to showcase our neighborhood’s musical roots to the community at large. ” The bigger challenge, according to Kenmore shop owners, is attracting the kind of new businesses that will compel people to come for more than just picking up a new guitar or recording a riff.

Ed Michalec, who opened the Guitar Department eight years ago, would like to see coffee shops, cafes and art galleries added to the mix.

“I’m a destination. Dan (Shinn of Lay’s Guitar) is a destination. The studios are destinations. Hopefully, somebody will bring in something that will keep people here and make them want to explore the area,” he said.

Kenmore backers have no problem rattling off the south side neighborhood’s attributes. Kenmore is home to the biggest downtown district outside downtown Akron itself, Michalec said, and has a hip vintage feel thanks to its classic brick storefronts.

Then there’s the neighborhood’s enduring history in arts and entertainment. Virgil Lay, the founder of Lay’s Guitar Shop, shaved down the neck of a Les Paul guitar for frequent customer Joe Walsh, who later gave that guitar to Jimmy Page.

“Joe had some bizarre ideas, and he used to come in and work with Virgil and try to get these ideas to come to fruition,” said Dan Shinn, who was Lay’s apprentice and bought the shop in 1988. “Some worked and some didn’t. Some Virgil tried to talk him out of.”

Lay’s is still used by both professional guitarists and collectors looking for a one-of-a-kind instrument, many of them crafted in Kenmore and shipped around the world. Virgil Lay also started the Akron strings manufacturer S.I.T. Strings out of his shop.

In addition, the building the Vaill brothers converted into a live perfor-

mance venue and recording studio was — unbeknownst to them — a movie house in the first half of the 20th century. In fact, they named it the Rialto, the theater’s original name, only after learning its history as one of the first theaters in the country to feature a “silver screen,” which, Nate said, was invented and once manufactured in Kenmore. Today, the Rialto is a popular stop for indie artists touring the region and hosts hip-hop groups, standup comedians and local theater productions.

Akron author and journalist David Giffels said Kenmore’s Musician’s Bargain Basement, which closed in 2008, was widely known as a place for artists to gather and talk, as was Lay’s Guitar Shop. Giffels said even the former headquarters of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Kenmore, which was a prominent venue for live Irish music, is part of the neighborhood’s musical legacy.

“These are the kinds of things that become the fabric of a music community,” he said.

Ballard, who began operating a production studio out of his basement in 1990, is just glad to see Kenmore finally getting a little love. The neighborhood was highlighted late last month as part of Open Streets Akron, which closed several city streets, including Kenmore Boulevard, to traffic and invited residents and visitors to explore the areas on bikes or on foot. The event featured live performances from hometown artists Williamson, rock cover band Mr. Pink and gritty blues band The Tenants, in addition to several Open Tone Music students.

Boyes said the Better Block project in September will build on that excitement by transforming some of the empty storefronts into pop-up businesses, including a coffee shop, a restaurant, and a beer and wine garden. Ballard has written a song for the event and hopes to produce the jingle and a music video in collaboration with neighborhood artists and studio, again in an effort to bring more attention to its musical assets.

“It’s not that we are trying to create a new story about Kenmore, but just to tell the true story,” Miller said. “That will change people’s perceptions.”

County taking mixed approach to development

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

Summit County’s economic development strategy is one of boots and bytes.

The boots are on the ground, with county staffers physically visiting businesses from Hudson to Green, gathering all of the information they can on economic activity, and businesses opportunities and challenges.

The bytes come into play via a computerized Geographical Information System, or GIS, that puts all of that information in the form of maps that would make even Google jealous. That allows county officials and site selectors to easily find what they need.

“It’s about selling Akron,” said Summit County chief of staff Jason Dodson.

His efforts must represent more

than just the county seat and its biggest city, of course. There are a dozen other cities in the county and even more villages and townships. But to a site selector or company executive considering the area from out of state, it’s all “Akron,” Dodson said.

“Akron is what you sell … Akron is the identity, even for those suburban communities,” Dodson said.

Akron also defines the county as a Midwestern urban area and, like most others, a region with economic challenges.

“We’re a local government in Northeast Ohio. We don’t have a lot of cash. None of us do, at this point,” Dodson noted.

So he and his crew are trying to make the most with the least.

With some smart strategy and related hiring, Dodson said, Summit County has been able to build a priceless asset in the form of what officials and others say is the best county database and GIS system in

the state of Ohio.

Imagine a version of Google maps, but with all of the economic, socio-economic and business information you could imagine. The system tracks everything from highway and rail access, to local commuter transportation options, education levels, the location of industry clusters — even information on thousands of individual properties and businesses is built in.

In other words, if a site selector comes to the county and says they need a 100,000-square-foot building with 40-foot ceilings, Summit County’s economic development department can quickly find options and show where they are, what they’re currently being used for, who owns them and whether they are for sale, among other factors.

“Our system is something no other county they’ll work with will have,” said Carissa Signore, who joined the county in May 2016 as GIS technical

applications administrator and built much of the current system.

“I’ve got 16 results,” she quickly added in response to the hypothetical building query, which was a bit of an impromptu test of the system during a recent demonstration.

Then, she pointed out, she also can sort those properties to show which are close to rail, high-voltage power, transportation corridors or most other things a potential business might be looking for.

To get the information it needs, the county sends staffers out to visit businesses personally, in addition to using other publicly available data. The county even sends out aerial photographers to take photographic surveys, which are more detailed than what can be found online and even show the specific size and height of buildings.

The county now makes some of the information available to the public on its Open Data website, but plans

to make the entire site available soon, Dodson said.

For now, the county will use the system on behalf of site selectors, real estate agents and governmental entities within its border, and it’s getting rave reviews from at least some who have seen what it can do already.

“Summit County has done an outstanding job of upgrading their technology … They provide tremendous information as compared to the way it was. It is second to none as compared to other counties as well,” said Jerry Fiume, a commercial real estate agent who works across Northeast Ohio and is managing director of SVN | Summit Commercial Real Estate in Fairlawn.

But the county’s economic development efforts include more than just tracking real estate and serving site selectors, Dodson said. In fact, the focus now is increasingly on serving existing businesses, including SEE COUNTY, PAGE 33

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AKRON

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HALL

small and medium firms that are already in Summit County, he said.

That includes working with businesses on everything from workforce training and financing. The county also works with the cities and townships that house those businesses on a whole host of community issues.

“Whether it’s workforce development, infant mortality or addressing some of the blight we see in the community, ED is really a holistic approach,” Dodson said.

That’s exactly what other economic development advocates, such as Dick Norton, interim CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber and former Green mayor, say they want to hear.

Norton gives the county, as well as Akron, high marks for focusing on economic development. But things can always improve, he said, and focusing on broad community issues is the right approach. Norton likens it to building a house for both residents and businesses — if it’s not a house someone wants to stay in, attracting to them to it initially probably won’t work in the long run.

“When I was talking to CEOs or site selectors (as Green mayor), often the conversation would veer away from property availability or incentives …

They want to know what is the financial condition of your community? What is your safety record? How are your schools?” Norton said. “Those are all quality-of-life things that are really important to economic development.”

Last August, the projected price tag was at $500 million, an increase of $24 million from the initial estimates. As recently as April, stories referred to its $600 million cost — a figure that’s still present on the Hall of Fame’s online description of its Village.

Now, it’s a $700 million behemoth, partly due to demand, and partly because of the Hall of Fame’s day-today schedule and its signature late-summer event.

“This would’ve been a lot cheaper to do all at once,” Baker said. “But there’s this thing called the enshrinement we’ve gotta do.”

The early successes, however, keep fueling the Hall of Fame’s brash hopes that all of this can work, and that the impact will be infinitely bigger than the scary sticker price.

“The good news is it’s not cost overruns,” Baker said. “What it means is the Aultman Health Foundation, they wanted 40,000 square feet (in The Center for Excellence). Now, they want 63,000 square feet. We may need another two hotels. It’s all good news.”

Or, in the words of Hall of Fame executive director Joe Horrigan, who recently celebrated his 40th anniversary at the nonprofit: “We do everything fast-track.”

Plans for the project — which, in addition to the Hall of Fame, are being led by Industry Realty Group, a Los Angeles developer with an office in Akron — started during Baker’s first week on the job in January 2014.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32

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The public-private deal is being financed by a mix of taxes (admissions, sales and lodging on the Hall’s designated Tourism Development District), funding, donations, grants, developer equity and debt.

“From a financial standpoint, a lot of it is financing,” Baker said. “If you have an office building and people want space more space, you can take that to the bank and finance it.”

A substantial chunk — or enough to account for the $100 million difference between the current estimate and the prior one — of the cost will be covered by an 18-year, nine-figure naming rights deal with Johnson Controls, which will create a “smart city” within the 107-acre complex.

Two-plus years in, the project is transitioning from concept to reality.

The Hall of Fame museum’s holographic theater opened in July 2016, and the 23,000-seat stadium that annually hosts the NFL’s preseason opener is nearing the end of Phase II of its three-year renovation.

Five of the eight fields that are planned at the youth sports complex are in use, and the four-star hotel — part of the Curio by Hilton chain — broke ground in late April.

All of that activity has led to such ancillary deals as the NCAA awarding its 2020 and 2021 Division III football championships to the Hall of Fame, along with the D-III men’s volleyball championships in 2022. In addition, the Mid-American Conference football media gathering is moving this summer to Canton from Detroit.

The Hall of Fame, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and

the Browns are also bidding to host the NFL draft in “2019 and/or 2020,” Mike Mulhall, the sports commission’s vice president of business development, told Crain’s in May. By the latter date, the nine components should be at or near their respective completions, although it wouldn’t be a surprise if at that point several elements had been added.

“It seems to breed itself,” said Horrigan, the Hall of Fame’s longtime executive director. “As one thing becomes a success, another opportunity presents itself as a result. We continue to make those leaps. Sometimes it’s a matter of ‘Get out of the way and let it happen.’ ” The youth sports fields — a setup that currently consists of four artificial turf surfaces and Don Scott Field, a championship venue with a grass surface that will be converted to turf when the complex is completed in 2018 — are an early triumph.

The complex drew 25,000 athletes for its training programs, camps and competitions in the second half of 2016. About 80% were from out of state, Baker said, and each kid brought an average of 1.5 family members with them, bringing the estimated visitor count to 62,500.

A total of 50,000 athletes have already reserved spots at the complex in 2017, which could bump up the visitor tally to the 125,000 range.

It’s part of what Baker refers to as “beta tests” the project has had along the way.

Another was a 2015 Aerosmith performance that was the first of the Hall of Fame’s Concerts for Legends series, which is now an annual part of its en-

shrinement weekend. (Last year’s festival brought some unwanted attention on the Hall of Fame, thanks to its much-maligned cancellation of a preseason contest between the Green Packers and Indianapolis Colts because of poor field conditions. A lawsuit filed by upset ticket-holders is still pending.)

That concert “wasn’t about making money,” Baker said.

“We wanted to find out what it takes to put on a concert,” the hall’s president said. “Well, we found out you sell a lot of beer. But hey, when you sell a lot of beer, you need more bathrooms.”

Thus, Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, which is expected to be entirely redone by the 2018 enshrinement festivities, will have three times as many bathrooms and three times as many concession stands as the old facility.

Q Real Estate Management, a subsidiary of the Dan Gilbert-owned Cavaliers Holdings LLC, will manage the stadium, according to documents obtained by The Canton Repository. The Cavs-owned Canton Charge eventually will move from the Canton Memorial Civic Center to the Village’s performance center, The Repository reported.

A Cavs source told Crain’s that “all of the Canton” details are to be determined. But during a June 28 interview, Baker — who mentioned the Cavs possibility to Crain’s in 2015 — said Cavs CEO Len Komoroski and some team officials were at the facility that day.

“There are all kinds of collaborations we can do,” Baker said of the 2016 NBA champs.

Like every other aspect of Hall of Fame Village, the hall’s leader isn’t ruling anything out.

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Jarrod Tudor

Dean, Wayne College, University of Akron Education has always been a big part of Jarrod Tudor’s life.

His parents, who had been the first in their families to graduate high school, let alone attend college, paid for his first degree. After that, he went on to earn eight more. ¶ Tudor loves teaching as well as learning and has made his career in higher education. Today, he’s the dean of Wayne College at the University of Akron, and acting dean of its education college. Wayne College is the university’s regional campus and the administrative hub for its academic centers around the region. ¶ Tudor wants to make higher education more accessible. Online education is a good option, but it’s not for everyone, he said. Through his role at Wayne College, he wants to expand the four-year offerings in programs like business, education and nursing at Akron’s regional campus and centers. ¶ “We need to go to the people and not expect the people to come to us,” Tudor said. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty

Five things Childhood ambitions He wanted to be a member of the Air Force, like his father.

Favorite book He loved “Where the Wild Things Are” as a child, and his son, J.J., loves it, too.

Go-to spots in Northeast Ohio Anywhere in downtown Cleveland or Akron, but Highland Square and Little Italy are standouts.

Where does he keep his degrees?

Storage, at the moment Favorite subjects Political science and economics.

They’re both social sciences that let people see the “moving parts of life,” he said.

Lunch spot Dontino’s Fine Italian Cuisine 555 East Cuyahoga Falls Ave., Akron 330-928-9530 dontinos.com

The meal One order of the white clam spaghetti, and one of the oil and garlic spaghetti, both with side salads

The vibe This casual restaurant isn’t chasing the latest trends but embraces its cozy, traditional feel. There’s plenty of seating for groups of all sizes and lots of food to choose from.

The bill $31.97, plus tip

There have been a lot of changes at the University of Akron in the past year. What are your expectations for the university going forward?

The University of Akron has in place a very aggressive, student-centered, strategic plan with a leadership organization set in place to execute an invigorating transformation. The University of Akron will rededicate itself to serving traditional and non-traditional students with academic programs and students services designed to serve the needs of both sets of students.

What drew you to Wayne College, especially in the midst of all the changes at the university?

The position of dean at Wayne College is a unique one. I’m a 22-year veteran of regional campus life in Ohio. Wayne College and its regional academic centers work diligently to meet the needs of students who don’t want, or can’t afford, a traditional, on-campus experience.

The position became available, and knowing what I know about its value, I wanted to contribute to its academic mission.

What do you want to accomplish at Wayne College?

I want to make Wayne College more of a four-year academic institution so Ohio’s residents can have greater access to an affordable education.

This will require that Wayne College develop additional four-year programs, which make graduates immediately employable.

You’re now also overseeing the LeBron James Family Foundation College of Education. How will you balance those roles?

It is one of the crown jewels of the University of Akron, and I hope to advance the college’s mission and programs while also talking to prospective students about the wonderful career of education. My schedule will be dominated by the work. In other words, wherever the positions require of my time, I will be there doing the work.

How did you get into higher education to begin with?

I went to graduate school right after my undergraduate program and

served as a teaching assistant. I absolutely loved it and knew immediately that I wanted a career in higher education. Every day I go to work knowing that I’m contributing to society’s advance, and I am surrounded by good people working toward the same goal. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else!

I hear you’ve earned nine degrees — I have to ask why. Any more on the horizon?

Yes, nine total. I love learning. But I also love the challenge of being a student. I would absolutely like to work on a couple of other degrees.

How have your different degrees helped your career?

I feel very well-rounded to serve both the University of Akron in administration and my students in the classroom. As I study more disciplines, I’m able to make connections between and among them and convey that to our students.

You clearly enjoy learning. What about being an educator? What do you enjoy most about teaching?

The best part about being an educator is that you are providing an education and the associated skills so people can think critically, solve problems and communicate. Our students, and later graduates, are able to think for themselves in a competitive world and maintain better lives. I can honestly say there has not been even one day I have not wanted to come to work.

There’s been a lot of talk about the affordability in higher education, and the role universities should play in workforce development. How does Wayne College fit into that?

Higher education availability is a must. The great majority of jobs in this country require, not prefer, a form of higher education. The investment in education reaps the highest returns and the more education obtained, the more flexible a worker is, and he or she has greater immunity from economic downturns. Education can be delivered in a for-credit, degree format or in a non-degree, workforce development format. Both are necessary.

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