VOL. 38, NO. 48
NOVEMBER 27 - DECEMBER 3, 2017
Source Lunch
Akron West Hill neighborhood is getting reconnected to downtown. Page 18
Charlie Lougheed, former president of Explorys/IBM Page 23
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
The List Largest banks in Northeast Ohio Page 20
DEVELOPMENT
Shaker grads often circle back to help beloved community By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
Top row, from left: W. Michael Fleming, ’94; Todd Federman, ’92; Shana Black, ’95; Jeff Epstein, ’93; Chris Nance ’79; Ayesha Bell Hardaway, ’93; Kandis Anderson Williams, ’92; Bishara Addison, ’06. Bottom row: Michael Jeans, ’92; Jeremy Paris, ’93; Colette Jones, ’93; Tania Menesse, ’92; Jenny Spencer, ’96 (Yearbook photographs courtesy of Shaker Heights City School District; Shaker High School photograph by Kevin Reeves)
Holiday business gift guide Ten gift ideas — from extravagant to practical — sure to please everyone on your list. Page 9 Entire contents © 2017 by Crain Communications Inc.
The students who were voting for president of Lomond School in Shaker Heights in spring 1989 couldn’t go wrong. They were choosing between two quality students, soon-to-be sixth graders who would be firmly committed to serving their community. One candidate would go on to be a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and a member of the team that is monitoring the consent decree between the city of Cleveland’s police department and the U.S. Department of Justice. The other would be senior counsel for oversight and investi-
gations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee before returning to Cleveland and, in 2014, becoming executive director of the Group Plan Commission, where he would oversee the makeover of the city’s Public Square. Because it was so long ago, and since no one puts a sixth-grade election win on a résumé, it doesn’t matter whether the elementary school students chose Ayesha Bell Hardaway, the future law professor, or Jeremy Paris, the Group Plan executive director. What really matters is that Hardaway and Paris are just two of a large group of Shaker Heights High School alumni who are engaged in civic affairs, working to strengthen the Greater Cleveland community. SEE SHAKER, PAGE 17
SPORTS BUSINESS
Bridgestone Invitational’s future in Akron questionable beyond ’18 By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com @KevinKleps
The Bridgestone Invitational will celebrate 65 years of professional golf in Akron when the World Golf Championships event tees off at Firestone Country Club on Aug. 2, 2018. But John Feinstein — a best-selling author and contributor to the Golf Channel and PGA Tour Radio — believes the event could be a last hurrah of sorts for the tournament in Akron.
Feinstein has reported on his PGA Tour Radio show, A Good Walk Spoiled, that when the Tour changes its schedule around for the 2018-19 season, there might not be a Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone, a club whose history with pro golf dates back to the Rubber City Open in 1954. “That’s the plan at the moment,” Feinstein told Crain’s. Feinstein said multiple sources have told him that, because the PGA wants the FedExCup Playoffs to end before Labor Day, there are several other scheduling changes that must take place.
The Tour announced the two biggest in August, saying that, beginning in 2019, the PGA Championship will be moved to May and The Players Championship will be contested in March. According to Feinstein, FedEx, the title sponsor for the four playoff events that determine the season-long PGA champion, wants its annual tournament in Memphis, the St. Jude Classic, to be a WGC event. If the sponsor gets its wish, Feinstein said “the plan is to move it to Akron’s spot in August.” SEE BRIDGESTONE, PAGE 19