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THE REGION’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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LGG Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley
Lock-Griffith Group is now
LGG Wealth Management Group at Morgan Stanley We are We are proud proud to to welcome welcome our new our new group group member, member, Aditi Aditi Gupta Gupta Wayne F. Griffith, CFP®
Senior Investment Management Consultant First Vice President, Financial Advisor Family Wealth Director wayne.f.griffith@morganstanley.com
Marc H. Lock
Senior Investment Management Consultant Senior Vice President Financial Planning Specialist Financial Advisor marc.h.lock@morganstanley.com
Aditi Gupta, CFP®
Associate Vice President Financial Planning Specialist Financial Advisor aditi.gupta@morganstanley.com
www.morganstanleyfa.com/lggwm/
7175 N. Pima Canyon Drive, Tucson, AZ 85718 Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing Certification requirements. © 2016 Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC.
520.745.7038
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BizLETTER
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Spring 2016
Volume 8 No. 1
Publisher & Owner
Steven E. Rosenberg Brent G. Mathis
Creative Director Photo: Steven Meckler
For nearly nine decades, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has been a cornerstone of our region. Estimates place the local economic impact of D-M at $1.5 billion in 2014. David Pittman provides in-depth coverage of recent developments at D-M. An interview with Col. James Meger gives us insight into community partnerships and the vision for the base’s future. The Pentagon recently approved a measure to delay retirement of the A-10 Thunderbolt II jet, also known as the “Warthog,” until 2022. Arizona’s political and business leaders praised this decision but also remain cautious about D-M’s future. “The A-10s are going to go away at some point; it’s not if but when,” said DM50 president Brian Harpel. Col. Meger is being honored as a “Father of the Year” by the Father’s Day Council Tucson on May 19, along with community leaders Barry Baker, Edmund Marquez, John Lewis, George Larsen and Tom Warne. Proceeds from the gala fund Type 1 diabetes research at the UA Steele Children’s Research Center. Community support of our veterans and their families is demonstrated at the Fisher House, which recently opened on the campus of the VA Hospital with significant philanthropic support. Tucson is one of 66 U.S. cities with a Fisher House, which gives veterans’ families a place to stay while their loved ones are being treated at VA facilities. For 45 years, El Rio Community Health Center has provided Tucsonans with a national model of innovative healthcare for all. Mary Minor Davis files a special report on El Rio which is the choice for more than 92,000 patients at 11 campuses citywide. It has an annual budget of $124 million, a staff of 1,100 and is primed for even greater growth. On a global scale, the world-class team at Ventana Medical Systems continues to raise the bar for cancer diagnostics. Dan Sorenson shares news about the new VENTANA HE 600 system, which is said to improve the quality and consistency of cancer pathology results. Another reason for international acclaim is Tucson’s recent designation by UNESCO as the nation’s only
“City of Gastronomy.” Journalist Edie Jarolim shares all of the exciting details and what this will mean for our region’s tourism. On the subject of tourism, Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort is the subject of a special report also written by Mary Minor Davis. It’s a story of historic charm spanning 87 years, southwest architecture, dedication to cuisine and local artists, with a carefully crafted expansion and renovation. Jay Gonzales files a special report on Encantada at Tucson National, HSL Properties’ brand of luxury rental apartments with a “resort feel.” With HSL’s four decades of success in real estate, founders Humberto Lopez and Glenn Toyoshima and new president Omar Mireles have branched out with four Encantada communities. As BizTucson celebrates its seventh anniversary as the region’s business magazine, we want to give a special thank you to our advertisers, who invest their marketing dollars to reach the region’s top executives, and to you, our readers, who give us positive feedback and share ideas for future coverage. We also thank our stellar team for contributions of outstanding journalism, editing, design and photography. Thank you to our Creative Director Brent G. Mathis, for his exceptional graphic design and photography, and to Contributing Editors Donna Kreutz and Jay Gonzales for their unwavering dedication to journalistic quality in writing and editing. Thanks to friends and colleagues. Plus, a heartfelt thank you to my very supportive family and especially, to my wife Rebecca. Steven E. Rosenberg Publisher & Owner BizTucson
Contributing Editors
Jay Gonzales Donna Kreutz Contributing Copy Editors Diane Luber Dave Petruska
Contributing Technology Director
Mike Serres
Contributing Writers
Lee Allen Rhonda Bodfield April Bourie Larry Copenhaver Mary Minor Davis Jay Gonzales Renée Schafer Horton Edie Jarolim Christy Krueger David Pittman Steve Rivera Dan Sorenson Monica Surfaro Spigelman Eric Swedlund Valerie Vinyard Romi Carrell Wittman
Contributing Photographers
Ashley Estill William Lesch Amy Haskell Brent G. Mathis Chris Mooney Balfour Walker
Member:
Arizona Builders’ Alliance Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce Sun Corridor Inc. Tucson Advertising Federation Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Tucson Metro Chamber Visit Tucson
BizTucson Phone: 520.299.1005 Subscription Information:
www.BizTucson.com subscriptions@BizTucson.com Advertising information:
Steve Rosenberg 520.299.1005 or 520.907-1012 steve@BizTucson.com BizTucson is published quarterly by Rosenberg Media, LLC. ,Tucson, AZ © 2016 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Opinions expressed in columns or articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
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Please send address changes to: BizTucson, 4729 East Sunrise Drive, #505 Tucson, AZ 85718.
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BizCONTENTS
7TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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FEATURES COVER STORY: 48
BizDEFENSE Davis-Monthan: Flying High
DEPARTMENTS
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BizLETTER From the Publisher BizFILM Bob Shelton Transformed Old Tucson BizRESTORATION San Xavier Mission on Watch List BizBIOSCIENCE Ventana Medical Systems Improves Cancer Diagnostics BizTECHNOLOGY Global Leader in Big-Data Science
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BizDEFENSE Reprieve For the “Warthog” Salute to Davis-Monthan BizCOMMUNITY Fisher House Opens for Military Families BizCULINARY Tucson Gains International Food Fame BizAWARDS Lori Carroll Wins National Honor
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BizBENEFIT Father’s Day Council Honors 6 Dads: Barry Baker George Larsen John Lewis Edmund Marquez Col. James Meger Tom Warne
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BizMILITARY D-M Parents Do Double Duty BizREALESTATE 25th CCIM Forecast Competition BizCONSTRUCTION 15 “New To Market” Projects BizAWARDS MOCA Presents Local Genius Awards BizCOMPETITION 144 Stem-Focused Foundation Wins “Fast Pitch” BizINTERNATIONAL 146 The Offshore Group Thrives BizAEROSPACE 148 Spaceport Tucson ABOUT THE COVER
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DAVIS-MONTHAN Flying High Col. James Meger, Commander, 355th Fighter Wing, US Air Force Creative Design by Brent G. Mathis Photo by Chris Mooney
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BizARCHITECTURE Building Dreams, Listening to Clients BizEDUCATION Cradle to Career Partnership
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BizHONORS Unsung Heroes: Tucson Police Officers BizCOMMUNITY Spirit of Giving Permeates HSL Properties BizEDUCATION Raytheon Leaders in Education Honorees BizHEALTH Epoch Health for Men BizAWARD Amazing Tucson Conquistadores BizLEADERSHIP 25th Annual Women’s Foundation Luncheon BizHONORS FedEx Entrepreneur Fred Smith Good Scout Awards BizTRIBUTE Don Baker Left His Mark on Tucson
SPECIAL REPORTS 67
Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort 72
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Artful Blend of Historic Charm, Modern Amenities Respect for Dining Showcasing Regional Artists
HSL Properties: Encantada at Tucson National 124 A More Residential Design 132 Creating A Lifestyle 134 Building of the
Encantada Brand
El Rio Community Health Center
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Better Business Bureau
153
154 158 160 162
National Model of Healthcare One Stop Pediatric Care Training Healthcare Leaders Clinical Pharmacists Improve Patient Health 164 Q & A’s with Leadership Team
188 Advocating For All 192 Recognizing Marketplace
Excellence
196 Torch Awards Finalists www.BizTucson.com
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
PHOTOS: COURTESYOLD TUCSON STUDIOS
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3 1. 1957 “Gunfight at the OK Corral” filmed at Old Tucson 2. Stunt fall at Old Tucson 3. Stagecoach driving down the streets of Old Tucson 4. Bob Shelton in his warehouse full of memorabilia 5. Robert Wagner and Shelton at Old Tucson 6. James Garner’s hat from “Maverick” filmed in 1979 7. Elizabeth Taylor and Shelton on set of “Poker Alice” filmed at Old Tucson in 1987 8. Shelton with Priscilla Presley 9. John Wayne and Bob Shelton on the set of “El Dorado” 26 BizTucson
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Bob Shelton Transformed Old Tucson
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John Wayne Handshake Seals the Deal
HISTORIC PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOB SHELTON
By April Bourie “I have an old pocket knife, an old Cadillac and a wife who plays a good game of bridge.” Those were the first words that Robert “Bob” Shelton uttered to John Wayne. Shelton was somewhat shocked to find his movie idol standing in the middle of his western theme park in the early 1960s. “We want to put a building up over there, enlarge this one and wipe out this one to film the movie ‘McClintock,’ ” said Wayne. “What are you going to do for me in return?” Thus came Shelton’s response. Wayne gave that big smile he is known for and shook hands with Shelton. They had a deal. Though a few films were made at Old Tucson after Shelton purchased the site in 1959, he didn’t have plans to resurrect it for movies. His original idea was to build western theme parks at each end of the Santa Fe Trail. “I have always had a fascination with the Santa Fe Trail and with Knott’s Berry Farm,” Shelton said. “One day I asked to meet with the owner of Knott’s Berry Farm. He agreed to see me and became a mentor of mine.” From then on, Bob knew he wanted to build his own theme park. He was no stranger to development. He owned a company that built country clubs all over the nation. “All of these World War II veterans were returning home from the war, and they needed a place to socialize with their families and friends,” Shelton said. His hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, already had several country clubs at www.BizTucson.com
the time, but their memberships were full. After building his first club, he expanded, building clubs in cities all over the nation. He always kept the dream of building his Santa Fe Trail theme parks in the back of his mind. However, rather than traveling to Santa Fe, he kept traveling to Tucson to visit Jack Goodman, founder of the Mountain Oyster Club and a friend he enjoyed playing polo with. During one of those visits, he had lunch with Arthur Pack, owner of Ghost Ranch and co-founder of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. After lunch, Pack took Shelton to see the site of Old Tucson, which had originally been built for the movie “Arizona” two decades earlier. Pack suggested that he develop it as a theme park, rather than start from scratch in Santa Fe. Several movies had been filmed on the lot. When Shelton visited, it hadn’t been
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Shelton Hall at Old Tucson Studios dedicated to Bob Shelton during Bob Shelton Day at Old Tucson – Dec. 5, 2015
continued from page 27 used for quite a while and had fallen into disrepair. Yet there was something fascinating about the site, Shelton said. “As I walked around in the rubble, I felt a spirit that said ‘do it.’ ” Old Tucson opened on Jan. 1, 1960. Shelton had invested a half-million dollars to refurbish the buildings and add a narrow-gauge train, a carousel and a haunted mine to entertain the kids. “The place was overrun with people – and the families loved it,” said Shelton. Because movies had been filmed at Old Tucson previously, it seemed to have its own draw to production companies. In February 1960, Shelton was approached by Brian Keith, who wanted to film “Deadly Companions” there, starring Maureen O’Hara. “I rented the park to him for $25 per day,” he said. “I didn’t realize at the time that I should have been getting $500 to $1,000 per day.” Although Shelton may not have been movie savvy initially, he did notice that Old Tucson’s attendance increased whenever filming occurred there. He decided to take a more aggressive stance with the production companies. He took regular trips to Hollywood to host receptions promoting Old Tucson. Shelton would also fulfill special requests from actors and producers who had filmed there. “I would get calls from people who had developed a love for some of the local foods they had enjoyed while filming here. I sent Lerua’s tamales all over the country and around the world.” His efforts paid off. Old Tucson became the second mostvisited attraction in the state behind the Grand Canyon. It was also the third-most popular onsite filming location in the nation behind Hollywood and New York City. When asked if he ever started the second theme park at the other end of the Santa Fe Trail, he smiled and said, “Are you kidding? I didn’t have time with everything going so well at Old Tucson.” In addition to building this movie empire, Shelton befriended many famous actors, directors and producers. Maureen O’Hara, John Wayne and Paul Newman were just a few of the actors that Shelton called friends. It’s hard continued on page 31 >>> 28 BizTucson
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BizFILM continued from page 28 to believe that his offer of a knife, a car and a wife playing bridge were the beginning of his legacy at Old Tucson. When his stockholders sold the park to a group of local investors in 1985, Shelton retired. He stayed on for a while to assist with the transition to the new management. By then, he had created a vast collection of movie memorabilia given to him by actors and directors of the movies filmed at Old Tucson. This includes the hat worn by James Garner in “Maverick” and the stone tablets used in “The Ten Commandments.” There is a possibility that the entire collection will be displayed at Old Tucson in the future. “This would be a big addition to Old Tucson and an amazing display for the public,” said Larry Dempster, director of the Arizona Western Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit established to promote western television shows and their heritage. Shelton is currently president of the foundation board. In December 2015, Old Tucson held a “Bob Shelton Day” to recognize his contributions and thank him for all his efforts. “Bob Shelton is the reason that Old Tucson exists,” said Joe Camarillo, community outreach and special projects manager for the Arizona Sonora Western Heritage Foundation. The nonprofit organization was created to develop multicultural interpretive public education experiences at Old Tucson. “We wanted to honor and acknowledge him for his contributions to Old Tucson and the whole state.” Everyone who meets Shelton seems to feel he is a gem. “There were a few silent films produced in Tucson in the early 1900s, but Bob virtually created the Tucson film industry,” said Shelli Hall, Tucson Film Office director. “The legacy he built is incredible.” Joan Liess, former Old Tucson marketing director and owner of Joan Liess Marketing Services, said, “His spirit and love of the movies were apparent in his creative ideas to make things better for guests and employees. I don’t know anyone that has ever said a bad thing about Bob Shelton.”
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BizBRIEFS
Renaud Named President & CEO of Pima Federal Credit Union Eric Renaud has been named president and CEO of Pima Federal Credit Union after serving as interim president and CEO since October 2015. He joined the credit union staff in December 2011 as CFO. Renaud holds a masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree and a bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in business management from State University of New York Polytechnic Institute. He served as VP for finance/treasury for six years at the Arizona State Credit Union before joining PFCU.
Biz
SHRM Hosts Employment Law Update The Society of Human Resources Management, Greater Tucson chapter will host a day-long event April 21 to provide updates on a variety of HR topics. The 2016 Employment Law update is presented by Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, Snell & Wilmer, Ballard Spahr and Mesch Clark Rothschild. Group and breakout sessions will be facilitated on topics including wage and hour developments, managing problem employees, and navigating FMLA/ADA/ WC issues. The event begins at 11:45 a.m. at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. Participants can register online at www.shrmgt.org www.BizTucson.com
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Silver & Turquoise Ball Benefits Mission Since 1994, the Silver & Turquoise Board of Hostesses has worked with the Patronato as an ally to promote stewardship of Mission San Xavier del Bac. The Board of Hostesses, the prominent women’s group of 50 community leaders along with 100 honorary members, presents the annual Silver & Turquoise Ball to celebrate Tucson’s historic traditions and diverse culture. Proceeds benefit the ongoing restoration of Mission San Xavier. The 2016 Chair of the event is Sarah Congdon Leech, who also directs the Women of Purpose program, part of the global relief and development agency, World Concern. The Silver & Turquoise Ball began 66 years ago as a potluck at the home of Isabella Greenway and today is one of Tucson’s oldest and grandest events.
66TH ANNUAL SILVER & TURQUOISE BALL PRESENTED BY SILVER & TURQUOISE BOARD OF HOSTESSES Saturday, April 30 6:00pm Arizona Inn – 2200 E. Elm St. $300 per person Reservations required silverandturquoiseball.org
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San Xavier Mission on Endangered List Annual Ball Supports Restoration By Monica Surfaro Spigelman The lime-washed adobe majesty of Mission San Xavier del Bac is a breathtaking sight west of Interstate 19. Yet each day the desert takes more of a toll on this venerable antiquity completed in 1797. Now the World Monuments Fund added this landmark to its 2016 cultural heritage watch list. This designation by a prestigious international advocacy group is securing new global support for this extraordinary house of worship, as well as hope that it will endure for centuries more. The World Monuments Watch was launched in 1995 to call attention to imperiled heritage places around the world and facilitate conservation partnerships. Mission San Xavier, already a national historic landmark, is one of only two sites in the United States recognized on the 2016 watch list – and one of only 50 designated in 36 countries. This global list of irreplaceable places is selected biennially by archaeology, architecture, art history and preservation experts with the intent of identifying world heritage sites endangered by the forces of nature or socio-political impact. There’s no group more proud of this new designation than Patronato San Xavier – the nonsectarian, nonprofit collective of community leadership that takes responsibility for preservation of the mission known as the “White Dove of the Desert.” Since its founding in 1978, the Patronato has articulated a unified conservation vision and raised more than $12 million over the past 19 years for ambitious and critical preservation projects. The Patronato now hopes to rally a wider international audience for the treasured site. “We’re eager to share appreciation www.BizTucson.com
of this remarkable architectural and cultural wonder,” said Miles Green, the new Patronato executive director. “As the mission gets the global recognition it deserves, the designation is a huge win for the state and our community.” The Patronato is dedicated to preserving the mission’s historical significance as well its architectural beauty. Previous campaigns already have addressed 75 percent of the mission chapel’s exterior renovation. The Patronato board is continually readjusting strategies to focus on emerging conservation issues. At first the focus was on fixing urgent structural problems as well as preserving the interior artwork. Major emergency restoration and protection of the mission’s foundation, walls and west tower were completed by 2009. More recently restoration efforts are focused on problems caused by the use of cement-based stucco in the 1950s, which trapped moisture and degraded the adobe. Now the Patronato has been racing to complete the public phase of a $3 million campaign to restore the mission’s east tower. Restoration is delicate business, Green said, especially for the mission’s recognizably unfinished east tower. “The goal of restoration is to preserve the building in its completed state – which means as left by the original builders in 1797,” he said. The original plan did call for two matching towers, but the second was never completed. The tower will be restored and left without a dome. Current restoration efforts are being carried out by a crew led by Danny Morales, whose family has worked on restoration at the mission across five generations. This Patronato-directed campaign also focuses on meticulous conserva-
tion of the mission’s interior, utilizing international and O’odham curators in an ongoing need to preserve, clean and minimize the impact of lost sections of artwork, decoration and statuary. “Even here there are preservation issues, because in some sections the artwork has been over-painted by subsequent attempts to repair or update,” Green said. In particular, the Immaculate Concepcion sculpture standing with three cherub angels at her feet over the main altar is now being painstakingly restored. The Patronato expects this unique, life-sized 18th century statuary, with its painted plaster over wood, silver and gold leaf decoration and vintage earrings, to be ready for unveiling in October, when the Patronato plans events tied to international World Monument Fund Watch Week celebrations. With the Pima County Bond for Nature Conservation and Historic Preservation defeated this past election cycle, the Patronato continues to look for ways to engage and educate the general public about the inherent value of the architecture and cultural traditions that underlie the mission’s rich heritage. Visitorship is more than 200,000 annually, said Green, a New Zealandborn educator and businessman who first visited the mission as a student in the 1970s. He hopes the World Monument Fund exposure will help identify new resources and develop partnerships to build sustainable preservation efforts. “There’s always a sense of urgency,” Green said. “We ask so much of this fragile resource yet we want to make sure it’s preserved for future generations. I suspect the mission will continue to transform us as long as we are willing to support it.”
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Adrian Ralph
Primary Staining General Manager Ventana Medical Systems President Ventana Medical Systems
Himanshu Parikh
VP, Global Manufacturing Operations Ventana Medical Systems
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Ann Costello
BizBIOSCIENCE
Ventana Medical Systems Improves Cancer Diagnostics Demand Exceeds Expectations By Dan Sorenson Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., has developed another milestone product to aid in the diagnosis of cancer – good news indeed for patients, pathologists and lab technicians around the globe as well as for the Tucson economy. The new, automated diagnostic tool, the VENTANA HE 600 system, is said to improve the quality and consistency of cancer pathology results and the safety of histopathology technicians. Ventana Medical Systems, a member of the Roche Group, is manufacturing the system – like the rest of the company’s line of diagnostic devices – at its facilities in Oro Valley’s Innovation Park, which also is good for the local economy. Demand for the VENTANA HE 600 system, introduced in late 2015, is already exceeding projections, according to Himanshu Parikh, VP for global manufacturing operations for Ventana Medical Systems. Parikh is the man in charge of getting the company’s flagship systems built. He said a second shift has been added to keep up with demand. Parikh said the Ventana campus is a unique facility for the medical technology industry – with everything from research and development, technical services, administration and manufacturing onsite. The VENTANA HE 600 system further automates the staining of slides made from thin slices of tissue that are used by pathologists to detect the presence or absence of cancerous cells. ‘Cornerstone of cancer diagnosis’
“Years of research and innovation by scientists and engineers here in Tucson resulted in the VENTANA HE 600 VENTANA HE 600 system H&E stain – thyroid thoracic papillary carcinoma, 100X magnification Courtesy Ventana Medical Systems, Inc.
system – our next-generation primary staining platform that is poised to elevate the standard of care in tissue diagnostics globally,” said Ann Costello, who in January was named president of Ventana Medical Systems. “When a patient first hears they might have cancer, their world changes in an instant,” Costello said. “It’s imperative that the advanced laboratory systems physicians use to help determine a patient’s diagnosis and treatment are of the highest quality and produce accurate results.” “You can’t be diagnosed with cancer unless a pathologist has reviewed an H&E stain. It’s the cornerstone of cancer diagnosis,” said Adrian Ralph, Primary Staining general manager at Ventana Medical Systems. The strategic business decision to make the substantial investment in the next-generation diagnostic instrument was driven by the belief that, industrywide, hematoxylin and eosin methods of testing (see box on page 44) had been lagging and Ventana could make a real difference to pathologists and patients
with this technology, Ralph said. “The technology that is out there today hasn’t changed much in 100 years or more. We felt there was a real need to standardize that process and bring a much higher quality and a much higher level of safety to H&E staining. This product has been in development for the past five years and we have consistently had about 100 people – scientists, engineers and others – working on this project. The VENTANA HE 600 system has involved a very significant investment, and I think we now have a product that changes the global standard for H&E testing.” Besides providing an overdue leap in cancer diagnostic technology, Ralph said, the VENTANA HE 600 system is timely because of the surging workload for cancer pathology. Game-changing advancement
“The aging demographic means more people are being diagnosed with cancer,” Ralph said. “Our mission is to improve the lives of all patients afflicted with cancer. That’s our true North, and this product absolutely helps us achieve that mission.” “This is a game changer,” Parikh said. “With the VENTANA HE 600 system, we have a better way of testing – more eco-friendly, more user-friendly – and we deliver a high-quality stain for cancer testing.” The system is breaking away from manual “dip and dunk” staining, the term for the way tissue slides had been prepared for more than a century. “Now, instead of having a technician manually continued on page 40 >>>
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BizBIOSCIENCE continued from page 39 prepare slides reusing chemicals, you have fresh chemicals automatically delivered onto each individual slide, creating a higher level of quality and standardization,” Parikh said. Meeting the demands of cancer diagnosis
“Diagnosis is about the skill of the pathologist and his or her ability to interpret a stain,” Ralph said. “The tenets of the VENTANA HE 600 automated tissue diagnostic instrument were to make it easier and more reliable to provide a high level of standardization with reduced chance of misdiagnosis. “What’s happening is that the number of patients presenting with cancer and the samples flowing through labs is increasing every year – but the number of technologists is not increasing. In fact, we have a shortage of pathologists and histotechnicians around the world. They’re being asked to do more with less,” Ralph said, which is why it made sense “to fully automate” H&E testing which today is still often manual or at best, semi-automated. “The pathologist’s job is highly skilled and requires high levels of concentration to interpret the slide and make a di-
agnosis. Their workload increases every year, and we can help make their task easier with a crisper stain and high levels of reproducibility,” Ralph said. The development team traveled worldwide to learn what pathologists
Did You Know? Histology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues. It is commonly performed using a microscope to examine cells and tissues that have been sliced, stained and mounted on a slide. Technicians prepare a thin slice of tissue, place it on a glass slide, and expose it to chemicals to stain specific cells and make them visible to a pathologist – a physician specializing in the examination of tissue and laboratory testing to assist in disease diagnosis. The staining process is referred to as H&E or HE histology, named for the main stains used – hematoxylin and eosin – that turn individual cell components specific colors.
in countries across the globe wanted in terms of H&E staining characteristics. Ralph said the responses were dramatically varied – from Australia’s preference for vivid colors, to pale, almost washed-out stain color preferences in China. The Ventana team went back to the drawing board more than once, and the result was a product that allows pathologists to specify any of 400 different stain preferences. Eliminates cross contamination
In the traditional H&E method, histopathology technicians fill up all their chemical and reagent tanks at the beginning of day, Ralph said. But as the day goes on, some cells may come loose from a piece of patient tissue on one slide and have the potential to crosscontaminate another patient’s tissue slide. When every sample gets fresh reagents through individual slide staining as achieved through the Ventana technology, the risk of cross contamination in the staining process is mitigated. “Contamination can occur from one patient to the next,” Ralph said. “Sometimes it’s obvious, but it is quite common. In one study, ‘Tissue floaters and contaminants in the histology labora-
Standing from left: Eliot Longacre, Manager, Global Technical Support; Jim Fitzgibbon, Sr. International Product Manager, H&E; Jose Salmon, Manager, Manufacturing Operations; Cesar Diaz-Brown, International Product Manager, H&E; Michael Wifall, Chief Engineer; Sitting from left: Randy Lane, Project Leader; Adrian Ralph, General Manager, Primary Staining; Vince Wong, Sr. International Business Leader, Primary Staining 40 BizTucson
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tory,’ 8 percent of slide samples showed contamination. “At the very least, cross contamination slows down the pathologist’s diagnosis in the reading of the slide – or the pathologist sends it back for a re-slice of the tissue.” And when a patient is waiting long hours and often days to learn whether they have cancer, that alone can be traumatic. Yet Ralph said, there is a possible outcome far worse than cross contamination. “The very worst-case scenario is misdiagnosis resulting from cross-contamination,” Ralph said. He cited a case in which a patient was diagnosed as having cancer in the mouth but the patient’s tissue sample was in fact cross-contaminated from another patient’s sample. The patient underwent a very invasive surgery based upon analysis of the contaminated slide. However, biopsy of tissue removed during the surgery found no sign of cancer. Safer for histotechnologists
PHOTOS: BRENT G. MATHIS
Parikh said with the VENTANA HE 600 system, there are potential health benefits for pathology labs and lab workers as well. “The output is much higher with less waste and no alcohol,
no xylene.” Xylene is an aromatic hydrocarbon traditionally used in H&E slide preparation, but is known to cause health problems with long-term exposure. Xylene figured into histopathology being rated as one of the jobs most hazardous to worker health. A 2013 Business Insider report ranked preparing H&E slides as the most dangerous of 974 occupations based on information about six health risks collected by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network. The VENTANA HE 600 also has implications for the future of cancer diagnostics. Though pathologists today typically work with the same lab day in and day out, Ralph said the future may very well involve more long-distance pathology work where experts might be making a diagnosis remotely – even in another country – from digital files of H&E slides sent to them electronically. That would require labs to generate a very clear and high-quality H&E stain that can be handled reliably by scanning technology. Ralph said the VENTANA HE 600 system’s ability to provide consistency, then, becomes even more important.
Ana Torres, left, and Brian Ackerman, Assemblers, work on the manufacturing floor of the VENTANA HEwww.BizTucson.com 600 system
Biz
Meet Ann Costello,
President Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. Ventana Medical Systems’ new president, Ann Costello, joined parent company Roche Diagnostics in 1988 working in research and development at its Basel, Switzerland headquarters. There she helped develop immunoassays, a test that relies on biochemistry to measure the presence of antibodies generated in response to the invasion of a foreign molecule – or antigen – into the body. She went on to hold a number of senior management positions in marketing and business development in Switzerland, Germany and California. Costello came to Roche’s Tucson unit, Ventana Medical Systems, four years ago. Prior to her appointment as president, Costello led the Advanced Staining Franchise at Ventana. A native of Ireland, Costello earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical science from the Dublin Institute of Technology and is a fellow of the Institute of Medical Laboratory Science. She began her career as a biochemist working in a large central diagnostics laboratory in Dublin. In all she has 27 years of international diagnostics experience. As the leading supplier of cancer diagnostic systems to the pathology market, Ventana Medical Systems manufactures more than 220 cancer tests with related instruments in Southern Arizona for delivery to 80 countries and 4 million people afflicted with cancer.
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BizTECHNOLOGY
Global Leader In Big-Data Science UA Earns Second $50 Million Grant
IMAGES: COURTESY CYVERSE
By Eric Swedlund What began as iPlant at the University of Arizona in 2008 as a computing tool for plant science has expanded into an invaluable platform for research of all sorts – earning a second $50 million grant and positioning the university as an international leader in big-data science. Renamed this year as CyVerse, UA cyber infrastructure is used by researchers around the world to store, manage and analyze data sets of staggering size and complexity. The data is key to helping scientists gain new insights in areas like genomics, climate modeling and astronomy, fields where the collection of mass data has outpaced researchers’ ability to make sense of it all. “This kind of infrastructure is absolutely crucial to the future of science,” said Parker Antin, CyVerse’s principal investigator. “More and more, science involves very large data sets and the analysis of those data sets to create understanding. The data sets are so large and complex and the handling of them is so difficult, that you need this sort of large infrastructure to do it
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for you, otherwise you grind to a halt very quickly.” CyVerse marshals the technological resources necessary to crunch big data in a way that frees individual researchers from having to create their own platforms for every unique set of data. The simplicity and flexibility that characterizes CyVerse allows any researcher to use whatever tools are necessary, without having to program or even understand how those tools operate. “It is our job to connect data across all levels to see the big picture – to sift through the data and figure out ‘why’ instead of simply ‘what,’ ” said Kimberly Andrews Espy, the UA’s senior VP for research. “Without the proper platforms, researchers spend too much time staring at frozen computer screens and not enough time making discoveries.” Five-year $50 million grant from NSF
CyVerse began as the iPlant Collaborative, earning the university a five-year, $50 million National Science Foundation grant in 2008 to
provide computational infrastructure for plant sciences. The platform was so successful that NSF expanded its focus in 2013 when the grant was renewed for another five years and $50 million. “Nobody really knew then what was necessary or what the applications would be,” Antin said. “The first two years of the project were meetings with the scientific community around the world, to ask what is happening in the next five years and what do we need in terms of cyber infrastructure to make it happen?” CyVerse is a highly sophisticated and thoroughly interconnected set of computing resources, largely built on open-source resources already created by the NSF, including software and hardware solutions for data storage and management, analysis, communications and more. “The genius of it was to get those individual resources, which were created as standalone entities, to talk seamlessly together. That’s very difficult and complicated, but people need it in order
to facilitate their science,” Antin said. “We now have a mission that is much broader than it initially was and one of the great things about our infrastructure is it’s the Lego blocks of science. It’s scalable. You can keep adding onto it. People can even bring their own resources to us.” CyVerse is now approaching 30,000 user accounts across the world, representing all areas of biology, ecology, environmental sciences, geography, climate and space sciences. Those users rely on CyVerse for an ever-growing data storage of more than 1.3 petabytes housed on servers at the UA and its partner institutions – the Texas Advanced Computing Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. “Some people think that what they need is a lot of supercomputers, but it’s not about having access to the fastest computer in the world, because there are very few projects that actually need that,” Antin said. “What they really need is data management. It’s about having a place to house these huge
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“
We don’t do science. We enable other people to do great, great science – by creating this environment and infrastructure for them to succeed. That’s the power here. –
”
Parker Antin, Principal Investigator, CyVerse
data sets. With CyVerse, suddenly you can upload unlimited amounts of data, you can process it and share it and point it at data analysis applications.” Next-generation computing resources
In one recent breakthrough, CyVerse enabled UA geneticist Taylor Edwards in his discovery of a new tortoise species in northern Mexico. Edwards was able to easily share his data with collaborators and process the genetic information using the CyVerse platform. Likewise for Fiona McCarthy, a UA associate professor in the School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, CyVerse enables work that couldn’t otherwise be done. “This is a real turning point for biologists. This is the first time that we’re able to get more data so rapidly that we actually are lagging behind in understanding what that means,” McCarthy said. McCarthy, who has worked on CyVerse since its inception, studies bird genomes, focusing on bioinformatics and genomics – research that re-
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quires next-generation computing resources. The chicken was the first bird genome to be sequenced, more than 10 years ago. Now there are more than 50 species to be sequenced and part of McCarthy’s research uses comparative modeling to study how birds evolved and are related to each other. “One of the things that’s fundamental is dropping boundaries and developing collaborative links for the researchers,” McCarthy said. “I can put my data on CyVerse and decide who I share it with. I don’t have to mail this hard drive to a collaborator. It’s so easy to share data now with just a couple of clicks.” Science itself is transforming in the era of big data, Antin said. The traditional model of hypothesis-based inquiry is losing ground to what’s called discovery-based science – where the collection and analysis of data can occur without any specific question in mind. “We have a mantra that we enable science. We don’t do science. We enable other people to do great, great science – by creating this envi-
ronment and infrastructure for them to succeed,” Antin said. “That’s the power here. It doesn’t matter if it’s in space, or in biology, if you have a major challenge and you need computing resources, we’re your people. ‘Customers for life’
As CyVerse has grown and expanded, it’s built a reputation in the scientific community as an indispensable resource for investigators across disciplines. “In the beginning we went out and sought users. Now, we have so much going on that we don’t have to do that anymore. People are coming to us. As soon as we solve their data needs, they’re customers for life,” Antin said. CyVerse has changed and adapted over time by staying in close contact with its users, creating and adding new capabilities along the way as users’ needs change. “We have a group of scientific analysts who understand both the cyber infrastructure and the needs of the users. It’s through this interaction we realize and create new capabilities within the infra-
structure,” Antin said. “The capabilities are driven by the users. CyVerse can address users who just point and click – but we can also take users who know how to code and they can build their own applications.” Antin and his co-principal investigators at the UA – Nirav Merchant, director of information technology at Arizona Research Laboratories, and Eric Lyons, assistant professor of plant sciences – lead what’s becoming one of the UA’s most notable scientific attributes. “One of the reasons it started here is we have world-class plant biologists and worldclass computer capability in our faculty,” Antin said. “Having this here is a unique attribute, similar to having the OSIRIS-Rex project or the Biosphere. You can think of this as a unique resource on the scale of those because we can enable so many major projects.”
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BizBRIEFS
Finley, Bootes Named to TAA Posts Tony Finley is the new chairman of the Tucson Airport Authority board. The CFO of Long Companies and Long Realty has been a member of TAA since 2009 and joined the board in 2012. He earned his bachelor’s degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and master’s from the University of Texas at Austin. George W. Bootes III joined TAA as chief economic development officer. He will oversee infrastructure planning and promote airport development. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at State University of New York.
Biz
Casino Del Sol Resort gets Forbes Four-Star Rating Casino Del Sol Resort and its PY Steakhouse received the Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star rating in the annual ratings announced in March. It is the only casino resort in Arizona to get four stars from Forbes and the AAA Four Diamond rating. “To be honored with the Forbes award for the fourth year in a row is an incredible achievement,” said Casino Del Sol CEO Kimberly Van Amburg. “Our resort and steakhouse are truly first-rate establishments due to our staff’s dedication to providing exceptional service.”
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BizBRIEF
Keegan, Linscott & Kenon Settles Into New Home Office
Keegan, Linscott & Kenon moved its home office to 3443 N. Campbell Ave. after a long stint downtown that began in 1994. KLK is a full-service professional services firm including accounting, audit, tax and consulting services. The new office space means improved client service, new amenities for employees, room for growth and free parking for clients. KLK occupies most of an 18,000-square-foot multi-tenant office building in the Campbell corridor. “The newly remodeled floor plan will provide greater efficiency in how we serve clients. We expect this to improve internal and external communication,” said Carla Keegan, president and direc-
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tor of tax services. “We were fortunate to find and renovate such a great space so centrally located to our clients. We really wanted to limit the impact that relocation could have on our clients and our employees. I don’t think we could have found a better location for our team. Our new location and enhanced operational efficiencies will help us continue to grow and evolve to keep pace with our client’s needs, allowing us to provide exceptional value and superior service along the way.” After an extensive renovation, the interior remodel was completed in January. Included in the remodel is a larger conference room with state-of-the-art equipment, two small conference rooms
and a large patio area “to enjoy our beautiful Tucson weather year-round, while providing a place for our dogs to hang out with us,” Keegan said. The firm has more than 50 professionals throughout the state including certified public accountants, certified fraud examiners, certified insolvency and restructuring advisors, chartered global management accountants and certified in financial forensics. KLK also has an office in Scottsdale, which opened in 2014. Scottsdale was selected after a careful evaluation of the business ecosystem, talent, long-term costs, quality of life for employees, connections with the world and proximity to new and existing clients. Biz
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Partnership Brings Tangible Benefits
Air Force Community Partnership Links D-M to Local Organizations By David Pittman
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Col. James P. Meger PHOTO:CHRIS MOONEY
Col. James P. Meger began contemplating and acting on efforts to improve collaboration between Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the Tucson community even before he became base commander in the summer of 2014. Meger was in the midst of a yearlong combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 as vice commander of the 9th Air Expeditionary Task Force and Assistant NATO Air Commander when he was informed that his next assignment would be back in Arizona as commander of Tucson’s Air Force base. Prior to his deployment to Afghanistan, Meger had gotten the lay of the land in Tucson serving as vice commander of D-M and becoming familiar with the Air Force Community Partnership. When he took command of the base and its host unit – the 355th Fighter Wing, which trains pilots to fly the A-10 Thunderbolt II jet fighter aircraft – he had already done some of the legwork to figure out how the partnership could benefit D-M and the Tucson community. “I learned about the Air Force Community Partnership because some folks that I knew in Tucson from the DM50 reached out said, ‘Hey this program is out there and we ought to take a look at it,’ ” Meger said. He thought the possibility of greater collaboration between D-M and major organizations within the Tucson community presented “a great opportunity.” “So, I started calling up to Air Force headquarters in the Department of Defense to get this initiative rolling,” Meger said. “We actually started this process before I showed up in Tucson.” The result of that initiative is that DavisMonthan and large community organizations – such as the City of Tucson, Pima County, the University of Arizona, Pima
Commander Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
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BizDEFENSE
A Reprieve for the ‘Warthog’ Pentagon Delays A-10 Retirement But Phaseout On The Horizon By David Pittman
The 355th Fighter Wing
operates the A-10 Thunderbolt II, an aircraft that provides close air support to ground forces, air interdiction, forward air control, combat search, and groundbased tactical control and airbase operations. The 355th Fighter Wing, which is the host unit at D-M, is composed of four groups – the 355th Operations Group, the 355th Maintenance Group, the 355th Mission Support Group and the 355th Medical Group.
Arizona congressional leaders, topranking Tucson and Pima County political officials and Southern Arizona business interests all rejoiced over a decision by the Pentagon in February to delay the planned retirement of the A-10 Thunderbolt II jet aircraft until 2022. But a recent announcement that phaseout of the A-10 actually will begin in 2019 and will be completed by 2022 has renewed local concern over the overall vulnerability of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and its massive economic impact on the Tucson community. Yet there are positive signs that the base is well respected nationally. On May 9 the Air Combat Command announced that the air base received the 2016 Commander-in-Chief ’s Installation Excellence award - which the base won previously four years ago. D-M is now competing at the Headquarters AF level with other Major Command submissions. The award recognizes the outstanding and innovative efforts of the people who maintain and operate U.S. installations. “Congratulations to all of you,” said U.S. Air Force Col. James Meger, 355th Fighter Wing commander. “Thanks for providing a combat-ready force, developing our airmen, taking care of our families and for optimizing the resources we are given to accomplish the mission.” Meger stressed that D-M receiving the award wouldn’t be possible without the outstanding support of the Tucson community. “Our community partners are amazing wingmen and provided unrivaled support to the base,” he said. The A-10 is the backbone of the 355th Fighter Wing, which is the host unit and primary mission at Davis-Monthan. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter an-
nounced Feb. 2 that final mothballing of the A-10 “Warthog,” used primarily to provide close-air support and search and rescue operations to American and allied ground troops, would be deferred until 2022, as it is replaced by F-35 Joint Strike Fighters “squadron by squadron.” The decision to delay retirement of the A-10 was widely viewed as a victory for U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, a Tucson Republican, and U.S. Sen. John McCain, Arizona’s senior GOP senator. McSally and McCain, both former military pilots, successfully fought an Air Force plan to scrap all 300 A-10s in the U.S. fleet by 2019 in contentious budget battles over the last two years. However, the Air Force’s latest forcestructure plan calls for phaseout of the A10s to begin during the 2019 fiscal year and putting the last Warthog in D-M’s “boneyard” by October 2021, the start of the 2022 fiscal year. Many base supporters also remain concerned that ending the A-10 mission makes D-M more vulnerable to future closure. There are 83 Warthogs in three squadrons at D-M, making the base home to the nation’s largest contingent of A-10s. According to the Air Force’s A-10 retirement plans, 25 A-10s at D-M would be mothballed in fiscal year 2019, followed by 28 in 2020. The last 30 A-10s at the Tucson air base are scheduled to be retired before the close of 2021. While McSally was pleased with the Pentagon’s decision to delay retirement of the A-10, she vowed to continue fighting to keep the aircraft in action beyond 2022. McSally was an A-10 pilot based at continued on page 50 >>> Spring 2016 > > > BizTucson 49
the A-10 Thunderbolt II
BizDEFENSE continued from page 48 Community College and first responders throughout the area – signed agreements last December aimed at increasing collaborative efforts. Those agreements already are producing mutual benefits for D-M and its community partners. “On the interoperability side with first responders, anytime we buy or trade communications equipment, we make sure it’s compatible with the folks downtown and we’ve already trained to that,” said Meger. “Now I can pick up our radio and talk to first responders from the local area. Before, we couldn’t do that.” In other words, area firefighters and emergency units, as well as county and city law enforcement, can respond to D-M quicker, and likewise military personnel can reach off-base emergencies faster when needed, Meger said. “On the education side, it gives our airmen greater opportunities. We are helping grow programs at the University of Arizona in strategic languages. They have classes and teaching capacity down there, and I have linguists on the installation. It’s important their skills continue to grow.” Because of the partnership, base personnel fluent in Middle Eastern languages can interact with counterparts at the UA and Pima College, exchanging information and knowledge that benefits everyone. “It’s not a future benefit. It’s happening now,” Meger said. Sharon Bronson, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, said she enthusiastically supports the county’s participation in the partnership. “I was proud to attend a signing ceremony in December formalizing the county’s participation in the Air Force Community Partnership, which will provide service and assistance to the base and help it reduce its operating cost. “Pima County taxpayers to the county’s bond program have spent more than $10 million protecting D-M’s takeoff and landing corridor from housing and business encroachment,” Bronson said. “The county continues to seek ways to assist D-M in ensuring it remains both a vital part of our community and our national defense for generations to come.”
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1
2
3 continued from page 49 D-M, was the first female fighter to fly in combat, and was the first woman to command a fighter squadron in U.S. history. She said the new plan to retire the A-10 by 2022 is still premature because the Pentagon spent more than $1 billion a few years ago to re-wing the aircraft and upgrade its electronics so that it could be operational until 2028. “With the A-10s deployed in the Middle East to fight ISIS, in Europe to deter Russian aggression, and along the Korean Peninsula, administration officials can no longer deny how invaluable these planes are to our arsenal and military capabilities,” said McSally, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. “We need to have a thoughtful discussion about what should replace the A-10 once it can no longer fly. What airplane is that? Until we have a proven, tested airplane that is going to provide close-air support in combat and search-
4
5 and-rescue to our troops on the ground that are under fire and in harm’s way, we should not put the A-10 in the boneyard.” McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Defense Department’s announcement delaying the A-10s retirement “is a credit to the brave airmen from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and military installations across the country that are providing unmatched close-air support in critical missions throughout the world. “There is no weapon in our arsenal that offers more effective close-air support to American ground troops serving in harm’s way than the A-10 aircraft,” McCain said. “I look forward to seeing our A-10 pilots continue to make important advances in the fight against ISIL in the Middle East, boosting NATO’s efforts to deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, and supporting vital missions for U.S. national security continued on page 52 >>>
1. U.S. Sen. John McCain 2. U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, former A-10 pilot, first female fighter pilot to fly in combat and first woman to command a fighter squadron in U.S. military history 3. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild 4. Sharon Bronson, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors 5. Mike Varney, President and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber
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continued from page 50 wherever they are needed.” According to missionstrongaz.org, the website for the Southern Arizona Defense Alliance, D-M’s annual economic impact on the local community is $1.75 billion and the base creates more than 19,000 direct and indirect jobs. A Davis-Monthan study places the local economic impact of the base in 2014 at $974 million. However, when the 19,000 military retirees living in the Tucson area are included in the calculation, that estimate of local economic impact jumps to nearly $1.5 billion. David Godlewski, president of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association and the 2016 chairman of SADA, said it is “welcome news that we are hearing the A-10 retirement is going to be pushed out. We need to make sure there is an appropriate replacement for the A-10. As we have seen in recent conflicts, the A-10 has played a critical role and it would be shortsighted to move too quickly in retiring the A-10.” Sharon Bronson, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, said the county’s support of D-M is unequivocal. “We are thrilled the Air Force is extending the life and the mission of the A-10 until 2022,” she said. “Pima County and the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution early on that supports D-M no matter what the future mission or future aircraft serving that mission may be.” Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said, “The A-10’s greatest supporters are among our U.S. ground troops, who value its performance in providing close-air support. I know this because I have spoken with any number of them who told me the A-10 saved their lives. “The A-10 is currently the principal flying mission at Davis-Monthan and it will be for many years to come,” Rothschild said. “This gives us opportunity and we must be alert and working hard to expand current missions and look for future missions at D-M.” Mike Varney, president and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber, called the Defense Department’s announcement on the A-10 “good news.” “Maintaining a flying mission at Davis-Monthan has been the subject of an aggressive advocacy campaign by local continued on page 54 >>> www.BizTucson.com
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BizDEFENSE
“
The A-10s are going to go away at some point; it’s not if but when. As a community, we need to be vigilant with our congressional delegation in pursuing and welcoming any flying mission the Air Force wants to bring to D-M. –
”
Brian Harpel, President, DM50
continued from page 52 interests, including the Southern Arizona Defense Alliance and DM50,” Varney said. “The Tucson Metro Chamber is proud to have been a part of the SADA advocacy effort since its inception several years ago. The A-10 is a key component of the war on terror in the Middle East and in other important locations around the globe.” Eric Gibbs, president of the board of directors of the Tucson Association of Realtors, said, “The A-10 is critical to operations at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, which in turn makes it vital to the Southern Arizona economy. Our member Realtors know this well, which is why we are so pleased at the news the A-10 will continue to fly until 2022. “Southern Arizona stands united behind its air force base,” Gibbs said. “This issue isn’t about politics or politicians. It’s about our community, the men and women who serve at D-M, and the future of the base.” However, Brian Harpel, president of DM50, warned that the A-10 ultimately will be retired and that new flying missions need to be located at D-M to guarantee the base’s future. “The A-10s are going to go away at some point; it’s not if but when,” Harpel said. “As a community, we need to be vigilant with our congressional delegation in pursuing and welcoming any flying mission the Air Force wants to bring to D-M.”
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PHOTO:BRENT G. MATHIS
BizDEFENSE
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
Salute to D-M DM50 Event April 7 to Support Base Advocacy By David Pittman Thirty years of advocacy by the DM50 and nearly 90 years of contributions Davis-Monthan Air Force Base has made to Tucson and Southern Arizona will be celebrated April 7 at the Pima Air & Space Museum. The DM50 is hosting a “Salute to D-M” at the museum at 6000 E. Valencia Road with proceeds benefiting advocacy efforts aimed at keeping DavisMonthan active and operating. D-M is one of the Tucson area’s top three employers, with 7,019 military and 2,915 civilian employees serving at the base. According to an economic impact study by Davis-Monthan, base operations pumped an estimated $973 million into the local economy in 2014. When the economic impact of Tucsonarea military retirees is added, that estimate jumps to nearly $1.5 billion. “It is important for both U.S. national security and the economic wellbeing of Tucson and Southern Arizona that flying missions at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base continue,” said DM50 President Brian Harpel. “It is one of 56 BizTucson
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the most diverse bases with the best weather, range and air space of any base in the U.S. Air Force.” Harpel said the “salute” to D-M is being undertaken to “not only show the men and women who serve at the base how much respect we as a community have for them and how welcome they are in Tucson, but also to demonstrate to our political leaders in Congress and our military leaders at the Pentagon how strong local support is for continued base operations here.” Davis-Monthan’s history in Tucson goes back 88 years, and the DM50 is celebrating its 30th anniversary. The upcoming salute to the base will be the second such event organized and conducted by DM50. “We’ve decided to step it up a bit from what we did at the first salute,” said Dean Cotlow, a Tucson corporate real estate specialist and the DM50 member coordinating the event. “In addition to showing attendees what they can do to facilitate the future of the base and its various missions, our
program will feature a throwback USO show complete with a big band.” Food and drinks will be served at the event and prior to the show. Gates to the museum will open at 4 p.m. to event ticket holders who want to tour the Pima Air & Space Museum. The “Salute to D-M” show will begin at 6 p.m. and will last about two hours. Individual tickets are $50 and are available at DM50.org and at Will Call the night of the event. Cotlow said ticket sales, sponsorships and total dollars raised already have surpassed what DM50 did at the first salute. Col. James P. Meger, commander of D-M and the 355th Fighter Wing, said the work of DM50 and other groups, such as the Tucson Metro Chamber’s Military Affairs Committee and the Southern Arizona Defense Alliance, “shows a level of commitment to both our airmen and to what Davis-Monthan does for this nation – and that means a lot to our airmen.”
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BizCOMMUNITY
Fisher House Opens in Tucson For Families of Hospitalized Military & Veterans By David Pittman It The 66th Fisher House – and first in Arizona – was built to house families of hospitalized military personnel and veterans. It was dedicated Feb. 18 at a grand opening celebration in Tucson. The Arizona Fisher House, located on the campus of the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System on Tucson’s southside, was built on the premise that “a family’s love is good medicine.” It provides a comforting, first-class “home away from home” at no cost to the families of military members and veterans being treated at the VA hospital or any other Tucson medical center who live more than 50 miles from the Old Pueblo. “This is an amazing asset, not just for Arizonans, but also for veterans and their families who are referred here from other states,” said Jennifer Gutowski, acting director of SAVAHCS. “We are very thrilled to have the Arizona Fisher House on our campus.” SAVAHCS is a major VA referral location for highly specialized medical and surgical services within Arizona and much of the western U.S. In 2014, more than 2,000 veterans living outside Tucson received hospital care there. Ron Shoopman, a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general who now serves as president and CEO of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council, said the fact that the Arizona Fisher House has located here “speaks to the quality of care provided at Tucson’s VA hospital.” The Arizona Fisher House is the 66th such facility to open in the United States, Germany and England. Thirty-seven Fisher Houses are at VA hospital sites, while the 29 others are on the grounds of major military bases. Since the first two Fisher Houses opened in 1991, the charitable program has saved military and veterans’ families an estimated $280 million in out-of-pocket costs for lodging and transportation. The national private, nonprofit Fisher House Foundation has an A+ rating from Charity Watch, formerly known as the American Institute of Philanthropy. The 14,086-square-foot, two-story Arizona Fisher House is a Spanish-Mission-style design that contains 16 private suites, all of which are equipped with cable TV, DVDs and private bathrooms. The building, which can accommodate as
many as 44 guests, also is completely handicapped accessible and features a large communal living area, kitchen, dining room, library and laundry facility, and is Wi-Fi accessible. “I call it Starr Pass at the VA,” said Kelly Laurich, recently named manager of the Arizona Fisher House. Laurich formerly worked at SAVAHCS in the recreation department and the blind rehabilitation center. The Arizona Fisher House is the product of a private-public partnership that involves the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Fisher House Foundation and the Tucson community. The effort behind building the facility began when SAVAHCS applied to be the host site for the Arizona Fisher House. That request was approved by U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki on July 11, 2011. Construction of the Arizona Fisher House began in May 2015 and was completed at a cost of about $6 million, with the Friends of Arizona Fisher House Foundation raising about $2 million of the total. The balance of the building tab was paid through a gift from the national Fisher House Foundation. Once the structure was completed, the Fisher House Foundation turned it over to the VA to operate. Laurich said the location of the Arizona Fisher House is a great convenience for the families of patients at SAVAHCS. “Because it is right here on our campus, if something happens to one of their loved ones who are hospitalized here, they can throw on their clothes and be out the door and in that hospital room in seconds,” she said. Rick Grinnell, vice chair of the Arizona Fisher House fundraising committee and a Vietnam-era U.S. Navy veteran, knows firsthand the difference between being alone in recovery and having family there to provide support. “My dad wouldn’t let me get away with feeling sorry for myself about the pain of rehab and put his well-intentioned hand upside my head once,” Grinnell said. “No one else could have gotten away with that – but that’s exactly what I needed at that point of recovery. I knew then I was going to be OK.”
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Photo of ribbon cutting from left: Joseph Miller, Sons of the American Legion; Commander Josephine Herrera, American Legion Auxiliary President; Erik Castillo, Veteran, Human Resources Assistant; Congresswoman Martha McSally; Dr. Dana Staggs, President Arizona Fundraising Committee; Jennifer Gutowski, Southern Arizona VA Health Care System Acting Director; David Coker, President Fisher House Foundation; Kelly Laurich, Arizona Fisher House Manager; Congressman Raul Grijalva; Susan Bring , retired, Bring Funeral Home; Robert Ramirez, Vantage West Credit Union; Jim Click, Click Family Foundation 58 BizTucson
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PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Zachary Fisher
Builder, Philanthropist, Patriot By David Pittman After building an ultra-successful career as a New York commercial and residential real estate developer, Zachary Fisher became a renowned philanthropist.
PHOTOS: ASHLEY ESTILL
Fisher and his wife, Elizabeth, started the Fisher House program in 1990 by dedicating more than $20 million to the construction of “comfort homes” for the families of hospitalized military personnel. The first two Fisher Houses – designed and built by the Fishers – opened in 1991 at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. and at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. By 1993, the network had expanded to 12 houses and Fisher House Foundation was established as the national nonprofit organization to coordinate private and public support for the program. In 1994, the program expanded to the Department of Veterans Affairs when the first Fisher House for veterans opened in Albany, N.Y. “Zachary Fisher built the first 26 Fisher Houses out of his own pocket,” said Rick Grinnell, vice chair of the Arizona Fisher House fundraising committee. “He’s a true American hero.” With the recent opening of Arizona Fisher House at the VA medical complex in Tucson, there are now 66 Fisher Houses. During his life Fisher was a supporter of the Coast Guard Foundation and the Navy League, and he established the annual Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Award for Excellence in Military Medicine. He was also a major supporter of the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs, the George C. Marshall Foundation, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, the Reagan Presidential Library and many other institutions, groups and causes. Fisher was honored for his wide-ranging charitable contributions and his efforts on behalf of the men and women in the U.S. armed forces by U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton. Only two men in U.S. history have been recognized as honorary U.S. military veterans – Fisher and Bob Hope. Fisher died on June 4, 1999, at the age of 88. Three words etched in the marble of Zachary Fisher’s tomb speak to his legacy: “Builder … Philanthropist … Patriot.”
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11th Annual Tin Cup Invitational a Sellout The 11th annual Tin Cup Invitational Golf Tournament at Tubac Golf Resort & Spa on April 18-20 is sold out. The tournament provides financial support for greater Tubac-area youth who wish to go to college after high school, youth programs in the Tubac area such as the Tubac Center of the Arts summer children’s programs, and St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic of Nogales. This year’s event honors the 20th anniversary of the movie “Tin Cup,” which was filmed, in part, at the resort.
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PIMA AIR & SPACE MUSEUM www.pimaair.org
I-10 to Exit 267 - 6000 East Valencia Road, Tucson, AZ - 520 574 0462 www.BizTucson.com
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Two-Nation Vacations At the same time Tucson got its UNESCO designation, Ensenada became the first and only city in Mexico to be invited to join the Creative Cities network in the field of gastronomy. This means that Tucson and Ensenada share the distinction of premiering this culinary honor in North America. That’s good news for tourism on both sides of the border. Felipe Garcia, executive VP of Mexico Marketing at Visit Tucson, said 21 to 22 million Mexican nationals come north to visit Arizona annually. Their first priority is shopping, but the second is dining, an activity that’s very much part of Mexican culture. “When you have a business meeting,” Garcia said, “it is usually over lunch or dinner or, at minimum, coffee. The City of Gastronomy designation speaks to the role that food plays in Mexican society.” In addition, because Ensenada was also designated a City of Gastronomy, Garcia said, “we will be able to start cross-promoting the ‘two-nation vacation’ concept.” Tucson and Ensenada tourism campaigns encouraging visitors to experience Mexican cuisine and cultures from two different and unique perspectives is one possibility. An official sister Cities of Gastronomy approach is another. According to Garcia, awareness of the designation will first be spread through traditional marketing channels, including Vamos a Tucson – the Spanish-language version of the Visit Tucson site – and radio and TV. The second phase will involve an exchange of chefs and mixologists between Tucson and cities in Sonora, the Mexican state directly south of Arizona. Representatives from San Carlos have already participated in Tucson’s International Margarita Championship, and last year, Aaron DeFeo, beverage director at Casino del Sol, hosted a dinner in Hermosillo with cocktails using local ingredients – including Bacanora, Sonora’s version of tequila. Now there’s a cultural exchange everyone can toast.
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Tucson Gains International Food Fame First UNESCO City of Gastronomy in U.S. By Edie Jarolim Tucson has been in the international spotlight since December, when it became the first and only city in the United States to be designated a City of Gastronomy by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Tucson got the nod not only for its thriving culinary scene, but also for its rich agricultural history and its potential to incubate sustainable food-related businesses. The Creative Cities Network was formed by UNESCO in 2004. Today there are 116 members from 54 countries in seven fields, including literature and film. If all goes as planned – and plans are plentiful – this designation could have a major impact on Tucson’s economy. “We’ve already gotten a great deal of positive feedback,” said Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, who played a key role in getting the designation. “When you think about Tucson being the only city to get this recognition out of all the great food cities in the country, the first thing people are going to ask is ‘Why?’ And when you start explaining, travel writers and food critics begin looking at us with fresh eyes.” In addition to outstanding restaurants, the city hosts a growing number of microbreweries and distilleries, food trucks, farmer’s markets and festivals focusing on food and spirits. Two thriving wine regions, Sonoita-Elgin and Willcox, are nearby too. The most obvious beneficiary of the newfound attention will be the tourism industry. “The local food culture, combined with its outstanding cuisine and large number of locally owned and op-
erated restaurants, is already a strong selling point for Tucson,” said Brent DeRaad, president and CEO of Visit Tucson. “We’ve already been able to leverage the recognition in quite a few placements, including the Times in London, The New York Times, the Calgary Herald and the Smithsonian website,” DeRaad said. “Being able to get publicity for Tucson’s culinary offerings on a national and international level will definitely help us attract more visitors.” Will travel for food
The World Food Travel Association estimates that 51 percent of those who travel regularly express an interest in learning about or enjoying unique culinary experiences. Fifteen percent said their primary reason for choosing a destination was its culinary options. In addition, the Arizona Office of Tourism notes that the culinary traveler spends more per trip ($1,322) than the average traveler ($1,200). Culinary travelers also tend to be interested in history, another tie-in to the UNESCO designation. According to Jonathan Mabry, historic preservation officer for the City of Tucson, heritage tourism is the fastest growing sector of the industry in the U.S. – and it’s about far more than a destination’s old buildings. “In much of the rest of the world, the concept of heritage conservation includes such intangibles as food and music and crafts,” Mabry said. Tucson has the longest continuous history of agriculture in North America, stretching back more than 4,000 years, as well as a 300-year tradition of raiscontinued on page 64 >>>
PHOTOS: COURTESY VISIT TUCSON
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Ambassador for the City of Gastronomy Janos Wilder has always been ahead of the culinary curve. The classically trained chef was one of the pioneers of New Southwest cuisine in the United States. His first Tucson restaurant, Janos, was so successful in applying fine dining techniques to Sonoran Desert ingredients that Wilder won the prestigious James Beard award. He was on the board of directors of Native Seeds/SEARCH, a nonprofit devoted to preserving heirloom crops, long before awareness of heritage conservation became widespread. And the globe-trotting menu at Wilder’s latest restaurant, Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails, showed a prescient focus on a world culinary consciousness that draws on local resources.
Chef Janos Wilder at Travel & Adventure Show in Chicago with the Arizona Office of Tourism
Costilla de ResShah Manish Tacos Apson
PHOTO: PEDRO ROMANO
Pico De Gallo Tacos
PHOTO: PEDRO ROMANO
Sonoran Hot Dog
It’s no surprise then that Wilder was brought in to brainstorm and give testimonials for both UNESCO City of Gastronomy applications – or that he should take full advantage of the successful designation at Carriage House, the new event space and cooking school that Wilder debuted in February with Devon Sanner, his chef de cuisine at Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails.
Downtown Cocktails HeirloomKitchen Farmer +Market Arizona Office of Tourism at the Travel & Adventure Show in Chicago
For a series of City of Gastronomy classes, Wilder and Sanner are partnering with Edible Baja Arizona to bring in instructors who represent the food and the flavors of the region., “Not only restaurant chefs, but also people who work in their homes,” Wilder said. “I want the best tamale makers from Hermosillo, the women who make tortillas that are as big as your arm.” They are also looking to have Tucson Meet Yourself curate a series of classes with some of the local immigrant communities. Wilder already proved to be an excellent City of Gastronomy ambassador. On a trip to the popular Travel & Adventure Show in Chicago with the Arizona Office of Tourism, Wilder prepared a salad of cholla buds and tepary beans for a large audience of potential visitors. Mary Rittman, director of public and visitor relations at Visit Tucson, reported that his presentation was a huge success. “People lined up for the samples and waited while Janos talked about the ingredients and about the Santa Cruz River Valley heritage. Even after they ate, they stayed around to ask question after question,” Rittman said. Looking to the future, Wilder said, “I believe – or at least hope – that the designation will be an impetus for more local chefs to think of themselves as part of the larger fabric of the city.” He plans to work hard to make that happen. “I want to find the people who produce the best goat cheese and honey and put them in contact with chefs, to explore the depth and breadth of the Tucson locavore movement through the prism of the City of Gastronomy. It’s one and the same.”
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Mission Garden continued from page 62 ing livestock and cultivating fruit, including wine grapes. The reconstructed Mission Garden, showcasing Tohono O’odham, Spanish, Mexican and American crops, is among the many sites where visitors can explore the city’s multicultural food heritage. In addition to getting the word out, Tucson is gearing up to introduce City of Gastronomy-themed ways to appeal to visitors. These include everything from cooking classes by James Beard award-winning chef Janos Wilder to tours hosted by Edible Baja Arizona, the media sponsor for the UNESCO award. The magazine’s first Edible Excursion, offered at the end of January, visited a local coffee roaster, a farmer’s market, a working urban farm and a wine tasting room, among other stops. But as Gary Paul Nabhan, the writer and ethnobotanist who spurred the city to apply for the UNESCO designation, put it, “We want people to see the City of Gastronomy as not just for gourmets, but as something that can help every sector of our economy. Small local businesses are going to be able to benefit from the award, too.” Growing food-related businesses
Nabhan, director of the University of Arizona’s recently formed Center for Regional Food Studies, cites the studentrun Compost Cats program as one of many food-related businesses that affects members of the community who don’t necessarily dine out regularly. The food scraps that are picked up by the City of Tucson from some 50 businesses and turned into rich soil are a boon to local gardeners and also keep millions of pounds of food out of Tucson’s landfills. “We used to get our compost from Ohio,” Nabhan said. “Now you can buy it here, from student entrepreneurs.” Nabhan said many of his students at the Center for Regional Food Studies aren’t your typical ivory-tower types. They are unemployed and retired farmers and farm workers who want to get back into the food economy. “I’m teaching seven short courses at the UA Tech Park on topics like greenhouse and nursery management, food safety for small food businesses, and water harvesting for food production,” Nabhan said. “People with very little capital but a lot of time on their hands and good skill sets can go after these jobs.” The UNESCO designation was directly responsible for the creation in 2015 of The City of Tucson Commission on Food Security, Heritage and Economy, which also addresses the less glamorous side of the city’s food scene. Mayor Rothschild said, “We have a number of food deserts in the city, relatively large areas where there’s not fresh food, and a lot of people in the community who go hungry.” The Commission will study these problems and propose solutions. 64 BizTucson
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PHOTOS: COURTESY VISIT TUCSON
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Native Seeds Of course, the distinctions drawn between gourmets and do-gooders are often misleading. Farmers markets, for example, are stereotypically seen as yuppie magnets, but the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona manages four that provide fresh produce to lower-income residents. And the more upscale consumers at other markets help spur business practices that are crucial for the survival of small farmers. Manish Shah, co-executive director of the three Heirloom Farmers Markets, said, “Vendors don’t get into our markets just because they want to – we vet them. They have to provide high-quality food and packaging, correct pricing and have a good attitude towards consumers, who are often very picky.” International smorgasbord
Similarly, although food trucks have become trendy, they have their precedents in the mobile Mexican kitchens that have long been a part of this city’s history. And the new, more internationally oriented trucks don’t only cater to sophisticates. David Aguirre, who organizes the Tucson Food Truck Roundup, said, “We especially like to go to the edges of Tucson where there are fewer culinary options – for instance, Rancho Sahuarita. We get a really strong following from families there.” Different family members are able to try different types of food, such as Caribbean, Peruvian, pizza and Texas barbecue, while all sitting together at one table. “It’s lots of fun,” Aguirre said. The tourism boost spurred by the City of Gastronomy designation is likely to highlight this interconnectivity between different food communities – and to expand on it. Mabry believes that the increase in visitors seeking out unique dining experiences and products, combined with the trend toward buying local, will lead to business collaborations that will fill needs in the food economy infrastructure. For example, he said, “Grass-finished beef has become a Southern Arizona specialty – but ranchers have to drive their beef all the way to Phoenix to have it processed.” A meat-processing facility in the Tucson area would solve that problem and create more local jobs. Supporters say the one thing that has already brought all the food sectors together is enthusiasm about the UNESCO designation. There is so much potential. “We’re still in the initial stages,” Mabry said. “There is a lot of brainstorming and creativity going on now about how best to use this designation for diverse community members, which is exactly what UNESCO intended for its Creative Cities Network.”
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The Road to UNESCO It all started in Morocco, an appropriately exotic desert destination where Gary Paul Nabhan, a world-renowned conservation scientist, was taking part in an international scholar exchange program. “One of my colleagues on the trip had recently written an application for Iowa City as a UNESCO City of Literature, which he saw as a unique way to do a partnership between the university and the city,” Nabhan said. Nabhan, a prolific author, had attended writing workshops and given readings in Iowa City. He noticed that there was a City of Gastronomy category too – one that he thought might be a good fit for Tucson. The idea fell by the wayside for a while, but a few years later, Nabhan pitched it to the Santa Cruz Heritage Foundation, then chaired by Jonathan Mabry of the City of Tucson Heritage Office. Nabhan and Mabry assembled a team that included Doug Biggers, the publisher of the new Edible Baja Arizona magazine, to which Nabhan was a senior contributing editor. In the January 2014 issue, the magazine published an open letter that proposed nominating Tucson as a UNESCO World City of Gastronomy. Megan Kimble, the magazine’s managing editor, said, “We’d begun collecting stories about organizations and individuals who have created a vibrant food culture and immediately saw what Tucson’s multicultural presence and rich agricultural history would bring to the application.” The next step was to get the City of Tucson on board. Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and representatives of the City Council were quick to respond to the inquiry. “The folks who brought the idea to us were extremely knowledgeable in their fields. I also knew, intuitively, that Tucson is a great food city, with its many good original restaurants and rich agricultural history. That made us think that we could succeed,” the mayor said. The first application, submitted in 2014, was turned down but the UNESCO committee was very encouraging, providing a good deal of constructive criticism. “They said it would be good if the city had a commission that addressed food security and the way that food affects the economy,” Rothschild said. That advice resulted in the formation in May 2015 of the 17-member City of Tucson Commission on Food Security, Heritage and Economy. Groups represented on the commission include the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona and the Pima County Food Alliance, along with such culturally oriented groups as Southwest Folklife Alliance/Tucson Meet Yourself. The second application proved successful. Tucson not only received a great honor but also emerged newly focused on supporting diverse sectors of the food community.
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SPECIAL REPORT 2016
THE REGION’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE
HACIENDA DEL SOL GUEST RANCH RESORT
Artful Blend of Historic Charm, Modern Amenities
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
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Hacienda Del Sol Unveils New Ballroom, Guest Rooms
PHOTOS: COURTESY HACIENDA DEL SOL GUEST RANCH RESORT
Artful Blend of Historic Charm, Modern Amenities By Mary Minor Davis he last of the stone has been placed around the new ballroom, artwork T is installed and the Catalina rooms are
all furnished and hosting guests. The multi-million dollar expansion of the Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort is complete. After years of planning and discussion, followed by nearly two years of design and construction, the historic boutique resort is putting the finishing touches on the first major development for the property in half a century. The recent expansion includes 32 additional guest rooms and suites, a new entryway, a retractable roof over the popular Terraza Garden & Patio Lounge for year-round dining, a new ballroom that can accommodate up to 300 people, a negative-edge pool with
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outdoor bar, a commissary, administration building and landscaped walkways – plus more than $1 million in sculptures and artwork throughout the property. “This is an idea that has been years in the making,” said Michael McGrath, one of six partners who own the property. “The one thing we kept telling ourselves and all of the architects who brought us ideas was this – ‘the Hacienda is a very special place. Don’t foul it up. If you’re going to come in here and build on this, don’t ruin the ambiance of the Hacienda.’ ” Planning the expansion of the boutique hotel was not without its challenges, said Tom Firth, managing partner of the property. The partners met weekly for several years to be sure they would “get it right.” continued on page 74 >>>2016 > > > BizTucson 73 Spring
BizRESORT Hacienda Del Sol Expansion at a Glance By the Numbers Guest rooms – 32 new rooms and suites, 27 historic rooms Casa Luna Ballroom – 2,900 square feet, with 1,200 square feet of pre-function space and 1,100 square-foot patio. Pools and spas – Two of each Masonry – 4,000 tons of Coronado Brownstone recycled from a Willcox gold mine
Casa Luna Ballroom
Accommodates from 230 to 300 guests. Spectacular city views. Expansive patio. Hacienda Del Sol design elements throughout, including polished concrete in pre-function area, Talavera tile in restrooms, warm colors, designer sconces, chandeliers, room accents, mirrors. Fifteen foot ceilings, state-of-the-art technology, dual 11-foot screens, dedicated kitchen, dance floor, cloakroom.
Terraza Garden Patio & Lounge
Seats 150. All-weather patio features with retractable roof and sidewalls. Alfresco atmosphere with fire pit, stargazing, mountain views.
Sandy’s Vista
Accommodates 30 for cocktails, wine tasting or wedding ceremony. Intimate space with unsurpassed mountain views and sunsets. Adjacent to The Grill for dinner after cocktails.
Catalina Pool
Accommodates 100. Negative-edge pool with native stone surrounds. Outstanding sunset and Catalina mountain views. Prime location for small wedding ceremonies, photo opportunities. Outdoor bar and fire pit.
The Spa at Hacienda Del Sol
There are three spa studio rooms for massages, facials, manicures and pedicures. Open to the public. The new Catalina suites are designed to accommodate inroom spa treatments including massages and body treatments. Floor plans are larger, and six rooms on the lower level have mountain views and outdoor showers – perfect for a refreshing body wash after a spa treatment. 74 BizTucson
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“
From the day we bought the property we were committed to maintaining its historical integrity, while still trying to provide a first-class guest experience.
”
– Rick Fink, Partner Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort continued from page 73
“There were so many things that needed to be upgraded,” he said. “But how do you update an infrastructure that dates back to the 1920s and 1930s?” First a school for girls, then a Hollywood hideaway
The Hacienda, located on 34 acres in the Catalina foothills of northeast Tucson, was built in 1929 by Helen and John Murphey, who did much of the construction – everything from hand-crafting the fixtures to the unique carving on the beams done by Helen herself. Shortly after completion, it was operated as the Hacienda Del Sol School from 1930 to 1948. A college preparatory school for girls, famous families that attended included Pillsbury, Vanderbilt, Maxwell, Westinghouse and Spalding. In the late 1930s, well-known architect Josias Joesler was commissioned to rebuild several areas that were damaged by a fire. True to the historic style of the time, Joesler’s early work became the template and inspiration for all improvements that would take place at the Hacienda in future decades. In 1948, Hacienda Del Sol opened as a continued on page 76 >>> www.BizTucson.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY HACIENDA DEL SOL GUEST RANCH RESORT
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
continued from page 74 guest ranch, attracting Hollywood types including Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and John Wayne. The property fell from the limelight for a number of years, changing hands with various owners until it was purchased in 1995 by partners McGrath, Firth, Rick Fink, Mike Stilb, Jeff Timan and Paul Ginsburg.
1929
Passionate local owners since 1995
“From the day we bought the property we were committed to maintaining its historical integrity, while still trying to provide a first-class guest experience,” Fink said. A primary goal for the expansion was to capitalize on the visual assets of the property. Timan said the site has spectacular city and mountain views, yet “as a school it was never really constructed 1930
Hacienda ranch built on 160 acres by Helen and John Murphey
Hacienda Del Sol School opens. A college preparatory school for about 30 girls, students included such names as Pillsbury, Vanderbilt, Maxwell and Westinghouse.
to take advantage of those views.” McGrath said the team spent a lot of time on tracking traffic flow, laying out how the new buildings would relate to one another, and establishing the view corridors. “We saw the opportunities to really showcase the best parts of the Hacienda, making it more accessible. We’d like to think it’s something Joesler would have done, had he had free reign,” Timan said.
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1948
‘30s
Fire damaged part of the property. Renowned architect Josias Joesler was commissioned to rebuild. His protégé, Lewis Hall, would continue improvements to the property, keeping to Joesler’s original style.
Hacienda Del Sol opens its doors as a guest ranch, visited by celebrities including Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne and Howard Hughes. The Casita Grande was a favorite hideaway for Tracy and Hepburn.
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
BizRESORT
Hacienda Del Sol leadership from left – Jeff Timan, Robyn Kessler, Mike Stilb, Michael McGrath, Tom Firth and Rick Fink
The centerpiece of the expansion is the new 2,900-square-foot Casa Luna Ballroom. “It’s the crown jewel of the property,” Timan said. “There are extraordinary views of both the mountains and the city.” This showpiece will help Hacienda Del Sol attract larger business events, corporate retreats and weddings than it could previously. The 32 spacious new guest rooms and suites are clustered in six two-story build-
ings. The patios are generous and every room has a view. Custom furnishings were designed by Judy and Rene Tinsley and handcrafted by Antigua de Mexico from alderwood shipped from Oregon. Firth said the Tinsleys created the cohesive designs for both the new Catalina rooms and the remodeled historic rooms. Six rooms have outdoor showers. Josh Martin completed the extensive stone masonry work that connects the old and new sections of the property,
t
installing tons of Coronado Brownstone recycled from a gold mine in Willcox. Fine dining, robust wine list, music nightly
The partners also continue to create a first-class intimate guest experience. From the brand new or newly renovated guest rooms to the friendly well-trained staff, they focus on being the best place to stay in Tucson. continued on page 78 >>>
1995
1997
1999
2016
Tucson investors Rick Fink, Tom Firth, Mike McGrath, Paul Ginsberg, Mike Stilb and Jeff Timan purchase Hacienda Del Sol and commit to restore its historic glory.
The Grill is constructed and soon attracts the attention of Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines, as well as awards for its extensive wine list.
The first major renovation and restoration of the 30 guest rooms is completed.
Hacienda Del Sol completes a multi-million renovation, including the first new buildings in 50 years. This includes 30 new 500-square-foot guest rooms and a ballroom that accommodates up to 300 guests and offers state-ofthe-art technology along with spectacular views.
PHOTOS: COURTESY HACIENDA DEL SOL GUEST RANCH RESORT
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BizRESORT PHOTO: COURTESY HACIENDA DEL SOL GUEST RANCH RESORT
continued from page 77
Hacienda Del Sol Guest Satisfaction Vern Taaffe, president and CEO of RPC, a dialysis firm, has booked his annual employee and customer appreciation event at the Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort for
more than 12 years. In 2015, his group was one of the first to experience the new guest rooms built during the property’s expansion.
“
Our guests stayed in the new Catalina rooms and suites, and they were extremely pleased. They loved that the rooms retained the rustic Southwestern theme present in the historic resort. They were also thrilled with the spectacular views from the rooms, the room amenities, and the large room size.
”
– Vern Taaffe, President & CEO, RPC
“
We love Hacienda Del Sol. It’s an amazing property nestled in the foothills that has amazing food and atmosphere. With the addition of their new ballroom we have plenty of room to grow our event.
”
– Curtis Gunn, Chairman Desert Angels 78 BizTucson
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“People interact with the staff in a very personal way. It just changes the whole complexion of your time here. And the people who come here bring an experience to the staff as well,” Fink said. “A lot of flagship hotels have a certain room type,” said Stilb. “That’s not the way it is here. We’ve always wanted to have a sense of place, something that really showed the essence of what Tucson is about. I think we succeed in that.” The buildings are nestled on about six of the 34 acres, leaving vast vistas of gardens and mature desert vegetation. Fink said another prime asset of the property that continues to attract guests is The Grill, which year after year has received the AAA Four-Diamond rating and Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence. “The Grill is one of the most sophisticated dining establishments in Tucson,” McGrath said. “The Terraza Garden & Patio Lounge offers an alternative to the more formal dining experience. A lot of locals like to come and enjoy our happy hours and other theme dining experiences.” The resort offers a variety of live music every night of the week. “We bring the community together through food, wine and music,” Firth said. Timan said he’s always bothered by the perception that the Hacienda is only for the high-end traveler. “We have a balance of affordable rooms and dining options – we want a widespread clientele.” In addition to the physical changes, the Hacienda is investing in its programs and services – including expanding its equestrian programs, which Firth said are great for team-building and the overall guest experience. The sunset and sunrise rides are especially popular. The resort also offers abundant art, a chef ’s table, an array of spa treatments, hiking trails and a gallery of historic Hacienda Del Sol photos. Local companies benefit
“We had the best team of contractors,” Firth said. “The moon, sun and stars were all aligned in our favor.” Most of the work was done by local companies, keeping the millions of dollars invested in the expansion here in Tucson. McGrath said none of it was possible without the support of the Bank of Tucson. “They really reached out and worked with us and allowed us to do it right,” he said. “They wanted to make a statement in the community by helping an iconic property in Tucson.”
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BizDINING
Respect for Dining
Attention to Detail Creates Exceptional Experience
PHOTOS: COURTESY HACIENDA DEL SOL GUEST RANCH RESORT
By Mary Minor Davis “Respect” is the word that reflects the rants spanning from San Francisco to New York, Washington D.C. and Venwork that goes into creating an exceptional dining experience at Hacienda ice, Italy. Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort – whether “We have respect for the ingredients it is in The Grill or the Terraza Garden we use, the care we put into each dish, Patio & Lounge. the respect in how we treat those ingreThe Grill is a regular award-winner, dients, our appearance, our tools. We including the AAA respect everything Four Diamond about cooking, right Restaurant distincdown to how we dice tion. With more an onion,” he said. than 900 labels and “This passion tran6,000 bottles of scends to our guest wine, the Hacienda experience.” has earned “The Hacienda Del Sol’s Award of Ultimate culinary excellence Distinction” from also comes from the Wine Enthusiast unique dishes that Magazine and Yim creates, using “Best of Award of ingredients from the Excellence” from property’s extensive Wine Spectator organic vegetable for 18 consecutive and herb gardens, years. as well as selections Executive Chef from local purveyors Bruce Yim said and growers. The what makes dining same kitchen and at the Hacienda chefs prepare the so special is the recuisine for both resspect that he and taurants as well as the staff put in to weddings, corporate every aspect of creretreats and other ating the ultimate special events at the – Bruce Yim culinary experience resort. Executive Chef for guests. He’s One of the biggest Hacienda Del Sol honed his skills at changes in The Grill Guest Ranch Resort acclaimed restauthat Yim implement-
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ed when he took over as chef nearly four years ago was to develop an a la carte menu. Previously, The Grill offered a five-course dining experience. “We were known more as a special occasion restaurant, and we wanted to get away from that reputation and offer more choices,” he said. “You can still have that special, fine-dining experience – but not everyone can eat that much food or wants to spend three hours at dinner.” Pairing great food with great wine is a specialty of the Hacienda’s culinary and beverage team. John Kulikowski, Hacienda Del Sol’s director of wine and spirits, ensures the restaurant has a diverse wine and spewww.BizTucson.com
PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
Chef Alejandro Carranza in the organic garden
Signature Culinary Events at Hacienda Del Sol March
Zin, Blues and BBQ
July 4 cialty cocktail selection. He also works with Yim to develop special dining events, including the popular Travel the World wine dinners. “The culinary and sommelier teams determine exactly what we want to showcase in each course of an event,” Kulikowski said. “This can start with either the wine or the food. Then we discuss the key flavor profiles that we wish to pursue. “When pairing wines to food, we discuss what ingredients are in each dish, and what the theme of the dish is overall. Wine pairings are flexible because there are many directions you can go.”
Kulikowski said the Hacienda’s wine list is designed to “exceed the expectations of all of our guests. We aim to have the perfect wine for every occasion and every price point. We hope to offer guests both the comfort of having their favorite wines available, as well as the ability to experience truly unique and expressive wines if they wish to get out of their comfort zone.” “There’s really nothing like the Hacienda in Tucson,” Yim said. “It’s like walking in to another world. It’s an oasis with great food and great wine. What more can you ask for?”
Red, White and Brew
November
Argentina Heart & Soul
Monthly
Travel the World Wine Dinners
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BizART
Hacienda Del Sol Showcases Regional Artists By Mary Minor Davis The expansion of Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort included the installation of more than $1 million in original art – including metal sculptures, paintings and glasswork. The vision behind this part of the project comes from Jeff Timan, an artist in his own right and one of the six partners of this historic boutique resort in the Catalina foothills. Timan also oversees the resort’s landscape planning and organic chef ’s garden. “The Hacienda Del Sol is proud to be the home of many pieces of fine sculpture by several different artists,” he said. “We are always looking to expand our artistic reach, both in painting and sculpture, especially through local and regional artists.” The Hacienda currently exhibits the creations of seven sculptors, most having multiple pieces on display. Timan offered the following guide to the newly installed artwork at the Hacienda Del Sol. 1. “Shaman’s Totem” by Rigsby Federick 2. “Sunflower” by Jeff Timan 3. “Ocotillo” by Jeff Timan
PHOTOS: BRENT G. MATHIS
4. “Bull” by Carlos Carulo 5. “Mia” by Art Neptune 6. “3 Forms” by Carlos Carulo 7. “City of Holes” by Art Neptune 8. “Tornado in My Home” by Steven Derks 84 BizTucson
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• There are five pieces by the internationally known Baton Rouge stylist and artist Rigsby Frederick. One – “Shaman’s Totem” – is prominent on the north walkway of the resort. The 15-foot high sculpture is distinguished by the shaman’s horns at the top. (www.rigsbysalon.com) • There are two pieces by Santa Fe artist Carlos Carulo, including “Bull,” a large steel sculpture that dominates the outdoor Terraza dining area from the east. Carulo has a piece called “3 Forms” in the Murphey Dining Room. “Though a fine sculptor, Carlos is better known as a painter, and he currently has four paintings on display in The Grill,” Timan said. (www.carloscarulo.com) • Steven Derks, “a prolific and much appreciated Tucson sculptor and painter,” has seven pieces at the Hacienda, including one in the library. Others are spread throughout the gardens, including his “A Promise of Things to Come,” a steel sculpture on the north walkway. (www.stevenderks. com) • Spencer K. Edgerton created a bronze masterpiece called “Large Devil’s Claw” that graces the front entrance. It is an oversized reproduction of an anatomically correct devil’s claw, an Arizona botanical marvel. (www.spenceredgerton.com) • Zak Timan, “a very unique glass artist,” according to his father Jeff, has two pieces in The Grill, including “Bugsby’s Bouquet” and “Study for Wonder.” (www.zaktiman.com) • Jeff Timan himself has five garden sculptures at the hotel. They include the Sentinels, a grouping of three abstract pieces located just south of the new swimming pool. Timan also has two botanical pieces at the hotel – “Sunflower” and “Ocotillo” – located near the swimming pool. • Local artist Art Neptune loaned eight sculptures to the resort including “City of Holes,” a grouping of six steel tubes from 3-12 feet tall, placed in the east courtyard.
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This small rabbit sculpture made its way from Guanajuato, Mexico via the Velasquez brothers. The family heirloom was passed on to the brothers from their grandfather and then permanently placed at the new Catalina pool. The brothers played an intergral role in the crafting of the rock walls and landscaping throughout the property. www.BizTucson.com
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BizRESORT Local Companies Hired for Multi-Million Dollar Expansion The multi-million dollar expansion of Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort was overseen by local managing partners who are passionate about the historic resort and committed to the local community. As a result, “most of the money for this expansion stayed here in Tucson,” said Tom Firth, managing partner. The local talent included these companies:
• Achilles Air Conditioning Systems • Antigua de Mexico • Bank of Tucson • Beach-Fleischman • Border/Marvel Building and Masonry Supply • Chestnut Building & Design • Cimarron Circle Construction • Darling Geomatics • Eglin+Bresler Architects
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• Gannon Utility Consulting • Golden Brush Painting • Martin Hardworks
• Mesch Clark Rothschild • Preferred Hotels & Resorts • The Clements Agency • Tucson Electric Power • W.E. O’Neil
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
• M.A.S. Real Estate Management
We had the best team of contractors.
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– Tom Firth Managing Partner Hacienda Del Sol Guest Ranch Resort
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PHOTOS: WILLIAM LESCH – COURTESY LORI CARROLL & ASSOCIATES
BizAWARDS
Lori Carroll Wins National Kitchen of the Year Award Tucson interior designer Lori Carroll, owner of Lori Carroll & Associates, was awarded the Kitchen of the Year award at the 2016 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show’s National Kitchen & Bath Association Design Competition and Industry Awards in Las Vegas. The annual competition and awards presentation, sponsored by Beautiful Kitchens & Baths, Traditional Home, and Dream Kitchens & Baths magazine brands from the Meredith Corporation, recognizes the industry’s top kitchen www.BizTucson.com
and bath designers from across the United States. The winners from each kitchen or bath category were determined by a panel of five design professionals. The design judges based their decisions on functionality, quality/durability, flexibility, aesthetics/style and innovation of the designs. For her Kitchen of the Year design Lori Carroll and her colleague Debra Gelety came up with a sleek, minimalist style without the kitchen appearing
plain and simple. Their use of clean lines, crisp edges and striking neutral tones gave the kitchen a very modern look. The client wanted a modified open layout with plenty of room for food prep, cooking cleanup and lots of storage. The client also wanted a slight definition between the dining area and the kitchen, so a pass-through was designed to separate them without closing in either area.
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BizBENEFIT
$3.4 Million for Type 1 Diabetes Research and Care
Father’s Day Council Tucson Honors 6 Dedicated Dads By Romi Carrell Wittman
• Barry Baker, principal, Endurance Private Investments/Brahma Capital
• George C. Larsen, principal, Larsen Baker
• John P. Lewis, president & CEO, Commerce Bank of Arizona
• Edmund Marquez, agencies owner,
Edmund Marquez Allstate Agencies
• Col. James P. Meger, commander,
355th Fighter Wing, U.S. Air Force
• Thomas W. Warne, president,
“The Father’s Day Council Tucson is critical in its role to help the Steele Children’s Research Center work toward a cure for type 1 diabetes,” said Crystal Kasnoff, chair of the 2016 Father of the Year Awards Gala and executive director of Tucson’s January 8th Memorial Foundation. “As a person living with type 1 diabetes myself, I know the toll it takes on your body and your family. We are extremely fortunate to have Dr. Fayez Ghishan as a leading, national researcher for type 1 diabetes in our community.” Proceeds from the Father of the Year
22ND FATHER OF THE YEAR AWARDS GALA
PRESENTED BY FATHER’S DAY COUNCIL TUCSON
Proceeds benefit University of Arizona Steele Children’s Research Center Loews Ventana Canyon Resort Thursday, May 19 5:30 p.m. No-host cocktails, ultimate raffle 7 p.m. Dinner and award presentions $175 per person For ticket and sponsorship information Contact Leticia R. Lovallo (520) 626-6486 lrlovallo@email.arizona.edu
Awards Gala help fund the Father’s Day Council Tucson Endowed Chair for Type 1 Diabetes Research at the Steele Center, which annually will fund a new researcher or physician. In addition, two doctors have been recruited, putting a total of five pediatric endocrinologists on staff. “With support from the Father’s Day Council Tucson, we’re looking at the immunology of diabetes. “It’s an autoimmune issue,” said Ghishan, who is also physician-in-chief at Banner Children’s at Diamond Children’s Medical Center, head of the UA Department of Pediatrics and the Horace W. Steele Endowed Chair in Pediatric Research. When the majority of people eat, they have an environmental tolerance to antigens, Ghishan said. This is not the case for people with type 1 diabetes. “We’re trying to figure out how to get that tolerance back again.” Ghishan said the council is instrumental in furthering this work. “The Father’s Day Council Tucson is the engine that drives type 1 diabetes research trials and clinical care.” With this kind of support, the Steele Children’s Research Center is poised to be a top-10 program, Ghishan said. “The goal is to build a renowned program. To do that, we need to attract top talent and you can only do that by offering endowed chairs, which offer stability.” Father’s Day Council Tucson was founded in 1994 by BizTucson Publisher Steve Rosenberg and his father, the late Howard Rosenberg. It’s affiliated with the Father’s Day Council New York, but is unique in that all proceeds stay in Tucson and benefit type 1 diabetes research and care. t
Since 1995, Father’s Day Council Tucson has pumped more than $3.4 million locally into the research and treatment of type 1 diabetes, with the goal of improving care and uncovering clues that might someday lead to a cure. Through the 22nd annual Father of the Year Awards Gala on May 19, the nonprofit hopes to raise even more funds to aid the Steele Children’s Research Center at the University of Arizona in its groundbreaking work on the immunology and endocrinology of the disease, as well as providing education and outreach for Southern Arizonans living with type I diabetes. “The Father’s Day Council Tucson has been supporting the Steele Center for the past 20 years and that relationship is the only one in the entire country where a Father’s Day Council supports a local group, not a national one,” said Dr. Fayez K. Ghishan, director of the UA Steele Children’s Research Center. “We are lucky to have the Father’s Day Council support a local entity.” By honoring outstanding fathers in the community, Father’s Day Council Tucson is able to support critically important research. The 2016 Father of the Year honorees are:
www.fdctucson.org
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PHOTO: AMY HASKELL
2016 FATHER OF THE YEAR HONOREE
Barry Baker with daughters Maya and Hannah.
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BizHONOR
Barry Baker
Principal Endurance Private Investments/ Brahma Capital
Fatherhood Trifecta Barry Baker Balances Kids, Career, Community By Romi Carrell Wittman On any given day, Barry Baker wears one of three important hats – father, real estate investment professional and philanthropist. Wait, make that four hats – he’s also an accomplished tri-athlete, having competed in several triathlons. How does he manage to fit it all in? “I try to bring the kids and incorporate them as much as possible,” Baker says, referring to daughters Hannah, 15, and Maya, 12. “Doing good or getting fit, it always feels better if we are doing it together!” A Tucson native and University of Arizona graduate – and 2016 Father’s Day Council Tucson Father of the Year honoree – Baker went on to the University of Texas where he earned an MBA. He later worked in San Diego with Tucson’s Robert Sarver and Mark Schlossberg at Southwest Value Partners before returning to Tucson to work in real estate investment at Brahma Capital, which was recently rebranded as Endurance Private Investments. He says living in Tucson makes balancing family, work and community possible. It enables him enough time to get up in the morning for a run with his running group, Tucson Runner’s Project, and still have enough time to get his daughters ready for school. He adds that he’s also able to fit in family and community in the evening, though sometimes difficult choices have to be made. “If there is an event or meeting going on at the same time the girls have an activity, the girls usually win or I take them. My attendance record for evening board meetings is horrendous,” www.BizTucson.com
he said. A laser focus on what’s important helps, too. He and former wife Rachael Baker maintain a good working relationship, one with a shared goal of raising two healthy, happy children. “Our love for the kids definitely guides us. I don’t know anyone who has gotten unmarried so well. Rachael gets all the credit,” he said. A cancer scare at 40 helped Baker hone his focus and eventually connected him The Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). The group provides grants for equipment like sports wheelchairs, handcycles, mono skis and sports prosthetics, as well as resources for training and competition for physically challenged individuals. “When I got my melanoma scare, I was told they were going to amputate part of my foot,” he said. Scared and a bit unsure of the future, Baker shared his story with someone at local company Tri-Sports. “They told me about the CAF, an organization they have supported for years. What I learned was that there are many people of all ages who have faced much worse and still embrace incredibly active lifestyles,” he said. Since turning 40, Baker has completed two Ironman distance triathlons and has worked extensively with the Challenged Athletes Foundation, the UA TriCats Triathlon Club and the UA Skin Cancer Institute, not to mention his ongoing work with the Tucson Jewish community. “I try to involve my girls as much as possible and find synergies between the organizations I work with,” he says. “I
have put on events at the JCC for the Challenged Athletes Foundation staffed by TriCats featuring an interactive information table for the UA Skin Cancer Institute.” His daughters are following in their father’s footsteps and are taking an active role in the community. “Hannah did a Mitzvah project for her Bat Mitzvah where she held a swim/run event at the JCC, staffed by TriCats, benefitting Diamond Children’s,” he said proudly of his oldest daughter. “Maya is my best fundraiser for CAF, and she, along with her sister, toured the Steele Children’s Research Center as she considers her Mitzvah project this year.” Baker says he’s humbled to be included among the 2016 Father’s Day Council honorees and to have the opportunity to shine a light on the work being done by Dr. Fayez Ghishan and the Steele Children’s Research Center. “Dr. Ghishan is such a gift for a community of Tucson’s size. His leadership, passion, and brilliance can attract talent, research investments, and huge breakthroughs for children in our community and those afflicted with type I Diabetes and auto-immune diseases around the world,” Baker says. Baker says he shares the honor of being named a 2016 Father of the Year with his daughters as well as Rachel Baker, the girls’ mother. “I am incredibly blessed to have two of my favorite people in the world for my daughters. I always tell them it is a great honor to be their Dad,” he says.
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George Larsen with wife Margaret and daughter Olivia. 96 BizTucson
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
2016 FATHER OF THE YEAR HONOREE
BizHONOR
George C. Larsen Principal Larsen Baker
George Larsen
Of Poems, Parenting and Scary Stories about Bear Scouts By Rhonda Bodfield George Larsen and his daughter, Olivia, share a love story with the written word. It started when Olivia was just an infant. In charge of her 2 a.m. feedings, George would sit with Olivia in the dark, reciting poetry to pass the 30 or so minutes it would take the baby to finish her bottle. The English major turned commercial real estate developer had about an hour’s worth of poetry memorized. And if one of those poems was the 1600sera seduction poem, “To His Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell, well, thank goodness Olivia didn’t understand the words so she was happily oblivious to its influence. Nighttime reading sessions were a very important part of each day. When Olivia was a little older, hours would pass while “Li’l Wolf Saves the Day,” “Mickey Meets the Giant” and “Beauty and the Beast,” among countless others. Not yet reading herself, Olivia knew the stories so well that if Dad skipped a page, she would indignantly recite what he missed. The Chicago native remembers a business conference to Hawaii. He and his wife, Margaret, had to fly separately, and George, laden with diaper bags and baby trappings, took the toddler with him. When they reunited in Hawaii, Margaret said she had a great, restful flight and read a book. “That’s nothing,” George scoffed. “I read 23 books!” George was an older father – he was almost 50 when Olivia was born – and he believes there were advantages. “The main one is that I had more time. I knew I had a little miracle baby girl waiting, and I had to be home by 6 p.m. The family was my priority,” he said. “It’s harder – not impossible, certainly, www.BizTucson.com
but harder – to do that when you’re young and building your company or building your brand.” During the daily commutes to school and back, Olivia would press dad to make up fantastic stories, using the Berenstain Bears as the main characters. Only she wanted scary stories. With a 20-minute daily drive, that tested his creative juices. He would start with elaborate scene setting, much to the impatience of his little audience. But soon enough, bumbling Papa Bear would drive the family into a cave full of pirates and snakes, only to have the resourceful Bear Scout Cub save the day. The father and daughter had adventures together every Saturday, sans pirates and snakes. They often went to the swap meet, car shows or horse shows. Olivia loved to ride. He recalls the hours and hours of waiting to watch Olivia take part in a one-minute equestrian event. Given the opportunity, he would do it all again. “When you remember your own parents, you think that they made sacrifices for you. But when you become a parent, you realize than none of it is a sacrifice, every bit of it is fun. It was a gift from God to watch Olivia grow up.” The father-daughter adventures got bigger when Olivia reached junior high. The two took a trip together every year. One year, they drove from Canada to Tucson in an old Austin-Healey. Another year, they drove a ’47 Dodge truck through Montana. They camped in a classic Chevy Woody Wagon, and always stopped at whatever weird and wonderful tourist trap they could find. Who said the Montana State Prison isn’t a fine tourist spot? And if the old car broke down, they just chalked it up
to another adventure. Along the way, he would talk of life and love and politics, with his Gregory School-educated daughter, who wasn’t shy about expressing her own opinions. All those words eventually caught up to Olivia. Naturally, she’s now an English major at Williams College in Massachusetts, and is currently studying English Literature at Oxford University in Great Britain. Olivia is a kind-hearted person with a strong social conscience whose goal in life is to make a positive difference. She’s on the other side of the political spectrum from her father, but that’s OK. George said she gets her community involvement passion from her mother, who has long been active in Angel Charity for Children. The mother-daughter team also was active in the National Charity League, volunteering weekly with local nonprofits. George said he is humbled to be named a Father’s Day Council Tucson Father of the Year and appreciative of the charity’s mission. Although he’s had no direct experience with diabetes and his family has been blessed with good health, “It’s great to have an opportunity to help such an important cause, and I am pleased to lend my support.” Before Olivia came into his life, George didn’t know if he’d ever have children. After he first held his baby, he knew that age would not make a difference. “I felt then that parenting Olivia would be the most important and most satisfying chapter of my life. It was and is.” Everyone knows that when it comes to a good love story, or even a scary story, happy endings are the best. Job well done, Dad.
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From left – Jason, Jeannine, Hanna, Allegra, Kindred, Scott and John Lewis with “Bett,” their 1949 Ford truck.
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PHOTO:AMY HASKELL
2016 FATHER OF THE YEAR HONOREE
BizHONOR
John P. Lewis
President & CEO Commerce Bank of Arizona
Banking on Family John Lewis Carries on the Lessons of His Father By Romi Carrell Wittman When asked how he built a successful 48-year banking career while managing the demands of fatherhood and community, John P. Lewis immediately points to his wife of nearly 50 years, Jeannine Lewis. “I couldn’t have done it without my wife balancing things behind the scenes. Opening a bank is a very difficult process and I’ve had a wonderful run,” said Lewis, president and CEO of Commerce Bank of Arizona. The two met in Spanish class at Tucson High School and got married in 1968 while Lewis was a senior at the University of Arizona. Six years later, they started a family that would grow to include two sons. Today son Jason is married to wife Hanna and works as firefighter. Scott works at Banner Health. Lewis said his sons have given him and his wife many wonderful years of excitement, though he admits some nail biting did take place. He recalls building his sons a skateboard ramp and teaching them how to drive a stick shift. The parents loved watching Jason play football at Tucson High and, some years later, watched proudly as son Scott joined the U.S. Navy. That pride extends to today. “It was such an emotional experience to hear that Scott helped a mother deliver her baby in the parking lot outside of the emergency room at the hospital where he works,” Lewis said. “And the memory of Jason graduating from the Tucson Fire Department academy as a new firefighter and the smile and tears of him holding his newborn son, Kindred, in his arms – it’s unforgettable.” It’s obvious that fatherhood is near www.BizTucson.com
and dear to his heart. After losing his own father to cancer when Lewis was just a sophomore at the UA, he was determined to carry on the many lessons he learned from his dad, a man who was one of 13 kids who never attended high school. “My dad drove a truck for Lilly Ice Cream for over 30 years. I learned the importance of hard work and dedication. My early years in the summer were spent accompanying him on his deliveries. Every one of his customers loved his sense of humor, sweet disposition and personal relationships. Watching my dad interact with his customers I believe was the beginning of my foundation as a future father and businessman,” Lewis said. Lewis has spent his entire career in the banking industry, getting his start in 1966 with a part-time job in the mailroom of Southern Arizona Bank while still in college. He liked the company so much he stayed for another 35 years. During his tenure, he moved through the ranks, including the management training program, which vaulted him into senior level positions. He stayed with the company through its merger with First National Bank and eventually Wells Fargo. When he left in 1996, he was division head of Tucson commercial banking. “When you’re in banking, you’re out all the time at events, boards and committees. My wife made sure I was in the loop. They were so supportive,” he said. Lewis said his career “brass-ring surprise” happened when, in 1997, he was given the opportunity to form an independent community bank, Southern Arizona Community Bank. During his
tenure as president, he was tapped to serve a two-year term on the inaugural Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Community Bank Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C. That work put enormous demands on his time, but with a strong foundation at home, he thrived. “Honestly, had I not had their support, I wouldn’t have had the results I had. Jeannine knew I was getting pulled in six different directions, but she knew I was happy, so she was happy, the boys were happy.” Lewis retired in 2012 and Jeannine gave him a big send-off, complete with a recording of Frank Sinatra singing “My Way.” “That song is the story of every businessman,” Lewis said, laughing at the memory. “You’ve bit off more than you can chew, but I did it my way.” The retirement didn’t take and, in 2013, he was invited to join Commerce Bank as president, a job he loves. Jeannine, Jason, Scott, grandson, Kindred, 6, and granddaughter, Allegra, 2, were all present when Lewis learned he was named a 2016 Father’s Day Council Tucson Father of the Year honoree. “It was a huge, emotional moment for me,” Lewis said. “Humbled, surprised and honored do not begin to describe my feelings, especially the absence of my mom and dad for this special moment.” Lewis said he often thinks of his own father. “He was a wonderful role model and it transferred over into raising kids without being their best friend,” he said. “To quote Frank Sinatra, I have no regrets.”
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2016 FATHER OF THE YEAR HONOREE
PHOTO: AMY HASKELL
Edmund Marquez with his wife Wendy, son Diego, daughter Alyssa and the family dog, Lucy.
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BizHONOR
Edmund Marquez Agencies Owner Edmund Marquez Allstate Agencies
Re-creating Childhood Joy Edmund Marquez Passes on Legacy of Life Experiences By Rhonda Bodfield You can’t talk about Edmund Marquez as a father without first knowing what his own childhood was like. Marquez distinctly remembers his 10-year-old self, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the bed in a Paris hotel room, counting with deliberate precision the francs and traveler’s checks spread out before him. Every year for the annual family trip, his father gave him the job of budgeting – to figure out their available resources and how to stretch them through the remainder of the trip. It was a big responsibility. Marquez readily absorbed the lessons that his father, Edmund Marquez Sr., an Allstate agent for 35 years, shared, including the importance of saving, setting aside retirement income and reinvesting in their business. Marquez came from a close-knit family with open lines of communication and a certainty that success was achievable. His dad, who also was his Little League and soccer coach, preached the gospel of dreaming big and not being limited by fear. His mother, Priscilla Marquez, urged him to jump in the trench and grind it out, because hard work and discipline would pay off. Both believed in raising independent children who could cook and clean for themselves, and who were convinced that travel was important in developing cultural awareness and personal growth. Marquez and his sister, Lea Marquez Peterson, saw Italy, England, France, Canada and Hawaii at young ages. “It’s funny because what I realize is that my family today really mirrors the experience that we had as kids, right down to the communication, the posiwww.BizTucson.com
tive attitudes and the travel,” said Marquez, a father of two who started with Allstate officially half a lifetime ago. Marquez, who started working in his father’s agency in college, ultimately started his own branch, before buying his father out in 2000. At 42, he has three locations and is the largest Allstate agency in Southern Arizona. He’s also active in the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where his sister serves as president and CEO. He describes his wife, Wendy Marquez, as his dream girl – stunning, loving and smart. They met when he was 19 and married when he was 24. Three years later, they began their family. First came Alyssa, now 15, and then Diego, 13. “Kids teach you patience and they remind you to breathe,” he jokes, adding more seriously, “they’re great kids. They’re intellectual. We make sure to have the classic family dinner as often as we can, to sit down together and talk about our days.” He doesn’t shy away from sharing his mistakes. “It’s important to discuss every lesson you ever learned – the good and the bad. In fact, the bad things that happened are often the best lessons and the ones you really should share.” Family trips are a staple, just as they were for him while growing up. This year, it’s a three-week road trip that includes Niagara Falls, Toronto, Montreal, Boston and Nashville. “Life gets so busy that sometimes you can just feel like you’re passing one another. That’s why I value our trips so much. It’s a chance to have extended conversations about shared experiences.” Active lifestyles also are important to the family. Diego plays soccer. A life-
long athlete, Marquez is a cyclist, riding five days a week as a member of the Jim Click racing team. Alyssa was a competitive long-distance runner who has turned to cooking as a passion. Marquez said he is honored to be recognized by the Father’s Day Council Tucson, and to have a chance to support an important effort in the community. It’s another opportunity to share with his kids the importance of giving back, said Marquez, who actively supports the YMCA of Southern Arizona, the Greater Tucson Fire Foundation and the Pima Community College Foundation. Marquez also serves on the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and the DM50. Over the holidays, his children joined him in volunteering at Miracle En El Barrio, serving up meals to needy families. Wendy, meanwhile, is involved in Angel Charity for Children, and Alyssa last year volunteered to help with the Angel Ball. “It’s almost mandatory in our family to be involved in our community,” Marquez said. “No matter what you do in life, what you value the most is what you give away and give back. “Life is all about experiences – not about collecting things. I’m giving my kids as many experiences as I can before they’re on their own. I always tell them, ‘I’m going to give you a paid college education but after that you’re on your own. You have to take everything we taught you and make the best of it. You’re on the planet for a short time, so make the most of this one chance. You can make it as great as you want it to be.’ ”
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From left – Ryan, Allie, James, Kari and Abby Meger.
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PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
2016 FATHER OF THE YEAR HONOREE
BizHONOR
Col. James P. Meger Commander 355th Fighter Wing U.S. Air Force
Colonel Dad
James Meger Dedicated to Serving Family, Nation By Jay Gonzales When Col. James Meger learned the Father’s Day Council Tucson wanted to honor him as a 2016 Father of the Year, his gut reaction was to deflect the honor to all military parents, some of whom he’s met and some he doesn’t know. It’s not that he doesn’t think he’s been a good father to his three children or a good husband to his wife. It’s that he knows that throughout a career that led to being named commander of the 355th Fighter Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 2014, he’s been surrounded by fathers and mothers of all ranks who have been through the same trials and tribulations, and who are at least as deserving, if not more so. “If you look at what we’re asked to do to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, with that comes a certain level of commitment,” Meger said. “Every one of these moms and dads that are here with kids has stood up to do that.” Meger recalled the time he was stationed in Germany and received orders to deploy to Kosovo within hours while his wife, Kari Meger, was on a plane flight home from visiting her family in Tucson. With no way to contact her, he had to leave a note letting her know he had “gone to war” without saying goodbye. He expects he wasn’t the first to experience that nor will he be the last. “Another big one was in 2003 and I deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom, and this time we have two kids,” he said. “That’s a game-changer. My oldest daughter is 2 and (son) Ryan is 8 months. You say goodbye to your kids. www.BizTucson.com
You give your wife a hug and a kiss. Your son is sitting on the concrete like this (with arms raised to be picked up), and you have to turn around and walk away. “I say this quite often. While we in the military serve and are wearing the uniform, the family members back home will sacrifice. You try and strike the balance, but there are times when the family is going to be second place to executing the mission.” Meger said it’s an accepted fact of military life that when you serve, you miss a lot of milestones and events. Ryan, now 13, won a national championship in skeet shooting while Meger was away. His oldest daughter, Allie, now 15, grew seven inches between times he saw her during one of his deployments. “You miss everybody’s birthdays. You miss anniversaries. You miss Christmas,” Meger said. “It’s all those things that make it difficult. And so many moms and dads go through this so often from this installation.” One of the ways the Megers keep track of family milestones is through a series of pencil markings on a tall 2-by-4 piece of wood that is their traveling door frame, which follows them wherever they go. The marks record dates and times in their children’s lives. The lowest mark on the board is when youngest daughter Abby, now 9, was able to stand. “I want to be able to look back and see this,” Meger said. “When you don’t have a root you just say I’m going to bring it with me.”
With their history marked on the 2-by-4, Meger said, it allows the family to look forward to what’s ahead rather than dwell on what was missed, and reconnect when the family is together again. “We’re more of a forward-thinking kind of family,” he said. “We’ll celebrate what we can along the way. But it’s always so incredible to roll back to the installation and just wrap your arms around your family. The love is right there right away again.” Reconnecting with the family after a deployment, or even today after a day as base commander, takes on several forms, said Kari, a Tucson native and graduate of Amphitheater High School. It’s something the family is focused on in their time together because it can be intermittent or interrupted. “It is a challenge,” she said. “There are many times when he’s not home at dinner time, or he can’t drive up to Phoenix and go to volleyball games. “He makes sure he checks in a lot. It might be a car ride. It might be taking a walk after dinner, or even folding laundry. There’s always just a reconnection and making sure everyone’s OK.” Meger said learning how to be a dad, and not just a military dad, came from different places along the way, in his life and his career. “My dad was always very focused on people, not on things,” he said. “Things and stuff will happen, but you need to be people-focused. That’s how I’ve always tried to be.”
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Front row from left – daughter Lisa, Tom Warne and partner Ann Lovell Back row from left – daughters Emily and Jennifer
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
2016 FATHER OF THE YEAR HONOREE
BizHONOR
Thomas W. Warne
President MSW Development Services
Unconditional Love
Trust Serves as Foundation for Fatherhood for Tom Warne By Rhonda Bodfield By the time Tom Warne was in fourth grade, he was waking himself up to deliver newspapers, shovel snow on his route and make his breakfast before heading off to school. His father, a professional engineer with integrity and a strong work ethic, caught a bus at dawn to get into New York from New Jersey, and attended school at night. His mother, a surgical nurse, was at the hospital early. There were the occasional father-son excursions to Yankee Stadium and holiday gatherings with extended family. But as much as he appreciated his father as a provider and role model, there were few occasions that stamped themselves in his memory. He knew things were going to be different for his own family – even though his first child, William, came shortly after he graduated from the University of Arizona, and his second child, Lisa, came just about the nerve-wracking time when he was starting his own company. Warne, a commercial real estate developer perhaps best known for developing Main Gate Center adjacent to the UA, had three goals in raising his children, four altogether – set a good example, be their friend and be there for them. That meant family ski trips and outings on horseback, as well as dutiful attendance at swim meets and school sporting events – even if it meant a grueling weekly travel schedule to the Pacific Northwest. By the time William and Lisa were adults, his two youngest daughters from his second marriage, Jennifer, now 27, and Emily, 24, were growing up in Seattle. For 14 years, he was on a plane winging to Seattle. “It was a blur,” recalled www.BizTucson.com
Warne, president of MSW Development Services. Except for nights of community board service, he worked until 8:30 p.m. every night Monday through Thursday to cram his work into an abbreviated week, so he could be on a plane and be in Seattle for Shabbat dinner Friday evenings and spend the weekend with Jennifer and Emily. Back on the plane Sunday night, airport staff and flight attendants knew what he wanted without him needing to ask. Tragedy, though, can visit the most vigilant and loving parent. As a child, William was sexually abused by a camp counselor. The bright boy, who played football and came in first place in the state for his sixth-grade science fair project, changed dramatically, becoming withdrawn and building walls that even professional help couldn’t breach. Later, he would develop substance abuse issues and was diagnosed as having extreme type 1 diabetes. He passed away at 40. That was a difficult time for Warne and Lisa, who also lost her mother and grandfather in a short time. The bond between the two became ever stronger. Warne remains close with all three of his daughters, all competitive, high achievers. Lisa, his second child, is a teacher outside of San Francisco, pursuing her doctorate in education. Jennifer is a lawyer at a prestigious Wall Street firm in Manhattan. Emily just graduated from the selective School of Art Institute in Chicago. He has modeled community service to his children, having devoted time to nonprofit organizations, including the Tucson Jewish Community Center, where he served as board chair. He currently is board chair of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona
Pressed for parenting tips, Warne said he learned some lessons along the way:
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Set a few strict boundaries and then give children the latitude to operate within them Don’t be judgmental or get caught up in negative minutiae
• Assure them of unconditional love • Celebrate success, be positive and encourage individual interests
“One thing I learned is that if you want to build trust, you need to demonstrate honesty, integrity and respect,” he said. “If you have those three things, your children will come to you and be open and share what they’re experiencing with you.” Warne said he is deeply honored to be recognized by Father’s Day Council Tucson, counting several past recipients as friends. And he is touched by the cause, he said, because William was diagnosed at 21 with diabetes. “It really touches my heart,” he said. Warne’s emotional partner, Ann Lovell, has six children herself. Six of their brood of nine took a trip with them to Italy last year. This year, the whole gang is going to Hawaii for a week. “My goal was always to raise my children to be independent and strong. That was particularly important for the girls, because I don’t believe society has reached gender equality yet.” He has enjoyed the journey – well, maybe not all those plane rides, he joked. “Fatherhood is very rewarding. You love your kids and you feel good raising them, but the real reward is the result, when you see them happy and strong and choosing their own lives.”
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D-M Parents Do Double Duty By Rhonda Bodfield
We ask a lot of our military heroes. As they protect our nation’s freedom and strengthen our local communities through leadership and community service, military parents and their families make considerable sacrifices in combat and at home. “The most humbling part about being a military parent is that our families give just as much as we do,” said Col. James Meger, commander of the 355th Fighter Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. “Everyone always thanks the uniformed member for the service, but I think we should thank the spouses and kids just as much. They not only go months without seeing their parent, but they also provide support and encouragement 1) 1st Lts. Tyler & Danielle Breske
As an active duty military couple, 1st Lts. Tyler and Danielle Breske have supported each other through the pressing demands that have confronted them. Tyler Breske, Chief of Intelligence Training in the 755th Operations Support Squadron, undertook a four-month deployment when his daughter, now 18 months old, was just six months old. Danielle’s duties also have sent her away – twice. For one of the deployments, Tyler tapped his fund balance to go with Danielle to Nevada so she could continue to nurse their daughter. The family also worked through another hardship when Tyler’s mother lost a short but fierce battle with cancer. Those difficulties have not dissuaded them from their goals and interests. Tyler, who enlisted in the Air Force in 2006 as an Arabic linguist, is pursuing his master’s degree in intelligence studies. Danielle, meanwhile, not only donated her milk for use in neo-natal care facilities, but is working to raise awareness of the benefits of modern cloth diapers. The couple volunteers on base and in the Tucson community teaching the Catholic Chapel’s baptism preparation class. Congratulations are also in order: They are expecting their second baby in May. 106 BizTucson
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to the mom or dad serving their country in wartime.” Meger is one of six fathers being honored in 2016 as a Father’s Council Tucson Father of the Year. Six more parents from Davis-Monthan also will be recognized at the event for their service and sacrifice. “I’m not only a representative for the 355th Fighter Wing, but for all of the deployed parents that we have here at Davis-Monthan,” Meger said. “I want to recognize these honorees because being honored as a military Father of the Year isn’t just about me – it’s about a whole community of parents and families that sacrifice every day.”
2) Staff Sgt. Kellen Ferguson
Staff Sgt. Kellen Ferguson is like many dads – he wouldn’t dream of missing his daughter blowing out the candles on her birthday cake or helping his 5-year-old son through a hard day. The big difference is he’s doing it from Korea. Ferguson has been deployed multiple times since he was stationed at DavisMonthan Air Force Base in 2011. Three months after returning home from seven months in Kuwait, he headed to Korea for a year’s tour. Thanks to the FaceTime application on his cell phone, distance hasn’t prevented him from spending daddy time with his children. Sometimes that means bonding with his son by playing Disney Infinity or “sitting” with his daughter on the couch, watching cartoons. “Kellen knows the value of being present as much as possible in his kids’ lives,” said Leesha, his wife of six years. “Nothing matters more to him than his children and to make them proud.” Ferguson, a Virginia native who joined the service after high school, has a long history of including his kids in his community service – from promoting motorcycle safety on base to delivering meals to people with disabilities.
3) Tech Sgt. Paul Hutchinson
In seven years of marriage to Tech Sgt. Paul Hutchinson, Crispina Hutchinson has been deployed six times, including Afghanistan, Panama, Guatemala, Columbia and Honduras. Each time, her husband pulled double duty – fulfilling his obligation as an airman, only to come home after long days to cook dinner for his two young children, run baths, read stories, help with homework and get them off to school the next morning, lunch in hand. An avid outdoorsman, he and his family explore Southern Arizona’s recreational sites. Hutchinson, a dedicated member of the 48th Rescue Squadron since 2011, also shows a deep commitment to his colleagues. He facilitated training and logistical support for his unit even during a time in 2013 when he was diagnosed with a hernia – putting off surgery and working through the pain for three months to make sure the demands of weapons training and logistical support would be met before an upcoming deployment. He helped the Tucson Rifle Club host a pistol competition for the Arizona Chapter of Paralyzed Veterans of America and assists neighbors with home projects. When Crispina retires after 21 years of active duty, Paul will not be at the www.BizTucson.com
ceremony. Now it’s his turn to be deployed. 4) Tech Sgt. Devin Pelt
Tech Sgt. Devin Pelt has been deployed almost every year since he married Charmaine eight years ago – including through two pregnancies. He has managed to stay connected with his wife and three kids, all under the age of 5. Pelt, who has served 19 years in the Air Force, keeps in touch through phone calls, letters, FaceTime and video messages. He sends his children DVDs of him reading stories. He even surprises his wife at work or church with roses or chocolate-covered strawberries on their anniversaries. In addition to taking his family responsibilities seriously, Pelt has volunteered in leading his church choir, holding music conferences and leading in the production of special holiday performances. He also participated in raising awareness and funding to help families touched by autism. Although he has missed first laughs, first steps, first ballet performances and multiple holidays, Charmaine said, “He has been able to not only serve his country on many deployments, but love us tremendously from afar.” 5) Tech Sgt. Ruby Underwood
Ten days after her baby was born, Tech Sgt. Ruby Underwood said goodbye to her husband, who was reporting for officer training school in Alabama, only to get word that she had her own orders to report to a U.S. Embassy in South America. Underwood, a 15-year Air Force veteran, has deployed multiple times in support of the global war on terror and drugs. And she’s done it all while trying to give daughter Sophia some normalcy, even as she pursues her bachelor’s degree and stays in touch via Skype with her husband of three years, 2nd Lt. Michael Underwood. She and her daughter will spend the next two years where security briefs routinely share news of stabbings, muggings and kidnappings. They commute in armored cars, and their living quarters are outfitted with special doors and security measures. Michael said when he tells friends of his wife’s service, they are almost universally tongue-tied. “I am so blessed to be her husband and honored to wear the same uniform,” he said.
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BizREALESTATE CCIM Forecast Winners Retail Use Nancy McClure CBRE Vacancy rate: 2015 Forecast – 6.57 percent 2015 Actual – 6.60 percent 2016 Forecast – 6.53 percent Office Use Richard M. Kleiner Cushman & Wakefield/PICOR Vacancy rate: 2015 Forecast – 12.45 percent 2015 Actual – 12.80 percent 2016 Forecast – 12.45 percent Industrial Use Russell W. Hall Cushman & Wakefield I PICOR Vacancy rate: 2015 Forecast – 9.24 percent 2015 Actual – 9.10 percent 2016 Forecast – 7.24 percent
PHOTOS: BRENT G. MATHIS
Residential Land Use Permits James B. Marian Chapman Lindsey Building permits: 2015 Forecast – 2,950 2015 Actual – 2,863 2016 Forecast – 3,100 Finance Craig “Lars” Larson Bank of the West 10-Year Treasury constant maturity rate 2015 Forecast – 2.53 percent 2015 Actual – 2.27 percent 2016 Forecast – 1.99 percent Multi Family Chuck Corriere KW Commercial Vacancy rate: 2015 Forecast – 8.29 percent 2015 Actual – 7.82 percent 2016 Forecast – 7.92 percent Tucson Legends Sarver Family
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2016 Annual Forecast Projects Future Growth By David Pittman Current Tucson area activity is paving the way for future growth. That’s what commercial real estate professionals told brokers, investors, developers and financiers at the 25th annual CCIM Forecast Competition in February. CCIM stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member, a designation received after completing a rigorous national curriculum regarded as the gold standard by commercial real estate professionals around the world. “Even though there continues to be a slow-growth vibe among those within the Tucson area commercial real estate industry, it is clear that a lot of positive things are happening in all market sectors and things are getting better,” said Greg Boccardo, president of the Southern Arizona chapter of CCIM. For instance, the downtown Tucson multifamily market is booming in areas near the streetcar line. Multiple apartment projects downtown are already under construction or in various planning stages and are expected to produce at least 1,000 new residential units. Retail real estate experts say those new downtown apartments will bring added residents which, in turn, will attract still more restaurants, stores and offices to an increasingly vibrant and dynamic downtown. Other local areas viewed as hot spots for future commercial growth include Oro Valley, Sahuarita, northwest Tucson, properties near Tucson International Airport and Marana, where a new outlet mall opened in 2015.
This CCIM forecasting event is one of the longest running events of its type in the nation. Those who made the most accurate predictions a year ago in each commercial real estate sector are asked to make year-inreview presentations regarding their area of expertise and lead panel discussions among those making forecasts for 2016. Retail
For the second consecutive year, Nancy McClure, first VP at CBRE in Tucson, won the retail forecast award by predicting the vacancy rate for retail properties in metro Tucson at the close of 2015 at 6.57 percent, narrowly missing the actual rate of 6.60 percent. She provided the following snapshot of retail development planned for Tucson in 2016:
• Fry’s Food & Drug will construct two large stores of 79,000 and 100,000 square feet. • Four currently vacant bigbox stores will be renovated as two Walmart Neighborhood Markets, a Safeway and an Albertsons. • Construction of a new power center will take place at Interstate 10 and Irvington Road. • Older strip centers at prime locations, such as Oracle/ Limberlost and Oracle/Orange Grove will be renovated and reformatted. • Discount retail will continue to lead in growth and will look to peripheral areas to establish new stores. • The new Tucson Premium Outlet Center in Marana will put additional competitive pressure on Tucson Mall. www.BizTucson.com
Office
Richard Kleiner, like McClure, won the CCIM office forecasting competition for two years running. Kleiner is a shareholder of Cushman & Wakefield/PICOR, specializing in the sale, leasing and investment of office and medical properties. He predicted the vacancy rate of metro Tucson office property would be 12.45 percent at the close of 2015. The actual vacancy rate was 12.80 percent, a slight increase from the 12.60 percent registered at the end of 2014. Kleiner highlighted three of the biggest office transactions in Southern Arizona during the past year, which he said “shows Tucson can play on the national stage.” Kleiner said those deals were:
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Sunquest Information Systems’ lease of the former Muscular Dystrophy Association building in the Catalina Foothills for its new company headquarters. The stunning 83,000-square-foot building is at 3300 E. Sunrise Drive. Founded in 1979, Sunquest is a leader in healthcare technology, supplying diagnostic and laboratory information to more than 1,700 hospitals and laboratories worldwide. The company, now operating at Williams Centre, is expected to move its 300 employees into its new headquarters this fall.
PHOTOS: COURTESY THE SARVER FAMILY
• Comcast’s
lease of more than 100,000 square feet in the former American Home Furnishings building at 4690 N. Oracle Road, next to Tucson Mall. The building, vacant for five years, is being renovated as the cable company’s new home for IT, call center and social media operations. The company’s Tucson expansion will bring 1,100 new jobs here.
• A
sale-leaseback transaction in which Griffin Capital Corp. purchased a 100,273 square-foot building at 3535 E. Valencia Road from First Health Group for $21.6 million. The property is leased to Aetna Life Insurance, an affiliate of First Health Group. As part of the deal, the tenant executed a new, 10-year lease at the property. The tenant and its affiliates have been an occupant at the property since its construction in 2001. continued on page 110 >>>
Robert Sarver Sarver Family from left: Jack, Ellen Gail, Robert, Irene and Betty Anne
Sarver Family Legacy By David Pittman
The Sarver name is a brand itself. Robert Sarver, chairman and CEO of Western Alliance Bancorporation and managing partner of the Phoenix Suns, is a legendary Tucson success story. Before that Jack Sarver, his father, was a business wunderkind in Michigan, then in Tucson. Irene Sarver, his mother, was a staunch business partner and tireless philanthropist. Robert accepted the Real Estate Legend Award on behalf of his entire family in February at the Southern Arizona CCIM Chapter’s annual market forecast program at the Tucson Marriott University Park. A Tucson native who graduated from the University of Arizona in three years, Sarver founded National Bank of Arizona, which he subsequently sold at the age of 23. Today he heads Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE: WAL), one of the fastest growing bank holding companies in the United States with more than $14 billion in assets. He also is a legendary real estate investor/developer. He founded Southwest Value Partners in 1990 at the depth of the savings and loan crisis – an investment company that now consists of 3,000 apartments, 6 million square feet of offices, 7,000 hotel rooms and more than 10,000 acres of land holdings. He’s also been managing partner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns for 11 years. The seeds of the Sarver family legacy in Tucson were sown a generation earlier, when the family moved here in 1960. Jack Sarver grew up in Flint, Mich., where he began working at his father’s gas station. He attended the University of Michigan, but was forced to quit for financial reasons and went back to work at the gas station. Yet Jack Sarver was destined for success. A year after leaving college, he borrowed $500 and began a tire retreading business, which he turned into the largest tire retreading enterprise in Michigan. In 1947, Jack met his wife Irene. The couple was married and had their first child, Gary, in 1949. Tragically, the child
died three-and-half years later. Daughters Betty Anne and Ellen Gail were born while Jack and Irene were living in Flint. Jack’s business success continued. He started an auto and home supply store. He developed shopping centers, apartments and the Auto-Rama Hotel, which became the largest hotel in Michigan. He also founded and served as president of the Flint Savings & Loan. In 1960, Jack and family moved to Tucson where he financed, developed and ran the Desert Inn Hotel downtown. Soon after, Robert was born. Jack also founded and served as president and chairman of American Savings and Loan at Casa Adobes Plaza, where Robert began working while still in high school. Perhaps the most well-known Sarver hotel development was the Plaza International Hotel at the corner of Speedway and Campbell, now the Aloft Tucson University. Jack was also a key advocate for the Tucson Convention Center downtown. Irene was a devoted wife and mother as well as Jack’s strong-minded business partner. She used her boundless energy and talents to help many Tucson philanthropic organizations, including the Jewish Family and Children Services, National Council of Jewish Women, Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona and Brewster Center (which is now Emerge!) Jack died in 1979 at just 58 years old. Irene remained a positive force in the Tucson community until her passing in July 2015. The Sarver family has given generously to many Tucson causes. The most wellknown example came in 1998 when Robert and his wife, Penny, made a substantial gift to the University of Arizona Heart Center – resulting in it being renamed the Sarver Heart Center. Robert and Penny described their generous donation as more of an investment than a gift – an investment made in honor of the family patriarch, who had heart surgery there and counseled patients who were scared as they considered new heart procedures.
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continued from page 109 Industrial
Russell W. Hall, a shareholder and principal at Cushman & Wakefield|PICOR, won the industrial forecasting award for 2015 by predicting a vacancy rate of 9.24 percent. Hall is even more optimistic about 2016, predicting vacancies will drop to 7.24 percent by the end of 2016. At the close of 2014, the vacancy rate of industrial properties in Tucson was 10.50 percent. By the close of 2015, that rate had fallen to 9.10 percent, the highest annual absorption gain since 2006. Those industrial market gains are remarkable in the face of continued underperformance within Tucson’s traditional economic drivers – government, homebuilding and mining. There is plenty going on to justify that optimism, he said. For instance, construction of the new 800,000-square-foot HomeGoods Distribution Center, just south of Valencia Road near TIA, is expected to bring about 1,000 new jobs when completed and 100 percent occupied this summer. Hall also noted that vacant warehouses downtown have been or will be repurposed as trampoline, rock climbing, skateboarding and miniature race car driving venues. Land
James B. Marian, a founding partner in Chapman Lindsey and a commercial real estate agent for 33 years, won the 2015 residential land-use category by predicting that 2,950 building permits for all types of residential units would be issued in Pima County last year. The actual number of permits issued was 2,863. Marian forecasted that 3,100 permits would be issued in 2016, which was the most optimistic prediction among the land panelists. The record for single family and multifamily permits issued was 12,627 in 2005. There were only 2,077 such permits issued in 2009. Land experts said that while land supply for new homes is tight, homebuilding will be on a flat line in 2016. “It’s still a buyer’s market on custom lots,” said Richard Sack of Long Realty. Finance
Craig “Lars” Larson, who specializes in construction lending at Bank of the West, won the 2015 forecast award for his prediction that the 10-year Treasury note yield would close the year at 2.53 percent. The actual yield at the end of 2015 was 2.27 percent. As yields on the 10-year treasury rise, typically, so do mortgage rates. “During 2015, the yield ranged from a low of 1.68 percent to a high of 2.50 percent,” said Larson. “On Jan. 2, 2015, it was 2.12 percent and on Dec. 31, 2015, it was at 2.27 percent. As of Feb. 1, 2016, the rate was down to 1.94 percent. “My prediction for year end 2016 is 1.99 percent.” Multifamily
Chuck Corriere, a leading Southern Arizona commercial real estate broker and host of the “Deal Maker Show,” a radio talk show on commercial real estate, won the multifamily award by predicting the vacancy rate in the Tucson-area apartment market at the close of 2015 at 8.29 percent. The actual rate was 7.82 percent. Corriere said the University of Arizona’s commitment to grow to more than 60,000 students by 2025 will result in a steady stream of newly constructed apartment units downtown near the streetcar line.
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Project: Banner University Medical Center Location: 1501 N. Campbell Ave. Owner: Banner Health Contractor: Sundt Construction/DPR Construction Joint Venture Architect: Shepley Bulfinch Broker: N/A Completion Date: 2019 Construction Cost: Estimated $400 million Project Description: The patient tower will include 336 private patient rooms, 22 new operating rooms, imaging suites and public spaces.
The Hacienda at The River Project: Location: Hacienda del Sol Road and River Road Tucson Senior Housing JV Propco Owner: Contractor: The Weitz Company Architect: RTKL and Indevco None Broker: Completion Date: First quarter 2017 Alliance Bank of Arizona Financed By: Construction Cost: N/A Project Description: Innovative 7.5-acre retreat in the Catalina foothills offering rehabilitation and skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care and hospice.
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The Mesquites at Alamo Crossing Location: Pima Street and Wilmot Road Owner: Mesquite Homes Contractor: Mesquite Homes/Eagle Rock Excavating Architect: Anderson Studio Architects Broker: Keller Williams of Southern Arizona â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Adamson Garcia Group Completion Date: Home sales begin February 2016 Financed By: Alliance Bank of Arizona Construction Cost: Estimated $4 million Project Description: Urban infill community with 18 new singlefamily homes. One and two-story plans available.
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Project: One West Location: 1 W. Broadway Owner: One West Broadway Contractor: Robert Caylor Construction Architect: Engberg Anderson Architects Broker: N/A Completion Date: December 2016 Financed By: Alliance Bank of Arizona Construction Cost: Estimated $15 million Project Description: A mixed-use project consisting of retail, parking and 40 upscale apartment homes.
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Park Modern â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Live Urban Park Avenue and Blacklidge Street Park Modern Ventures (PSSW & Pepper Viner Joint Venture) Contractor: Pepper Viner Development II Architect: CDG Architects Pepper Viner Management II Broker: Completion Date: Models completed March 2016 Alliance Bank of Arizona Financed By: Construction Cost: N/A Project Description: Contemporary architecture and loft-style living in three models priced from $179,900, close to University of Arizona and Banner University Medical Center.
Pima Air & Space Museum Hangar 5 Project: Location: 6000 E. Valencia Road Owner: The Arizona Aerospace Foundation Contractor: Chestnut Building & Design Architect: Acorn Associates Architecture N/A Broker: Completion Date: April 2016 N/A Financed By: Construction Cost: Estimated $2.1 million Project Description: New pre-engineered 27,000-square-foot airplane hangar with automatic roll-up doors, sealed concrete floors and observatory with stainless steel lighted aircraft cable handrail.
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Project: The Schoolyard â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Live Smart Location: Wrightstown Road and Avenida Ricardo Small Road Owner: Pepper Viner at Wrightstown Contractor: Pepper Viner Development Architect: Anderson Studio Architects Broker: Pepper Viner Management II Completion Date: Models completed March 2016 Financed By: Alliance Bank of Arizona Construction Cost: N/A Project Description: One- and two-story plans available with Smart Home Technology ranging from 1,450 to 2,200 square feet and starting at $229,900.
Project: Southwest Gas Location: Sierra Vista Southwest Gas Corporation Owner: Contractor: Barker Morrissey Contracting Architect: BWS Architects N/A Broker: Completion Date: September 2016 N/A Financed By: Construction Cost: Estimated $3.6 million Project Description: The five-acre site includes 12,000 square feet of office and warehouse space, a storage yard and parking canopy shaded by photovoltaics.
Surf Thru Car Wash Pantano Project: Location: 35 S. Pantano Road Owner: Surf Thru Contractor: BFL Construction Co Architect: Vermeltfoort Architects N/A Broker: Completion Date: December 2015 Tri Counties Bank Financed By: Construction Cost: $2 million Project Description: Surf Thru is a state-of-the-art express exterior car wash with the longest tunnel in Tucson for better cleaning.
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Project: Tucson & Drexel Center Location: Southeast corner of Tucson Boulevard and Drexel Road Owner: Affiliate of Diamond Ventures Contractor: TBD Architect: SBBL Architecture & Planning Broker: Shannon Murphy, DVI Realty Completion Date: Estimated 2017 Financed By: N/A Construction Cost: Estimated $14 million Project Description: A Walmart Neighborhood Market and gas center featuring several freestanding pads and in-line shop space.
Project: Tucson International Airport Optimization Project Location: 7250 S. Tucson Blvd. Tucson Airport Authority Owner: Contractor: Sundt Construction Architect: DWL Architects & Planners N/A Broker: Completion Date: 2017 Financed By: N/A Construction Cost: Estimated $18 million to $23 million Project Description: Relocation of two existing security checkpoints, expanded concessions and major building infrastructure upgrades.
Project: Tucson Jewish Community Center Program Space Addition Location: 3800 E. River Road Owner: Tucson Jewish Community Center Contractor: W.E. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neil Construction Company Architect: SBBL Architecture & Planning N/A Broker: Completion Date: December 2015 N/A Financed By: Construction Cost: Undisclosed Project Description: A 5,000-square-foot second-floor addition to the existing Tucson Jewish Community Center, providing classroom and play space.
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Project: 20 E. Congress Location: Congress Street and Stone Avenue Owner: BP Annex (Bourn Companies) Contractor: Barker Morrissey Contracting Architect: Rob Paulus Architects Broker: Bourn Advisory Services Completion Date: May 2015 Financed By: Alliance Bank of Arizona Construction Cost: Estimated $2 million Project Description: Redevelopment of an existing building into unique, creative office and retail space. Tenants include Bourn Companies and SmartThings.
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Wetmore Administration Center Renovations and Professional Building Location: 701 W. Wetmore Road Amphitheater Public Schools Owner: Contractor: Lloyd Construction Company Architect: BWS Architects N/A Broker: Completion Date: November 2015 N/A Financed By: Construction Cost: Estimated $3.7 million
Project Description: The project consisted of four phases with a scope of work that included new structures, renovations and additions.
Project: Wilmot Plaza Location: Northeast corner of Broadway and Wilmot Road Owner: BP Wilmot Plaza (Bourn Companies) Contractor: Barker Morrissey Contracting Architect: Seaver Franks Bourn Advisory Services Broker: Completion Date: May 2016 Alliance Bank of Arizona Financed By: Construction Cost: Estimated $30 million Project Description: Complete redevelopment of shopping center with new anchor tenants including Nordstrom Rack, T.J. Maxx and Dickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sporting Goods.
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SPECIAL REPORT 2016
THE REGION’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE
ENCANTADA AT TUCSON NATIONAL Resort-Style Apartments by HSL Properties
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PHOTOS: COURTESY HSL PROPERTIES
Encantada Tucson
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National
A More Residential Design By Jay Gonzales at HSL went “back to the drawing board” to reconfigure the development and evolve from its three predecessors – Riverside Crossing, Dove Mountain and Steam Pump. “We constantly challenge ourselves to better serve our customer base,” said Christopher Evans, executive VP for HSL Asset Management. “We look continued on page 126 >>>
PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
Sitting on three years of success since the launch of their Encantada brand luxury apartment developments, HSL Properties did not see it as a time to coast on a wave of popularity. Encantada at Tucson National, the fourth in the brand, opened in December with a new look and state-of-the-art technology throughout the development. That’s after the planners
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continued from page 125 at a project and we can always give you 10 things we need to improve.” HSL began by selecting a new architect for the project, Evan Eglin from the local firm of Eglin+Breslin Architects, and went to work. “When you get a fresh set of eyes, it uncovers things you didn’t even know were working and things that you didn’t know were problems,” said Mike Censky, executive VP of HSL Construction Services. As the design phase began, there was an appreciation that the project was going to be moving into an area that had a rich history and a brand name of its own that commanded a certain level of respect. Tucson National has its highly visible history with professional golf, and at the same time, it carries a level of prestige with million-dollar homes and prominent residents. “We had to change the look to drop this product into a residential neighborhood on the front doorstep of Tucson National,” Censky said. “We reached out to Tucson National and we reached out to the nearby homeowners’ associations and neighborhoods.” The neighbors primarily asked for a more “residential look,” Censky said, which means buildings designed to look less like apartments and more like townhomes from certain views. None of the four sides of each of the buildings will look alike. It is a departure from the “multi-family buildings and big, garden-style projects” that characterized the other Encantada developments, Censky said. HSL took the additional step of designing the project with no building more than two stories high. “We could have gone to three stories at Tucson National, but when you step back and look at the context of the area, it just wasn’t appropriate,” Censky said. “We could have fit well over 500 apartment homes in there (instead of the planned 368), but this was good for us too. It helps us be good neighbors.” When new residents start to move in continued on page 128 >>> 126 BizTucson
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We knew there were high expectations for that neighborhood so we knew we had to deliver a quality product. We also knew the Encantada brand was a perfect fit that would show an appreciation for the legacy of Tucson National. –
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Omar Mireles, HSL President
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continued from page 126
to their apartments, Evans said, they’re going to sense they’re in an Encantada brand project, but there will be distinct differences, some visible and some “behind the walls.” The design put a significant emphasis on energy efficiency with the complex set to become one of only a handful of multifamily projects in Arizona that will operate with 100 percent LED lighting. Solar panels will power all of the common areas which consist of the recreation areas, the office and all the exterior building lighting. The air conditioning/heating units are split units that will reduce noise by 40 percent. “Architecturally it looks very different,” Evans said. “When residents walk inside, they will see some similar quality elements. You can tell it’s the next generation of the same brand.” In keeping with the trademark “resort-style” feel, the apartments will have technology similar to what is found in hotels – only better. “It was clear we needed to be at the cutting edge of technology,” Evans said. Fiber optics were installed to give residents the fastest speed and the most bandwidth in their internet options. A partnership with CenturyLink led to modems being installed which
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allow residents to get hooked up as soon as they power up their computers and mobile devices. “There were only two apartment communities nationwide that were part of this pilot program,” Evans said. “They didn’t even have a name for the product yet. We wound up calling it Direct Connect. “We already have modems set up in every apartment. The day you move in and you turn on your computer, you can immediately set up the programming and services of your choice, and you’re on instantly. You don’t have to wait for a technician to come out next week with a four-hour window. These are lifestyle elements that are commonplace today and they were areas where we knew we had to meet and exceed expectations.” HSL President Omar Mireles said that with the prominence of the surrounding neighborhood, there was no holding back on the quality of the development that Encantada at Tucson National needed to be. “We knew there were high expectations for that neighborhood so we knew we had to deliver a quality product,” Mireles said. “We also knew the Encantada brand was a perfect fit that would show an appreciation for the legacy of Tucson National.”
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BizLIVING Encantada at Tucson National 8323 N. Shannon Road Encantada at Tucson National sits in a location that is convenient for everyday needs like quality schools, shopping, dining and entertainment. It’s also minutes from some of Tucson’s unique lifestyle features: hiking, golf and beautiful Pusch Ridge. It’s a short drive to the bustling activity of a revitalized downtown, the University of Arizona, and an abundance of community activity. Encantada’s neighbor to the east is the historic Omni Tucson National Resort. Some of the all-time great PGA golfers have teed it up in
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the Tucson stop on the PGA Tour and now the Champions Tour in the Tucson Conquistadores Classic in March. The Omni Tucson National Resort is an artful blend of natural beauty and recreation. Recent enhancements include new guest rooms featuring golf course and mountain views. An array of entertainment venues includes outdoor dining terraces and a cabana bar, coupled with Tucson’s only 4-star Forbes-rated spa, tennis courts, 36 holes of golf, Sweetwater Terrace, an infinity edge pool, private function space and outdoor gardens.
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Creating a Lifestyle 132 BizTucson
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From left: Christopher Evans – Executive VP Suzanne Lavergne – CFO Glenn Toyoshima – Senior VP PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
Lisa Rosenfeld – VP, Operations Humberto S. Lopez – Chairman Mike Censky – EVP, Construction Lorri Peterson – Director, HR Omar Mireles – President
HSL Properties was founded in 1975 by Humberto S. Lopez and Glenn Toyoshima. During the last 40 years, the company has invested in and developed properties throughout the southeastern and southwestern United States. HSL Properties currently owns and operates 38 apartment communities and five hotel properties in Arizona, including four newly developed Encantada Apartment properties and the Hilton El Conquistador Resort located in the Tucson metro area.
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Building Encantada Brand of the
Evolution in Technology, Amenities By Jay Gonzales
The apprehension that came with introducing a new brand of apartment living into the Tucson market was palpable, but not unexpected, as HSL Properties prepared to launch its first Encantada brand development nearly five years ago. “We’re always nervous in anything new that we do,” said HSL President Omar Mireles, who was the HSL’s executive VP under Humberto S. Lopez , cofounder and president, at the time they developed the Encantada brand and its first project, Riverside Crossing. “It’s a healthy apprehension that we go into every project with,” Mireles said. “We have to make sure we get it right. We have to identify the market and ultimately we have to deliver the right product and the right quality.” The research and the numbers added up for the company to do exactly what it envisioned – build high-end, amenitydriven apartments that didn’t exist in the Tucson market. HSL had been buying and managing existing properties for so long, but no one on the development team had actually been involved in building apartments. “The company had built apartments years ago, decades ago, and there was this institutional knowledge and experience, but there was a concern that none of us had done this before,” Mireles said. Fast forward to 2016 and by all measures, including occupancy rates, price points and demand for the product, it appears any anxiety HSL went through developing the Encantada brand, was well worth it. The brand launched in July 2011 when Encantada, Riverside Crossing opened on River Road east of La 134 BizTucson
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Cholla Boulevard. HSL took some time to watch it work in the market, then followed with two projects that opened within three years – Encantada at Dove Mountain in Marana in March 2014, and Encantada at Steam Pump in Oro Valley four months later. Today, the company is building the fourth project with the Encantada label across from historic Tucson National Golf Club on North Shannon Road just north of Cortaro Farms Road.
“
In a major city like New York or L.A., people are more apt to rent as a lifestyle and home ownership isn’t necessarily the ideal. That was really the market we were looking to capture – people who didn’t necessarily want to be tied down to a home. –
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Lisa Rosenfeld, VP of Operations, HSL Asset Management
Signs of opportunity, then the wait
Encantada actually was conceived years before the first shovel was put into the ground for Riverside Crossing. In fact, HSL literally had its toe on the starting line for the project in 2008 when, as Mireles said, “the world fell apart” economically. Having gone through a number of
years with a strategy to buy existing properties rather than build new ones, the signs started to point toward getting back into the building business around 2007, said Christopher Evans, executive VP of HSL Asset Management. “We realized there was an opportunity here in Tucson,” Evans said. “For a number of years there had been no new development. Due to that fact, and the sell-off of the higher-end units into condos, there was a real void. All the higher-end units really went off the market.” HSL did its homework and came up with the concept of building a luxury development with all the amenities that now characterize the Encantada brand. “We had second-, third- and fourthgeneration properties that we owned and operated and we knew where all the pitfalls were,” Mireles said. “We knew exactly what we had to address.” The result was a plan for apartments that would incorporate a list of amenities more commonly saved for resorts. The common areas, pools and spas were designed with resorts in mind, with amenities that include poolside televisions and gazebos, coffee houses, state-of-theart fitness centers and stadium-seating movie theaters. They even planned for towel service by the pools, and lobbies more like hotel lobbies than rental offices. Inside the apartments, luxury staples include granite countertops, solid wood cabinets, high ceilings and full-sized laundry rooms. By 2008, the concept and design work for Encantada was done, and HSL was days away from closing on its construccontinued on page 136 >>> www.BizTucson.com
Encantada Riverside Crossing
Encantada at Dove Mountain
Encantada at Steam Pump
Location: 1925 W. River Road
Location: 4688 W. Tangerine Road
Location: 11177 N. Oracle Rd
Project Cost: $32 million
Project Cost: $30 million
Project Cost: $33 million
Units: 304
Units: 272
Units: 288
Opened: July 2011
Opened: March 2014
Opened: July 2014
Key amenities: Resort-style pool and spa, stadium style theater, Starbucks coffee bar, 24-hour professional fitness center, 1-acre Dog Ranch
Key amenities: Resort-style pool and spa, stadium style theater, Starbucks coffee bar, 24-hour professional fitness center with Kid Zone, gazebo with fire pits, and big-screen TVs, Dog Ranch Capturing the best of Encantada’s initial development, Riverside Crossing, was the strategy as Dove Mountain began to take shape, including elements as basic as flooring.
Key amenities: Resort-style pool and spa, stadium style theater, full-service coffee house open to the public, 24-hour professional fitness center with Kid Zone, gazebo with fire pits and big-screen TVs, Dog Ranch
The first of the Encantada projects brought a number of unknowns for HSL Properties. It included amenities and concepts that were new to the Tucson market and new to the company. Throughout the development process, HSL developers did extensive research to determine exactly what would draw the target resident to a property and they came up with a number of innovations. For the initial project, location was as key as the amenities, said Christopher Evans, executive VP of HSL Asset Management.
The apartments at Riverside Crossing used a “wood plank” flooring system in the wet areas of the apartments – the kitchen and the bathrooms. The flooring was so popular among residents, it is used in every room except bedrooms at Dove Mountain.
“For apartments, location is key. It has to have easy access to downtown, the University of Arizona and I-10. Riverside Crossing really hit that on the mark,” Evans said.
In the three years after construction started at Riverside Crossing, there were some new products that increased efficiencies at the new sites, including better insulation and sound proofing.
The layout of the property was designed to provide residents with a “sense of community.”
The common areas came with a new feature: fire pits in the gazebo area that also featured big-screen TVs.
“The whole sense of community and service was important,” Evans said. “From the way we laid out the buildings, the pool, the common areas, patio spaces, grill spaces, community was the common theme. It was important for people to have a sense of community and a sense of home.”
The property was intentionally designed with a “low-density feel,” said Christopher Evans, executive VP of HSL Asset Management. Patios and balconies were expanded and, as a result, there is more space in the common areas.
That sense of home includes the Dog Ranch with a gazebo area. “Pets are a very important part of peoples’ lifestyles. The Dog Ranch was the first of its kind for us,” Evans said.
Like the other Encantada properties, there is a stadium-style movie theater for residents, and the popular Dog Ranch is included. Evans said HSL made a point to make the theaters more enticing and useful than what might be found in a standard clubhouse. The theater has stadium seating for 27 people. Residents can bring their own movies or select from a library that all residents can access. At Dove Mountain, technological components were enhanced to allow residents to use the theaters for business meetings with high-end presentation capabilities.
Part of Oro Valley’s planned Steam Pump Ranch community, Encantada at Steam Pump is a near twin of the Dove Mountain development that opened three months earlier. One distinct difference is the addition of a full-service coffee house, locally owned Savaya Coffee Market, which is open to the public. The Town of Oro Valley required a commercial element in the project, said Christopher Evans, executive VP of HSL Asset Management. “This product, in particular, provides a connectivity to the community. “Working with the Town of Oro Valley and amongst our team, we felt a coffee shop would be the best scenario so we partnered with a local owner,” Evans said. “We love the product type, and it fit our profile. It was a place with a true a barista setup and high-quality coffee.” Like the Riverside Crossing property, Steam Pump has an inventory of Cannondale bicycles for check-out so residents can take advantage of a ride on the direct-access river walk.
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BizLIVING continued from page 134 tion loan for Riverside Crossing when the economy crashed, Mireles said. The initial project was put on hold and HSL waited for the economy to turn and the market to perk up. That wait lasted until 2011 when Riverside Crossing opened in the summer. Even then, the original plan for Riverside Crossing had gone through some revisions to what it is today, which regenerated some of the original apprehension that came with launching the brand. “We went through some more iterations and said we cannot get this wrong,” Mireles said. “Clearly we had an incredibly capable team to make it happen and all the pieces were there, but we really hadn’t done it. So after we had that first success, it paved the way.” Creating a lifestyle
In its simplest form, Encantada is intended to attract residents who want a home with high-end amenities and a certain lifestyle that meets their standards, but don’t necessarily want to buy a house, said Lisa Rosenfeld, VP of operations for HSL Asset Management.
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“It’s a more urban train of thought,” she said. “In a major city like New York or L.A., people are more apt to rent as a lifestyle and home ownership isn’t necessarily ideal. That was really the market we were looking to capture – people who didn’t necessarily want to be tied down to a home. Many renters are not renters by choice. The people we are targeting are renters by choice.” It didn’t take long for the brand to take hold, Evans said. When Riverside Crossing hit the market, it took only eight months for it to be completely leased. “For our industry, that’s a very fast absorption of a new product,” he said. “At that point, we realized we had some further opportunity so we started looking at a number of sites around town.” Encantada at Dove Mountain and Steam Pump came about on near parallel paths to open just four months apart. Along the way, HSL was looking for ways to continue to improve the product and learn from the residents and the HSL team members who were close to the apartment communities. “One thing that set us apart when we started developing Encantada at Dove
Mountain is that we really went back to our clientele and to our team members who were on site (at Riverside Crossing) and asked, ‘What are we doing well and what are we doing that needs some improvement?’ ” Evans said. After the first three apartment communities were in place, HSL realized there still was a demand for their product and plans began for number four at Tucson National. By then, they sensed it was time to rework the entire concept rather than build another one just like the others. “Tucson National is a complete redevelopment,” Evans said. “There’s a new architect, the spaces are different, apartments are larger, but the overall feel and the amenities remain the same with an eye toward changing the way people live in apartments. “We really factor in the lifestyle, not just the living environment,” Rosenfeld said. “We talk a lot about what people want to be able to do. The amenities that we added actually add value to the product itself and really create a lifestyle that is different than anywhere else in Tucson.” Biz
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BizAWARDS
Brad Lancaster
Dr. Andrew Weil
Mort Rosenblum
Ofelia Zepeda
MOCA Presents Local Genius Awards By Steve Rivera The 2016 Museum of Contemporary Art Local Genius Awards are going to a group of four individuals who have made significant impacts globally in their fields. The awards will be presented April 16 to honorees Brad Lancaster, Dr. Andrew Weil, Mort Rosenblum and Ofelia Zepeda. Lancaster is an expert in rainwater harvesting and water management. Rosenblum is writer who has reported from all seven continents. Weil is a pioneer of integrative medicine. Zepeda is a linguistics professor at the University of Arizona specializing in the preservation of the Tohono O’odham language. “This year’s recipients are leaders and innovators in their fields and have influenced and changed the lives of countless
PHOTOS: COURTESY MOCA
Brad Lancaster
Brad Lancaster is a man of many talents – writer, author, world traveler and perhaps more importantly, an educator specializing in integrated and sustainable approaches to landscape design, planning and living. Water harvesting is his expertise. Living in the Sonoran Desert certainly helped him become a world-renown expert. He is a master harvester – whether it be rain, wind or snow. He also is a firm believer anyone can do it. Lancaster is the author of the “Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond” series, with intentions of “empowering my clients and my community to make positive change in their own lives and yards by harvesting and enhancing free on-site resources such as water, sun, wind, shade and more.” “I’m personally honored that I’ve been recognized for my 20-plus years of work researching, innovating, implementing, teaching and promoting water harvesting; passive sun and shade harwww.BizTucson.com
people around the globe,” said Courtney Johnson, board president of the Museum of Contemporary Art. MOCA was founded in 1999, and the local genius awards have been presented annually since 2009. The awards will be presented at MOCA’s annual gala at the museum, 265 S. Church Ave., and will include cocktails, an auction, dinner under the stars, the awards program and dancing. The event will be catered by MOCA Local Genius Emeritus Janos Wilder, of Downtown Kitchen + Cocktails and the Carriage House. Co-chairs are Kim Bourn and Randi Dorman. The invitation says “dress to impress.”
vesting; and growing and using native perennial wild foods,” Lancaster said. “The award is a wonderful affirmation of, and spotlight on, the value of these efforts, their results, and the growing potential of ever more people who are doing likewise and beyond.” Lancaster said he believes everyone can become “stewards of the land, and partners in the ecosystem, believing that by harvesting water we can all begin to transform our households and neighborhoods from being consumers of resources to generators – and even regenerators – of resources.”
MOCA LOCAL GENIUS AWARDS Saturday, April 16 265 S. Church Ave. $275 per person (520) 624-5019 www.moca-tucson.org/LGA2016
Dr. Andrew Weil
Dr. Andrew Weil’s face and beard are familiar to those who follow the “Today Show” and “Oprah” and the teaching of integrative medicine. Dr. Weil is seemingly everywhere talking about his passion. He is the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He said he didn’t foresee himself becoming the leading authority in the field with numerous best-selling books and a popular website that offers tips and information on dieting, health and wellbeing and everything in-between. “I was interested in writing, but didn’t see it as a lifelong pursuit,” he said. “Most gratifying is having so many people over the years tell me, ‘You put into words ideas I have always thought but was never able to express.’” He’s appeared on the cover of Time magazine twice - as one of the most incontinued on page 142 >>> Spring 2016 > > > BizTucson 141
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continued from page 141 fluential Americans in 1997, and one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005. “Prophets are not supposed to be recognized in their own towns,” Weil said of the MOCA award. “I’ve been preaching about a transformation of medicine, medical education and health care for more than 40 years – all the time I’ve lived in Tucson. It is very gratifying to get hometown acknowledgment.” Mort Rosenblum
When it comes to journalism, Mort Rosenblum’s resume is as varied as it is impressive. He’s been nominated for a number of Pulitzer Prizes from his various stints as a reporter and writer. He currently is teaching international reporting at the UA. “I tell students it is easier than ever to get abroad and get set up as a reporter,” he said. “But they have to be willing to starve for awhile. Staff correspondents are rare so news organizations need stringers. But most are stingy, and it takes time to make contacts. Also, it can be awfully dangerous out there these days.” Writing has long been his passion. In fact, at the age of six he printed his first newspaper from his room in Tucson. It started a journey in journalism that has seen him write from more than 200 countries on various topics, including war and politics. He’s been an editor numerous times over and ran Associated Press bureaus in Kinshasa, Lagos, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Buenos Aires and Paris. He’s won the AP’s highest award three times (1990, 2000 and 2001). He’s written more than a dozen books, including “Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light,” and has written for a wide range of magazines. He was honored with the Harry Chapin Award in 2001 for a series on water, and received the Mencken Award for his work on famine in Africa. Ofelia Zepeda
Ofelia Zepeda is a poet and well-respected expert in her field of native language. She grew up in the small farming town of Stanfield, Ariz. Today she is a Regents Professor in the Department of Linguistics and American Indian Studies at the UA, and is the author of the only pedagogical textbook on the Tohono O’odham language, “A Papago Grammar.” She also is the coauthor of “Derived Words in Tohono O’odham.” Zepeda is a co-founder and now director of the highly recognized American Indian Language Development Institute, a summer institute offering courses to educators and potential educators working with American Indian communities. She’s also the author of poetry books written in her native O’odham language touching on O’odham traditions and O’odham life. She also is a former Poet Laureate of Tucson When she is not writing about her native language she is teaching undergraduate and graduate courses on the subject. The UA created an endowment in her name to help raise $1 million to help support a new professor whose work will help encourage and preserve Native American languages. In 1999, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her extensive work on American Indian language issues.
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BizCOMPETITION
Liz Baker
STEM-Focused Foundation Wins Fast Pitch $15,000 from Social Venture Partners By April Bourie The Baboquivari High School students were worried about their grandmother. She was sick and getting worse. Like many living on the Tohono O’odham reservation, she didn’t have electricity in her house. The siblings suspected the lack of heating in her bedroom was causing her decline in health. They gathered soda cans, cardboard, tin foil, black paint, duct tape and other items around their house and the reservation to build a solar heater. Their first attempt heated for only an hour. Each redesign heated longer. After a year of perseverance, their solar heater kept their grandmother warm through the night, cooled during the day and charged a cellphone. “This type of ingenuity is exactly what SARSEF programs are all about. We change lives by encouraging students to engage in critical thinking and problem-solving,” said Liz Baker, director of research for the Southern Arizona Research, Science and Engineering Foundation, which was awarded two of the top prizes at the Social Venture Partners’ Fast Pitch Competition last November. 144 BizTucson
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Fast Pitch is a free two-month training and mentoring program conducted by Social Venture Partners that helps nonprofit leaders to effectively and succinctly communicate their stories, while connecting them to the leaders of the business and funding communities who can ultimately help them grow their organizations. In the competition, Baker explained that SARSEF provides science and engineering training to students and teachers across Southern Arizona at no charge to schools. “Our goal is have every child in Southern Arizona participate in a research project at least once in their life so they can experience the process,” Baker said. SARSEF programs are being utilized in approximately 20 percent of the schools in Southern Arizona, touching classes from Florence to Yuma, Casa Grande to Nogales. “Many of our in-school programs are in Title I schools or in rural areas that don’t have as much access to science and engineering training,” Baker said. “Most of the time, we are approached
by a school because a parent heard about our program from someone else. We have even worked with groups of home-schooled students.” SARSEF programs are tailored for each individual school. A meeting with staff occurs first to determine how to best utilize the SARSEF program. “Many times teachers are intimidated by adding another project on top of their already busy schedules,” Baker said. “We show them how implementing the research project into their curriculum actually helps them satisfy many other curriculum requirements – that it’s easy to integrate the project so it’s not a lot of additional work.” SARSEF also works with parents through Parent Science Nights, which explain the process and the lingo to parents and encourage their involvement in the projects. The SARSEF Fair, held each spring at the Tucson Convention Center, gives students conducting research projects the opportunity to show off their work. Thousands of research projects are entered by students who have won at their school science fairs. Schools don’t have
to be involved with a SARSEF program to enter their students’ projects. Volunteers with backgrounds and/or interest in science judge the entries. The winners receive a total of $100,000 in awards. Another event that SARSEF holds each year to engage students in science and engineering is the Arizona STEM Adventure. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. This event is a partnership with many other entities including IBM, Raytheon Missile Systems and the Pima County School Superintendent’s Office. It is a hands-on science day for students in fourth through eighth grades that involves more than 60 community organizations whose booths must include interactive science activities. “It’s a great way for the kids to get ideas about what they might want to do for a research project,” Baker said. Teachers can also earn two hours of professional development for attending and receive $200 in science supplies to take back and use in their classrooms. All of these programs are conducted by a paid staff of three and nearly 800 volunteers. “We are getting close to the point where the need for our programs is bigger than our human resources,” said Baker, which is one of the reasons the organization participated in the Fast Pitch Competition. “In addition to supporting our programs and events, our Fast Pitch awards allowed us to increase a part-time employee to a fulltime employee – which alleviated some of that stress.” According to Baker, participating in the competition was worth much more than the $15,000 award money. “The best intangible has been that SARSEF has been able to reach a new audience that makes funding and achieving our mission that much easier,” she said. As for the students who created the solar heater for their grandmother – Jacquel Rivers and Arne Joi Nipales won first place at the SARSEF Fair. They went on to win an internship with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when they competed at the International Science Fair. And they received full scholarships to the University of Arizona, where they are enrolled as science and engineering students.
Ciara Garcia
Executive Director of SVP
New Leader at Social Venture Partners
Garcia Aims to Grow the Organization By April Bourie Social Venture Partners, the philanthropic organization that initiated the Fast Pitch Tucson competition in 2015, named Ciara Garcia as executive director in January. A Greater Tucson Leadership graduate and 2013 Tucson 40 Under 40 honoree, Garcia comes to SVP after 11 years at Tu Nidito Children & Family Services. She started working at Tu Nidito as its development director and was promoted to director of operations in 2013. It was in this position that she realized she really loved starting and growing new programs. “As my work in the nonprofit sector grew, I witnessed the expanded impact that occurs when people come together to leverage their strengths and resources for a greater good,” Garcia said. In addition to doubling Tu Nidito’s revenues, she started three new programs that grew successfully to serve unmet needs. The executive director position at SVP seemed a logical next step for her. “At SVP our emphasis on collaborative impact provides nonprofits and the broader community with a combination of tools and resources to succeed, truly getting down to the root of issues impacting our world and making a difference where it is needed,” she said.
The two main programs SVP offers to nonprofits are the three-year grant program and the Fast Pitch competition. The three-year grant program provides funds to selected nonprofits for general operating support as well as nonprofit capacity building. Fast Pitch provides training and mentoring to nonprofit leaders to help them effectively and succinctly tell their stories to potential grantors and supporters. In keeping with her past successes, one of Garcia’s first goals at SVP is to grow the number of corporate partners involved in SVP programs. These organizations share their experience and knowledge with SVP and the nonprofits participating in its programs. Current corporate partners include TEP, Nextrio and LP&G Marketing. These organizations provide everything from meeting space and printing services to marketing training and technology support. “Our current corporate partners appreciate the opportunity to dive in and work directly with the nonprofits – whether it’s providing their expertise, resources or an opportunity for their employees to develop leadership skills and community connections,” Garcia said. She’s on a mission to leverage the skills of more community partners, so SVP can have an even greater impact on Tucson. Biz
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BizINTERNATIONAL
CEO The Offshore Group
(right)
Luis Felipe Seldner III President The Offshore Group
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PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
Luis Felipe Seldner
(left)
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The Offshore Group Thrives Cross-Border Services for Manufacturers By Jay Gonzales It doesn’t take a mathematician or a financial genius to understand the business model that has made The Offshore Group a successful international enterprise. In providing shelter services for companies doing business in Mexico, The Offshore Group makes it possible for its clients to share their costs for operations such as human resources, accounting, shipping, warehousing and customs with other companies. But what is a little mind boggling is that a multi-million-dollar, international firm came to fruition in a nondescript apartment near Rincon High School where Luis Felipe Seldner lived with his roommate and co-founder Duane Boyett 30 years ago. “Our office was the Tamarack Apartments on Fifth Street and that was our sleeping quarters,” recalled Seldner, now the CEO of the company that has his son, Luis Seldner III, as president. Today, The Offshore Group has 73 clients, three industrial parks in Mexico and a 147,000-square-foot facility in Tucson where it provides services for manufacturing firms in the aerospace, medical, automotive and electronics industries. Their operations in the U.S. and Mexico employ approximately 21,500 people, with 850 of those direct employees of The Offshore Group with the remaining 13,000 working for their clients through Offshore Group entities. The manufacturers hire The Offshore Group to handle whatever administrative tasks they need so they can focus on the actual task of producing their product. They also can lease space for their manufacturing operations at one of the industrial parks to be closer to the administrative operations. The younger Seldner said his “favorite example” of what his company does for its clients goes something like this: “The general manager of the plant www.BizTucson.com
walks in to the production line at 7:30 in the morning, and suddenly a person comes walking in and asks if he can sign 20 checks because they need to pay suppliers. He signs the checks. He’s lost 10 minutes, 15 minutes,” Seldner said. “He gets back to the production line and someone else comes up and says, ‘We just had an accident with one of the workers. Let’s go talk to the union,’ and it takes an hour. “He finishes with that, and then someone from the government walks in and says they want to see if they’re complying with EPA regulations. He goes to that meeting. By the time he deals with all of the administrative issues, it’s eight hours out of the day when he should have been there checking the quality of his product, trying to improve his product and lowering his costs.” The company found its niche in the mid-1980s heyday of the maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexico border in which manufacturers located their plants in Mexico to do the manufacturing at a lower cost and shipped the finished goods back to the company’s home country. But it wasn’t the plants along the border that gave The Offshore Group its start. The initial business came from the interior – Guaymas, Sonora – where the company maintains its core. “Nobody knew about us,” the elder Seldner said, “but once we were able to establish ourselves, and our credibility, we had a lot of companies knocking on our door.” Besides spreading the costs for administrative services, clients from the United States, Mexico and Europe also get the benefit of The Offshore Group’s expertise in dealing with regulations and employment laws in Mexico, something the manufacturers would have to have in-house to be able to do business there.
“When they go to Mexico, it’s because they want to make this widget at a lower price with better or at least the same quality,” said Seldner III. “But when they go to Mexico, they don’t go there knowing how to deal with payroll, how to deal with unions, how to deal with taxes, how to deal with importing and exporting materials. “In all those things, they have to comply with government agencies. It’s really not bringing added-value to the widget. But they still have to comply with all of those regulations. We take charge of that. You manufacture and we do the rest.” Three decades after its formation, The Offshore Group is now partnering with the University of Arizona to flip the concept and do the same thing for foreign companies, including those from Mexico, that want to manufacture in the U.S. – with the added twist of research and development opportunities provided by the UA. The Offshore Group and the UA entity Tech Parks Arizona formed Global Advantage in 2014 to provide the dual service of research and development capability along with administrative, logistic and manufacturing support at the UA Science and Technology Park on South Rita Road and at The Offshore Group facilities in Tucson and Mexico. “We’re holding hands and trying to promote the competitive advantage that each one of us has to offer,” said Seldner III. “We’re trying to leverage the strengths of the region. The UA is very good at research and development, and we’re very good at manufacturing. “We’re going to prospects and saying we have a great solution where you can be in the United States and you can be in Mexico at the same time.” Which in the grand scheme of things is a long way from that little apartment on Fifth Street. Biz Spring 2016 > > > BizTucson 147
Spaceport Tucson
For World View’s Near-Space Balloon Flights Tucson is poised to be a hub of commercial space flight now that Pima County approved a southside spaceport to service World View’s balloon manufacturing and launches. The $14.5 million, 135,000-squarefoot Spaceport Tucson will be built south of Tucson International Airport and include a plant for manufacturing the balloons that serve as World View’s launch vehicles. With a 4-1 Board of Supervisors vote, Pima County approved funding the facility and World View will make 20 years of lease payments totaling almost $24 million, with a purchase option after 10 years. The Spaceport will anchor the County Aerospace, Defense and Technology Business and Research Park “We initially did a national search for a location and then we whittled it down to several states and several areas within each state – which essentially came down to Florida, New Mexico and Arizona,” said World View CEO Jane Poynter. “Arizona is where we’re from – but it’s also a great place to operate for a ballooning company. We were very happy that Arizona stepped forward with an attractive offer that’s a great win-win.” World View will grow its operation from about 25 employees to more than 400, with the lion’s share of the jobs in manufacturing. Everything is reusable in World View’s launch vehicles except for the balloon itself. “We’re already manufacturing balloons – but the new building will allow us to expand that dramatically,” Poynter said. “We also have operational personnel we’ll need, people to perform the launches. Every time we launch, we have a team of people go out to the pad to make sure the launch goes off flaw148 BizTucson
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lessly, and we also have personnel in mission control.” World View anticipates launching its human spaceflight operations in 2017, at a cost of $75,000 per passenger, with capsules of two crew and six passengers floating peacefully to the edge of space for a two-hour flight, traveling inside a specially engineered and luxuriously appointed capsule transported by a parafoil and high-altitude balloon. The company has made successful scale tests and next year plans a full mass, 10,000-pound test flight as the next step toward a manned launch, Poynter said. In addition to the human spaceflights, World View has already been active in launching communications, surveillance and scientific equipment, which will remain a crucial component of the company’s business, Poynter said. “For the next year or two, most of the flights are going to be on the robotic side,” Poynter said. “Think of it like a satellite, but closer to earth – at 20 miles instead of hundreds of miles. There is an enormous amount of science that can be done at that altitude. We can stay in a certain location or circumnavigate the globe and have the capability of staying up for months at a time. “For example, we know the least about weather over the oceans, even though they have some of the largest effects on the weather over the land. We’re looking to collect better data that allows us to enhance our forecasting methodologies and accuracy.” The balloons can also be deployed for emergency communications purposes. “Imagine if you could have your own little cell tower in the sky right over the area of a disaster – so everybody can communicate again and you can have
eyes in the sky with specialty cameras,” Poynter said. County officials see the Spaceport as a key to future economic development for the Sonoran Corridor, a 50-squaremile area surrounding the airport that includes many of Pima County’s largest employers, including Raytheon Missile Systems, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson International Airport, Port of Tucson and University of Arizona Tech Park. According to a study from Phoenix-based Applied Economics, World View’s operation will have an estimated $3.5 billion impact on the local economy over the next 20 years. “Jobs, jobs, jobs – that’s what this is all about,” said Board Chair Sharon Bronson in a county news release. “They’re why we’ve spent four years planning the Sonoran Corridor and they’re why we are continuing to develop it. It’s not just lines on a map. It’s real and it will transform our local economy and spur growth and prosperity for many, many years to come.” Poynter said the Spaceport will be a public asset that can benefit the Tucson region beyond just serving as a base of operations for World View. A reputation for a robust space industry will continue to attract an increase in high-tech businesses. “I’m very excited about having Spaceport Tucson here, not only for us selfishly at World View, but also for the community,” Poynter said. “It really sends a loud message to the aerospace community at large that Tucson is a center for commercial space business. That’s a very exciting industry to be in and it really helps our community to have this diversification of revenue for our region.”
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IMAGES COURTESY WORLD VIEW: ASHLEY ESTILL
By Eric Swedlund
PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
Taber McCallum Jane Poynter
BizAEROSPACE
“
Think of it like a satellite, but nearer to earth – at 20 miles instead of hundreds of miles. There is an enormous amount of science that can be done at that altitude.
”
– Jane Poynter, CEO, World View
Project: World View Headquarters and Tucson Spaceport Location: Aerospace Parkway Owner: Pima County Contractor: Barker Morrissey Contracting Architect: Swaim Associates Completion Date: November 2016 Construction Cost: Estimated $14.5 million Financed By: Pima County Project Description: This 135,000-square-foot engineering and manufacturing facility and 700-foot diameter launch pad will provide near-space flight use of balloon technology.
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PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Marc Soloway
Founder & Architect Soloway Designs
Building Dreams Listening to Clients By Valerie Vinyard
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PHOTOS: COURTESY SOLOWAY DESIGNS
BizARCHITECTURE Marc Soloway is a savant when it comes to designing a dream home. In the morning, the owner and architect of Soloway Designs might be working on a bathroom addition. In the afternoon, he’ll be designing a 15,000-square-foot custom house. On his website, www.soloway-designs. com, you can gaze at photos of homes Soloway has designed during his 20 years in business. What first strikes you is the stunning variety of styles and looks – all breathtaking in their own right. The photos show the homes’ soaring views, giant windows and big open floor plans. He has designed houses around the nation in styles that include Southwest Contemporary, Eclectic, Desert Modern, Tuscan/Mediterranean and Santa Fe/Pueblo. What’s especially striking is how different the houses all look in materials, size and design. You don’t get a feeling of sameness with Soloway’s style – a welcome relief in today’s tract-home culture. Soloway, a Connecticut native, ended up in Tucson in 1990 in a roundabout way. He had completed a year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and wanted to transfer to another college. So he moved to California to live with his parents for a couple of years to establish residency and possibly attend the University of California at Berkeley. That school also wasn’t his ideal, so he widened his search. After talking on the phone to the University of Arizona’s dean of architecture for an hour, he was hooked. He entered the UA’s five-year architecture program. Along the way, he worked and learned at several architecture firms. While at school, he befriended three other architecture students, and in their fourth year at UA, the group decided to start Synetics. Their business consisted more of drafting jobs than building homes and the enthusiasm waned. Two moved to California, and one moved to Phoenix. Soloway stayed, and he opened Soloway Designs. Today he employs three full-time people and works 60-plus hours a week. Now he’s celebrating 20 years in business. “Starting a business, you have to have a little luck,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how talented you are.” Early on, Soloway experienced some luck himself while on a drafting job in Honeybee Canyon. He met a developer www.BizTucson.com
who led him to work on a custom home. Thus began his portfolio of constructing dream residences. What sets Soloway apart is his ability to tailor-make clients’ dreams and not let his preferences get in the way. “A lot of architects will design for themselves and not the client,” he said. “If someone comes to me, I will give them my professional opinion – but in the end, it’s their house.” Soloway lives in a custom home in Oro Valley with his wife, Sharon, and their two children, 11-year-old Camden and 13-year-old Sydni. He built the 3,600-square-foot home in 2010, his “worst year ever,” thanks to the toppling economy. “It was the cheapest possible time to build,” said Soloway, noting that they
“
More and more people are looking to modify what they have. People can still make their dreams happen with an already existing home.
”
– Marc Soloway Founder & Architect, Soloway Designs
already had purchased the one-acre lot. Since the economy tanked, he’s noticed that most people have a very strict budget. That also means about 20 percent of Soloway’s business is working in remodels rather than new homes. “More and more people are looking to modify what they have,” he said. “It makes a little bit more sense to some people. People can still make their dreams happen with an already existing home.” But Soloway, who maintains an easygoing demeanor and looks boyish for his 43 years, certainly isn’t hurting for business. “Because of the Internet, we’re doing houses everywhere,” said Soloway, ticking off states – Arizona, Michigan, Colorado and California – where his homes are located. His reputation even recently earned him work in Trinidad, where he is in
the process of designing three projects, including an 11,000-square-foot house. His wife, Sharon, is an entrepreneur herself. The UA graduate in social work started a company called Tady Tote about three years ago to sell baby bags that transform into a play area/plush baby blanket. The UA grad has a kiosk in the Tucson Mall and sells her wares at www.tadytote.com. The two met 15 years ago while playing in a volleyball league. Four months later, they were engaged, and nine months later, the two were married. Sharon is quick to point out how her husband’s approach to designing homes differs from other architects. “It seems that his houses take a more livable approach,” she said. “It has flow, it makes sense, as well as it looks amazing. Other architects don’t take into consideration the livable part of it. He does.” The two still play volleyball, sometimes in the court they built in their back yard. In February 2013, Soloway again joined with one member of the original Synetics team, Brian Litz, and started CAOS Construction, a construction and architecture firm. After Synetics disbanded, Litz moved to Phoenix to work in commercial architecture. “We always were looking for opportunities to come together and make something happen,” Soloway said. Each letter of CAOS is the first letter of one of their kids’ first names – Camden, Andrew, Owen and Sydni. “It’s a fun experience working with him,” Litz said. “He’s a brilliant designer. His work speaks for itself.” If that wasn’t enough, Soloway then teamed up with Esthela Celaya about two years ago to start Celaya-Soloway Interiors. Their philosophy is simple – give clients the home they have always envisioned. The two describe their approach as a design process that’s centered around the client’s needs. “It has been phenomenal,” Soloway said. “She’s an incredible talent and is very much like me. She is so easy to talk to and deal with.” Besides hard work, Litz said one of the reasons Soloway has made it so far is his personality. “One of his greatest assets is listening,” Litz said. “The rapport he has with clients is like none other I’ve seen.”
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BizBRIEFS
TSO Receives $1 Million Endowment From Diamond Foundation The Tucson Symphony Orchestra received a $1 million donation from the Diamond Foundation to endow the concertmaster’s chair. The first recipient of the Joan B. Diamond Concertmaster Chair will be concertmaster Lauren Roth, who joined TSO in 2013. Joan Diamond, wife of Diamond Ventures Chairman Donald Diamond, studied piano and voice at the University of Arizona. The Diamonds have been TSO season ticket holders since 1966, and the Diamond Foundation has been donating to TSO for more than a decade.
Biz
SAHBA Announces Annual Awards The Southern Arizona Home Builders Association announced its 2015 Annual Awards. Individual winners are Lisa Walling, Re-Bath/5-Day Kitchens; Heidi Yetzer, Richmond American Homes, and Eddie Holmes, KB Home. Company winners are: • Production Home Builder – Pepper Viner Homes • Custom Home Builder – Sunset Custom Homes • Remodeler Project over $50,000 – McCaleb Construction • Remodeler Project under $50,000 – Accessible Home Remodeling • Trade Partner – Santa Rita Landscaping • Associate Firm/Corporate – NOVA Home Loans • Associate Firm/Small Business – OneSource Benefit Planning
SAHBA represents more than 350 member businesses in Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.
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SPECIAL REPORT 2016
THE REGION’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE
El Rio Community Health Center
Photo & cover photo: BalfourWalker.com
BizHEALTH
National Model of Healthcare for All ‘Your Health is Our Passion’ By Mary Minor Davis El Rio Community Health Center opened in 1970 – thanks to the tireless efforts of a few impassioned community advocates, the vision of the founding dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine and federal funding from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” to provide healthcare for the underserved and uninsured. Today, El Rio is a national model for innovative, personalized, high-quality healthcare. El Rio has grown from the “health center of last resort” into the health center of choice for over 92,000 patients at 11 campuses across the city. These centers offer patients one-stop healthcare with medical, dental, laboratory, X-ray, pharmacy and other services available at a single location with a focus on patient wellness and quality of life. El Rio now has an annual budget of $124 million, a staff of 1,100 and is primed for even greater growth. It’s accredited by The Joint Commission, NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) and recognized as the 154 BizTucson
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25th largest community health center in the nation. “Back then, we were a place for people who didn’t have money,” said Nancy Johnson, CEO of El Rio. “Today we offer comprehensive and compassionate care for all ages and stages of life” – from infants, children and young parents to employees, executives and retirees. Eighty-four percent of El Rio’s patients have some sort of private health care coverage. Challenges before success
El Rio’s rise to success has not been without its challenges. In 1987, the healthcare system was facing bankruptcy, owing more than $22 million to creditors, said El Rio CFO Celia Hightower. “I walked in to an environment where the staff was very distrustful of management and were not engaged in the organization, because they didn’t feel it was going to survive.” Within a year, Hightower turned the organization around and it netted a positive $165,000 in revenue. The
recovery involved cutting staff pay and benefits, and negotiating with creditors, including a $6 million balance with St. Mary’s hospital. “It was a hard team to lead, but (former CEO) Robert Gomez and I appealed to the mission and why we were here,” she said. “The employees started to change and they decided to stay with us.” That was a pivotal milestone. “Robert Gomez really turned this organization around,” said Brenda Goldsmith, executive director of the El Rio Health Center Foundation. He was a visionary, a positive force for two decades. Patient-centered innovations
El Rio’s trajectory into a national role model is the result of several factors – not the least of which is the passionate and committed staff, some of whom have been at El Rio for more than 45 years. “We have the most loyal, compassionate staff,” Johnson said proudly. “They are always trying to answer the questions ‘How can we provide better www.BizTucson.com
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
El Rio at a Glance By The Numbers Patients enrolled – 92,000+ Annual patient visits – 340,000 Babies delivered – 1,850+ annually Patients with health coverage – 84 percent Staff – 1,100 Languages spoken by staff – 25 Annual budget – $124 million Annual charity care – $12-$14 million Year founded – 1970 Number of campuses – 11 (10 clinical sites & administration)
El Rio leadership team from left – Richard Spaulding, Strategic Planner & Facilities Director; Celia Hightower, CFO; Robert Thompson, CIO; Nancy Johnson, CEO; Dr. Douglas J. Spegman, CCO; Brenda Goldsmith, ED, El Rio Foundation
“
It’s really the healthcare that you’ve always wanted. –
”
Nancy Johnson, CEO, El Rio Community Health Center
healthcare to our community and how do we help people feel as passionate about their wellness as we are?’ ” Patient-centered innovations and initiatives have led to impressive results treating asthma and diabetes, HIV/ AIDS and hepatitis; increasing immunization rates; and reducing hospital visits. Aspiring medical and dental professionals travel from all over the country and as far away as Saudi Arabia and Japan to train at El Rio. Forming partnerships with the University of Arizona College of Medicine, A.T. Still University, New York University’s Lutheran Medical Center, Pima Medical Institute and others led El Rio to become one of the top teaching health centers in the nation for pediatric, medical, pharmaceutical and dental residents from around the world. Over the years, the list of services has grown dramatically. From pediatrics to clinical pharmacists, primary care to urgent care, dental care to midwifery services, Special Immunology Associates to OB/GYN and Associates. El www.BizTucson.com
Rio has ten clinical campuses, including a freestanding birthing center, pharmacies, lab and X-ray services and Health Builders programs for patients and staffs. Impressive to be sure, but Johnson said the real focus of all of this growth has always been about providing the best care possible for its patients, and to always be looking for innovative ways to provide that quality care as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. Expanding to new locations
Much of El Rio’s approach has focused on better understanding what community and external factors play into a patient’s decision to act – or not – on managing their health. While some might presume a language barrier, El Rio staff found more critical factors to be education, lack of transportation, time constraints to make wellness visits, multiple-site travel to get labs or screenings and lifestyle choices. “In truth, most of what affects patient health happens outside of the exam continued on page 156 >>>
Mission Improving the health of our community through comprehensive, accessible, affordable, quality, compassionate care Vision To be a national model of excellent healthcare Cultural Beliefs
• Honor Patients –
“I always put the patient first.”
• Create Tomorrow –
“I embrace effective change and seek innovative solutions.”
• Step Up –
“I am accountable for making El Rio a world-class health center.”
• Break Boundaries –
“I work with others to achieve success.”
• I Matter –
“I make a difference by voicing my opinion and knowing I am heard.”
• Value Health –
“I take time for my own health to promote yours.”
Key organizational results
• World-class experience for patients and staff
• Healthier patients and employees • Positive operating margin
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BizHEALTH
continued from page 155 room,” Johnson said. Removing those barriers led to the adoption of several initiatives in recent years. Johnson said when she joined El Rio in 2009 as COO, her boss CEO Kathy Byrne was launching a quality program that focused on understanding patient needs beyond treating symptoms. Focus groups, patient surveys and simple one-on-one interaction between physicians and patients led to a number of initiatives that challenge traditional healthcare approaches. Under Byrne’s leadership, El Rio expanded the number of health center locations, strategically placed in the community to meet the needs of the underserved where there was a shortage of quality healthcare access. In 2006, El Rio completed its conversion to a digital patient records system. According to Chief Information Officer Bob Thompson, that “changed the way medicine is practiced. Once you had that data, you could now look at trends in patient health. The convergence of technology and having access to patient trends here and through other health centers around the country has led to population health management.” Patient-centered team of providers
Another advance has been the development of the Patient Centered Medical Home model. The model organizes patient care activities around a team of participants involved in various aspects of a patient’s continued on page 157 >>>
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Healthcare For All Ages & Stages Spectrum of El Rio Services • Primary Care • Pediatrics • Family Medicine • Internal Medicine • Behavioral Health • OB/GYN • Midwifery • Dentistry • Pharmacy • Laboratory • Radiology • 24/7 Nurse Triage • Patient Navigation
El Rio Programs of Excellence • Asthma • Diabetes • Hepatitis C • HIV/AIDS • Pain Management • Prenatal Care • Wellness
continued from page 156
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Miguel Rojas, Board Member, El Rio Community Health Center
Roots of El Rio In the late 1960s, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” and the concept of neighborhood health centers was born. Against this national backdrop, local advocates on the west and south sides of Tucson were building new communities in the barrios and fighting for basic services including healthcare. At the same time, the founding dean of the new College Of Medicine at the University of Arizona – Dr. Merlin DuVal – wanted a new way to train young medical students and saw that a neighborhood health center would provide that opportunity while serving the healthcare needs of the underserved. He enlisted the help of Dr. Herb Abrams who had already worked with a community in Chicago to build one of the first centers there. Abrams connected with local leaders in the barrios and enlisted their support. However, at that time residents of the barrios were distrustful – fresh from the loss of Barrio Libre after city officials voted to demolish the neighborhood for urban renewal and build the Tucson Convention Center. They feared a new health center would lead to more displacement of residents. Through tireless efforts of many activists, like Miguel Rojas, and community leaders, the residents were convinced that a health center would be of help. With the donation of a building by Pima County and $50,000 for renovations, along with a federal grant, the first El Rio neighborhood health center opened in October of 1970 with a small staff of health professionals offering primary medical and dental care.
care. The primary goal of these changes was to standardize and increase the quality of care. A nurse for much of her career, Johnson said, “It’s been fascinating for me to watch traditional medical models become interdisciplinary with so many people working with the patient.” The team may include community health advisors who help navigate patients through their care, physicians, clinical pharmacists, behavioral health specialists, dentists and RNs coordinating care plans. By adopting new healthcare models and changing systems and simplifying processes, El Rio broke down the barriers that inhibit a patient’s ability to access the necessary resources to manage and improve their health. Johnson said El Rio facilities themselves are designed to focus more on health than medicine. The state-of-theart building on Congress Street – completed in 2014 – offers cooking classes, Zumba and other fitness programs, as well as a public café in partnership with the YWCA offering healthy cuisine, giving it more of a health center feeling than a medical center. “It’s really the healthcare that you’ve always wanted,” she said. “If we don’t take care of everyone in the community, we don’t prosper as a community.”
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Watch a video about El Rio at www.elrio.org/about-us.
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Dr. Greg LaChance, El Rio’s Dental Director PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
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Dr. Andrew Arthur, El Rio’s Medical Director in Pediatrics PHOTO: BRENT G. MATHIS
Healthcare Teams for One-Stop Pediatric Care Nurturing Early Wellness Habits By Mary Minor Davis Dr. Andrew Arthur, medical director in pediatrics, cites one of El Rio’s six cultural beliefs as his motivation each day – “Create Tomorrow.” For him, that means focusing his efforts to introduce innovative ways to build early wellness habits – one child at a time. “We’ve been looking at ways to provide better pediatric care since I came here,” he said. “Parents generally want to do what’s best for their child. We’re always developing new ways to remove the barriers and help them to do that.” When Arthur joined the El Rio Community Health Center team in 1992, the immunization rate for toddlers was at a dismal 30 percent. Over the next three years, the organization put new practices in place that helped increase rates to more than more than 80 percent. 158 BizTucson
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Arthur attributes this turnaround to several innovative approaches. Understanding patient challenges
“First, we changed our focus to a patient-centered approach,” he said. “We were operating on what was convenient for us and not understanding the challenges patients had in making and keeping wellness visits.” Through patient communication and focus groups, Arthur said they identified transportation limitations, work schedule issues and the time it takes to bring children in for wellness visits and vaccines. His team did a “top-down” look at how appointments were scheduled, and how they could maximize the patient’s time during the visit and offer rewards for children who maintained their wellness and vaccine schedules.
“One of the first things we did is open the immunization clinic and told parents, ‘You don’t have to have an appointment for a physical to get your vaccine.’ Time off from work, for example, was creating a barrier to people coming in.” Arthur said better record-keeping, training, a reminder call system, and reward programs have all worked together to make a difference. “When our patients saw that we were adapting to meet their needs, they started seeking out other services because we were meeting those needs – so our well visits went up. Patients’ schedules were being respected.” Introducing ‘Reach Out & Read’
In 2000, El Rio launched the Reach Out and Read program – only the second healthcare organization to do so at www.BizTucson.com
the time. Beginning at six months of age, children receive a new book at every visit, which Arthur said has changed the character of a well-child visit. “It really encourages positive interaction, not only with the doctor, but also between parents and children,” he said. “Research has shown that children who are read to at an early age, and who are encouraged to read at an early age, are likely to do better at learning words before they start school.” Children receive books until the age of 5. Arthur said they currently give out about 10,000 books a year. “That costs us about $150 per child, – that’s less than the cost of a single vaccine.” A small price to pay for a healthier generation, he said. The El Rio health center also implemented the VIP program, where the pediatric patient – starting at six months of age – receives a “Very Important Person” certificate in the mail following their visit, addressed personally to them, congratulating them on getting their vaccination or seeing their doctor. In 2001, following an Inner-City Asthma Intervention Study conducted by Dr. Wayne Morgan at the University of Arizona, El Rio decided to take a look at how they could improve the quality of life for its pediatric patients. Under the leadership of Dr. Paul Enright, a pulmonologist, and Dr. Uwe Manthei, an asthma and immunology specialist, El Rio launched its innovative asthma program. Improving quality of life for asthma patients
Patients receive two to three hours of individualized instruction on how to care for their condition, and parents receive education on how to manage their child’s condition. Children are seen several times in the first year after diagnosis to monitor and record improvement. “We’ve seen incredible results,” Arthur said. “Children with asthma suffer from not being able to play normally, they miss school because of illness, have trouble sleeping through the night, among other limitations. With this program, we’ve seen a 60-80 percent improvement in kids now being able to do these things, miss less school, as well as a reduction in rescue medication use and emergency visits. So we’ve eliminated two-thirds of these problems.” This success attracted the attention www.BizTucson.com
of other programs around the nation, and El Rio became involved with a number of studies that identified this program’s intervention practices as a model for other health centers, Arthur said. When El Rio received its certification as a Patient Centered Medical Home model, which provides multiple specialty members around patient care – Arthur joined with Dr. Greg LaChance, dental director, to integrate dental services during the well visit. Integrating pediatrics and dental care
“I started working on this about eight years ago,” LaChance said. “One of the first things we looked at was measuring if pediatric patients had seen a dentist within a year of their wellness visit. We found out we were only reaching about 30 percent of the patients. Most community dental programs serve about 70 percent youth.” LaChance said better training and hiring of dentists to work with pediatric dentistry, along with adding dental hygienists to the patient care team, increased the ratio of youth to adult patients to around 50 percent. He said he would like to push that to at least 60 percent. Looking ahead, LaChance said El Rio is working towards full integration – having everyone on the care team participate in a patient visit. They expanded the exam rooms on the main floor of the Congress Street health center to accommodate dental hygienists, who already see pediatric patients for cleanings. Soon patients will visit their primary care doctor, the dentist and even the clinical pharmacist should medication be a factor – all in a single visit. “We used to have many appointments,” Arthur said. “Now we’re working towards just having one appointment, where all of a patient’s needs can be addressed.” “It takes a leap of faith on our part to let people bring their children into the immunization clinic for their vaccines without a well-child visit, or to allow our specially trained nursing staff to administer asthma care,” Arthur said. This evolving healthcare process provides more efficient care through a team approach that connects patients to needed services in one visit – and produces impressive results. Biz
Patient-Friendly Healthcare By Mary Minor Davis Jeff Nordensson has a lot of experience with healthcare – as a patient and as a marketer for healthcare businesses, including hospitals, medical groups and health plans. He’s seen the evolution from both the patient and provider point of view. “In my personal experience, El Rio has always kept the patients as their primary focus. That’s an extraordinarily difficult task, especially these days, and I’m amazed at how well they do it.” Nordensson, communications director for Pima County, changed his primary care to El Rio Community Health Center about a year ago. “I’ve gotten more off-hour phone calls from my current primary care physician asking how I was doing than I had gotten ever from my last PCP. “If you need care, you get it – rather than having to fight the system,” he said. “It’s kind of like getting every green light when you’re going down Speedway.”
Newcomer Discovers El Rio By Mary Minor Davis When Cynthia Jones moved to Tucson in 2014, it was the second move in four years. Looking for a new primary care physician was daunting, “Tucson is very spread out so starting the new doctor search can be frustrating and exhausting,” she said. “I had not been to a community health center before. Since El Rio had caught my eye at different locations, I looked online to see what it was all about.” Jones scheduled an appointment at the Congress center. There her doctor took the time to get to know her and helped her with everything she needed, Jones said. She was able to get lab work at the same location during her visit and scheduled other services as well. “All of the employees were welcoming and friendly, really loving their jobs. I haven’t been at an El Rio facility that wasn’t this way.” A district manager for Wells Fargo, Jones shared her experience with coworkers who were surprised that she chose El Rio. “El Rio is a hidden secret. El Rio needs to be spotlighted for the healthcare they can provide to the whole community.” Spring 2016
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BizEDUCATION
Left – Dr. Douglas J. Spegman, El Rio’s Chief Clinical Officer Top & bottom right – A.T. Still University, El Rio Teaching Classroom
Training Healthcare Leaders of Tomorrow Through Collaborations Nationwide
PHOTOS: CHRIS MOONEY
By Mary Minor Davis Since its inception in 1970, El Rio Community Health Center has been closely linked to innovations in medical education. Dr. Herb Abrams, the first director of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, was instrumental in the founding of El Rio. From the beginning he fostered a relationship with the college that gave young doctors in training an opportunity to have a hands-on experience in community-based healthcare. Today El Rio Community Health Center is helping to create a new model of medical education in what is known 160 BizTucson
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as a Teaching Health Center. This concept emphasizes multidisciplinary, inter-professional educational opportunities within community health centers. This allows students and residents with a passion for community medicine to obtain their training directly within the community health center environment. El Rio provides direct training programs for medical and dental students as well as residency training in family medicine, clinical pharmacy, general dentistry and pediatric dentistry. Dr. Doug Spegman, El Rio’s chief clinical officer, said “These residencies provide traditional clinical training in acute and chronic care management
and also emphasize preventive care and wellness. This includes a comprehensive approach to understanding healthcare disparities and social determinants to health that are often overlooked barriers to care and patient wellness.” This education experience emphasizes a team-based approach to healthcare that involves community health advisors, patient communications specialists, registered nurse care coordinators, transitions of care coordinators, integrated behavioral health consultants and clinical pharmacists – all working together with the provider team to deliver a comprehensive health home experience. www.BizTucson.com
“El Rio has always been committed to innovation,” he said, and is nationally recognized. “In terms of patient safety, we were one of the first out-patient systems in Southern Arizona to obtain Joint Commission Accreditation,” he said. El Rio also has received the Level 3 National Committee for Quality Assurance for Patient-Centered Medical Home designation, the highest level awarded. In addition, El Rio also was recently recognized as a Healthcare Equality Index Leader by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. “This drive towards innovation carries over into El Rio’s current efforts in training healthcare leaders of tomorrow,” he said. Spegman has been part of El Rio for more than 20 years. He came to Tucson after finishing residency training in internal medicine in Baltimore, as part of the National Health Service Loan Repayment Program. “I was really drawn to the community health center movement. I was inspired by its beginnings as part of the war on poverty and overcoming healthcare disparities and inequities – all trying to answer the question of how do you deliver care that reaches every part of the community?” Spegman oversees more than 170 healthcare providers on the El Rio staff. “We touch the lives of one out of every eight people in Tucson through either our medical or dental services,” he said. Hands-on experience in community health
Over the past 15 years, Spegman has seen the shortage of primary care physicians become an increasingly greater challenge in healthcare. Now demand is growing even higher with the passage of the Affordable Care Act and recent changes in Medicare and Medicaid that give even more people access to healthcare coverage, he said. In addition, traditional medical training is hospital based and centered on curing illness, not on keeping the patient healthy. So how do you build a workforce that is focused on community health and patient centered care? Enter A.T. Still University – the nation’s first osteopathic medical school. It was founded in 1892 in Kirksville, Missouri, by Andrew Taylor Still. Working with A.T. Still University in www.BizTucson.com
Spegman said, “Not only do the students get really good, rigorous medical training, but also an understanding of population health and an appreciation of the socio-economic determinants of health that create barriers to wellness and care. They are trained in motivational interviewing, patient goal setting and community health assessments.”
health centers across the nation and compiled by the Bureau of Primary Healthcare in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From this database, representative virtual families have been created of all races and ethnicities with diseases that are frequently found in those populations. Students are presented patients in a virtual exam room setting and work through various clinical scenarios. “These scenarios are set up to not only test clinical knowledge but also awareness of social determinants of health,” Spegman said. “If you ignore barriers to health, it doesn’t matter how correct the diagnosis is – because the patient can’t access the care, afford the care or follow through with the plan until you understand and acknowledge that barrier and do something about it.” Another innovative collaboration involves the Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the National Association of Community Health Centers which partnered in 2013 to create community health center based residencies in family medicine. El Rio was among community health centers in six states to launch this consortium, funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, known as HRSA. El Rio currently has 12 family medicine residents in the program. Unlike traditional residency programs that are hospital based, the El Rio residency is primarily centered on out-patient community health center training and experiences. “This is an exciting way for community health centers to grow their own workforce and train the primary care leaders of tomorrow,” Spegman said. “The proof in the pudding is that in our first graduating class, three of four residents have signed a contract for employment with us. This is true validation of this approach.”
Virtual Community Health Center
Post Graduate Dental Residency
collaboration with the National Association of Community Health Centers, El Rio became part of an innovative consortium of community health centers across the nation that created a medical school devoted to training primary care physicians within community health center environments. ATSU-School of Osteopathic Medicine Arizona opened in 2007 in Mesa. The first year students take classes on the Mesa campus. In years two through four, their training is at one of 10 community health centers across the country. Each year 10 students matriculate onto the El Rio campus and are taught by El Rio faculty members in both classroom and clinic settings.
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El Rio is on an intentional journey to create tomorrow.
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Dr. Douglas J. Spegman Chief Clinical Officer El Rio Community Health Center –
One innovative component of the curriculum is the Virtual Community Health Center. Throughout their training students participate in computer simulations where they practice their diagnostic skills with virtual patients. These are composites drawn from patient data registries kept by community
“Equally exciting are the innovations in dental education that El Rio has been involved with,” Spegman said. In 1998, El Rio joined with another innovator of training programs – NYU Lutheran Medical Center’s Dental Residency program, a “dental institution without walls.” Advanced Education continued on page 167 >>> Spring 2016
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BizHEALTH
Above – Marisa Rowen, El Rio Associate Pharmacy Director of Clinical Services
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Right – El Rio Community Health Center Pharmacy. Pictured are members of El Rio Congress pharmacy team. PHOTO COURTESY RANDOMLYFE MEDIA
Clinical Pharmacists Help Improve Patient Health
Managing Diabetes, Other Complex Conditions
PHOTOS: CHRIS MOONEY
By Mary Minor Davis In 2000, the state of Arizona passed legislation that allowed collaborative practices where clinical pharmacists are able to prescribe or modify a patient’s medication plan for chronic diseases under the supervision of a primary care provider. This was a turning point in healthcare – and El Rio Community Health Center was the first site in the state approved to introduce the clinical pharmacy program thanks to the support of El Rio physicians. “This was innovation in healthcare, without a doubt,” said Marisa Rowen, associate pharmacy director for El Rio. “This not only enabled the clinical pharmacist to be integrated into the primary care team, it also expanded the comprehensive approach to well-being 162 BizTucson
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that focuses on a patient’s medication. “A physician’s education is diseasebased – what symptoms do you have? Pharmacists go to school and we see that same problem list, but our minds are asking ‘what medications could be contributing to this?’ As the medication expert on the team, we bring a new dynamic, a strength in our knowledge of medications.” Rowen said the underlying philosophy of clinical pharmacy is “less product, more service.” That means looking at a patient’s medications over time to see if there are opportunities to address wellness without adding more medications. The clinical pharmacy program is particularly successful with patients who have diabetes or are taking multi-
ple medications. “Diabetes comes with other issues –obesity, hypertension. You need to look at patients who have diabetes with a holistic approach,” Rowen said. Clinical pharmacists meet with patients for a comprehensive consultation. “Behavioral interviewing has been key in helping build our success, listening to our patients, finding out what they know about diabetes – and more importantly – defining what successful diabetes management looks like,” Rowen said. Local and national studies have shown statistically significant improvement in blood sugar levels, blood pressure and cholesterol through the clinical pharmacy diabetes approach. In the program, pharmacists meet www.BizTucson.com
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Marisa Rowen Associate Director El Rio Community Health Center Pharmacy –
with patients and provide comprehensive treatment-based customized drug regimens. The program involves:
• Ongoing, direct consultation between the patient and clinical pharmacist
• Integrated treatment of diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol
• Education that helps patients learn how to proactively manage their health.
Rowen illustrated the benefits with a story about a patient who had been dealing with diabetes for many years. When he came in for his first comprehensive visit, he showed the pharmacist a letter confirming his appointment to have his foot amputated. “The pharmacist asked if he’d been checking his feet, regularly. The man said he knew he had ulcers – but his job required him to be on his feet all day. He didn’t check them regularly,” she said. The pharmacist explained the importance of elevating his feet, cutting back on salt to reduce swelling, and taught the patient that when diabetes isn’t controlled, high sugar levels make it harder to heal. Over the course of the next three months, the care team was
El Rio Offers Comprehensive Women’s Healthcare By Mary Minor Davis El Rio Community Health Center offers comprehensive women’s healthcare for all ages – extending from midwifery and natural childbirth options to well-woman healthcare and menopause counseling. For more than four decades, El Rio has provided prenatal, childbirth and gynecological care for women at all ages and stages of their reproductive cycles. Families can choose from nurse-midwifery services at Southern Arizona’s only freestanding birth center in one of the home-like birthing rooms – or the option of delivering at Tucson Medical Center with a mid-wife or an OB/GYN doctor. El Rio’s certified nurse midwives specialize in natural childbirth, but also support women through all pain relief options available to them. Couples also can choose to participate in the Centering Pregnancy program. This multifaceted model of prenatal care integrates three components of care – health assessment, education and support in a group setting. Couples with similar due dates are grouped together and over the course of 10 sessions learn about pre- and post-partem care for baby, and the parent(s). For women past the family-planning stages of life, the El Rio offers comprehensive well-woman healthcare, including:
• • •
Preventative gynecology, health screening and annual exams Breast exams and referral for breast imaging such as mammograms Family planning and contraception
• Emergency contraception
PHOTO: ROBIN STANCLIFFE
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As the medication expert on the team, we bring a new dynamic, a strength in our knowledge of medications.
able to help the patient get his sugars under control, the ulcers completely healed and he “still has both of his feet,” Rowen said with a smile. Poly-pharmacy – prescribing multiple medications to a patient – is another issue that is a huge priority for the clinical pharmacy, particularly with Medicare patients. Once El Rio completed its transition to electronic health records in 2006, it enhanced the clinical pharmacist’s ability to provide greater coordinated care. For example, Rowen said they’ll look at a patient’s record and if they see medications that can cause side effects such as diarrhea and nausea, and they also are seeing medications for stomach issues, they will try to find out if there is a correlation between the two and if something else can be prescribed. “Medication reconciliation is important. If you’re in healthcare that should be a priority,” she said. “That is the message we teach all of our students – pharmacy, nursing, medical assistants. If providers see prescription lists growing and growing and growing, it should be a red flag and the pharmacist should be calling the provider who is prescribing all that medication. Over the past year, Rowen said the pharmacy department embarked upon education within El Rio – meeting with the business department, patient communications and other team members to explain the role of the clinical pharmacist. This has helped us break boundaries and be more successful, she said. As these departments better understand the pharmacists’ role, they can share that knowledge with our patients. “It’s been a really great marriage,” she said. “We all recognize how we complement each other and honor our patients. The best part are the patients – and how we’ve been able to help them.”
• •
Pap smears
•
Sexually transmitted disease testing, treatment and prevention.
• • • •
Treatment of common gynecological problems such as vaginitis and urinary tract infections
Partner treatment for STDs Menstrual cycle problems Sexual health Mid-life and menopause care
For new patients, a care team will meet with patients to determine individual needs and goals and a care plan will be customized to meet health goals. To learn more, visit www.elrio.org/patient-services.
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BizLEADERSHIP
Q&A with
Nancy Johnson
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
CEO El Rio Community Health Center
By Mary Minor Davis It was the summer of 1982. Nancy Johnson was on vacation in Tucson and decided to stop in at the University of Arizona College of Nursing. As a nurse who had recently earned her master’s degree and was teaching at Illinois Wesleyan University, she was curious about the UA program. To her surprise, the secretary asked her, “Would you like to see the dean? We’re hiring.”
“There I was in my typical summer vacation attire – shorts, t-shirt and flip flops,” she said, laughing at the memory. “I got the job – and that’s how I came to Tucson.” In 2009, Johnson joined El Rio as the COO, and served as interim CEO after Kathy Byrne retired in July. She was officially named CEO in October 2015.
Q. When did you
instead of...” I have a very special team here at El Rio, and many of our leadership team as well as employees throughout the organization have been here for years.
first start to think about community healthcare as a focus of your work?
A.
When I first started out as a nurse, I worked in critical care, as many nurses do. I just remember seeing so many patients who were so very ill. I realized that so much of health is created in the community. That’s why I 164 BizTucson
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wanted to move to the community care setting.
Q. What do
you bring to the leadership culture at El Rio?
A.build new models of
As we’ve started to
care, we’ve removed the department silo mentality. People feel open to expressing their ideas and we’re able to say “Let’s try that
Spring 2016
Q.
What guides and motivates the team at El Rio?
A.been working with our
One of the things we’ve
board on for the past several years is the development of the organizational culture.
We are working hard to create an organization where our patients would refer everyone to us as a great place for care, and our employees would do the same. At the same time, we wanted to pull on our rich sense of mission and vision of who we are. We went through a process with senior leaders who have been here for a while, as well as employees, to help develop our six cultural beliefs – Step Up, Break Boundaries, Value Health, Honor Patients, Create Tomorrow www.BizTucson.com
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
and I Matter. They help guide our actions every day and speak to us creating experiences for our patients and for each other in the organization. For example, a couple of years ago if you asked someone in IT what they do for the organization they might have answered, ‘I work on computers.’ Today they would answer, ‘I help provide a world-class experience for our patients by providing connectivity and information to help better care for our patients.’ So it’s bringing everyone around to our key results whether they engage with the patient or not.
Q.
What are some of the opportunities for El Rio as you look forward?
A.terms of health indicators. El Rio We have very good outcomes in
offers an integrated healthcare model that includes an array of services, quality care and support from the healthcare team. As the healthcare system moves into cost reimbursement based on health outcomes and cost savings, El Rio is already providing outcomes that indicate we are the best place in Tucson to receive your primary care. With all of the data we have, we see an opportunity to start to tailor services to further meet the needs of our patients. If you’re a healthy patient, we’ll focus on wellness, education and activities. If you have a medical condition, such as hypertension, we can provide you information on low-salt diets, track your medical visits and tests. If you are a high-risk patient with multiple needs, we will connect you with the full service patient care team. We also see opportunities with rapid advancements using more technology, such as e-consultations and telemedicine. We are already offering tele-dermatology. We will pursue more partnerships in the community with other providers and hospital systems. One thing we’re talking about is creating an Innovation Center where we share ideas with others in the community, talk about best practices and their results. This not only gives people the opportunity to learn more about El Rio, but brings us together to work on improving our community. All ships rise with a healthier community.
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El Rio Moves Headquarters Downtown By Mary Minor Davis
El Rio Community Health Center made a major investment to expand its downtown presence with the purchase of the historic Manning House and construction of an adjacent three-story companion building. El Rio CEO Nancy Johnson said that architects Frank Mascia and Grant Getz of CDG Architects designed a state-of-the-art facility that blends well with the historic architecture of the Manning House which was built in 1907. El Rio invested more than $11 million to purchase and create the campus as the administrative hub for its network of 11 centers throughout the city. Including the new addition, El Rio will occupy nearly 72,000 square feet of space at the site at 450 W. Paseo Redondo, near West Congress Street and North Granada Avenue. “We are committed to the preservation of an important historic building and to the revitalization of downtown,” Johnson said. The Manning House, which El Rio acquired in 2013, will house business offices, including administration, human resources, accounting, wellness, the Pima Community Access Program and the El Rio Health Center Foundation. Johnson said funds from the foundation are helping to cover preservation costs. Manning 2, the new building which will be adjacent to the Man-
ning House, will serve as the home for patient communications, information technology, facilities, diagnostic laboratory and a new wellness center. “This will be the heartbeat of El Rio,” said Brenda Goldsmith, executive director of the foundation. “We can easily get to any other campus within 15 minutes.” Johnson said there will be approximately 250 employees at the Manning site, which sits on slightly more than five acres. She sees this as an opportunity to showcase El Rio downtown and beyond. She said El Rio already has become a sponsor of the popular Meet Me at Maynards downtown events. “This is a great opportunity to model behavior to our patients, employees and the community,” she said. At a recent topping out ceremony, Regina Romero, Tucson City Council representative for Ward 1 where the new campus is located, praised El Rio for its long-standing commitment to providing quality healthcare to the community. “El Rio is an example of how people in Tucson organize to create what we need,” she said. “This is the history of El Rio. They have never deviated from their mission to serve all members of the community. We’re excited to see this growth in the city.”
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BizLEADERSHIP
Q&A with
Brenda Goldsmith
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Executive Director El Rio Health Center Foundation
By Mary Minor Davis Brenda Goldsmith loves her job. As the executive director of the El Rio Health Center Foundation, she is responsible for raising money to help people improve the quality of their lives. What’s more, she gets to work with people who care about that mission – not only fellow employees but also the board, volunteers, donors and sponsors who support what El Rio stands for. “We have donors for life,” she said. “We care about them and they care about us. There’s a mutual respect.”
Q.
What did you do before coming to El Rio? What attracted you to El Rio?
whole development and quality of life. At the time I arrived, El Rio was serving 25,000 kids. I was excited and overwhelmed at the same time. I saw there were just so many needs.
A.12 years. Prior to that, Q. What were some I worked as development diI’ve been at El Rio for
rector for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson. Although this was my first introduction to healthcare, it was tied to family and youth development – so there was a synergy there. What drew me here was the reflection that if you don’t have access to healthcare, especially young children, then it will affect your 166 BizTucson
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of the challenges and opportunities you faced early on?
A.just 18 months old – a The foundation was
“startup” – inside a thriving nonprofit with decades of history of doing things no one knew about in the community. They were a
Spring 2016
new board and there was little private fundraising taking place. We expanded the board, adding charismatic people who were more familiar with El Rio and had a passion for the community.
Q.
Is it common for community health centers to have a foundation?
A.nings. There was just
We had humble begin-
me and one other person. Today, we’re a staff of five that has raised more than $17 million with the help of our board and donors, We raise on average from $1.2 to $1.5 million annually.
Q.
What do you think has been the key to that success?
the board A.a handful of commu- A.Certainly – and the vision of nity health centers with a No. We’re one of only
foundation. We’ve become a resource for other community health centers that are looking to start a foundation. They look at our infrastructure, our operating model. I am regularly advising other health centers around the country.
Q.
Describe the growth of the foundation.
our senior leadership. Robert Gomez (former El Rio CEO) was brilliant in making this a community health center that anyone can come to. His big-picture vision, his advocacy at the state and federal levels to expand Medicaid, and his diversifying El Rio’s revenue streams and accepting private insurance were all innovative measures that helped us continued on page 170 >>> www.BizTucson.com
El Rio Health Center Board of Directors
El Rio Health Center Foundation Board
Kathryn Beatty * Retired Raytheon Missile Systems
Ricky Abud Lead Loan Officer NOVA Home Loans Presidential Team
Stephen G. Eggen Retired CFO Raytheon Missile Systems Brian Flagg * Coordinator, Casa Maria Soup Kitchen Rocio Galvez VP, Treasury Management Sales Consultant Wells Fargo Francisco Muñoz Tribal Council Treasurer, Pascua Yaqui Tribe Adam Pietruskiewicz * Owner, A. J. Tax Services Robert Ramirez President & CEO Vantage West Credit Union Robert Rauh Attorney, Hinderaker, Rauh & Weisman Melvin “Pete” Reisinger Retired, GE Executive Gail Roberts Instructor Pima Community College Miguel Rojas Mayor, City of South Tucson Andrea Romero Fitch Nesbitt Professor Family Studies & Human Development, Mexican American Studies University of Arizona Kirk Saunders Entrepreneur, Lifetime Health Diary, Saunders Amos and Ridgetop Group Enrique Serna * Retired Deputy County Administrator Pima County Barbara Soehnlen Retired, University of Arizona Cancer Center Mary Spoerl Retired, El Rio Community Health Center Hal Strich Associate Director, MD-MPH Dual Degree Program College of Medicine University of Arizona Frank Valenzuela * Executive Director, Community Investment Corporation * Board Officers
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For many, many years, El Rio Community Health Center and Pima Medical Institute have provided mutually beneficial services for one another. As a result, the community at large comes out the true winner. Why does PMI choose to make corporate contributions to El Rio Foundation? Because Pima Medical Institute and El Rio share a vision and mission.
Raul Aguirre President & CEO REA Media Group Jill A’Hearn Long Business Development & Advertising Director Tucson Metro Chamber Kate Breck Calhoun Director of Sales & Marketing, Tucson Convention Center Dan Chambers Retired, Long Realty Tracy Sole de Hoop Director, Operations & Events Arizona Technology Council Matthew Gaspari * COO Tucson Federal Credit Union Richard “Rick” Gregson Owner, GBP Risk Solutions Joanie Hammond Corporate Alliance Manager Pima Medical Institute Wade Hamstra GM, Hamstra Heating & Cooling Stephanie Healy * Director of Public Affairs Cox Communications Linda Immerman-Stoffers First VP-Financial Advisor Schaefer Present & Stoffers Investment Group Cynthia Jones * Community Banking District Manager, Wells Fargo Craig “Lars” Larson * Construction Loan Relationship Manager, Bank of The West Alex Levin Risk Management Advisor Levin Funding Group Paul Loucks * Partner, Attorney Mesch Clark Rothschild Mark C. Mansfield VP, Energy Resources Tucson Electric Power Matthew A. Thrasher Partner, Attorney Thrasher Law Offices Patricia A. Wallace Retired Attorney Mike Webb Business Preferred Director Jim Click Automotive
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Fred Freedman, President & CEO, Pima Medical Institute
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Training Healthcare Leaders of Tomorrow cont. in General Dentistry offers postgraduate residency programs for dentists in community settings. Spegman said, “Initially, El Rio had two students, but that has since grown to five general dental residents and 12 pediatric dental residents each year.” The partnership with A.T. Still University also grew. In 2003, it started the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health in Mesa, the first dental school in Arizona. “These residency programs have been a win-win situation,” said Dr. Greg LaChance, El Rio Dental Director. “Patients get more service, residents gain experience and training and El Rio can provide cost-effective care for patients. At the same time, it’s a great recruitment tool.” Over the past 12 years, LaChance said he’s hired nearly 40 AEGD residents. Creating tomorrow
Looking ahead, Spegman said El Rio is considering a nurse practitioner residency program. “There currently are very few residency programs for advanced practice nurse practitioners – and yet the need is great,” he said. “Advanced practice practitioners are an important part of the primary care workforce of tomorrow. Currently, nearly all start in clinical practice without the residency experiences like physicians have, which allows for practical training time to hone and refine clinical skills. “What is truly exciting about El Rio is that we are on an intentional journey to create tomorrow by educating the healthcare leaders needed for the future of our community.”
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BizLEADERSHIP
Q&A with
Kathryn Beatty
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Board Chair El Rio Community Health Center
By Mary Minor Davis Kathryn Beatty is the newly elected chair of the board of directors for El Rio Community Health Center, serving a two-year term. She and her husband have been El Rio patients for the past two decades. She’s now retired from Raytheon Missile Systems.
Q. One of the
strengths of El Rio is its focus on innovation in healthcare. What does that phrase mean to you as the new president of the El Rio’s health center board of directors? How do you see your ability to be innovative as a board member?
A.community since 1978, As a member of this
I have seen the population growth and the changing geographic needs for health168 BizTucson
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care. It is clear to me that the health of the community and the need for quality service, convenience and advocacy is forever changing. The combined experience of the El Rio Community Health Center board includes clinicians, business professionals and community servants, all contributing ideas that result in innovative initiatives. My job will be to lead this remarkable team of innovators.
Q.
What challenges and opportunities lie ahead for El Rio over the next 5 to 10 years?
Spring 2016
A.opportunities
The challenges and are extensive. With the shrinking availability of locally owned, not-for-profit healthcare services in Tucson, El Rio recognizes that we must be competitive and accessible to the entire community. This means we must make El Rio a world-class health center. We must form and maintain community partnerships to further enhance health education in the community. We must provide outreach and showcase the full spectrum of services that we offer. Our patients have the benefit of a healthcare team dedicated to not just keeping them well, but also to providing preventative care that leads to a healthy lifestyle. We need to assure that the community is aware of this benefit over other healthcare options.
Q.
From your perspective, what are strengths contributed to El Rio’s success over the past 45 years?
A.is its strong leadership
El Rio’s major strength
and dedicated and highly skilled employees. Through leadership, El Rio has grown from a small westside clinic designed to serve an area of around 10,000 residents to what it is today. We have multiple campuses covering the entire metropolitan area, serving more than 92,000 patients. Our cultural beliefs are another example of El Rio’s strength in serving the community. We model accountability at all levels. We value patients through compassionate care, and we let our employees at all levels know that their opinions matter and their voices are heard. continued on page 170 >>>
Q&A with
Matthew Gaspari
PHOTO: CHRIS MOONEY
Board Chair El Rio Health Center Foundation
By Mary Minor Davis Matthew Gaspari is the newly elected chair of the El Rio Health Center Foundation Board and COO at Tucson Federal Credit Union. As he begins his two-year term, Gaspari sees his role as making sure El Rio is not the best kept secret in Tucson.
Q. One of the
strengths of El Rio is its focus on innovation in healthcare. How does donor and foundation support help with El Rio’s initiatives?
A.porate and foundation
Individual donor, cor-
support is critical to El Rio’s ability to provide innovative healthcare. There are too many examples to list – but one is the El Rio Hospitalto-Home RN discharge program. This was the beneficiary of fundraising dollars from one of the two galas my wife and I chaired. It is a perfect example of how the El Rio Community Health www.BizTucson.com
Center is innovating healthcare. El Rio nurses follow up with patients who are being discharged from the hospital. They ensure they’ve received their medication and are following instructions. They answer any questions the patients may have and they make sure that followup appointments are made and kept. The result is a reduction in re-admissions to the emergency room by 25 percent – which is phenomenal. Without donor and foundation dollars, this program, which reduces cost to the system through fewer ER visits and enhances patient care, would be limited or wouldn’t be available at all. So much innovation in the
providing of healthcare is done at the primary-care level and we need to find ways to make every dollar stretch as far as possible.
Q. How do you
see your ability to be innovative as a board member?
A.my
is reaching a new group of volunteers and donors that were potentially being missed previously.
Q.
What challenges lie ahead for El Rio?
A.and
As a board member, job is to speak about El Rio every chance I get – to make sure that it is not the best kept secret in town. From the board innovation perspective, the foundation approved the charter of a young professionals group called El Rio Vecinos two years ago. The brainchild of board member Dan Chambers, the Vecinos are an amazing group of people, under 40 years of age, who are energetic and filled with passion for the mission of the El Rio. Through the Vecinos, the foundation
What we do know, where El Rio comes in, is that the need for world-class healthcare isn’t diminishing – it’s increasing. El Rio Community Health Center served more than 92,000 patients in 2015. Over the next five years, we expect that number to increase substantially, which will be a challenge. Meeting the needs of that many patients will not be easy. The foundation will continue to talk to donors and potential donors about all of the amazing programs the health center currently provides. Our donors are incredibly generous and we continued on page 171 >>>
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BizLEADERSHIP continued from page 166 Brenda Goldsmith Q&A cont. grow. Not all community health centers accept private insurance – but he saw the value in serving all of the community. Internally, Nancy Johnson, our current CEO, and her team are always looking at innovative ways to meet or exceed health standards. The senior leadership team will extrapolate priorities based on the national standards and work with both boards of directors on priorities. This in turn sets our fundraising targets. For example, we were able to raise over $2 million for the clinical pharmacy program with the help of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Bank of America Foundation and private donors.
Q.
Why should people support the El Rio Foundation?
A.
Today, El Rio is one of the 25 largest health centers in the nation for the number of people served. We’re the one you want to help because we’re the ones who have helped one in 10 Tuc-
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sonans through healthcare challenges. We’re not just for the underserved or uninsured – El Rio patients come from all sectors of the community. Our job is to keep the whole family as healthy as possible so they don’t need a hospital. We serve more than 92,000 individual patients. That shows trust. That shows confidence in what we’re doing. I’m so confident that if I’m asking you for money, I know where it is going and that it is going to bring results. That feels really good. Biz
rural area west of Tucson at the time. We found the southwest location to be the nearest full healthcare center to where we lived. Once we visited with our assigned primary care physician – Dr. Doug Spegman (now El Rio’s chief clinical officer) – we were more than pleased.
continued from page 168 Kathryn Beatty Q&A cont.
Hughes Aircraft, as a subcontracts administrator. During that period, and through extensive training, I was provided the opportunity to develop skills that will be valuable to me in my twoyear journey in helping to lead this outstanding community health center.
Q.
How long have you and your husband been patients? Why did you choose El Rio for your care?
Q.
What was your career background?
A.theon Missile Systems, formerly
After 21 years, I retired from Ray-
Biz
A.tients of El Rio around 1994. We
My husband and I became pa-
were looking for one-stop shopping for our healthcare as we were living in a
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continued from page 169 Matthew Gaspari Q&A cont. are grateful for how engaged they are and how willing they are to help us achieve our mission.
Q.
From your perspective, what are the strengths that contributed to El Rio’s success over the past 45 years?
A.
When I joined the foundation board five years ago, it was after a tour of the Congress center. The passion of the doctors I met, the tenure of the staff and the state-of-the-art equipment made a huge impression on me. You can’t manufacture the type of culture that exists at El Rio – it can only be achieved through shared passion and dedication. The strength that led to the growth of the health center is and always will be the amazing people – like those I met that day. The care they provide is like the healthcare of old – they know the patients, care about them personally and spend as much time as necessary to ensure the patients’ well-being. It doesn’t get better than that. Biz
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Frank Valenzuela El Rio Patient & Health Center Board Member Pictured with wife, Donna Whitman Photo courtesy: RandomLyfe Media
“I’ve been on the El Rio board for over 25 years and have seen tremendous growth and impact in the community,” said Frank Valenzuela, executive director, Community Investment Corporation. “When I was chair of the board, we built our second clinic – the Midvale Park facility. We hired a professional fundraiser to help us fund the building with a goal of raising $750,000. We ended up raising $900,000 with a little over 100 donors. We even had a radio-a-thon to educate the public about El Rio. This positive response was a preview of things to come.”
“El Rio is committed to providing quality and easy access to care for all in the community. I am constantly amazed at the caring, thoughtful attitude of the providers and staff at El Rio.” “As a privately insured party, I chose El Rio. I wanted to experience the delivery of care provided to our patients. As a board member, I wanted to remain anonymous so that I could “test” the medical experience. I was not disappointed. The accessibility, the caring attitude and the prompt attention are still in place. With a world-class medical facility and staff, who wouldn’t want to choose El Rio.”
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(520) 670-3909
El Rio Health Administration El Rio Health Center Foundation Manning House 450 W. Paseo Redondo Tucson, Arizona 85701 El Rio Health Birth & Women’s Health Center 5979 E. Grant Rd., # 107 Tucson, Arizona 85712 El Rio Health Broadway Health Center 1101 E. Broadway Blvd. Tucson, Arizona 85711 El Rio Health CODAC & El Rio’s Whole Health Program 630 N. Alvernon Way Tucson, Arizona 85711 El Rio Health Congress Health Center Medical / Dental 839 W. Congress St. Tucson, Arizona 85745
www.elrio.org
El Rio Health Diagnostic Laboratory 2501 E. Elm St. Tucson, Arizona 85716
El Rio Health Southeast Health Center 6950 E. Golf Links Rd. Tucson, Arizona 85730
El Rio Health El Pueblo Health Center 101 W. Irvington Rd., Building 10 Tucson, Arizona 85706
El Rio Health Southwest Health Center Medical / Dental 1500 W. Commerce Court Tucson, Arizona 85746
El Rio Health Northwest Health Center Medical / Dental 340 W. Prince Rd. / 320 W. Prince Rd. Tucson, Arizona 85705 El Rio Health OB/GYN Associates 225 W. Irvington Rd. Tucson, Arizona 85714 El Rio Health Pascua Yaqui Health Center 7490 S. Camino de Oeste Tucson, Arizona 85757
El Rio Health Special Immunology Associates 1701 W. St. Mary’s Rd., Suite 160 Tucson, Arizona 85745 El Rio Health St. Elizabeth’s Health Center (subrecipient) 140 W. Speedway Blvd. Tucson, Arizona 85705 El Rio Health Sunnyside Teen Health Center 1725 E. Bilby Rd. Tucson, Arizona 85706
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Cox recognizes El Rio Community Health Centers for their commitment to keeping our community a healthy and vibrant place to live.
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BizHEALTH
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BizHEALTH
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BizEDUCATION
Cradle to Career Partnership
Education Drives a Thriving Economy By Renée Schafer Horton Amanda Kucich knows one thing – there’s no savior on a white horse coming to solve the educational, social and economic issues facing Pima County. But that’s OK, because Kucich doesn’t think we need a solo redeemer galloping in on a stallion. Instead, we need each other – and we need a plan. With the recent launch of the Cradle to Career Partnership, it looks like we’re going to have both. The C2C partnership is audacious, will be time-consuming and will take the entire community agreeing on one simple truth – the education of our children is so crucial to Tucson’s economic success that we will set aside our preferences and prejudices to follow data bread crumbs to the House of What Works. Then once inside, we’ll collaborate to scale what is working to areas that are struggling. We will strive together so we can thrive together. That was part of the message Kucich, senior director of the Cradle to Career Partnership (C2C), and others delivered in January when more than 120 Tucson-area business, educational, government and community leaders gathered to commit to become educational change agents. The C2C baseline data report, “Charting our Course,” was released at the meeting, showing exactly where Pima County stands educationally. The data is concerning:
•
Only 16.5 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds are enrolled in a quality early education program, defined as one with a 3, 4 or 5-star rating in the Quality First rating system.
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•
Only 40 percent of third-graders are proficient in reading and writing. • Only 31 percent of eighth-graders are proficient in math. • Only 70.9 percent of high schoolers graduate within four years. • Only 28 percent of high school students who graduated in 2008 had completed an associate’s or bachelor’s degree within six years. But C2C isn’t about focusing on what is wrong, said Kassondra Silva, C2C data manager. It is about finding what is right – such as schools that are in high-poverty areas yet have high student achievement – and replicating whatever is happening in that school or neighborhood to areas that are showing less success. Raytheon Missile Systems, Southern Arizona’s largest private employer, is a major investor in C2C because the company’s future depends on a highlytrained next-gen workforce. Jon Kasle is C2C co-chair and VP of communications and external affairs at Raytheon
C2C Priorities for 2016
• Kindergarten readiness • High school graduation rates • Re-engagement of 20,000+
Tucson youth who are not in school or working
Missile Systems. “Like any sizable employer, Raytheon needs to be sure a talent pipeline exists,” he said. “We need to be in a position to continue attracting, developing and retaining the best and brightest to keep our company competitive. We are laser focused on promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in schools, because we are competing not only with other aerospace and defense companies, but with Silicon Valley for top talent “We have had good success hiring students from the excellent programs of the University of Arizona. Going forward, we would like to see a more direct path from Pima County schools through higher education and vocational/technical pathways and into our company. Strong talent coming into the workplace from local schools will not only benefit Raytheon but everyone in our community.” Yet this is about more than business. Having a well-educated workforce is a matter of national security, he said. “Our nation risks losing its economic edge and will be less secure if we lose our technology edge,” he said. “Having world-class STEM and technical talent available to support an increasingly technology-interdependent economy is critical for the security of our nation’s companies, our cyber networks, our financial systems, our energy grid, public transportation and so much more.” C2C employs a framework from the StriveTogether Network, which was formed in Cincinnati in 2012 after a local group – Strive Partnership – showed continued on page 179 >>> Spring 2016 > > > BizTucson 177
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•
Kindergarten readiness rose 13 percent. • The number of fourth-graders reading at grade level rose 21 percent. • The number of eighth-graders achieving proficiency or higher on the state math assessment rose 24 percent.
The framework has been launched in 64 communities across the nation over the past four years, as more and more leaders see the benefit of the collaborative “plan, do, study, act” approach. “This partnership is about collective impact – instead of an improvement here or there in isolation,” said David Baker, superintendent of the Flowing Wells School District. “We need a beacon of hope and a pathway to success – and this data and the StriveTogether model are our lighthouse. The solution is the responsibility of the whole community.” The United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona coordinates the group in Pima County. As a neutral entity, the nonprofit provides key staff such as Kucich for data support, and acts as the convening body to ensure key leaders consistently come to the table. C2C has a budget of about $500,000, a staff of 4.5 and pays $900 annually to the StriveTogether network for strategic assistance. The leadership council – which includes school district superintendents, University of Arizona and Pima Community College leaders, and representatives from business and government – sift through the data and set the priorities. For this first year, those priorities are increasing kindergarten readiness and high school graduation rates and reengaging the more than 20,000 young Tucsonans aged 16 to 24 who are not in school and not working. “I think it is clear that we have a very serious need in our county for improved outcomes for our students for our economic well-being,” said Vicki Balentine, the other co-chair of the Tucson
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PHOTOS: CHRIS MOONEY
continued from page 177 success with the model there and in northern Kentucky. According to Geoff Zimmerman, interim head of the Strive Partnership, in Cincinnati public schools since 2006:
1
1. David Baker, Superintendent, Flowing Wells School District 2. Jon Kasle, VP Communications and External Affairs, Raytheon Missile Systems, C2C Co-Chair 3. Jonathan Rothschild, Mayor of Tucson 4. Larry Lucero, Senior Director Government and External Affairs, Tucson Electric Power 5. Ron Marx, Dean, University of Arizona College of Education 6. Vicki Balentine, Retired Superintendent, Amphitheater School District & C2C Co-Chair 7. Amanda Kucich, Senior Director, C2C Partnership 8. From left: Tony Penn, President & CEO, United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona; Mike Varney, President & CEO, Tucson Metro Chamber
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BizEDUCATION
continued from page 179 C2C Partnership and longtime superintendent of Amphitheater School District. “We have many fabulous programs in Tucson, but there is a lack of coordination. This is what Cradle to Career brings us – coordination and collaboration –so we can maximize what is working to get the biggest bang for our kids.” The first step to getting that big bang is following the data. C2C leaders and “change network” teams will collect and analyze critical education performance data, searching for what is working for whom and under what conditions. Then the teams studying the data will identify the best practices and share them across the network, seeking funding from businesses and other investors to scale those successes. For instance, if data revealed that one high school had an online technology that helped math students get to grade level and those students then placed directly into college algebra at Pima or the UA instead of having to take a remedial math course, then partnership would seek funding to buy the technology for the other schools – because the data proved the technology produced better educational outcomes. However, the C2C Partnership efforts are not simply about getting students through the educational system and into careers, according to Ron Marx, dean of the UA College of Education. “There’s a much wider social impact,” he said. College graduates earn two times as much as a high school graduates over their lifetimes – and enroll in Medicaid at one-half the rate of high school graduates. That means communities with more college graduates spend less money per capita on public health issues. In addition, high school dropouts account for 50 percent of all incarcerated persons, yet only 20 percent of the population per capita. “Nationally, taxpayers could save $18 billion annually if the high school dropout rate for males was reduced just 5 percent,” he said. “In Arizona alone, the state would save $400 million. These are measurements of our personal and social health, and what gets measured gets acted upon, so we need to pay attention to the data.” At the end of the day, a healthy community is comprised of individuals who live in that community and if those individuals are not doing well, they negatively impact other parts of the community, said Lee Lambert, chancellor of Pima Community College. “People will say they don’t want to pay taxes, but when they have an emergency, I’m sure they want their first responders there quickly and they want them well-trained,” Lambert said. “The community college does that training – but I can’t train them well if they don’t come to me ready to learn. That’s ultimately why I believe this is so important. “Cradle to Career allows us to see how we are all – educators, businesses, citizens, government – interdependent and we all need to be committed to a solution for us to thrive and grow as a community.” Learn more at www.c2cpima.org or www.strivetogether.org. To find out how your child’s preschool is ranked by Quality First, visit www.qualityfirstaz.com/ and click “Search for a Provider”
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BizHONORS
Unsung Heroes Tucson Police Officers, Staff Honored By David Pittman Four Tucson Police Department officers and staff were honored at the 11th Annual Unsung Heroes Dinner and Award Celebration, which was attended by more than 300 people and raised about $90,000 through ticket sales, sponsorships and silent and live auctions. The Unsung Heroes Awards are presented by the Tucson Police Foundation to recognize Tucson police officers and non-commissioned staff who go above and beyond their regular call of duty by volunteering their time, expertise and heart to causes that benefit the men, women and children of Tucson. Honorees were nominated by their TPD peers. The foundation’s review committee vetted those nominations to ensure specific giving and volunteer criteria were met before selecting the award recipients. The event was held in January at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. The foundation, established in 2003, is a nonprofit charitable organization whose primary mission is to raise money to purchase lifesaving equipment, technology and training for TPD officers. Winners of the Unsung Heroes Awards are: 182 BizTucson
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Officer Matthew Merz Merz is a 16-year TPD veteran assigned to the K9 Unit. He formerly worked for TPD as a training officer and a lead patrol officer, and was one of the first members of the Specialized Response Unit known as FORCE. Merz was nominated for the award by Roland Gutierrez, president of the Tucson Police Officers Association, who cited Merz’s willingness “to lend a helping hand” to fellow officers in need and for his work in establishing Flags for the Fallen, a nonprofit dedicated to honoring officers killed in the line of duty. “Flags for the Fallen gives grieving families an engraved Rusted American Metal Blue Line Flag as a sign of honor and fidelity,” wrote Gutierrez in nominating Merz for the award. He said the flag shows the families of fallen officers “they are not alone in their time of grief.” Flags for the Fallen also sends TPD Honor Guard and officers to police funerals nationwide and provides monetary donations to grieving families in need. Merz “does this all on his own time, without thinking of personal gains,” Gutierrez said.
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Minnette Powell
Sgt. Paul Sheldon
Debbi Rees
Following a 28-year career in the U.S. Air Force, in which Powell rose to the rank of senior master sergeant, she has established herself as a valued member of TPD’s Finance Section. In her current position Powell provides fiduciary oversight of the multi-jurisdictional Southwest Border High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a $12 million annual program that supports more than 30 initiatives throughout Arizona. Richard Prater, TPD finance manager, nominated Powell for the award. He said Powell has “a service-before-self mindset,” which she demonstrates constantly through volunteer activities on behalf of The Erik Hite Foundation, the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the Interfaith Community Services Food Bank. “Minnette’s volunteer activities throughout the community demonstrate her dedication to both public safety and the people that live here, reinforcing the depth and breadth of her capacity to focus on making this community a better place,” Prater said. He also praised Powell for utilizing “her gift of song as a way to stimulate community pride and patriotism” by providing beautiful vocal renditions of the national anthem at TPD graduations, award ceremonies and memorial services, as well as other community events.
Sheldon supervises the Community Response Team for patrol in Operations Division Midtown. John Strader, a lieutenant in Operations Division Midtown, said Sheldon is excellent at his job. “The duties associated with this position require someone who can attentively work with the community in order to address neighborhood concerns in a creative and effective manner,” Strader wrote in nominating Sheldon for the award. “Sgt. Sheldon has been an ideal fit for this position because of the values that he embodies to include his service orientation, leadership and commitment to excellence.” Sheldon was also praised for his volunteer efforts as a board member and volunteer for My Team Triumph of Arizona, which is dedicated to enriching the health and well-being of individuals with disabilities by fostering lasting relationships through the teamwork environment of endurance athletics. Sheldon “volunteers his personal time to serve as an ‘angel’ for disabled athletes as well as a key fundraiser for specialty equipment, such as racing wheelchairs, and to cover the cost of race entry fees,” Strader said.
Rees has been a dedicated staff member of TPD for 23 years. She currently serves as a technician in the Automated Fingerprint Identification Unit. Rees also volunteers every week with Therapeutic Riding of Tucson as a “side walker” for young horse riders. TROT is an organization that helps people with disabilities through equine-assisted activities and other physical therapies. Rees “works with this great organization week in and week out, helping enrich the lives of the participants and does not seek any recognition or reward. She simply does it to help people,” wrote Josh Randall, the TPD ID superintendent who nominated Rees for the award.
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BizCOMMUNITY
Spirit of Giving Permeates HSL Properties Connected, Effective Community Outreach By Lee Allen The message is subtle yet pervasive – HSL Properties embraces the spirit of giving all year round, and in a big way – with more than 300 team members in 31 Tucson apartment communities who invite their residents to also become a part of these efforts. It’s engrained in the HSL culture. “Our core belief is that we are in a unique position to impact our community because we own and operate housing that represents small communities of their own,” said Lisa Rosenfeld, VP of Operations at HSL Asset Management. “It’s not just our employees who get involved in community projects. They also engage their individual communities to be involved along with us.” The annual Stuff The Bus Food Drive is a good example. “We started collecting food about four years ago with each
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property doing its own drive,” Rosenfeld said. “The first year we collected 7,000 pounds. The following year it was 11,000. In year three, we got the community-at-large involved and the number went to 19,000 pounds. Our most recent effort brought in 28,000 pounds. Good ideas catch on and more people get involved and engaged.” Property managers at each residential community like to compete amongst themselves for bragging rights on who ranked No. 1 in their efforts. “Arboretum Apartments collected our largest volume as eight employees there worked with our residents to collect nearly 1,200 pounds of food,” Rosenfeld said. “When our staff reaches out to our residents and gets them involved, it becomes a site/corporate/community effort that produces an exponential effect involving a larger body
Anguiano said. “It’s not just about ourselves and our own family – it’s about the community as a whole and the needs within it. HSL Properties encourages its people to want to do more for people who have less.” This culture of service is embodied in the Arizona MultiHousing Association’s Charitable Foundation that Rosenfeld has chaired for the past three years. “Fundraising at a grass-roots level is where we pull our residents in,” she said. “Part of our daily operations and our culture involves fundraising year-round. In 2015 alone, we’ve brought in $17,000 for New Beginnings for Women and Children, a part of Our Family Services. We did it on a propertyby-property basis where our employees made spaghetti dinners, did bake sales and held yard sales of items donated by residents.” Acknowledging there were so many endeavors intended to benefit the community that she couldn’t quantify the number – “I honestly couldn’t count them all” – Rosenfeld said they all represent the HSL corporate philosophy of giving back. “It’s all part and parcel of the good corporate citizen philosophy that comes from our leadership. Humberto Lopez is passionate about what he does. He is very involved and gives back to the community – and we follow his example. “HSL employees are serious and passionate about their everyday work and are equally as serious and passionate about the work they do in and for the community. Being a part of these events has become so much a part of who we are and what we do that when the call goes out for volunteers, we get a flood of ‘I want to be a part of that’ responses.”
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HSL employees and families were a big part of the 2014 Community Food Bank Hunger Walk, top, and the 2014 AMCF Big Hearts 5K Fun Run. www.BizTucson.com
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PHOTOS COURTESY HSL PROPERTIES
working toward a collective goal.” Arboretum Community Director Susan Csida said, “It’s a combination of an enthused staff that then conveys that enthusiasm to our residents. We have developed a staff with a concierge mentality and residents appreciate that. In turn, when we ask residents to become involved, they respond. I come from a family where philanthropic values were instilled in me and my enthusiasm rubs off on others.” Csida cited other examples like the Big Hearts program that raised dollars when staff donated personal time and talent to cook breakfast waffles for residents or organized an “At Your Service Week” where employees washed windows, watered plants and picked up mail for cash contributions. Csida said, “Simple unselfish acts accomplish so much good.” Her latest campaign involves her own New Year’s resolution. “I can’t save money or lose weight – but I can do this,” she said. “Every time I go shopping, I buy an extra can of food to donate. My staff has picked up on that idea and we’ve gotten the buzz going to get more people involved.” Another involved community is Bear Canyon Apartments where Darlene Anguiano is the community director. “Out of all multi-housing communities in the state, we raised the most money for homeless families via the Big Hearts program. And we made a respectable showing with food donations of 500 pounds. “When I reflect on my own life and know that someone in the community is hungry while my cabinets are full, I’m encouraged to emulate the support of our company and its constant efforts of wanting to help out,”
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SPECIAL REPORT 2016
THE REGIONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Advocating For All
Better Business Bureau Serving Southern Arizona
ADVOCATING After 102 years, the Better Business By Christy Krueger We can all thank one of America’s favorite soft drink manufacturers, The Coca-Cola Company, for creating the Better Business Bureau and initiating its consumer protection advocacy that is still alive and well today, 102 years later. During the early 20th century, false advertising was almost a normal business practice. Even Coke was advertised as a miracle cure. After the company was sued for making such claims, its leadership decided to form an ad re-
view organization to ensure businesses would advertise honestly. Later, the advertising watchdog became America’s Better Business Bureau, now expanded to 113 chapters in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. “We still have ad review and we look at ads. If a consumer thinks there is false advertising, we investigate,” said Alan Schultz, director of marketing and program development for BBB of Southern Arizona, which is now more than 60 years old. The main purpose of the agency, Schultz said, is “to create a marketplace where buyers and sellers can trust each other. Also, we accredit businesses and we vet them. On the consumer side, we
take complaints from consumers and we offer free consultation – either arbitration or mediation.” Schultz is quick to clarify the bureau’s role, which often is misconceived by the public. “We want people to be clear that we are an unbiased, nonprofit reporting agency and we’re not tied to the government,” he said. Schultz often refers consumers to other agencies that deal with the issue at hand. Landlord complaints go to the Arizona Attorney General’s office, and the Arizona Corporation Commission handles reports of businesses operating without proper licenses. Locally, the BBB is upping its campaign to create more public awareness
From left – Alan Schultz, Director of Marketing & Program Development; Denisse Alvarez, Director of Operations; Irene Manzanedo, Director of Finance and Human Resources; Pamela Crim, President & CEO; Celeste Angelini, Director of Business Development
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FOR ALL
BizBUSINESS
Bureau is still protecting consumers
PHOTOS: AMY HASKELL
and expanding its public outreach. In large part, these are facilitated by the use of social media, which is overseen by Communications Manager Ryan Foster. “There are different things we do with social media; the ones we use the most are Facebook and Twitter,” Foster said. “On Facebook we engage with our accredited members. I ‘Like’ their page and I post a video to their page that shows our reputable brand. Sometimes they share the video.” He uses Twitter to send short messages to followers. “It’s more direct. I sometimes use Twitter chat for giving ID theft tips.” Scam reports are a big part of BBB’s
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We want people to be clear that we are an unbiased, nonprofit reporting agency and we’re not tied to the government.
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– Alan Schultz Director of Marketing & Program Development Better Business Bureau
outreach efforts, and in 2015 the agency initiated Scam Tracker. Consumers can go to www.bbb.org/scamtracker/Tucson to follow scam reports and where they’re happening. Foster also releases the reports to Facebook followers. One of his primary goals is to connect with millennials, those born between the early 1980s and mid-1990s. “They’re the entrepreneurs. They’ll be controlling the marketplace in the next 10 to 20 years,” he said. The BBB does still rely on traditional media outlets to disseminate information and to publicize its services. Foster sends out news releases on a regular basis, and in January he made 10 television appearances, mostly on local news continued on page 190 >>>
At a Glance Southern Arizona Business Reviews on website: 33,423
In 2015:
Inquiries about businesses: 808,121 Customer leads sent out to Accredited Businesses: 3,334 Complaints processed: 2,799
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Pageviews at tucson.bbb.org: 1.5 million
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BizBUSINESS
Accreditation Orientation Join us monthly to learn how to take full advantage of your accreditation benefits. Regardless if you are a new BBB Accredited Business or have been with BBB for years, the Accredited Business orientation has something for everyone. You’ll learn about: How you can market yourself as a BBB Accredited Business using the official seal How to customize your business review page How BBB delivers consumers to your business Business education classes offered by BBB Upcoming Session
An RSVP is appreciated, please indicate which session you will be attending. May 11
8-9 a.m. June 8 8-9 a.m. BBB Large Conference Room 5151 E. Broadway Blvd. Suit 100 Tucson, AZ 85711 Questions? Call 520.888.6161 See more at: www.bbb.org/tucson/ 190 BizTucson
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continued from page 189 shows. Success of these efforts is measurable and the BBB team is proud to publicize them. For instance, last year the number of Facebook fans increased to 1,444 from 779 in 2014, and accredited businesses now number well in excess of 3,000, up from 2,746 in 2014. Many of the bureau’s recent initiatives can be credited to former President/CEO Kim States and now Pamela Crim, who was hired for that position last July when States took a similar position with the Denver BBB. “Pam is just tremendous, a great asset to us,” Schultz said. “She’s taking us to the next level – expanding our outreach; we’re out in the public a lot more. We have more partnerships with other organizations,” such as the local chambers of commerce. Crim is the former owner of DakotaCom.net, one of the early regional Internet services providers based in Tucson. The company started out in the 1990s serving individuals, and then diversified into the business sector. After working in corporate America for several years, operating a small company gave Crim a new viewpoint on business operations. The experience gained, she said, allows her to be more sensitive to the needs and demands of business owners she now works with through the BBB. Her goals when she started as CEO in July 2015 were twofold: making sure to reach businesses in all areas of southern Arizona, not only Tucson; and reaching out to millennials and the Hispanic business community. “Outreach, outreach, outreach” is Crim’s mantra and one that’s been adopted by the BBB board of directors. She stressed that the BBB is here for all businesses, not solely the accredited ones. “We consider the entire community to support and help. The healthier they are, the healthier we are as a community.” Other programs the BBB offers the community are fraud presentations at local businesses and free business courses held in the BBB conference room. Topics range from social media and Constant Contact to relationship
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We consider the entire community to support and help. The healthier they are, the healthier we are as a community.
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– Pamela Crim President & CEO Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona.
building and QuickBooks. Advantages of being a BBB member are many, including the prestige of being accredited and also having a presence on the BBB site, where many consumers go to look for reputable businesses. “For me, the first main benefit is you get to put our seal on everything – paperwork, business cards, invoices, on the website and Facebook page,” Schultz said. “When you send an invoice, the consumer or business receiving it can feel better about paying the bill. It puts you above your competition when you have an A+ rating and accreditation. “Second, we have hundreds of thousands of consumers going to the website and they see you; that gives you an advantage.”
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BizAWARDS
Recognizing Marketplace Excellence
Torch Awards Honor Ethics, Good Neighbors, Customer Excellence By Christy Krueger The Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona is in the position of knowing and keeping tabs on thousands of area companies. So it was only natural that an award recognizing the best of the best should come into being The BBB Torch Awards celebrate businesses in our community that exemplify good stewardship and the highest level of business ethics. Started in 2002 as the Ethics Awards, the event first took place during a small breakfast gathering. By 2006 it evolved into a cocktail party at the University of Arizona Eller College of Business with about 35 attendees. The modern Torch Awards began in 2011 and were broken into three categories: Ethics, Good Neighbor and Customer Excellence. This year 500 attendees are expected to enjoy a full-blown gala event with dinner at Casino Del Sol Resort. Congresswoman Martha McSally will be the 2016 event’s keynote speaker and will address the audience from a leadership standpoint. “We’re very excited about having
Martha McSally United States Representative
BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU 2016 TORCH AWARDS Thursday, May 5 Casino Del Sol Resort 5655 W. Valencia Road Sponsor/finalist reception 5-6:30 p.m. Awards dinner 6:30–8 p.m. $95 per person $850 for a table of 10 Register at go.bbb.org/soaz-rsvp or call (520) 888-6161
Martha McSally at the Torch Awards,” said Pamela Crim, President & CEO of the BBB of Southern Arizona. “We are nonpolitical and don’t endorse anyone, so (her invitation) is based on her leadership. She’ll talk about how integrity and trust are part of leadership. It should be a very enlightening experience.” In the U.S. House of Representatives, McSally serves on the Armed Services Committee and Homeland Security Committee. She also is chair of the Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. Prior to being elected to Congress, she flew the A-10 “Warthog” with the U.S. Air Force and was the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat. She also was the first woman to command a fighter squadron in combat. As a squadron commander, McSally led her A-10 combat team during Operation Enduring Freedom and was awarded the Bronze Star for her leadership role.
Torch Award Winners since 2011 2011
2012
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Green Valley Cooling & Heating
McCaleb Construction
Empire Today
Golden Eagle Distributors
Snell & Wilmer
Oschmann Employee Screening
AGM Container Controls
NOVA Home Loans
Underhill Financial Advisors
Raskob Kambourian Financial Advisors Milex Auto Service
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Golden Eagle Distributors
Commercial Cleaning & Restoration
Nicolosi Moving and Storage
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BizLEADERSHIP
Torch Awards Judges By Christy Krueger
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Juan Ciscomani
Mike Varney
After graduating from the University of Arizona with honors, Ciscomani was selected by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute to participate in its Public Policy Fellowship Program in Washington, D.C. Following his term, he led Take Charge America Institute’s local outreach and youth financial literacy efforts in Arizona. In 2012 Ciscomani was appointed to the Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board by Gov. Jan Brewer and subsequently received an appointment by Gov. Doug Ducey to head the governor’s Sonora, Mexico, office. Ciscomani also served as VP of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Varney was named President and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber in 2011 after serving in a similar capacity for the North Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Prior to that he was VP of marketing for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. In his current role, he oversees all aspects of the organization’s operations including planning, government affairs, research and member services. He frequently speaks at chamber of commerce conferences around the country and is actively involved in a variety of chamber-related associations.
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Mary Tieman
David Terrell
Marian Bustillos
With a passion for supporting local businesses, Tieman became the executive director of the Sierra Vista Area Chamber of Commerce in November 2014. Prior to heading up the chamber, she was a member of its board of directors and worked as executive assistant to the chief executive officer of Arizona Workforce Connection. She credits both experiences with preparing her for the opportunity to take the reins and move the chamber forward. Tieman is also a member of the Sierra Vista West Rotary Club.
Terrell had a long career as a business consultant, operating Organization Performance Enhancement Network, a process improvement consultancy firm. Strategic planning, management consulting and training were among the services he offered. His clients included 15 major automotive manufacturers. Now, as executive vice president of SCORE Southern Arizona, Terrell provides client mentoring, workshops and other services to both entrepreneurs just starting a business and experienced clients who request assistance. Terrell helps SCORE clients accomplish their objectives, and he strives to be an integral part of a valued team.
Currently a sophomore at the University of Arizona, Bustillos is pursuing a degree in accounting and is a recipient of the Wildcat Excellence Scholarship. She is secretary for the Delta Sigma Pi professional fraternity and co-chair of the Ethics Center of Eller partnership. Her work background includes retail and project management experiences. In addition to work and education, Bustillos has had the opportunity to travel oversees to study cultural diversity and historical pasts. After graduation, she hopes to work in accounting and real estate property management.
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BizAWARDS ETHICS AWARD
2016 Torch Awards Finalists By Christy Krueger The following are finalists in the three categories of the 2016 Torch Awards: Ethics, Good Neighbor and Customer Excellence. Company descriptions provided by the BBB.
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Plum Windows and Doors Led by Phil and Kathleen Plum, who understand the importance of quality workmanship, superior energy-efficiency and enhanced security when it comes to maintaining and improving the home. That includes windows, entry doors and skylights, all of which can be created with a blend of value, functionality and appearance in mind. Plum Windows and Doors is committed to environmental responsibility in both construction of the product and its efficiency in the home.
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Honors a business for its trustworthy and honorable business practices in every aspect of its operation. This award is open to any for-profit company in southern Arizona that is in good standing with BBB.
Grail Construction Specializes in kitchen, bath and basement remodels; patio designs; commercial renovations and custom home designs. For more than 20 years, its team members have prided themselves for being open-minded and providing a high level of attention to details and schedules while staying within budget. They emphasize a united involvement of all parties from the client to engineers and subcontractors. Grail Construction has an excellent track record based on value-focused planning, and it adheres to a strict ethics code.
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Vistoso Automotive Promises exceptional and friendly customer service, honesty, transparent pricing and highly trained technicians. The staff always strives to be Oro Valleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best auto repair facility and truly cares about the customers and their safety. Vistoso Automotive even provides complimentary roadside assistance 24 hours a day. Glowing customer reviews are solid confirmation that the company is setting a new standard of convenience and trust in automotive care.
The Garage Center Offers customized storage and organization solutions that allow customers to take back their valuable garage space. Locally owned and operated, The Garage Center serves Tucson and southern Arizona, providing high-quality products with lifetime guarantees and exceptional customer service. The TV show â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fix It & Finish Itâ&#x20AC;? worked with The Garage Center to provide a lucky Tucson family with a newly outfitted, organized garage. continued on page 198 >>>
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continued from page 197 GOOD NEIGHBOR AWARD Recognizes a company that has shown a commitment to making southern Arizona a better place through community service. The nominated businesses and employees play a significant role in support of local charities or community service projects. This award is open to any for-profit business in southern Arizona that is in good standing with the BBB.
Claire’s Café Has been serving the community of Catalina and surrounding areas for 28 years, giving diners an artistic and loving environment to enjoy. Every year on the day before Thanksgiving, the restaurant opens its doors and provides free meals to more than 500 people in need. Claire involves many local business owners to help with the project. The café is a member of Tucson Originals Restaurants, an alliance of independently owned local restaurants and partners working to raise awareness of the culinary options available in the Tucson region.
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Bekki Harper Financial Helps clients find the peace of mind that comes from establishing financial security by crafting a living legacy. This is done by considering what’s important in one’s life and creating a road map to get there. Bekki Harper counsels her clients on all financial decisions they make because each one impacts the others. She regularly directs investor workshops and she coordinates scholastic essay contests in Tucson area schools as a way to give back to the community.
Plum Windows and Doors Places a heavy emphasis on community and community involvement. The company assists local organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Humane Society of Southern Arizona, Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona and Community Food Bank, among many others.
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continued from page 198 CUSTOMER EXCELLENCE AWARD The nominated business has an outstanding customer service program and a history of exceeding customers’ expectations. This award is open only to BBB Accredited Businesses in southern Arizona.
Sunshine Experts The only Solatube Skylights dealer and certified installer in southern Arizona. The company also is the state’s designated expert for Sunesta retractable awnings and patio shade. Sunshine Experts strives to set the standard in providing quality products, reputable warranties, a high level of professionalism and customer service, making the top 5 percent on Angie’s List after only three months.
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BRAKEmax Car Care Centers A Tucson-based company with 12 locations. The company is a leader in the use of technology for car care, such as offering computer updates, diagnostics and flashing services, while also performing basic services such as oil changes. Providing outstanding, courteous and professional service is the company’s number one priority, as demonstrated in such offerings as online estimate requests, coupons and the “Ask A Technician” program. All the stores are AAA certified and some are also AAA Green locations.
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Northwest Pet Clinic A veterinary hospital that is dedicated to serving its patients and clients with the highest level of compassionate care. Its team members understand that pets are family and they treat them as such. The staff attends continuing education and the hospital maintains up-to-date medical equipment to help promote a long, happy life for its patients. It counts itself among only 15 percent of veterinary practices to be accredited with the American Animal Hospital Association. For more than 35 years, Northwest Pet Clinic has always endeavored to do what is right.
Tucson Rolling Shutters Founded in 1979 by a husband and wife team working out of their garage. Today, with three Tucson facilities and a staff of well-trained professionals, they manufacture a complete line of retractable products to improve security, energy efficiency, comfort and privacy for the home and business. Nearly 70 percent of Tucson Rolling Shutters’ sales are from referrals and repeat business, giving testament to the company’s priority of keeping customers satisfied.
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BizEDUCATION
Ashley Reed Curtis
August “Sandy” Merz
Cymry DeBoucher
Leaders in Education Raytheon Honors 3 Teachers By Rhonda Bodfield When Raytheon established the Leaders in Education Awards this year, it was designed to recognize teachers attaining outstanding classroom performance, demonstrating leadership and supporting their peers in education. More than 100 teachers applied, and the winners wowed the judging panel with their talent and dedication. “Our business – and all other area employers – only benefit from a talented and strongly committed teacher workforce that is supported by the entire community,” said Jon Kasle, VP of communications for Raytheon Missile Systems. Meet the winners.
Ashley Reed Curtis Vail Academy 5th grade Teaching for 9 years
Walk into Ashley Reed Curtis’ classroom, and you’ll see an environment that celebrates students and nurtures their learning. Work is on display. Seats are arranged to encourage all students to participate in every lesson. Students work collaboratively and respectfully, sometimes with peaceful music as background. www.BizTucson.com
By all accounts, Curtis takes her role seriously as her school’s only fifth-grade teacher. She places an emphasis on motivation, character and civic responsibility in preparing her students for the rigors and social challenges of middle school. Students share concerns, successes and challenges in their morning meeting. If they need to hear a lesson more than once, they can access weekly videos of their in-class lessons to reinforce their learning. Community members with professional expertise are invited to help students craft their classroom projects, designed to teach research skills and time management. Curtis created an after-school club in which students interview and photograph members of the community, then show the finished products at a local movie theatre. Curtis also created a free summer reading program for struggling students to prevent loss of reading skills over the summer break. Curtis, who holds national board certification in literacy and serves as a cognitive and literacy coach in the Vail School District, was invited by the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence to share her approach to multicultural education with teachers on a national level. Nearly 90 percent
of her students demonstrate mastery on the district’s reading and math benchmark assessment. “I am the product of the Tucson school system that helped to lay the foundation for my philosophy of teaching,” Curtis said. “I have dedicated my entire life to reaching the highest standards as a professional educator and I look forward to many more years doing what I love.” What is the single most important characteristic of a great teacher? Passion. What is the single most important characteristic of a successful student? Enthusiasm. How can parents best help you in your role? Parents can best help teachers by participating in their child’s education. Attend school events, volunteer and communicate regularly with the teacher. Why do you teach? I teach because it keeps me learning, questioning and growing along with my students.
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August “Sandy” Merz
Safford K-8 Magnet School 8th grade engineering and math Teaching for 28 years
Sandy Merz could retire. But as he shared on a recent blog post, he’s healthy and good at what he does. “Not being a teacher is inconceivable to me,” he said. And that’s a good thing for his students – especially in a time when concerns are high about retention of quality teachers. In 2014, more than 100,000 students fell below the standard on the math portion of the AIMS test. But in the last three years in Merz’s algebra class, 61 of his 75 eighth-graders received high school credit and 71 of 75 met or exceeded grade level standards. Last year, his algebra students scored 16 percent above the district average in their first quarter assessment. Originally trained in science and holding a master’s degree in hydrogeology, Merz coaches through hands-on projects, giving students time to reflect and think deeply. They learn to work independently, but also in teams. He was instrumental in helping build out Lesson2Life, a program through the Arizona K12 Center that focuses on connecting local businesses and educators with the goal of bringing “real world” expectations to the classroom. Merz, who holds national board certification in career and technical education, has a strong focus on teacher leadership, helping to train teachers in leadership and advocacy skills. He also shares his knowledge with the larger educational community as a productive writer, covering a breadth of topics from grappling with seating challenges at the start of the school year to how to apply vocational educational principles in the general classroom. He clearly has much to share. One of his colleagues reported she overheard a student speaking to Merz last year. “In some classes, students worry about making their teacher mad. But in yours, we worry about disappointing you.” What is the single most important characteristic of a great teacher? Growth mindset. What is the single most important characteristic of a successful student? Versatility. How can parents best help you in your role? Parents and teachers are natural allies and can best help each other by communicating our mutual needs and understanding the constraints we both face – and by voting for pro-education candidates. Why do you teach? That’s like asking why I breathe. I guess outside of family and faith, teaching is oxygen. 204 BizTucson
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BizEDUCATION Cymry DeBoucher
Canyon del Oro High School Gifted specialist, honors internship coordinator Teaching for 30 years
It’s not easy teaching the gifted. The students have to be appropriately challenged and coached to meet their potential. Group work can be disheartening if they are forever carrying the group or if they never have the chance to work with their intellectual equals. They may need stronger social adjustment or help organizing their thinking. In fact, as many as 15 percent of high school students identified as gifted regularly bring home grades that don’t meet the mark. Not only does DeBoucher organize a free biannual regional conference for parents and teachers of gifted students to help them navigate these difficulties, but she developed an internship-based class to ensure students have an opportunity to explore firsthand the careers they are considering. It’s a chance to engage students, stimulate their curiosity and test their aptitudes. They leave the class with stronger resumes, references and interview skills. Film is another way to reach engage students as learners. DeBoucher developed an International Baccalaureate visual arts and film program. DeBoucher also has spent three decades working with the Odyssey of the Mind Program, which fosters teamwork skills and helps stimulate interest in science and engineering in students across the state. She gives hundreds of hours each year and has trained thousands of teachers to serve as judges and coaches. Although DeBoucher has taken more teams to the World Finals than any other coach in the history of Arizona, it’s more than a competition for her. It’s a way of making a lasting contribution. “Building better problem solvers, thinkers, leaders and teammates is my way of impacting our great community as a whole – now and for the future,” DeBoucher said. What is the single most important characteristic of a great teacher? Open-mindedness. What is the single most important characteristic of a successful student? Willingness. How can parents best help you in your role? Parents can help their children’s teachers through communication, which requires monitoring and supporting student academic progress and then connecting with the teacher for advice and guidance. Why do you teach? I teach because it is thrilling, challenging and ultimately highly rewarding. www.BizTucson.com
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PHOTOS: AMY HASKELL
BizHEALTH
Redefining Men’s Health
Clinic Goes Beyond Traditional Treatments By Mary Minor Davis
Ebony Williams
Clinical Operations Manager/Marketing
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Dr. Nicholas C. Pazzi Osteopathic Physician
“Epoch” is defined as “a moment in a person’s life marked by a remarkable or noteworthy event that is considered the beginning of something monumental in their history.” A new health clinic in Tucson is working to do something monumental for men – redefine the practice of men’s health and wellness one man at a time. Epoch Health (pronounced “epic”) opened its first Arizona location in Tucson last August. Based in Little Rock, Ark., the company forms joint ventures with local physicians who then hold the majority interest of a clinic located in that market. Initially, the joint ventures were led by urologists, but now physicians of various specialties are engaged in the clinics. In Tucson, 12 local physicians are majority owners of the Tucson Epoch Health clinic. In 2013, the Men’s Health Braintrust, a group of leading experts from various medical disciplines, published a position paper on the need to address the “benign neglect” of men’s healthcare and wellness that has gone on for more than two decades. The results of a long-term lapse of wellness and preventive healthcare for men can lead to a plethora of health issues, from low sexual performance, weight gain and fatigue, to more serious conditions including cardiology problems, hypertension and diabetes. Dr. Sanjay Ramakumar, a local urologist and partner at the Tucson Epoch clinic, said it’s precisely this epidemic that Epoch is designed to address. “A lot of the problems that men are having in their 40s, 50s and 60s definitely started in their 20s and 30s,” he said. “They just weren’t seeing primary-care. Sexual health is just a small part of the results. General fatigue, weight issues, can all create stress that causes them to age and not age well. “The solution to these issues is not to simply give a testosterone injection, as many men’s health’s centers are doing today. There can be much more at the heart of these issues.” Ramakumar said Epoch is all about changing the conversation. Every new patient receives a full health screening, valued at $1,600. To date, Epoch has administered nearly 1,000 screenings. “That young man coming in in his 30s and 40s is not experiencing erectile dyswww.BizTucson.com
function,” Ramakumar said. “There’s something else taking place. That’s why we need to look at the overall health of the individual. What’s more meaningful is that we are looking at systems and problems associated with low testosterone, which is a very different condition from erectile dysfunction.” Another challenge, Ramakumar said, is the typical primary-care visit doesn’t offer the time and attention needed to spend with the typical male patient.
EPOCH PARTNERS ARIZONA INSTITUTE OF UROLOGY Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr.
Kenneth Belkoff Sanjay Ramakumar Michael Levin Jennifer Peters Jenne Myers Jay Page Kalpesh Patel Bill Kuo
UROLOGICAL ASSOCIATES OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA Dr. Terry Favazza Dr. Kenneth Choi
INDEPENDENTS – UROLOGY AND PROSTATE CANCER Dr. Peter Burrows Dr. Tristan Berry “The healthcare system is overburdened and overtaxed with the number of people and the number of illnesses,” he said. “Primary-care physicians are overloaded with simply helping to maintain patient medicines. They prescribe the routine physicals, but primary-care physicians are unable to take the time to talk to their patients about diet, exercise, behaviors. And men are reluctant to talk
about these things.” Dr. Nicholas Pazzi, a family physician in Tucson, agrees. After coming to “check out” Epoch on the recommendation of a friend, Pazzi, who retired his practice after 40 years last October, immediately started working at the clinic as the osteopathic physician three days a week. “I came onboard because I’d never seen this kind of treatment before and I’ve been here long enough to see some very positive response,” he said. “It’s unlike any kind of treatment plan we were taught (for men’s health) in medical school.” Pazzi said that when he was in practice, when men expressed a low libido or low testosterone levels were present, “we just gave patients shots and sent them on their way. No one got better; the shots elevated the situation for a while but eventually, if you keep giving testosterone shots, it will shoot down your system and the shots take over production.” What Epoch does is implement a combination of treatments that will go into addressing both low testosterone counts and erectile dysfunction, which are not the same condition and can have very different causes. “When I was in medical school, there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on low testosterone discussion. Treatments were very vague. I don’t think we totally understood the deeper issues,” Pazzi said. “The group of urologists who set up this program were the right specialists. We’ve learned so much more.” Pazzi said it’s not uncommon to find patients who have neglected their health have other issues. He said he refers five to six patients a week to specialists for cardiac, hypertension and other issues. They also will either work with a primary-care physician or recommend one for patients who don’t have one. More than 3,700 patients have come through Epoch in just seven months. “It’s very rewarding,” Pazzi said of joining Epoch. “When you see some of these older patients walking, exercising and finding their energy after all of these years of unhealthy living making a comeback, it’s very impressive.” One might even say, it’s a life-changing – or epoch – moment.
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PHOTO: AMY HASKELL
Standing from left, Simone Ufondu; Tim Healy, Funding Chairman; Oscar Lizardi, President; Raysean Canlas; Regan Jasper, Tournament Chairman; Kneeling, Andree Orozco
BizAWARD
‘Amazing’ Tucson Conquistadores Receive Click for Kids Award By Steve Rivera It’s easy to see why Oscar Lizardi “got goose bumps” when he started talking about what the Tucson Conquistadores do for the youth of Tucson and Southern Arizona. Their assistance is widespread and inspiring. It’s also a reason why the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson named the Tucson Conquistadores as the eighth recipient of the Click for Kids Award. Created in 2009, it is the clubs’ highest recognition and expression of gratitude. It will be presented in June at the 25th anniversary Tucson Steak & Burger event that also honors the clubs’ outstanding youth of the year. “Without a doubt, this is one of the more prestigious awards the Conquistadores have ever received,” said Lizardi, the Conquistadores president. “One of the reasons is because of its namesake, Jim Click, who is a Conquistador. And it shows that our efforts are making a positive impact with the youth in our community.” It’s an impact of more than $1.3 million over the last 30-plus years. It’s benefited more than 100,000 boys and girls through the years at all the clubhouses in the city. “It’s an incredible feeling to see how this money is having such an impact in our local community,” Lizardi said. “Outside of my family, there is nothing I’m more passionate about than the Tucson Conquistadores and our foundation.” That’s the case with all the Conquistadores, an active and aggressive group of local business leaders who help raise money to give to locals in need – whether it is for teams or for facilities for children at the Boys & Girls Club. In nominating the group, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson noted it’s not always www.BizTucson.com
about money either. The Conquistadores encourage kids “to become engaged in team sports, providing staff mentors to teach and guide them, purchasing vans to transport them to sporting events and competitions as well as field trips and other organized activities, thus making opportunities available to our children that would otherwise never be possible,” the nomination form said. “If not for them and organizations like them that have a specified mission completely aligned with what we are doing – we very well might not be around, or at least a good chunk of our programming might be eliminated without their support,” said Lorraine Morgan, the clubs’ VP of fund development and marketing. Lizardi said the Conquistadores are successful because “the community leaders come together and give up their time and work together to achieve a goal that is greater than all of us.” Most of the monies raised come via a popular annual auto raffle that helps nonprofits across the city and the professional golf events the Conquistadores have been able to secure through the years.
BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF TUCSON 25TH ANNIVERSARY STEAK & BURGER DINNER CLICK FOR KIDS AWARD Saturday June 25, 6 – 8:30 p.m. Casino del Sol Resort $50 per person ($15 tax deductible) Sponsorships available www.bgctucson.org (520) 573-3533
The tournament has changed through the years – from the Tucson Open to Accenture Match Play Championships to the current Tucson Conquistadores Classic. Frequently, the Boys & Girls Clubs provide the caddies for the golfers at the annual pro event, and children are often fixtures at the event. Morgan said the Rory McIlroy Foundation provided worldwide coverage of the Boys & Girls Clubs’ mission and allowed for the children to meet the No. 1 golfer in the world. “He took pictures with them and had time for them,” said Morgan. “That’s something these kids will remember for the rest of their lives.” What has long impressed Morgan is that the organization members “live their mission. They are all about youth and sports. There are so many untold stories about what they do to enrich kids’ lives with opportunities to live their dreams.” “I don’t think they’ve ever said, ‘no,’” said Mark Irvin, a Boys & Girls Clubs board member. “They’ve always figured out a way to help us. They are one of the longest and most loyal supporters the organization has. They have members who help on their own – and that’s in addition to how they help with the Conquistadores.” Irvin said it’s a group that is “great at putting their head down and going to work. They are not good at tooting their own horn.” That’s another reason why the award is appropriate and timely, Irvin said. “They are so overdue for us to recognize them,” Irvin said. “They are amazing. It’s a complete natural to have this done for them.”
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PHOTO: AMY HASKELL
BizLEADERSHIP
WOMEN’S FOUNDATION OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA 25TH ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON Wednesday, April 20, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave. $70 per person or $700 for a table www.womengiving.org
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‘Tucson Treasure’ Laurie Wetterschneider Women’s Foundation 2016 Honoree By Valerie Vinyard “Laurie Wetterschneider is a woman who leads with strength, compassion and style. She is a Tucson treasure.” That’s the opinion of Melody Robidoux, co-founder of the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona which is honoring Wetterschneider at its 25th anniversary luncheon in April. Over the years, Wetterschneider has raised millions of dollars to support a variety of causes – while excelling in three different careers. She said she is thrilled and honored to be chosen. “I would sit year after year at the luncheon and listen in awe to the introductions and the lives of the women who were being honored,” she said. “It would motivate me to the fact that there was so much for me to do.” “So much” describes what she’s already accomplished by age 59. So far, Wetterschneider has had three careers – in radio, nonprofit and now jewelry design. Her drive can be credited with much of that success. And it started early. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in radio and television from the University of Arizona in 1975 – after just two years. She was only 19 years old. At 24, she became the first female general manager/owner of a radio station in Tucson. She owned two local radio stations from 1975 to 1991. Dawne Bell, CEO of the Women’s Foundation, said that the choice to honor Wetterschneider was an easy one. “The women’s foundation selected Laurie because she embodies leadership and philanthropy,” Bell said. “We’re thrilled to recognize Laurie’s career achievements, her community involvement as a leader on dozens of boards of directors and her commitment to women and girls. She is a menwww.BizTucson.com
tor and champion for so many women and men in our community.” During last year’s luncheon, more than 930 supporters gathered to pay tribute to Laura Penny, former director of the foundation. The luncheon brought in more than $220,000 – exceeding its fundraising goal of $170,000. The proceeds support the foundation’s programs, expand grantmaking, organize advocacy efforts and commission research projects. This year the foundation began raising funds to match a five-year $1 million challenge gift from the Connie Hillman Family Foundation. Wetterschneider is not new to philanthropy. She began serving on boards and donating her time to worthy causes in the 1980s – including the women’s foundation board in 1989. Other causes included the Boys and Girls Clubs, Angel Charity for Children, American Red Cross and Humane Society of Southern Arizona, where she started its annual fundraiser, Puttin’ on the Dog, in 2002. As she continued her philanthropic work after her stint in radio, her husband, Larry K. Wetterschneider, had some advice. “He said, ‘Next time someone asks you to be on the board, why don’t you ask them to hire you?’ ” she said. So she did just that with Jewish Family & Children’s Services from 1992 to 1999. As director of communications and fund development, Wetterschneider helped raise money to eventually pay off its building. One day in 2003, Wetterschneider, her sister Lisa Peterson and her mom took a beading class – and she was hooked. In December that year, she started Laurie and Lisa Designs with
$5,000. She held trunk shows to sell her wares and persuaded businesses such as Canyon Ranch and Elements Home Décor and Gifts to carry her jewelry. “From day one, I knew I wanted to give the money to charity – so I did,” said Wetterschneider, who estimated she has donated more than $1 million worth of product over the years. “My charity work and my passion have become one and the same. It has given me an ability to support charities in a creative and unique way.” The company gives hundreds of pieces of jewelry to charity annually as well as proceeds from jewelry sales. Wetterschneider estimated that she has made more than 7,500 pieces. “Laurie is a woman who leads with strength, compassion and style. No matter which community Laurie is living in or connected with, you can count on her to be raising funds with jewelry sales, creating awareness about needs and taking action,” Robidoux said. “I admire Laurie’s long-time commitment to the Women’s Foundation, and I treasure the Laurie and Lisa Designs necklace that I received when I was honored by the foundation.” Community volunteer Mary Ann Dobras has served on the Women’s Foundation board with Wetterschneider and has known her for more than 25 years. She describes her friend as a very creative person with great ideas and a huge heart. “Laurie’s a longtime personal friend,” said Dobras, who also serves on the YWCA board in Tucson. “She’s a smart, savvy woman. There are a lot of things I admire about her. Whether it’s business, philanthropy, on a board or a fundraiser, she’s a leader.”
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BizLEADERSHIP
Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona The Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona is the only organization in Southern Arizona whose philanthropic activities are dedicated exclusively to programs that serve women and girls. Melody Robidoux and Harriet Silverman founded the organization in 1991 to foster equity and opportunity for women and girls. The foundation empowers women and girls to improve their lives and communities through five forces for change – leadership development, charitable giving, community building, research and grantmaking. Over the years, the foundation has funded hundreds of programs, serving thousands of women and girls in Southern Arizona. It advocates for programs and policies that help women improve and achieve their potential. As a result, the foundation has become a leader in educating opinion leaders about the economic realities facing women and girls. Leadership development is built into all aspects of the foundation’s work. For example, the Unidas Girls’ Philanthropy Program brings together high school girls each semester from all walks of life and offers them hands-on opportunities in community service, leadership, social justice and grantmaking. During weekly meetings, the students decide what organizations should receive up to $10,000 in grant money. Previous recipients of grants have been the Esperanza Dance Project and a girls’ poetry slam group. The foundation also helped bring The OpEd Project to Tucson in 2013. This year long fellowship trains women to write and place guest opinions in electronic and traditional print media worldwide. In its first year, 18 women had more than 50 articles appear in publications including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and Huffington Post. Literacy Connects is one of the 20-plus organizations that the foundation supports. It reaches more than 50,000 adults and children annually, offering a wide range of learning opportunities – including reading, computer skills, English acquisition and artistic self-expression. Its Women RISE initiative helps immigrant and refugee women learn critical English skills, gain access to services and receive job-related support, mentoring and volunteer opportunities. For more information on the foundation, go to www.womengiving.org
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UA ELLER COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT 2016 EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR LUNCHEON Friday, April 7 11:30 a.m. registration 12-1:30 p.m. luncheon and address Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa 3800 E. Sunrise Drive $85 per person Sponsorships available (520) 621-4121 eoy@eller.arizona.edu
PHOTOS: COURTESY FEDEX
Frederick W. Smith Founder FedEx
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BizHONOR
FedEx Entrepreneur Fred Smith UA Executive of the Year By Romi Carrell Wittman One of the most recognized and admired brands in the United States – FedEx – started with, of all things, a term paper. As an undergraduate at Yale, Frederick W. Smith wrote a paper outlining a system specifically designed to accommodate time-sensitive shipments like medicine, critical documents and electronics. The genius of Smith’s idea wasn’t immediately recognized and he received only an average grade for the paper. But Smith didn’t give up on the idea and after graduation he would go on to revolutionize the delivery business with his company, FedEx – today a $46 billion global transportation, business services and logistics juggernaut that serves more than 220 countries with a fleet of 634 aircraft and more than 90,000 vehicles. In recognition of his revolutionary and innovative contributions to the business world, the University of Arizona Eller College of Management will honor Smith as its 2016 Executive of the Year. The luncheon will be held April 8 at the Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa in Tucson. “FedEx is a quintessentially American start-up story – and its global success is due to Fred Smith’s vision and persistence,” said Jeff Schatzberg, interim dean of the Eller College. “We are thrilled to honor him as this year’s Executive of the Year and know that he will share great insights on leadership with our students and community.” Born in Mississippi, Smith graduated from Yale in1966, then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served two tours of duty in Vietnam. During that www.BizTucson.com
time, he closely observed military procurement and delivery procedures, furthering his idea for a fast, reliable transportation network. He has said that his highly effective leadership style was built on lessons learned in the Marine Corps. After leaving the Marines, he revisited that humble business concept outlined in his term paper and launched Federal Express in Memphis in 1971. He was the first to integrate both air and ground delivery systems. Operations were modest in the beginning, with delivery focused on small packages and documents. It was a costly endeavor. He raised about $90 million in venture capital to keep the company afloat through a series of ups and downs in the early years. “People thought we were bananas,” he told the New York Times in 1979. “We were too ignorant to know that we weren’t supposed to be able to do certain things.” In his role as chairman, president and CEO, Smith provides strategic direction for all FedEx Corporation operating companies, including FedEx Services, FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight. Throughout the early years Smith remained “very, very, very sure that this was extremely important and destined to be a success,” he said in an online interview with Corporate Valley in 2013. “We were like Pogo the Possum who said, ‘If you want to be a great leader, find a big parade and run in front of it.’ That’s what we’ve been doing for the last quarter century – just running to keep up.” In 1990, FedEx was the first service company to win the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award. It has consistently been ranked by Fortune on its “World’s Most Admired Companies,” “100 Best Companies to Work For” and “Blue Ribbon Companies” lists. Smith also was named a top CEO by both Barrons and Chief Executive magazines. Smith is not only a hands-on manager, he’s a lifelong proponent of regulatory reform, free trade and “open skies agreements” in global aviation. He has advocated for energy-efficiency standards for vehicles and a national energy policy. He also served as co-chairman of the Energy Security Leadership Council, a trustee for the United States Council for International Business and is a member of the Business Roundtable. Previously he served as chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council and now is co-chairman of the French-American Business Council. He’s also served on the boards of several large public companies, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Mayo Foundation. He was formerly chairman of the Board of Governors for the International Air Transport Association and the U.S. Air Transport Association. Smith has received numerous civic, academic and business awards including the Global Leadership Award from the U.S.-India Business Council, the George C. Marshall Foundation Award, the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy and the Circle of Honor Award from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The Executive of the Year Award was established in 1983 by the Eller College of Management National Board of Advisors. Biz Spring 2016 > > > BizTucson 215
BizHONORS Two standouts from Tucson’s business community will be honored April 29 by the Catalina Council of Boy Scouts at a luncheon celebrating Boy Scout traditions, character and service to the community.
2016 Good Scout Award
Robert “Bob” E. Kline Jr., owner of Division II Construction, will receive the 2016 Catalina Council Lifetime Achievement Award. Judy Rich, president and CEO of Tucson Medical Center, will receive the 2016 Good Scout Award. The fundraising event is expected to net between $40,000 and $50,000 for the Catalina Council, which serves 6,100 Scouts, according to Christie L. Lee, the Good Scout Selection Committee Chair. Candidates for the awards are nominated by members of the committee. Then through discussion, the winners are selected, Lee said. The 15-member committee is constituted mainly of construction advocates representing a nonprofit called the Arizona Builders’ Alliance, which serves some 300 construction-related businesses in Southern Arizona. “We meet monthly throughout the year, then step up the frequency of meetings during the month or two before the event,” Lee said.
Honoring Judy Rich By Larry Copenhaver
“Be Prepared” is the motto of a Boy Scout – and that motto has worked out well for Judy Rich, who exercises her leadership in the world of healthcare. “To be a good Scout means more than collecting badges,” said Rich, president and CEO of Tucson Medical Center. “It’s about learning new things, exploring nature, figuring out how to work as a team and so much more. These are skills that will be used for a lifetime that will be defined by civic mindedness, collaboration and success. Plus a good Scout adventure always includes a healthy dose of fun – and that’s critical for all stages of life.” Though never a Scout herself, another benefit Rich sees coming from Scouting is the exposure Scouts get to the real world. “I appreciate the emphasis Scouting places on STEM education and how to make it fun and engaging,” 216 BizTucson
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she said. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Such education experience can propel individuals to adventures in higher learning and higher leadership skills. Rich began her healthcare career as a nurse at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Then she moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where she held management positions at St. Mary’s Hospital for 15 years. She’s led TMC since 2007 and has overseen several major construction and expansion projects at the 607-bed nonprofit hospital at 5301 E. Grant Road. She was not new to TMC when she was named CEO. She previously served as COO for two years beginning in 2003. During that time she was appointed by then-Gov. Janet Napolitano to serve on the Arizona State Board of Nursing. Between then and her return
to TMC, Rich worked with the Bard Group in Boston as senior consultant, dealing mainly with large academic medical centers with a focus on physician engagement. Rich chairs the Arizona Hospital & Healthcare Association and also serves on the boards of the Southern Arizona Leadership Council and the nonprofit healthcare support organization VHA West Coast (which stands for Voluntary Hospitals of America). She previously served on the boards of VHA National and EMERGE! Center Against Domestic Abuse. She was chair of the 2011-2012 United Way Campaign and served on the executive advisory council of UnitedHealthcare.
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2016 Lifetime Achievement Award THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY’S GOOD SCOUT AWARDS LUNCHEON Friday, April 29 11:30 a.m. registration 12 – 1:30 p.m. luncheon program DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Tucson – Reid Park 445 S. Alvernon Way $95 per person $900 for table of 10 Other sponsor levels available Call (520) 750-0385 Mail check to: BSA, 5049 E. Broadway, 85711 www.constructionluncheon.com
Honoring Robert E. Kline Jr. By Larry Copenhaver “I was a Cub Scout but never a Boy Scout. I had to work to help the family make money, but I know it’s a great organization, and I’m happy to help make some money for them,” said Robert E. Kline Jr., owner of Division II Construction Company. He said he is proud of being recognized for his community work by his peers and being chosen to receive the Catalina Council Lifetime Achievement Award. “The Boy Scouts are a pretty great group as far as taking kids and bringing them up with skills and ethics. They are all-around pretty good people,” Kline said. Kline, one of nine children of an Air Force sergeant dad and busy mom, was looking for work after he graduated in 1962 from Rincon High School and “outgrew weekend nights cruising www.BizTucson.com
Speedway on a buck of gas.” He entered a four-year carpenter apprentice program that led to a carpenter’s position with George Codd Construction in 1964, the same year he became a weekend warrior with the Air National Guard. As his building skills improved, so did his position with Codd. He worked his way up to general field superintendent and ultimately VP of that company. In 1982, he left Codd and the National Guard to start Division II Construction. The company now has 40 full-time employees, many of whom have been with Division II for more than 30 years. Kline’s company is known for quality work and on-time delivery. Notable projects include the Marana Marketplace at North Thornydale and West Orange Grove Roads, La Cima Middle School at 5600 N. La Cañada Drive,
and several ventures at the University of Arizona, including skyboxes for the athletic department and the new basketball locker room. Besides running his business, Kline, a father of two, is an active member of the Centurions, a fundraising group supporting several charities. He served as president of the Centurions in 2002 and event chair in 2001. He continues to support the group by serving on the Centurion Foundation Board. Kline spends little time pounding nails these days. He and his wife of 47 years, Maureen, are avid travelers. They completed a transatlantic cruise from France to Trinidad in a 53-foot sailboat in 2001. When not engaged in an adventure somewhere in the world or at his desk at Division II, Kline retreats to his second home in Cholla Bay, Mexico.
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BizTRIBUTE
Don with son Josh
Don and Dawn Baker
Don with daughter Lindsey
Don Baker Left His Mark on Tucson The Tucson community and a special family suffered a tragic loss Jan. 18 when a private plane crash killed Don Baker, a co-founder of Larsen Baker, the largest retail-commercial property owner in Tucson. Baker, 59, and his wife, Dawn Hunter Baker, 55, were killed when their plane, a 1999 Cessna Citation 525, crashed near Cedar Fort, Utah. They were returning to Tucson from a conference in Salt Lake City. Authorities said Baker, who was the owner and pilot of the plane, seemed to experience mechanical problems and might have been attempting to return to Salt Lake City. During the eulogy for the Bakers on Jan. 23, George Larsen spoke of Don Baker’s and his long partnership. Baker and he were “two broke developers” in Tucson in 1990 when they met and began working together, Larsen said. Ultimately they were considered visionaries and had a huge impact as Tucson expanded over the decades. “Was it all smooth sailing? No. Did we argue? Yes. Did we act like ‘good cop/bad cop’ in our negotiations with tenants? Sometimes. Did we make mistakes? Often. But what made our relationship special was that we never wavered in our belief that we both wanted the same things. We wanted to be involved in hard but rewarding work. We wanted to build a great company team to help us. We wanted to do what was right – and we wanted to enjoy our journey through life.” That they did for 23 years. “We agreed that if one of us dies, the other one should take over and build it and continue,” Larsen said. “That’s 218 BizTucson
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what he wanted.” In the beginning, Larsen recruited Baker, mostly because he “needed his properties.” Baker began working as a contractor and broker after receiving his bachelor’s degree in finance and real estate from the University of Southern California. The two developed a fast friendship, working on project after project, until finally becoming partners and forming Larsen Baker in 1993 “on a handshake.” Today Larsen Baker owns and manages about 2 million square feet of commercial space in more than 45 locations throughout Tucson and Southern Arizona. “We remained on a handshake until he died,” Larsen said. During the eulogy, Lindsey Baker noted the different – yet interwoven – paths she and her father chose to follow in life. “While we may have chosen what seems to be contrasting lines of work – commercial real estate versus the nonprofit sector – the fact is there are threads of commonality that span wide,” Baker said. She works for the national nonprofit organization Feeding America, which supplies food banks across the country. “I remember peppering you with questions of the impact of real estate and business. Over car rides to school every morning, you persuasively shared that your centers not only house grocery stores and retail shops, but the offices of physicians, family services, government officials and small business owners and that each and every tenant employed tens to hundreds of people,” said Bak-
er, 31, who recently earned her MBA at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Illinois. She said she was inspired by the support and letters of adoration from the community. “It’s his work ethic and his determination and drive and his desire to learn and his desire to influence. He was such a dedicated person and he wanted to make an impact on the Tucson community at large. He did that in his professional life and also in his personal life.” Lindsey’s mother, Shelley Jo Pozez, married Don Baker in 1981. They divorced after 24 years, yet remained good friends to the end. “Don was passionate about his work and he was a good father, a good family man, not only immediate family but extended family, too,” Pozez said. “Whatever he decided to do, he took it seriously. He did it to the best of his ability.” Pozez also was close friends with Dawn, recalling that she was “a very sweet woman” who was dedicated to her jewelry-making business. “She’s hard-working and very good at what she did with her jewelry,” said Pozez, who owns several of her pieces. “Every time I gave it as a gift to anyone, everyone loved it.” Larsen, who employs 24 people, will be honored to carry on the tradition at Larsen Baker. “We had a lot of fun,” said Larsen, 72. “He lived large, he had airplanes and boats and fancy houses. He was a lovable character and he worked hard. He was a dear friend and a great partner.” Biz www.BizTucson.com
PHOTOS: COURTESY SHELLEY JO POZEZ
By Valerie Vinyard
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