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JUNE 2014 THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS
N.H. Tennis Tourney Snags Sponsor
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UTC to ‘present’ renamed Connecticut Open for two years By Michael C. Bingham NEW HAVEN — The Elm City’s signature sporting event has a new identity. Again. The professional tennis tourney once
Four-time champ Caroline Wozniacki has committed to the 2014 New Haven event. PHOTOGRAPH: Steve Blazo
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known as the Volvo International, then the Pilot Pen Open, then the New Haven
Chairigami s Zachary Rotholz’s
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Mastering the Quick-Pitch Page 22
NEWCO: Learn to Succeed Page 30
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Harvard Pilgrim Health Care includes Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of Connecticut and HPHC Insurance Company.
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Queen Anne ANNE WORCESTER TALKS ABOUT SAVING PROFESSIONAL TENNIS IN NEW HAVEN, MARKETING CONNECTICUT AND HER NEW CORPORATE BEST FRIEND Enter Your Events on www.ctcalendar.com
Anne Worcester wears many hats. She came to New Haven as tournament director for what was long known as the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament. She is also director of Market New Haven, an organization funded by Yale, Yale-New Haven Hospital, the city of New Haven and several corporations to promote the city. Professional tennis in New Haven started with the then-Volvo International, a men’s tournament under the USTA, in 1990. In 1997 the Pilot Pen Corp. under CEO Ron Shaw assumed sponsorship of the event, naming it the Pilot Pen International. In 1998 the WTA sanctioned an event and the two events were hosted together under the Pilot Pen name and sponsorship. The men’s event was cancelled in 1999, and the WTA event continued on until 2005, when the USTA purchased a men’s tournament on Long Island and brought it to the Pilot Pen, creating the first joint ATP-WTA event leading up the U.S. Open. The marriage was stressed however by a weakened economy and changes to the national tennis landscape. The men’s tournament was dropped in 2011. Ron Shaw retired from Pilot Pen and the company eventually moved its headquarters to Florida and did not renew its long-term sponsorship for 2011. Without a major title sponsor the event was renamed the New Haven Open and was also supported by Yale University, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Aetna, American Express and First Niagara Bank. Changes came fast and big to the tournament in 2014, and we asked Worcester to share that background with us.
be owned by the USTA, or the French [Tennis] Federation, or Australian Tennis Federation. The USTA was happy to lease it to Butch and Mike, [principals of] Connecticut Professional Tennis [CPT], for 16 years. But there were always difficulties?
WHO’S WHAT, WHERE
...
Let’s start with a little history. Professional tennis came to New Haven the early 1990s, but then it evolved.
The WTA [Women’s Tennis Association] sanctioned an event in New Haven sponsored by Pilot Pen, which was the title sponsor for 15 years [until 2010]. In 2011 it became the New Haven Open at Yale, presented by First Niagara, and now the Connecticut Open presented by United Technologies, a Fortune 40 company. I’m now technically executive director of the JUNE 2014
The stadium is very large [15,000 seats] and it’s expensive to get it WTA-ready. We were spending too much on temporary infrastructure for an event we didn’t own. That’s when we started talking to the state, which built the stadium back in 1991, about refocusing on this state-owned asset and realizing that the building needed attention and physical improvements and care. Those discussions grew into something much more than we ever thought it would, because Gov. Malloy did pay more attention to the tournament than any other governor in my 17 years. Does he play tennis? What do you think was his motivation?
He came to the tournament, and he very quickly understood the economic impact on the state — the jobs, tax revenue. He very quickly understood that the tournament puts Connecticut in a national and international media limelight. He understood the importance of community outreach programs and he understood the intangible of community pride. Tennis Foundation of Connecticut [which operates the Connecticut Tennis Center]. It’s a newly formed charitable foundation that operates the tournament as well as maintains the building. My business cards will still say Tournament Director. But now the state of Connecticut owns the tournament?
The state through the Capital Regional Development Authority [CRDA] bought the WTA-sanctioned event from the USTA [United States Tennis Association], preventing the tournament from leaving the state last September. The USTA owned this sanction on the WTA tour and had owned it for 25 to 30 years or so. It has previously been played in San Antonio, Atlanta and Stratton Mountain [Vt.]. The sanction set off the calendar
before it came to New Haven in 1998. We were leasing the sanction all those years. Butch Buchholz [creator of the Lipton International Players Championships, now the Miami Masters] and Mike Davis got involved through their of love of the game. There wasn’t a lot of financial upside, but they together with a group of investors stood by it. They hired me and our team. The WTA is the global tour for women’s professional tennis. They run 55 tournaments in 35 countries, ten months of the year. There are Premier tournaments, which are the major leagues, and there are International tournaments, which are the minor leagues. We are a Premier WTA event. All those tournaments have different owners. It could be a private owner like an IMG, or could
When the state first announced they had bought the sanction there wasn’t a discussion on renaming it yet, is that correct?
Initially they just decided to step up and help us with bonding monies and capital improvements and a small Quick Grant. We always hoped they would make significant capital improvements, like building permanent sky suites and kitchens and scoreboards — things we should not be paying for on a temporary basis annually. Little did they or we know that all of a sudden the USTA was going to decide that they didn’t want to lease the tournament anymore; they just wanted to sell it. I had no idea the very day after the 2013 tournament I would have to call Continued on page 26
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Editorial Universal Baloney One of the favorite conceits of so-called progressives is an unquestioning faith in the value of “universal preK,” or pre-kindergarten. “Universal” means available even to families that can’t afford it, which means that taxpayers pay for it whether they happen to have fouryear-olds or not. Another income-redistribution tool.
Op-Ed
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We use to teach India. Now India is teaching us. Good! dom, less government. More opportunities, fewer guarantees. We’ve seen 50 years of schemes and dreams and complicated social planning that have done nothing but suffocate people yearning to grow. We‘ve had enough.”
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio made universal pre-K a centerpiece of his campaign, and he wasn’t particularly coy about his intention to soak “the rich” to pay for it. (Unfortunately for him, “the rich” he hopes to soak are statewide, not just in New York City, so he will have to convince at least some Republicans in Albany to go along with the scheme — which so far has proven problematic.)
Start with Brazil: Next month, Brazil hosts the World Cup. The country has had seven years to prepare, yet many of the facilities will not be finished by the time the world’s biggest sporting event begins. Brazil’s greatest hero, Pele, recently scorched the corruption and incompetence of the people who allowed this to happen.
mantra when confronted with their latest regular catastrophe. But there is too much information today. The old lies don’t work anymore. If they ever really did. And in Brazil, most indicators say the people are ready to throw the rascals out. Just like they did in India. They want what we in America have. Or had. And they know their Westerneducated pseudo socialists cannot give it to them. They will have to get it for themselves.
WHO’S WHAT, WHERE
Now Connecticut’s governor has jumped on the bandwagon. In a May 28 event at Hamden’s Helen Street School, Dannel P. Malloy signed into law two bills. One establishes a whole new bureaucracy (hurray!), the ominously named Office of Early Childhood (not Early Childhood Education). The other makes more “free” pre-K slots available starting in 2015, and requires the new bureaucracy to “develop a plan to achieve universal access to preschool across all statefunded preschool programs.” This is supposed to cost the somewhat astounding figure of $100 million over ten years.
At the announcement event, Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr. made this far-fetched claim: “Every dollar we invest in pre-K saves $7 in avoided special and remedial education costs and criminal justice costs. Children who experience quality pre-K have improved performance and behavior in the classroom, are more likely to read at grade level, have higher high school graduation rates, and are less likely to smoke or be involved in crime.” It turns out this claim is based on a 13-year-old study of a single pre-K and kindergarten program in Chicago using a modest sample size of 1,200 children.
By BILL GUNDERSON
T
he stock market works both ways: Current events tell us about the stocks. But stocks also tell us about the world: What people are really doing. Not just what some wish they were doing.
And right now, the soaring markets in two of the larger countries in the world, India and Brazil, are screaming: “Our people want more freeBill Gunderson is an author, wealth manager and creator of the Best Stocks Now app.
In his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama said, “Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road.” Few will be familiar with the studies the president referenced. But they are well-known inside the universal-early-education movement. The most famous is the Perry Preschool Project. Perry was a 1960s experiment that was too small to be statistically valid. It involved 123 “at risk” low-IQ (7085) children from one poor minority neighborhood. The kids were divided into a study group that received two years of high-quality preschool and a control group that didn’t. What did all this achieve? The Perry project claimed a large gain in IQ: 15 points. But the gain had disappeared by the end of third grade. It is unfortunately that in New York and now in Connecticut, what has been almost completely lacking in the “universal pre-K” conversation is critical media questioning of the costs and benefits of institutionalizing four-year-olds in government-run day care in the guise of “schools.” Connecticut must not plunge headlong into a dubious pre-K scheme whose benefits are unproved but whose costs to taxpayers are already acknowledged to be prodigious. For that to happen, the media must hold policy-makers’ feet to the fire to prove benefit claims. BNH
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The ruling clique’s desperate answer as it prepares for the upcoming elections? Crank up welfare benefits. Obama phones, anyone? Take the ObamaCare rollout and the deceitful delays in Veterans Hospital care. Multiply them by 10 or 20 or even 100 and that is what much of the world has been laboring under. Dreams, then excuses when it all falls apart. “Come on dude — that was, like, two years ago” is their
That is why investors are flocking to India and Brazil and other emerging markets and leaving the United States. They are not necessarily saying the United States is bad. But that India and Brazil are better. It is easy to say the recent landslide election of a new president in India will make all the difference. But that is the tail wagging the dog.
Just the way the people in the United States used to be, remember? Before we had headlines like: “Record numbers of people on disability.” “Record numbers of unemployed people not looking for work.” And the Huffington Post wants a new employment law they are calling “menstrual leave.” Really? We now talk about American exceptionalism the way people in Brooklyn talk about the Dodgers: They were great, and coming back any day now. In 1961, the prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was at the White House when President Kennedy told him about a great new program called the Peace Corps and how Americans will soon be descending on India. Nehru replied: “Yes, I am sure they will learn a lot.” Just so.
The fact is India is a country full of entrepreneurs ready to burst. Brazil is a nation of young people, ready to be unleashed. Ready for freedom.
Vol XX, No. 9 June 2014
Publisher Mitchell Young
Publisher’s Representative
Michael C. Bingham
Gina Gazvoda Robin Ungaro Gordon Weingarth
Art Director
Contributors
Editor
Terry Wells
Advertising Manager Mary W. Beard
Senior Publisher’s Representative Roberta Harris
Mimi Friedman Jessica Giannone Felicia Hunter John Mordecai Melissa Nicefaro Priscilla Searles Karen Singer Tom Violante
Photography Steve Blazo Priscilla Searles
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TRANSPORTATION
HOSPITALITY
City Offers Incentives to New Homebuyers
N.H. Ranked Top ‘Foodie City
Mission to promote development of deep-water ports NEW LONDON — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has signed into law legislation that creates the Connecticut Port Authority (CPA), which will act as a quasi-public agency to market and coordinate the development of the state’s ports and maritime economy. The legislation was passed by both chambers of the General Assembly in May. Governed by a 15-member board, the CPA’s primary role will be to coordinate port and maritime economic development, establish a statewide port marketing strategy and serve as the lead agency in seeking federal and state funding for such infrastructure improvements as dredging. “Connecticut’s three deep water ports in New London, New Haven and Bridgeport are important assets for attracting investment, expanding business development and creating jobs, all of which are keys to our economic recovery,” said Malloy at the signing ceremony. “With this new structure in place, a renewed focus at the State level and a comprehensive strategy that will be driven by the new Port Authority, I am more confident than ever that Connecticut’s ports will be in a stronger position to attract more pri-
NEW HAVEN — The Elm City has topped a nationwide list of top tem “Foodie Cities” compiled by Livability. com, a national website that ranks quality of life and travel amenities in small to mid-sized cities. “From the soul food served at Sandra’s Next Generation to the falafels at Mamoun’s, restaurants in New Haven, Conn., cover the gamut of food genres,” according to the website. “Students attending Yale University can get a culinary education simply by walking through downtown New Haven and sampling the cuisine found in the city’s eclectic restaurants, some of which date back to the late 1800s.”
At a ceremony in New London, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signs into law legislation creating a Connecticut Port Authority.
vate investment and import and export business while also taking trucks off of our congested highways and driving job growth around the state.” The new authority will be established October 1, 2015. “With our new Port Authority structure in place, we can begin to turn our underutilized deep water ports into commercial hubs that will create new business markets along our coast and help spur economic growth throughout our state,” said House Speaker Brendan Sharkey (D-88) of Hamden. “Not only does our unique
location between New York and Boston present new market opportunities, but more cargo on the water means less traffic on our highways.”
Specific eateries cited by Livability. com include Louis Lunch, Claire’s Corner Copia, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana (“Which most folks just call Pepe’s”) and Prime 16.
“Our ports are important intermodal gateways to Connecticut and New England highways and rail lines moving an array of consumer goods such as lumber, steel, salt and petroleum products,” said state Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker. “With a smart, coordinated marketing and promotional plan, we will be in a position to attract more business and further boost the regional economy.”
Rounding out the top five of the Livability list (in order) are Scottsdale, Az., Boston, Asheville, N.C. and Traverse City, Mich. The only other New England city on the list is Burlington, Vt. (No. 8).
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MANUFACTURING
LAW
Lee Co. Expands with State Cash
City Counsel Tapped for Fed. Bench
Westbrook manufacturer charts $50M expansion
NEW HAVEN — President Barack Obama has nominated Victor Bolden, a onetime NA ACP lawyer who has been the city of New Haven’s corporation counsel since 2009, to the U.S. District Court bench. The appointment is subject to confi rmation by the U.S. Senate.
ate up to 200 new positions, adding to its current 862-strong workforce.
The 49-year-old Bolden was general counsel of the NA ACP Legal Defense Fund from 2005 to 2009 and was assistant counsel from 1994 to 2000. From 2000 to 2005 he worked at the New Haven law fi rm of Wiggin & Dana. Bolden began his legal career at the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, where he was a staff attorney from 1990 to 1994 and as a Marvin Karpatkin Fellow from 1989 to 1990. Bolden was graduated from Columbia University in 1986 and earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1989.
WESTBROOK — Component manufacturer the Lee Co. is undertaking a major expansion to its main campus in Westbrook, with a little help from taxpayers. The state’s Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) has awarded the company a ten-year, $10 million loan for new machinery and equipment as Lee embarks on a $50 million expansion plan that will add 79,000 square feet of additional manufacturing space and 18,000 square feet for sales.
The company may be eligible for $10 million in tax credits through the Urban and Industrial Sites Reinvestment Tax Credit Program, and Connecticut Innovations Inc. is providing a sale and use tax exemption of up to $950,000. The company also will be eligible for loan forgiveness of $2.5 million for every 50 new employees hired and kept on the job for 12 consecutive months over the next five years. Lee Co. executives say they expect that the expansion may cre-
“After its founding following the end of World War II, Lee Co. quickly became a catalyst for advancing and securing Connecticut’s position as a leader in aerospace manufacturing, contributing to both the Space Race and the Jet Age,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in a statement. “Lee Co. has now grown into one of the largest high-tech manufacturers in the world and a leader in its field, all while serving its community and helping to build the state’s supply base. That’s why I’m proud to announce our support for this project to ensure Lee Co. and its family will be able to continue building on its 66-year legacy for many more generations to come.” A supplier of miniature, precision fluidcontrol products for industries including aerospace, Formula 1 racing, oil exploration, automotive and off-highway equipment and medical/scientific instruments, Lee currently occupies more than 700,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space at three sites in Westbrook and Essex.
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TRANSPORTATION
OSHA: Metro-North Workers Railroaded Seven employees disciplined for following doctors’ orders employees who follow a physician’s orders or treatment plan.
BOSTON — Just chalk it up to more trouble for Metro-North. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has determined that Metro-North Commuter Railroad Co. violated Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) anti-discrimination provisions between 2011 and 2013 when it disciplined seven Connecticut employees for following their physicians’ instructions. OSHA’s investigations found that employees working in New Haven and Stamford were issued written warnings under the railroad’s attendance policy when they each followed the orders of their doctors to home from work. Five were carmen, one an electrician and one a foreman. (The Labor Department does not release the names of employees involved in whistleblower complains.) The FRSA prohibits railroad carriers from disciplining or threatening to discipline
TENNIS Continued from page 1
Open at Yale, has a new identity: the Connecticut Open presented by United Technologies. United Technologies Corp. has agreed to become presenting sponsor of the newly named event, Tournament Director Anne Worcester announced June 10. The annual Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) event will be held August 15-23 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale University. It is hoped that the tournament’s new name will broaden the event’s overall appeal to fans and sponsors and appropriately reflect the state of Connecticut’s investment, Worcester said. The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy last year agreed to spend $618,000 to buy the Women’s Tennis Association sanctioning rights to the tournament and keep it from moving to North Carolina. “With an economic impact of approximately $26 million annually, it goes without saying that this tournament is good for Connecticut,” Malloy said in a statement. “Each year, the tournament draws tens of thousands of spectators and volunteers from across the country, many JUNE 2014
“Metro-North’s policy of making employees ignore a treating physician’s medical instructions or face discipline is unacceptable,” said Robert B. Hooper, OSHA’s acting regional administrator for New England. “While Metro-North says it has since changed this policy, this type of procedure, which endangers employees and the public and is illegal under the FRSA, should not exist.” The employees filed complaints with OSHA, which found merit to the complaints, and ordered Metro-North to pay each employee $1,000 in compensatory damages and reasonable attorneys’ fees. The railroad must also expunge the written warnings from each employee’s personnel record and post a workplace notice informing employees of their FRSA anti-discrimination rights. Either party in these cases can file an appeal with the department’s Office of Administrative Law Judges. Metro-North says that it took “swift action” to resolve the complaints this year and had expunged the warning letters before OSHA’s ruling. “Metro-North Railroad is committed to ensuring for all of its employees the protections established under the Federal Railway Safety Act,” Metro-North spokesman Aaron Donovan said in a statement.
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Yes, there’s a reason.
Hartford-headquartered United Technologies agreed to become the presenting sponsor for the next two years. Financial terms of the deal were not announced. “United Technologies is proud to support the Connecticut Open as its new presenting sponsor,” said UTC Chairman and CEO Louis Chênevert. “Our partnership with the tournament, the state of Connecticut, Smilow Cancer Hospital and the other corporate sponsors will ensure a world-class event and build on UTC’s long history of supporting leading organizations in our community.” “The tournament is a large-scale international sporting event and we are thrilled to be partnering with a global leader in United Technologies,” said Worcester. “Together, we can take the tournament to the next level, and continue to give back and positively impact our local communities.” A men’s, women’s or combined tournament has operated in New Haven since 1990. But the tournament has not had a title sponsor since Pilot Pen left in 2010, along with the male players.
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NEW HAVEN — A Yale University employee has been indicted on charges that he operated a kickback scheme while working at the school. According to the indictment, 57-year-old George Dobuzinsky arranged to receive kickbacks totaling tens of thousands of dollars when he was a project manager responsible for soliciting vendors for audio and visual projects at the university between 2005 and 2013. Dobuzinsky, who lives in Durham, was indicted June 11. He pleaded not guilty in Bridgeport federal court to conspiracy to commit wire frauds as well as three counts of honest-services wire fraud. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. He posted the $300,000 bond and was released pending trial.
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NEW HAVEN — The Elm City law firm of Reid & Riege has launched an “M&A Deals Insider” blog, madealsinsider.com. The blog’s purpose is keeping readers connected to the world of mergers and acquisitions, including recurring issues and current developments. Blog posts are authored by attorneys in the firm’s Business Law Practice Area. In addition, “M&A Deals Insider” allows readers to perform their own due diligence on members of R&R’s M&A team. “M&A Deals Insider” is intended to provide practical and timely advice for entrepreneurs, closely held and family businesses, publicly traded companies, and those who finance all of them, to help guide them through business transactions. R&R partners say they hope business brokers, investment bankers, accountants and attorneys in the M&A bar will use the blog as a resource for their own needs and those of their clients.
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New Haven Works Marks Anniversary
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NEW HAVEN — Marking its first anniversary at the beginning of June, New Haven Works announced it had helped some 330 city residents find employment. New Haven Works has built partnerships with Yale University and other employers who hire new workers for regular employment; provided paid on-the-job trainings for indemand skilled work in fields such as information technology; and created a pipeline of qualified, vetted New Haven residents ready for jobs. New Haven Works provides a wide range of support services for both employers and prospective employees, and utilizes state incentives like the Governor’s StepUP program.
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“We are prepared to work hand in hand with organizations like this,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy at a press conference marking the anniversary, “organizations that are doing everything in their power to have a properly-prepared workforce to fill the
needs of employers with great-paying jobs and good benefits in the community in which they live.”
Coin of the Realm MILFORD — The Milford Bank has partnered with the Milford 375th committee to design a limited edition coin commemorating Milford’s anniversary. The coins feature the Milford 375th logo. The coins will be sold in all Milford offices of the Milford Bank for $5. Proceeds from the coin sales will be divided among five local charities: the Milford Arts Council, Milford’s Promise, the Milford Historical Society, Boys & Girls Club of Milford and the Beth El Center. The commemorative coins are a special edition limited to 5,000 pieces. Said Milford Bank President Bob Macklin: “As Milford’s hometown bank, we’re proud of our 142-year legacy of service to the Milford community. Funds raised through the sale of this coin will enable local organizations to better serve our friends and neighbors.”
Foxwoods Slots Take Slides MASHANTUCKET — Foxwoods Resort Casino revenues continue to slide. The casino reported slot revenue of $43.7 million for the month of May. This figure is down 9.3 percent compared to $48.2 million in May of 2013. Handle for the month was $541.8 million, down 2.9 percent from the $557.9 million wagered in the same month in 2013. Foxwoods’ contribution to the Connecticut Special Revenue Fund for the month of May was $11.7 million, bringing the cumulative contribution to the state since Foxwoods opened in 1992 to nearly $3.6 billion.
FitLinxx Upgrades Activity Tracker SHELTON — FitLinxx, a provider of enterprise health and wellness technology that motivates people to live actively and improve their well-being, has unveiled the FitLinxx Pebble+ activity tracker. The Pebble+ is an all-day wireless activity tracker that motivates people to be active any time, anywhere. It is a small, waterproof device that clips to an individual’s shoe, belt, waistband, pocket or bra, blending seamlessly into daily life, the company says. The enhanced Pebble+ device offloads exercise and activity information to Apple iOS7 mobile devices, with Android devices to follow. Benefits include frequent data offloads to mobile devices enables consumers, patients and employees to receive feedback quickly within health, wellness and fitness mobile applications. WWW.CONNTACT.COM
INNOVATION
CQIA To Present Innovation Awards \Winners to be feted at June 24 conference PORTLAND — The Connecticut Quality Improvement Award (CQIA) presents the 27th annual CQIA Innovation Prize at its June 24 Conference on Quality & Innovation. The event begins at 9:45 a.m. with networking and table-top exhibits relating to winning CQIA Innovation Prizes. The remainder of the morning’s program, beginning at 10 a.m., is occupied with speakers. These include:
HOSPITALITY
Town Green Eyes Café Society NEW HAVEN — On June 16, the Town Green District, in partnership with the city of New Haven and Downtown Merchants, will roll out its pilot “Terrasse” program as a way for local restaurants to expand outdoor dining areas by utilizing existing metered parking spaces. Restaurants will benefit from increased visibility throughout the summer months by providing a fun, unique dining area for their customers. The “Terrasse” areas will be aesthetically pleasing and have a uniform look that includes planters, vibrant furniture
and umbrellas. Interested restaurants can visit towngreendistrict.com/terrasseprogram to review program guidelines and register for the program. Space is limited to a first-come-first-served basis and proposed designs will be reviewed by the “Terrasse” committee. Town Green says it hopes to build upon this pilot program. Explains Town Green Executive Director Win Davis, Executive Director for the Town Green District: “We’re very excited to offer downtown restaurants this innovative program to provide additional
space for enjoyable patio dining this season. Our goal is to make the process seamless for merchants to inspire interest and excitement. Our staff is available to help with installations. We also have furniture and bollards available to rent or purchase and will provide storage and maintenance for rented furniture. ” The program is expected to run until November 15 or the first snowfall of the year. Jake’s Diggity Dogs at 216 Crown Street and Meat & Co (116 Crown) are the first two businesses enrolled in the program.
• Ken Lalime, CEO of HealthyCT, the first Connecticut-based insurance co-op. • Rainer Hebert, director of the Pratt & Whitney Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center at the University of Connecticut. Opened in April 2013, this is the first additive manufacturing center in the Northeast to work with metals rather than plastics. • George Lewis Jr., the 29-year-old co-founder of Trumbull-based ZetrOz. The company’s newest product — sam(r) — takes the efficacy of ultrasound therapy relied upon by trainers, then miniaturized it, made it portable, made it wearable and delivered a drugfree pain management solution. • Eric Felker, product manager of optical profilers for Zygo, a 40-year-old Middlefield manufacturer of optical metrology instruments. • William E. Mustain, associate professor and associate department head of UConn’s Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. Recent work by this team has spawned a new manufacturing technology for low temperature fuel cells and electrolyzers. Following a networking luncheon, the afternoon’s program centers on presentation of CQIA Innovation Prize plaques: silver, gold and platinum personalized plaques with twominute self presentation of winning applicants. The event will take place from 9:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. June 24 at St. Clement’s Castle, 1931 PortlandCobalt Road in Portland. Cost to attend is $65 ($70 if paid by credit card). To learn more or to register phone 860-342-0593 or 203-322-9534, e-mail cqia@aol.com or visit ctqualityaward.org. Since beginning in 1986 as America’s first state-level quality award using the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence criteria, the Connecticut Quality Improvement Award Partnership’s mission has been to improve the economic vitality of Connecticut and its manufacturers, service companies, health care and educational institutions as well as its not-for-profit organizations.
“We want sustainable options because we recognize the critical role higher education institutions have as environmental stewards.” Keith Woodward, AVP-Facilities Operations, Quinnipiac University
For some organizations, energy efficiency is more than a “good idea.” It’s a passion. Over the last decade, Quinnipiac University has initiated over 20 energy efficiency projects; they also purchase 100% of their electricity from renewable resources. No wonder they’re one of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership Top 20 Colleges & Universities. So when Quinnipiac began a large-scale renovation on its North Haven campus, Connecticut’s Energy Conscious Blueprint Program was tapped to provide a smart energy strategy. With equipment in the existing facility nearing the end of its functional life, Program engineers recommended upgrading all interior lighting to high-efficiency LEDs and CFLs. Variable frequency drives, fans and pumps were installed on the existing heating and cooling system, and a supplementary 10-ton chiller was also added. The entire project was supported by a generous incentive from the Energy Efficiency Fund.
The renovation not only netted significant dollar and energy savings, but allowed Quinnipiac to cast an eye toward their next energy management project. Project:
Quinnipiac University/Center for Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences
Measures:
Complete interior lighting upgrade (high-efficiency LEDs & CFLs); new HVAC drives, fans & pumps; new supplemental 10-ton chiller
Fund Incentive:
$87,040
Energy Savings:
342,789 kWh electricity/year 5,141,835 kWh lifetime savings
Cost Savings:
$61,702 annually
Find energy solutions for your business.
Visit EnergizeCT.com Or Call 877-WISE-USE
Energize Connecticut helps you save money and use clean energy. It is an initiative of the Energy Efficiency Fund, the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, the State, and your local electric and gas utilities with funding from a charge on customer energy bills.
JUNE 2014
CAHP24BN
9
Ale’s Well That Ends Well
How a pair of Branford roommates became an accidental brew crew
65 percent of the company’s sales. They started bottling the brew only in November of last year. “It’s a beer that appeals to the biggest swath of demographics,” Fawcett explains. “It might not be the craft-beer enthusiast’s beer of choice, but it’s a very approachable beer.” “It’s a five-percent [alcohol content] beer, has a maltier profile, a full body — you can drink it any time,” adds Gargano. “It’s not that we don’t want award-winning beers, but this beer is not meant to have this highstanding profile; we want it to be your go-to beer.” The duo first relied on local restaurants and bars to sell American Ale on tap and slowly build an audience. “We’ve purposely held back from growing too fast; that’s a mistake a lot of people make,” Fawcett says. “You don’t just cram a lot of beer out there, so we were very controlled on what places we went to and how much we’d sell.” Gargano and Fawcett say they haven’t particularly exerted themselves to sell American Ale to the more than 70 package stores that carry it; most store owners have come to them based on word of mouth or having sampled the potation at a restaurant. But there’s still a waiting list for those who wish to add it to their shelves, they say. The pair say their brewery is the only one in the state that controls its own distribution as well — no middleman.
From IT to IPA: In opening Thimble Island Brewing two years ago, former tech workers Gargano and Fawcett ignored the traditional advice, ‘Don’t quit your day job.’
By John Mordecai
Why beer? “Well, it’s beer!”
increasing demand. Not bad considering the venture’s modest beginnings. “It was a Thursday-night deal for us: we’d just make beer, get a pizza, hang out and talk,” Gargano recalls. “We made too much to drink one night, and like a lot of home brewers out there, we said, ‘Let’s open a brewery.’ It went off from there.”
That simple sentiment from Mike Fawcett is what helped to transition him and Justin Gargano from a pair of Branford roommates brewing their own beer at home five years ago to ditching their IT jobs and opening their own brewery.
“In software engineering and IT in general, it seems there’s no end of the road to the project you’re working on,” Fawcett adds. “With beer, there’s a tangible realization. Improvements are easier to come by, you can taste them. And it’s beer, for God’s sake.”
Gargano, 31, and the 36-year-old Fawcett opened the Thimble Island Brewing Co. in 2012, becoming the fifth craft brewery in the state. Today their beers are on tap at more than 100 bars and restaurants and on the shelf at 70 package and grocery stores across southern Connecticut.
The two actually began brewing in a space on East Industrial Road in Branford in 2010 where, after hunting down equipment, they would brew product on weekends while keeping their day jobs.
Indeed, the pair’s Branford brewery is on the verge of expanding to a 6,000-square-foot facility for its ten employees by the end of the summer to meet an
10
The first product of their labor was a refined version of the brew they made at home. They dubbed it American Ale, an amber/red ale that was first sold in July 2012 on taps at KC’s Pub in Guilford. The brewery’s flagship beer is currently the only one available in bottles on the shelf of your local package store, and makes up for
While Gargano speculates that relatively scarce supply may be responsible for increasing the buzz around their brand, he acknowledges that the brewery is constrained by actual production limitations; they can currently package between 150 and 200 cases (24 bottles per case) in a day, but packaging takes place just one day a week. In the brewery’s new facility — situated just across the lot from their current space — Thimble Island Brewing workers will be able to bottle 125 cases in just one hour. “Our current bottling line cannot keep up with what our production needs are,” Gargano says. “We only have capacity to bottle the American Ale, and even to support that we had to buy two more tanks this year.”
T
himble Island Brewing eventually expanded its core lineup of brews to include the fan-favorite Coffee Stout in early 2013. The product is brewed with coffee from local purveyor Willoughby’s. Fawcett notes some bar managers have used the stout to replace their Guinness taps. The release of their India Pale Ale followed the stout. Both are only available on tap at the brewery and at bars and restaurants. The two will be bottled once the brewery moves into its new digs, but don’t expect them to come out at the same time. WWW.CONNTACT.COM
“There is a lot of beer out there; if we throw three things out there at the same time it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll sell more. One may have to get thrown off the shelf,” Gargano says. “We have to put out the right beer in the right packaging at the right time,” Fawcett adds. Thimble Island’s three commercially marketed beers as well as some extras are available on tap at the brewery for tastings; thirsty customers can even take home a growler of beers and ales not currently available in bottles. They are developing a fourth staple beer for release some time next year, but Gargano and Fawcett haven’t yet decided what it will be, only that it will be a “more summery,” lighter beverage than Thimble Island’s current offerings. These are in addition to the brewery’s “Uncharted Series” of ales that give the brewers a chance to branch out and try new things to see what sticks, like a Dark Pumpkin Porter and a Russian Imperial Stout. The Coffee Stout started there and eventually became a mainstay. With the nationwide craft-beer boom of recent years has come a fear of oversaturation of the marketplace and a bursting of the sudsy bubble. And this time around even the big boys are involved, mass-producing craft-style beers such as Blue Moon (with is owned by MillerCoors). According to the Brewers Association, craft-beer sales were up 17.2 percent in 2013 over the previous year even as overall beer sales dipped about two percent for the same period. There were 1,412 microbreweries and 119 regional breweries in the U.S. in 2013, compared to 620 microbreweries and 81 regional breweries nationally in 2010. Brewpubs — restaurants or pubs that brew and sell their own beer — have become increasingly popular in the meantime, too: there were 1,053 in 2010 but that figure rose to 1,237 in 2013. Twenty-three breweries opened in Connecticut last year. Connecticut produces 51,457 barrels of craft beer per year, putting the Nutmeg State 33rd in the nation. Gargano says he’s not troubled by the increasingly crowded marketplace, since many smaller breweries likely don’t produce enough beer to grow beyond a local level. But either way, it’s all good news. “There is continued growth and more product out there, but you’re going to end up with more good than bad; the guys who can’t make good product will go away,” Fawcett says. JUNE 2014
“There’s plenty to go around,” Gargano adds. “It looks like we’re starting to become more of a beer state. Hopefully, the more breweries, the better.” With the growing “locavore” movement — consumers favoring locally sourced foods and beverages — more package stores, bars and restaurants are devot-
ing more space and tap lines to local products. “The dream is that there will be enough good beer in here that a bar or restaurant would have no reason to buy their tap lineup from outside Connecticut,” Fawcett says. “That would really be ideal.”
Thimble Island Brewery plans to begin selling into other states down the line, but for now Gargano says getting all over Connecticut by next year is the first priority. The brewery just started selling product into Fairfield County this year, with the Hartford region to follow. “And after that, we’re buying jetpacks,” Fawcett promises.
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11
Chairman of the (Card)Board How youthful entrepreneur Zachary Rotholz is building a cardboard-furniture empire
Charigami’s Rotholz’s building a durable company out of cardboard.
By Felicia Hunter
Go ahead. Have a seat. The chairs, sofas and other furniture in Zachary Rotholz’s Chairigami showroom are strong, sturdy and durable. And, they’re made out of cardboard. Since Rotholz opened his business three years ago, customers have not only embraced the concept of cardboard furniture, they’ve publicly helped fund its manufacture. “We did a Kickstarter campaign, which was awesome,” says Rotholz. The campaign was targeted for the com12
pany’s newest product, a cardboard standing desk. Backers pledged $5 and up for benefits that ranged from a video of Rotholz personally thanking them for their support (the $5 benefit), to their very own standing desk (for an $85 pledge), to standing-desk furniture for a creative team of six (for the $450 pledge level). The crowd-funding campaign took place over a 30-day period, from March 12 to April 11 of this year. It brought in significantly more money — and standing-desk orders — than Rotholz expected. “We had a minimum goal to raise $25,000,” says Rotholz. That goal was reached in just three days. “We ended up raising $50,000. About 600 people from around the country ordered standing desks.”
The standing desk allows users to literally think on their feet. The 42-inch-high structure can hold up to 300 pounds of office supplies and has a life expectancy of up to three years. “Winston Churchill used a standing desk,” notes Rotholz. “It keeps you alert, it’s lightweight and it’s really inexpensive. It’s like a new angle” for the company’s product line. Rotholz’s outside-the-box thinking to raise funds for his newest product addition helps free him from the never-ending burden of raising capital that is the cause of sleepless nights among many emerging entrepreneurs. The Kickstarter campaign also is an apt complement to Rotholz’s innovative product line.
WWW.CONNTACT.COM
Chairigami has been headquartered at 55 Whitney Avenue in New Haven for the past year, its second expansion-move in three years. It previously was located on Chapel Street. It moved after opening on York Street in 2011, just months after Rotholz’s graduation from Yale. A mechanical engineering major, Rotholz created cardboard modular furniture for fellow students for his senior thesis. He began his love of cardboard as a manufacturing item after interning at Adaptive Design Association in New York. There, he learned specifics of cardboard carpentry and created customized furniture for children with disabilities. While the experience at Adaptive Design helped shape Rotholz’s creative initiatives, a fellowship with the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) helped hone his business expertise. Through YEI and the support of the Yale University Office of New Haven and State Affairs, Rotholz opened that first retail store on York Street. Rotholz’s furniture is made from three-ply corrugated cardboard that is 30 percent virgin fiber and 70 percent recycled. No glue or fasteners are used to assemble the products, so they are environmentally friendly, Rotholz points out. Favorites have emerged.
“The sofa is really popular,” says Rotholz, “because it’s like a love seat. The standing desk now is really popular. We have stools and shelves that are popular.
“I’m sort of exploring ‘smart’ products,” says Rotholz. “Speakers, lights, making the desk surface [for] user interface. We’ve made some light-up tables, with LED light strips embedded in them. And there are incorporated speakers, so the whole desk becomes like a sound system.”
“Our clients are mostly businesses,” Rotholz continues. For example, “Verizon Wireless has gotten cubicles, and we did some work with MailChimp and Whole Foods. Our trade-show customers keep coming back. A lot of our business comes from trade shows. We did 80 stools last week [as a result of trade-show contacts]. We did 2,000 stools for a camp last summer.”
Rotholz also is so pleased with Chairigami’s first Kickstarter campaign that he’d like to explore that more as well. He says that in addition to the funding secured, the campaign helped publicize Chairigami and its cardboard products.
Rotholz, who is the sole proprietor of Chairigami, also has been doing some consulting work, which he calls “pretty cool.” Basically, it’s been for organizations that “want to understand lightweight packing and designing, such as large furniture manufacturers.”
“It was a really good idea to make it [the standing desk launch] a big event,” says Rotholz. “It’s a big deal because you put yourself out there in front of everybody. You’re telling all your friends and colleagues about it.”
Rotholz is constantly brainstorming new products. As he does so, he continues to be structurally innovative. “We’re using a new kind of single-wall cardboard, not triple wall, for the standing desk,” Rotholz explains. “It allows us to be more flexible in terms of manufacturing. We’re also going to consider single wall for other new products.” As part of Chairigami’s product development, not only new items but improvements to existing products are part of the plan.
Also, says Rotholz, the crowd-funding campaign “helped me step up to the level of organization I had to have. And because it was a public thing, it was easier to get publicity about it,” he says. “I think Kickstarter was a great thing for us. It gave us good exposure.” But getting to this point would not have been possible without the local support Rotholz initially received, he says. “I’m enormously thankful to Yale and New Haven for all their help and support,” he says.
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13
From the Space Age to the Stone Age Multi-tasking entrepreneur Carl Harris has built companies that market exotic stone — and pizza ovens
Carl and Barbara Harris with one of their fast selling stone pizza ovens..’
By Thomas R. Violante
In the town known worldwide as the birthplace of pizza in America, New Haven hosts dozens of eateries specializing in those delectable tomato pies, first made famous by Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana. In the interest of full disclosure, it’s a fact that my grandfather, Joseph Paparella, a friend of Frank Pepe, built that remarkable coal-fired edifice at 157 Wooster Street, and it’s my belief that the pies emanating from that oven are what make Pepe’s pizza unique among all variations on apizza. But what Carl Harris has done with Tuscany Fire woodfired ovens is to expand this city’s fondness for pizza by offering his Italian-made individual ovens to everyone 14
— residential customers, commercial clients, and mobile ovens for all manner of food trucks — thereby promoting New Haven as the pizza and pizza-oven capital of the U.S. And if you’re lucky enough to visit his showroom, you might even get to enjoy one of his thin-crust beauties or even scallops or steaks. Harris’ journey from electronics to quarries to pizza ovens begins more than three decades ago, when he was making printed circuits during the heyday of electronics manufacturing in the city.
system. They called him and invited him to take a trip to Italy. “There was a company there that was looking to get into laminating —very thin stone veneers to an aluminum honeycomb structure,” Harris explains. “The application was aerospace, high-end airplanes, elevators and luxury liners –— anywhere that you may want to use natural stone but the weight was too heavy.” Harris, whose background is in resins and epoxies, was called in to share his expertise and experience.
“This facility started as a printed-circuit company years ago when I bought this building,” says Carl Harris, founder of Tuscany Fire and EleMar New England, hidden away on the edge of Science Park at 99-107 Shelton Avenue. “I was importing and exporting materials for the printed-circuit industry and, at a certain point in my career, I represented European factories for highly automated electronic production.”
“That’s where I met our future partner, Mario Giannotti, who was in Carerra, Italy, where EleMar’s world headquarters is located,” says Harris. “We became great friends. The printed-circuit business went to China. I’m sitting in New Haven with a 60,000-square-foot facility. So I called Mario, took a trip to Carerra and made the leap from the space age to the stone age.”
It turned out that one of Harris’ suppliers in Sweden manufactured specialty lamination products, including interlocking floor systems and the original Pergo floor
Harris bought into the EleMar facility in Carerra and worked on developing a distribution system for exotic materials mined in quarries located throughout the world. WWW.CONNTACT.COM
“I set up five other locations including Boston, Sterling, Va., Medford, Ore. and Portland, Ore., in addition to our EleMar USA location in New Haven,” says Harris. “These distributors had all been in the printed-circuit business, so a lot of my old contacts were suffering from the same problem that I had — the exit of the electronics business from North America — and they transitioned through franchise agreements to become EleMar distributors.” Harris’ business model sought to introduce different exotic materials with five locations in the U.S. and a fabrication plant in Italy, so that they could engage the quarry owners directly around the world and create a market for materials that were not in previously available in the marketplace. “Before we started bringing in exotics and working with small boutique quarries, the basic inventory of granite was green, brown, black and white,” says Harris. “When we opened the first EleMar, we had materials that had never been seen in North America before and that was the advent of the business model of rare and exotic materials that aren’t quite as pedestrian as you may see in some of the big box stores.” “At EleMar New England here in New Haven, we focus on southern New England, New York and northern New Jersey — the Manhattan-to-Boston
market is our focus,” says Harris. “We distribute a variety of all-natural stone materials including granite, schist, shale, dolomite, calcitic marble, travertine marble, sandstone, basalt and exotic quartzite, just to name a few.”
B
y now, you’re probably asking, “What about the pizza ovens?” It turns out that Harris’ interest in the ovens began with his love of cooking. “As I was traveling to Italy more and more, I became enamored of the wood-fired stone oven and the variety of dishes you could cook in one,” says Harris. “I’d go to Brazil and get involved with cooking in clay pots and moquecas (seafood casserole). I thought about integrating the different types of cooking styles and returning to the methods used in the past either by roasting on a wood fire or in a natural convecting oven, as in the pizza oven. While I was moving containers from Carrera to New Haven or the port of New York, I would add periodically a pizza oven or two and do some testing.”
“The DeFiore family has been building traditional wood-fired ovens for over 60 years,” says Harris. “We became great friends. I would go there and cook and train and learn more about the ovens. The business just kind of developed by having the ovens here at our facility. Designers, architects and homeowners would come in and look at granite in our showroom, where we had installed a wood-fired oven. I would be there cooking scallops, steaks or pizza and people would ask, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ I’d tell them I was cooking lunch in the oven for everybody.” Harris says the business took off because times were changing; people were doing “stay-cations” instead of traveling, investing more in their backyards and expanding the outdoor-living scene. Tuscany Fire ovens have been installed in trucks, trailers, mobile units, fire trucks and even a trolley car. “The timing for having wood-fired pizza ovens available in New Haven was really fortuitous and accelerated oven sales,” says Harris. “We have pretty good visibility of the product. People did want
them, as I thought they would. We developed a website and I obtained a UL listing. We did the international pizza show and the Tuscany Fire business, the pizza oven side, has really just taken off.” “It’s kind of interesting that New Haven is the epicenter of pizza for North America, known for having great pizza,” says Harris. “Getting up on the Internet as a New Haven-based pizza oven supplier gave us a level of credibility. Here in New Haven, we have oil, wood and coal-fired ovens. Generally, the ovens are built the same but have different types of fuel.” Harris’ operation is a family affair that includes his wife, Barbara, and twin sons Matthew and Brendan. “I started this pizza oven idea 16 years ago with one in my backyard,” says Harris. “I had the feeling that, if I’m crazy enough to want one of these, why wouldn’t other people want one?” He was right. I want one!
While in Italy, Harris was introduced to the DeFiore family, makers of a line of pizza ovens, and he began importing their ovens, promoting them, holding pizza classes and developing a business in North America for the ovens.
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15
Southern Exposure Interior designer Alysia Southern ‘can make a closet look cool.’
With a Barrage of creativity, young designer Alysia Southern is rapidly building a brand
commercial and residential real estate, and even more briefly, in the recording industry (“I was searching for what I wanted to do,” she acknowledges). Southern eventually left New York City and made her way back to Connecticut. In 2010, in New Haven, she found a renewed focus and started working independently as an interior designer, working with residential and small commercial clients, going so far as to price her services barely above cost to help get her name out there.
By John Mordecai
Don’t let a period of restless uncertainty get you down. It may be more helpful than you realize. Such was the case for interior designer Alysia Southern, whose Barrage Designs — now barely two months old — opened in Westville this spring after she spent a long time trying to find her place. Southern, 31, grew up in Cheshire (a “white-bread” upbringing, she says), and while she always loved the arts, never had much exposure beyond participating in 16
some student theater at Cheshire High School. But she struck out on her own at age 16 to move to Manhattan, earning her GED along the way and landing a theater scholarship to Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. (where she also studied psychology and history). It was there where learning the basics of set design and costumes would ultimately prove useful. “I was watching how an exterior, via a costume, can take someone to a different level, and how your external can create the internal,” Southern says. “That had a lot to do with my flair for the dramatic now, and my belief that you can change the way you’re living by redesigning the space you’re living in. “That,” Southern adds, “is a powerful relationship.” She ultimately spent just two years at Manhattanville before settling into work in the city, where in addition to getting started by working in design teams for restaurants and nightclubs, she also tried her hand at
“It was like a revelation; everything I had done up to that moment was like a ten-year learning process,” Southern says. Not to mention that “Starting your own design firm in Manhattan with very little direction just isn’t feasible.” Southern estimates she’s worked on more than 30 spaces in various capacities since she started designing, running the gamut from apartments to homes and retail spaces, which she says can pose the biggest challenges. She’s current re-designing Westville’s Simonae Boutique. “Changing a 5,000 square-foot space, you’re not just deciding if you like gray curtains or white curtains, you’re getting into branding, marketing, merchandising and legalities with a retail space,” she explains. Southern wants clients to be “as involved or uninvolved as they want,” but aims to seek out the feeling they want, using fabrics and color as a foundation to build on. Her own personal style illustrates a “flair for the dramatic,” she says, and Southern decided early on that she’d rather be recognized for having her own WWW.CONNTACT.COM
unique touch than a please-the-masses approach. “It’s a question I spent a lot of time on during the development stages of my business,” she says. “I would want people to come to me specifically because they love what I do and they trust that I can transform a space. Without that, I think it’s just a job. I wanted to design spaces that were absolutely magical and people would be attracted to that,” Southern adds.
soon became hard to overlook the positives, such as reconnecting with family and friends and having affordable space to live and work. “It’s been another mark in a series of successes,” she says. “Being back here has allowed me to have 3,000 square feet for the amount that would get you a closet in Manhattan. I can drive to get new things and I have resources here I could never have found there.
I
t was while designing a space for Project Storefronts in Westville this spring that local designer Lesley Roy discovered Southern’s talents. Roy assumed a mentoring role by offering her own Whalley Avenue storefront to showcase Barrage Designs, which Southern uses to display the various elements of home décor she now sells to retail clients, including custom-made pillows with vintage fabrics, antiques and various other wares, repurposed and redesigned.
“Young entrepreneurs need a place to showcase their wares,” explains Roy. “Providing my storefront to Barrage Designs is my way of giving back by mentoring a young entrepreneur in the art of business. “Alysia possesses a unique talent to beautifully stage the home décor items she creates with a crisp, inviting sense of style and panache,” adds Roy. “She can make a closet look cool.” Hunting relics, antiques or simple discarded pieces and bringing them either back to life or breathing new life into them is something Southern has been used to for most her still-young career, whether she picks up her finds at estate sales, or from the guts of soon-to-beclosing warehouses. “I’ve been decorating and designing on the fly since I moved into my first apartment,” she says. “When I was 16 and living alone I didn’t have much money, so I had to learn to get whatever I could find and put them together in some cohesive way.” These transformed artifacts might be as mundane as an old lamp given a new custom-made shade, or a jewelry case repainted and re-purposed as a display case for the likes of sand art or accent pieces. “There’s a call to designers right now to use the goods that are out there,” says Southern. “You want to reuse something so you’re not making new junk out of old junk, but making it more beautiful and more functional that it was originally.” While returning home to Connecticut at first fraught with a sense that she had failed to “make it there” in New York, it JUNE 2014
“Coming back to the place you were born is powerful, too,” Southern adds. “Seeing it last through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl with a fake ID trying to get into bars, and then coming back and seeing it as a woman is transformative in a way.” Southern acknowledges she probably won’t get “1,000 people from the streets of Westville pounding down the door for my pillows,” she does hope
the storefront can work in tandem with her design business, acting as a gallery for potential clients to get a feel for her style. Ultimately she’d like to see a design community flourish here to produce and provide unique objects. “Interior beauty should not be exclusively for the rich,” she says. “I think luxury is a feeling that should be available for everyone.”ile\
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MARKETING&MEDIA OP-ED: MARKETING NEW HAVEN:
New Haven’s been growing, doing better. What’s the big deal about a slogan or a ‘big brand’ anyway?
“It’s Happening Here” (Torrington)
I’ve been involved in promoting New Haven since 1975 when I was the man on the street starting up the New Haven Advocate. That’s thirty-nine years ago.
“It’s All Here” (Massachusetts)
Greatest Small HEALTHCARE City In America?
In all that time New Haven has never put forward its own positive image in a meaningful way.
This is an op-ed by Business New Haven and New Haven magazine publisher Mitchell Young on promoting New Haven for visitors, students, potential employees and businesses.
When Michael Bingham and I started Business New Haven twenty-one years, ago we had business people warning us if we wanted to succeed “don’t use the name New Haven in your publication masthead.”
TECHNOLOGY It’s the time of year when we think of promoting to visitors and in a few months we’ll start to realize that another year is around the corner and New Haven and the region still isn’t promoting the business environment.
We in fact had a second name choice and prototype CONNTACT, which we use now on the web. One of the things Bruce Ditman said to me, “was if you don’t define who you are other people will”, and that is what continues to happen to New Haven.
REALESTATE New Haven’s new mayor Toni Harp early in taking office promised a “bigger brand” for New Haven. Now six months into a two-year term, “We’ve got nothing new to say” might as well be the city’s new slogan.
While much more being said today is positive, New Haven still didn’t make the top 100 places to live by the website Livability, which ironically just said the city was the number one “foodie” city in the country.
But you did name the publication Business New Haven?
MARKETING&MEDIA Readers of this newspaper may recall that in January we ran a forum with what we call some of New Haven’s “Dreamers and Doers” on branding New Haven. That group surfaced something that has popped up on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like: “New Haven: Greatest Small City In America.”
Yes we did. Michael as I recall had a very clear view, “This is where we are, this is who we’ll be.” We decided our job was to help fix the brand.
And in 2007, we again chose New Haven as our brand when we started New Haven magazine. Everything we’ve done, and what for me was my personal fortune has been tied to this name. And frankly, it ‘s still not an easy sell.
HEALTHCARE First off explain what you mean about ‘New Haven: Greatest Small City in America’ on social media.
I started to notice on Facebook, this #GSCIA hashtag and phrase pointing to New Haven news and events; and it was meaning Greatest Small City In America. There’s an “I Love New Haven” tag too, and since Business New Haven did an “I Love New Haven” cover feature about ten years ago (with two people holding pennants: one reading “I Love New Haven” and the other “I Hate It”), I started paying attention to social media to see if things maybe had changed.
So who was pushing these ideas? I’m not a social media expert, but it looked like a lot of a certain kind of person. Then I bumped into Bruce Ditman, the marketing director for Marcum, a national accounting firm at the Connecticut Technology Council’s Tech Top 40 event last fall, which Marcum sponsors. We talked about New Haven’s lack of self-promotion, his support of the “Greatest Small City In America” idea and social media promotion.
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Now seeing the public turn the corner with #GSCIA on its own, organically – is something we should all support.
When you say something like the Greatest Small City In America, you invite a negative response, there are a lot disbelievers out there? Fear is always in the way of change. We aren’t the folks to give in to that or we wouldn’t have started different publications during the worst two economic times of our generations, 1993 and 2007. On the first cover of Business New Haven were pictured five bankers in front of the Grove Street Cemetery entrance, where the phrase “The Dead Shall Rise Again” is engraved atop the gateway. It’s also important to separate the city and its life from political thinking and government. The mayor and folks in government run municipal government and they effect things, but they don’t run the city.
New Haven has a marketing arm, Market New Haven. Yes, and they’ve done a good job but in a very limited arena: shopping and restaurants, mostly. They are not really promoting the city overall or creating a brand, and for the New Haven region, promotion is non-existent.
“Hartford Has It“ “Make It Happen Here!” (New Haven)
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These seem to derive from the baby boomer slogan, “Hey Man, This Is Where It’s At.” The greybeard boomers that run things apparently love that expression and see much more in “it” than they should. It must be the latent impact of LSD. For Torrington, which was home to the Ball Bearing industry, couldn’t it be “City On A Roll?” For Hartford, with its huge workforce, powerful business community and thousands of hard working immigrants, couldn’t that be “The City That Works?”
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Just something, anything that really speaks to their communities, instead of to nothing.
Hasn’t New Haven been growing and doing great compared to the rest of Connecticut?
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Boomers are the folks in charge in Connecticut and they don’t have a clue about the importance of “place identity” that the folks under forty do. Another boomer slogan was “Don’t trust anyone over forty,” now the boomer slogan is “Don’t trust anyone UNDER forty.”
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They want to change your schools, your taxis, your work place, your media. So the greybeards (myself included), continue to resist even as we wonder why young people won’t stay. This has been a story in Connecticut, for fifteen years of how to get young people to stay. The truth is – we’re kicking them out. They want kayaking, we make it hard. They want music clubs, we say, what kind?
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But ‘place identity’? The boomers told their kids to play well with others, and unlike the boomers who lived by “Do Your Own Thing”, they are a social generation and place identity matters to all of them. They don’t want to tell people they live in New Haven and have friends and family say or think something bad. They need to be in a place that has respect and is happening and is acknowledged. Their parents don’t need that. The boomers in charge can hire all the consultants they want and read all the books about “making places”, but they don’t get how much it matters to “Dreamers and Doers” where they want to be and have to be.
Where’s the proof? An hour away. I grew up in Brooklyn and I hate Boston (or a least the Sox), but for the past ten years I believed New York didn’t own the future because it didn’t have the technology chops of Boston, or Bangalore, or San Francisco, or the infrastructure to get it and would be a loser twenty years down the road. Now seven thousand tech companies are there.
Bruce is not your ordinary marketing guy. Marcum jumped in to sponsor the Tech Top 40 as soon as Deloitte withdrew its support of the Fast Fifty that the technology council was running.
I don’t believe people from around the world come to the US to live in Jersey City and start their businesses or lives over there. They want to be in greater New Haven, they just don’t know it, nor how welcoming it can be.
Brooklyn became the spot people started moving to. There are still drugs and violence and everything else bad that drove me out of Brooklyn, but thousands of young people are moving there and building businesses because it became the place they want to be.
And then there was his and Marcum’s decision a few years ago to start an LGBT practice in their firm.
What makes a great slogan?
Brooklyn is a golden word in “place identity.”
A national accounting firm seeing the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community as an opportunity and having the guts to act on it early, to me says a lot. When you’re in regional business media you don’t see much of that type of risk taking.
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I don’t know, but I can see what is bad and what is good.
As we used to say in Brooklyn, “Go figure.”
In this case the zeitgeist has already come up with it and it addresses decades of misperception and inadequacy about New Haven.
It still doesn’t tell me ‘why #GSCIA,’ and what should happen next?
Just look at these slogans in use today in southern New England – with promotion dollars and effort behind them:
I’ve never cared much about who was in city hall. My world view is the culture rules, the politicians follow. WWW.CONNTACT.COM
But Matt Nemerson (the city’s head of economic development) has long been a friend to our publications and to us. I want him to succeed and professionally we need a stronger business environment in the region, and today that starts with New Haven and a brand that doesn’t apologize.
the leading contender to be the premier university of the world for the next two generations at least. They have money, investments in life sciences, engineering, business, amazing new buildings and schools, an expanding undergraduate body, an international student base, a financial admission policy that assures anyone capable can afford to attend.
I said to Matt “if social media hands you a slogan created by the Dreamers and Doers, it’s a gift. Make it your own.” And politically speaking, nearly half the people who voted for mayor voted for the other guy, someone with pretty much no experience. Its not like we have a united city.
Quinnipiac, the University of New Haven, Albertus and Southern have likewise been transformed. Day in and day out, these institutions will bring thousands of young people and professionals to New Haven and the city is attracting young people from throughout Connecticut to live as well.
Why isn’t #GSCIA being adopted more?
I recently interviewed Barry Nalebuff, Yale School of Management professor and founder of Honest Tea, he was one of those professors that was recruited twenty or so years ago to replace some of those leaving.
It is being adopted and that will continue to grow, but I’d like to see it move faster and be out in traditional media and in institutional promotion. Peter Salovey, the new president of Yale, is a long-time resident and true lover of New Haven. He addressed six hundred business people at the Chamber of Commerce this spring and ended his speech saying that the 376th anniversary of New Haven was coming on April 24th and we should all “post it, tweet it and tell your friends: ‘New Haven: Greatest Small City in America!’” Michael Morand, Deputy Communications Director for Yale, has been a big proponent of #GSCIA on social media, on Facebook he’s got a lot of friends. Morand lobbied Anne Worcester at the chamber event (see page 3) to incorporate it into Market New Haven’s efforts as well. I suggested to Matt that the city should take up the cause and post a banner on city hall in time for the Arts & Ideas Festival for the thousands of people who would be right in front of it, and that could be the brand game changer for New Haven! Matt seemed to get it – but apparently not everybody in city hall had the courage to be that positive. The mayor herself had tweeted out “Greatest Small City in America.”
To paraphrase, he said “the people who are attracted to New Haven come because it is a place where they can make a difference.” In greater New Haven, boomers and young people, citizens from all ethnic groups and demographics take problems into their own hands and try to fix them. But in bureaucracy whoever raises fear usually wins the argument, so no banner – yet. Maybe one of the muni-newbies put the kibosh on it.
But really, is New Haven the Greatest Small City in America? Let’s go back a little over twenty years. Yale had almost no money in the bank. They might not admit it but some of the best faculty were heading elsewhere. They couldn’t keep the existing buildings maintained, never mind build new ones, and the city was crumbling around them. Then Rick Levin came in, and today it’s safe to say that Yale is
Ditman said, “We’re not saying this is the Greatest Small Utopia in America.” What is making New Haven the Greatest Small City in America is not the art, the pizza, the start-ups or the universities. It is the nature of the people here, what they care about and what they are willing to do to make New Haven and the region better, and if they start calling themselves the greatest, that’s good enough for me. Hopefully Matt and Mayor Harp, Bruce Alexander, Andy Wolf, Anne Worcester and the rest of you will see that is what New Haven has to sell, and IT is great!
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REALESTATE
▼ People
Legacy Manufacturer To Quit City
MARKETING&MEDIA C. Cowles buys former Marlin plant in No. Haven
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HEALTHCARE fter 176 years as a mainstay of the Elm City business community, C. Cowles & Co. is leaving town. The company has acquired the former Marlin Arms factory at 100 Kenna Drive, North Haven for $1.7 million.
“We wanted to combine operations and Water Street facility wasn’t big enough,” explains Cowles CEO Larry Moon. The Marlin plant, which closed in 2011, is a 226,000-square-foot single-story structure on 23.5 acres, with approximately 20,000 square feet of office space and 206,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space.
Strong School
NEW HAVEN — The city’s Office of Economic Development has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the redevelopment of the former Strong School at 69 Grand Avenue.
REALESTATE Moon said he found the site on his own after speaking with several commercial brokers. The Binswanger Co. represented the property for the seller, the Remington Arms Co. It was initially marketed to firearms manufacturers, according to James M. Panczykowski, executive vice president of Binswanger, which specializes in manufacturing and distribution facilities.
Proposals for the two-story 33,000 square-foot building on 1.06 acres could include residential, cultural and mixed-use development projects complementing adjacent residential areas on Clinton Avenue and Perkins Street.
The opening bid is $1.8 million.
Brownfields $$$ Available HARTFORD — The state’s Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) is seeking applications for a new round of $20 million in funding for the remediation and redevelopment of brownfield sites throughout the state.
MARKETING&MEDIA “We had some interest but started shifting gears to mainline manufacturers,” Panczykowski says. “The town of North
Built in 1915, Strong School is part of the Quinnipiac River Historic District Extension and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Developers must be qualified to execute their project in its entirety, including financing, design, community and stakeholder involvement, public approvals, any required environmental remediation and hazardous building material abatement, construction, leasing, marketing, management and operations.
HEALTHCARE Haven was instrumental in making the deal with Coles. First Selectman Mike Freda made them comfortable that North Haven was a good spot to be.”
For more information, visit: cityofnewhaven.com/PurchasingBureauOnline/ show_oppsIP.asp?RFPID=D101074CE95F-43DF-9093-67DCC44A7CCE.
The new location will have a training facility for contractors “and people who use our equipment in the heating industry,” says Moon. “We’re also building a lab that will enable us to develop new and more efficient heating products.”
The deadline for proposals is 11 a.m. ON June 18.
Founded in 1838, Cowles originally manufactured lanterns for horse-drawn carriages. It now has around 180 full-time employees and six divisions in Connecticut and Massachusetts, including metal stamping, plastic injection molding, commercial lighting, boiler controls and automotive accessories.After the move is completed, Moon plans to sell Cowles’ New Haven building. — Karen Singer
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The city of New Haven is seeking development proposals for Fairhaven’s Strong School.
TECHNOLOGY City Issues RFP for
DeForest (Frosty) Smith of Pearce Commercial has become a Life Member of the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Institute. The award is given to individuals for their outstanding contributions and long-time service to the organization. Frosty has been a commercial broker for more than 40 years.
Developers, municipalities and economic development agencies can request as much as $4 million in grants or $2 million in loans.
Awards may be used for activities such as abatement, demolition, site investigation and assessment, groundwater monitoring and installation of institutional controls, and for professional-services fees associated with redevelopment, including legal, planning, design and consulting. The deadline for applications is June 30. To learn more visit ctbrownfields.gov/.
Fred Messore has added another feather to his cap. The senior vice president of Colonial Properties does double duty as the economic development director for the town of Seymour, which recently became the winner of one of Connecticut Main Street Center’s 2014 Awards of Excellence. Seymour’s award is for “Renewed Commitment to Main Street,” for its downtown action strategy and Greenway Trail plan.
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NEW HAVEN — Harley Hiscock III has joined Dow Realty as a commercial agent. A recent graduate of Colorado State University, where he earned an undergraduate business degree with a concentration in real estate and finance, Hiscock has interned at Dow Realty as a marketing and research analyst intermittently since 2010.
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▼ Sales CHESHIRE — R2M Properties, LLC has purchased a 4,816 square feet industrial condo at 1486 Highland Avenue for $230,000. The seller was J. Lin Properties, LLC. Bill Clark of the Geenty Group was sole broker in the transaction.
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SHELTON — Fairfield Realty Group, LLC has bought a 134,000-square-foot office building at 1000 Bridgeport Avenue for $8.1 million. Jeff Dunne, Steven Bardsley and Erik Edeen of CBRE’s New York Institutional Group
Trolley Square on Auction Block NEW HAVEN — The Trolley Square Arts and Office Center at 1175 State Street will be auctioned on June 19. The 247,000-square-foot multi-use building is currently 15 percent occupied, with no local management, and generating more than $160,000 in net income, according to the listing at loopnet.com/Listing/18685873/1175State-Street-New-Haven-CT/ Tenants include Lumber Liquidators and Digital Surgeons.
Fast growing DATTCO has signed on to more than 100,000 square feet at Merrit 7 in Norwalk. WWW.CONNTACT.COM
represented the seller and procured the buyer, 100 Bridgeport Associates, LLC. WATERBURY — Aijaz Ahmed has acquired a 15,000-square-foot building at 428 West Main Street for $155,000. Brian Godin of Matthews Commercial represented the seller, Joseph Cuda. John G. Famiglietti of Drubner Commercial represented the buyer, who plans to remodel the building into a convenience store. WESTVILLE — Netz USA, LLC has purchased a 6,963-square-foot building at 1400 Whalley Avenue as well as a 4,368-square-foot building at 150 Westerleigh Road from the Ernest Caccavale family for $385,000. The Proto Group, LLC was the sole broker.
Leases BEACON FALLS — J-Con Inc. has signed a long-term lease for 18,300 square foot building at 104 North Main Street. Ed Godin Jr. of Matthews Commercial was sole broker in the transaction, representing the high-end specialty woodworking company and the landlord, Meadowbrook Homes Inc.
small space in Wilton. When they moved to the (Merritt 7) park they had ten to 20 employees. Today they have a couple of hundred. They’re a great employer, and it’s good to see a very high-growth tech company growing in this area.” OXFORD — Autonomy Technology Inc. has signed a long-term lease for 10,100 square feet at 353 Christian Street. Michael Dillon of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant, a manufacturer
and supplier of electronic components. Ed Godin Jr. of Matthews Commercial Properties represented the landlord, Sippin Management Co. WALLINGFORD — 3PD Inc. (3PD/XPO Logistics) has signed a long-term lease for 20,000 square feet in the Medway Distribution Center at 25 Research Pkwy. Ed Godin Jr. of Matthews Commercial represented the landlord, Benerofe Properties. A Missouri broker
Paul Jacobs, Colin Reilly and Barbara Segalini of CBRE represented Datto, a cloud-based backup, disaster-recovery and business-continuity solution provider. David Fiore and JoAnn BrennanMcGrath of Marcus Partners represented the landlord, Clarion Partners. Datto was subleasing about 50,000 square feet in Building 101, and spent about a year doing “a full market search with CBRE” before deciding to expand its global headquarters in the building and become a tenant, according to David Fiore, a principal with Marcus Partners, which leases and manages the corporate park. “What’s important to note is they are a very young company,” Fiore said. “[Employees’] average age is the low 20s, and they started operations in 2006 in JUNE 2014
WATERBURY — Texas Roadhouse Restaurant has inked a 15-year lease at 330 Reidville Drive. Ralph Calabrese and Tony Valenti of the R. Calabrese Agency were sole brokers in the deal. The landlord is United of Waterbury Limited Partnership.
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BRANFORD — Planet Barbeque Catering, LLC has signed a threeyear lease for 1,250 square feet at 7 Sycamore Way with a drive-in overhead door and office space. Juan Marquez of the Geenty Group, Realtors represented the tenant. Robert Reichner of the Michaud Co. represented the landlord, 7 Sycamore Way, LLC. NORWALK — Datto Inc. has signed an 11-year lease for 100,398 square feet at Merritt 7 Corporate Park. The company will occupy the fifth, sixth and seventh floors of Building 101, which is one of several of the six buildings extensively renovated last year at the 1.4 million square foot Class A office park.
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MANUFACTURING
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TECHNOLOGY
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The Windup — and the Pitch
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REALESTATE Connecticut has in recent years looked to entrepreneurs and startup companies as the principal engine of prosperity. There are now “innovation hubs” statewide and countless pitch events that give budding talent a chance to get out there, and more importantly, attract investment capital.
product has been one of the most common mistakes he’s seen from pitches.
“The entrepreneur is so overwhelmed with pride and fi xated on the product, but the investor audience isn’t focused on the product. They’re focused on the team, what they learned, and customer validation,” he says. “Understand who your audience is and align everything to who that is. The assumption is that the idea will change; the investor is looking for that kind of intelligence and nimbleness, and the humbleness to listen to the market.”
MARKETING&MEDIA But even with a solid idea and a decent team, you could almost blow it if you don’t efficiently give prospective investors a compelling reason to say yes. That’s where Bill Kenney comes in.
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HEALTHCARE
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EMPLOYMENT
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The Ivoryton-based serial entrepreneur, 51, knows a thing or two about pitching; he’s helmed six startups in the past 17 years and has been to at least 100 pitch events such as Startup Weekend in the last year alone. His latest venture is Test My Pitch, an online platform that allows entrepreneurs to draft scripts and post videos to get feedback from fellow entrepreneurs, business owners and mentors.
“At most of these events, I’ve sat next to someone who had an idea but didn’t feel they were ready to pitch; the idea was good but their confidence wasn’t,” Kenney says. “[With Test My Pitch] you’ll learn something about scripting, but more than that it delivers confidence.”
You’d imagine that the guy who knows all about how to pitch must have blown away the crowd at the Startup Weekend in Storrs that birthed Test My Pitch in 2013. Not quite; Kenney’s idea didn’t even place in the top three. Enter Score My Pitch, an online platform that allows judges and mentors at pitch events to score pitches and provide valuable feedback to each presenter or team. Kenney launched that platform earlier this year.
TECHNOLOGY It’s that confidence that’s needed when in the stressful situation of pitching a startup to investors, since often you only have about five minutes at most to get the point across. Kenney says instilling that confidence may motivate those who otherwise might be reticent to put their ideas out there.
“If you don’t get in the top three, you have no idea how you did. As we were traveling around, the weird observation was there was no mechanism for feedback, not even that it was just poor feedback,” Kenney says. “Ninety-six percent of the pitch events gave no feedback other than anecdotal oral feedback; you had no sense of importance or how to prioritize it.
REALESTATE Test My Pitch allows users to create their own pitches from scratch, or make use of the various templates into which they can plug their own information.
“The No. 1 complaint from participants nationwide is that after completing their 54-hour weekends, they don’t know how they did and what to do next.”
W Bill Kenney’s online platform Score My Pitch, designed to help entrepreneurs with their “elevator pitch” and other presentations.
Score My Pitch is being used in about 40 pilot programs and has been used by judges at several Startup Weekends in Connecticut and at Mass Challenge, the world’s largest startup accelerator competition taking place in Boston each year. As a whole, Kenney hopes to see the users on Test My Pitch and Score My Pitch stick with it through their endeavors to help build an online community; “Today’s entrepreneur is tomorrow’s mentor or sponsor.” Test My Pitch can even log data on the mentors, keeping track of which are having the most positive influence on entrepreneurs and teams.
MARKETING&MEDIA He says even for those who do pitch well, keeping on point is the real challenge. Kenney says an over-emphasis on the
The data stored on Score My Pitch is archived and accessible for users to access in the future.
A handful of Connecticut companies are looking to the stars. Seven state fi rms were among the nearly 400 companies nationwide awarded contracts by NASA to conduct feasibility studies for new technologies. The companies were each awarded contracts of $125,000 under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs new technologies. The seven Connecticut companies — all of which work on energy cre22
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“Part of the goal is to fi nd good ideas that have commercial potential, but even more so, building the culture of innovation is teaching people how to do better next time, and that’s where our tool works well.”
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— John Mordecai
NASA HEALTHCARE Taps State Talent
Kenney says there’s a bright future and big market for these tools to grow, especially as the startup culture continues to grow and pitch events continue. But Test My Pitch has even sparked the interest of other outlets like career coaches and online dating sites — anywhere confi dence and successfully selling yourself are important.
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offices statewide to make more town services available to residents online, as well as to help with infrastructure costs for those towns to connect to the state’s fiber-optic Nutmeg Network, which delivers high-speed Internet to its users. It is already offered to schools, libraries and emergency services.
ation, generation, technology and research, are: Proton Energy Systems (Wallingford), Precision Combustion (North Haven), Flightware (Guilford), Materials Technologies Corp. (Monroe), Qualtech Systems (East Hartford), Sustainable Innovations (East Hartford) and Thoughtventions Unlimited (Glastonbury). The areas of research include development of high-pressure oxygen generation systems for greater air storage, energyefficient carbon dioxide storage and automated inspection processes for component materials. NASA selected 383 small businesses and research institutions from 37 states for these six-month, Phase I contracts, for which $125,000 was the maximum amount given.
Conn. Towns Get Connected A new series of grants is helping Connecticut municipalities expand their online services. A total $1.78 million in state funds have been doled out to 58 town and regional
Local towns receiving funds include Ansonia ($39,100), Guilford ($6,000), Milford ($11,000), North Branford ($24,800), Seymour ($36,100), Wallingford ($36,800) and the Greater Bridgeport Council of Government office ($35,050). Lyme received the greatest amount of funding for this round, with $143,000. A second round of grants will be awarded next year.
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Discover what know-how can do. IT Services Merge CHESHIRE — A pair of business technology service providers have been bought out and consolidated.
Z-Medica Goes Dutch WALLINGFORD — Biomedical developer Z-Medica is expanding its array of hemostatic wound dressing products by acquiring a Dutch brand. The company acquires Novacol, a collagen fiber dressing that is reabsorbed by the body and used primarily in surgeries, a brand developed by Netherlands-based Taureon. The product is already sold in Europe and South Korea.
Cheshire’s Business Electronics, which was founded in 1976 and provides telephone systems and call-recording technology to businesses, has been acquired by East Hartford’s Total Communications, which also provides IT, Internet and phone services to businesses. Total Communications will sell its services to Business Electronics’ existing customer base.
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Z-Medica products have also become essential to New York’s finest; the company’s Belt Trauma Kit, which includes Quick-Clot Combat Gauze, is now standard issue for all New York state police officers in the largest statewide standardization of advanced first aid kits. The kit contains gauze, tourniquets, gloves and a CPR shield.
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MANUFACTURING
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Manufacturing Investment Account Upgraded
TECHNOLOGY Manufacturers local and statewide have some reason for optimism, as the General Assembly recently passed a few key changes to the state’s Manufacturing Reinvestment Account Act (MRA) during its recently concluded session.
REALESTATE The MRA was the first of its kind in the nation when it was hatched by a group of area manufacturers and established in 2010, allowing small businesses of fewer than 50 employees a 50-percent tax reduction on money set aside for reinvestment into the business. It was open to 100 companies, who could invest up to $100,000 per year into the accounts over a span of five years.
The revised bill just needs to be signed into law by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy; that’s expected later this month, and if so, the changes take effect July 1. “I’m looking at the growth that’s coming out of the manufacturing sector to support the economy in Connecticut: If they’re investing it means their business is doing well, so they’d need to grow and hire more,” says Scott, who is executive vice president of Air Handling Systems in Woodbridge. “These are good things that will more than help offset the small tax loss to the state.”
MARKETING&MEDIA Scott, an architect of the state’s Manufacturing Investment Account for small manufacturers.
HEALTHCARE Jamison Scott, a board member of the New Haven Manufacturers Association and one of the original architects of the MRA, described it as “like an IRA [individual retirement account] for manufacturers.”
The revised MRAs should be more desirable: the accounts are now open to just 50 companies with fewer than 150 employees, and money placed in them is now 100-percent tax-free.
EMPLOYMENT The money can be used for the likes of equipment, expansions and job training.
The only problem is that almost no one took advantage. Scott says there were only five applicants; most eligible companies found that with only half of the 6.35 percent tax forgiven, it wasn’t worth the trouble.
“We needed a full elimination of tax to make this thing work. I think it’s awesome that we’re the first state in the nation to implement this,” Scott says, adding that opening the MRAs to only 50 companies instead of 100 was a way to make sure the act was more “revenue-neutral.”
TECHNOLOGY
Scott has also been pushing for more enthusiasm for the MRAs on a federal level with other organizations and groups, especially since U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-3) introduced it to Congress in 2010 and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal to the Senate the following year. He’s not banking on the MRAs existing as a standalone act, but hopefully will be part of a larger manufacturing bill in the near future. “For every manufacturing job, we support about three additional jobs. The return on investment is going to be much more in this sector,” Scott says. “We’re talking about jobs and stimulating the economy, and this is a way to do that.” — John Mordecai
Enthone Expands REALESTATE HQ WEST HAVEN — Chemical and coatings manufacturer Enthone is breaking ground on an expansion its West Haven headquarters.
institutional, commercial and manufacturing settings including plant engineers, managers, maintenance supervisors and purchasers.
An Outing event, featuring food, drinks and activities, will also take place during the afternoon. The Expo & Outing takes place June 18 — Expo from 1 to 6 p.m., Outing from 2:30 to 9 p.m. — at the Holiday Hill center in Prospect. More information can be found at imionline.org.
its Electric Boat division in Groton has been awarded the U.S. Navy’s largest ever ship-building contract. Electric Boat scored the $17.6 billion deal to build ten Virginia-class submarines, at two per year. It is estimated the contract will support upwards of 11,500 jobs in Connecticut and Rhode Island (where Electric Boat has another facility), as well as the more than 350 companies that supply parts to Electric Boat. The company says it plans 500 extra employees for the work.
MARKETING&MEDIA The company is building a new production facility to manufacture components of its ViaForm copper damascene electroplating products. It will feature computer integrated manufacturing, as well as automated and enclosed chemical distribution. The company is expanding to meet market demand; the facility should be open and running this fall. Enthone sells to the automotive, building hardware, energy, aerospace, jewelry, industrial finishes, PCB and semiconductor industries. It has more than 100,000 square feet of facility space between its locations in West Haven and Orange.
\hed\Zygo Bought By Pa. Company MIDDLEFIELD — Optical device manufacturer Zygo is being acquired by Pennsylvania electronic instrument manufacturer AMETEK for $280 million.
HEALTHCARE \hed\IMI Holds Trade Show/Expo PROSPECT — The International Maintenance Institute is hosting its 20 th Expo & Outing trade show June 18 for professionals working in the facilities and maintenance fields. The event will showcase 70 exhibits highlighting products aimed at equipment efficiencies and reduction of operating costs for people in 24
The acquisition should be complete by the end of the second quarter this year. Zygo was founded in 1970 and provides instruments in scientific, industrial and medical fields. It generated roughly $162 million in sales in 2013.
AMETEK produces electronic instruments and electromechanical devices globally, with annual revenues of $3.6 billion.
EB Scores Massive Navy Contract GROTON — It’s another boon for defense contractor General Dynamics:
More sub work lies on the horizon as well; the Defense Authorization Bill from the House Armed Services Committee gives $1.3 billion to Electric Boat for research and development into a new class of submarine to replace an aging fleet. The “Ohio replacement submarines” are expected to carry a roughly $5 billion price tag and will be the biggest in the U.S. military, though they are projected to be smaller than the current Ohio-class vessels, and will carry 22 nuclear missiles. Actual construction won’t start until 2021.
CBIA Survey: Where Are the Workers?
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The results of another state manufacturing survey echo long-running concerns about the dearth of skilled workers for Connecticut’s manufacturing industry. The good news from the 2014 “Survey of Connecticut Manufacturing Workforce Needs” by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) is that 85 percent of the 246 respondents plan to hire more full-time employees by the end of 2015, compared to only 30 percent who planned to do so in 2011. In addition, 12 percent said they planned to hire part-timers (compared to six percent in 2011).
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Connecticut manufacturers employ more than 161,000 workers, most of which are full-time positions with benefits, averaging $22.83 in hourly compensation. But as found in the survey, manufacturers are finding a skills gap between what their potential employees are learning in school versus what they need in the workplace. Sixty percent said overall employability and technical skills have been lacking in recent and attempted hires; 33 percent cited a lack of advanced skills, while 31 percent found interpersonal and teamwork skills likewise in short supply.
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Just over half of the respondents (52 percent) said the most basic skill in the shortest supply among candidates is quantitative skills (i.e., math).
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But overall the majority of manufacturers surveyed found that the biggest drag on growth was a shortage of employees with engineering and four-year degrees. The highest sought jobs were entry-level production jobs (companies surveyed plan to hire 1,035 this year), followed by CNC machinists, engineers, quality control and tool-and-die makers, the latter of which was widely cited as the hardest position to fill, followed by CNC programmers.
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Nearly 100 percent of those surveyed said they strongly desired job candidates with critical thinking and problem-solving skills, followed by more technical skills like engineering (94 percent), robotics (93 percent), CNC programming (93 percent), CAD/CAM (92 percent) and technical writing/comprehension (91 percent).
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Manufacturers expect to hire employees who already have these skills; half of respondents would like educational institutions to place a greater emphasis on basic employability skills, as well as better technical training. The findings of the CBIA survey are similar to the results of one recently conducted by the Manufacturing Alliance of Connecticut (MAC), which concluded that while manufacturers projected increased hiring, nearly eight in ten reported having difficulty finding qualified workers.
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The CBIA survey concludes that leaders must work to change a perception issue about manufacturing jobs if they expect young people to pursue technical careers. The study states modern manufacturing is “clean and high-tech” with good salaries, yet “negative and outdated perceptions” persist. In a recent interview, New Haven Manufacturers Association Executive Director Jerry Clupper reminded, “It’s not dank, dark and dangerous anymore.” The full results of the survey may be viewed at cbia.com.
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HEALTHCARE QU Taps Otsuki To Head Med Ed
heart’s normal rhythm, preventing possible sudden cardiac arrest.
EMPLOYMENT
“This latest advance will be a tremendous benefit to those patients who might not normally be able to undergo the implantation of a device due to other conditions or overall physical frailty,” said Tiano. “This new technology gives patients with lifethreatening heart rhythm irregularities another less invasive and safer option.”
W Hearing Set for Proposed Anthem Rate Hike
TECHNOLOGY REALESTATE HAMDEN — J. Alan Otsuki, MD of North Haven has been appointed senior associate dean for medical education at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University. Otsuki will be responsible for overseeing and building the medical school’s curriculum, including leading the development of the third- and fourth-year curricula. He also will work closely with the medical school’s clinical partners, including St. Vincent’s Medical Center, the school’s principal clinical partner, and Middlesex Hospital, MidState Medical Center, Waterbury Hospital, Griffin Hospital and several others.
Yale in Pioneering Cancer Study HARTFORD — The state’s Department of Insurance will hold a public hearing on a proposal by Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield to raise premiums for its health plans beginning January 1, 2015. The hearing will take place beginning at 9 a.m. June 27 at the insurance department’s headquarters in Room 701 at 153 Market Street in Hartford.
MARKETING&MEDIA “This grant supports the tuition for students from diverse backgrounds,” said Jean Lange, founding dean of the School of Nursing. “This year’s recipients include men and students with backgrounds in military service and health policy.”
The hearing will cover proposals for new rates for plans sold through the state’s insurance exchange, Access Health CT, as well as plans sold outside the exchange. Anthem is seeking to raise rates by an average of 12.5 percent, but the proposed premium changes vary by plan, ranging from a 4.8-percent decrease to a 17.38-percent hike.
Gaylord Cited for Work with Vets
People who don’t attend the hearing can submit written comments on the proposal online at the insurance department’s website, ct.gov/cid.
HEALTHCARE Otsuki comes to Quinnipiac from the Lehigh Valley (Pa.) Health Network, where he was chief of the Division of Education and associate dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine’s Regional Campus at the Lehigh Valley Health Network. Before that, Otsuki was associate dean for medical education and student affairs at Emory University School of Medicine.
NEWS First for St. V’s Cardiologist BRIDGEPORT— A cardiac patient at St. Vincent’s Medical Center has received Fairfield County’s first implantation of the Subcutaneous Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (S-ICD), a new life saving procedure for irregular heart rhythms. Cardiac electrophysiologist Joseph Tiano, MD, successfully implanted the new S-ICD device at the Medical Center in March. He is the third physician in the state of Connecticut to perform this operation and the first in Fairfield County. The S-ICD System gives new hope to many living with life-threatening forms of ventricular fibrillation, or V-Fib. It is the world’s first and only implantable device that provides defibrillation therapy without touching the heart. It detects very fast and disorganized heart rhythms, known as ventricular tachyarrhythmia, and provides electrical therapy to restore the JUNE 2014
Study: ‘Satiety’ Hormone Reverses Diabetes
WALLINGFORD — Gaylord Specialty Healthcare, a not-for-profit long-term acute care hospital, has earned the Veteran’s Humanitarian Award from the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce. The honor was conferred specifically to the Gaylord Hospital Sports Association June 4 at the Quinnipiac chamber’s annual meeting to recognize the hospital’s outstanding support of war veterans. The Sports Association offers adaptive sports and recreation programming such as golf, archery, waterskiing, kayaking, rock climbing, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, tennis, quad rugby, triathlon, curling, cycling and fishing. Designated programming for veterans began with the Connecticut Wounded Warrior Project in 2009, and is now offered as their SAVES (Sports Association Veteran Event Series) program, providing programs exclusively for veterans with disabilities.
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Grant for QU Nursing Scholarships HAMDEN — The School of Nursing at Quinnipiac University has received a $50,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as part of the New Careers in Nursing Scholarship program. Quinnipiac was one of 52 schools to receive a grant through the NCIN program, which supports traditionally underrepresented students who make a career switch to nursing through an accelerated nursing degree program. Quinnipiac’s grant will be divided into $10,000 scholarships to support five different students for the 2014-15 academic year.
The researchers then found that normalizing plasma leptin concentrations in the Type 1 diabetes rats with a leptin infusion resulted in marked reductions in plasma glucose concentrations, which could mostly be attributed to reduction in rates of liver conversion of lactate and amino acids into glucose.
NEW HAVEN — Treatment with leptin, the hormone associated with fullness or satiety, reverses hyperglycemia in animal models of poorly controlled Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes by suppressing the neuroendocrine pathways that cause blood glucose levels to soar, a Yale School of Medicine-led team of researchers has found. The study appears in the advance online publication of Nature Medicine.
NEW HAVEN — Yale Cancer Center is among the first 19 sites to launch a multi-center clinical trial for patients with advanced squamous cell lung cancer who progressed after initial treatment. The trial, called LungMAP (Lung Cancer Master Protocol) is public-private collaboration that includes the National Cancer Herbst, chief of medical Institute oncology at Yale Cancer (NCI), Center and Smilow Friends Hospital of Cancer Research, cancer centers across the U.S. and five pharmaceutical companies.
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Roy S. Herbst, MD, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven, said Lung MAP was designed to take advantage of cancer gene-sequencing technology to screen as many patients as possible to determine whether they are a match for the five experimental drugs in the trial. Herbst is co-chair of the Lung-MAP oversight committee and chair of the drug selection committee. “With as many as 500 other partners expected to join this network, this trial offers us an exciting opportunity to work with enough patients to yield meaningful and actionable findings in terms of determining the best new drugs in the pipeline for these patients,” Herbst said. “We think this trial will be a model for any cancer based on molecular profiles.” The trial will be available to eligible patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital and the eight YNHH Cancer Care Centers in the community.
The leptin hormone regulates metabolism, appetite and body weight. The researchers discovered that, in a fasting state, rats with poorly controlled Type ! and Type 2 diabetes had lower plasma insulin and leptin concentrations and large increases in concentrations of plasma corticosterone — a stress hormone made in the adrenal glands that raises levels of blood glucose.
Squamous cell carcinoma represents about a quarter of all lung cancer diagnoses, but there are currently few treatment options beyond surgery for the disease. The trial will use genomic profiling to match patients for whom other treatments have failed to one of drugs designed to target the genomic alterations suspected of driving the growth of the cancer. To learn more about the trial visit LungMAP.org.
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The Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants (CTCPA) has named CPAs Robert D. Boudreau and Jennifer M. Wood to its board of directors for 2014-15. Clinton resident Boudreau is a principal with Buckley, Frame, Boudreau & Company, PC in Killingworth. He holds a BS in accounting from Southern Connecticut State University and an MS in taxation from the University of New Haven. Wood, of Southington, is a director for McGladrey LLP in New Haven. She holds a BS in accounting from Quinnipiac University.
The Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) has hired Matthew Ross as economist. Ross has been working at CERC as a part-time research associate for two years. He earned both a BA in economics
WHO’S WHAT, WHERE
Brennan The Connecticut Business & Industry Association has announced that John Rathgeber, the organization’s president and CEO since 2006, will retire. Joe Brennan, CBIA’s senior vice president for public policy, will succeed Rathgeber on January 1, 2015. Rathgeber joined the state’s largest business organization in 1977 as a staff attorney, serving in positions including general counsel, executive vice president and chief operating officer. He succeeded Ken Decko as president and CEO in January 2006, becoming just the third leader of the organization following the 1971 merger of the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut and the Connecticut Chamber of Commerce.
Fairfield University has named Wally Halas vice president for university advancement, responsible for development and alumni-relations functions and activities as well as the offices and support services that comprise the Division of University Advancement. He has more than 30 years of experience in fundraising and administration, most recently as associate vice president for leadership gifts at St. John’s University. Halas holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Clark University.
WORCESTER Continued from page 3
the state in a panic and say the USTA wants to sell our tournament to North Carolina. The USTA knew that Butch and Mike were getting out and they just assumed we couldn’t buy it. They [the USTA] are building a new roof at the U.S. Open, player prize money is going up, they have major capital undertakings going on. The price [paid by the state] was ridiculously low; only $600,000. For an event that attracts tens of millions in economic activity, a one-time fee of $600,000 to retain the economic impact and the marketing of the state around the world, and the community programs, was a no-brainer. How did the more recent renaming to the Connecticut Open and United Technologies as a title sponsor come about?
We formed a 501(c)3 and a board with the key stakeholders at the table — the state, the CRDA, Yale University, YaleNew Haven Hospital — stakeholders that are not going anywhere and will always care about the benefit this tournament 26
Boudreau and an MA in regional economic development from the University of Massachusetts, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the economics department at the University of Connecticut. Sightlines, a Guilford firm that assists academic institutions in managing their facilities and capital investment strategies, has named Mark Schiff president and CEO. The move was part of a corporate reorganization announced by company founder and previous CEO David Kadamus, who becomes
brings to the region. With the help of CRDA we re-evaluated and strengthened all the aspects of our business. We looked at food service, ticket operations, overall operations — everything with a fresh eye. We created a balanced budget, retained some new partners and they helped us with corporate introductions. Corporations in Connecticut have lots of events to consider sponsoring and lots of fixed assets to sponsor: the Maritime Center, the Connecticut Science Center, the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, arts organizations. There are so many wonderful things that need funding. We would have to go in and sell the tournament, the product of women’s tennis, the international telecast, signage, tickets and hospitality for client entertainment, booth space. The state made our original connection with United Technologies in early December along with 15 other companies. We’ve always known that global companies headquartered in Connecticut were the most logical major sponsors, just like Pilot Pen Corp. [when it was here]. We started at the bottom and these decisions have to go all the way up to the CEO. Even though you have lots of calls and presentations and meetings, and everybody likes what
executive chairman. Schiff joined Sightlines in 2013 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He holds a BA from Duke and an MBA from NYU’s ‘s Stern School of Business. Steve LaBella, president and CEO of Middlebury electronic-payment provider iSend, has been named a finalist in the 2014 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award program for the New York region. Before founding iSend in 2007, LaBella started his first bill-payment company, QuickPay, in 1996 at the age of 26. He sold QuickPay to American Payment Systems in 2000. Winners of the Ernst & Young award will be announced June 17 in New York City. Robert Price, former senior vice president and chief marketing officer for CVS Pharmacy, has been named president of fresh fruit bouquet franchise Edible Arrangements, headquartered in Wallingford. Before joining CVS, Price held positions with Wawa Food Markets; H-E-B Grocery Stores; Imasco Limited (former parent company of Hardees and Roy
Rogers Restaurants); and the Monitor Co., a strategy consulting firm. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Cornell and an MBA from Harvard. The law firm of Reid & Riege, PC has named IngiMai Loorand counsel to the firm. Ingi joined the firm in 2006 and is a member of its individual client services practice, where she works in estate planning, probate, trust administration and estate settlement. Ingi earned her JD from Quinnipiac University School of Law, an MA from Wesleyan and a BA from the State University of New York/Stony Brook. Shelton biopharmaceutical firm Cara Therapeutics has named Eric J. Vandal has been named vice president for commercial operations. Most recently he was vice president of sales and marketing at Nuvo Research, Inc. Before that he was senior director of the Hospital Business Unit of King Pharmaceuticals. He holds a BA in economics from Harvard College. Grace Yukich of Hamden, an assistant professor of sociology at Quinnipiac
you have to say, if it goes up to the CEO and the CEO says no, you have to start all over with somebody else. Even as a New Haven-centric company, we can see that the Connecticut Open is a bigger brand for the tournament, but how did that name change come about?
In 2011, when we rebranded after Pilot Pen Tennis, the state was nowhere on our radar. New Haven has always supported the tournament, and wearing my Market New Haven hat, I knew that New Haven’s name would be carried around the world, so New Haven got the benefit of a pro bono title sponsorship for three years. I always knew that rebranding to the Connecticut Open would broaden the tournament’s overall appeal and more accurately reflect the fans and sponsors from all over the state. It always seems that there is a huge Fairfield County audience for the tournament, is that correct?
Thirty percent of our audience, fans and sponsors come from all over Connecticut and the new name appropriately reflects the state’s major investment in the tournament. So if we got a title sponsor that said, ‘We want our name’ [in the title], we
Loorand University, has been named a Young Scholar in American Religion by the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. Yukich who joined the QU faculty in 2011, earned a doctorate in sociology from New York University. She also holds a master’s degree in sociology from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in theater from the University of Alabama. Marna Wilber of Lyme has become the first female to lead the 101-year-old New Haven Manufacturers Association. Wilber, who is director of corporate communications and public relations at Assa Abloy Americas in New Haven, has been vice president of NHMA the past two years.
had to wait and see. United Technologies is for all intents and purposes the title sponsor; they really liked ‘The Connecticut Open Presented by United Technologies.’ Are there other U.S. states that own tournaments?
In Europe, where state governments and municipalities make major investments in sports events, lots of time they are called by the state or the city. In the U.S. it is typically corporate, but there is an Atlanta Open and Winston-Salem [N.C.] Open. The Canadian Open is called the Rogers Cup [for title sponsor Rogers Telecom]. Will the new name help land sponsors?
Well, I’ve only had it for 24 hours, but I think it will. There are 16 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Connecticut. We have UTC, Aetna, Starwoods [Hotels]. We think those [Fortune 500] companies want Connecticut to prosper, and would be more likely to support the Connecticut Open than a region like New Haven. When I explained this to Mayor Harp, she completely understood.
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Former Pilot Pen CEO Ron Shaw mentioned to us a few months back that the timing of the tournament the week before the U.S. Open has been a big challenge to the tournament to attract top players. True?
It is a double-edged sword. It’s a disadvantage in that top players like Serena [Williams] and Maria [Sharapova] want to do their corporate obligations and endorsements that week. And [the third week of August] is a vacation week for [many] consumers. Because it is a week before the U.S. Open other players want to play here because it is a great way to prepare for the US Open. It is the same surface, the same climate, the same time zone, the same ball, the same big stadium and feel. Lindsey Davenport used to call this tournament ‘the calm before the storm of New York. Our player field is already off to a fantastic start. We’ve already announced French Open semi-finalist Genie Bouchard, the red hot rising star in the WTA tour. Fourtime champion Caroline Wozniacki [has committed]. Is she bringing a sponsorship from Match.com?
[Laughs] That’s a good idea! Simona Halep from Romania, who no one ever heard of last August, has risen meteorically in the ranking and reached the French Open finals and almost beat Maria Sharapova, is world No. 3. Once again the tournament has proven to be the breeding ground for the stars of tomorrow.
French Open and jumped to No. 150 in the world. There are ten Americans in the top 100 and that’s what is exciting about the future of women’s tennis. I’m trying to get as many of those young Americans here this summer as we possibly can. You have also added an exhibition match of male players.
And they are all American, no coincidence [laughs]. They are going to play on Stadium Court Wednesday night and Thursday night. Hometown Connecticut favorite James Blake [a native of Fairfield] and former No. 1 Americans Jim Courier [who will play
Wednesday] and Blake will take on Andy Roddick on Thursday. [Blake] is like our host and he has helped me put together the whole event. If you buy a ticket to the Wednesday or Thursday night session, you’ll see the WTA feature match of the day at 7 [p.m.] followed by the Men’s Legends Match. The tickets are selling like hotcakes: we’ve sold more packages in three weeks than we sold in three months last year. What would you like to see from the business community, now that the tournament has a fresh start?
The state’s purchase of the sanction gave the tournament much-needed stability and the United Technologies investment
along with our five cornerstones — Yale, Yale-New Haven Hospital, American Express, Aetna and First Niagara — give us real viability. It’s like a dream come true to have this global Fortune 50 company invest in our tournament and bring all of this amazing muscle to the tournament. Really exciting plans around Military Appreciation Night on Monday, fundraising around Smilow Cancer Hospital Closer to Free bike ride, and [UTC] put out a special ticket offer to their 25,000 employees. Those are the three things I pitched them a few months ago and it stuck.
Long Lives The King... Put The Staying Power of the Book of Lists to Work for You! The King Will Make His Annual Visit This July Don’t Miss it!
What is the issue of popularity in the U.S. for women’s tennis? It is a great game and the women seem to be both great competitors and great with the fans.
We would all like there to be more Americans at the top. Serena [Williams] and Sloan Stevens are around 20 [ranking in the world] Venus is around 30, Madison Keys is 40. Caroline Wozniacki may not be No. 1 in the world anymore, but because of who she is and Rory McIlroy, and her look and charisma she is one of the top ten female athletes in the world, not just tennis. Genie Bouchard I promise you is heading for the same. She is very glamorous, very media-savvy, self assured and very personable. It used to be that women’s tennis was on a firstname basis with the world. You could say Monica, Jennifer, Venus, Serena, Lindsey, Gabriella, Martina and people knew who you were talking about. Maybe we just have problems with eastern European names. Are we creating new American stars?
But they [eastern European players] are the ones who are hungry and willing to work harder because it is the only way to get out [of eastern Europe]. But we are [creating new American stars]: Genie Bouchard is young and up-and-coming; Madison Keys is young and up-andcoming; Taylor Townsend just had a great JUNE 2014
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SPECIAL EVENTS The Connecticut Technology Council hosts the provocatively named Geeks & Nerds: A CT Techie Gala. The organizers describe the event as a fun-filled night of great food and awesome music. Attendees are encouraged to dress up as their favorite Star Trek, Games of Thrones or other fun character. Oh, and in case you’re wondering about the difference between geeks and nerds, here it is in a nutshell: Geeks are Mac; nerds are PC. Who knew?! 6-11 p.m. June 26 at Stamford Innovations Center, Stamford. $75. Registration. 860-289-0878, ct.org.
The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce hosts its 50th Annual Meeting & Breakfast. Keynote speaker U.S. Sen. Christopher Murphy. 7:15-9 a.m. June 20 at Grassy Hill Lodge, 77 Sodom La., Derby. $35 members, $45 others. 203-925-4981, greatervalleychamber.com. Each third Friday the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce (GNHCC) hosts Discover the Chamber, an informational and networking session for new and prospective members. Free pizza, even! Noon June 20 at GNHCC, 900 Chapel St. (10th Fl.), New Haven. Free. 203-787-6735, gnhcc. com. Join the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce for the Constant Contact Presents: How To Make the Most of Your Posts. Seminar will attendees a closer look at the popular social media networks — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+ — as well as the benefits of using each and how other organizations are marketing with them. Also, tips on how to tell if your social media activity is working. 8-9:30 a.m. June 24 at GNHCC, 900 Chapel St., New Haven. Free. Registration. 203-787-6735, gnhcc.com.
EDUCATION Human Resources For the third session of its six-session Human Resources Roundtable Breakfast Series, the labor and employment group of the law firm of Carmody & Torrance presents Wage & Hour (Exemptions) and Independent Contractors. Roundtable discussion designed principally for HR professionals and in-house counsel. 8 a.m.-9:15 June 26 at 50 Leavenworth St., Waterbury. $65 ($250 for six sessions). Reservations. 203-5784247, aslack@carmodylaw.com.
WHO’S WHAT, WHERE
SYMPOSIA, CONFERENCES & EXPOSITIONS
The Orange Economic Development Corp. hosts the 13th annual Orange Business & Community Expo followed by a Business After Hours networking event. Sample goodies from wealth of area eateries, enter raffles for great prizes, meet animals from the Beardsley Zoo and even attend a meet-and-greet with Elsa from the movie Frozen. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (BAH to follow) June 18 at High Plains Community Center, 525 Orange Center Road, Orange. Free. 203-891-1045, OrangeEDC.com/expo.htm. \breaker hed\CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE The Clinton Chamber of Commerce hosts its Annual Breakfast Meeting. Election of officers and directors, presentation of Robert DiBona Scholarship Awards, refreshments. 8-9 a.m. June 19 at Town Hall, 54 E. Main St., Clinton. 860-6693889, clintonct.com.
The Shoreline Chamber of Commerce (incorporating the former Branford and Guilford chambers) hosts Business After Hours. Networking, door prizes, giveaways. 5:30-7:30 p.m. June 24 at Shoreline Prime Meats & Deli, 103 N. Main St., Branford. Registration. 203-488-5500, branfordct. com. Join the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce for its monthly Business After Hours. Networking, refreshments, bonhomie, etc. 5-7 p.m. June 26 at Village Green of Wallingford by Revera, 55 Kondracki La., Wallingford. Members free, $10 non-members. 203-269-9891, maribel@quinncham. com.
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ration and more. Call for appointment. 9, 10 & 11 a.m. June 18 at Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, 100 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. Free. Reservations. 203-269-9891, maribel@quinncham.com. The greater Bridgeport chapter of SCORE offers a workshop: Five Ways To Grow Your Business. Session led by Bill Pressley of ActionCOACH Business Coaching, a certified business coach and SCORE mentor. 7 p.m. June 18 at Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce, 10 Progress Dr., Shelton. 203-450-9484, workshops@ scorect.org.
RECREATION
Management
Tee off your work week with the 18th annual Greater Valley Chamber Golf Classic. Format is four-person scramble, with awards for low gross team, longest drive, closest to the pin, holein-one, more. Individuals and teams are welcome. 11 a.m. June 23 at Golf Club at Oxford Greens, 99 Country Club Dr., Oxford. $195 ($750 foursome). Registration. 203-925-4981, greatervalleychamber. com.
Fred Pryor presents Fundamentals of Project Management Workshop. Two-day seminar is designed to teach attendees how to successfully deploy the people, resources and tasks necessary to bring most any project in on time and within budget. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. June 23 at Omni New Haven Hotel, 155 Temple St., New Haven. $299. Registration. 800-780-8476, pryor.com.
The annual Bic Golf Classic benefits the Milford Chamber of Commerce Trust Fund. Registration, putting contest begin at 9, followed by 11 o’clock shotgun start. Following 18 holes are hors d’oeuvres, open bar, dinner, awards. 9 a.m. July 16 at Mill River Country Club, 4567 Main St., Stratford. $225. Registration. 203-878-0681, kalagno@milfordct.com.
The New Haven County Bar Association’s Ask a Lawyer program offers free ten- to 15-minute consultations with an NHCBA attorney to all comers (no pre-registration necessary) each third Wednesday. 5-7 p.m. June 18 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free. 203468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.
Small Business Under the auspices of the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, SCORE volunteers offer free and confidential Mentoring to entrepreneurs and smallbusiness owners the third Wednesday of each month. Counselors have experience in such areas as marketing, management, business-plan prepa-
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LEADS/ NETWORKING GROUPS The Fairfield I chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7-8:30 a.m. June 3, 10, 17, 24 at First Congregational Church, 148 Beach Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-430-4494. The Waterbury chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7-8:30 a.m. June 3, 10, 17, 24 at the Village at East Farms, 180 Scott Rd., Waterbury. 203-755-5548, waterburybni.com.
The Sound chapter of Business Network International meets Fridays. 8-9:30 a.m. June 6, 13, 20, 27 at Parthenon Diner, 374 E. Main St., Branford. Free. 203-208-1042. Milford Chamber of Commerce’s Friday Morning Leads Group meets. 11 a.m.-noon June 6, 13, 20, 27 at Milford Chamber of Commerce, 5 Broad St., Milford. Free. 203-878-0681, chamber@milfordct.com. The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network III (formerly Leads Group III) meets second and fourth Mondays. 5 p.m. June 9, 23 at SBC Restaurant & Brewery, 950 Dixwell Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-288-6831.
The Shoreline chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7:15-8:30 a.m. June 3, 10, 17, 24 at Parthenon Diner, 809 Boston Post Rd., Old Saybrook. 203-245-0332.
The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network I (formerly Leads Group I) meets second and fourth Tuesdays. 8 a.m. June 10, 24 at 2969 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-281-1233.
The Hamden chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7:15-8:45 a.m. June 3, 10, 17, 24 at Knights of Columbus, 2630 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-294-1505, hamdenbni.com.
The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (GVCC) Women in Networking Leads Group meets second and fourth Tuesdays. 8:4510 a.m. June 10. 24 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.)., Shelton. Free. 203-925-4981.
The Milford Chamber of Commerce’s Tuesday Morning Leads Group meets. 8:30 a.m. June 3, 10, 17, 24 at Milford Chamber of Commerce, 5 Broad St., Milford. Free. 203-878-0681, chamber@milfordct.com.
The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network II (formerly Leads Group II) meets second and fourth Tuesdays. Noon June 10, 24 at Lifetime Solutions Community VNA, 2 Broadway, North Haven. Free. 203-288-7305.
Connecticut Business Connections meets first and third Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. June 3, 17 at Tuscany Grill, 120 College St., Middletown. 860-3431579, connecticutbusinessconnection.org.
The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (GVCC) Seeds-to-Leads Group meets second and fourth Wednesdays. 8 a.m. June 11, 25 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. Free. 203-925-4981, laura@greatervalleychamber.com.
The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (GVCC) Valley Business Network meets first and third Wednesdays. 8-9:15 a.m. June 4, 18 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. Free. 203-925-4981, laura@greatervalleychamber.com. The Trumbull Business Network (formerly Bottom-Line Business Club) meets Wednesdays. 7:30-8:30 a.m. June 4, 11, 18, 25 at Helen Plumb Building, 571 Church Hill Rd., Trumbull. Members free (annual dues $50). Reservations. 203-4528383, trumbullbn.com/contactus.htm. The New Haven chapter of Business Network International meets Wednesdays. 8-9:30 a.m. June 4, 11, 18, 25 at the Bourse, 839 Chapel St., New Haven. $100 registration; $365 annual fee. 203-789-2364, boursenewhaven.com. Milford Chamber of Commerce’s Wednesday Morning Leads Group meets 8:30-9:30 a.m. June 4, 11, 18, 25 at Milford Chamber of Commerce, 5 Broad St., Milford. Free. 203-8780681, chamber@milfordct.com. The Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association, an association of predominantly African-American business people, holds networking sessions Wednesdays. 11 a.m.noon June 4, 11, 18, 25 at 192 Dixwell Ave., New Haven. Free. 203-562-2193. The Connecticut Alliance for Business Opportunities (CABO), which describes itself as the state’s LGBT chamber of commerce, meets first Thursday mornings. 8-9:30 a.m. June 5 at the Pond House in Elizabeth Park, 1555 Asylum Ave., West Hartford. $15 members, $25 others. 203903-8525, thecabo.org.
The Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce’s QNet Group meets the second and fourth Wednesdays. 8-9 a.m. June 11, 25 at 100 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. Free. 203-234-0332, 203-269-9891, quinncham.com.
Connecticut Business Connections meets second Thursdays. 7:30 a.m. June 12 at the Greek Olive, 402 Sargent Dr., New Haven. 860-3431579, connecticutbusinessconnection.org.
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The Jewish Business League meets third Wednesdays for networking and informationsharing. 7:30-9:15 a.m. June 18 at Temple Beth David, 3 Main St., Cheshire. $8 advance, $10 at door. tinyurl.com/8-alnnuz. The Connecticut Business Hall of Fame hosts a statewide networking event the third Friday each month. 7:30-9 a.m. June 20 at Connecticut Laborers Council, 475 Ledyard St., Hartford. $5. 860523-7500, ctbhof.com.
The West Haven Chamber’s Women in Business meets the fourth Monday of each month. 11:45 a.m. June 23 at American Steakhouse, 3354 Sawmill Rd., West Haven. 203-933-1500.
JUNE 2014
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Middlesex County Toastmasters meets second and fourth Thursdays. 7 p.m. June 12, 26 at Middlesex Community College, 100 Training Hill Rd., Middletown. 860-301-9402, middlesex.freetoasthost.com.
The Professional Networking Group of Waterbury (PrefNet) meets Thursdays. 7 a.m. June 5, 12, 19, 26 at Waterbury Regional Chamber, 83 Bank St., Waterbury. 203-575-101, ProfNetWaterbury.com.
The Milford chapter of Business Network International meets Fridays. 7-8:30 a.m. June 6, 13, 20, 27 at Hilton Garden Inn, 291 Old Gate La., Milford. Free. 203-214-6336, greatermilfordbni. com.
Don’t Miss Business New Haven’s Rising Stars!
The West Haven Chamber of Commerce’s Leads Plus A.M. Group meets second Thursdays. 8:30 a.m. June 12 at 140 Capt. Thomas Blvd., West Haven. 203-933-1500.
The West Haven Chamber of Commerce’s Leads Plus P.M. Group meets fourth Thursdays. Noon June 26 at 140 Captain Thomas Blvd., West Haven. 203-933-1500.
The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Alliance Leads Group meets first and third Thursdays. 8-9 a.m. June 5, 19 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. 203-925-4981, nancie@ greatervalleychamber.com.
The best emerging business and community leaders this region has to offer .
The Greater New Haven chapter of Toastmasters meets second and fourth Wednesdays. 6:30 p.m. June 11, 25 at New Haven City Hall, 165 Church St., New Haven. 203-871-3065.
The Entrepreneur Business Forum (EBF) meets Thursdays. 7 a.m. June 5, 12, 19, 26 at Hamden Healthcare Center, 1270 Sherman La., Hamden. Free. 860-877-3880.
The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network IV meets first and third Thursdays. 8 a.m. June 5, 19 at chamber office, 2969 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-985-1200.
HITCH YOUR WAGON TO THE RISING STARS
Editor’s note: Fraternal meeting listings can be found on our website (ctcalendar.com) along with additional events taking place statewide. Send CALENDAR listings to Business New Haven, 20 Grand Ave., New Haven 06513, or e-mail to news@conntact.com.
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any businessmen and -women are natural leaders. But no matter how many innate abilities corporate leaders possess, most would probably admit there’s always room for improvement. That’s where Lisa Bellamy Fluker comes in.
Fluker is an expert at helping executives, managers and employees develop, access and utilize business skills. She’s launched a new training center this month. Located at 440 Wheelers Farm Road in Milford, Belconsulting Training Solutions will be the home site for an array of executive and professional-training programs. “I find training rewarding. It makes me feel as if I’m serving, and it gives me gratification,” Fluker explains. The June launch marks Fluker’s move from a home-based business. “This is a new venture for Belconsulting Training Solutions,” she says. “It’s an awesome blessing, a good fit for where I am at this point in time.” Fluker actually started BTS in 2000, after earning a BS degree in psychology at Shenandoah University in Washington, D.C. She later received a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Quinnipiac University. In addition to executive leadership, her training sessions focus on such needs as organizational development and diversity. As a contracted trainer/consultant, Fluker assesses an organization and its departments, administrators and staff with the goal of improving what’s there. She also has developed a series of lectures on entrepreneurial leadership, among other series she offers or plans to
offer soon that focus on topics such as women’s business empowerment. Fluker lived in Maryland when she started out, and built her business to the point where she secured major clients in the Maryland-Washington D.C.-Virginia area. Now a resident of North Haven, she came to Connecticut in 2010 after remarrying. Among Fluker’s corporate clients are the APT Foundation, Eastern Connecticut State University, Yale University, Northeast Utilities and Yale-New Haven Hospital. One of the common threads in her training sessions is the link between performance and image, explains Fluker. “You image is you,” she says. “I believe we all have frames of reference and those frames of reference are active” in the professional environment, Fluker notes. “What we wear, our persona, our image, affects how we perform” in the workplace. The new location in Milford comes at a time when Fluker was seeking to be closer to home. The mother of five daughters, she’d been traveling quite a bit for her job. Now, she can be more stationary, with clients coming to her. “Family is important. I wanted to travel less,” Fluker says. She adds that the new location also helps her to expand her offerings, such as hosting large conferences. “I want BTS to be a learning resource for the region for executives and professionals.” Helping Fluker with the business is a part-time office administrator and Fluker’s husband, William. The proprietor of a CD duplication business, William also has coordinated youth events and activities in the New Haven area, including creating and directing a youth orchestra.
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“Both my husband and I are passionate about youth,” Fluker says. She notes that need for the type of work she does can be traced to early academic preparation — or lack thereof. Many schools do not adequately prepare their students to effectively compete in a work situation, she observes. “Youth are deficient in being able to communicate, in being able to problem-solve, in being able to research and understand critical thinking — synthesizing information and data,” Fluker notes. Could another series, one concentrating of business and leadership skills for middle and/or high school students, be in the works? Perhaps. For now, Fluker is excited about launching her new training center and its programs for executives, administrators and staff. “I find training rewarding. It makes me feel as if I’m serving, and gives me gratification,” she says. “The art of learning is a 360-degree return for the instructor. Every time I train, I learn.” For more information, call 855-727-5700, ext. 104 or e-mail info@belconsultingtrainingsolutions.com. — Felicia Hunter
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Jones says the study provided recommendations on both good and bad practices regarding oversight of the pension funds and what could be done to improve overall financial performance and keep investments diversified but within the guidelines established by the city.
operating department. Before coming to New Haven, Jones worked in the New York State controller’s satellite office in Manhattan doing financial policy analysis and oversight of the $1.3 billion security program for the Metropolitan Transit Authority for the past six years.
city controller to save in pension-fund costs
REALESTATE By Thomas R. Violante
City Controller Daryl Jones recently announced a plan to move the city’s pension fund management to financial services giant Morgan Stanley, of New York City, a move that will reduce the fees the city pays for pension fund investments by about $700,000 per year.
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“Our approach is, ‘We’re in it together. It’s one city. We’re going to do things together as one city and work out our challenges,’” says Jones.
Jones says that, in addition to announcing $700,000 savings, he wanted to accomplish more by getting together with all involved parties in one room and have an educational awareness of their own on how the city’s pension funds are behaving, how they work, where the pension funds are headed, and to begin a dialogue with all stakeholders, city officials and the city’s actuaries, Hooker & Holcomb.
MARKETING&MEDIA “If you put that money saved back into the pension fund, over the next ten years, that’s $11 million,” says Jones. “It’s real savings so I said, ‘Go ahead and do it,’ because I think this is a win-win for the city.” Jones adds that the $700,000 in saved fees will instead be used for more investments. For FY 2013, the city’s police and fire pension fund totaled $298 million while the City Employees Retirement Fund (CERF) was $158 million.
“Besides the savings, there’s a lot more we can do to increase the value of the pension funds,” Jones adds. “A lot of things came out of our discussions, one of which was our savings, because both of our financial advisors use Morgan Stanley. We were able to take a process that’s paid for, regardless, and lower the fees on trade transactions. Morgan Stanley is reducing their fee platform to what is termed ‘lowest on the street.’
HEALTHCARE Jones graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a bachelor’s degree and earned a master’s degree in public finance from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service of New York University. He worked for New York City mayors David Dinkins and Rudolph Giuliani in the city’s Operations Department, then moved over to manage the New York City Transit Authority’s primary and budget capital
You Oughta Be in Sales Connecticut residents seeking work might want to consider a job as a retail salesperson, operations manager or customerservice representative. Those are among occupations in the state with the greatest number of positions, according to the Department of Labor’s Office of Research. The top-rated job, retail salesperson, boasts more than 50,000 positions, and maintains 1,936 job openings each year, according to DOL. The average annual wage is $27,453. Annual pay is much higher for accountants and auditors: $75,185. However, there are far fewer yearly job openings in this field, 528. State residents might want to reconsider starting a career in fields in which the number of jobs is expected to decline. This category includes U.S. Postal Service workers, word processors and typists, and architectural and civil drafters. For more information visit the DOL website at ctdol.state.ct.us.
JUNE 2014
Jones says that, prior to this, the city worked with Northern Trust, which charged higher fees for the same managers. “All we’re doing is just switching to Morgan Stanley to get their guaranteed lowest fee rate,” notes Jones. “If anyone uses a lower fee in the future, Morgan Stanley has to drop down to that fee for
Quantifying Part-time Workforce Over the past 26 years, about one-fifth of Connecticut’s working population has held a part-time job, according to the Connecticut Economic Digest. In a May article, author and Department of Labor Economist Matthew Krzyzek notes that reasons for securing part-time work vary from inability to find full-time work to medical limitations to school enrollment to family/child-care obligations. Data from 2012 show that 69.5 percent (266,000) of the state’s 383,000 part-time workers were female. Part-time was defined as less than 35 work hours per week. Krzyzek writes that the lowest number of part-time hours worked were in the following sectors: leisure and hospitality, other services and education and health services.
us. The total savings in fees to the city is $700,000 a year going forward starting now. This covers police and fire pensions and the CERF [City Employees Retirement Fund].” Jones says the practice is just the beginning and the projected savings is a very conservative number. “We believe that number will get closer to $1 million per year,” adds Jones. Jones notes that a pension study begun by his predecessor, Acting Controller Michael O’Neill, was presented to the city’s financial advisors and everyone else involved in discussions about pension funds because, “We are going to be transparent on everything that we
Two Wheels a Big Deal NEW HAVEN — Elm City workers far surpass their peers wide nation when it comes to biking to their jobs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Locally, 2.7 percent of commuters ride a bicycle to work, compared with 0.6 percent of workers nationally, the bureau. While commuting via car, van or truck remains the most popular choices of transportation, a substantial proportion of workers get to and from their jobs either by taking public transportation (13.1 percent) or walking (12.4 percent). The average travel time to work locally is 22.4 minutes, according to the report. “Through efforts to increase local transportation options may U.S. cities have contributed to the increase [in] the number of people who bike to work,” states Brian McKenzie, a Census Bureau sociologist who specializes in commuting, in a bureau release. “This information shapes our understanding of how people get to work, and how this may
New Haven Mayor Toni N. Harp says that her administration is working proactively to address New Haven’s long-term challenges and strengthen the financial position of its pension funds.
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“This could not happen without collaboration and cooperation among those who oversee each pension fund and independent financial advisors, who worked with the city’s Finance Department to identify these savings to the benefit of the city, the pension funds, employees and retirees,” says Harp of Jones’ initiative.
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Last month, Jones testified before the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee at the state Capitol to testify on behalf of the city for a $2 million grant. “We got that and a little bit more,” said Jones. “It’s because of Mayor Harp and her 20 years as a [state] senator that led to the city benefiting from that. It’s another win-win for us.”
change across cities in the coming years.”
Small Biz Posts Tiny Job Gain Employment in Connecticut small businesses with less than 20 employees increased by 0.06 percent in May, according to Intuit’s May Small Business Indexes. That’s about one-third of the employment rise nationwide, which was 0.17 percent, according to the report. The report also shows that the average monthly pay of hourly employees rose in May by $17, or 0.6 percent, over the previous month. They were compensated the equivalent of $2,804, according to the report. But small-business employees also worked more hours in May, up 0.8 percent, or about 48 minutes, for an average annual equivalent of 112.3 hours.
Slower Job Growth Seen
and 2015, according to Daniel W. Kennedy, senior economist with the Connecticut Economic Digest. In an article for the June issue, Kennedy writes that what initially appear to be positive economic directions in fact could be the result of negative occurrences. “[A]fter increasing in March, 806,000 left the labor force in April, making a shrinking labor force the principal reason for the declining [unemployment rate],” writes Kennedy. “And the first estimate of U.S. GDP for 2014 Q1 showed that U.S. economic growth rapidly decelerated.” He goes on to blame “the bursting of the housing bubble” and its “persistent drag on the economy” for the sluggish economic recovery. Hartford and Bridgeport were hit especially hard, he notes. Kennedy also believes that as the economy recuperates, the greatest job gains will be in the education-health care and social assistance sector and the leisurehospitality sector.
A dwindling labor force and decreased economic expansion indicate “slower growth” in 2014 31
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