Business New Haven October 2014

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OCTOBER 2014 TECHNOLOGY

Top Tech Companies Bullish on Biz

$1.50

What It Takes To Make It Today

But taxes, regulatory environment remain drags on growth WALLINGFORD — Connecticut’s fastestgrowing technology companies are bullish on the future. So found an annual survey of CEOs from this year’s Marcum Tech Top 40 companies, by the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC) and Marcum, LLP. Results were revealed at the 2014 awards ceremony at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford.

More than three out of four companies (77 percent) expect to continue growing at their current fast pace. They credit their success to 1) workforce, 2) products, 3) intellectual property and 4) business strategy.

Thirty-one of the 40 fi nalists (78 percent) point to quality of life as Connecticut’s key attraction as a business domicile, while the other nine companies (23 percent) say location is what they most appreciate.

When asked their key worries about the future, fi nalists named: • Availability of talent • Government regulations • The possibility of another economic slowdown • Geographic limitations • Foreign competition

See Page 12

Continued on page 10

Taling Tech

2014 Banking Review Page 3

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Manufacturing Hall of Fame Page 24

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Talking Technology New Connecticut Technology Council boss Carlson sees opportunities to raise group’s profile Enter Your Events on www.ctcalendar.com of the CTC. The workforce issue was of consistent concern across every technology company in the state, so we’re working with various aspects of the workforce, connecting the deans at schools of engineering with HR people at these companies. [Also] Connecticut was falling behind the rest of the world in connectivity and broadband services. We’re looking to set up affordable high-speed broadband networks in Connecticut.

Bruce Carlson is the new CEO of the Connecticut Technology Council. Carlson had a 20-year stint as policy director at the state’s Office of Policy & Management, and ten as chief of staff at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, where he helped established the Tech Transfer Program for the University of Connecticut.

Carlson is a former CTC board member before being tapped as interim and then permanent CEO. Carlson previously founded the IP Factory, a company that identified technologies in Connecticut companies that were languishing and could be brought to market.

WHO’S WHAT, WHERE

Before we get to the Tech Council, do you think the Health Center should be a part of the University of Connecticut?

Yes. If it were located in Mansfield there wouldn’t be any question about it.

The problem is the 40-mile difference between [UConn’s main] Storrs campus [and Farmington], and there’s a hospital involved. For ten years I tried to figure out ways to have the entities better connected. People in Connecticut just don’t want to travel. It’s hard enough to get faculty members to go across the street, much less 40 miles away to collaborate.

What was your initial involvement with the Connecticut Technology Council?

At UConn we were a member of the Technology Council, so I was on the board for two or three years in the mid-2000s. When I started my own company, the IP Factory, I utilized a few people I met on that board as board members for my company.

What was the IP Factory?

We identified technologies that were invented and put on the shelf of corporations. It was called the IP Factory because I thought we would do it specifically around intellectual property, but after the first year we realized there were more projects than just purely the intellectual property. A lot of the large technology corporations in Connecticut OCTOBER 2014

Why do we want the government in the Internet business?

These RFPs are put together by consortiums of municipalities or regional entities. The government could provide a subsidy to get the infrastructure off the ground, but the private sector is still where it’s taking place.

Connecticut has a lot of big companies who are huge users of Internet access.

What is the reason we wouldn’t have a path that was already being generated in the marketplace?

get something started and then it doesn’t meet their revenue hurdle or whatever the case may be, and then it just sits on the shelf. So we’d go through a quick process to determine which ones had commercial value and which ones didn’t.

How big of a factor would it be for Connecticut if many or all of those smaller technologies were unleashed?

Playing the networking game, I realize now that almost at the same time I started the IP Factory, UTC [United Technologies Corp.] was going through the same process, just internally. We finally had a meeting and they found they had 500 [potential] projects. It was technology that wasn’t so much on the shelf, but already on the marketplace with opportunity to be used in other markets.

Is there a role for the Connecticut Technology Council to help facilitate

this out-migration of projects or companies?

We define those issues that affect the membership broadly then figure out ways to respond to those issues. There are also things we can promote. One area I feel strongly about is that there is a large company-small company relationship in Connecticut [that can be enhanced]. That large company could become the first customer of the small company; there are many ways that relationship can be defined. The idea of technology and projects coming out of corporations to create companies as well.

I’m organizing our larger corporate members around a task force to look at those things they could do to help the small technology companies. If you can say, ‘Pitney Bowes is my customer,’ other people will take notice. I talked to 90 percent of the [CTC] board members and with other technology companies in the state and asked what they saw as the value

It’s a question of return on investment.

The Comcasts and AT&Ts of the world that have been stringing wires. They’ll string the fiber optic to Company X, and they’ll charge a significant amount of money for that access. In New Haven there might be too many impediments, and a company would delay doing it to avoid the hassle. For example, there is one company with a French parent, and [the parent company] was saying, ‘You should move out of New Haven because we need you to have the high-speed broadband.’ This RFP process is going to tell us what the impediments of being able to do this are, and last year there was a piece of legislation that was passed that provided a space on every telephone pole so municipalities can have strung high-speed fiber-optic cable. Once they understand what it’s going to take to have these networks put together, they’ll put out an RFP. Anyone who wants to come in and bid to put in the wire, there will be competition among the companies.

Continued on page 23

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Editorial Ray of Jobs Hope It’s been six long, discouraging years that job growth in Connecticut has remained in the doldrums following the economic collapse of 2008.

Op-Ed

Five Revolutions To Shape the Future of Marketing

Disastrous state-government actions including onerous tax hikes, minimum-wage increases, mandatory paid sick leave and an economic-development policy dependent on bureaucrats’ aptitude in choosing winners and loser in the private sector have rendered Connecticut one of the most business-hostile states in the nation.

In such a climate many companies have voted with their feet, closing operations in state, downsizing, moving elsewhere or foregoing hiring new workers.

Now, however, comes a glimmer of hope in the state Department of Labor’s September jobs report, compiled by the DOL’s Office of Research.

Enter Your Events on www.ctcalendar.com

ing around them. But in the next 20 years, so much change is going to happen so quickly that large portions of the populace are going to have a difficult time keeping up. And it won’t just be individuals.

Underestimating the speed and impact of these changes will be the downfall of many companies large and small in the coming years.

In a world of constant disruption and uncertainty, however, marketers who truly understand the key forces behind these changes will be in a better position to adapt and survive.

so many new technologies — combined with a growing population of tech- and media-savvy consumers — will usher in a revolutionary era of social change, the likes of which humanity has never seen before. Ever. In the future, companies will need to find ways to protect themselves from the inevitable disruptions that such changes will bring, while simultaneously recognizing the advantages and opportunities.

WHO’S WHAT, WHERE

Non-farm employment for the month was up by 11,500 (0.69 percent), compared to a loss of 1,200 (revised down from 3,600) for August.

In addition, Connecticut’s unemployment rate fell 0.2 percent to 6.4 percent and down a full 1.3 percent from September 2013.

The unemployment rate has not been this low in the state since November 2008, when the recession hit full throttle. The number of unemployed residents has declined by 23,682 (-16.5 percent) since September 2013 to 119,842, which is a new recovery low point.

Connecticut’s labor force has now expanded by 21,983 (1.2 percent) citizens over the calendar year.

Modest good news for the business community, but we’ll take it.

First Niagara Retrenches Earlier this month First Niagara Financial Group announced that it was closing 17 branches – including eight in Connecticut — as part of continuing efforts to streamline its branch network, the bank announced.

The Buffalo, N.Y.-based bank announced that the closings will take place in January and include the First Niagara branch at 36 Fountain Street in Westville. That office will be consolidated with the Woodbridge branch at 211 Amity Road.

First Niagara is streamlining its branch network as more of the bank’s customers more frequently employ electronic means of doing their banking, including increased use of online banking and First Niagara’s mobile app, according to a bank spokesman. As a result, traffic within bank branches is dropping, while the use of online banking systems is rising.

First Niagara said more than 200,000 of its customers are using the bank’s mobile app, while 500,000 take advantage of its online banking services.

The market is full of trendy

terms — Big Data, the Internet of Things, Digital Natives, Globalization, Social Media — that attempt to describe the complex technological and social changes that the world is undergoing.

However, there is a danger in reducing complex social dynamics down to a few catchy buzzwords — trendy terms can act as intellectual shortcuts that fool people into thinking they understand what they really don’t.

Yes, everyone knows change is coming. And everyone can see it happenMarket researcher, strategist and speaker Owen Shapiro is the author of Brand Shift: The Future of Brands & Marketing.

Publisher Mitchell Young

Editor Michael C. Bingham

After the branch consolidation, First Niagara will have more than 390 branches across Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

In 2010 First Niagara acquired New Haven-based NewAlliance Bancshares — controversial successor to mutual New Haven Savings Bank — for $1.5 billion in cash and stock, catapulting First Niagara in the ranks of the nation’s top 25 banks.

Mary W. Beard

BNH

Looking ahead, there are several horizon-level revolutions that everyone in marketing should be aware of, because they are about to be felt with a force that is difficult to overstate.

Revolution No. 1: The End of the Information Age Many people think we are still in the Information Age, but the truth is that we are leaving the Information Age behind and entering a new stage of human development fueled by global interconnectedness and rapidly improving technologies of all kinds. The exponential growth and convergence of

Revolution No. 2: Shift From Institutional to Individual

One of the biggest power shifts of the 20th century was the shift from institutional power to individual power, and that isn’t going to stop. The Internet empowered individuals to communicate with anyone in the world, and now populations armed with nothing but cell phones are bringing down entire governments.

Furthermore, institutions in all areas of life — education, health care, religion, media, business — are being forced to change simply because people now have more ability than ever to organize, mobilize, innovate, disrupt and demand. Brands, too, have gone from being purely

For businesses, continuing empowerment of individual customers means that the dynamics of the business/ customer relationship are evolving. Customers will continue to demand more transparency, integrity and responsiveness from those they choose to do business with — and companies will have little choice but to comply. Smart businesses will initiate the inevitable rather than wait to be pushed.

Revolution No. 3: Artificial Intelligence Becomes Less…Artificial Creativity and imagination are often thought of as the one realm that computers can never conquer, because the inner workings of the mind are what make humans unique. But it is already possible to control a computer with our thoughts alone, and commercials for IBM’s Watson computer are now touting its ability to nerate new ideas — helping chefs develop original new recipes, for instance — using data to spark creative inspiration.

Continued on page 27

Vol XX, No. 10 OCTOBER 2014

Art Director

So far First Niagara has been a good corporate citizen to New Haven and Connecticut. But now it is force to bow to the reality that fewer customers care to drive to a bricks-and-mortar bank branch when the same services are available to them at the touch of a finger.

4

By Owen Shapiro

institutional inventions to personal expressions of almost any kind.

Terry Wells

Advertising Manager Senior Publisher’s Representative Roberta Harris

Publisher’s Representative Gina Gazvoda Robin Ungaro

Contributors

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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TELECOM

State To Benefit from AT&T Settlement

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Green Is the New Black

State To Benefit from AT&T Settlement

Connecticut will receive just more than $268,200 as part of a broader $105 million global settlement reached with telecommunications giant AT&T Mobility, LLC. The settlement, announced earlier this month by state Attorney General George Jepsen and state Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner William Rubenstein, resolves claims that AT&T Mobility engaged in “data cramming,” or tacking charges onto customers’ bills without their permission or knowledge.

Connecticut, the 49 other states and the District of Columbia are all part of the settlement with AT&T Mobility. In all, the company agreed to pay $105 million to pay participating states as well as provide refunds to affected customers, state officials said.

The states, along with the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communication Commission, claim that AT&T billed

based restitution program the FTC will administer, and will pay $5 million to the U.S. Treasury on behalf of the Federal Communications Commission.

Under the agreement, AT&T will notify all affected consumers who were charged for premium text-message subscriptions to let them know how they can seek refunds. consumers for premium text-message subscription services when they had not signed up for or agreed to them. The charges typically were $9.99 a month, according to Jepsen’s office, and often were for services provided by a third party, such as daily horoscopes, trivia and sports updates.

The $105 million settlement includes $20 million in payments to the states, of which Connecticut is getting $268,252.

The company also agreed to make an $80 million payment to the Federal Trade Commission to fund a claims-

Consumers who think they have been billed incorrectly because of data cramming can submit claims online at ftc.gov/ att. The claims process will be open until May 1, 2015, Jepsen said.

As part of the settlement, AT&T is required to bill for third-party charges only if the charges have been authorized by customers, as well as to improve the way such charges are shown on customer’s cell phone bills.

– Cara Rosner

STAMFORD — The Women’s Business Development Center will host its 13th annua; statewide business breakfast November 13 at the Stamford Plaza Hotel & Conference Center.

The theme of the event is “Women with Impact: Entrepreneurship Is the New Women’s Movement.” The session will be moderated by Paula Zahn, host Investigation Discovery’s On the Case with Paula Zahn and former ABC News, CBS News and CNN anchor.

Panelists include Carla Harris, chair of the National Women’s Business Council and managing director at Morgan Stanley; Amy Millman, founder and CEO of Springboard Enterprises; and Rose Wang, founder and CEO of the Binary Group and one of Fortune’s 2013 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs.

The event begins at 7:30 a.m., with networking to follow the program.

Tickets are $150 and advance registration is a must. To learn more visit ctwdbc.org.

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NON-PROFITS

MANUFACTURING

Official Good Deed-Doers

Sargent Makes It a Cool 150 in City

There is a new way to do businesses in Connecticut.

NEW HAVEN — Sargent Manufacturing Co. and its Swedish parent, Assa Abloy, are marking a milestone this month.

Sargent has been manufacturing locks and accessory hardware in the United States since the early 19 th century, settling in New Haven in 1864. The year 2014 marks the sesquicentennial of one of New Haven best-known and respected brands.

The company had scheduled a breakfast and factory tour for lawmakers and other elected officials October 20 at Sargent’s 110 Sargent Drive headquarters, featuring remarks by Sargent and Assa Abloy executives.

Assa Abloy stakes a claim to being the largest global supplier of intelligent lock and security solutions. It holds a dominant position in areas such as access control, identification technology, entrance automation and hotel security. The Assa Abloy Americas Division Management and Headquarters are located at the Sargent manufacturing facility in New Haven. The division’s sales contribute $1.5 billion of the company’s $7.4 billion annual sales. Its footprint extends far beyond the Elm City: Assa Abloy employs more than 1,000 Connecticut residents and has 42,000 employees worldwide.

ing the flow of capital to other benefit corporations.

As of October 1, state law allows companies to elect to be classified as a “benefit” corporation, meaning they voluntarily strive to meet higher standards of accountability and transparency and provide a “public benefit.”

An existing company that is not currently a benefit corporation can become one by amending its certificate of incorporation.

All benefit corporations are required by law to publicly publish an annual report that assesses their overall social and environmental performance against a third-party standard. Among other things, the annual report must include a narrative description of how the company pursued a general public benefit as well as an obstacles that arose during that process.

More than 20 states now allow companies to incorporate as benefit corporations. Connecticut became one of those states when it passed legislation in the General Assembly’s February session; the bill became law October 1.

The designation signifies that companies strive to create a general public benefit, which the legislation defi nes as “a material positive impact on society and the environment.” The benefit must be assessed by a third party. There is no material incentive such as tax breaks to achieving the designation, but has obvious PR value.

According to the bill, companies can create a general public benefit in one or more of the following ways: providing low-income or underserved communities with beneficial products or services; pro-

moting economic opportunity for people “beyond the creation of jobs in the normal course of business”; protecting or restoring the environment, improving human health; promoting the arts, sciences or advancement of knowledge; or increas-

The bill that led to the state law was introduced by State Sens. Donald Williams Jr. (D-29) of Brooklyn and Majority Leader Martin Looney (D-11) of New Haven and State Reps. Brendan Sharkey (D-88) of Hamden and Joe Aresimowicz (D-30) of Berlin.

— Cara Rosner

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LEGAL

Wiggin Launches Philanthropy Practice Group Firm positioned as ‘one-stop shop’ for charities and individual givers NEW HAVEN — The law fi rm of Wiggin and Dana has announced the formation of a new Philanthropy Practice Group comprising a team of lawyers from several of the fi rm’s practice areas. The team will be led by Wiggin partner Karen Clute.

“The laws and regulations are continuously changing, complicating charitable giving,” explains Bob Benjamin, who chairs Wiggin and Dana’s executive committee. “This practice group brings together attorneys with an intimate knowledge of tax, fiduciary and compliance issues governing charitable organizations. Their ability to analyze an issue from both the individual donor and charitable organization’s perspective makes this practice a tremendous asset for those trying to navigate the complexities of charitable giving. The group also benefits from being able to draw on the experience and insights of several of our litigators who have represented charitable organizations and trustees in complex fiduciary matters.”

“Our goal with the formation of this practice group is to be a one-stop resource for individual donors, public charities and private foundations,” explains attorney Clute. “As donors look for opportunities to increase their charitable giving, they often confront challenges in crafting solutions to best realize their charitable goals and intentions. We can help them structure and implement their plans in tax-efficient ways.”

Wiggin and Dana’s Philanthropy Practice Group brings together estate planning attorneys famliar with the intricacies of the tax laws relating to charitable giving with colleagues who regularly counsel operating charities, private foundations and other tax-exempt organizations. Members of the practice group routinely assist those who are interested in establishing charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts or private foundations in navigating the labyrinth of income and estate tax charitable deduction issues, as well as tax exemption and compliance issues. Attorneys in this practice group also advise trustees and foundation managers on gift acceptance

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policies, the interpretation of gift restrictions and on compliance and operational issues.

The Philanthropy Practice Group will Clute operate in conjunction with Wiggin and Dana’s Tax Exempt Organizations Practice Group, which focuses on the unique needs of operating charities, and the fi rm’s Education and Tax Exempt Health Care Organizations Practice Groups, which represent numerous schools, colleges and universities and dozens of hospitals and other tax-exempt health-care organizations.

REAL ESTATE

Q3 Shows Uptick in Residential Market

The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties third-quarter market report was released earlier this month. Some highlights of the report include: • Connecticut’s rental market remained strong with signed leases are up 4.6 percent year over year.

• There was a nine-percent increase in the number of sales over $5 million in the third quarter when compared to the third quarter of 2013.

• The inventory of homes priced over $5 million increased now making up 17.2 percent of current active listings in the luxury market.

• Contracts signed — the leading indicator of real estate activity — increased in the condominium market year over year by 4.2 percent.

• New housing permit data provided by the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), shows a 17.4-percent increase year over year for single and multi-unit residential housing through August.

• There were 8,461 closed sales for single-family homes during the third quarter, up 10.7 percent from the previous quarter. The entire report may be found at bhhsneproperties.com.

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BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES GREEN STUDIES

Conn Team Earns Funding for Flame Retardant STORRS — A student team from Connecticut is among five teams in New England chosen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to receive up to $15,000 to pursue projects that deliver sustainable, alternative methods of addressing environmental challenges.

The University of Connecticut/Storrs won the funding for a project that will develop a cost effective and environmentally friendly flame retardant.

The “Environmentally Friendly Flame Retardants Based on Inorganic Nanosheets” project will make a flame retardant that will have similar or higher flame retardancy performance; minimum release of toxic gases during combustion; no leak of toxic chemicals during production, transportation, and usage; and, similar or lower cost when compared to conventional flame retardants.

“Projects and designs created by student teams each year surpass our expectations,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator for EPA’s New England office.

Also from New England, college teams at Bridgewater State University, University of Massachusetts/Lowell and Worcester (Mass.) Polytechnic Institute as well as Norwich College in Vermont were among 42 college teams nationwide selected for EPA’s annual Prosperity and the Planet (P3) student design competition.

Past P3 teams have used their winning ideas to form small businesses and non-profit organizations. An intercollegiate team made up of students from Harvard, MIT and two Chinese universities launched the nonprofit organization One Earth Design, based on their winning project: a solar-powered device that cooks, provides heat and generates electricity.

Since 2004, the P3 Program has provided funding to student teams in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, committing over $10 million to cutting-edge, sustainable projects designed by university students. Projects from this year’s teams include sustainable alternatives to address the reduction of traffic congestion in Cincinnati, extending the growing season for farmers by heating greenhouses with biomass and environmentally friendly flame retardants.

Funding for the P3 projects is divided into two phases. In the first phase, student teams submit a proposal for a project, and if they are selected, they compete with other Phase I winners at the National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, D.C. At the Expo, teams compete for Phase II funding of up to $75,000. This year marks the 11th year for the EPA P3 Program.

8

Bankwell Completes Quinnipiac Acquisition Founder Candido stays on as New Haven region head NEW CANA AN — Bankwell Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: BWFG) parent company of Bankwell Bank has completed the merger of Quinnipiac Bank & Trust Co. with and into Bankwell, effective October 1.

Blake S. Drexler will remain as executive chairman of Bankwell, and the rest of the Bankwell executive team will remain in place. Quinnipiac’s president and CEO, Mark A. Candido, will serve as president of Bankwell’s New Haven County region and as senior vice President of Bankwell.

Quinnipiac’s executive vice president and chief lending officer, Richard R. Barredo, will serve as first vice president of Bankwell. Raymond W. Palumbo, former vice chairman of Quinnipiac’s Board of Directors, has been named to the boards of directors of BWFG and Bankwell.

BWFG and Quinnipiac entered into an agreement and plan of merger on March 31 for the merger of Quinnipiac with and into Bankwell (“Merger Agreement”). As part of that agreement, shareholders of Quinnipiac were able to elect to receive either $12 in cash, or 0.56 shares of

BWFG common stock for each share of Quinnipiac common stock.

“This is a unique and exciting opportunity to combine two well-respected community banks that share a strong commitment to our local communities,” said Drexler, executive chairman of BWFG and Bankwell. “The merger gives Bankwell a meaningful presence in New Haven County, and we look forward to continuing to provide former Quinnipiac Bank & Trust customers with the type of full-service relationship banking experience they have come to expect.”

“Bankwell will provide the resources needed to provide customers with a great banking experience,” added Candido. “Along with the high level of personal service they currently enjoy, our customers will benefit from the expanded range of products and services that Bankwell has to offer.”

Sandler O’Neill + Partners, LP served as the lead financial advisor to BWFG and rendered a fairness opinion in connection with the transaction. Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, LLP acted as BWFG’s legal counsel. Sterne Agee & Leach Inc.

Quinnipiac Bank’s CEO Mark Candido s tays as Bankwell’s New Haven region president

served as the exclusive financial advisor to Quinnipiac and rendered a fairness opinion in connection with the transaction. Luse, Gorman Pomerenk & Schick, PC acted as Quinnipiac’s legal counsel.

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9

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Picture This: EverPresent Expands to CT

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Mall-based portrait services now in Trumbull, Westfarms Newton, Mass.-based start-up EverPresent, which helps families digitize and share media collections, continues its growth and expansion this fall with new local business partnerships, additional hiring and increased investment. The company’s services are now available in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

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The two-year-old company recently closed its second round of angel investment, bringing its total current investment to $1.2 million. Prominent investors include former Facebook executive Chris Kelly, former Reebok CEO Frank O’Connell and Bessemer Venture Capital partner Chris Gabrieli. It also recently hired its 50 th employee, after expanding to a new production facility in Watertown, Mass., earlier this summer.

This month EverPresent announces three new alliances:

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• Portrait Simple — With seven locations across New England, the mall-based portrait will now provide convenient consultation and drop-off locations for EverPresent services. In Connecticut, the service will be available at Portrait Simple in Westfield Trumbull Park Mall as well as Westfarms Mall in Farmington.

• Geek Housecalls — This in-home personal and home technology support company,will offer EverPresent clients free 30-minute support calls when they fi nish a digitizing project, along with inhome pick-up of old photos and videos for

EverPresent projects. Founded in 2001, Geek Housecalls has served more than 20,000 families, helping relieve frustration caused by technology.

• The New England Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO-NE) is collaborating with EverPresent on a fourhour training program, focused on organizing and preserving family history; more than 40 members have already received training at EverPresent’s Newton, Mass., headquarters.

The partnerships expand EverPresent’s in-person services from its home base in Massachusetts to Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire, via the Portrait Simple locations. In addition, 60 new employees are now trained to educate clients on the company’s services and products through Geek Housecalls and NAPO-NE. “The digital age has created amazing advertising opportunities, but I think we too often forget the power of small businesses working together to bring old-fashioned customer service directly to clients,” EverPresent CEO Eric Niloff said. “When preserving irreplaceable photos and videos, families want local, trust, convenience and customization.

By bringing together trusted, respected local companies, we’re going to make a lot of families really happy.”

\end of fi le\

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10

TeCH Continued from page 1

In addition, given the opportunity, fi nalist CEOs said would ask Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to reduce the corporate tax burden and to provide more direct incentives to technology companies.

“This year’s survey fi ndings underscore the great success Connecticut’s technology sector is experiencing and the challenges facing the state’s fastest growing tech companies,” said Bruce Carlson, CTC’s President & CEO (see related story, page 3).

Now in its seventh year, the Marcum Tech Top 40 recognizes technology leaders with at least $3 million in annual revenue and a four-year record of growth, in six industry sectors. Both privately held and publicly traded companies are eligible.

At the 2014 event on October 2, Norwalk -based Datto Inc. took top honors as the overall winner for the second consecutive year, with revenue growth of 1,436 percent since 2010, It also won in the IT Services category. Other category winners included: • Revolution Lighting Technologies Inc., Stamford (Advanced Manufacturing) • FuelCell Energy, Inc., Danbury (Energy/Environmental Technologies) • Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Cheshire (Life Sciences) • iSend, LLC, Middlebury (New Media/ Internet/Telecom) • Square 9 Softworks, New Haven (Software) For more information, visit ct.org.

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Houston, We Don’t Have a Problem at All WINDSOR LOCKS — United Airlines has debuted nonstop service from Bradley International Airport (BDL) to HoustonGeorge Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). The Houston flights are operated by Mesa Airlines using Embraer 175 aircraft with 76 seats: 12 in United First and 64 in United Economy, including 16 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats. Service commenced with the first flight from Houston to Bradley at 3:40 p.m. on October 5. The service launch comes on the heels of 12 straight months of year-over-year passenger growth at Bradley. Between January and August, Bradley experienced more than 11 percent passenger growth compared to the same timeframe in 2013, according to the Connecticut Airport Authority.

Lower Workers Comp Rates?

Many Connecticut employers could end up paying lower workers compensation insurance premiums in 2015.

According to the Connecticut Business & Industry Association (CBIA) pending approval of the state’s Department of Insurance, rates for policies purchased in the normal, or voluntary, market will decline by 0.6 percent overall; rates for risk policies will drop by 0.5 percent.

The rate changes are proposed by the National Council on Compensation Insurance Inc. (NCCI), which analyzes and recommends workers’ compensation rates for insurers in more than 40 states.

According to NCCI, primary drivers of the proposed changes include a continuing downward trend in claims frequency; passage during the 2014 General Assembly session of SB 61, a bill to control rising workers compensation costs by imposing a Medicare-based fee schedule for determining rates for workers’-compensation-related services at hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers If approved, rates will take effect for policies as they are purchased or renewed on or after January 1, 2015.

Study: WellPoint Leads the Pack A recent survey of market power in the health insurance industry reveals that WellPoint Inc. has a bigger geographic footprint than any other private health insurer in the nation. According to a new American Medical Association (AMA) study, WellPoint was the largest health insurer by market share in 82 of 388 metropolitan areas examined by the newest annual study of health insurer competition by the AMA. According to the AMA’s newly released “Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets,” WellPoint’s commanding position stretches

OCTOBER 2014

across metropolitan markets in 13 states, including Connecticut.

WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group are the largest health insurance companies in Connecticut. Together these companies controlled 59 percent of the state’s commercial health insurance market in 2012.

Heroes disguised in business suits!

Burt Expands in Hamden HAMDEN — On September 16, Burt Process Equipment held an open house and ribbon-cutting ceremony at their newly expanded, 45,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 100 Overlook Drive. The company designs, manufactures and distributes high purity and corrosion-resistant equipment, systems and services for industries including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, microelectronics, metal finishing and chemical processing.

The town of Hamden facilitated the expansion of Burt Processing by offering business incentives including a multi-year tax abatement, a grant, and a waiver of building permit fees. Additionally, the state’s Department of Economic & Community Development provided financial incentives under its Urban Jobs program.

OSHA Cites Roofing Contractor BRIDGEPORT — A New Haven roofing contractor’s employees were exposed to potentially fatal falls at a Bridgeport work site due to their employer’s failure to supply required fall protection.

The Bridgeport area office of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety & Health Administration found employees of Xtreme Restoration & Waterproofing, LLC working without fall protection atop a two-story roof at a residential work site at 1040-1044 Stratford Avenue on June 16.

“Some workers lacked any fall protection, while others had safety harnesses that were not tied off to an independent anchorage point. This meant there was nothing to stop these workers from falling and suffering a deadly or disabling injury,” said Robert Kowalski, OSHA’s area director in Bridgeport. “These hazards were intensified by allowing workers to use a ladder with broken and damaged rungs to access the roof and by failing to train employees to recognize and protect themselves against these hazards.”

OSHA cited Xtreme Restoration & Waterproofing for a willful violation for lack of fall protection. The company received a repeat violation for lack of fall protection training, which OSHA had cited the company for in 2011 at a Branford job site.

Two serious violations were cited for using a ladder with damaged and broken rungs to access the roof and for not training employees on ladder hazards and safeguards. The company faces $70,070 in fines for these violations.

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11

What It Takes Nine area business leaders share their personal recipes for success

By John Mordecai

S

uccess. We all know it when we see it, feel it, smell it. But how it’s measured is in the eye of the beholder. Opinion are likewise diverse regarding what are the key ingredients for a business to succeed.

In surveying a sample of area businesspeople, answers to the question about what makes an enterprise successful are varied as one might imagine. But once you take obvious elements such as hard work or simply creating something of value out of the equation, it’s the people entrepreneurs work with who ultimately make the difference. ***

Lex Products’ Luther: ‘If it’s the same as what’s already out there, we won’t bother.’

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Bob Luther is CEO of Milford-based Lex Products, which this year marks its 25th anniversary as a manufacturer of power distribution and control systems, cables and assemblies for the entertainment, industrial and military industries, enduring through several economic downturns. Luther’s key components of success:

*** Roger Sciascia, managing partner at Weinstein & Anastasio accountants in Hamden, says his firm

1) Wow your customers. “Anybody servicing clients needs to impress them. We want to make their experience with our company something that makes them say, ‘Wow — that’s what I wanted.’”

2) Provide something superior to what already exists. “We never just start out with, ‘Here’s what the other guys do.’ If it’s the same as what’s already out there, we won’t bother.”

3) The price must be right. “Don’t forget about the margin; you have to make money on what you’re doing,” Luther says. “You might try to give someone a low price to get an order, but in a little while you realize you’re not making any money.”

SeeClickFix’s Lasater preaches short-term pessimism, long-term optimism.

audacity to think it is possible — that no matter how bleak it is right now you will pull through. But at the same time always looking to avoid or mitigate the short-term threat to the vision and goal.”

2) Stamina. “My uncle always said the No. 1 rule of business is to stay in business. The longer you stay in business, the greater the chance that something wonderful can happen. However long you think it’s going to take, double it — then add 50 percent.”

3) No one is an island. “It takes an enormous number of people to accomplish anything big,” Lasater says. “We sell ourselves this story that it’s the entrepreneur or the small businessperson that

*** Lou Goldberg has been president of Goodcopy Printing & Digital Graphics since 1978. The guiding principles behind running his business for the past 36 years are: reliability, good customer service and keeping up on changes in the industry so not to fall behind.

1) Short-term pessimism, long-term optimism. “You are going to be creating something other people might tell you is impossible,” he says. “Have the OCTOBER 2014

“You have to have a great team because we’re not all as smart as we think we are, but when you put smart people and hard workers together you can get a lot more done than you would on your own,” Sciascia says. “You have to devote a lot to your vision and work hard together to be successful in the long run.”

“Some students at Southern are the first in their families to go to college, so there might not be anyone at home to tell them how to do a handshake,” Durnin says.

“Follow through with what you promise; in any marketplace that’s crucial,” advises Goldberg. “No one is more important than the other. If you don’t have the right equipment or technology you can’t perform a reliable service for the customer.”

Kam Lasater is co-founder of SeeClickFix, one of New Haven’s best-known recent tech success stories. His watchwords:

lives by these principles: develop a common vision that everyone can work toward, teamwork and, of course, hard work.

As dean of Southern Connecticut State University’s School of Business, Ellen Durnin helps prepare the business professionals of tomorrow for the real world. With a solid education already assumed, she says it’s important the students understand how to communicate effectively, how to remain resilient in the face of change, and to embrace what she calls the “soft skills” — social behaviors, how to dress, managing conflict and teamwork. These are skills students don’t necessarily learn in an academic setting, but for which SCSU often holds outside instructional events (there are even business etiquette dinners, which are required for seniors), based on feedback often heard from employers.

‘Follow through with what you promise,’ says Goodcopy’s Goldberg

***

‘The most important skill is the ability to bounce back and adapt to changes,’ says SCSU’s Durnin.

Resilience might be the most important component, though.

‘When you put smart people and hard workers together you can get a lot more done than you would on your own,’ observes Weinstein & Anastasio partner Sciascia.

does everything. You can help set a cultural tone or direction, but it’s everyone you bring to your side that makes it happen.”

“The most important skill of all is the ability to bounce back and adapt to changes, new environments and new people,” she adds. “Those who are successful can regroup and come back, sometimes different or better than before, and be responsive rather than just laying in a heap and saying, ‘I’m done.’” *** 13

Chuck Mascola, president of New Haven advertising agency Mascola Group says the ability to think outside oneself and focus on the people around you is what sets it on a higher course.

organization should have the flexibility to adjust to what’s going on in the world today and learn about different funding sources. We’re dual-branded [Easter Seals and Goodwill Industries], so it gives us the flexibility to adjust. Maybe I don’t need to ask someone to write a check [to Easter Seals], but they can give donations” to Goodwill.

“To me success is about being a good person and running an ethical operation, as opposed to trying to build the biggest corporation and making the most money,” he notes. Specifically:

3) “To help fulfill your mission you need qualified and talented people to deliver and support the mission.”

1) “You have to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. I don’t pretend that I’m the brains of the operation, and have built a business based on the fact that there are people smarter than me.”

*** In 2010 Slate Ballard co-founded The Grove, a “co-working” space that opened with a handful of members in a small storefront on Orange Street before twice expanding to its current 5,000-squarefoot space on Chapel Street to accommodate the 150-and-growing membership it boasts now, especially as a state government-designated “hub” to spur growth of innovative companies.

2) “Treat those people well so it inspires loyalty,” says Mascola. “In my business if you don’t do that you might achieve short-term success, but not long-term.”

3) “Bring that ethical treatment into your business relationships.”

Ballard cites brand, culture and community as three vital components to the Grove’s success.

‘Don’t hire bodies,’ says Digital Surgeons’ Salinas. ‘Hire brains.’

people who believe in the culture you’re bringing. I would also say: hire slow, fire fast.”

3) “There’s a difference between being fearless and reckless, and being fearless and calculated,” he says.

“Everything is evolving rapidly so you have to try to look for inspiration, look outside your business or at your competitors to make accurate decisions.”

“We were trying to create a community and culture in New Haven that hadn’t existed before, so it was important that we created a strong enough brand that influenced the culture and the community we were trying to build,” Ballard says. “We had members that would join and grab hold of our brand and identify themselves with it and the values and culture we wanted to create, and then they would create new members. We have people who call themselves ‘Grovers’ now; they’re all about it. To have that is key to success.”

*** Those who lead non-profit enterprises offer a different angle on what is needed to achieve goals.

Richard Borer, president of Easter Seals Goodwill Industries in New Haven (and West Haven mayor from 1991 to 2005), says a clear vision, strong leadership and good people are what make it happen.

‘To me success is about being a good person and running an ethical operation,’ says Mascola of his eponymous firm.

1 “A clear mission and purpose is the foundation of what a non-profit is all about, and everything they do should be clearly aligned with the advancement of the mission,” Borer asserts.

2) “Strong governance and financial planning is crucial; that’s where most people blow it. A non-profit

*** CEO and co-founder of New Haven marketing agency Digital Surgeons, David Salinas says entrepreneurial energy, the quality of your workforce and a hefty measure of fearlessness are all important.

1) “The energy you have going into a business and throughout is key. When things go bad, there are two kinds types of people: those who can think positive, turn things around and come out of a funk, and people who get tripped up and have more bad things happen like a snowball effect. You can will things in any direction, positively or negatively.”

The Grove’s Ballard: ‘We were trying to create a community and culture in New Haven that hadn’t existed before.’

2) “Get the best people,” says Salinas. “Don’t hire bodies; hire brains. Even more important is getting

Says Easter Seals’ Borer: ‘A clear mission and purpose is the foundation of what a non-profit is all about.’

14

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15

BUSINESS FINANCE & BANKING REVIEW

Banking On Change till feeling the after-effects of the meltdown, area financial institutions seek to navigate a new economic landscape

By Mitchell Young

T

he economy may seem as though it’s still stuck in neutral, but the leading economic indicators of employment, prices, etc. have been slowly improving. New Haven streets are abuzz. The improving Elm City economy leads Connecticut — but for many on the streets, that success hasn’t trickled down yet. As a business the success of any bank or other financial institution is linked first and foremost to the economy. That means that times remain tough for Connecticut’s banks, navigating the slow-growing state and region-wide economies.

Let’s take a look at some of the more overt changes in the region’s banking industry in the last 18 months or so.

The nation’s third largest bank, Citibank proved it wasn’t too big to fail — in New Haven, at least — when it abandoned its branch at Church and Chapel streets, leaving only a bunch of ATMs in the state (and two years left on its lease).

On the other end of the scale, Start Bank proved it could start to punch above its weight, hiring former mayor John DeStefano as its executive vice president and community-banking veteran Maureen Frank its new CEO, replacing William Placke. Former Centerbank CEO Placke came out of retirement to guide the bank through what would be a drawn-out licensing process.

But perhaps the most intriguing financial indicator is how, six years after the onset of the big bank-led economic collapse, New Haven’s banking market is more competitive than at any time in recent memory.

New to greater New Haven bank entrants with combined assets of nearly $10 billion includes Bankwell (which recently purchased Hamden-based Quinnipiac Bank), United Bank (newly merged with Rockville Bank), Farmington Savings Bank and Liberty Bank, which purchased the Bank of Southern Connecticut in June 2013.

We even find Capital One with one New Haven County branch showing up at trade shows (not just in our wallets).

Even one of Connecticut’s smallest banks (by assets), New Haven’s Start Bank, has shown it can grow and is working to carve out a niche as a small-business bank as well.

For many New England communities, those banks alone would make for a competitive landscape, but added to the New Haven County mix are powerful national banks like Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo and TD Bank.

And then there are the regionals: Webster, People’s United, First Niagara, and a host of community banks like Guilford Savings Bank, Ion Bank, Milford Bank and Essex Savings Bank.

Bank of America remains Connecticut’s largest bank by deposits, accounting for approximately 25 percent of all deposits statewide. Connecticut’s two homegrown regional banks, Waterbury’s Webster Bank and Bridgeport-based People’s United, are no slouches however, with nearly 12 percent of all statewide deposits each. People’s United, which was an early innovator in placing branches in supermarkets, still has the most branches in the state, with some 165.

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Start Bank was created as a result of funding set aside for a community bank in the wake of the conversion of the mutual New Haven Savings Bank to the publicly traded New Alliance in 2004.

Then-Mayor DeStefano was the leading proponent for the creation and funding of a new New Haven community bank, and few were surprised that the longtime chief executive landed there after his 20-year stint at City Hall ended a year ago.

Start has seen its assets grow more than 20 percent from $58 million to $73 million in the fi rst nine months of 2014. Over the same period it also closed its original Fair Haven branch.

DeStefano says he advocated for the Grand Avenue branch from his position as a founding board member, but it proved to be an unprofitable drain for the bank.

Start has begun an aggressive effort to market itself as a small-business bank. An advertising campaign created by New Haven advertising agency Mascola Group based on the theme “Stop Dreaming, Start Doing” has generated significant buzz.

In line with that entrepreneurial spirit, Start Bank has elected one of New Haven County’s most successful young entrepreneurs to its board: Kam Lasater, cofounder and COO of New Haven-based social media community incident report site SeeClickFix.

Citizens Goes Public With $100 billion in assets and branches in 16 states along the East Coast, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Citizens Bank is today the eighth-largest bank in the U.S. However, the 2008 fi nancial collapse placed a significant strain on RBS, and many banking industry insiders believe this has left Citizens in limbo.

The Royal Bank of Scotland was bailed out by the UK government, which still owns 80 percent of RBS. Citizens, how-

recently became an independent publicly traded bank on the NYSE (ticker symbol CFG), raising $3 billion in assets and an IPO at $21.50 per share in late September.

The $3 billon windfall, however, is not for use by the bank but to help pay back the UK government.

RBS still owns more than 70 percent of the stock of Citizens.

The Street.com called the IPO “tepid” and suggested that banks generally wouldn’t see much if they chose to sell stock as well. Wall Street views the new banking regulations, continued weak

Reserve-induced low-rate environment as a drag on bank profits.

Citizens now has 16 branches in greater New Haven, several others along the shoreline north to Providence, R.I., where its U.S. headquarters are based.

Whether this newfound semi-independence will bring Citizens back to its once very aggressive marketing and acquisition posture remains to be seen.

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• It means the development of a strong CT connection to a major business and energy hub.

• It also means 26 nonstop flights now happen each day out of BDL.

Liberty Moves South bradleyairport.com Still a mutual, Liberty Bank has moved aggressively into the New Haven market aided in part by its purchase of the Bank of Southern Connecticut in June 2013.

Originally a Middlesex County bank, it now has 49 branches in Connecticut, reaching into Hartford County. Its local footprint ranges from Cheshire and Meriden to New Haven and along the Connecticut shoreline. The bank is well capitalized, as the largest mutual in the state with $3.5 billion in assets, and total risk-based capital of more than 19 percent, as much as double some of its larger competitors.

ever, has begun to shed its chains and

economy, competition and the Federal

The mutual history and strong capital base has driven much of Liberty’s sales effort in the residential and commercial real estate markets. In a BNH interview last year, CEO Chandler Howard said real estate lending would remain one of Liberty’s cornerstone sources of income.

Recently Liberty’s marketing has spotlighted large real estate loans both in and outside of Connecticut, but the bank has begun to focus on broadening its portfolio with more small-business marketing as well.

OCTOBER 2014

17

First Niagara: Will Changes at Top Bolster Bottom Line?

In late December 2013 the First Niagara board appointed Gary Cosby as the bank’s CEO. Cosby had initially replaced CEO John Koelmel in early 2013.

Koelmel’s and the Buffalo, N.Y.-based bank’s strategy fell victim to the continuing effects of the financial meltdown, the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policy and a weak economy.

And then there was Koelmel’s acquisition strategy.

After acquiring New Haven’s NewAlliance Bank in 2010, Koelmel met with BNH and outlined a strategy to acquire banks within the BuffaloPhiladelphia-Boston triangle. Koelmel wanted to trade slow-growing (though consistently profitable) markets in upstate New York, where the bank had

established a dominant presence, for faster growing markets.

lio quality undermined potential acquisitions moving forward.

His currency was strong growth, good capital and what was viewed as a management that was growing even as other banks were really struggling.

Federal Reserve policy may have helped the huge money-center banks, but they weren’t a good friend to First Niagara or banks like it.

Koelmel believed bank directors and potential acquisition targets “will prefer our stock to their own.” That was essentially true in the NewAlliance deal.

One 60-plus-year-old FNB director told us, the Fed was overseeing the “biggest transfer of wealth in his lifetime,” as the strongest borrowers were getting low rates, but depositors were getting nothing on their money.

Even as the financial crisis was coming into full force, First Niagara was reaching a market value peak in 2008 and when it merged with NewAlliance in 2010 its stock was still very strong.

Regulators, however, had ceased being keen to acquisitions that weren’t “necessary,” and most banks and their boards of directors had become overwhelmed by the new regulatory burdens imposed in the wake of the meltdown.

First Niagara found there was no more low-lying fruit and concerns about portfo-

With $39 billion in assets and more than 400 branches and strong franchises in several major markets, First Niagara is a pretty big dog.

It’s a loan portfolio that had many longterm investments paying above the market rates engineered by the Fed. The board replaced Koelmel in early 2013 after First Niagara’s stock hit a tenyear low.

The stock market has reacted negatively to some balance-sheet reshuffling, but

overall First Niagara appears to be moving slowly back into the driver’s seat with CEO Cosby seeing high single-digit increases in loan volumes and deposits and continued operating profit growth.

In Connecticut First Niagara has rolled out an aggressive marketing campaign geared to small business and deposit growth, reflecting a bank that seems confident again. One local First Niagara loan officer told us he was at 400 percent of goal. Not bad.

New Haven’s Newest Banking Player In September 2013 the Bank of New Canaan, Bank of Fairfield and Stamford First Bank, already financially under the umbrella of the Bankwell Financial Group, a holding company based in New

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Canaan, changed its identity and became known collectively as Bankwell.

The move was engineered by the marketing savvy of then-Bankwell CEO Peyton Patterson, former CEO of New Haven’s NewAlliance Bank, acquired by First Niagara in 2010.

Patterson wanted to convert the individual community banks into a unified “community banking franchise” leveraging the community bank market strength and an eventual IPO as a foundation for more acquisitions.

Patterson had previously overseen the conversion of the New Haven Savings Bank from a mutual bank, which included a merger with Manchester Bank and a successful IPO, to create a combined publicly traded entity as NewAlliance Bank.

The move was highly controversial in the New Haven community and Patterson had many detractors. Many others, however, benefited from the NewAlliance Foundation, the charitable non-profit formed as a condition of the conversion.

With the growth of the bank and the largess of the foundation, Patterson was redeemed in the eyes of some in the New Haven community.

Growth was hard to come by after the financial crisis, however, and by 2010 the bank’s board decided that a sale to the faster-growing First Niagara would be a better long-term option for shareholders.

Patterson reportedly walked away with $23 million as part of that sale and became Bankwell’s CEO in 2012, quickly acquiring Wilton Bank after that. In May the Bankwell Financial Group went public, raising $48.6 million in an initial public offering last spring.

Patterson continued to move quickly, returning to the New Haven market by purchasing the Quinnipiac Bank.

Quinnipiac was founded in 2008 and had approximately $100 million in assets when the deal was approved in September. Bankwell paid approximately $15 million for the bank, which has locations in Hamden and North Haven.

Patterson, however, will not be part of moving her vision forward. Media reports of Paterson having unpaid debts to some personal creditors including two country clubs and a six-figure credit card balance which she attributed to a “private family matter” led to her resignation in early August.

Gail Brathwaite, former executive vice president and COO of NewAlliance, was recruited by Paterson in April 2013 to perform the same roles at Bankwell. She remains in those positions. Brathwaite was reportedly a key executive in the transformation of both banks to publiccompany status.

Board chair Blake Drexler has assumed the interim role of CEO while the bank seeks a replacement for Patterson OCTOBER 2014

Mark Candido, founder and CEO of Quinnipiac Bank, was tapped to stay on as senior vice president and president of the New Haven region for Bankwell.

Ray Palumbo, CEO at Underwater Construction Corp. in Essex and former vice chair of Quinnipiac, was elected to Bankwell’s board. With assets of approximately $900 million, Bankwell is traded on NASDAQ (BWFG) and has a current market value of approximately $130 million.

The Big Dogs The major money-center banks may be making national headlines, but here in Connecticut they appear to be going quietly about their business.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo, with assets of approximately $1.4 trillion each, tower over even a major player like TD Bank, which boasts more than 1,000 branches, including 76 in Connecticut, and $225 billion in assets.

Unlike it big-bank brethren, TD has proven to be the only one very active in the small-business SBA market.

In 2013 it placed $24 million with 138 loans. That was second only to the sleeper Eastern Bank, based in Norwich, which placed 439 SBA loans for $23 million.

Wells Fargo reportedly entered the Northeast reluctantly when it took over then-troubled Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Bank in 2009. Wells Fargo did up the local game in Connecticut and New Haven and in 2014 was named Business New Haven’s Corporate Citizen of the Year, for a host of financial and personal staff commitments throughout the greater New Haven community. With 75 branches and only 7.5 percent of deposits the banking giant is still well behind local favorites People’s United and Webster as well as Bank of America.

Another Newbie Arrives Rockville Bank has had a lending office in North Haven for several years as the newly public bank was eyeing an eventual expansion. That expansion followed a merger with Springfield, Mass.-based United Bank, now a $5 billion-asset community bank.

United is building a full banking branch in North Haven on Washington Avenue, taking the space of long-time North Haven favorite Droogie’s Pizza, which relocated.

You can still get some really good pizza at Droogie’s new location: 3500 Whitney Avenue in Hamden.

19

FINANCE & BANKING Survey: Big Banks Bullish on Small Biz Small business loan approval rates at big banks reached a post-recession high for the fourth consecutive month, according to the September 2014 Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index, a monthly analysis of 1,000 loan applications on Biz2Credit.com. Small business loan approval rates at big banks ($10 billion-plus in assets) rose to 20.6 percent in September from 20.4 percent in August.

Meanwhile, the percentage of loans granted by small banks slipped to 50.3 percent from 50.6 percent last month.

In a year-to-year comparison, small business lending approval rates are up nearly 20 percent at big banks, while remaining essentially stagnant at small banks.

New Digs for Benefits Group BRIDGEPORT — Broad Range Benefits Group (BRBG), a full-service insurance and benefits agency, will host an open house and ribbon-cutting party at its new office at 2929 Fairfield Avenue in the Black Rock neighborhood of Bridgeport. The event, scheduled for 5-8 p.m. October 23, will begin with a ribbon-cutting followed by an open tour of the space with wine, beer and hors d’oeuvres catered by local restaurants.

Formerly home to Black Rock’s original bowling alley and pool hall, above the former Tokyo Spa space, BRBG has renovated and restored the space to a bright, high-energy space with historic features.

From refinished original hardwood floors to new high tin ceiling, the property merges the history of this wonderful building with the modern functionality of a working, thriving shared office space.

To learn more phone 203-810-4400 or visit BRBGinsurance.com.

Biz2Credit analyzed loan requests ranging from $25,000 to $3 million from companies in business more than two years with an average credit score above 680.

First Niagara Opens Benefits Exchange

“Big banks really have roared back into the small-business finance marketplace,” said Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora, who oversaw the research. “As the economy continues its slow but steady rebound, small-business optimism grows, and entrepreneurs are more willing to invest in their companies.”

NEW HAVEN — First Niagara Benefits Consulting (FNBC), a division of First Niagara Risk Management Inc., has launched the First Niagara Benefits Exchange, a private health care exchange for Connecticut companies.

Meanwhile, institutional lenders granted 59.5 percent of the funding requests they received in September, a slight increase from 59.4 percent in August. Lending approval rates by these institutional lenders has increased every month since Biz2Credit began monitoring this category of lenders last January.

“We are seeing more creditworthy applicants get funding from institutional investors, whose interest rates are more attractive than those of other non-bank lenders,” explained Arora.

At the same time, approval rates at alternative lenders — merchant cashadvance companies and other non-bank institutions — dipped slightly for the eighth consecutive month to 62.6 percent in September, from 62.7 percent in August.

Credit unions green-lighted 43.4 percent of loan applications in September, flat compared to August. However, a year-to-year comparison shows that lending approval rates at credit unions are down as they continue to be an afterthought by small-business loan applicants.

The entire report is available at biz2credit.com/smallbusiness-lending-index/ september-2014.

20

This private exchange is designed to accommodate a wide range of employer contribution-supported employee benefits programs, and provide options for employers to reduce their overall health-care spending while helping their employees to choose the best health benefits for themselves and their families.

The First Niagara Benefits Exchange technology includes Web-based decision support tools and a professionally staffed call center to assist clients. FNBC’s group has experience in building and administering flexible contribution models and private exchanges to simplify administration and deliver streamlined enrollment.

“Private benefits exchanges have been steadily gaining traction,” explains Tom Henschke, FNBC’s manager of exchange solutions. “The cost implications of recent changes in the employee benefits marketplace, combined with significant advancements in the type of technology used to execute and manage these plans, makes the use of private exchanges both timely and financially sensible for business owners and their employees.”

UnitedHealthcare is one of the first major health benefits companies to participate in the First Niagara Benefits Exchange.

The company offers a variety of traditional, consumer-directed and HSA health care plans, which became available to Connecticut employers as of October 1.

“UnitedHealthcare is working with First Niagara to provide innovative health benefits options to Connecticut employers and help people access quality, cost-effective health care,” said Stephen Farrell, CEO, UnitedHealthcare of New England. “We will continue to develop new plan designs and collaborate with First Niagara to ensure Connecticut employers and their employees have greater choice when looking for health care coverage.”

Webster Moving on Up WATERBURY — The fall Webster Bank continues its process of “optimizing” its banking center network. As part of that process its is moving one of its Bristol banking centers and combining a Longmeadow, Mass. branch with a nearby one.

In December the banking center at 647 Farmington Avenue in Bristol will relocate to 575 Farmington Avenue, where it will be combined with what is now a drive-up only location. The new banking center will be 3,600 square feet and feature Webster’s new “pod” system in lieu of a traditional teller line to provide more open space conducive to more personal interaction: a 24-hour ATM, electronic coin-counting machine and digital video displays.

Additionally, the Longmeadow, Mass. branch will be consolidated into the East Longmeadow Banking Center at 62 Center Square. It offers a drive-up window, driveup ATM and extended hours not available in Longmeadow.

PEOPLE Ion’s Drescher Honored NAUGATUCK — David Drescher, CIC, president and CEO of Ion Insurance, has been cited for professional leadership and advanced knowledge by the Society of Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC), a national insurance professional organization. Drescher was awarded a certificate marking more than 25 years of participation as a designated CIC, which requires annual completion of advanced education and training.

The CIC Program is a nationally recognized continuing-education program for insurance professionals, with programs offered in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Headquartered in Austin, Tex., the non-profit Society of CIC is the founding program of the National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research.

Ion Insurance is a 99-year-old full-service community insurance agency founded in Naugatuck as John M. Sutherland Inc. in 1915.

D’Alessandro Joins Ion NAUGATUCK — Ion Insurance Corp., a full-service independent insurance brokerage affiliated with Ion Bank, has hired Geoffrey D’Alessandro as an account executive for commercial insurance. He will be responsible for managing, servicing, and growing the agency’s business insurance customer base.

D’Alessandro was previously employed at Bearingstar Insurance in Southbury.

He is a past president, vice president and a director of the Southbury Business Association and president, vice president and treasurer of BNI. In 2012, he received the Waterbury Chamber Ambassador of the Year Award.

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10/3/14 12:43 PM

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MANUFACTURING

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TECHNOLOGY

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CII: Buddy, Can REALESTATE You Spare $50M?

Leonardi says CII goes before the Bond Commission about twice a year; she doesn’t know exactly why recent funding requests were tabled.

both to cover its own operating costs and to honor funding commitments made through September 17, when it pledged $4.7 million to five companies.

As the state’s quasi-public technology-investment arm, Connecticut Innovations Inc. (CII) is usually the one handing out dollars to startups and tech companies statewide. Now, it’s the one standing in line with its hand out.

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She expects CII will get the $50 million it now requests this fall and can resume investing by early 2015 (the commission meets again this year on October 31 and December 12).

MARKETING&MEDIA CII is making no more funding commitments through the rest of 2014 as it hasn’t received any new state funding since a $23.6 million round in November 2013 (the last installment of an allocation originally approved back in 2000). Several subsequent allocation requests did not make it onto the state Bond Commission’s agendas for May and July. The commission’s August and September meetings were cancelled.

“The delay is unfortunate, but temporary,” she says. “If we were running before, we’re walking now. We expect everything to be business as usual come November or December.” Carmody adds that the fi rm has reassured all the companies it’s working with that previous commitments will be honored. “We’ve gained an incredible amount of momentum and we don’t want to lose [that]. Companies are growing because of our investments, we’re having an impact in Connecticut and want to continue to do so.”

HEALTHCARE

CEO Claire Leonardi also issued a statement emphasizing CII is secure and that while short-term delays in funding will affect some programs and contracts,

EMPLOYMENT Public relations director Lauren Carmody says that despite the setback, CII is not broke and still has money in the bank

CII’s Leonardi

sufficient funds remain for existing commitments.

UNH Students Expose Android Risks

Chasing an Ebola Cure

Biopharma Gets Cancer Grant MERIDEN — Vaccine and biopharmaceutical developer Protein Sciences has scored major funding for research into lung cancer treatments.

The company received a $669,156 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Cancer Institute, through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

MARKETING&MEDIA WEST HAVEN — A University of New Haven (UNH) cyber forensics group has exposed a laundry list of security fl aws in the Android smartphone platform that could affect as many as 968 million users.

HEALTHCARE UNH’s Cyber Forensics Research & Education Group (cFREG) exposed the security issues via five videos uploaded to its YouTube account (youtube.com/unhcfreg) in mid-September. The videos covered instances of security fl aws, breaches of privacy and vulnerabilities in over a dozen chat, dating and social media apps on the Android platform including OKCupid, Instagram and Meet Me. As demonstrated in the cFREG videos, the group tested the vulnerabilities on a Windows test network with an Android phone, allowing the group to monitor all sent and received traffic. Chats, photos and personal communications between two mobile devices were shown as being recorded and stored on the test network unencrypted, along with passwords and other private information. The companies behind each app involved in the trials have been contacted by cFREG about the group’s fi ndings, which follow tests last 22

WEST HAVEN — Local pharmaceutical fi rm NanoViricides is hot on the heels of the Ebola virus and the growing world public-health threat its reemergence is posing.

The company is currently progressing in development of novel drug treatments for the virus that may work in spite of mutations. It has some previous research into Ebola treatments under its belt already, but those were sidelined to fi nish development of its leading drug candidate, the anti-flu treatment Injectable FluCide, in 2013.

The company is currently in negotiations with regard to testing the eventual treatments and has the capacity to produce the drug for clinical trials at its Shelton manufacturing facility.

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According to Leonardi, CII has invested $67.5 million in more than 150 companies since 2011 mostly through existing resources and investment earnings, drawing on just $20 million of its Jobs Bill funding to date.

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— John Mordecai

Start Your Startup W Engines

TECHNOLOGY REALESTATE

CII was a significant beneficiary of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s 2011 Jobs Bill, which gave the agency $125 million in additional funding, allowing it to invest in twice as many companies annually as previously: 58 in 2012 and 60 in 2013 (including both new and existing portfolio companies), versus 33 companies in 2011.

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spring that found security fl aws in the WhatsApp text-messaging app.

cFREG was established in fall 2013 as part of UNH’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science to research digital forensics, security and privacy issues. The group includes students Daniel Walnycky of Orange, Jason Moore of Branford and Armindo Rodrigues of Bethel. cFREG encourages smartphone users to learn how to run their own security checks.

“They have a lot of projects and need to prioritize,’ Leonardi says. “The administration and Office of Policy & Management have been very supportive of us and we expect that in the future.”

The company will use the money, partnering with the University of California/Los Angeles (UCLA) and Beverly Hills biopharmaceutical company Vault Nano, to produce vaults (barrel-shaped molecular capsules) that deliver chemokine protein treatments directly to cancerous cells, while stimulating the immune system to identify and attack the cancer cells.

The company used similar technology to develop its flu vaccine Flublok. The new cancer drug is in early stage research.

NEW HAVEN — Are you an aspiring entrepreneur? Have an idea for a new business you want to develop and bring to market? Well, it’s time again to make it happen.

The fourth Startup Weekend New Haven is taking place November 14-16, throwing budding entrepreneurs and tech people together into groups to develop a startup company over 54 maddening hours, presenting at the close of the weekend to have a crack at three prizes that offer varying amounts of resources and investment cash to take their companies to the next step.

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Applivate is to date the only Startup Weekend-birthed company to have brought its product — the diabetestracking smartphone app ShugaTrak — to market. The company emerged from New Haven’s fi rst Startup Weekend in 2011; ShugaTrak went on sale in fall 2013.

For more information and to register for this year’s event, visit newhaven. startupweekend.org.

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Bolt Gets Bought NORWALK — A California tech company is acquiring Bolt Technology in a $171 million deal.

Teledyne Technologies produces electronics for engineering systems, aerospace and defense, digital imaging (including software) and instruments.

Teledyne is acquiring Bolt to expand its range of marine-instrumentation products.

Founded in 1965, Bolt produces marine seismic energy sources and parts for offshore energy exploration, as well as underwater cables and connectors, controllers and auxiliary equipment. It also designs and manufactures remote-operated underwater vehicles through its SeaBotix brand.

WWW.COnnTaCT.COm

CArlSon Continued from page 3

Why are so many viable technology companies not joining the CTC?

I think they don’t see the value of joining. If you don’t feel that that [interacting with] the larger [technology] community is important, then the services associated with being part of the CTC are not what the sale is. You need to understand that by virtue of being a member we’re creating this community, and the community itself is having an impact. one of the things the CTC has done both well and poorly has been outreach to women. What can the council do to better identify and embrace women in the tech space?

We have to start much earlier than talking about women in [technology].

It really is an issue of what happens between fifth grade and ninth grade where girls are no longer interested in science. One of our interns is a graduate of UConn Medical School, and he tells me that 70 percent of his graduating class were women, and 65 percent of the class before his were women. It’s not that girls aren’t interested in science; they’re just going into a different direction.

Is Connecticut’s issue different than say, Brooklyn’s or Boston’s?

Boston has other issues that might make it more attractive to a young technical person, but when I talk to my counterparts around the country, this issue of lack of diversity across the board, for women in particular, is a concern.

Are you keeping all the major events the CTC does now?

We have four signature events: the Women in Innovation, the Tech Top 40, the Innovation Summit and the IT Summit.

What is the CTC’s relation to the health sciences? There is a lot of merging between IT and health sciences that didn’t exist 15 years ago.

So many companies are using IT whether in health sciences or advanced manufacturing. But within the state you also have the organization CURE [Connecticut United for Research Excellence, a bioscience advocacy and membership group]. We need to be tactful of what that organization is doing with life science and bioscience industries in the state versus what the CTC is doing.

get more presence in the Fairfield County area. Every time I go down there, there’s always a conversation about transportation problems, whether it’s Metro North or trying to get anywhere on the highway.

Depending on where you are, companies have pretty strong interests.

Because of the number and concentration of young people, only new Haven is really attractive to a certain kind of company among Connecticut cities. I don’t think Farmington is where people will establish technology companies.

You have to turn that around and ask what it is about Stamford, South Norwalk and New Haven that brings in the young people and makes them want to be there and work there, and transfer that to Meriden or other small places.

We need to push our strengths, and we should capitalize on what we have in New Haven and parts of Fairfield County with the hope that it will spill over — just like a lot of the bioscience sector in New Haven is spilling into Branford, and from Branford into Guilford. They can come and get started here and grow in other parts of Connecticut.

What did you learn about state government while at oPM?

Mostly the need for collaboration.

Having working with three political parties and different people in the General Assembly, the recognition that doing something on my own isn’t what’s going to get things done. You need to bring other people into the fold and work on that collaborative base to get things done.

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Two years from now, what will you want to have accomplished?

To have the value proposition of being a CTC member well understood and have a significant increase in the number of members. When you have 2,500 tech companies in the state of Connecticut and only about 300 [CTC] members, there’s a real opportunity for growth. I want to have the Tech Council viewed as having a wide group of tech companies in Connecticut as its members. That helps whether you’re advocating on the public policy side or networking. It creates a lot of opportunities. ’

What are companies saying they need?

There is a real concern about the transportation infrastructure. I’m trying to OCTOBER 2014

23

MANUFACTURING HCC TECHNOLOGY Unveils Mftg. Hall REALESTATE of Fame There doesn’t seem to be enough money that can be pumped into manufacturing education.

Connecticut’s 12 community colleges and the online Charter Oak State College have been awarded a $15 million federal loan from the U.S. Department of Labor to expand manufacturing job training and education.

College, with a $5.96 million grant to bring advanced manufacturing education to every community college in the state.

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The pathways; strengthen industry advisory bill councils to ensure training meets manufacturers’ needs; expand partnerships with technical high schools; increase the number of teachers and instructors; increase the menu of advanced training technologies; and support apprenticeship programs.

Connecticut’s $15 million grant was part of a $450 million round of 71 grants awarded to 271 community colleges nationwide, the end of the four-year, nearly $2 billion Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training initiative, which awarded 250 grants to nearly 700 colleges.

MARKETING&MEDIA The Connecticut Advanced Manufacturing Initiative (CAMI) has established a consortium of the 13 schools, led by Manchester Community

The remaining money was split in individual grants to eight of the schools, including Naugatuck Valley, Middlesex, Housatonic, Three Rivers and Quinebaug community colleges.

The federal funding will be used to purchase equipment upgrades; guide and advise manufacturing students as they enter the workforce; bolster career

HEALTHCARE What’s ‘Made in Connecticut’?

EMPLOYMENT

A new documentary film is spotlighting all things Connecticut-made.

Made in Connecticut is an original Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) documentary that explores modern manufacturing and innovation in Nutmeg State companies. A dozen forms are featured statewide, including aerospace manufacturer Barnes Group (Bristol), luxury packaging maker Curtis Packaging (Sandy Hook), Ola! Granola (Norwalk), plastics maker Oxford Performance Materials (South Windsor), aerospace leaders Pratt & Whitney (East Hartford), vaccine maker Protein Sciences (Meriden), snack food maker Severance Foods (Hartford) and South Norwalk baseball bat manufacturer Tucci Lumber.

TECHNOLOGY ‘Manufacturing Universities’ Eyed

REALESTATE The documentary is hosted and produced

by Emmy Award-winning Connecticut journalist Christina DeFranco, who was a live on-air reporter for WTNH-TV’s nightly news from 1996 to 2001.

A pair of bipartisan bills introduced by U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-2) aim to provide increased support for manufacturing education and STEM careers for women.

The Manufacturing Universities Act of 2014 (H.R. 5526) would establish a Manufacturing Universities program at colleges and universities to better prepare students for jobs. Schools with existing engineering programs can apply for a Manufacturing University designation, which could make up to $5 million available annually for four years for the schools to improve programs that emphasize manufacturing, increase efforts with manufacturers and support students working with those companies.

The state has four Advanced Manufacturing Centers at Asnuntuck, Housatonic, Naugatuck Valley and Quinebaug community colleges, the first opening at Asnuntuck in 2011.

— John Mordeca

HEALTHCARE

The program would be established in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards & Technology. A companion bill in the Senate (S. 2719) was introduced by U.S. Sens. Chris Coons (DDel.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

Esty’s Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act (H.R. 5527) directs the National Science Foundation to support entrepreneurial programs to support and recruit women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professions, including to have more women outside laboratory positions and in management roles.

24

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HARTFORD — United Technologies Corp. is taking its French connection one step further.

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The company’s UTC Aerospace Systems wing opened a new production facility in Toulouse, France dedicated entirely to producing thrust reversers and integration of nacelle systems (the aerodynamic components that surround jet engines) for the Airbus A350 XWB.

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highlights congressional findings that women comprise 50 percent of the overall workforce, but only 25 percent of the workforce in STEM positions — and that just 26 percent of women who earn STEM degrees actually work in STEM-related jobs.

Both bills are the product of a workforce development roundtable Esty held August in Waterbury, during which she solicited testimony from manufacturers, educators and local leaders. The most common refrain, as has been the case in manufacturing for years now, is that companies are still in dire need of skilled workers.

“I have heard directly from manufacturers across the district who are struggling to find the highly-skilled workers they need,” said Esty in a statement. “It is critical that our students are ready for these jobs.”

EAO Heads to Mexico

MARKETING&MEDIA Made in Connecticut airs October 23 at 8 p.m. on CPTV.

UTC Expands French Facility

The new building, adjacent to UTC’s existing manufacturing facility in Toulouse, is 50,000 square feet that houses production and assembly line capabilities, a paint shop and office space.

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UTC has operated in Toulouse since 1973, delivering more than 15,000 nacelles since then, and providing more than 20 systems for the new Airbus model.

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CCAT Wins USAF Research Grant

EAST HARTFORD — The U.S. Air Force has tapped the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) for help making production efficiencies.

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CCAT was awarded a $6 million “Manufacturing Technology Innovation for Cost Reduction” contract from the Air Force to fund efforts by Connecticut manufacturers to demonstrate efficient machining processes for parts made of aerospace alloys and composites.

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The efforts are on the part of the Air Force to reduce turnaround time, energy consumption and efficient tool use by manufacturers to increase production output from existing machinery, which can result in decreased production costs.

The companies will utilize CCAT’s Advanced Manufacturing Center and other resources to investigate the production goals. The $6 million grant was awarded through the Air Force Research Laboratory, headquartered at the WrightPatterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

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SHELTON — Component manufacturer EAO is heading south of the border.

The Shelton-based machine interface manufacturer has plans to expand with a facility in Mexico to broaden its service reach and find new customers in the transportation, machinery, lifting and medical sectors.

Two EAO representatives, Ohio- and California-based D-M Associates and Signal Enterprises, respectively, will sell to new clients in Mexico City, Juarez and Baja California.

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Joseph R. Crespo of Southport has been elected chairman of the Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS) board of trustees, succeeding Julia M. McNamara. Crespo has been a YNHHS trustee for 16 years, and has also been a member of the Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) board for 22 years, serving the last eight as its chair. He will be succeeded in that role by Mary C. Farrell. Since 2003, Crespo has been chairman of EQV Advisors, LLC, a consulting practice focused on providing advisory services to boards of directors and senior management on issues of corporate governance, strategy development and operations.

The Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc. (CERC), the state’s nonprofit economic development firm, has announced the election of new board member Liz Schultz, director of real estate for the Aquarion Water Co. An Aquarion employee since 1984, Schultz is responsible for management of Aquarion real property assets, including 20,000 acres of land, buildings, leases, acquisition, dispositions of excess properties; acquiring and negotiating easements, acquisition of water systems and management of real estate taxes.

as a teller in 1997. She was subsequently promoted to customer service representative, and then moved to Liberty Bank Investment Services as a registered investment associate.

WHO’S WHAT, WHERE

Steve Miller, principal and broker at Levey Miller Maretz Real Estate Services, has earned the Community Partner of the Year Award from the APT Foundation.

The New Haven foundation, founded in 1970, promotes the health and recovery of those who dealing with substance use, and offers primary care and mental health services.

Miller has worked with the foundation for years, helping to secure locations for its inpatient and outpatient facilities.

Jones.

Directors of Middletownheadquartered Liberty Bank have elected Geralyn (Jewell) Jones, manager of Liberty’s Groton branch, to the board of directors of the Liberty Bank Foundation.

A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Jones joined Liberty Bank

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State Office of Policy & Management Secretary Benjamin Barnes has announced the appointment of Natalie Sage Wagner as undersecretary for legal affairs, effective October 17. Wagner has worked in state government since 2006, serving as deputy legal counsel for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and State Senate Democrats before becoming director of legal affairs for the state’s Department of Education. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she earned a JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Merrill Lynch has named Susan S. Cruz of New Haven director of its New Haven office. A 31-year Merrill Lynch veteran, Cruz will lead the New Haven team of financial advisors to continue to deliver wealth management strategies to local area individuals, families, and businesses. She previously was managing director responsible for Merrill’s western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia mar-

kets. Cruz is also a director of the Shubert Theater in New Haven. She earned a business-management diploma from Henley Management College, Henley-on-Thames, UK.

Cruz OEM Data Delivery of Shelton has hired Luke Manney to head its Project Implementation Division. Manney, who has more than 15 years of heavy equipment sales and management experience, will set up and train new OEM Data Delivery customers to familiarize them with the company’s custom and wireless data-delivery systems. Manney was previously regional sales manager for Navman Wireless in Florida.

First Niagara Financial Group has named Steven Ferguson vice president of small-business banking.

He is responsible for work-

ing with small businesses in Fairfield County with annual revenues up to $2.5 million to offer them products, services and financial resources through 14 First Niagara branches in southwest Connecticut. Ferguson joins First Niagara from JP Morgan Chase, where he was a business banking officer. He is pursuing a bachelor’s in business administration from Kaplan University.

Robin Lynn Cautin has been named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Sacred Heart University. Cautin most recently was dean of undergraduate education, associate provost and professor of psychology at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y. At SHU she will oversee implementation of a new core curriculum, which launches next fall; internationalization of the college and its curriculum; development of graduate programs; and continued integration of high-impact practices and the latest technology. Cautin completed her post-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Columbia and her doctorate in clinical psychology at Case Western Reserve.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and

philosophy at the University of Delaware.

Cautin Sacred Heart University has named five new members to its Board of Trustees.

They are: Susan L. Davis, chief executive officer of Sacred Heart Health System in Pensacola, Fla. (an affiliate of Ascension Health); Charles (Chuck) V. Firlotte, president and CEO of Aquarion Water Co.; Douglas L. Kennedy (SHU ’78, ’82 MBA), president and chief executive officer of Peapack-Gladstone Bank in Bedminster, N.J.; Robert S. Meyer, priest in the archdiocese of Newark, N.J.; and Kenneth S. Siegel, chief administrative officer and general counsel of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.

You’d be surprised how much more your staff can do when they’re not stuck in traffic.

Sometimes, the most productive way to get to work is by not getting to work.

Telecommuting not only makes the work day easier, it can make your staff more productive and better able to interact across markets, product lines and time zones.

Not to mention the benefit to the environment. For over 25 years, CTrides has been helping businesses throughout Connecticut gain a competitive edge through telecommuting programs for individuals, teams or an entire staff. We’ll do the same for you. All at no cost. Learn more. Visit CTrides.com or call 1-877- CTrides.

Your Commuter Connection

www.CTcalendar.com CTRD-0151 Telecommute7.625x4.875.indd 1

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revolution Continued from page 4

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve and improve — powered by the combination of Big Data, the Internet of Things, and always-connected devices tied to people’s location and activities (e.g., the Apple Watch) — it will begin to behave more and more like a giant alternative brain, one that rivals and surpasses humans in many ways.

Machines already do most jobs that involve repetitive motion.

When machines start replacing people who use their imagination for a living — writers, designers, architects, engineers, teachers, etc. — they won’t just be taking better jobs, they’ll be challenging what it means to be human. This shift will create a great deal of psychological stress for people with actual brains, generating a massive need for goods and services that will help them adjust to this new reality.

Brands that can help people ride the wave of change to a brighter future, or help people cope and adapt, will be in high demand — as will brands that affirm human values and identity.

Revolution No. 4: Rise of the Digital Natives Much has been written about the impact of Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1997) on the workforce, but the next wave of workers and consumers entering the workforce will be the Digital Natives (those born after 1997).

Digital Natives are the first generation in human history to be born into the world of hyperconnected information overload.

However, since they’ve been connected since birth, Digital Natives do not experience the flood of information hurling at them as anything more than just “the way things are” and always have been — for them.

Today, Millennials are assuming positions of power in all walks of life, and their impact on marketing — the use of viral memes, infotainment, social media, spheres of influence, crossplatform content, etc. — has been profound. But when Digital Natives start adding their ideas and influence into the mix, the pace of change will accelerate even faster. This acceleration will feel to older generations like constant chaos and disruption, but to Digital Natives it will simply be business as usual — the way things ought to be.

Revolution No. 5: From Selling to Sharing Since Millennials and Digital Natives have been aggressively marketed to their entire lives, they are also extremely savvy about the media they consume.

Direct, blatant pitches don’t work on them. They hate being sold to, and to them, commercials are just the things you fast-forward through to get back to the program. Also, since they are wary OCTOBER 2014

of institutions, they are much more likely to trust the opinion of a friend than anyone else, hence the rise of social media as a powerful marketing tool.

In the future, selling is going to be less about persuasion and more about participation. Brands that position themselves as a trusted “friend” have a much better chance of succeeding in this environment. That’s not a new idea; the key is truly being worthy of the customer’s trust.

For example, Whole Foods knows that its customers care about the ecological, political and social impact of the food they consume. To help make that information more readily available to its customers, the company is investing in IT infrastructure to support its vision of total product transparency — a move it hopes will inspire the sort of trust and loyalty all companies seek in the 21st century.

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Enter Your Events on www.ctcalendar.com

SPECIAL EVENTS Join Junior Achievement for its fifth annual Partners in Achievement breakfast, networking event and fundraiser. Hear firsthand from young people, educators and volunteers from local schools who have taken part in JA programs throughout greater New Haven. 7:15-9 a.m.

November 14 at New Haven Lawn Club, 193 Whitney Ave., New Haven. Reservations. 860525-4510, kmcgurk@jaconn.org.

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE Each third Wednesday the Bridgeport Regional Business Council opens its doors to current, new and future members. Learn more about the BRBC, its programs and many membership benefits.

8-9:30 a.m. October 15 at BRBC, 10 Middle St. (14th Fl.) Bridgeport. Free. 203-335-3800, brbc. org.

SYMPOSIA, CONFERENCES & EXPOSITIONS

Join the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce for its Business Before Hours. Networking, refreshments, bonhomie, etc. 8:30-10 a.m. October 15 at Allnex USA, 528 S. Cherry St., Wallingford.

Members free, $10 non-members. 203-269-9891, maribel@quinncham.com.

Join Paul Sessions of the University of New Haven’s Center for Family Business (CFB) for a discussion of Who Needs a Board, Anyway?

Sessions will speak with CFB members with boards of directors (including Bishops Orchards, Bead Industries) on why they decided to surrender a measure of control in return for the guidance and experience a well-managed board could contribute. 5:30-9:30 p.m. October 28 at Oak Lane Country Club, 1027 Racebrook Rd., Woodbridge.

Free CFB members, $75 others. Registration. 203932-7421, newhaven.edu/academics/16370/.

The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce (GVCC) hosts Conversations with the Congressional Candidates featuring separate sessions with 4th District Democratic incumbent Jim Himes of Greenwich and GOP challenger Dan Debicella of Shelton. 8-9 a.m. October 16 (Debicella), 10:30-11:30 a.m. October 23 (Hines) at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. Free. 203925-4981, greatervalleychamber.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. October 28 at Trailblazer, 1004 Main St., Branford. Registration.

203-488-5500, branfordct.com.

The Bridgeport Regional Business Council hosts Business After Hours on the home turf of its affiliate, the Stratford Chamber of Commerce. 5-7 p.m. November 5 at Riverview Bistro, 946 Ferry Blvd., Stratford. $10 members, $20 non-members.

Registration. 203-335-3800, brbc.org.

EDUCATION

WHO’S WHAT, WHERE

LECTURES Georgia State University Law Professor Charity Scott will lecture on “Ethics Consultations and Conflict Engagement in Health Care.” Scott teaches courses on health law and policy, bioethics, tort law and negotiation at the law school, and has taught medical students and residents on interdisciplinary faculty teams at Emory University.

She has written on a range of health law and policy topics, most recently about conflict resolution in health care. Noon-1:30 p.m. October 31 at Center Library, Quinnipiac University School of Law, 370 Bassett Rd., North Haven. Free. 203-582-5359, quinnipiac.edu.

Human Resources

For the final installment of its six-session Human Resources Roundtable Breakfast Series, the labor and employment group of the law firm of Carmody & Torrance presents a roundtable discussion designed principally for HR professionals and in-house counsel. 8 a.m.-9:15 November 20 at 50 Leavenworth St., Waterbury. $65. Reservations.

203-578-4247, aslack@carmodylaw.com.

Legal

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 October 17 at GNHCC, 900 Chapel St. (10th Fl.), New Haven. Free. 203-787-6735, gnhcc.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. October 15 at Hagaman Memorial Library, 227 Main St., East Haven. Free.

203-468-3890, hagamanlibrary.info.

Rise and shine for Business Before Hours, sponsored by the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce. 8-9:30 a.m. October 21 at Connoisseur Media CT, 440 Wheelers Farms Rd., Milford. $15.

203-925-4981, greatervalleychamber.com.

Management

The Bridgeport Regional Business Council with the Business Council of Fairfield County U.S. Congressional Fourth District Debate. Incumbent Democrat Jim Himes of Greenwich squares off against GOP challenger Dan Debicella of Shelton.

Moderated by Tom Appleby, News12 Connecticut news director and anchor. 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.

October 28 at Norwalk Inn & Conference Center, 99 East Ave., Norwalk. $45 members, $65 others.

Registration. 203-335-3800, brbc.org.

CONNECTICUT’S PREFERRED LUXURY TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER SINCE 1951 OFFICES THROUGHOUT CONNECTICUT & NEW YORK

Fred Pryor presents Managing Multiple Priorities, Projects & Deadlines. One-day seminar will help attendees handle imposing demands without long workdays, stress-filled schedules, burnout and panic. Learn how to prioritize crucial projects, manage conflicting demands, reduce pressure and master multiple tasks with aplomb.

9 a.m.-4 p.m. November 3 at Omni New Haven Hotel, 155 Temple St., New Haven. $49. Registration. 800-780-8476, pryor.com.

Will I Be Ready When OSHA Arrives? That is a question that every employer should ask itself. This two-hour seminar, sponsored by the law firm of Carmody & Torrance, will help employers answer that question so your company will be in a better position to survive an OSHA inspection. Primary presenter Joseph Wellington has 21 years’ experience in addressing OSHA compliance matters for manufacturing, construction and servicesector employers. 8:30-10:30 a.m. November 5 at Timexpo Museum, 175 Union St., Waterbury. $75 per company (may have multiple attendees).

Registration. carmodylaw.com.

Manufacturing The New Haven Manufacturers Association hosts Visible Energy: A Continuous Improvement Approach To Reducing Energy Costs.

Energy costs in Connecticut have skyrocketed over the past 24 months. Making higher energy prices even worse is the fact that 30 to 50 percent of all energy brought into a manufacturing facility is typically wasted because no one can see where it is being used. Tom Burmeister of the consulting group Profit Miners will discuss how to reduce energy costs and new technologies that make energy use “visible” and thus more controllable.

Noon-1:30 p.m. October 16 at Graduate Club, 155 Elm St., New Haven. $20 at door members; $25 non-members. 203-387-5121, jerryc@ssicg. com.

Small Business Under the auspices of the Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, SCORE volunteers offer free and confidential Mentoring to entrepreneurs and small-business owners the third Wednesday of each month. Counselors have experience in such areas as marketing, management, business-plan preparation and more. Call for appointment. 9, 10 & 11 a.m. October 15 at Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce, 100 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. Free.

Reservations. 203-269-9891, maribel@quinncham. com.

The southeastern Connecticut chapter of SCORE continues its year-round series of Small Business Workshops with How To Protect Your Business Risks. Learn the hidden but obvious exposures and threat facing your company — from the perspective of home and personal property, business assets, employees, retirement and cash flow — and how to deal with them in a manageable and cost-effective manner. 6:30-8 p.m. October 22 at Russell Library, 123 Broad St., Middletown.

Free. Registration. 860-388-9508, sect.score.org.

The Community Economic Development Fund’s (CEDF) Business Education Center presents the (rather inelegantly named) Learn What Basic Marketing Is. Led by Maria Miranda of Miranda Creative in Norwich, four-session workshop focuses on principles of basic marketing, branding and messaging, budgeting and marketing metrics, and getting the most media bang for your marketing bucks. 6-7:30 p.m. Thursdays October 23-November 13 at CEDF, 965 Main St., Meriden. $80. Registration. 203-235-2333, cedf.com.

The Community Economic Development Fund’s (CEDF) Business Education Center presents a two-session workshop, Tax Issues for SmallBusiness Owners. Learn about the taxes affecting your business as well as filing responsibilities and deadlines. Certified CPA instructors will help attendees understand reporting and compliance responsibilities and answer questions about payroll taxes, sales tax and personal property tax.

6:30-9 p.m. November 17-18 at Career Resources, 350 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport. $30. Registration.

203-235-2333, cedf.com.

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LEADS/ NETWORKING GROUPS The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (GVCC) Valley Business Network meets first and third Wednesdays. 8-9:15 a.m. October 1, 15 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. Free.

203-925-4981, laura@greatervalleychamber.com.

The Professional Networking Group of Waterbury (PrefNet) meets Thursdays. 7 a.m.

October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 at Waterbury Regional Chamber, 83 Bank St., Waterbury. 203-575-101, ProfNetWaterbury.com.

The Hamden chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7:15-8:45 a.m.

October 7, 14, 21, 28 at Knights of Columbus, 2630 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-294-1505, hamdenbni.com.

The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network III (formerly Leads Group III) meets second and fourth Mondays. 5 p.m.

October 13, 27 at SBC Restaurant & Brewery, 950 Dixwell Ave., Hamden. Free. 203-288-6831.

The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network IV meets first and third Thursdays. 8 a.m. October 2, 16 at chamber office, 2969 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Free.

203-985-1200.

The Milford Chamber of Commerce’s Tuesday Morning Leads Group meets. 8:30 a.m.

October 7, 14, 21, 28 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 I (formerly Leads Group I) meets second and fourth Tuesdays. 8 a.m. October 14, 28 at 2969 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Free.

203-281-1233.

The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Alliance Leads Group meets first and third Thursdays. 8-9 a.m. October 2, 16 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. 203-925-4981, nancie@greatervalleychamber.com.

Connecticut Business Connections meets first and third Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. October 7, 21 at Tuscany Grill, 120 College St., Middletown. 860343-1579, connecticutbusinessconnection.org.

The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (GVCC) Women in Networking Leads Group meets second and fourth Tuesdays. 8:4510 a.m. October 14, 28 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.)., Shelton. Free. 203-925-4981.

EMPLOYMENT

The Trumbull Business Network meets Wednesdays. 7:30-8:30 a.m. October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 at Helen Plumb Building, 571 Church Hill Rd., Trumbull. Members free (annual dues $50).

Reservations. 203-452-8383, trumbullbn.com/ contactus.htm.

TECHNOLOGY

The New Haven chapter of Business Network International meets Wednesdays. 8-9:30 a.m. October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 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.

October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 at Milford Chamber of Commerce, 5 Broad St., Milford. Free. 203-8780681, chamber@milfordct.com.

The Milford chapter of Business Network International meets Fridays. 7-8:30 a.m. October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 at Hilton Garden Inn, 291 Old Gate La., Milford. Free. 203-214-6336, greatermilfordbni.com.

The Sound chapter of Business Network International meets Fridays. 8-9:30 a.m. October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 at Parthenon Diner, 374 E. Main St., Branford. Free. 203-208-1042.

REALESTATE

The Greater New Haven Business & Professional Association, an association of predominantly African-American business people, holds networking sessions Wednesdays. 11 a.m.noon October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 at 192 Dixwell Ave., New Haven. Free. 203-562-2193.

Milford Chamber of Commerce’s Friday Morning Leads Group meets. 11 a.m.-noon October 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 at Milford Chamber of Commerce, 5 Broad St., Milford. Free. 203-878-0681, chamber@milfordct.com.

The Fairfield I chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7-8:30 a.m. October 7, 14, 21, 28 at First Congregational Church, 148 Beach Rd., Fairfield. Free. 203-430-4494.

The Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce’s (GVCC) Seeds-to-Leads Group meets second and fourth Wednesdays. 8 a.m. October 8, 22 at GVCC, 10 Progress Dr. (2nd Fl.), Shelton. Free. 203925-4981, laura@greatervalleychamber.com.

The Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce’s QNet Group meets the second and fourth Wednesdays.

8-9 a.m. October 8, 22 at 100 S. Turnpike Rd., Wallingford. Free. 203-234-0332, 203-269-9891, quinncham.com.

The Greater New Haven chapter of Toastmasters meets second and fourth Wednesdays. 6:30 p.m. October 8, 22 at New Haven City Hall, 165 Church St., New Haven. 203-871-3065.

Connecticut Business Connections meets second Thursdays. 7:30 a.m. October 9 at the Greek Olive, 402 Sargent Dr., New Haven. 860-3431579, connecticutbusinessconnection.org.

MARKETING&MEDIA

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. October 2, November 6 at the Pond House in Elizabeth Park, 1555 Asylum Ave., West Hartford. $15 members, $25 others. 203-903-8525, thecabo.org.

The Entrepreneur Business Forum (EBF) meets Thursdays. 7 a.m. October 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 at Hamden Healthcare Center, 1270 Sherman La., Hamden. Free. 860-877-3880.

The Waterbury chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7-8:30 a.m.

October 7, 14, 21, 28 at the Village at East Farms, 180 Scott Rd., Waterbury. 203-755-5548, waterburybni.com.

The Shoreline chapter of Business Network International meets Tuesdays. 7:15-8:30 a.m.

October 7, 14, 21, 28 at Parthenon Diner, 809 Boston Post Rd., Old Saybrook. 203-245-0332.

HEALTHCARE

The West Haven Chamber of Commerce’s Leads Plus A.M. Group meets second Thursdays. 8:30 a.m. October 9 at 140 Capt. Thomas Blvd., West Haven. 203-933-1500.

Middlesex County Toastmasters meets second and fourth Thursdays. 7 p.m. October 9, 23 at Middlesex Community College, 100 Training Hill Rd., Middletown. 860-301-9402, middlesex.freetoasthost.com.

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The Hamden Chamber of Commerce’s Chamber Business Network II (formerly Leads Group II) meets second and fourth Tuesdays. Noon October 14, 28 at Lifetime Solutions Community VNA, 2 Broadway, North Haven. Free. 203-288-7305.

The Jewish Business League meets third Wednesdays for networking and information-sharing. 7:30-9:15 a.m. October 15 at Temple Beth David, 3 Main St., Cheshire. $8 advance, $10 at door. tinyurl.com/8-alnnuz.

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The West Haven Chamber of Commerce’s Leads Plus P.M. Group meets fourth Thursdays. Noon October 23 at 140 Captain Thomas Blvd., West Haven. 203-933-1500.

The West Haven Chamber’s Women in Business meets the fourth Monday of each month.

11:45 a.m. October 27 at American Steakhouse, 3354 Sawmill Rd., West Haven. 203-933-1500.

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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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LONG TERM CARE. LONG TERM CAREER. THE QUINNIPIAC LONG TERM CARE ADMINISTRATION CERTIFICATE. Consider a career making a difference in the lives of others — as well as your own. This program prepares you with the skills and knowledge required to become a successful long term care administrator.

Our program offers: • An academic course and 900-hour residency in a skilled nursing facility • Small class size and personal attention • Preparation to take the national and state nursing home administrators exam • Access to long term care practitioners serving as guest lecturers and collaborators • A strong network of meaningful connections • Entry into a growing and dynamic field Learn more or apply: www.quinnipiac.edu/longtermcare graduate@quinnipiac.edu The Long Term Care Administration Certificate program can also be taken in conjunction with the Quinnipiac MBA-Health Care Management.

1-800-462-1944 | Hamden & North Haven, Connecticut

OCTOBER 2014

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HEALTHCARE MidState Wound Team Honored

W Employees Swap for Health Care

HRZN), a specialty finance company that provides capital in the form of secured loans to venture capital-backed companies in the technology, life science, health-care information and services and clean tech industries.

EMPLOYMENT MERIDEN — MidState Medical Center’s Advanced Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine team has earned the 2014 Excellence in the Workplace Award from the Connecticut Nurses’ Association (CNA). The award recognizes a workplace that empowers nurses to create an environment that promotes professional autonomy and control over nursing practice.

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FAIRFIELD — Corporate bartering for health care is becoming more popular in southern Connecticut. Businesses are striking trade and barter deals with hundreds of medical professionals such as dentists, optometrists and even chiropractors, massage therapists, medical pros in exchange for services for their employees.

The funding will provide the medical device designer and manufacturer with capital to expand its wearable ultrasound product marketing and sales beyond the professional market and into the consumer arena. Horizon funded an initial $1.5 million of its $5 million commitment under the venture loan security agreement.

TECHNOLOGY “In giving this award, the Connecticut Nurses’ Association recognizes the contributions this team has made to integrate evidenced-based best practices, lifelong learning, and patient-centered care,” said Kimberly Sandor, MSN, RN, FNP, CAN’s executive director.

“This financial commitment from Horizon marks a significant step forward in our company growth and vision of providing a drug-free, non-invasive alternative for pain sufferers,” according to ZetrOZ co-founder and CEO Bryant Guffey. “We look to them as important partners as we continue to expand access to our mobile, wearable SAM (sustained acoustic medicine) therapy system in the rehab and chronic pain markets.”

REALESTATE To foster lifelong learning and deliver the highest quality of care to their patients, 100 percent of the team’s full- and parttime nursing staff is certified by a national board in wound care or hyperbaric medicine.

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Yale Med School in the Money

NEW HAVEN — An unexpected rise in revenue from the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) may help ease Yale University’s budget crunch.

For the 2014 fiscal year, the School of Medicine eliminated its $12 million projected deficit and finished the 12month period with a $42 million surplus.

According to YSM Dean Robert Alpern, the surplus is due largely to the rise in YSM clinical revenues, in addition to YaleNew Haven Hospital support, malpractice credit and other royalties. The positive results are a primary reason the university may see a balanced budget in 2014 compared to the $39.2 million deficit in fiscal 2013.

MARKETING&MEDIA The team’s healing rates, the most significant quality measure in their specialty, are greater than 92 percent. Patient satisfaction scores always average higher than 94 percent. Both are consistently above national averages.

Current clinical outcomes demonstrate that sustained acoustic medicine is an effective non-pharmaceutical approach for treating pain symptoms such as knee arthritis and upper back pain. The technology has been adopted by professional and collegiate athletes such as the Bridgeport Bluefish for prehab and rehab programs.

ZetrOZ is also engaging in new multi-site clinical research with NSBRI to test the effectiveness of the device for astronauts in Earth and space-flight conditions and the U.S. Army Military Health Command to test SAM technology for more rapid wound closure.

HEALTHCARE The Excellence in the Workplace Award will be presented at the CNA’s annual awards reception October 21 at the Crowne Plaza in Cromwell.

Play It Again, SAM TRUMBULL — ZetrOZ Inc. has received a $5 million venture loan facility from Farmington-based Horizon Technology Finance Corp. (NASDAQ:

Disease Treatment Ballooning NEW HAVEN — Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) is advancing the treatment of patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD).

Earlier this month Carlos Mena, MD, director of vascular medicine for the YNHH Heart and Vascular Center, deployed the first drug-coated angioplasty balloon catheter into a patient with PVD. The FDA-approved drug-coated balloon (DCB) is used to re-open arteries in the thigh (superficial femoral arteries) and knee (popliteal arteries) when narrowed or blocked as a result of PVD. Drug coated balloon for treatment of peripheral vascular disease is a new technology that until now was used for coronary artery stenosis. The main use of this technology is in patients with diabetic foot who otherwise would have amputation of the limb.

During this procedure the doctor inserts the paclitaxel eluting balloon to dilate the artery, no matter if it is a new or recurrent stenosis. This technology significantly reduces the rate of recurrent stenosis and is more effective over time, compared to the results of standard angioplasty with or without a stent.

A narrowing of arteries in the arm or leg, PVD affects about eight million Americans.

The risk increases with age, and for people with high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. The threat is even greater for smokers. People with PAD are four to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. It can also lead to gangrene and amputation.

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University Provost Benjamin Polak told the Yale Daily News that under Alpern’s leadership, YSM has continued to expand the school’s total revenue — nearly $1.4 billion — by expanding its number of practicing clinicians.

Alpern said the School of Medicine is unlike the rest of the university inasmuch as its revenue flows from entirely different sources than other schools. Tuition is only about one percent of revenue, the endowment is approximately eight to ten percent, and the vast majority of revenue therefore comes from two main sources: grants and contracts, or medical services.

The medical school’s revenue is calculated separately from Yale-New Haven Hospital.

However, YNHH provides financial support to many med school departments and co-invests in recruiting new faculty or launching new programs to provide destination medical care.

“Because there are so many uncertainties, it’s very hard for us to predict the revenue and predict the expenses, which is why we sometimes close the year with a different revenue than we expected,” Alpern said.

“It’s good that this time it’s positive.”

Of the medical school’s budget, according to the YDN, medical services had been budgeted to bring in $635,465,000. In reality, those services — which include more than 1,000 practicing physicians as part of Yale Medical Group — brought in nearly $30 million more at $664,981,000, which shattered the actual revenue of $580,053,000 brought in during fiscal 2013.

One company that specializes in such barter arrangements is the Fairfield ITEX group. Company goods and services can be exchanged for trade dollars that can then be used to engage health-care providers already in the ITEX network.

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Each employer determines how to involve participating employees and team members — e.g., depositing trade dollars in a worker’s personal health care fund for having a perfect sick record, highest sales in the month, or exceptional customer service. Participants can then exchange those trade dollars for visits with participating medical professionals in the ITEX program. The medical participants can use the trade dollars they receive for airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, restaurants, etc.

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Over two decades the Fairfield ITEX office has grown into the largest among all franchisees, with more than 1,600 members and annual volume in excess of $17 million. To learn more visit fairfield.itex. com.

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PEOPLE

UConn Scientist Earns NIH Award The National Institutes of Health has recognized a UConn Health surgeon scientist’s creative research into regenerative engineering with a $4 million award, UConn announced earlier this month.

Practicing physician Cato T. Laurencin, MD has won the NIH Health Pioneer Award and accompanying grant for his research into replacing and regrowing damaged joints and limbs.

A bioengineered matrix he invested in to regenerate ligament tissue in the knee began clinical trials in Europe last year.

He is working to develop methods to regenerate entire joints, and perhaps one day, entire limbs, UConn said.

The Pioneer Award, which will be received by ten scientists this year, recognizes “scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering and possibly transforming approaches to addressing major biomedical or behavioral challenges that have the potential to produce an unusually high impact on a broad area of biomedical or behavioral research,” according to NIH. Laurencin is the first UConn researcher to win the award. He earned a BSE in chemical engineering from Princeton, an MD from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering/biotechnology from MIT. Www.Conntact.com

. g n i h t y M Improving facilities.

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