Familiar Face:
Beth Rhinehart takes the helm at the Bristol Chamber
Plus: Alpha Natural Resources Files for Chapter 11
and
K-VA-T Food Stores Buys Into Chattanooga
and
Beth Rhinehart at Bristol Chamber headquarters. Photo by Adam Campbell.
Healthcare Heroes 2015
AUGUST 2015
$3.00 Volume 27 Number 12
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
1
To our valued team members and colleagues, thank you. YO U M A K E T H E D I F F E R E N C E .
It is you, our dedicated team members, who allow us to deliver nationally recognized quality care to our families, our friends and our region. Thank you for your compassion and your commitment to excellence. You are all heroes.
People. Trust. Experience. MountainStatesHealth.com 2
The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
3
Business Journal The
| COVER STORY
8 Familiar Face in a New Place
of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virgina
Office
Beth Rhinehart has moved over from Wellmont Health System to the Bristol Chamber of Commerce.
423.854.0140 Publisher
William R. Derby bderby@bjournal.com 423.979.1300
Beth Rhinehart, Bristol Chamber president and CEO. Photo by Adam Campbell.
Assistant Publisher
Jeff Derby jderby@bjournal.com 423.306.0104 Managing Editor
Scott Robertson srobertson@bjournal.com 423.767.4904
| FEATURES
10
Alpha Natural Resources files for Chapter 11
12
The Bristol, Va.-based coal company seeks protection while vowing, “Coal will come back.”
14 NNot wasting time
NN Inc. resets bar higher as growth outpaces projections.
18 Health Care Heroes 2015
The Business Journal honors the best of the Tri-Cities healthcare community. Sponsored by Frontier Health and Wellmont Health System.
K-VA-T Food Stores is buying into the Chattanooga market in a big way.
Associate Editor
Jeff Keeling jkeeling@bjournal.com 423.773.6438 Sales & Marketing
Jeff Williams jwilliams@bjournal.com 423.202.2240
16 Drawn Out Drawdown
Boone Lake will remain at low levels for the next five to seven years. So what business opportunities will arise?
39 iFrosh
| DEPARTMENTS 5 From the Editor
41 Awards & Achievements
6 Guest Column
43 Med Briefs
7 FYI
46 The Last Word
40 On The Move
Buying BI-LO
Each full-time incoming Northeast State Community College freshman will have a new arrow in his academic quiver this fall: an iPad mini.
Robin Williams rwilliams@bjournal.com 423.794.6938 Creative
Derby Publishing, LLC Graphics Director / Judd Shaw jshaw@bjournal.com 423.833.2726
The Business Journal of Tri-Cities Tennessee/Virginia is published monthly by Derby Publishing, LLC 1114 Sunset Drive, Suite 2 Johnson City, TN 37604 Phone: 423.854.0140 ©2015 Periodicals postage paid at Johnson City, Tenn. and additional offices. ISSN#10406360
POSTMASTER:
Please send addresses to
Business Journal of Tri-Cities, TN/VA 1114 Sunset Drive, Suite 2 Johnson City, TN 37604 Subscription per year $35.
4
The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
| FROM THE EDITOR
Hard truths about Boone Dam
T
o all the good people who live or work on or around Boone Lake and whose quality of life has been impacted by the lowering of the lake levels for repairs on Boone Dam: It’s sad and unfortunate that you are having to go through this. Please know the rest of us sympathize with you. We hope and pray TVA can beat its projected time frame for repairs. Having said that, there is a very important fact that, as of last month’s public information session hosted by TVA, with which some folks whose primary area of concern is upstream of the dam have yet to fully come to terms. None of what’s happening with these repairs is really about you. Your problems, while potentially all-consuming from your own perspective, really don’t drive TVA’s decisionmaking model much at all. Oh, TVA will build a couple of long boat ramps for you. It’ll do what it can to deal with your problems on its own terms, but its attention is really focused elsewhere. The most important people being considered in TVA’s deliberations on how to repair the dam are those downstream from the dam, not those upstream. Why? Because no one faces a safety threat upstream. There are a couple of time-frames upstreamers have railed against. The first is the one-to-two-week window they would like TVA to provide so they can retrieve their beached boats. It doesn’t, on the surface, sound like an unreasonable request. The surface, however, is far from what matters, both literally and figuratively. TVA has to weigh the safety of everyone downstream against upstreamers’ opportunity to retrieve their boats. So TVA asks itself, ‘What’s the worst that could happen if we raise the water level for a week or two to let these boat owners liberate their watercraft?’ Well, the increased stress on the dam could cause the dam to fail. Water could flow, uncontrolled by TVA, downstream where, in a few miles, it would come to a city with a riverside chemical plant. I think if we’re still talking about the worst-case scenario, you can take it from there as far as economic and environmental concerns go – especially when you consider the fact that Boone Dam is near the top of the watershed that goes through the TVA system into the Mississippi River and down to the Gulf of Mexico.
Actually, just saying, ‘a dam could fail upstream from a city’ is probably enough to outweigh the worst thing that could happen if TVA doesn’t raise the lake level for a week: many of us above the dam will continue to be unable to use our boats. Let’s take a scenario that’s not even the worst case: If TVA raises the lake for a week, TVA runs the risk of invalidating every piece of information it gathered over the last eight months in determining what corrective action to take. TVA has been charting the piping in the karst to know exactly how to go about stopping the seepage. Should the water level be raised, increased pressure could alter the underground network of cracks, fissures and tunnels through which the water has been seeping. Then TVA would need to go back and redo all those studies. The other time frame is, of course, the five-to-seven year total repair project run-time. When it was announced in the public information session, people in the crowd began hollering, “Unacceptable!” One public information session attendee floated the notion that TVA should just buy the houses along the lakeside at full pre-drawdown value, hold them until the work is done, then sell them for a nice profit. As nice as it sounds, this is a terrible idea. In fact, there’s a name for it. It’s called a government bailout. Most of us don’t like that sort of thing. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a month’s mortgage that the majority of the people who own lakefront property are, except in this instance, fiscal conservatives. TVA is not responsible for propping up lakefront home values. TVA is responsible for power generation, flood control, and safety around and downstream from its facilities. Nowhere does that include homeowners’ property value insurance. Were TVA to start buying up houses, it would have to actually put time, money and effort into maintaining those properties, either directly or by renting them out. TVA as a landlord? What could possibly go wrong? TVA is built to be a residential property management company in much the same way your average jackhammer operator is built to be a prima ballerina. At some point we will all have to face the fact that the people in charge of this repair have years of experience at fixing dams, and, despite all our notions about how things should happen, we have none. At some point we will have to stop yelling, “Unacceptable!” and come to the realization that it’s not about what we are willing to accept. It’s about what has to be done.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
5
| GUEST COLUMN
Hospital merger a solution, COPA a protection By Dr. Bill Greer
H
aving grown up in East Tennessee, I’ve seen firsthand the healthcare challenges facing our region. I’ve also watched with keen interest as an economics professor and college president. Our beautiful part of the country suffers from above-average instances of diabetes, obesity, and cancer, despite being served by two excellent hospital systems and hundreds of physicians. It’s unfortunate there isn’t a more direct correlation between this excellent provision of health care and the overall health of the population. Though our health systems are good at saving and extending life, our culture doesn’t consistently support behaviors that prevent disease. And, historically our two health systems have focused their resources on competing with one another for market share through duplication of services and large capital outlays for facilities and equipment. While competition is generally the best driver of lower prices, this isn’t necessarily the case in industries where there are high barriers to entry, such as the capital investment required of today’s modern hospitals. In these cases, duplication leads to a higher cost of operation and higher prices, not lower. The competitive environment actually takes away our health systems’ ability to thrive under the weight of decreasing reimbursements. In our market, it’s even tougher because 70 percent of the business is paid for by the federal and state governments through Medicare and Medicaid, and for us these fixed government payment rates are at the bottom of the scale nationally. Even though overall costs per episode of care here are relatively low compared to other parts of the country, cost is still impacted by two big factors—the expensive duplication already discussed and the poor health of our population which leads to very high levels of chronic disease and healthcare utilization. But there is a solution on the horizon. At long last, Wellmont and Mountain States Health Alliance have made it to the negotia-
6
The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
tion table and are working on a merger to create a better system more focused on improving the overall health of this region. By bringing these two competing systems together, there will be a more efficient allocation of capital dollars, avoiding duplication and increasing quality. These efficiencies can then be reinvested in community health improvement and innovative approaches to developing our regional academic and research economy. Some, however, have questioned whether this merger will benefit the region or if, instead, higher prices will result. Fortunately, state legislators have wisely been implementing the necessary rules and regulations for the effective operation of a Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA). COPAs have proven effective in our neighboring city of Asheville, North Carolina, and elsewhere. In fact, Mission Health in Asheville has been operating under a COPA for many years. This system has been very successful in creating an efficient model of high-quality health care delivery validated by outside sources. A COPA, clearing the way for the merger of Mountain States and Wellmont, provides the regulatory oversight necessary to ensure that pricing remains in line with what would be expected in a more competitive environment. With this in place, our region could soon benefit from the advantages that will come from a more efficiently operated hospital system. And, the marketplace can be very effectively protected through the COPA with active state oversight. Without the provisions made possible through a COPA, either Wellmont or Mountain States might be forced to partner with a larger system outside our region. This could have the undesirable effects of displacing the local control we have enjoyed with our two community-based systems and losing millions of dollars from our local economy, as profits would be siphoned off by a corporation located elsewhere. With this kind of scenario, there would be no COPA to regulate costs or ensure public benefit and the larger system from out of market could potentially leverage increased charges because of their stronger negotiating power. The implementation of a COPA is a much-needed step on the road toward improving the health of this region and advancing the regional economy. We are blessed with two extraordinary hospital systems, outstanding doctors and nurses, as well as excellent educational institutions that have a mission to ensure our region continues to have committed, well-trained, quality health care workers. The boards of Wellmont and Mountain States are to be commended for their focus on the best solution for the people of our region, and we should all commit to stand with them to see this new vision become reality. Bill Greer, PhD, is president of Milligan College.
| FYI
&Downs
Ups
A quick check of the conventional wisdom on who’s going what direction in Tri-Cities business
Eastman Chemical Co. on a roll – The Kingsport-based company posted record second quarter earnings, excluding non-core items, of $2.01 per diluted share for second quarter 2015 versus $1.92 per diluted share for second quarter 2014. Reported earnings were $1.98 per diluted share for second quarter 2015 versus $1.92 per diluted share for second quarter 2014. The company is on pace to record its sixth straight year of earnings growth.
Austin Chhut, Sarah Colson and Paula Giovanetti – If you’re a subscriber to The Business Journal, you received a copy of the 2015 Book of Lists polybagged with this issue. Chhut, Colson and Giovanetti did the lion’s share of the research for that publication. Each spent countless hours on the telephone, using email, texting – whatever it took to get the most up-to-date and accurate information available. The Better Together Tour - Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System have scheduled a series of community meetings to solicit input on their proposed merger. The first two meetings are scheduled for Aug. 13 and 20 at the Elizabethton College of Applied Technology and the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, respectively. Each meeting is scheduled to run from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Caroline Crenshaw pulls a pint at the newly opened Yee-Haw Brewing Co.
Downtown Johnson City - After a series of delays and setbacks, it appears Northeast State will be able to open at least a portion of its Johnson City facility late this month. Should it take place, that opening would follow the recent debuts of Trek Bicycles, Yee-Haw Brewing Co., and White Duck Taco.
Bristol, Va.’s industrial base – Ball Corp. announced July 29 it would close its Bristol manufacturing facility in May. That was quickly followed by Alpha Natural Resources’ bankruptcy filing, and followed a conversation in which Bristol Compressors’ CEO reportedly told Chamber of Commerce officials the company would consider moving its operations because of workforce quality issues. Top that with the recent BVU convictions, and Cabela’s can’t open soon enough for the good news-hungry community.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
7
| COVER STORY
Beth Rhinehart Switches Seats Former Bristol Chamber board chair-elect takes over as president and CEO By Scott Robertson
B
eth Rhinehart was in line to become the next chair of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce. Instead, she became its next president and CEO. During the entire tenure of the previous president, Joy Madison, and for several years prior, Rhinehart had been involved with the Chamber in several roles while working as director of government relations for Wellmont Health System, lobbying for that organization’s interests on the local, state and federal levels. So when Madison stepped down to pursue other opportunities at the end of April, and with Wellmont in merger talks with Mountain States Health Alliance, Rhinehart says her phone started ringing. “I’ve been on the board for a number of years,” Rhinehart says. “I was actually chairman-elect this year to follow Jim Maxwell. With my governmental relations background I had been asked to be vice-chairman of our government relations committee. That would have been a natural fit for me.” “When we were going through the process of starting to hire someone, we named our executive committee as our search committee,” Rhinehart says. “I was a member of that committee. Immediately I started getting a tremendous amount of push from other board members and community members saying, ‘This is a great fit for you. Have you thought about it?’” “I had really not seriously thought about it at all because I love what I do at Wellmont. But I kept feeling that push and getting those requests for me to consider it. I called Chris Lee and Jim Maxwell and said, ‘Until I make my decision about whether I want to apply, will you take me off the search committee before anything gets started.’ I wanted to keep it clean. So before any of those emails and plans started rolling, I removed myself from that process. I ended up applying on the last day you could apply. “I’ve started other jobs where I knew no one and knew very little about the organization. Here that was very different. I already knew all the players, and they have all been very welcoming. It’s been great. “I took a leap of faith,” she says, “and I’m really glad I did.” 8
The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Faith has become a theme in Rhinehart’s career. A decade ago, before she went to work for Wellmont, Rhinehart was executive director of an organization called Faith in Action. Faith played a role in her transition from that position to Wellmont as well. She applied to Wellmont based on the recommendation of a friend with no idea what position she was applying for. “They called me and asked me to come interview, and that turned into a great nineplus years at Wellmont,” she says. “It was a very, very hard thing to leave there because I loved my job. This new position is just an extension of that one, in my opinion. This pulls together more of my skill sets into one job with education, community and other concerns.” Her confidence is high as she steps into the new position, Rhinehart says, in large part because of two groups of people around her. “This is a great staff who are very committed not only to the Chamber itself, but to the community. Also we have a terrific board. If you come to board meetings and see the faces of those who consistently come to every board meeting, it’s a very strong group who really wants this chamber to succeed.” From day one in her new position, Rhinehart says, that level of support will allow her to lead the Chamber with confidence, so the Chamber can do the same thing for the community. “What I really need to focus on is making sure the Chamber – because we represent all the businesses in this community – that we are the best example of a well-run business we can be,” Rhinehart says. “If we are going to be the leader, we have to be the best we can be.” To that end, Rhinehart is already studying best practices of other Chambers, though, she says, she will not adopt someone else’s best practices just because they happen to work somewhere else. “I’m big on utilizing those if they fit our Chamber and our community. I think there are a lot of areas where we can grow and be great support to
the cities. For instance, we already support and advocate for them on the governmental side, but I think we have to also be a partner in the economic development piece that the cities do.” That economic development piece will be where Rhinehart’s organizational skills will come into play. Because of Bristol’s unique bifurcation (half the city is in Tennessee, the other half in Virginia), economic development is more than twice as complex for Bristol than it is for neighboring cities and towns. If the Johnson City Chamber wants to collaborate on an economic development project targeted at creating new jobs and investment for the city, it’s president, Gary Mabrey, can check in with one city government, one county government, one state government, and one county-wide economic development council. In Bristol, however, Rhinehart and her staff deal with twice the number of meetings with twice the number of organizations on roughly the same budget as the Johnson City Chamber. Thus, the notion of “working smarter” is key. “Figuring out where everyone’s time is allocated, we’re going to have to look at that,” Rhinehart says, “because there are a lot of responsibilities. “We’re meeting to death in this world,” she continues. “I want to make sure we have the time to do the work in between the meetings. That’s where the organizational piece will really come into play. Making sure we not only do what needs to be done in attending the meetings, but also doing all the behind-the-scenes work that goes on – that will be a challenge. I’ve never shied away from a challenge, though.” And, she says, she knows enough to realize she doesn’t know everything on day one. “Some of it I will have to sort out as I get a little more acclimated. Obviously we have a great staff here and they are very focused on their specific programs and key areas,” Rhinehart says, “But I think there are a lot of areas we can reprioritize. Some of that ties into economic development. You
look at the business and education division here – those need to be focused on everything from excellence in education to workforce development. Tourism is another economic development area we already focus on, but I think we might need to refocus on how we do certain things. In terms of juggling, that’s yet to be determined.” Several other things are already determined, Rhinehart says, and those will serve as cornerstones moving forward. The first is that the Chamber will advocate for the Bristol business community at all levels of government. “We need to be a voice,” Rhinehart says. “There are a lot of legislative actions that come about from the state, local and federal levels that we need to be keen on and know what’s going on and when we need to speak up and advocate.” Another cornerstone principle is that the Chamber will be sensitive to the needs of all its members, not just the ones that make the most noise on a given day. “We have a very diverse membership base,” Rhinehart says, “so we need to make sure that what we do for one member or group doesn’t turn out to be to the detriment of another. Partnership will be key no matter what we do.” And the concept of partnership will not be limited to Chamber members. “I know there has been a terrific working relationship between the (Johnson City, Kingsport and Bristol) Chambers,” Rhinehart says. “I’ve known Miles and Gary for a long time and am intent on maintaining that. I really appreciate that they have both reached out to me right off the bat. I can’t imagine any of us not being able to share responsibilities that benefit us all. That will be a key – how can we work together to make us all better?” As she settles into her new role, it’s apparent Rhinehart’s tenure will start with a strong theme of cooperation, whether it’s between three Chambers or two cities, counties and states: “When you work together,” she says, “it helps everyone.”
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
9
| FEATURES
Alpha Natural Resources files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy By Scott Robertson
L
eaving many observers surprised at how quickly the action was taken, Bristol, Va.-based Alpha Natural Resources voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 3. As late as four months ago, the coal mining company had reported having $476 million in cash. Immediately after filing, Alpha began assuring customers and vendors it plans to continue to conduct “business as usual” as the restructuring unfolds over the course of the next year to year-and-a-half. A statement to those companies which Alpha published online said, “We expect to continue operating, paying employees, suppliers and vendors, and delivering high-quality service to our customers. We’re committed to maintaining safe, compliant and productive operations.”
“
- Kevin Crutchfield, Alpha Chairman and CEO Alpha was scheduled to repay a convertible bond at the beginning of August, but chose to file for Chapter 11 protection instead. In the meantime, Alpha has secured an 18-month Debtorin-Possession financing package totaling up to $692 million through Citigroup, led
We are not shutting our doors and going out of business.
d e t n a W Help
o-getters, g , s r e lv o s d roblemmakers an e Seeking p c n e r e f now rs, dif self-starte ds. Apply yourself in creative m ience of a lifetime. er to the exp Begin.
Where Yo
u
ns your passio s rn tu t a g th d. sed learnin to the worl u o y t c Project-ba e n n s that co into result
Academic, Performance & Merit Scholarships
www.ehc.edu/apply • 800.848.5493 10 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
by a group of both its first and second lien lenders. That package, the company said, will allow Alpha to continue to meet its current contractual obligations and to enter into new contracts with, “no interruption of service or deliveries.” In an online communication to vendors, the company noted, “Alpha has more than sufficient liquidity to pay for all goods and services received during the restructuring process.” Alpha has hired Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC to act as its claims agent regarding goods and services received before Aug. 3. As for whether or not petitioners will be paid the entire amount Alpha owed before filing, the company said, “Payment of pre-petition claims will be subject to the terms of Alpha’s final
Build
relationships that empower you and others.
Discover
your passions and connect them to the common good.
Private, liberal arts college off I-81, exit 26 in Emory, Va.
Design
and test solutions to problems in an interactive environment.
School of plan of reorganization. At this time, it is impossible to estimate what value a general unsecured claim will have in the company’s Chapter 11 cases.” Vendors of goods (but not services) received by the company within the last 20 days before the filing must, by law, be paid in full before general unsecured creditors receive payment. The day after the filing, the courts gave Alpha the okay to continue paying employee compensation and to honor medical and other benefits. Chairman and CEO Kevin Crutchfield issued a letter to employees stating, “We are not shutting our doors and going out of business. While certain types of bankruptcy can involve liquidating assets and closing the company, that’s not what this restructuring is about. During our proceedings, we will keep mining and selling coal, delivering high-quality service to our customers, and providing employee wages and benefits, all on an uninterrupted basis.” At its peak, Alpha employed 8,800 workers in five states. But the entire coal industry has been hit hard by a negative confluence of regulatory challenges, declines in natural gas prices, and declining demand worldwide. The company has had several layoffs in response, and Crutchfield’s letter said the company would continue to do whatever it takes to reposition itself to succeed in the future. “We’ve experienced dramatic and adverse shifts in recent months, and I believe there’s been more change in the past three years than the last three decades combined,” Crutchfield said. “In many ways, we’ve seen a perfect storm of economic, competitive and regulatory factors converging to impose incredible stress on the industry. And, it is important to note that Alpha is not alone in this plight; in fact, no coal company is immune. I believe it is likely that we’ll see other coal companies choose a similar path in the coming months. “The industry must go through significant restructuring and consolidation to find success within the sector’s contracted market share,” Crutchfield continued. “While the landscape will change, our country and economies around the world still need coal for both power and infrastructure—and the silver lining in this storm is the significant opportunity available to the companies that take timely, strategic action. Our goal is to realize those opportunities, and we see reorganization as the first step in positioning ourselves to help shape this evolving industry landscape. “Though the toll on our business—and that of many others—has been unmistakable, these conditions won’t last forever. They never do. While producers will have to adapt to these factors in order to survive, I personally believe an eventual improvement in the market is inevitable because coal is not going away.” Neither are Crutchfield or his top brass. The release announcing the filing said the current management team is expected to remain in place to lead the company through the bankruptcy process. Said Crutchfield, “I can assure you that we arrived at the decision to pursue reorganization only after extensive consideration and analysis over the course of many months determined it was the best path forward at this time for Alpha.”
Graduate Studies Innovation in Graduate Programming
Art | Business | Education | Health | Humanities Science | Social Sciences | Technology | Online Programs Graduate Certificates | Professional Development
ETSU School of Graduate Studies Box 70720 | www.etsu.edu/gradstud/ | email: gradsch@etsu.edu Tel: (423) 439-6149 | Toll-Free: (855) 750-5730
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
11
| COVER STORY
Food City heads southwest with BI-LO acquisition By Jeff Keeling
T
o say Food City made a splash last month when it announced its intention to acquire 29 BI-LO supermarkets in the Chattanooga market would be an understatement. The purchase, expected to close this fall (terms are undisclosed), increases the Abingdon, Va.-based company’s store count by nearly a third, from 93 to 122. “Food City has gotten its game pretty sharp,” Progressive Grocer Content Editor Meg Major told The Business Journal July 30, a week after the deal’s announcement. “I think the fact that Food City has made this move (shows) really, really strong underpinnings for what’s going right there.” The July 23 announcement listed 21 Tennessee stores and eight in Georgia, totaling 1.2 million square feet and employing 2,000 people. Most are former Red Food stores, a company for which current Food City COO Jesse Lewis previously worked and
which was purchased by BI-LO’s then-parent company in 1994. Food City CEO Steve Smith said his company – which is part employee-owned – planned to retain BI-LO workers, honor their years of service, and invest about $40 million in upgrading the BI-LO stores. Progressive Grocer’s Major said while, “Food City wasn’t necessarily on my radar for that to happen,” the deal didn’t surprise her. The supermarket business, she said, “has been in a very pronounced period of M&A activity. You can look at any part of the country and see some sort of ripple effect from some deal that’s going down.” Major pointed to three primary reasons for the flurry of activity: saturation, nontraditional competition, and cheap money. First, the industry is “mature,” Major said. Most markets have no shortage of retail outlets, which limits the opportunity for
organic growth. Another factor is the ubiquitous availability of at least some grocery-type items in retailers not traditionally associated with food, from drugstores and Meg Major, Content Editor, Progressive Grocer closeout retailers to dollar stores. Combine that with the Costcos and Sam’s Clubs of the world and Walmart and Target grocery operations, and the market gets pretty saturated, Major said. “Given that everybody’s coming after that food dollar, traditional grocery retailers have
Guaranteed Admission to Virginia’s top colleges and universities
Students who earn a two-year degree from Virginia Highlands Community College save thousands of dollars, and those who meet GPA requirements are guaranteed admission to Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Radford, Old Dominion, Virginia Commonwealth University, and dozens of other top-ranked colleges and universities throughout Virginia. It’s GUARANTEED. So join us and discover why VHCC has been the college of choice in our region for more than 40 years. For more information about Guaranteed Admission Agreements, please contact the VHCC Admissions Office at (276) 739-2414.
Virginia Highlands Community College Dedicated to Students. Committed to Excellence. www.vhcc.edu • 276.739.2400 • info@vhcc.edu • An EEO/AA Institution 12 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Food City management team members John Jones, executive vice president/director of store operations; Drew Hembree, director of advertising; Steve Smith, president/CEO; and Jesse Lewis, senior vice president/COO
been under fire.” Finally, Major said, “it’s still a very advantageous lending climate, so companies are able to borrow money at still historically low rates.” Major said BI-LO has been paring its store count, including additional divestitures with other retail companies within the past year, to focus on building brand equity in its core markets. Still, she said, “the bigger part of the story focuses on Food City, simply because Food City’s kind of stuck to its knitting through the years, and I really think has built a great reputation.” Considering the investment planned, including the millions to rehab stores Major said aren’t in bad shape to begin with, Food City is certain to be looking to increase the new stores’ competitiveness in their markets. “You really wouldn’t make an acquisition of that size to have a business as usual game plan,” she said. “I think it would certainly be to envision a better experience and other signature departments that Food City has long stood for. So there’s definitely an opportunity to raise the bar for the stores it’s acquiring.” The key, Major said, will be integrating employees into the Food City model, along with procedures, infrastructure, distribution, and the typical things that come with rebranding a store. Shoppers can also find renovations offputting when they’re used to a certain layout, but, Major said, “I kind of think Food City’s got the chops to handle it as well as anybody could.” Smith said the former Red Food stores have seen numerous owners since first being sold more than 20 years ago. “They’ve almost been like a foster child that’s bounced from family to family, and now they’re going to get a permanent home,” Smith said. That home should allow Food City to continue executing its strategic growth plan, Smith said. Currently, its southernmost store is
in Vonore, southwest of Knoxville. The northernmost BI-LO being acquired is in Cleveland, just northeast of Chattanooga. “It gives us a lot of opportunity to grow (between those points) and on up the Sequatchie Valley,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of county seat towns up there that need good grocery stores. I think there’s room for us to build at least 10 or 12 supermarkets in the not-too-distant future.” Smith said there could also be independent stores willing to sell in that corridor. Smith sounded bullish on the opportunity for revenue growth in the 29 stores being acquired. “It’s another major metropolitan area of Tennessee, with good growth – they’ve got the Volkswagen plant and other associated industries that are coming in because of that.” The growth will ripple into the TriCities, Smith added. Distribution for the newly acquired stores will move to Food City’s distribution center at Exit 22 of Interstate 81 near Abingdon, creating new trucking and warehouse jobs. The corporate office in Abingdon also will be adding new jobs in accounting and other areas to support the growth. “This is going to create between 60 and 90 jobs at our distribution center,” Smith said. For her part, Major said Food City is seen in the industry as an exemplar among regional grocery chains. “It really is a very engaged leadership team and dedicated group of people that know the grocery business and are dedicated to not just the profit aspect of things, which everybody knows in the business of food retailing is a challenge,” Major said. “Food City really has kind of just stuck to their game plan and really hung tight through a very rough economy. Lots of things have happened in the past 10 years such that you could say the food business has undergone more changes in the past decade than in the five preceding it.”
The Mitch Cox Construction team were first class and created a seamless experience and an outstanding building for our veterinary hospital. James W. Robinson, D.V.M.
We found working with Mitch Cox Construction exceeded our expectations. The team met their budgets, deadlines, solved problems proactively while providing consistent communication. Steve Frabitore, Owner
Founded in 1979, Mitch Cox Construction provides general contracting and architectural services. Contact us to find out more about opportunties for your business today.
(423) 282-6582 • mitchcox.com
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
13
| FEATURES
NN Inc. sets growth bar higher By Jeff Keeling
A
recent successful stock offering, a wellreceived second quarter earnings report and the likelihood of further acquisitions in the coming months all bode well for NN Inc.’s Tri-Cities operations, CEO Rich Holder and Vice President Robbie Atkinson told The Business Journal recently. A few weeks after announcing in early July 2014 its was keeping its headquarters in Johnson City, NN Inc.’s huge, debt-financed acquisition of Michigan-based Autocam, a $400 million global auto parts maker, showed the manufacturer was serious about its strategic growth plan. That purchase, following NN’s signing of a $350 million term loan, came in mid-July 2014, with NN paying $256.8 million in cash, $31.7 million of NN stock, and the assumption of $29.8 million of Autocam debt. Several much smaller acquisitions bookended the Autocam deal, and by
the end of 2014 NN was ahead of schedule on its year-old strategic growth plan. Along with events since then – including the recent raising of $182 million through a stock offering – are good news for the company and the Tri-Cities area, Holder said. “I’ll stay away from numbers, but certainly we are trending out employment growth faster than was in the plan, which makes sense because we’re ahead of the plans,” Holder said. “We’ve added a number of positions that are highly experienced to a couple people that are recent grads out of ETSU, so we’re catching them on both sides.” NN’s purchase of the Suntrust Bank Building just off North Roan Street in Johnson City was designed to allow NN to grow its corporate headquarters’ employment from the low 20s to something close to 200 by 2018. A preliminary analysis of that plan by ETSU
economist Dr. Jon Smith gauged annual direct labor income after the full ramp up at $14.6 million, with “total” labor income – including indirect and “induced” effects – at $23.8 million. The “total effect” of NN’s growth on the local economy was anticipated at $80 million a year. Those numbers helped land NN a $2 million state grant and a local tax incentive that could net it nearly $800,000 over the next decade. In exchange for the local incentive, the company is obligated over the next several years to create at least 160 of the projected 200 jobs, which carry an average compensation of around $85,000. The recent interview came just weeks after NN acquired Caprock, a small Lubbock, Texas-based company it folded into its smallest, but growing, segment of plastic and rubber components. That acquisition adds a
“My name is Amanda Broome. I’m in Mass Communications. I got my start at Northeast State.”
Smart Careers. Start Here. “My name is Brad Ketron. I’m a registered nurse. I got my start at Northeast State.”
14 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
423.323.3191
www.NortheastState.edu
company which serves completely different markets from Autocam, as NN seeks to balance its portfolio and mitigate the potential downsides of cyclical businesses such as automotive. The company’s plastic and rubber components segment accounted for 7 percent of sales in 2014. Atkinson called the Caprock purchase yet another signal to investors that NN is pursuing its growth plan both aggressively and deliberatively. “We said we were going to start building a $100 million plastic business, we said we were going to balance our business so automotive was 50 percent, and while this is a small acquisition, it’s all non-automotive, all counter-cyclical business to our automotive exposures,” Atkinson said, “and so I think people starting to see the cadence and understand what we’re doing and then seeing us execute all those things, I think that’s where you get the market value.” NN’s increased equity, Atkinson said, allows it to continue pursuing its growth-oriented strategic plan. That plan, Holder added, was updated earlier this year with more aggressive targets. When the company introduced it in early 2014, the plan called for doubling revenues and tripling earnings per share by by 2018 – to $800 million and $3 EPS. The Autocam acquisition launched NN well down that road, and by late winter of this year, the target moved to $1 billion in revenue and $4 EPS. The integration of Autocam, Holder said, has resulted in improvements on both sides – the pre-existing NN and the new division. “We’re growing the business, we’re winning new contracts across the globe – we’ve got a great management team,” Holder said. “We have learned from them, we’ve leveraged systems from them, they’ve learned from us and leveraged things from us. I’ve been in some pretty positive acquisition integrations and I don’t know that it gets a whole lot better than what we have right now.” Some of the systems Autocam has leveraged from NN stem from its legacy plants in Erwin and Mountain City, where, Holder said, “business is growing a lot.” He said the company continues to evaluate its growth plans for both sites. “We’d like to have an option that is as least disruptive as possible,” he said. “We could build a new facility somewhere and rationalize those (local plants) to be single-product focused and make this the new product site, or it could be moving things around. “We have multiple scenarios in front of us and we’re talking to multiple people to see how folks in the area respond, but we’re really committed to this region and we remain committed. I think we’ve demonstrated our commitment already, so I don’t think anyone should really worry that we’re going to go somewhere else. With that said, I get calls literally every day.” NN released its second quarter results the day before The Business Journal went to press. Those showed adjusted net income of $7.16 million, or 37 cents per share, compared to $6 million (33 cents per share) a year earlier. For the year, NN’s adjusted net income is $14.0 million (72 cents per share) compared to $11.6 million (64 cents) through June 30, 2014. Markets reacted positively, sending share prices higher by more than 15 percent to $25.19 per share. In an Aug. 6 conference call, Holder’s message to investors was similar to his comments to The Journal regarding growth through acquisition and how it would be aimed at balancing NN’s portfolio. “Our game plan is growth,” Holder told The Journal. “We have acquisitions of all sizes in our pipeline. We have acquisitions as small as probably a couple to five million bucks and we have acquisitions that are as big as we are. They’re all in the pipeline, they’re all in some stage of vetting.”
It’s Not Just Your Business... it’s Your Life.
If you’re like most business owners, your business is more than just a business…it’s your life. And, oftentimes managing the finances can become overwhelming. Will your business survive life’s many uncertainties? How much should you invest to grow your business? What is your business worth today and what steps should you take if you want to transfer your business? That’s why it’s important for business owners to develop a plan to address the unique considerations, opportunities and challenges of owning and operating a business. At Cary Street Partners, we understand your concerns, and we’re here to help. Our seasoned financial experts can work collaboratively with you and your tax advisor to guide you on business growth and exit planning. We then offer to help you develop a plan to prepare you for retirement and work with you to synchronize your personal and professional financial goals with estate planning and employee retention strategies. After all, owning your own business is an American dream for many, but managing your business takes more than hard work. Your business IS our business: Call Cary Street Partners
Retirement Plans Business Focused Insurance Solutions Business Continuation and Exit Planning Executive Benefits/Retaining Key Employees Investment Planning and Investment Management Wealth Transfer Strategies for Individual & Family Owned Businesses
Johnson City, TN Office (423) 328-1970
Abingdon, VA Office (276) 628-2814
Atlanta, GA l Austin, TX l Blacksburg, VA l Charlotte, NC l Fredericksburg, VA Greensboro, NC l Jackson, MO l Richmond, VA l San Antonio, TX l Wytheville, VA
CaryStreetPartners.com Cary Street Partners is the trade name used by two separate limited liability companies, Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC, a registered investment advisor; and Cary Street Partners LLC, a registered broker-dealer and a member of FINRA and SIPC. Cary Street Partners is not a trust company.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
15
| FEATURES
TVA outlines Boone Dam repair plan Opportunities for local business touted By Scott Robertson The Tennessee Valley Authority held a series of meetings July 30 to announce its plan to address seepage issues at Boone Dam. After meeting with elected officials and the media, John McCormick, TVA vice president of Safety, River Management and Environment told a crowd of just over 300 at a public information session in Johnson City, “We have benchmarked this project. We have looked at many dams that have gone through this kind of repair, and the benchmark John McCormick John Kammeyer for this type of operation is about five to seven years to perform.” After a few seconds of catcalls from disappointed the erosion could eventually lead to the failure attendees, McCormick continued, “It’s also of the dam. going to cost in the neighborhood of between McCormick outlined the steps that will be $200-300 million to install, but I will tell you, taken in completing the dam repairs. this is a permanent repair for this reservoir. “We looked at many, many options,” This is doing it right.” McCormick said. “We had to. We are required Many residents and businesspeople by law to look at many options. Our long-term whose properties abut the lake have been fix is to insert a concrete cutoff wall in the adversely affected by TVA’s decision to lower earthen dam. That concrete wall will go in in the lake level to take pressure off the earthen three stages. portion of the dam. “Stage one will require us to drill multiple TVA has been studying the extent of, and columns and multiple rows from the concrete potential solutions for the seepage problem structure all the way past the beach area,” since it was discovered in the earthen portion McCormick said. “About 500 borings will have of the dam last October. Investigation of a to be done. We will drill down into the epikarst sinkhole at that time led to the discovery of and insert low-mobility grout. To help you see a series of underground geological pathways low-mobility grout in your mind, think of cold allowing water “piping” to cause internal toothpaste. erosion. If left uncorrected, McCormick said, “Stage two will also require us to put
multiple borings into the earthen dam,” McCormick said. “In this case, there will be three across the entire length of the dam. This will go down 250 to 300 feet into bedrock. Again, the intent of drilling down and inserting this low mobility grout, which will harden under the surface of the earth, is to stop the water flow. “The third and final stage is putting in this ‘concrete’ – and it’s not actually concrete, it’s a composite that acts like concrete – cut-off wall. This wall is going to go from the top of the crest down as far as 250 feet. It will be multiple feet thick. And again, it will run the entire length of the earthen dam.” McCormick told the largely skeptical crowd that TVA has been working with private firms to analyze the problem before choosing the five-to-seven-year option. “We reached out to industry experts, some of the best in the world who have worked on other dams facing the same issue, to help us identify what the risks were and what some opportunities and options were to repair this dam. “This option is a very robust option,” McCormick added. “We did intensive research, a comprehensive and thorough investigation. That has led us to this option being the best option to pursue.” While preliminary work is already underway, said John Kammeyer, vice president of construction, an environmental study must be
Fantastic commercial building Fantasticoverlooking commercial Fantastic commercial the Holston River. building overlooking building overlooking Multiple uses,River. just the Holston the Holston River. waiting yourjust Multiplefor uses, 3 Limited Centre Multiple uses, just creative vision. waiting for your Johnson City TN 37604 waiting for your creative vision. 3 Limited Centre Office: 423.282.1885 2122 Netherland Inn Rd, Kingsport Zoned Multi-Family on West Lakeview in Johnson City creative vision. Offered by building 3Johnson 3Limited LimitedCentre Centre Fantastic commercial City TN 37604 Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated 2122 Netherland Inn Road, Kingsport TN overlooking the Holston CentreJohnson Rick Chantry Offered by River. CityCity TN 37604 Johnson TN 37604 2+/- acres $120,000 Office: 423.282.1885 Multiple uses, just waiting for your Offered by 423.791.2411 Rick Chantry 423.282.1885 City TNOffice: 37604 creative vision. Offered by Rick Office: 423.282.1885 Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated Offered by Rick Chantry,Inn 423.791.2411 RickKingsport Chantry TNChantry,423.791.2411 2122 Netherland Road, 423.791.2411 Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated 3.282.1885 Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated 423.791.2411 2122 Netherland Inn Road, Kingsport TN ndently Owned And Operated 2122 Netherland Inn Road, Kingsport TN 16 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
TVA plans to reach this stage between 2020 and 2022. Graphics courtesy TVA
completed before work can begin in earnest. “There are only three companies in the world that can do this,” Kammeyer said. “We have been working with one of them. We will be putting the full job out to bid.” Many attendees were unimpressed by TVA’s presentation. The first member of the general public to address the TVA panel, Scott West, said, “Five to seven years is unacceptable. Let’s put things in perspective. The Empire State Building in New York City was built in one year and 45 days. The Hoover Dam, the largest dam in this country, was built in five years. The San Francisco Bridge – four years. And you guys can’t fix a water leak in five to seven years.” “We had other options,” McCormick said. “We could do it faster. But we would find ourselves in the very same position we are today again. (Doing it faster) is not a permanent, or even a long-term repair. This is a permanent repair that puts us in a position to deal with sinkholes that come up in the future without having to take that water level down.” Kammeyer said the repairs will be complicated by the fact that there is limited workspace and at times, around 200 workers will be “on top of each other” to get the job done on time and under budget. “In 2016, when we bring in the major contractor, that group will be working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, either doing production work or maintenance on the equipment. Right now we’re doing the testing, we’re doing the set-up, we’re doing all that facilities work that you have to do in order to do a project while we wait for the NEPA review to be done. So we’re doing as much as we can. We’re doing
the procurement side, we’re going out for bids next month on the base job, the engineering, the construction, get all those pieces in place so that when the evaluation’s finished, we’re ready to hit the start button.” Several businesses already have been, and will continue to be adversely affected by the drawdown of the lake level. But the long repair
time and large number of workers on site will likely create opportunities for other local businesses. The owner of a lakeside apartment complex, Kevin Beckett, approached TVA officials at the public information session about the possibility of housing workers who will be effecting repairs on the dam in his units. “When the lake was up, (my apartments were) 100 percent full. I’m currently at 50 percent occupancy, and after the announcement today, I’m almost sure I’m going to lose more. So my question is not for a handout or help. What I would like to do is possibly…set up some kind of contractual agreement for housing for your workers. That will help me and you.” Vish Patel, owner of The Boone Store, a gas station across Highway 75 from the Boone Dam turnoff, also sought a contract with TVA. In his case, it would be for provision of fuel for the trucks that will be delivering materials to the dam. Kammeyer told Patel, “I’m sure we’ll be going local. The constructor that’s doing this work is international. We’ll be bringing them on next year. But there’ll be opportunity for a lot of local business growth, new business, so yes, absolutely.”
The
BEABUFF.COM MBA@MILLIGAN.EDU 423.461.8662
HEALTHCARE MANAGEMENT LEADERSHIP OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE
APPLY TODAY
ONE-SATURDAY-A-MONTH FOR 14 MONTHS GMAT NOT REQUIRED IF GPA 3.0+ ONLINE MODULE COURSES AVAILABLE TO COMPLETE PREREQUISITES
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
17
| FEATURES
18 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Now in its third decade, The Business Journal’s Healthcare Heroes program honors those who go above and beyond the call of duty in seeing to the provision of quality healthcare in the Tri-Cities. Health care represents almost 20 percent of the nation’s economy, and an even greater portion of the regional economy. The Business Journal has long recognized that without healthy employees and customers, no business can survive, much less thrive. Thus, without quality health care, business fails. The individuals and organizations you’ll read about on the following pages are among the best at keeping our region well-cared-for. Above all else, Healthcare Heroes are defined by the fact that they have earned the highest level of respect from their peers, patients and all who see their work.
Healthcare Heroes come from across the spectrum of healthcare activities. There are physicians, nurses and administrators. There are staff members who, though not direct caregivers, have found ways to make the provision of healthcare a better experience. There are board members who made remarkable decisions, and businesspeople who supported them. It is our honor to bring you all of their stories. The Tri-Cities Business Journal wishes to recognize the dedication and commitment of Frontier Health, the primary sponsor of Health Care Heroes, and of co-sponsor Wellmont Health System, whose chief financial officer, Alice Pope joined Dr. Teresa Kidd, Frontier Health, President and CEO, in addressing this year’s class of honorees. Without the participation of these companies, this program would not be possible. bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
19
CUP OF KINDNESS AWARDS The Community Service Award Dr. Sarah Melton The Community Service Award is presented to an individual or organization for excellence in the area of public health. This year’s honoree is Dr. Sarah Melton, a behavioral health expert on the faculty of the Gatton College of Pharmacy at East Tennessee State University. Dr. Melton has received national recognition for her efforts in creating a student organization in the college called Generation Rx, which aims to combat the abuse of prescription drugs. An article in Pharmacy Today magazine described the organization’s work fighting the huge problem of prescription drug abuse in Southern Appalachia as “moving mountains.” Dr. Melton and the organization have received national awards for their work in the field. And this year, Dr. Melton was invited to testify before Congress about prescription drug abuse and how to combat it.
20 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
CUP OF KINDNESS AWARDS Distinguished Service Award Carol Dubay The Distinguished Service Award is presented to an individual or organization who has performed at a level of excellence for what we refer to as a sustained period of time. This year’s honoree is Carol Dubay, deputy chief of medicine service at the Mountain Home VA Healthcare System. Over the course of a 30 year career, Dubay has been recognized for her innovative approach to establishing a true strategic approach to patient safety matters, while maintaining quality outcomes. She has worked with the VA National Center for Patient Safety, which selected Mountain Home as the first facility in America to provide Nursing Crew Resource Management simulation training onsite. And Dubay has continually implemented innovative ways to use the simulation lab to help staff, students and residents learn to improve their skills.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
21
CUP OF KINDNESS AWARDS The Innovation Award OnePartner Health Information Exchange The Innovation Award goes to an individual or organization whose inventive thinking has furthered the provision of health care. The 2015 Innovation Award goes to the OnePartner Health Information Exchange. The exchange is designed to take disparate electronic information systems and make them work seamlessly together, so that, for instance, a doctor at a hospital emergency department can read the history of a patient from his or her GP, specialist, and other hospitals. In the last year, OnePartner brought both Mountain States and Wellmont on board, taking to the next level the system that has already helped numerous doctors groups share key information throughout the region. Today, OnePartner is inclusive of more than 1,200 physicians in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, serving as the universal translator for what had been the medical equivalent of the tower of Babel.
Wesley Combs
22 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
CUP OF KINDNESS AWARDS The Meritorious Service Award
Gary Peacock, Joanne Gilmer, Roger Mowen, Bob Feathers, Clem Wilkes, Julie Bennett, Skip Skinner and Rick Storey
Wellmont Health System and Mountain States Health Alliance boards The Meritorious Service Award is given annually to someone who has shown excellence in administration or leadership. With respect to the many individual leaders who have performed with distinction in the year since our last awards ceremony, none have performed so conspicuously, and with such courage, as the boards of Wellmont Health System and Mountain States Health Alliance. The two systems have what might politely be called a rich history of competition. So for them to come together in a proposed merger represents a sea-change in both cultures. Yet both boards recognized over the course of the last year that the
creation of a new entity would allow control of hospital care in both systems to remain local. Some of the factors that led to this decision are widely known, others will remain known only to the members of the boards. But what is clear to all is that two entities with enormous influence in and over the community have put aside years of decisions that made business sense in terms of competing with each other, but created a less-than-ideal spread of resources through the region – and have agreed to replace that with a locally-controlled system that offers the opportunity to better serve the patients, businesses and communities they serve.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
23
CUP OF KINDNESS AWARDS The Support Service Award Rita Tweed The Support Service Award goes to someone who has assisted others in the provision of healthcare. It has gone to everyone from administrators to lobbyists to clerks and secretaries. This year’s honoree is Rita Tweed, division director of administrative support services for Frontier Health. Imagine maintaining frontline staffing for 30 locations over 12,000 square miles in 12 counties in two states – hiring, training and enabling more than 100 employees and being on call 24/7/365. One nominator stated, “She is intrinsically involved in nearly every Frontier Health operational process.” From fighting budget cuts to analyzing programs, Tweed is behind the providers at Frontier every step of the way, making it possible for them to do their good work in the community without having to worry about how the ambulatory record review mechanism works or whether the med line call center will be up and running. Said another nominator, “It is really difficult to consider any important processes of accomplishments within Frontier Health that have not required Rita’s leadership or involvement.
24 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Kaye Barger Director of Adult Mental Health Kaye Barger Director Frontier of Adult Health Mental Health Frontier Health
Heather Crouse, LPC Child & Adolescent Services Heather Crouse, LPC Child & Coordiantor Adolescent Services Frontier Health Coordiantor Frontier Health
www.frontierhealth.org www.frontierhealth.org 423-467-3600 P.O. Box 9054, Gray, TN 37615 423-467-3600 P.O. Box 9054, Gray, TN 37615
Rita Tweed
Division Rita DirectorTweed of Administrative Support of Services Division Director Administrative FrontierServices Health Support Frontier Health
Melissa Willett Director of Adult Melissa Willett Mental Health Housing Director of Adult Frontier Health Mental Health Housing Frontier Health
Join us Join us www.facebook.com/FrontierHealth www.facebook.com/FrontierHealth bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA 25
Kaye Barger When one hears that Kaye Barger is a recruiter of foster parents, one might be tempted to think, “Well, that’s quite admirable, but what has it to do with health care?” Barger works to ensure the success of therapeutic foster parents. She provides potential foster parents with several courses of training including the Path program (Parents as Tender Healers), Parenting for the Sexually Abused Child, and Teaching and Learning with Children in Care, in addition to First Aid and CPR. Once parents are approved to handle children with particular health conditions or needs, Barger works with the placement of children to see they find the most appropriate match.
Dr. Jerry Blackwell Dr. Blackwell, of the Wellmont Heart Institute is a nationally recognized expert in the field of advanced imaging in cardiology. He literally wrote the book on cardiac MRI, having authored the first academic textbook on the subject. He’s also a founding member of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. Back in 2011, Blackwell, who had two years earlier been elected president of Cardiovascular Associates, said, “It’s in keeping with our value proposition at the Heart Institute to provide the highest quality care at the lowest cost with unparalleled availability.” More than one nominator from the Heart Institute credits Blackwell’s leadership with keeping the organization always on that track.
26 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
They Theygo gothe theextra extramile. mile. They go the extra mile. They Theymake makea difference. They make aadifference. difference. They go the extra mile. They make a difference.
They’re They’re our our heroes. heroes. They’re our heroes. Wellmont Health System congratulates itsits 2015 Health Care Heroes. Wellmont Health System congratulates 2015 Health Care Heroes. Wellmont Health System congratulates its 2015 Health Care Heroes. • Jerry Blackwell, MDMD , president of the Wellmont CVA Heart Institute, forfor hishis leadership andand • Jerry Blackwell, , president of the Wellmont CVA Heart Institute, leadership • Jerry Blackwell, MD, president of care the Wellmont CVA Heart Institute, for his leadership and clinical contributions to heart care clinical contributions to heart clinical contributions to heart care MDMD , medical director of radiation oncology at Bristol Regional Medical Center, • John Fincher, , medical director of radiation oncology at Bristol Regional Medical Center, • John Fincher, MD medical director of radiation Bristol Regional Medical • for John Wellmont Health System congratulates itsatthe 2015 Health Care Heroes. hisFincher, decades of ,achievement and innovation tooncology enhance quality of cancer care for his decades of achievement and innovation to enhance the quality of cancer careCenter, for his decades of achievement and innovation to enhance the quality of cancer care • Bob Isaac, a member of the board of directors of Lonesome Pine Hospital andand Mountain • Bob Isaac, a member of the board of directors of Lonesome Pine Hospital Mountain • Jerry Blackwell, MDof , president ofofthe Wellmont CVA Heart Institute, forand his Mountain leadership and • Bob Isaac, a member the board ofvolunteer Lonesome Hospital View Regional Medical Center and adirectors regular volunteer at the Southwest Virginia Cancer View Regional Medical Center and a regular atPine the Southwest Virginia Cancer clinical contributions to heartand carea regular volunteer at the Southwest Virginia Cancer View Regional Medical Center Center, forfor hishis work with patients andand thethe community Center, work with patients community Center, his work with patients and the community MD, medical director of radiation oncology at Bristol Regional Medical Center, • John for Fincher, • Jim Perkins, director of Wellmont Diabetes Treatment Centers, forfor hishis efforts andand dedication • Jim Perkins, director of Wellmont Diabetes Treatment Centers, efforts dedication for his decades of achievement and innovation to enhance thefor quality cancer • in Jimraising director ofabout Wellmont Diabetes Treatment Centers, his effoforts and care dedication awareness about thisthis disease inPerkins, raising awareness disease in• raising awareness about diseaseof directors of Lonesome Pine Hospital and Mountain Bob Isaac, a member of this the board • Terry Blakely, a security guard at Holston Valley Medical Center, andand Jackie Stanley, group • Terry Blakely, a security guard at Holston Valley Medical Center, Jackie Stanley, group View Regional Medical Center and a regular volunteer at the Southwest Virginia Cancer • leader Terry Blakely, ahospital’s security guard atroom, Holston Valley Medical Center, and Jackie Stanley, group in the hospital’s boiler room, who teamed up to repair a homeless man’s wheelchair leader in the boiler who teamed up to repair a homeless man’s wheelchair Center, forhospital’s his work boiler with patients andteamed the community leader in the room, who up to repair a homeless man’s wheelchair • Th Valley staff members andand nursing supervisor who created a prom at the hospital • eThHolston e Holston Valley staff members nursing supervisor who created a prom at the hospital • Jim Perkins, director of Wellmont Diabetes Treatment Centers, for his efforts and dedication • Th Valley staff members and nursing supervisor forefor aHolston teen inpatient who couldn’t attend thethe realreal event a teen inpatient who couldn’t attend event who created a prom at the hospital raising awareness thisattend diseasethe real event forin a teen inpatient whoabout couldn’t • Terry Blakely, a security guard at Holston Valley Medical Center, and Jackie Stanley, group leader in the hospital’s boiler room, who teamed up to repair a homeless man’s wheelchair
• The Holston Valley staff members and nursing supervisor who created a prom at the hospital for a teen inpatient who couldn’t attend the real event
/Wellmont @WellmontHealth @WellmontHealth wellmont.org wellmont.org /Wellmont /Wellmont @WellmontHealth wellmont.org bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
27
Terry Blakely and Jackie Stanley Blakely and Stanley showed this year that going out of one’s way just a little can make a huge difference. When Holston Valley Medical Center received a call late one night from a local business that provides wheelchairs that a customer of theirs had shown up with a chair in serious disrepair, Blakely went out and discovered the chair in fact, had two broken wheels and was missing both footrests. The man with the chair had lost his ATM card and was unable to pay for repairs. Blakely brought him back to the hospital where Stanley, who is a group leader in the boiler room and performs wheelchair repairs, had the necessary parts. After welding the footrests onto the chair and putting on new wheels, Stanley returned the chair to the man, who they then learned was homeless. They were able to introduce him to a local businessman who paid for his ticket home to the man’s family in Florida.
Heather Crouse Crouse is child and adolescent services coordinator for the Lee County Behavioral Health Center. She began her career providing services to children at risk of removal from their homes and families and quickly became the leader of a regional in-home intensive services team. She has developed numerous programs, including TRANSITIONS, a child crisis response team; FOOTHOLDS, a program for children with serious emotional disturbance and families who do not meet criteria for intensive in-home service, and a comprehensive family assessment program as a pilot program for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Crouse leads, she innovates and creates, and she cares, providing inspiration for all around her.
28 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Dr. John Fincher
No photo available.
Dr. John Fincher is chief of Bristol Regional Medical Center’s radiation oncology department. It is de rigeur to make fun of anyone over the age of 50s inability to adjust to the whizbang world of the latest smartphone apps that their grandchildren enjoy. Well, Dr. Fincher has been working for nearly 40 years and is a key player in making sure his department is using the latest technology to the best effect. When the cyberknife technology came along several years ago, Fincher pushed for it, and Bristol became one of only 16 hospitals in America to use it. Two years ago, Bristol treated the highest number of ling patients worldwide with Cyberknife. When the next generation of stereotactic radiosurgery became available, TrueBeam, Fincher again advocated for its use at Bristol, and ended up picking the exact version the hospital would use.
Tom Gambrel In order to love thy neighbor as thyself, one must first love oneself. Tom Gambrel, a pharmacist at Johnson City Medical Center, knows this is true on a greater level in healthcare. In order for a department to provide the best care, those in the department must be cared for. This year, one of his co-workers’ children desperately wanted a dog. Gambrel purchased a puppy for the family, took it to the vet for all the shots and care, and even bought it food to get them started. Another team member had a son who was getting married, and in order to help the family save money, Gambrel took it upon himself to cater the wedding shower. He bought the food and supplies, cooked the meal, delivered it and set it up. With that kind of caring attitude as part of their work environment, how could Gambrel’s coworkers not be inspired to provide loving care themselves?
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
29
Bill Greene When, in January 2014, Wellmont Health System announced it was planning to find “strategic alliances,� that meant the possibility existed of selling Wellmont to an outside system. Bill Greene of Bank of Tennessee understood this, and, like many in the business community, worried about the loss of local control. He believed the boards of both local systems should consider the practicality of a local combination as the first option, and he stated that case publicly. This movement gained steam. Greene facilitated meetings with legislators, attorneys general and others to make sure the combination could happen legally though COPA, and ensured ETSU was plugged into the discussions to assess the impact and potentially provide a research element to the combination. If the boards of both systems moved past years of institutional momentum away from each other, then Bill Greene deserves credit for making it easier and more practical to move toward each other.
Steve Hillis Steve Hillis is chief of business administration for the Mountain Home VA Healthcare System. A veteran himself, Hillis has been a leading figure in establishing contracts with local businesses for services not offered by the local VA in order to make sure our veterans receive the best care available. If you know anything of the federal government, odds are you understand at least a little about how difficult it can be to cut through the red tape to do thing differently. But Hillis has led improvements in service levels at Mountain Home’s nine outpatient clinics through reorganization of the business office and process changes. And the response has been positive. Mountain Home now receives some of the top patient satisfaction scores within the entire Veterans Administration.
30 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Bob Isaac
No photo available.
CONGRATULATIONS for winning a 2015 Healthcare Hero Award
Qualuable Medical Professionals is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) promoting collaboration among healthcare providers of Northeast Tennessee & Southwest Virginia.
www.qualuable.com
Bob Isaac is a volunteer and board member at the Southwest Virginia Cancer Center. A former chairman of the board of Mountain View Regional Hospital, Isaac has, since retirement, turned his attentions in large part to the cancer center in Norton, where he volunteers. Working with administrators, Isaac has led the way on fundraising to help patients meet their financial needs. From turtle races to t-shirt sales to cancer awareness walks, he has worked to enliven the community and help raise funds. In addition, Isaac noticed that several chemotherapy patients were skipping lunch, simply because the chore of making lunch was too much for them. He started an effort in which 30 local restaurants have now signed on to provide hot lunches for those patients.
CONGRATULATIONS
for winning the 2015 Healthcare Hero Innovation Award At OnePartner, data experts and healthcare professionals work together to enable value, deliver results and lead the healthcare transformation.
www.onepartner.com
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
31
Suzy Kandret Suzy Kandret is a registered nurse at NHC Homecare. In her nomination, a family member of a former patient spoke of how Kandret went out of her way to show caring beyond just providing the contracted care. The patient had had a partial hip replacement. It was Kandret’s job to work on his rehabilitation. But the patient was suffering from Parkinson’s as well and was on a number of medications. Kandret helped the patient’s wife understand the regimen of meds, and encouraged the patient with word search puzzles and exercises. When the patient later fell and was hospitalized, she was there for the family again, visiting and offering help where she could. Kandret is an example of what makes most providers of care special. They also provide real caring.
Matthew Kuberka
No photo available.
32 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Kuberka truly has a servant’s heart. He demonstrates this not just through his work as an MRI tech at JCMC, but also by going above and beyond to help people in need. On one occasion, Kuberka performed an MRI scan on an elderly lady. She had told him she simply had to go home because her small dog was left alone there, and she was distraught because there was no one to care for it while she was hospitalized. Case management was notified and a trusted neighbor was located who was able to care for the patient’s dog until she was well enough to go home. Kuberka also organized a coat and clothing drive to help the less fortunate in our community. After a tremendous outpouring of support from the department, he delivered the donated coats and clothing to the downtown homeless shelter – just another example of how Kuberka goes the extra mile to serve others.
Dr. Robert Lee Dr. Lee has been an active volunteer physician at Providence Medical Clinic, a free clinic for qualified individuals who are underserved. As the name would suggest, the clinic is based on the notion of conveying God’s love. When the clinic’s founder left the region, Dr. Lee stepped in. “Without doctors,” he reasoned, “you don’t have a clinic.” Seeing Dr. Lee’s dedication, other physicians joined in the effort, to the point where Dr. Lee now volunteers one night a week, providing care and free medicine and helping those most in need, physically, mentally and spiritually.
Congratulations Dr. Sarah Melton
On being honored as a 2015 Healthcare Hero
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
33
Dr. Melinda Lucas Dr. Lucas has been the pediatric intensive care unit physician noted by patients and colleagues at Niswonger Children’s Hospital as going above and beyond the call of duty in the care of her patients. One nominator said, “many times, sleep has taken a back seat to staying up all night caring for critically ill patients.” Lucas has single-handedly staffed the neonatal intensive care unit allowing Tri-Cities children to have access to critical care. She has even been known to go through a CT scanner with a scared patient in order to calm them.
The Mandy Nutter Prom Team, staffers from Holston Valley Medical Center It’s never a good time to be struck ill, but the timing for young Mandy Nutter was particularly awful. Nutter suffered a seizure in April and would be unable to attend her senior prom. So nurse Carole Hill and nursing supervisor Justin Veasey hatched a plan. The staff put together an event for her. Nurses and nurse anesthetists used all their free time decorating the conference room, obtaining food, flowers and other donations. Staffers then let Mandy’s family in on the plan, asking them to bring her prom dress, make-up and curling iron to the hospital. The nurses fussed over Mandy, getting her ready and telling her some of her friends were coming by to make pictures with her on their way to the prom. When Mandy walked into the conference room, 15 of her friends were there and there was music in the room. Mandy burst into tears, and she wasn’t the only one. She got to dance with her date and have the night she thought she’d miss, thanks to the loving care of 13 staffers at Holston Valley Medical Center: Alma Adams, Santana Adams, Jonathan Barrett, Courtney Bowles, Shannon Campbell, Carol Hill, Nikki Jones, Kenita Light, Christina Lucas, Tammy Nelms, Melanie Simpson, Justin Veasey and Pam Whitaker – the Mandy Nutter Prom Team. 34 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Jim Perkins Jim Perkins is director of the Wellmont Diabetes Treatment Centers. Imagine a race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Now focus in on the cars. There’s the number 16 Ford Mustang. Now focus in closer on it. See the sponsor stickers. There’s one there that says “Diabetes Alert.” Jim Perkins put that sticker there. He did it to draw attention to the fact that this region is far too affected by type 2 diabetes. And for 14 years, Perkins has been fighting it. In large part because of his leadership, Wellmont has multiple self-management programs recognized by the American Diabetes Association. And those Diabetes Alert stickers are now available for patients to put in their own rear windshields, so if they’re pulled over, officers know to check for the possibility of diabetes related symptoms.
Qualuable Medical Professionals Five hundred independent physicians make up the Qualuable Medical Professionals Accountable Care Organization. Earlier we mentioned the OnePartner Health Information Exchange. That exchange is also a unifying factor for the 500 physicians who make up Qualuable. The ACO has a team of physicians, nurses and case managers who focus their efforts on outreach and engagement with the five percent of the population who consume 90 percent of the healthcare resources. These are generally complex patients with chronic conditions. In 2013, Qualuable achieved more than $13 million in savings on their care, putting it in the top third of all ACOs nationwide.
Dr. Scott Fowler
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
35
Randy Sharrow Randy Sharrow is chief financial officer of Holston Medical Group. “I’m not a doctor and I’ll never cure anyone, but I can do my part to help provide services to those who might not otherwise be able to access them,” Sharrow has said. Sharrow and his wife Betsy have been blessed with two children, one of whom, Lydia, suffered a brain injury as an infant. The Sharrows were told she would never walk, eat, or do anything on her own. But today, thanks to the Sharrows’ dedication and services of several organizations, Lydia is able to speak and see well, and can walk unassisted. Sharrow describes Betsy as the one who makes everything happen, but has done a great deal to make good things happen for others. He is an active board member for the Spine Health Foundation which has raised over $1 million in in-kind donations, helping 500 medically-related resources and 22 spine surgeries. He also serves as treasurer and board member for Healing Hands, which provides free healthcare for the working uninsured.
Melanie Stanton
No photo available.
36 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Melanie Stanton is assistant administrator at Sycamore Shoals Hospital and chief nursing officer for both Sycamore Shoals and Unicoi County Memorial Hospital. In smaller hospital settings, mid-level administration duties are often under the purview of care providers. Individuals who are capable of it often wear two hats. Last year, Stanton, who has a lovely family whom she loves very much at home, scheduled herself for the 7 a.m. shift on Christmas morning. Part of her Christmas present to her husband had been tickets to a UT basketball game. She couldn’t go. Her department got slammed with a high patient census, and she went in to help. Stanton knows that healthcare providers are held to a high standard, and that leaders should hold themselves to an even higher one.
Dr. Leslie Taylor Niswonger Children’s Hospital has, for the last couple of years, focused on bringing in new sub-specialists, which is great news for Dr. Taylor, because for the last nine years, she was the region’s only pediatric surgeon. Dr. Taylor has been on call much of that time, expected to be within 10 minutes of the hospital in case of life-threatening pediatric trauma. Often she has been in surgery after midnight and back doing her regular duties early the next morning. Because of lack of coverage, vacations have been rare for her. Yet she still has found time to lecture medical students, teach pediatric residents about surgical procedures in children, and be a mother, wife and grandmother.
Melissa Willett Melissa Willett is director of adult mental health housing for Frontier Health. She first caught the attention of many in the region through her work after the tornadoes of 2011 in Greene County. Entering the situation with no job description and no local role models, she implemented programs for assisting those left homeless that FEMA would later study as models. Today, Willett supervises 45 staff and managers who provide a continuum of housing for more than 150 individuals who have serious and persistent mental illness and/or other co-occuring disorders. Eight group homes and seven apartment complexes in eight Tennessee counties fall under her perview. “You can’t be independent, or even in recovery, without having basic housing needs,” she says. Willett also administers a rental assistance program in which she assists individuals and families with rent and utility costs so they can maintain their housing.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
37
Many heroes across our region provide compassion, loyalty and excellent service. These heroes are just a few of the individuals and organizations that support the growth of healthy communities throughout the Tri-Cities, Tennessee/Virginia region.
FRONTIER HEALTH AND WELLMONT HEALTH SYSTEM ARE PLEASED TO HONOR THE 2015 HEALTHCARE HERO AND CUP OF KINDNESS AWARD RECIPIENTS.
Cup of Kindness Awards
Healthcare Heroes Awards
Community Service Award Sarah Melton East Tennessee State University Gatton College of Pharmacy
Kaye Barger TRACES
Distinguished Service Award Carol Dubay Mountain Home VA Healthcare System Innovation Award OnePartner Health Information Exchange Meritorious Service Award Mountain States Health Alliance Board of Directors Wellmont Health System Board of Directors Support Service Award Rita Tweed Frontier Health
Gerald Blackwell Wellmont CVA Heart Institute Terry Blakely and Jackie Stanley Holston Valley Medical Center Heather Crouse Lee County Behavioral Health Center John Fincher Bristol Regional Medical Center Tom Gambrel Johnson City Medical Center Bill Greene Bank of Tennessee
38 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
Steve Hillis Mountain Home VA Healthcare System
Jim Perkins Wellmont Diabetes Treatment Centers
Bob Isaac Southwest Virginia Cancer Center
Qualuable Medical Professionals Accountable Care Organization
Suzy Kandret NHC Homecare Matthew Kuberka Johnson City Medical Center
Randy Sharrow Holston Medical Group
Robert Lee Providence Medical Clinic
Melanie Stanton Sycamore Shoals Hospital Unicoi County Memorial Hospital
Melinda Lucas Niswonger Children’s Hospital
Leslie Taylor Niswonger Children’s Hospital
The Mandy Nutter Prom Team Holston Valley Medical Center
Melissa Willett Frontier Health
| FEATURES
Mini revolution:
Northeast State freshmen to get iPads in coming school year By Jeff Keeling
S
aving students money and aligning their skills with the needs of employers are two key reasons Northeast State Community College will put iPad minis in the hands of more than 1,500 freshmen this fall. President Dr. Janice Gilliam, Northeast State Foundation and others gathered earlier this summer for the announcement of the “iNortheast” initiative. The Foundation allocated $340,000 out of its $2.4 million fund for the effort. It’s one of several across Tennessee’s community colleges and universities to enhance students’ academic experience – and ultimately their competitiveness in the job market – occurring under the tutelage of Dr. Robbie Melton, the Tennessee Board of Regents’ associate vice chancellor of mobilization and emerging technologies. During the announcement, anatomy instructor Dale Ledford demonstrated a few important concepts students can now learn simply by using the iPad and a pen and paper. “Students can look at the blood vessels, see the heart working and do things that are just mindblowing,” Ledford said, “things that were impossible not very long ago, to be able to visualize what the body’s doing. It is game-changing and can revolutionize what we do.” The devices, leased through a contract with Apple, will be given to all first-time, full-time degreeseeking freshmen. Gilliam said one benefit will be students’ ability to save an average of 40 to 60 percent on books through the use of online textbooks. More importantly, she said, inaction in the tech realm would put the college behind the curve – even though it’s the first Tennessee community college to attempt such a large-scale pilot with students. “We’re aligning ourselves not
only with universities, but also with industry, who requires that students have these skills coming in the door as they start to work,” Gilliam said. The plan is to implement the use of iPads collegewide, “in every classroom and with every student,” starting in the 2016-17 school year, she added. In an interview with The Business Journal, TBR’s Melton said Tennessee has one of the most robust strategic plans for use of mobile devices in higher education. TBR developed a strategic plan centered around that in 2010, “to help the campuses utilize technology for enrollment, retention and graduation rates as part of its Drive to 55,” Melton said. The Drive to 55 is a statewide effort
to increase to 55 the percentage of adult Tennesseans with some type of postsecondary degree or certification. “Strategically, we look at how these devices can improve teaching and learning,” Melton said, adding that TBR has partnerships with multiple tech companies, not just Apple. She said an expert in quantifying the results of the efforts, Lamar University’s Dr. George Saltsman, is externally evaluating the various pilot projects. In the case of Northeast State, “he’s going to come in and look at the pedagogy, the student outcomes and the deployment,” Melton said. “We’ll have both internal measurements and external consultants.”
Express your
Get the Bathroom of your dreams installed in as little as a day!
Express your style
style
Find out how quick and easy it is to express yourself with a bath transformation from
Bath Planet. A full palette of colors, patterns
Express your
style Call now for a FREE shower door upgrade with a complete bath remodel*
FOR AS LONG AS YOU OWN YOUR HOME
*Includes product and labor; bath or shower and wall surround. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Mention promo code: BPTWINS. Each dealership independently owned and operated. ©2015 Bath Planet, LLC. BP-AIP-FPAD.
BP_STY_FPAD_02_2015_ƒ.indd 1
and accessories await you. Get that stylish bath you’ve always dreamed of now! Contact your local Bath Planet® dealer at bathplanet.com/
tricities .
Get inst Find
Get the Bathroom of your yours dre Bath installed in as little as a day!
and a Find out how quick and easy it is toyou’v exp
yourself with a bath from Bath Planet of transformation local
Tri-Cities Bath Planet of (423) the Tri-Cities Bath Planet. A full palette of colors,tricit patt 217-4348 Call now for a FREE shower door and accessories await you. Get that sty (423) 217-4348 MADE IN USA
you’ve always dreamed upgrade with a complete bath of now! Contac remodel* dealer at bathplanet. local Bath Planet 39 bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
Call now for a FREE shower door
®
tricities .
2/18/15 12:58 PM
| DEPARTMENTS ON THE MOVE Administration SESCO Management Consultants has hired employment and labor law attorney Adam Kneisley, as Adam Kneisley vice president – client services, employment and labor law attorney. Kneisley, a 2003 graduate of Milligan College, received his Juris Doctor degree in 2006. While in law school, Kneisley served as managing associate editor of the Law Review and a teaching assistant. As an associate attorney with the law office of E. Patrick Hull, he assisted in representing the Sullivan County School System. In that capacity Kneisley drafted and negotiated contracts and policies, worked and communicated with staff and employees at all levels, and supported the system in complying with federal and state regulatory issues. Kneisley was also a hearing officer for the State of Tennessee.
Kneisley will head SESCO’s labor and employment law compliance group and will be instrumental in assisting clients in complying with federal and state employment regulations. He will also represent clients before the EEOC, OFCCP and Department of Labor, both on a federal and state basis. Asbury Place retirement communities recently named Carolyn Neil health care administrator for its Maryville campus and regional director of clinical services for Carolyn Neil Asbury Place Tennessee. Neil is a registered nurse and licensed nursing home administrator with a 28year career leading health care teams and organizations. She also is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Elder Advocates, a company that guides elders and their families and caregivers through the most difficult stages of life.
At University of Tennessee Medical Center and as COO and CEO of Hillcrest Healthcare, Neil has overseen teams ranging in size to 700 employees. She most recently served as interim nursing home administrator for Asbury Place Kingsport. Earlier this year Neil helped launch Purple Cities Alliance, a public and private coalition of organizations raising awareness about dementia and helping those with the disease feel safer and better cared for in the community. Neil also serves on a number of related boards in the Knoxville area. Neil holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in public health, health planning administration. She also has completed advanced coursework in dementia studies with Johns Hopkins University.
Retail Food City officials recently named Ross Purdy as the company’s new vice president of Center Store Operations. Purdy, formerly of Daymon Worldwide brings more than 35 years of industry experience to the Food City team.
Helping businesses write their history for With decades of experience in helping businesses in the community grow, you’ll find a higher level of personal attention with
First Tennessee. Our Relationship Managers offer practical
strategies, helpful insights and a broad range of business solutions
that can optimize cash flow and take your business to the next level. After 150 years of building relationships and trust, we’re ready for the next big opportunity. Yours.
TO SET UP A MEETING WITH A RELATIONSHIP MANAGER, VISIT FTB.COM/SOLUTIONS OR CALL 423-990-6770
© 2015 First Tennessee Bank National Association. Member FDIC.
40 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
“Ross has worked in grocery retail, consumer package goods and private brands with a number of leading retailers domestically and internationally”, says Steven C. Smith, Food City president and CEO. “I am confident that he will prove to be a valuable asset to our company and that his service in this key position will enable us to continue to advance and Ross Purdy improve upon our center store operations.” Purdy’s new responsibilities with Food City will include the oversight of all center store operations, supervision of the category management staff, space management team, grocery supervisors and coordination of the consumer product goods partners. “I am very excited to be part of the Food City team, a first class growing organization,” said Purdy. “Food City is highly focused on doing the right things for the customer and serving their needs, which makes it very clear on what our priorities are every day.”
Sales LBA Hospitality has named Eva Hunter director of sales at the Courtyard by Marriott Johnson City, TN. A long-time resident of Johnson City, Hunter is a graduate of East Tennessee State University and brings 12 years of proven sales and marketing experience to this position. Most recently working as marketing direc- Eva Hunter tor and community manager at Lexington Senior Living, Hunter previously worked for the City of Johnson City, ReMax Checkmate, and Interstate Graphics. She has been the City’s Recycling Program marketing coordinator and director of Keep Johnson City Beautiful. Hunter is active in organizations throughout the Tri-Cities area, most notably in the Johnson City Chamber of Commerce. She currently serves with ETSU President’s Pride, the Johnson City Ballet Company, Johnson City Senior Services, and the Monday Club Auxiliary. Courtyard by Marriott Johnson City General Manager Steven Bales says “Eva’s accomplishments marketing the City’s recycling program were amazing, simply a complete success. We are confident, as she joins our hotel management team, that Eva’s career accomplishments will help us significantly grow our property’s local marketing efforts.”
Lori Keene, CMP Sales Manager
Summer Renner, CMP Conference Coordinator
Ken Misterly, CMP General Manager
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS General Shale receives two major awards General Shale has been recognized by the commonwealth of Virginia for exceptional reclamation efforts at a former excavation site. The company’s director of human resources was also recently honored with a Patriot Award by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), an office of the Department of Defense. The company was awarded the state’s top reclamation honor for 2015, given jointly by the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy’s Division of Mineral Mining (DMM) and the Virginia Transportation Construction Alliance (VTCA). The award recognized General Shale’s long-term, exemplary reclamation work at its Yuma bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
41
| DEPARTMENTS AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
General Shale began mining operations at the Yuma site, located in Scott County, in location, and was presented at VTCA’s annual 1999. The company first initiated reclamation meeting in Hot Springs. activities as early as 2002 as the shale was The project will be nominated by the exhausted in various portions of the site, and commonwealth of Virginia for a national continued to reclaim areas of the property award through the Interstate Mining Compact throughout its active mining stage and its Commission’s (IMCC) Reclamation Awards post-operative years. In total, General Shale Program for 2015. In the 28-year history of has reclaimed all 74 acres at the location. IMCC’s awards program, no brick manufac The Patriot Award, which recognizes turing company has ever received the national employers for their support of National Guard award for reclamation efforts. and Reserve members, was presented to Scott Headquartered in Johnson City, General Ledford during a ceremony on July 16 at Shale is the North American subsidiary of General Shale’s headquarters in Johnson City. Wienerberger AG and a leading manufacturer Air Force Master Sgt. Steve Sanders of brick. nominated Ledford in recognition of his “Sustainability and environmental support of the Air National Guard. During his stewardship have always been a priority 16-year tenure with General Shale, Sanders at General Shale, and we are proud of our has held several positions at various company award-winning reclamation record,” says locations, including manufacturing supervisor, Charles Smith, president and CEO of General project manager in the corporate engineering Shale. “We work hard to ensure that the areas department, and product engineer. we reclaim at our excavation sites look as good Sanders, who has more than 23 years as or better than they did before we began of service with the Air National Guard, was our operations, and this award validates our recently placed on active duty for the next four stringent efforts to uphold that commitment.” years through an appointment to the United
Your Success is Our Focus
States Air Force Academy as an Academy Military Trainer. He is the first Air National Guard member to serve in this role. “General Shale is proud to support our employees who serve in all aspects of military service, which includes the National Guard and Reserve,” says Smith. “We are deeply appreciative of Steve’s contributions, both to our company and our country through his distinguished military service, and we are honored that he has nominated Scott for this esteemed award.” Ledford, a native of Piney Flats, Tennessee, has been with General Shale since 1998. “It is an honor to have been nominated by Steve for the Patriot Award, and I am pleased to accept this award on behalf of the entire General Shale family,” Ledford says. “It is a privilege to work with Steve and to support him in all that he does to serve our country.” According to ESGR representative James Cross, who presented the award to Ledford, support provided by employers such as General Shale is critical for ensuring that National Guard and Reserve members are able to serve.
COMMERCIAL OFFICE SPACE FOR LEASE • Prime, professional office space in Bristol, Tennessee located at 340 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Auditing & Accounting Services Corporate & Individual Tax Services
• Renovated office building with elevator access across from Anderson Park
Estate Planning, Administration & Tax Services
• Up to 10,000 square feet on one floor available
Individual & Business Advisory Services
• Ample parking
Employee Benefit Services
• 24 hour camera security
Payroll Services
Brown Edwards is a locally‐owned, regional public accounting firm with seven offices in Virginia and West Virginia and more than 175 professionals, including over 100 CPAs, to serve our clients. The firm is ranked 114 among the “Top 200 CPA Firms” in the U.S. by industry media.
1969 Lee Highway Bristol, VA 24201 (276) 466‐5248 www.BEcpas.com
42 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 423-989-7200
| DEPARTMENTS TCAT Elizabethton Recognized for NC3s
establishment of Wellmont Hospice House, which opened in 1996. She became Bristol McVey and Rollins join Bristol Regional’s Regional’s vice president of clinical services Board of Directors in 1994 and held this position for 14 years Lola McVey, director of accounting before her promotion to the system-wide and finance at Bristol Tennessee Essential leadership role. Services, and Suzanne Rollins, who retired “We are pleased to have these two excepin 2009 as Wellmont Health System’s chief tional women on our board and are grateful nursing officer, recently joined the board of for the wisdom they bring to the table,” said directors at Bristol Regional Medical Center. Greg Neal, Bristol Regional’s president. McVey, a Bristol native and certified public “Both have impressive knowledge about our accountant, government financial manager community and will provide valuable guidand power executive, served as business ance as we continue our mission to deliver manager of the Bristol Surgery Center superior health care with compassion. They before joining BTES in 2008 as accountare excellent additions to our high-caliber ing supervisor. Three years later, she was board.” promoted to her current position, where she is responsible for planning, directing and Six more Mountain States practices receive coordinating the functions of accounting, Patient-Centered Medical Home national finance and auditing. recognition Rollins, an Abingdon native, worked Four more Mountain States Medical in the nursing profession for more than 40 Group (MSMG) primary care practices and years. She came to Bristol Memorial Hospital two MSMG-affiliated practices have received in 1980 to start the home health and hospice national recognition for adopting a new program and served as its director for 14 years. Rollins was intimately involved in the SEE MED BRIEFS, 44
MED BRIEFS
John Lee, pictured fourth from left, coordinator of NC3 certification and the Mopar Career Automotive Program at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Elizabethton, received the Dennis Iudice Memorial Award 94for issuing 1,133 NC3 certifications last year, the highest in the U.S. The award, honoring the memory of Dennis Iudice who developed the concept of NC3 certifications, was presented July 16 at the NC3 Leadership Conference at Gateway Technical College in Kenosha, Wisc. Also pictured, from left, are James King, vice chancellor of Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology; Chelle Travis, assistant vice chancellor, TCAT Student Services; Roger Tadejewski, executive director of NC3; and John Richman, vice chair of the NC3 board of directors, president of North Dakota State College of Science.
SPACE FOR LEASE - DOWNTOWN BRISTOL, TN · Located in historic downtown Bristol, TN · Approximately 12,500 to 25,000 square feet available · 2-story building with approximately 12,500 square feet per floor · Recently remodeled · New high-capacity bathrooms · Open layout / Customizable / Sub-dividable · Great retail area with large, street-frontage window display space · New HVAC system
Contact Tracie Coppedge
Gregory Management Co., LLC
423.793.0125
· 1st floor—clean, modern, professionally renovated, in move-in condition · 2nd floor available—clean, good condition, can build to suit · Covered, off-street, dedicated loading dock · Freight elevator service · Well lit in great shopping district with substantial public parking next door · Reasonable market rate with special discount for long-term lease
619-621 Shelby Street Bristol, TN 37620
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
43
| DEPARTMENTS MED BRIEFS, CONTINUED
is a delivery model that emphasizes communication and coordination of care for our patients in any health care setting in an effort to improve quality, reduce costs and enhance the patient experience.”
residents of Unicoi County,” said Matt Rice, chairperson for the Hospital Visioning model of care that physicians believe will Committee. “For those traveling from North result in better health outcomes for patients. Carolina, it will be one of the first buildings These six practices, all located in Southyou see when entering the Valley Beautiful. west Virginia, received Level 3 recognition as The location of the new hospital will also Patient-Centered Medical Homes (PCMH) – Mountain States Health Alliance completes allow us to provide a healing environment the highest level of recognition offered by the land purchase for new UCMH facility in Erwin by taking advantage of the natural beauty of National Committee for Quality Assurance On July 8, Mountain States Health Unicoi County, with the river running along for PCMH. Alliance officials completed the purchase of the east side of the property.” The latest six to receive NCQA recognithe land for the new Unicoi County Memorial The closing on the land is the culmination are: Emory Internal Medicine; Abingdon Hospital facility, scheduled to be operational tion of a two-year process. Family Practice; MSMG Family Medicine, by spring of 2018. Due diligence done prior to the signing Rural Retreat; MSMG Internal Medicine, The closing of the land purchase keeps of the original contract included studies to Marion; MSMG Internal Medicine, Abingthings on schedule for the new hospital make sure, among other things, that the site don; and MSMG Riverside, St. Paul. to be completed within the five-year time has proper access to utilities, has sufficient “We’re pleased that these additional sites frame that was part of the original purchase road access, can support the hospital and have received the highest level of recognition agreement. other supporting facilities, and that the actual by NCQA,” said Steve Kilgore, president & Plans call for the new 20-bed hospital site of the hospital is not in a flood plain. CEO for Blue Ridge Medical Management, to be built on 45 acres located at the south The hospital project is using a design/ which oversees MSMG. “It is the result of a end of Erwin near Exit 40 just off I-26. build delivery process and is currently out lot of hard work and a great commitment by The land is bordered on the east and west for bid. Mountain States plans to select the our team members, mid-level providers and by the Nolichucky River and Temple Hill architectural and design firms this winter, physicians who have been involved in this Road, respectively. followed by design completion in the spring process. “Being right off the interstate, the new of 2016. Construction is slated to begin in “The patient-centered medical home hospital will be very accessible to all of the the fall of 2016.
320 Wesley Street J o h n s o n C i t y, T N 37 6 0 1 423.283.9875 facebook.com/mailworks.tn www.mailworksinc.com 44 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
| MARKETPLACE
For advertising information call 423.854.0140 50083-Budget Office new BC06 OPEN MOST SATURDAYS 9:00-1:00
The Best In New & Used!
Locations in Greeneville, Piney Flats & Newport
Budget Office Furniture
(423) 638-1187 or (423) 638-6971
“More Value For Your Business Dollars”
Bewley Contract Warehouses A DIVISION OF BEWLEY PROPERTIES, INC.
1-800-729-6522
20 COMMONWEALTH AVE BRISTOL, VA www.budgetofficefurniture.com
The Johnson City News & Neighbor The most recent Circulation Verification Council audit of the News & Neighbor shows:
96% 82% 81%
of area households regularly receive our publication regularly read our publication frequently purchase products/services advertised
It’s Verified: We Deliver jcnewsandneighbor.com
*Source: Dec. 2014 CVC Publication Audit Report.
Advertise in The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA. Put our experience to work for you by getting your message on the desks and in the hands of the region’s prime business demographic customers in a 17-county area in Northeast TN and Southwest VA. Call 423.854.0140 or go to bjournal.com for information. For expert marketing plans in the region’s premier business publication call Jeff Williams at 423.202.2240 or Robin Williams at 423.794.6938.
bjournal.com | August 2015 | The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA
45
11/
| THE LAST WORD
Let’s keep shaking it up in business-education partnerships By Jeff Keeling
I
have a young friend who started the 10th grade early this month. I ran into him, and his younger brother who was starting 9th grade, their first morning of school and wound up taking them to lunch that day. Sandwiched around the sandwiches and boneless wings were trips to an out-of-theway street in a poorer part of Johnson City lined with tiny houses. The boys, along with another brother and a sister, split time between there and a small apartment in another part of town. They’re like many area students who lack the culture of post-secondary education and the family means to set them up for a lifetime of occupational success. They are at-risk youth, plain and simple. Whether, 15 years from now, they are contributing to or taking from the tax base will depend on many things. One of the most important is how effectively our education and workforce development infrastructure provides them with both the tools for career success, and the hope and belief in their abilities to succeed. My young friend and his brother have the school system, mentoring programs and various other supports designed to help them achieve. What they don’t have – yet – is an opportunity like that provided to Brooklynite Radcliffe Saddler and reported in the July 18 issue of The Economist. In an article headlined “Business high school,” the magazine reported on Saddler’s experience at a “P-Tech” high school in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood. Short for Pathways in Technology Early College High School, P-Tech opened four years ago and was developed by IBM. The corporation partners with the city and City University of New York with one aim being, The Economist reported, “to shake up education and change what vocational education means.” The program is six years – though some students are finishing in four – and students walk out with an associate’s degree at no cost. P-Tech serves mostly poor students. Most are the first in their families to attend college. “It has an open admissions policy and operates within the existing school district budget.” Young Mr. Saddler graduated in four years, at 18. He had the opportunity for paid internships during the
46 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
experience, and now he’s started a $50,000 a year job with IBM, using his programming and technical skills to analyze market trends. The P-Tech model is growing fast and expected to be in 100 schools in multiple states by next year. Other companies, from huge to small, are adopting similar models, the magazine reported, as are groups of advanced manufacturing firms and even hospitals. It all appears to be good for at-risk youngsters, for companies badly in need of a sufficient stable of good employees now and into the future, and for society at large. It is easy to see the greater Tri-Cities as a semi-idyllic beauty spot free of the urban ills that mar neighborhoods like young Radcliffe Saddler’s – easy and wrong. To do so is to set ourselves up for a level of self-satisfaction with the progress we’ve made toward better workforce development, innovative K-12 programming and related efforts. Those efforts are laudable, for sure. From the great work the Niswonger Foundation has done and continues to do great work on a variety of fronts related to distance learning, dual enrollment and much more. Eastman’s partnerships with schools throughout the region are among many examples of pushing STEM education into our communities. Endeavors such as Girls of Code, and Eastman’s recent “Red Chair” event encouraging an increased number of women in information technology career all point in the right direction for our region’s future economic competitiveness and quality of life. But as our school system leaders well know, local communities contain their own particularly Southern Appalachian cultures of both urban and rural poverty. Each culture carries its own particular challenges with respect to the future success of children growing up within it. We must keep pressing forward with innovative efforts – including some that shake up the status quo in significant ways – in order to provide motivation and hope for young people and a strong workforce for the decades to come. The most inspiring element of The Economist article came at the end. It said much about the near-universal human desire to learn and to apply that learning in productive ways, a desire that often gets buried beneath the stresses that poverty heaps upon people. Radcliffe Saddler has visited the White House, met the president and makes more than most 30-year-olds at 18, but told the reporter his most thrilling experience was taking his first community college course at the age of 15. Our region is full of potential Radcliffe Saddlers. I encourage our leaders in business and education to keep reaching out to them with ever-better opportunities.
Local Lending Leaders. During the last thirty years, Tele-Optics has worked with a number of financial institutions, but we are proud to rate Citizens Bank as the best bank in East Tennessee. In addition to professional and courteous staff, their services are superior. Their lenders worked with us to find solutions to accommodate our borrowing needs. Thank you Citizens Bank for helping Tele-Optics continue to succeed.� Frank Waldo Director of Operations Tele-Optics Frank Waldo (right) with Citizens Bank Business Banker Brad Hoover
952-2265 www.citizensbank24.com
Bank your own way.
Member FDIC
Bristol
Elizabethton
J o h n sbjournal.com o n C |i August t y 2015 | The KBusiness i n gJournal s p ofoTri-Cities r t TN/VA
47
NPAC
2015 - 2016
NISWONGER
SEASON
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
G r e e n e v i l l e
•
T e n n e s s e e
PETER FRAM PTON
BIG DA
48 The Business Journal of Tri-Cities TN/VA | August 2015 | bjournal.com
DDY W
EAVE