VOL. 37, NO. 7
FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016
Focus
TECHNOLOGY: Online orders A convenient way to buy groceries
Who to Watch
P. 4
We honor some of NEO’s brightest in health care
LEGAL: More mergers Practice is picking up at law firms
P. 17-21
P. 6
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
REAL ESTATE: On the move Mars Electric finds a new home P. 7
The List Region’s largest philanthropic gifts P. 27
Untangling your hospital bill Local systems seeing benefits of bundled payment model
GETTY IMAGES
By Lydia Coutre
A new national contract could bring hundreds of patients from across the country to St. Vincent Charity Medical Center for bariatric surgery. The draw? A new and growing payment model that links historically siloed charges into one bundled payment, incentivizing providers to keep costs down, giving insurance companies and patients an expected price tag and potentially improving quality of care. Bundled payments may be a solution to what Tom Campanella, director of the health care MBA program at Baldwin Wallace University, calls one of the biggest challenges in health care: fragmentation. A surgery in a hospital can mean several separate charges: one for the surgeon, another for the anesthesiologist, a pathologist or emergency room physician if they’re involved, then the rehab, occupational therapy, and on and on. “The analogy I would use is a balloon,” Campanella said. “You have
all these different parts, and even if you squeezed down on one, the other side would pop up from a cost standpoint. So now they’re saying let’s wrap all of that together in a bundle.” Bundled payments have an agreed-upon price tag. Any money not spent below that target is savings for the hospital, but overspend and the hospital pays. Several Northeast Ohio hospitals have been piloting the bundled payment model through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As CMS begins to see the benefits of bundled payment, officials expect to see the approach more and more in the commercial industry, such as the contract St. Vincent landed. Already, third-party vendors to negotiate bundled payment contracts between hospitals and insurers or employers are emerging, Campanella said. “It’s moving like crazy,” he added. St. Vincent was selected through a SEE HOSPITAL BILL, PAGE 9
COSE undergoing shakeup Some staff have left organization; others have joined GCP BY JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
Between now and its annual meeting on Feb. 24, the Council of Smaller Enterprises will tell members about a shakeup underway at the 43-year-old small business support group. What appears to be a restructuring includes a closer integration of COSE with the Greater Cleveland Partnership, its parent organization. Many of the COSE staff that handled marketing, membership development and government advocacy are moving over to the staff of similar GCP
units. In the process, it appears that about 20% of the former COSE staff have left the organization in the last year. The leaders of COSE and GCP declined to be interviewed by Crain’s Cleveland Business about the changes but issued the following statement via email: “Like any successful business or organization, chambers of commerce must adapt and be nimble to continue to meet the needs of our members in an evolving market. We will soon be updating our members on some organizational enhancements, but it would be inappropriate for us to talk to the media about those changes
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before communicating with our members.” No current or former employees contacted were willing to discuss the changes on the record. But some members and several current and former employees and contractors were willing to discuss anonymously what they are seeing. “It’s long overdue,” said a current employee, who declined to speak on the record without approval from top management. “It’s now time for us to evolve a little bit.” Another former COSE worker, who has followed the job reassignments, said, “I think this is the direction COSE is headed — less autonomy SEE COSE, PAGE 8
Inside: Business of Life Paper florist has Source Lunch: proven to be ‘a hit’ Cassi Pittman P. 22-23
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z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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Grocery shoppers now have a way to scan the aisles without actually walking through them. A small-but-growing number of stores here and across the nation are giving customers the option to shop online. Some offer curbside pickup. Others will deliver straight to your door. And they let you order stuff that’s still hard — if not impossible — for Northeast Ohioans to get from major online retailers. Milk. Eggs. Produce. Food that needs to stay hot or cold. The few local stores that offer online ordering haven’t been flooded with orders, but they say demand is on the rise. One of them is Giant Eagle. The Pittsburgh-based company already offers curbside pickup at its four Market District stores in Northeast Ohio — two of which started offering the service just this past fall. This year, Giant Eagle plans to start offering the service at “additional locations” in Northeast Ohio, according to Dan Donovan, director of corporate communications for Giant Eagle Inc. Sales aren’t huge, but they’re growing. Plus, customers love it: The Curbside Express teams get higher customer satisfaction ratings compared to 13 other in-store departments, Donovan said. One big reason: “You literally do not have to get out of your car,” he said. The company aims to launch a delivery service “in the near future,” though he’s not sure what cities will serve as test markets. Online grocery shopping has been around in some form for years. Locally, Buehler’s Fresh Markets has offered curbside pickup since 2008. But the trend will really start taking off this year, said Bill Bishop, chief
architect at Brick Meets Click, a Chicago-area consulting firm focused on online retail trends. Large retailers are helping drive the trend. Amazon, Walmart, Target and Kroger all are testing different ways to sell perishable groceries online in other cities. Plus, startups like Instacart have created apps that make it easier for stores large and small to offer home delivery, Bishop said. “All you have to do is say ‘yes’ and you’re selling online,” he said. Instacart doesn’t yet offer service in Northeast Ohio, but it’s already working with grocers that have a presence here, such as Costco and Whole Foods.
Watch your back Thus, smaller grocers are “looking over their shoulder,” said John Karolefski, a longtime grocery industry journalist who runs a blog at GroceryStories.com. And they should be, given how competitive the industry is, said Karolefski, who lives in Broadview Heights. “Any grocer of any size has to consider testing it. … If they don’t do it, their competitor’s going to do it,” he said. Not that it’s a slam dunk. Constantino’s Market started offering curbside pickup and delivery from its downtown Cleveland location about a year ago. Online orders have grown since then, but CEO Andrew Revy described them as “disappointing.” Constantino’s charges a fee — $5 or 20% of the order, whichever is greater — to cover the cost of delivery, but the company incurs other costs as well. For instance, it takes a lot of time to keep the website up to date with the latest products and prices, Revy said. Even so, Constantino’s plans to keep offering the service. “The demand is there. I think it’s taking a while to take hold,” he said. It also took a while for Ellet IGA’s delivery service to catch on. Today, the
Akron-based store takes nearly 400 online orders per month, and those orders are roughly five times larger than the average in-store purchase. The service “more than covers its own costs,” according to Jeffrey LeBlanc, one of the store’s four owners.
A ‘high-service business’ But when the company launched its Hometown Grocery Delivery website in 2010, orders came in “slower than we wanted,” LeBlanc said. It takes time for customers to “change a basic habit,” he said. Ellet IGA also put effort into marketing the service. For instance, it worked with Akron’s Area Agency on Aging to get the word out. It also pushed to ensure that the Medicaid PASSPORT program would cover the $10 delivery fee. As a result, about half of all deliveries go to senior citizens and people with disabilities. The service is going well, but it’s not without challenges. LeBlanc described it as a “high-service business.” The store has to call people to make sure they’re home before dropping off food, and it sometimes has to call them before bagging their goods if the store has to substitute one product for another, or if the information the customer provided online wasn’t clear. Customer support has been a challenge for Giant Eagle. People often place orders late at night, when the company doesn’t always have employees ready to answer questions, Donovan said, noting that the company is thinking about launching an online chat function. It’s worth the effort for Giant Eagle, however: Stores offering curbside pickup for more than a year saw “notable double-digit percentage growth in the past 12 months,” he said. Once people see how easy it is to reorder items they’ve ordered in the past, they tend to keep coming back. “That’s when it starts to really hit home with customers,” Donovan said. Volume 37, Number 7 Crain’s s Cleveland Bus sines ss (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113-1230. Copyright © 2015 by Crain Communications Inc. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, Ohio, and at additional mailing offices. Price per copy: $2.00. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Crain’s s Cleveland Bus sines ss, Circulation Department, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48207-2912. 1-877-824210-0 0750 9373. REPRINT INFORMATION: 212-2 Subscriptions: In Ohio: 1 year - $64, 2 year - $110. Outside Ohio: 1 year - $110, 2 year - $195. Single copy, $2.00. Allow 4 weeks for change of address. For subscription information and delivery concerns send correspondence to Audience Development Department, Crain’s Cleveland Business, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, Michigan, 48207-9911, or email to customerservice@crainscleveland.com, or call 877-824-9373 (in the U.S. and Canada) or (313) 446-0450 (all other locations), or fax 313-446-6777.
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There’s a growth spurt happening in the legal industry expected to drive more mergers and acquisitions as law firms get increasingly aggressive with their strategic growth plans. The question for local firms is whether they’ll seek combinations that grow their hometown presence, bolster practices in other markets or enter new ones. Depending on whom you ask, the answers will vary. For midsize Cleveland law firm Walter | Haverfield, smaller local firms are more likely on the radar than those outside Northeast Ohio. “We are very much in the acquisitive mode in terms of trying to find and identify potential firms and groups of lawyers that could support our growth as we continue to expand our footprint in Northeast Ohio,� said managing partner Ralph Cascarilla. Walter | Haverfield hasn’t made any significant firm acquisitions since Cascarilla joined in 1994, although they’ve been open to them for many years, he said. Yet the interest in mergers is being shared throughout the industry. There’s no doubt firms are looking at acquisitive growth more aggressively now, whether that’s a
larger firm absorbing a smaller one or two boutique firms joining forces, said Ward Bower, a principal at Altman Weil in Newtown Square, Pa., a company that provides management consulting to law firms. There were a record number of law firm mergers in 2015, according to Altman Weil, with 91 mergers announced in the United States last year — the highest number in the nine years the firm has tracked law firm combinations. Of those, 23% involved the acquisition of a Midwest firm, although most centered around Illinois, according to Altman Weil. Comparatively, the most of the combinations overall (28%) involved firms based in the southern states.
Acquisitive growth Gaining size and growing footprints are certainly not new goals for most law firms. However, firms in general are clearly more interested in mergers today, Bower said — even if law firm managers are reticent to discuss their growth strategies publicly. That’s largely because firms are no longer in survival mode. Even those that performed well through the recession generally saw revenue growth slow, stall or fall. Many offices today are doing financially better now several years removed from that last economic downturn that dried up clients’ legal budgets, leav-
ing many firms and practices reeling as demand for legal services tanked during and immediately after the recession. “In recent years, we’ve seen a revitalization of the merger market,� said Bower. “Firms are dusting off strategic plans or updating them and proceeding with more aggressive growth strategies because now they can afford to.� Larger firms, like Squire Patton Boggs, are more likely to eye combinations through a more national and global lens. One of this region’s most prominent mergers in recent years, in fact, came with the combination of Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C., lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs in 2014, which marked a Cleveland-based firm making a substantial acquisition outside the region. The firm maintains interest in additional combinations today. But those almost certainly would come with firms outside Ohio, said Michele Connell, partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office and a member of the firm’s executive committee. “Our growth strategy, whether incremental or through larger mergers, is driven by the long-term goal of being positioned to help clients,� Connell said. “There may be areas where we want to go deeper, but our (growth) strategy is driven by where SEE MERGERS, PAGE 8
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Mars Electric moving to Mayfield Village BY STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter
Mars Electric Co., a distributor and wholesaler of electrical supplies, plans to double the size of its central warehouse and headquarters in a move to 110,000 square feet in Mayfield Village from its longtime Willoughby home. “We’ve outgrown our building,” said Michael Doris, director of operations for Mars. “Our sales have grown 20% the last couple years. To continue to support our customers and grow, we needed to make this move to open more locations throughout Northeast Ohio.” Mars agreed to lease space at the former Euclid Industries Building, 6655 Beta Drive, owned by an affiliate of Cuyahoga Heights-based Premier Development Partners LLC. Premier will renovate and update the former factory space to suit Mars’ needs, Doris said, an advantage of leasing over buying. Although Mars will shift 60 office and warehouse workers to Mayfield Village from Willoughby, Doris said Mars will keep counter operations and about eight employees at 38868 Mentor Ave. “All of Lake County is really important to us,” Doris said, “We wanted to continue to have that presence.”
Doris’ grandparents launched Mars in 1952 in Lake County. It remains family owned, with his father Mark serving as president and brother, Andrew, working in sales and inventory management. Originally, Mars primarily stocked shelves of regional retailers such as the late Uncle Bill’s, but it shifted its emphasis in the 1980s to supplying electrical contractors. The central warehouse now supplies 11 locations serving an area from Ashtabula and Canton to Sandusky. Mars had not planned to move central operations from Lake County, but found the right fit in Cuyahoga County. David Stover, a principal of Hanna Commercial Group, said Mars searched lease and purchase options in Lake and Geauga counties before settling on Mayfield Village, which has good freeway access. With the Mars lease, Premier will finish filling late this spring a 200,000-square-foot building it bought in 2012. Mayfield Village Mayor Brenda Bodnar said in an email that the village is “excited to welcome” Mars to town. Ted Esborn, Mayfield economic development director, said the deal is important because when Mars moves in it will fill the rear section of the village’s largest industrial property — one largely empty since 2000.
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z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
COSE
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
within the GCP empire.” The move leaves COSE with 12 employees listed on its website, most of whom handle one of two COSE programs: one that helps members save energy, and another that helps them improve their worker safety and workers’ compensation programs. In fact, where GCP once had nine COSE departments listed on the staff directory dropdown on the GCP site —among them units listed as advocacy; brand, marketing and communications; business operations; events; external relations and market development; and membership sales and service — there is now only a single, generic COSE listing. COSE employees who handled event planning, marketing and membership sales now are listed under comparable GCP departments. Megan Kim, who had been COSE vice president of business operations, now is GCP managing vice president for membership development and marketing. Brynn Popa, formerly COSE’s vice president for external relations and market development, now is GCP vice president for business and community engagement. A comparison of the staff directories on the GCP and COSE websites with those from April 2015 indicates that COSE went from a staff of 33 to the current 12, though 14 people formerly listed as COSE employees now are listed as GCP employees. Seven people listed as COSE employees a year ago no longer are part of the GCP/COSE staff roster, suggesting a 21% shrinkage of the former COSE staff. A current employee said it made sense to pull the two organizations together as COSE membership shrank. With the onset of the Affordable Care Act, the COSE group insur-
ance program no longer was companies’ only option for affordable health insurance. COSE membership had held at over 15,000 members for years, with the cost of membership offset by the savings on health insurance. For a long time, it was the only place the smallest businesses, including oneperson shops, could be part of a lowcost group insurance program. A year ago, The Plain Dealer, in a story about the 2015 annual meeting, reported that membership was down to about 9,000. Two years ago, COSE leaders were more willing to discuss what, in retrospect, sounds like a similar shakeup. Rion Safier, now and then the volunteer board chairman of COSE, said then that the goal was to be the place small businesses turn to first when they’re looking for help. He said the hope was that COSE would help small firms gain access to capital and for identifying and attracting skilled workers. It’s unclear whether the current changes are a continuation of that strategy, a shift to a different strategy or simply a cost-cutting effort. Speaking to Crain’s in 2014, John Hexter, a longtime member and former COSE board member, lauded the new approach and said he hoped the changes then underway would convince small business owners of COSE’s relevance when it comes time to renew their memberships. Hexter had left the board in 2006 over disagreements with the direction the organization was taking. “The next 24 months are critical to the renewal process,” he told Crain’s then. “They’ve got to make it clear that there is something different at COSE and it’s worth investing in.” Contacted recently, Hexter emailed that he was not aware of any significant changes underway.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6
we need to be.” Of course, Squire Patton Boggs and Walter | Haverfield are on different ends of the legal spectrum. They specialize in different areas and operate at much different sizes. Squire has some 1,500 attorneys worldwide to Walter | Haverfield’s 64 in Ohio. Yet, the theme remains that firms large and small are increasingly interested in acquisitive growth. And while there’s always some exceptions, Northeast Ohio firms, particularly larger players, are more likely to seek combinations outside the state. “I think for the most part what you’re going to see in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio is firms doing one of two things: small firms combining to increase breadth and depth of service practice capabilities, or Cleveland firms located elsewhere getting to new markets or strengthening positions in markets outside Northeast Ohio,” Bower said.
As for smaller firms While firms are seeing revenues grow in today’s market, better finances aren’t always the only motivation — particularly for smaller offices. Bower notes that smaller firms are more likely to merge in today’s market all the same, whether that’s through an absorption by a larger firm or a true merger of equals providing additional scale and making smaller operations even more competitive by improving services. In Cleveland, a couple of those combinations were announced in just the past month. Spieth, Bell, McCurdy & Newell Co. LPA announced plans to merge with Schneider, Smeltz, Ranney &
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LaFond. The combination of two long-established Cleveland offices results in Schneider Smeltz Spieth Bell LLP, which will have a total headcount of about 50 employees and 25 local attorneys. The two offices are combining in a new space at One Cleveland Center in downtown soon.
“We could’ve stayed solo, hired more people. But it just makes more sense in terms of workload and overhead to join forces.” Brian J. Halliday, whose firm merged with Marin K. Ritter’s to form Ritter Halliday LLP The merger preserves independence for both offices — managing partners at each say they had been approached over the years by larger firms about a combination, but weren’t interested in merging. Schneider, Smeltz president Jim Vail will serve as managing partner of the new firm, while Spieth, Bell managing partner Jim Bright will
serve as a partner on the executive committee. It also adds some new services for clients of each and bolsters their collective practices in trust and real estate law and deepens the talent pool. “We saw the opportunity to bring a lot of smart people to us with good practices, and that enables us also to use some of our practice areas for their clients,” Vail said. “But I envision we will continue to stay relatively small. We have no aspirations to become a large law firm.” Meanwhile, boutique firms of The Law Offices of Brian J. Halliday and The Law Offices of Marin K. Ritter joined together in January to form Ritter Halliday LLP. Both went solo between 2008-2009 with a focus on immigration and employment law, but saw the value in combining forces as business ticks up. The duo is looking to possibly hire a couple more attorneys this year. “We could’ve stayed solo, hired more people. But it just makes more sense in terms of workload and overhead to join forces,” Halliday said. “Now we’re in a position where we can better absorb the shocks up and down and weather an increase in business that could happen all of a sudden.” While more mergers are anticipated, Bower postulates that larger firms, in particular, are more likely to target firms outside the state simply because of the tight legal market here. Meanwhile, smaller and midsize firms around Northeast Ohio are less likely to be targeted by outside firms. “We don’t see Cleveland being a hot target area for firms outside Cleveland,” Bower said. “That’s partly because it’s so competitive with so many good firms — it would be hard to get a foothold there.”
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 9
HOSPITAL BILL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
national competitive selection as the first hospital in the country to participate in the Pacific Business Group on Health Employers Centers of Excellence Network for bariatric surgery. Through the contract, which went into effect Jan. 1, the hospital will provide weight-loss surgery for large national employers through a bundled payment arrangement. Dr. David F. Perse, St. Vincent president and CEO, said the contract will help the hospital have a national reach and compete locally in what can sometimes create “an untenable situation for health competition.” “In our market, the dominance of the big players is keenly felt by us,” he said. “So bundled models, I believe, create opportunity for entities to reach beyond local markets and to perhaps be evaluated more soberly with regard to cost and quality.”
Why bundle? CMS has been piloting the model in recent years through its Bundled Payment for Care Improvement (BPCI) initiative. University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic and Lake Health have all implemented the BPCI model 2, which bundles payments to include an inpatient stay in an acute care hospital, plus the postacute care and all related services for up to 90 additional days. By linking acute care and postacute care services under one total cost threshold, the various providers — from the initial physician to the staff at a rehab hospital — are pushed to communicate throughout the continuum of care. CMS attaches a single price point to that bundle, based on individual hospitals’ historic costs.
Though the program is voluntary so far, hospital leaders say it makes sense to jump onto the initiative — it’s where health care is headed. Rick Cicero, senior vice president for business development at Lake Health, said bundled payments are a “natural progression” from the diagnosis-related group, or DRG, system established in the 1980s. It established classifications for inpatient procedures and groups to help control costs. The bundled model builds on this by adding the care a patient receives after they walk out the hospital doors. Bundled payments are one of the main ways CMS is looking to shift toward value-based payments, said Brent Carson, vice president of managed care and market solutions for University Hospitals, which implemented BPCI in its Case, Parma and Elyria medical centers for joint replacement. Though there aren’t additional dates set to roll out more mandatory bundled payment rules, many agree that’s likely. And although there’s also no set time to re-evaluate the established prices for procedures, Carson believes that’s probably coming, too. “We believe over time it is going to get more and more challenging in terms of the targets,” he said.
Rising quality, falling costs The bundles are about bringing all providers together around the patient to provide seamless care, Cicero said. “It really forces us to communicate to us in ways we didn’t before. We’ve always done well with our doctors and everything in the hospital, but now we’re bringing postacute care into it,” he said. “It really
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Dr. David Perse brings a better product and produces better outcomes for patients.” Already, he said, Lake Health has seen reduced readmissions and is getting people out of the hospital faster and getting them home or into therapy. Don Schiffbauer, director of clinical operations at UH Elyria Medical Center, said he has seen some of the same. Having just started the BPCI program in July, full metrics aren’t available yet, but the initial results look promising, he said, which can translate to benefits to patients beyond those covered by Medicare. “Even though we’re participating in a Medicare program, we’re not just relegating this to the 65-andolder population,” Schiffbauer said. “We recognize that the quality and collaboration that we have, it’s applicable to the entire population for these diagnoses.” Although there’s financial risk, there’s also room to add efficiencies and grow the margin of savings. Lake Health and UH don’t yet have
cost savings data from the bundled payments, having just started in July. Data at the Cleveland Clinic show close to $2,000 savings per procedure, said Kevin Sears, executive director of market and network services for the Cleveland Clinic, which has been piloting BPCI since 2013 for total hip and knee replacements. The procedures that typically make the most sense for a bundled payment arrangement are those that have a clearly defined start and end, Sears said. Carson said UH chose hip and knee replacements for that same reason — it’s a defined procedure. It makes more sense, especially for programs such as BPCI that, for the most part, don’t carve out exceptions for complications. The historical benchmark included patients with co-morbidities and other complications, so the established bundled price should cover outliers and average out for hospitals.
The case at St. Vincent Bariatric surgery doesn’t quite fit that bill. It’s complicated and can cross into a lot of fields of medicine, from psychologists and dieticians to surgeons and radiologists. But the contract St. Vincent has allows for exceptions and some adjustments to the cost. As one of its strongest programs, bariatric surgery makes sense for St. Vincent to bundle, Perse said. Already, St. Vincent has received dozens of inquiries about the program and has identified at least 30 individuals who have expressed interest and meet the qualifications. As St. Vincent works out the details of the contract this year, Perse said it will position the hospital well
to offer other specialty services beyond the region. As patients across the country see the option to have bariatric surgery at St. Vincent in their health benefits, there are still added considerations. For instance, what portion of that negotiated price tag falls to the patient varies depending on the insurance company and employer’s offered plan. And the cost to travel to Cleveland twice — for an initial consult and then the surgery — is not insignificant, Perse said. Hospital leaders are working on establishing payment plans to help make it viable for patients. But that defined price tag can make the trip worth it, he said. Patients, employers and insurers know the cost ahead of time and can make an educated decision on that cost and the benefit of the travel. With more than 40 obesity-related diseases, many of which can be addressed through weight loss, the cost savings can reach far beyond the negotiated bundled payment. In the first year, Perse said he hopes to see 50 patients come. Within one to three years he’d like to see that grow to 300. “Understanding costs is always better in the business world than your estimate thereof,” he said. “When you can look at a product line and pin a cost more accurately, in general, that’s more efficient.” Combining various fees and charges into a fixed singular cost adds clarity, he said. Campanella of Baldwin Wallace said people aren’t likely to pay to send somebody across the country for care without understanding the total cost. “We’ve got to know what we’re getting into,” he said.
PAGE 10
z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Opinion From the Editor
Better late than never: Be ethical, no matter costs
Editorial
Raising concern It has only been five years since a reformed Cuyahoga County government took hold. The results have been far from perfect, but the structure in place today has been much more palatable than the scandal-ridden goliath that ultimately resulted in two elected officials and nearly 60 others being convicted of fraud, bribery and conspiracy. So, to see a hint of the county’s old, self-serving ways creep back into its dealings in 2016 is more than upsetting. Last week, in a 7-4 vote, county council signed off on a 15.5% pay hike for itself effective in 2019. The rationale is that the job — now codified as a part-time gig with an annual $45,000 salary — has evolved into more of a full-time affair. However, signing off on their own eventual pay increase as many county residents continue to struggle in the recession’s wake is disingenuous at best. Also, a recent investigation by WKYC, for instance, revealed that some members are “chronically absent” from their meetings. The move also is a slap in the face of the county reformers who set out to create a local system of government that worked for the people — not those who are already generously compensated to keep the gears moving. Last year, those who worked on the reform efforts — namely former Shaker Heights mayor Judy Rawson and former Pepper Pike mayor Bruce Akers — told Crain’s reporter Jay Miller they believe the county got a council with outsized ambitions, one that has done too much micromanaging and second-guessing of its chief executive when its main responsibilities were to be approving the county budget and helping set broad policy. The $45,000 salary, Akers told Miller at the time, was “far higher than what we wanted.”
It’s worth noting that that the $45,000 salary already tops the $25,000 a year earned by Summit County council members. Plus, the Cuyahoga County council’s $45,000 salary for part-time work already exceeds the median household income in the county they serve. Proponents of the higher salaries, of course, would argue that helping run a county the size of Cuyahoga requires an engaged — and fairly compensated — legislative body. Still, based on the above numbers, $45,000 a year is more than fair. This week, county executive Armond Budish has the opportunity to veto the council’s move, though it could be overridden by eight council votes. He should move swiftly. Public service isn’t supposed to be easy or used to fatten wallets. The key word is “service.” If those on council believe they are being unjustly overworked, we’d suggest they find more lucrative part-time work elsewhere. The county charter approved by voters in 2009 clearly states that council members shall serve in a “part-time capacity.” Had voters wanted a full-time council, they would have demanded such. And if the council jobs have evolved into more than a part-time affair, they’re in conflict with what voters intended when they elected them to office. Over the last five years, the county has made progress, and we’ll credit council for some of that hard work. However, the wounds inflicted by Jimmy Dimora and his cronies are still fresh. Council’s latest, self-serving action might not be another stab in the gut, but they’ve at least started to pick at the scab.
ACTING PUBLISHER AND EDITOR: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MANAGING EDITOR: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)
It started small — just $40,000. HealthSouth Corp.’s quarterly earnings had fallen just short of Wall Street’s expectations. It didn’t miss by much, but it was still a miss. And disappointing Wall Street was hard to take, especially for a company that had met or exceeded expectations for more than 40 quarters in a row. That’s an impressive streak. And to have it ruined because of a paltry $40,000? So the decision was made among senior executives to play with the numbers, just this one time. It’s only 40 grand, right? Just a rounding error, really. Because, after all, you don’t want to disappoint Wall Street. The next quarter, though, when the numbers fell short again — the die was cast. A new streak, this built on fiction, rolled on. And so began a $2.7 billion fraud that would rock a Elizabeth Fortune 500 company and negatively impact McIntyre the lives of employees, investors and their families. Weston Smith was one of the many whose life was turned upside down by the accounting scandal at the health-care giant. But Smith will be the first to tell you, as he did last week during a speech in Cleveland, that he was no victim. Smith was HealthSouth’s chief financial officer — complicit in cooking the books. By 2002, he had enough of the lying. His conscience was heavy, yes, but also he feared repercussions if he persisted. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was enacted that year in the wake of the Enron scandal. Faced with the prospect of signing inaccurate financial statements, Smith resigned. A few months later, he went to the FBI with what he knew. And he knew a lot. “I was scared to death,” Smith said of his first meeting with the feds. He soon realized as the hours wore on that day that “stronger than the feeling of fear was the thankfulness. The lying was over.” Blowing the whistle didn’t mean Smith got off easy. He was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his role, one of about a half-dozen HealthSouth executives who served time. Last week, Smith shared his story and offered perspective on ethics to Cleveland-area business leaders. He spoke at a joint meeting of the Northeast Ohio chapters of Financial Executives International and the Association of Corporate Growth. The story he shared should give pause to any business person who thinks he or she can tweak the numbers and cut corners with the hope of getting away with it. “It’s not business ethics,” he said. “It’s just ethics. … You have got to set a tone that we are going to be about ethics and integrity in every aspect, from who we hire to who we do business with.” The tone at HealthSouth started at the top with then-CEO Richard Scrushy, and it was toxic. Smith described Scrushy as a leader willing to win at all costs, one who would skirt responsibility when things didn’t go his way. Ultimately, when HealthSouth’s numbers weren’t meeting expectations, Scrushy ordered that the books be cooked, and for six years, they were. The signs of the fraud were there for anyone who bothered to look closely: excessive startup costs, a ridiculously high growth rate year-over-year, inflated one-time charges. What still haunts Smith is the toll the scandal took on the innocent. “The investors in the company, the employees who lost their jobs, their kids. How selfish of me. To put my own kids through this.” A sense of ethics came late to Weston Smith. But it did come. He served his time. He’s spreading an important message. It’s one we can all benefit from. And it boils down to this: Do the right thing. As Smith said, it’s not business ethics. It’s just ethics.
WRITE US: Crain’s welcomes responses from readers. Letters should be as brief as possible and may be edited. Send letters to Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 44113, or by emailing letters@crain.com. Please include your complete name and city from which you are writing, and a telephone number for fact-checking purposes.
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 11
You worked hard. You saved.
Personal View
Share the burden, don’t shift it BY JOSEPH A. GLICK Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and City Council have recently proposed raising Cleveland income taxes to 2.5% from its current level of 2%. While the half-percentage point increase does not sound like a lot, it represents an overall increase of 25% versus the city’s current tax rate, a significant burden to most taxpayers who work or live in Cleveland. At the heart of the proposed tax increase, which will undoubtedly be on the ballot in November, is a reaction to a forecast budget shortfall of roughly $42 million, driven largely by deep — and many would say unfair — cuts in the funding Cleveland used to receive from the state. Such a local tax increase can be viewed as a necessary result of these draconian funding cuts by the state coupled with the perpetual economic headwinds our region faces. However, it can also be viewed as a shortsighted and inequitable solution to a more fundamental challenge: How can the city maintain — and even improve — its services while remaining affordable and competitive? Ten years ago, when Jackson first took office, I was a volunteer on the mayor’s Operations Efficiency Task Force, an initiative to improve the quality and cost of city services. This program, modeled after Mayor George Voinovich’s successful task force of the early 1980s, sought the ideas, experience and horsepower of dozens of private-sector and civic leaders and doers. This initiative identified and detailed significant
opportunities to improve the quality, consistency, delivery, and — of course — cost of services. And, while some of these ideas took root, few of the transformational improvements were ever implemented in a way that allowed the city to realize their full benefit. So, it is jarringly disappointing to see the mayor and city council push for a tax increase that will further affect this region’s ability to compete when alternatives still exist. Mayor Jackson and City Council members: Wouldn’t a more sustainable and strategic alternative be to couple a modest tax increase with a plan to reinvent how Cleveland delivers its services, leveraging some of the same ideas and resources identified, but never fully implemented, during your first Operations Task Force and incorporating new advances in technology and digitization? Doing so allows you to address your near-term budget gap while keeping a transformative eye toward the future. It penalizes less those who choose to work, live and own businesses in Cleveland; will help to maintain the city’s competitiveness; and has the potential to continue to differentiate Cleveland and our region as a place that embraces the future. You stand a real chance of driving substantive improvements in our region by placing renewed emphasis on a wide range of transformational improvements, such as digitizing services, streamlining back office functions, accelerating partnerships with other government entities to drive scale and purchasing power, and leveraging open government solutions. Share the burden or shift it. The choice is yours.
Glick works in global strategy and transformation at Deutsche Bank and resides in Northeast Ohio.
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PAGE 12
z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Home2 Suites finds two spots in suburbs
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Two more outposts for Home2 Suites by Hilton extended-stay hotels are under construction, one in Independence and the other in Middleburg Heights. Locally based hotel operators are developing both hotels, which cost more than $6 million each to build. Construction workers are putting in the third of four floors for the Independence Home2 Suites on a site on Patriot’s Way that is being developed by Cloverleaf Partners LLC, a Gates Mills-based investor group led by Ameet Patil. “We’ll be only the second hotel on the west side of Interstate 77 in Independence and look to finish by the fall of 2016,” Patil said in an interview. The Patriot’s Way site adjoins a parcel owned by the city of Independence that the city is working to develop as a mixed-use project, Patil noted, which may also benefit the limited-service, extended-stay hotel. It will have 106 suites. Patil said Home2 Suites are designed to provide economical, casual accommodations for guests staying 30 days or longer, or a single day. The suites include kitchenettes and a folding wall that can separate the bedroom from the suite’s couch and work area. The hotel features an “oasis”-style lobby area, fitness center and a saline pool. Patil headed an investor group that operated and last year sold a Hamp-
A rendering of the Home2 Suites Independence (Contributed photo) ton Inn in Brooklyn. He focused on the Independence site because of what he views as “development neglect” of the suburb’s lodging market since 2002, with the exception of a Springhill Suites that another group is constructing on the east side of I-77. Meantime, the Middleburg Heights project is going in at 7355 Engle Road and is being developed by Mentor-based Sunshine Co. Inc., which has operated the Hampton Inn, 5675 Emerald Court in Mentor, for the past 20 years. It consists of 111 suites and will bring about 30 additional jobs to the suburb, according to Charles Bichara, Middleburg Heights’ economic development director. When reached by Crain’s, Alpesh Patel, who operates Sunshine with Mina Patel, said he was in a business meeting and could not discuss his plans for the Middleburg Heights
property. David Sangree, president of Lakewood-based Lodging & Hospitality Advisors, said Hilton is looking to fill a level between its Homewood Suites upscale extend-stay properties and its Hampton Inn properties. “They’re pretty nice. They’re not a budget facility at all,” Sangree said. Success of each property depends on how much local business it captures although they may benefit from some overflow when the downtown hotels are fully occupied. Patil said once Cloverleaf’s Independence hotel goes in, it will pursue additional development opportunities in the region. “We’re local guys,” Patil said. He grew up in Mayfield Heights and returned to the area after graduating from the Cornell Hotel School in 2009 and spending several years in hotel brokerage in Denver.
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CONNECTING FOR SUCCESS S ales & Marketing Executives of Cleveland (SME Cleveland) has been supporting sales and marketing professionals for more than 92 years through networking, education and lead opportunities. With more than 300 members, 38 corporate members and seven corporate sponsors, SME Cleveland focuses on assisting members in reaching their sales and marketing goals and improving their skills.
“It doesn’t matter where you are in your career,” says executive director Mary Margaret Lavelle. “Whatever you attend — a presentation, an educational opportunity or a networking lunch — you’ll walk away with new information to put to use in your career.” Lavelle says SME Cleveland supports professionals in helping to form relationships and build on those relationships through activities such as networking lunches, workshops, exchange group and Business
After Hours events. The 55th annual awards banquet, which will be Feb. 25 at Public Auditorium, will acknowledge excellence and provide recognition for outstanding sales and marketing achievement. The awards honor the Business Executive of the Year and the Distinguished Marketing and Sales Awards. Selection criteria are based on the demonstration of the highest business, professional and ethical standards.
“We are honored to have David Gilbert as our 2016 Business Executive of the Year,” Lavelle says. “Look at what he’s done with the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Destination Cleveland and the RNC Host Committee. His work and passion for Cleveland is impressive. “He’s great for the City of Cleveland,” she says. “He’s a kind, genuine, outgoing person. Cleveland is fortunate to have him. We’re thrilled to recognize David and the 2016 DMSA recipients at this year’s event.” SME’s Distinguished Marketing and Sales Awards, Lavelle says, is the best networking opportunity of the year.
2016 BUSINESS EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR DAVID GILBERT
HELPING CLEVELAND BUILD UPON ITSELF
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avid Gilbert considers the Sales & Marketing Executive of the Year title an honor that reflects the successful work of the organizations he leads. The president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission, Destination Cleveland and the 2016 Republican National Convention Host Committee says he is most proud of helping Cleveland build on itself. “We’re always in competition with other cities around the country and the world. Oftentimes we were not looked at as a serious contender. That is changing now,” Gilbert said. “With the right business model, the right tenacity and the right rallying of the community, we can win. I think those victories for our community are even sweeter when we were not expected to win.” Daniel Walsh, who served on Destination Cleveland’s board with Gilbert, said what makes Gilbert special is his vision for an
organization and the ability to hire great talent to fulfill that vision. “He’s the whole package,” Walsh says. “He’s in it for the greater good. He understands how to connect with all of his stakeholders outside an organization to make great things happen.”
A proven leader Since 2000, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission has attracted and created more than 160 events in Greater Cleveland that contributed more than $410 million to the local economy, including the NCAA Women’s Final Four, National Senior Games, NBC Gravity Games, U.S. Figure Skating Championships, U.S. Gymnastics Championships and International Children’s Games. Destination Cleveland contributes to the region’s $15 billion tourism industry and
supports the 170,000 jobs created by 29 million visitors to a 17-county region. According to Destination Cleveland, Cuyahoga County in 2013 welcomed 16.2 million visitors who contributed more than $7.4 million to the local economy. Gilbert said his teams don’t go into anything without fully believing in what the Greater Cleveland area has to offer. “I do believe the success of these organizations, and what they are doing is playing a real role in changing Cleveland’s attitude about itself, and Clevelanders’ attitudes about our own city,” Gilbert said. “Getting the RNC shows we win. It shows we are good enough to beat cities from around the country. “
A history of service Gilbert has been recognized by Crain’s Cleveland Business as one of Cleveland’s 30 Influencers of the Past 30 Years and one of
Cleveland’s 40 Under 40. He received the 2004 Pillar Award as the Non-Profit Executive of the Year and the 2006 Anthem Impact Award. In addition to his current duties, Gilbert is vice president of the board of the International Children’s Games and sits on the boards of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the Greater Cleveland Film Commission. He is a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2001. Previously, Gilbert served as director of community affairs and special projects for the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland, executive director of North Coast Harbor Inc. and director of corporate development for The Cleveland Play House. Gilbert lives in Solon with his wife Faith, daughter Emily and son Bradley. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling and marathon running.
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S2 February 15, 2016
2016 DISTINGUISHED MARKETING AND SALES AWARD RECIPIENTS JEFFREY CONCEPCION
Founder and CEO Stratos Wealth Partners Jeffrey Concepcion is founder and CEO of Stratos Wealth Partners, a firm he launched in 2008 to fulfill a need for advisers and their clients. Stratos Wealth Partners provides the infrastructure, resources and support to focus on its core competency — advising clients. Today, Stratos specializes in financial planning and implementation services through a national network of financial planning practitioners throughout the country, all powered by LPL Financial. Concepcion is responsible for the acquisition, development and coaching of the firm’s affiliated advisers from
across the nation, and he maintains a personal planning practice. Prior to launching Stratos Wealth Partners, Concepcion spent 22 years in senior management positions with Lincoln Financial Network, including roles as executive director for the eastern region, senior vice president of market access and a member of the executive committee, which was responsible for Lincoln’s entire retail financial services business. He has served on the boards at the May Dugan Center, Julie Billiart School, City Year, Dress for Success, eCITY, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Junior Achievement and Providence House. He has an undergraduate degree in political science from Trinity College. He resides in Solon with his wife and two children.
GREG DUBECKY President Corporate Screening Services Inc.
A veteran of the investigation industry since 1990, Greg Dubecky is responsible for strategic direction and company operations, including sales, marketing, production and product development, at Corporate Screening Services Inc., where he is president. Corporate Screening Services has
MIKE GOLENBERKE Business development consultant
experienced consistent double-digit growth with 100% organic funding since Dubecky took the lead in 2010. He previously served as general manager and vice president of sales, responsible for securing multiyear relationships with some of the country’s leading employers. Dubecky is a member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners and served on the committee for ethics and accreditation. Before joining Corporate
Screening Services, Dubecky held investigative-related positions with the U.S. Marshals Service in Cleveland and Chase Bank in Columbus. He is the president of the Cleveland chapter of the Foundation Fighting Blindness, which funds research into finding a cure, treatment and prevention of retinal degenerative diseases. Dubecky has an undergraduate degree in criminal justice from Kent State University and lives with his family in Avon.
Mike Golenberke most recently had been a vice president, business development consultant for Right Management, a ManpowerGroup company that specializes in career and talent management solutions. Golenberke, who had been instrumental in developing the Northeast Ohio market, along with clients in New York and Pennsylvania, began his career in the accounting/ finance field, gaining a financial understanding of business before transitioning to a sales career. Since then, he has achieved extensive sales, business development and sales
management experience working with Fortune 100, 500 and 1000 companies across all industries. He also logged global client successes with AchieveGlobal as senior account manager, and with Corporate College, as a senior sales executive during its startup phase. He also completed startup markets in Northeast Ohio for three international staffing firms and earned an honorable mention as a top performer in a Top Gun Consultative Sales training program. Golenberke earned his undergraduate degree in accounting from Cleveland State University.
TIM HROBAT
in Parma. In 1999, they expanded their offerings again to include a benefits division, which opened in Fairlawn. Hrobat became president in 2008, growing the business to include two locations and more than 20 employees. Hrobat earned his Certified Insurance Counselors designation in 1999 and his Certified Risk Manager designation in 2010. He served on several committees and task forces for the Professional Insurance Agents Association and for the companies he represents. He also was on the agents’ advisory council for Erie Insurance. Hrobat and his wife Julie live in Fairview Park with their two children, Jonathon and Alyssa.
President Vince Hrobat Insurance Agency Inc.
Tim Hrobat is president and second-generation owner of Vince Hrobat Insurance Agency Inc. Vince and Gwen Hrobat in 1968 started the agency out of their home, selling insurance to individuals. Tim Hrobat joined the agency in 1988 while a student at Cleveland State University. After graduation, he expanded the agency’s offerings, concentrating on business-to-business sales. In 1996, the agency moved to its current location on Broadview Road
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PETER MILLER
Administrator, division of marketing and communications Cleveland Clinic Peter Miller oversees the activities of 150 marketing, media relations, Internet and communications professionals in facilities across Northeast Ohio as an administrator of marketing and communications at the
Martin brings more than 18 years of experience in helping organizations and brands in their efforts to reach target audiences. She works to create value for customers through development, customer success programs, social strategy and thought leadership. Her industry expertise spans media relations, digital channel development, content marketing, social channel strategy and messaging and building brands that can evolve over time and across sectors. Prior to JumpStart, Martin was a consultant with FleishmanHillard, Porter Novelli, Leo Burnett and Euro RSCG Worldwide, where she provided integrated
marketing and communication support to brands including Maytag Appliances, the Army, Gatorade, Macy’s, Jif Peanut Butter, Sunny Delight, Millstone Coffee, Folgers Coffee and Charmin. Martin also is the founder of SheInTheCLE.com, a female blogger collective that focuses on driving purposeful conversations by women in Northeast Ohio. She was appointed to the Republican National Convention Host Committee Content Committee. She is a regular speaker and workshop trainer for the YWCA Greater Cleveland Women’s Leadership Institute.
Cleveland Clinic. After graduating from high school in Honolulu, Hawaii, Miller earned his undergraduate degree in English and psychology from Kenyon College and his MBA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He joined the Jayme Organization in Cleveland in 1989, leaving in 1991 for a role as a market research associate at Cleveland Clinic. He has coached youth and adult
soccer and served as chair of the board of Beaumont School, also chairing its marketing committee. He has served on the advisory boards of the Cleveland Better Business Bureau and Cleveland Clinic Volunteer Services. He is on the marketing committee to support the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland. Miller and his wife Dr. Elizabeth Kavran live in Pepper Pike with their two children, Adam and Madeleine.
February 15, 2016 S3
MOLLY MURPHY
Senior vice president of sales and marketing Eaton Molly Murphy, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Eaton, a global power management company, is responsible for Eaton’s initiatives to capitalize on global market opportunities and drive functional excellence in all of Eaton’s sales and marketing organizations, maximizing the “Power of One Eaton” in the company’s major market segments. She was named leader of the company’s global sales and marketing organization in 2014 and has functional responsibility for the corporate teams
MARK OWENS
Director of marketing Skylight Financial Group As director of marketing for Skylight Financial Group, Mark Owens is responsible for branding awareness and community involvement in both the northern Ohio and Columbus regions.
in Brazil; Europe, Middle East and Asia; India; and China. Prior to this, Murphy was responsible for integrating the sales and marketing functions of Cooper Industries, a global electrical business, into Eaton. Since joining Eaton in 1997, Murphy has held numerous positions with increasing responsibility, including as vice president of sales operations for Asia Pacific and leader of original equipment manufacturing sales for North America. She has an undergraduate degree in public relations and business administration with an emphasis in marketing and an MBA with an emphasis in finance from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. He is actively involved in coordinating the firm’s recruitment program, with a focus on college graduates. He has vast experience with local event marketing and planning, both from a hands-on perspective and a virtual approach, primarily with social media and community outreach. Owens is active in the local business Continued on S4
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and networking community. He is the chair of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission associate board and serves on both the Ohio City Inc. board of trustees and as chair of the Cuyahoga Community College Business advisory committee. Born in Derry City, Ireland, Owens moved to the area in 2001 after
BETSY PUGLIESE Marketing consultant ESPN Cleveland
Betsy Pugliese is an ESPN Cleveland marketing consultant and on-air host on ESPN 850 WKNR. She joined ESPN Cleveland in 2010 and is responsible for initiating, maintaining and growing long-term Cleveland area marketing partnerships through advising business partners on effective sports marketing campaigns. ESPN Cleveland assets include ESPN. com and ESPN Apps, geo-targeted to the Cleveland designated market area; ESPN 850 WKNR and 1540 KNR2; as
MICHELLE SALIS Strategic account manager Ultimate Software
Michelle Salis is strategic account manager for Ultimate Software, a leading cloud provider of human capital management solutions. She represents the Ultimate Software Enterprise team, working with organizations headquartered in Ohio with 1,500 or more employees. In this role she collaboratively engages in needs analysis and product demonstrations to education organizations on the value of Ultimate’s UltiPro solution and implementation services. Salis has more than 15 years of
studying at John Carroll University as part of a scholarship program. He became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He is a founding member of the Cleveland Irish Network, serving on the local executive committee as well as on the national board. He and his wife Maria reside in Rocky River with their two children, Lilly and Eamon. well as the local ESPNCleveland.com and ESPN Cleveland events. She has served on various committees at ESPN Cleveland and Good Karma Brands, including teammate acquisition. She also managed the ESPN Cleveland internship program from 2010 to 2013. Pugliese in 2010 and 2011 helped her office achieve Good Karma Brands’ recognition for Office of the Year. In addition to her sales work, Pugliese can be heard on air at ESPN 850 WKNR during “The Golden Boyz”. She is a member of the Walsh Jesuit alumni committee and founder of her own women’s young professional networking group. She lives in downtown Cleveland. experience in the industry, specializing in human resource management, payroll, talent acquisition and management, and time and labor management. She’s volunteered for 15 years with the Cleveland Society for Human Resource Management, serving in various leadership positions. She also is an event organizer for DisruptHR Cleveland and serves as co-chair of SME Cleveland’s Women in Sales Mentorship Program. She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Toledo and her graduate degree in business administration from Baldwin-Wallace College. She lives in Broadview Heights with her family.
MICHELE A. SEYRANIAN
Chief marketing and business development officer Hospice of the Western Reserve As chief marketing and business development officer for the Hospice of the Western Reserve, Michele A. Seyranian builds and fosters strategic relationships with health care partners and community organizations to promote growth and to advance Hospice of the Western Reserve’s array of patient and family services. Prior to this, Seyranian held several executive leadership roles at KeyCorp, most recently as executive vice president of strategic planning, where
ALEX SLEMC
Director of marketing and communication FOX Sports Ohio/ SportsTime Ohio As director of marketing and communication of FOX Sports Ohio and SportsTime Ohio, Alex Slemc oversees all aspects of the two television networks’ marketing efforts, including branding and promotional creative; FOX cross-promotional efforts; media buying; and collaboration with advertising sales efforts. He also manages the company’s marketing and promotional relationships with the Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Cavaliers, Columbus
she was responsible for development of the Balanced Scorecard program, which led to its induction into the Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame. She began her career at Procter & Gamble in the Folgers Coffee division, becoming the first female unit sales manager as a result of her efforts with the expansion of Folgers as a national brand. This set the stage for sales and marketing positions with Xerox, American Express and Citibank. She serves on the boards of The Gathering Place, Northeast Shores Development Corp., the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry and Niagara University. Seyranian earned her undergraduate degree in marketing from Niagara University and a graduate degree from Case Western Reserve University. Blue Jackets, Ohio State University and the University of Dayton, among others. He joined FOX Sports Ohio from the Cleveland Indians, where he was manager of broadcasting. Prior to that he oversaw the marketing efforts for Benedictine High School, his alma mater, and held various sales and marketing roles at WQAL radio. He serves on the board of trustees for the Lyndhurst Dads’ Club and is the girls athletic director for St. Paschal Baylon Catholic School in Highland Heights. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton. Slemc and his wife Tricia live in Lyndhurst with their three children, A.J., Ella and Owen.
PAST BUSINESS EXECUTIVES OF THE YEAR 2015: Dr. Marc Gillinov, Cleveland Clinic 2014: Bernie Moreno, The Collection Auto Group 2013: Len Komoroski, The Cleveland Cavaliers and Quicken Loans Arena 2012: Paul Matsen, Cleveland Clinic 2011: Jared Chaney, Medical Mutual of Ohio Family of Companies 2010: Joseph M. Scaminace, OM Group Inc. 2009: Terry Stewart, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum 2008: Sandy Cutler, Eaton Corporation 2007: Dr. Toby Cosgrove, Cleveland Clinic 2006: Glenn Renwick, The Progressive Corp. 2005: Christopher M. Connor, Sherwin-Williams 2004 David A. Daberko. National City Corp. 2003: K. Michael Benz, United Way Services 2002: Kent W. Clapp, Medical Mutual Ohio 2001: William B. Summers Jr., McDonald Investments Inc. 2000: Richard W. Pogue, Dix & Eaton 1999: Farah M. Walters, University Hospitals Health System 1998: Irving I. Stone/ Morry Weiss, American Greetings Corp. 1997: Alex Machaskee, The Plain Dealer 1996: William N. Hulett, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum 1995: Edward Brandon, National City Corporation 1994: Mark H. McCormack, International Management Group 1993: Joseph T. Gorman, TRW Inc.
DANIEL TYRPAK
Vice president, multichannel marketing and advertising Medical Mutual Daniel Tyrpak is vice president of multi-channel marketing and advertising for Medical Mutual, which he joined in 2013 as manager of e-marketing. After completing his undergraduate degree at Ohio State University, Tyrpak began a career in IT — until he realized marketing was more fun and interesting. He completed an MBA at Case Western Reserve University and spent the next 16 years in various marketing positions, ranging from direct marketing to online marketing, market
JIM WALLIS Principal Perspectus Architecture
As one of eight principals of Clevelandbased Perspectus Architecture, Jim Wallis has a reputation for attention to service, quality design and strong project management skills. He has had a successful architectural career focused on senior living, health care, academic and country club projects.
planning and marketing strategy. He is a results-oriented marketing and e-commerce professional with extensive experience managing projects, developing strategies and delivering results at Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 companies. He also has international experience with positions, assignments and travel throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Prior to Medical Mutual, he spent time with Goodyear and KeyBank, held a position abroad with Blue Circle Industries and spent time consulting with Responsys, where he worked with GE, Quicken Loans, Lenovo and United Healthcare. He lives in Independence with his wife Jody and daughters Lindsay and Lauren. Before merging with Perspectus in 2007, Wallis ran Wallis Architects. His leadership led Perspectus to work with Brookdale Senior Living on a national level. His projects have included work for the Cleveland Clinic, Lake Health, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, John Carroll University and Belmont College. Beyond master planning and design, Wallis also advises clients on fundraising and marketing initiatives. He earned a bachelor of science
Advertising director: Nicole Mastrangelo, nmastrangelo@crain.com Managing editor, custom and special projects: Amy Ann Stoessel, astoessel@crain.com Writer: Kimberly Bonvissuto Graphic designer: Staci Buck
1992: Robert Gillespie, Society Corporation/Society National Bank 1991: Morton L. Mandel, Premier Industrial Corporation 1990: James R. Stover, Eaton Corporation 1989: James M. Biggar, Nestle Enterprises Inc./ The Stouffer Corporation 1988: Robert B. Horton, BP America Inc. 1987: J. Richard Kelso, The East Ohio Gas Company 1986: John G. Breen, Sherwin-Williams 1985: Roy H. Holdt, White Consolidated Industries Inc. 1984: Arthur B. Modell, Cleveland Browns Football 1983: M. Brock Weir, Ameritrust Corporation 1982: William E. MacDonald, The Ohio Bell Telephone Company 1981: Ruben F. Mettler, TRW Inc. 1980: William J. De Lancey, Republic Steel Corporation
in architecture from Ohio State University, a bachelor of architecture from Kent State University and attended Bowling Green State University’s School of Art. He chairs the Highland Heights Architectural Review Board, attends national senior living conferences and supports numerous fundraisers. He served on the Wildcat Park Committee for new sports venues at Mayfield High School.
For more information about custom publishing opportunities, please contact Nicole Mastrangelo.
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 17
Focus WHO TO WATCH: HEALTH CARE It’s no secret that health care anchors Northeast Ohio’s economy. For one, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals are the region’s largest employers, and their influence is only growing. Within those health systems and beyond, so many individuals are exploring medicine’s uncharted territory. In Crain’s latest “Who to Watch” feature, we’re highlighting some of those up-and-comers and innovators in Northeast Ohio’s medical fields. These individuals might fly under the radar now but could disrupt their fields — for the better — in the future.
JAMES VOOS
RONG XU
PETER RASMUSSEN
Division chief and medical director of sports medicine, University Hospitals
Assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics
Cleveland Clinic
Head team physician, Cleveland Browns
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Dr. James Voos said he has two “24/7” jobs, which requires some “very careful time management.” That doesn’t include the fact that Voos and his wife, Kristin, a neonatologist at University Hospitals, have three kids, all age 6 and under. So maybe it’s more like three around-the-clock jobs. If you weren’t working in health care, Voos moved to what would you be doing and why? Northeast Ohio in “I have been interested in medicine my 2014, when he was whole life, so if I was working outside of named the Cleveland health care, I would be sure to find Browns’ head team something that would allow me more physician. After setime to ski, learn to sail, play with my curing a new 10-year kids and coach youth sports.” affiliation with the Browns that year, University Hospitals also tapped Voos to head its sports medicine program. The 2016 season will be Voos’ eighth as an NFL team physician. He previously worked with the New York Giants (2009-10) and Kansas City Chiefs (2011-13). He works every Browns game, and said he’s at the team’s facility for at least two half-days per week during the season. “There’s always something going on,” Voos said. The offseasons aren’t quite as hectic, but Voos and his staff evaluate “every single player” who attends the NFL’s annual February scouting combine in Indianapolis. They also give their medical input on any player the Browns are considering in free agency. Concussions have been a hot-button topic in the league for some time, but Voos said his decision-making process has remained the same. “Players are put in the best position possible,” he said. “The NFL has put in place some formal protocols that must be followed.” Dr. Jeffrey Peters, UH’s chief operating officer, said Voos “has energized our sports medicine program beyond our expectations. He’s just been a home run.” Voos said UH now starts with preventing injuries, rather than initially focusing on treating ailments. “The goal of our sports medicine program is to establish how we deliver care to our athletes and how it will look for the next five to 10 years,” he said. “We have changed the model. It used to be very reactionary and responsive to injuries. The program now is to get on the field with the athletes to help prevent injuries, and when they occur, have rapid access to treatment.” Voos said UH works with 20 high school athletic departments across its network. The Browns’ team physician can be seen on the sidelines during Friday night football games at Cleveland Central Catholic and Hawken high schools. James and Kristin Voos have two daughters (Kalli, 6; and Klara, 3 months) and a son (K.C., 3). During their rare free time, James said the family, including the 6- and 3-year-olds, likes to go skiing. “That’s the one thing this job does is there’s not a whole lot of extra time on the weekends,” Voos said. “When we get that time, we spend it with family.” — Kevin Kleps
It started simply enough as a casual conversation in passing, but ended with yet another innovative experiment for Rong Xu. But that’s not surprising for such an enthusiastic collaborator like Xu. Her work essentially combines her expertise in biological and computer sciences in a budding realm of research. “Rong is extremely energetic, and she’s in a field that’s just exploding right now,” said Jonathan Haines, chair of the Department of If you weren’t working in health Epidemiology and Biostatiscare, what would you be doing tics at Case. and why? “She’s combining data “I got a job offer in software for a mining and computer scistartup company when I was still ence with biomedical rea student. So probably that. But I search … to build an underlike academia. I made the right standing of these medical decision.” issues. And we are just starting to build in this area.” One of Xu’s main research projects involves developing computer algorithms to comb through and analyze swaths of complex biological and health data that, in turn, is combined with data on drug trials and experiments with the goal of identifying viable candidates for a particular drug and move them into patient trials for treatment. Basically, that project helps find new applications for existing FDAapproved drugs by using in a new way data that’s already available. Another project looks at how environmental factors — like chemicals humans are exposed to throughout their lifetimes — interact with genomes in contributing to disease, Xu said. Very polite and soft-spoken, her voice rises with an excited tone as she describes her research. “There are lots of complex diseases, and we spend lots of money to study the mechanics of the disease,” she said. “So why not see how the chemicals interact with genes and cause disease?” The conversation that sparked an experiment began with Haines. Xu — an avid bicyclist who rides to work every day (except on particularly cold and snowy days) — was talking about some of her projects in general and remarked about an interesting observation related to Alzheimer’s disease, which Haines did some research on in the past. He mentioned he had some pertinent samples in a freezer. Xu immediately and excitedly asked for access to them. “So in 15 minutes, we went from casual conversation to designing an experiment that she’s trying to get some funding for,” Haines said. “She just gets so excited about these studies,” he added. “She’s always thinking of the next step, who she can talk to (in order) to get things done. There’s a pure joy in discovery with her.” That excitement and desire to work with others is how Xu knows she’s at home with her research in an academic setting where it feels more like working “for your own company.” “It’s very rewarding applying computer science in the biology field. And I like collaborating with people,” Xu said. “And I always want to show results. When I find a drug or something you can use to prevent disease, I really want to bring those to market.” — Jeremy Nobile
Director, Cerebrovascular Center Medical Director, Distance Health Dr. Peter Rasmussen has saved a lot of brain cells over the past few years — and statistics can prove it. Rasmussen, medical director for distance health at the Cleveland Clinic, has played a huge role in the effort to get the Clinic to harness the power of the Internet to make sure that stroke patients get treatment as fast as possible. That effort has produced astonishing results. Because of two telemedicine programs that Rasmussen helped launch, last year somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 additional stroke patients received the one drug that can help them: tPA. Traditionally, only 3.8% of stroke patients end up getting the drug — a rate Rasmussen described as “abysmal.” The rest of If you weren’t working in health care, them don’t get to a stroke doctor what would you be doing and why? fast enough — tPA doesn’t work if “If not in health care, I would find patients don’t get it within three to some role working for the Green Bay five hours after the stroke occurs. Packers.” Rasmussen and his colleagues at the Clinic’s Cerebrovascular Center took a big step toward solving that problem a few years ago when they launched the Telestroke Network. That program allows stroke experts at the Clinic to communicate via video with more than a dozen other health care facilities, most of which are in Northeast Ohio. That allows them to diagnose patients quickly, from miles away. Thus, patients treated through that program get tPA 12.3% of the time, Rasmussen said. That rate jumps to 31% for patients who get a visit from the Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit that the Clinic launched in mid 2014. The unit, which is based on a German unit Rasmussen learned about at a conference, responds to 911 calls in the city of Cleveland and some nearby suburbs that might involve a stroke. It allows medical staff to communicate with Clinic doctors via a secure Internet channel and administer tPA on the spot, if needed. Those programs treated 1,400 patients in 2015. If they were treated the traditional way, statistics suggest roughly 200 fewer patients would have received tPA. Now Rasmussen is tasked with helping other parts of the Clinic use the Internet to deliver care. “This stuff’s really exciting. … The possibilities are nearly endless,” he said. Last year, he helped launch Express Care Online, an app that allows patients with minor ailments to meet face-to-face with a doctor, via their smartphones. So far, about 1,000 visits have taken place through the app, he said. He and other doctors also use the technology behind the app to conduct some of their scheduled appointments. The Clinic also is about to launch a telemedicine-based blood pressure management clinic. Rasmussen said chronic diseases “lend themselves very, very well to telemedicine,” given how often patients need to talk to their doctors. Dr. Michael Modic, the Clinic’s chief clinical transformation officer, described Rasmussen as a personable, driven guy who gets things done. When Clinic executives were thinking about having Rasmussen lead the distance health program, Modic gave him a strong recommendation. “The guy’s got talent,” he said. But Modic criticized the University of Wisconsin graduate for being a “delusional” Wisconsin sports fan. However, he now has roots here: He’s married to Dr. Adrienne Boissy, the Clinic’s chief experience officer. They have two boys, Grant, 6, and Grayson, 3. — Chuck Soder
PAGE 18
z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WHO TO WATCH: HEALTH CARE STEFFANY LARKINS
KURT ROTE
Executive vice president/chief marketing officer, Medical Mutual of Ohio
CEO, Western Oncolytics
Steffany Larkins wishes people did a better job of looking after their health. “I think some people have put themselves in such unnecessary health peril,” she said with more than a hint of frustration and disappointment. That’s because as a top executive at a health insurer Larkins sees firsthand the toll that rising health care expenditures are putting on businesses and individuals. In her nearly 18 years at Medical Mutual of Ohio, she has been intimately involved where the rising cost of health care intersects with the purchase of health insurance by businesses and individuals. “The thing that is most personal for me is that nobody should be denied access to (health) care because they can’t afford it,” she said. “Because I have influence over pricing and have influence over what we sell and how we sell it, that’s something that is pretty sacred to me.” Since joining Medical Mutual in 1998, Larkins has moved from manager of general accounting to the health insurer’s top marketing executive, where she is responsible for statewide sales for all products sold to everyone from individuals to the largest groups. Along the way, she was for several years an executive vice president with the title chief of staff. Richard Chiricosta, chairman, president and CEO of the company, created that job because he needed someone to keep track of Medical Mutual’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act. “I couldn’t keep on top of that myself and I needed a person who was not only good at project tracking, but I needed a person that really understood the business and understood the financial and risk part of it,” he said. Larkins was his choice for the position. “Having health care reform put me in a good position to be selling a complex, financial product,” she said. “Our job is to go in and explain the economics, the coverage, the value proposition of our organization and how they as an employer group or an individual will be protected.” Choosing Larkins to be the company’s point person on health care reform was not the first time Chiricosta sought her out. Chiricosta joined Medical Mutual as vice president of finance shortly after Larkins started with Medical Mutual. And though Larkins was a junior manager in the finance department and didn’t report directly to Chiricosta, he said “it took me four days (on the job) to
If you’ve had a beer with Kurt Rote over the past three years, he’s probably told you all about his quest to develop the ultimate cancer therapy. Here’s why he sounds a little obsessed: The CEO of Western Oncolytics is convinced that the company’s gene therapy can save lives. One of those lives could very well belong to someone close to him. Thus, he thinks about it during most of his waking hours. “And probably in my dreams,” he said. For now, the dream is still pretty far from reality: Western Oncolytics is still finishing up animal trials designed to test the technology, which was invented by Stephen Thorne, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Results from earlier tests suggest that it works pretty well — in mice, at least. “Basically in head-to-head comparisons with therapies that have already worked in clinical trials, ours works better,” Rote said. The therapy is a genetically modified version of the virus used to eradicate smallpox. It is designed to replicate in a variety of cancer cells and kill them — with the help of three modifications. One new gene activates cancer-fighting T-cells, and another tears down the protective walls that tumors build around themselves. Thorne also chemically altered the virus’ surface to stop the body from getting rid of it too quickly. Some other people believe in his vision. Western Oncolytics raised cash from about a dozen individual investors, and last summer the company received a $2.5 million investment from a Florida-based investment fund called Tiberius II. There weren’t many believers around four years ago, when he left his job at a Swiss biomedical company and started hunting for a gene therapy to commercialize. Though he’s able to take a salary today, he spent that first year eating a lot of “rice and eggs and milk.” “Everyone I knew told me to stop. You’re crazy — be an adult,” he said. But Rote had believed in the promise of genetic engineering ever since learning about the Human Genome Project as a student at St. Edward High School. Rote went on to earn a bachelor’s in biomedical engineering degree from Duke University, and he later added an MBA from IMD in Switzerland. He’s too busy to travel and go to concerts like he
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? “One day I’d like to buy a coffee shop on a ski mountain. One day, whipping up somebody’s latte slope side is going to be all the stress I’m going to endure.” figure out she was the sharpest person on the floor and I needed to get this person to be a direct report of mine,” he said. “I’ve said many times, it was one of the smartest things I did. I think it worked out well for her and for the company.” After graduating from Kent State University with a degree in business administration and accounting Larkins joined the Ernst & Young accounting firm, where Medical Mutual was a client. After six years there, she joined the health insurer’s finance department, becoming a director of accounting and vice president of finance and controller before becoming senior vice president and chief underwriter. “I started with Medical Mutual in 1998 because I thought it was a great company and it was a good culture and had an outstanding reputation in the community,” she said. “It was a great place to have been offered a job and I took it.” — Jay Miller
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? “What I do now with Western Oncolytics is really my calling, so it’s hard to imagine working in other areas now. I do have interests in self-driving cars, smart/safe gun technology, and sustainable energy and water production.” used to, but after he started receiving a salary, he did make time to get married. He and his wife, Jessica, are expecting a baby in March. Rote had the knowledge, passion and foresight to remain confident even when others didn’t believe in him, according to childhood friend Bill Leimkuehler, who is chief operating officer at Biolectics LLC, a Cleveland company developing a device to treat gum disease. He described Rote as extremely intelligent guy who “brings an energy and enthusiasm to the people around him.” — Chuck Soder
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 19
JINNY TAVEE
TERESA VOLSKO
Neurologist, Cleveland Clinic
Director of Respiratory Care, Transport and Communication Center
Dr. Jinny Tavee estimates she has gifted more than 1,000 of her books to patients she believes would benefit from her wisdom on meditation and other mindbody techniques. Her sales aren’t quite so high. “I’ve sold tens of them — tens,” Tavee said with a laugh. Tavee, also an assistant professor with the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, said she gives most of them away because her message of combining traditional and alternative medicine is more important. She’s been meditating since she was about 10 years old when her mother, now a Buddhist monk, began meditating and would bribe her and her brother to do the same. It wasn’t until the stress of medical school when she began realizing the full benefit of meditation. “As I got more serious in my practice, I realized that many people do need it who suffer from chronic neurological diseases,” Tavee said. She’s been integrating meditation and alternative therapy treatments into her practice for years. In neurology, so many of her patients suffer from chronic diseases. For many, exercise and mind-body-therapies are “their only saving grace,” she said. Tavee stresses she always focuses on conventional medicine first. “If somebody’s actively bleeding, I’m not going to say you need to do tai chi,” Tavee said. “What I do is three things: nutrition, exercise and mind-body therapies.” Exercise that you are able to enjoy and mind-bodytherapies — like yoga, tai chi, meditation and qigong — can go a long way in improving overall health. “If there is a well-established, evidence-based treatment for a chronic disease, I will give that treatment,” she said. She warns that some alternative therapy not backed by credible literature can be dangerous, and said that clinical judgment is key. Tavee also teaches medical students, other physicians and others who are interested. Her mother comes to the states every couple of years from the temple in southern Thailand that Tavee paid to have built as a meditation center. The two lead various retreats for breast cancer survivors or wounded warriors coming back from Iraq — from contacts she made while serving as a neurologist
Akron Children’s Hospital
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? “I would be teaching and writing about meditation full time.” for the Navy prior to joining the Clinic. Every several weeks, Tavee also teaches meditation through the Brain Health and Wellness Shared Medical Appointment, a program at the Clinic designed to teach people how to enrich their cognitive capacity, said the program’s director Dr. Roxanne B. Sukol. “There’s quantitative evidence now to suggest that some of the parts of the brain that are responsible for learning and memory grow in individuals who are practicing meditation regularly,” said Sukol, who is a specialist in preventive medicine and medical director of the Wellness Enterprise at the Clinic. Every time Tavee teaches the class, she brings small charms that her mother has laid her hands on for every patient in the class, Sukol said. “It’s just a concrete expression of how supportive and kind and wonderful she is,” she said. — Lydia Coutré
Teresa Volsko figures she’s landed in the right career as a respiratory therapist – even though her administrative duties have expanded over the years as she progressed to her current role. “I’m a respiratory therapist by profession — I like to say 30 years and holding,” jokes Volsko, who says she still loves working in patient care and still makes rounds. Volsko has always wanted to be in medicine, and before she got in she remembers being glued to the television during the 1970s, watching that era’s hit show “Emergency” along with the rest of America. “I always envisioned myself in health care. I wanted to be a physician,” Volsko said. “I wanted blood and trauma … I loved that show.” But life as an ER doctor was not to be, and Volsko had sort of given up on medicine, until she met a young man at the place she took piano lessons just after high school. He was a respiratory therapist and what he told her about his career was appealing. He had gone to Youngstown State University and that’s where Volsko soon found herself. She not only got her undergraduate degree in respiratory therapy, she went on to get her master’s and then on to become a faculty member herself. That ended five years ago, when she came to Akron Children’s, and since then, she’s been wowing her staff and bosses alike. Today her boss, vice president of patient services Lisa Aurilio, picks up the pace of her speech just talking about Volsko. “She is one of the most driven people I have other worked with. She can have more pans in the fire than anyone I have ever known. She’s just great at working with people and getting them to follow her,” Aurilio said. At the hospital, Volsko runs a respiratory therapy department of about 70 people, and then also oversees another 60 people who are in charge of patient transport. That includes not only routine patient movements, but also ambulances and other emergency transportation going in or out of the hospital. But what might most make Volsko someone to watch is that she not only practices and teaches, she often defines her field. She’s helped write nine textbooks for respiratory care, including seven chapters. She goes around the country and around the
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? “I would be in a technology research and development, with a health care focus.” world to help others learn more about the field. “She’s been asked to go to Dubai and educate them on respiratory therapy practices, she’s written books — I don’t know when she sleeps, quite frankly,” Aurilio said. As for Volsko, she figures she’s just giving back to a profession that has given so much to her — and following in the footsteps of people she’s admired in the process. So it’s only natural she would want to continue to not only work in the field, but to teach it, she said. “The most rewarding part of my job now is being able to help launch careers of therapists who are where I was 30 years ago,” Volsko said. — Dan Shingler
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z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WHO TO WATCH: HEALTH CARE
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? “I’d be a police officer or detective. Like medicine, you are using your skills for the public’s benefit.”
RAMI AHMED
KARIM BOTROS
Simulation Medical Director, Summa Health
Chief strategy officer, MetroHealth
The simulation program steered by Dr. Rami Ahmed at Summa Health has already helped train thousands of medical professionals, from medical students and nurses to paramedics in the region. The lab uses technologically advanced manikins for medical training. “Medical simulation minimizes risks in training before students and staff put their hands on patients,” Ahmed said. “For adult learners, hands-on training is one of the most effective ways to train.” Ahmed did a fellowship through Harvard Medical School’s Gilbert Program in Medical Simulation after finishing his residency at Summa. While at Harvard, he also helped create a way to adapt manikins for a soon-to-be marketed technique to modify already installed pacemakers to speed up patient heartbeats. When Ahmed returned to Akron after completing his fellowship, a Harvard colleague was puzzled he would return to a “one-room schoolhouse” when he could go
Following a strong push from his parents to be a doctor, Karim Botros studied biomedical engineering — not quite what they had in mind, but the right fit for him. He went on to earn a master’s degree in manufacturing engineering and an MBA, but he always had the medical world in mind. Botros lead health care deals at a private equity firm for about a decade before shifting to health care work as director of business development at the Cleveland Clinic. He joined MetroHealth in 2013. “As I look back, I think I found the right side of where I can make a difference in health care,” Botros said. “My brother’s a physician. He loves it, but he loves it for his reasons. And I love this side of health care on my end for a lot of the same reasons. We’re helping people.” His education, exposure to health care and background in private equity help make him a highly detail-oriented person who brings plans to fruition, said Dr. Akram Boutros, MetroHealth CEO, who created the position after joining the system in 2013. He said Botros’ successes in his twoand-a-half years in the role include recruiting, retaining and developing a “very talented team of high performing individuals,” as well as identifying opportunities for MetroHealth. MetroHealth’s plans to absorb many of the doctors at HealthSpan Physicians when the group dissolves this spring stands as a strong example to Botros’ work. Under Botros’ leadership, in about a week, MetroHealth issued dozens of job offers to HealthSpan providers who were in limbo. “The likelihood of success for that project would have been significantly less had he not built on the other smaller successes in the past,” Boutros said. Integrating those physicians into Metro-
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anywhere in the country with his expertise in the new area. “Home is home,” the Moreland Hills native and John Carroll University graduate said. The single manikin in an 800-square-foot room Summa had when he came back is now, three years later, one of two simulation training locations in the system with a half-dozen of the lifelike devices. Dr. Erik Steele, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Summa Health, said Ahmed led the charge at Summa in changing the “default thinking” of medical training on people or dogs and made a convincing business case for the system to embark on expanding its simulation center on grounds it can save money and improve patient outcomes. “He had the vision for this new approach to training and how to make it happen,” Steele said. “This is one component in making evidence-based improvements that is part of a bigger wave in improving American health care.” Steele characterizes Ahmed as someone who is “built to lead” and noted that every time he opens an email from Ahmed he takes a breath to prepare himself for what he has come up with next. Ahmed is also good at juggling tasks: he served in the U.S. Army Reserves from high school graduation through medical school. He also earned a master’s in medical education from the University of Illinois while he was in Boston, commuting to Chicago. He also recently worked on a consulting assignment from NASA to help determine which astronauts would be the best back up, in terms of advanced degrees, if a manned Mars mission lost its crew physician. A member of the board of Project Learn in Summit County, which helps adults learn to read, Ahmed also volunteers to help veterans. He recently spent a Saturday in Wickliffe working on health screenings for vets and their families. — Stan Bullard
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? “I would most likely look to return to my former career in private equity. I’d still focus on health care opportunities, and would be able to incorporate my years of experience within hospital systems along with my investment experience.”
Health will be a major focus in the next year for Botros, whose responsibilities have grown to include provider recruitment and integration. Beyond this year, his goals are broader from using technology to help standardize processes to rethinking the care delivery model. “Right now a lot of things are really dialed in toward coming into a hospital, like an inpatient stay,” Botros said. “There are some creative things that we could introduce that avoid hospitals and maybe even deliver your care at the home, deliver your care at an alternative setting. … Changing the rules on how care is delivered — that could be really exciting.” — Lydia Coutré
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 21
CYNTHIA OWUSU Medical oncologist, UH Seidman Cancer Center When Dr. Cynthia Owusu began her medical training in her home country of Ghana, she saw a lot of women coming in with advanced breast cancer. She wasn’t sure whether it was because they were coming in late, or because they had a particularly aggressive type of cancer. “It was a huge need,” Owusu said. And that need sparked an interest in the disease. Today, her work focuses on the needs of older women with breast cancer and the long-term health of breast cancer survivors. Though Owusu earned her degree at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, there was no opportunity to specialize, so she came to the United States to do her residency with the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey. Her passion for addressing health disparities led her to a fellowship in geriatric oncology at Boston Medical Center. Owusu said she wasn’t originally aware of the study of geriatric oncology; she had applied for a fellowship in hematology and oncology, writing an essay on health disparities. They steered her toward the fellowship after explaining it was really about age disparities. When her fellowship wrapped up in 2006, Owusu applied for a job at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where she is now an assistant professor of medicine. She also works as a medical oncologist at the UH Seidman Cancer Center and is board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and geriatrics. Dr. Nathan A. Berger, the Hanna-Payne professor of experimental medicine at
If you weren’t working in health care, what would you be doing and why? She’d probably be a lawyer for the indigent and underserved. “I like to work with the underserved community and kind of help in any way that I can.”
Case, said Case-UH had a grant to build a geriatric oncology program in the mid2000s, and they recruited Owusu because she had all the right training. Cancer is a “disease of the elderly,” Berger said, but for a long time, people weren’t trained to specifically care for those older patients with cancer. Owusu has expertise in oncology, geriatrics and epidemiology, and she’s
organized and driven, Berger said. “She’s a real role model,” he said, especially to women and African Americans who want to be physicians. Owusu said about half of her time is spent with breast cancer patients, the majority of whom are 65 or older. Working with patients — helping them through therapy and the transition to survivorship — is her favorite part of the job. “Nothing gives me joy more than treating a patient successfully,” Owusu said. Her areas of clinical research focus on health disparity and functional decline, or how well a person can independently function in daily life. The two often intersect. A 2010 Susan G. Komen for the Cure grant that allowed Owusu to examine the functional decline of women with breast cancer showed her that African American women and women of lower socioeconomic status were the populations most affected. Most recently, Owusu became the principal investigator on a $2.8 million research grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Disparities to explore the role of exercise on physical function as it relates to obesity and hormones for women who have completed breast cancer treatment. Owusu said she is designing and implementing an exercise program for older women with breast cancer at The Gathering Place with the help of the grant. Outside of work, Owusu said she enjoys taking part in community outreach programs and traveling and attending church activities with her husband and two sons. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty
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Business of Life She’s arranged a creative plan BY STAN BULLARD All her life, Anji Barshick suffers a headache when she nears flowers. Her marriage in 2012 presented a problem, since she did not want a day-long migraine spoiling her wedding day. Her solution: Make paper flowers herself. The 200 paper roses in five colors that she and her sister-in-law produced for the nuptials seeded her current endeavor: a bustling paper florist’s shop called “love, Anji” at 5th Street Arcades in downtown Cleveland. A few other factors put her into this novel business. She’s always been crafty. As a child, Barshick told someone who asked what she wanted to do when she grew up that she wanted to own her own business. She added, “I’ve always had a knack for business.” Looking for a switch from a supervisory job at an engineering firm, she decided to make some paper roses and sell them at Cleveland Flea, in Cleveland’s St. ClairSuperior neighborhood and at special events. “It did very well,” Barshick said. So well, in fact, that she told her husband she was thinking about pursuing it full time. Jake Barshick responded, she recalled, “Uhhh … OK.” Now, her husband helps her make computer templates for petals for new flowers, which she cuts out of card stock or crepe paper and puts in plastic bags until she picks them for a new creation. She fingers each petal until it looks life-like. Shots from a glue gun bind the petals, which she ties together with green floral wire. She taught herself how to make the flowers by reading about them and trial and error. She said she also studies flower photos and dissects silk flowers to see how they are put together. “I can’t do that with real flowers,” she said, without triggering her allergy. Barshick decided in 2013 a shop would be good for the business. Although many people sell paper flowers online, in a Google search she identified only three brickand-mortar paper florist shops in the country. The impulse nature of such a purchase is apparent: A shopper plucked a pink peony for $25 she made Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 9, within an hour. She landed at 5th Street Arcades because Dick Pace, president of 5th Street Arcade operator Cumberland Group, set her up in a kiosk-sized alcove in the old building. It was the only location she checked out. It’s a three-minute walk from the couple’s apartment and didn’t need a loan to open. For Pace’s part, the one-time architect was impressed by her work. “I saw her creativity and her products,” Pace said, adding that he recalled thinking, “ ‘This is going to be a hit.’ ” He said startups and small businesses are the best way to repopulate the old building, and wound up incubating the kiosk to a store. For her part, Barshick likes it that some customers refer to her shop as “the happy place.” On sunny days, its wide windows are light-filled. For-sale bouquets and flower baskets — roses, peonies and daisies — decorate it. A white planter box stuffed with paper red roses graces its lobby window. A devoted customer of “love, Anji” is Jeremy Shorr, innovation and technology director at Mentor Public Schools. He was reluctant to discuss the business because he feared success might slow Barshick’s ability to deliver custom orders cherished by anyone to whom he gives them. His daughter, 6, saves her allowance to buy Barshick creations. Barshick has ideas for growing the business. She hopes to add more stores regionally and perhaps host paper flower making classes at businesses. Appropriately, weddings are a mainstay of the business that stemmed from her marriage: She did 12 in 2015, and four already are booked for 2016.
We don’t just see people for who they are; we see
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 23
In the past nine months,
94% of individuals served in United Way-funded healthy food access programs have increased their fruit and vegetable intake. Anji Barshick opened her bustling paper florist shop, “love, Anji,” at the 5th Street Arcades in 2013. Barshick left a supervisory job at an engineering firm to start the business after her creations proved popular at Cleveland Flea and at special events. (McKinley Wiley photos)
them for who they can become.
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BUSINESS OF LIFE
Source Lunch Part of Cassi Pittman’s job is to help people understand how social networks and inherited wealth play into success. As an assistant professor in Case Western Reserve University’s department of sociology, Pittman’s research focuses on racial inequality, particularly as it applies to class and economics. Two people of different races, with the same credentials and economic background, may still not have parity because of inherited wealth, she said. And that has a big impact on things like college loan debt. Pittman’s experience growing up in East Cleveland and attending Hathaway Brown School piqued her interest in these topics. She said it made her aware of what opportunities and resources were available to whom, raising her “social consciousness.” Though Pittman left the Cleveland area for New England and Columbus for a while, she returned about a year and a half ago. She said she likes the people and the fact that the city is affordable.
Cassi Pittman EDUCATION
— Rachel Abbey McCafferty
Tell me about your area of study. Broadly, my research focuses on questions of racial inequality. More specifically, my work examines the intersection of race and class. This includes examining the financial behavior and consumption preferences and practices of middle-class blacks. Why did you choose to focus on racial inequality? Race is fascinating to me because it is taken for granted as something that is a fact, but it is the epitome of something that is socially constructed. That is, race and racial categories as we have so defined them exist because we give meaning to them and make them real in our social interactions and institutions. When traveling, you can observe that in some societies, racial differences are categorized entirely differently than how we describe race in the U.S. I also find it curious that through studying U.S. racial exclusion and oppression, you get a window into how complex humans are and how resilient the human spirit is. Take African-Americans: As a group, African-Americans have fueled creativity (e.g. jazz) and have, despite systemic barriers, made great strides. For example, my grandfather only got a fourth grade education, whereas I graduated with a Ph.D. Tremendous progress in just a few generations. This is, however, not to discount the persistence of long-standing racial disparities (e.g. racial segregation).
Has this kind of inequality changed over time? What does it look like today?
In your eyes, what are some of the biggest issues facing college campuses today?
FOUR THINGS:
Racial progress has certainly been made. As I mentioned above, within just a few generations upward mobility that was not possible generations ago could exist. But racism is still with us. In fact, it has morphed and evolved. Take, for example, the U.S. housing market. African-Americans were largely excluded from federal programs that facilitated homeownership by creating low-cost mortgage loans after WWII. Before the market crash in 2008, African-American home ownership rates were the highest that we had seen, but this was largely due to the fact that African-Americans were disproportionally steered into risky, higher cost sub-prime loans. Fifty years ago, blacks were excluded from the mortgage market; today blacks are included but relegated to inferior and more costly mortgage products.
Education is a vehicle for upward mobility, but increasingly the cost of attaining a college education is prohibitively expensive. Students graduate with mounting debt, and this has lots of consequences for subsequent life events (when they purchase their first home or get married). Colleges and universities also rely on tuition dollars to cover their expenses. The question then emerges, how do we ensure that academic institutions provide opportunities for students from across the class spectrum, while also staying afloat? Also, as one of I believe five African-American professors at the College of Arts and Sciences, I am obviously concerned about the dearth of racial diversity.
Pittman recently bought a house, so in her free time, she’s been attending a women’s how-to series at the Home Repair Resource Center in Cleveland Heights.
What do you most enjoy about teaching? I enjoy when students have a light bulb moment or come to a new realization. I love correcting misconceptions and common sense understandings that are erroneous with evidence and research. I think that is when real learning happens. When you are challenged to rethink or reconceptualize something that you thought before was true.
What role do universities and research play in today’s society? I think universities play a huge role in creating a populace composed of analytical and critical thinkers, who can go forth and make valuable contributions toward the advancement of our world and our society. Universities can drive innovation and produce research that creates our public policies. What drew you back to the area? My family. I have a huge social network here that is like no other place on earth. I love Cleveland, and I am and have always been extremely proud to be from here, born and raised.
FIXER-UPPER
GREAT OUTDOORS
Pittman thinks Cleveland has a great asset in its underutilized waterfront. She also enjoys jogging in the parks.
READING LIST
When Pittman is driving, she likes to listen to audiobooks. She recently listened to Wil Haygood’s “Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America,” a biography she said showed how people sacrificed and died for a more just society.
HER HEROES
Close to home, her parents and grandparents, as well as a network of neighbors, teachers and colleagues, have served as her role models. She also looks up to famous, accomplished women like Oprah, Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Warren.
LUNCH SPOT Luna Bakery Café 2482 Fairmount Boulevard Cleveland Heights
The meal A turkey crepe without cheese and a mozzarella Panini with a side of quinoa, both with water
The vibe A bustling coffee shop with a variety of meal and dessert options
The bill $17.82, plus tip
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 25
ADVERTISING
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EDUCATION Carolyn Lanier
ARCHITECTURE
Chief of Staff and Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Denver Brooker Principal
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Vocon Vocon is proud to announce the promotion of Denver Brooker to Principal. With more than 25 years of architecture and management experience, Brooker most recently served as Vocon's Architectural Design Director, assisting with business development and providing direction and leadership to architectural design team members. In his new role, he will continue to work closely with the Vocon teams in Cleveland and New York to further shape the development of the firm's architectural practice.
NEOMED welcomes Carolyn Lanier as the University's new chief of staff and vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion. Lanier will provide leadership and management of presidential initiatives, special projects and strategic planning. She will also advise and represent the president in internal and external interactions, as well as collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to implement the University Diversity Strategic Plan. She hails from Western Connecticut State University.
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Walter & Haverfield LLP Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that Aimee W. Lane has been elected to the Partnership at the Northeast Ohio law firm. Ms. Lane is a member of Walter & Haverfield's Public Law and Litigation Services practice groups. A graduate of Marietta College and Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Aimee currently serves as the Law Director for the Village of Moreland Hills and the Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Hudson. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Kathryn I. Perrico
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Partner Walter & Haverfield LLP Walter & Haverfield LLP is pleased to announce that John N. Neal has joined the firm as a partner in its Corporate Transactions group. Mr. Neal focuses his practice on state and federal liquor permit licensing and the hospitality industry. A graduate of CWRU School of Law, John has a diverse practice in complex commercial litigation, employment law, business organization, insurance coverage, real estate, and corporate transactions. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that Kathryn I. Perrico has joined the firm as a partner in its Education Law group. Ms. Perrico represents school districts in many areas, including student discipline, employee misconduct, discrimination/harassment complaints and other employment issues. Her primary focus is special education, and she represents districts in all areas associated with serving students with disabilities. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
David Ricco Partner
Kirk W. Roessler
Walter & Haverfield LLP
Partner
Principal
Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences
Vocon
John Carroll University
Vocon is proud to announce the promotion of Richard Dillon to Principal. Previously serving as Design Director, Dillon has been with Vocon for more than two decades, overseeing a wide range of interior architecture projects. As a Principal, Dillon will continue to lead the firm's interior design projects, with an increased focus on serving clients on a national scale.
EDUCATION Alan Miciak
Margaret Farrar, Ph.D., has been named as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at John Carroll University. Dr. Farrar was formerly the associate dean at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. A Cleveland native, she is also an accomplished scholar. Dr Farrar received her undergraduate degree from The College of Wooster, her M.A. from Virginia Tech University, and her Ph.D. in political science from Pennsylvania State University with a graduate minor in women's studies.
ENGINEERING & CONSULTING
Dean of the Boler School of Business
Dale R. Haywood, P.E., P.S
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Senior Project Manager
Alan Miciak, Ph.D., has been appointed dean of the John M. and Mary Jo Boler School of Business and a professor of marketing at John Carroll University. Dr. Miciak previously served as dean of Duquesne's Palumbo and Donahue School of Business (2005-2013). He began his business career with Unisys Corporation in Detroit. An Ohio native, Dr. Miciak earned his MBA at the University of Toledo, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Graduate School of Management at Kent State University.
KS Associates, Inc. KS Associates, Inc. announces the appointment of Dale R. Haywood, PE, PS, to the firm's Site Development Group. The Group provides engineering solutions for commercial, institutional, and residential development projects. Haywood is skilled in evaluating the benefits and risks associated with development projects, helping clients overcome site challenges and capitalize on opportunities. He is experienced in all facets of projects, including diligence studies, planning, design, and permitting.
Walter & Haverfield LLP Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that Kirk W. Roessler has joined the firm as a partner in its Corporate Transactions group. Mr. Roessler represents commercial lending institutions in loan originations and commercial workouts, including foreclosures and bankruptcy matters. He also has experience in various types of real estate dispositions and acquisitions, as well as commercial and multi-tenant residential lease transactions. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that David Ricco has joined the firm as a partner in its Real Estate Law group. David has extensive transactional experience and has represented developers, investors, fund managers, end users, and other interest holders in matters involving acquisitions, dispositions, financing, leasing, zoning, entitlements, site development, environmental issues, easements, and construction. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Shelly R. LaSalvia Associate
David Mansbery, Jr.
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Partner Walter & Haverfield LLP Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that David Mansbery, Jr. has joined the firm as a partner in its Real Estate Law group. David represents clients in a range of real estate matters, including the acquisition and disposition of commercial properties and the leasing of retail, office, warehouse, and industrial properties. He also has experience representing clients in the leasing, acquisition, and disposition of mineral rights. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that Shelly R. LaSalvia has joined the firm as an associate in its Corporate Transactions group. Shelly focuses her practice in the areas of creditors' rights, bankruptcy law, business law, and real estate law. She assists commercial lending institutions, special servicers, receivers and commercial borrowers in loan restructuring and financial workouts, asset seizures, foreclosures and bankruptcies. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Continued on next page
For more information or questions regarding advertising in this section, please call Lynn Calcaterra at 313-446-6086 or email: lcalcaterra@crain.com
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ADVERTISING
Continued from previous page LAW
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Walter & Haverfield is please to announce that Miriam Pearlmutter has joined the firm as an associate in its Education Law group. Miriam focuses her practice on school law, including special education, labor and employment issues, and bullying/harassment complaints. She advises clients on issues of employment discrimination, student discipline, disability accommodations, Constitutional rights, policy drafting, and public records requests. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
Walter & Haverfield is pleased to announce that Lisa H. Woloszynek has joined the firm as an associate in its Education Law group. A former school psychologist, Lisa focuses her practice on providing general counsel to school districts in personnel and student matters, including discipline, records, board policies, collective bargaining agreements, arbitration, residency and custody disputes, social media, and discrimination concerns. For more information, please visit www.walterhav.com.
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REAL ESTATE AUCTION UPCOMING AUCTIONS THURS. FEB 18 - 12PM
THUR., FEB. 25TH - 3PM
613 US Grant St., La Grange
9413 Hamilton Rd., Mentor Industrial Machinery & Equipment Auction
TH
POSTPONED UNTIL MARCH 31
LOECY PRECISION MANUFACTURING, LLC
41 VACANT BUILDING LOTS BUILDING AT GREY HAWK GOLF COURSE ABSOLUTE 5 LOTS ON HENDRIX
Preview: Week of Sale from 10 am-3 pm and day of Sale From 8 am-10 am
(will sell to the highest bidder regardless of price)
WITH RESERVE 36 LOTS ON RILEY, RUNDLE, HENDRIX AND WALCOTT.
Okuma and Howa Millac 511v 4 Axis CNC VMC, Vertical Mills, Fork lifts, CNC Machines, Turning Centers, Screw Machines, Lathes-Engine, Turret, CNC, Welders, Tooling. Bridgeports, Brown & Sharpe, Acme Gridley, Warner & Swasey, Hyster, Okuma, DoAll, Turnmaster, OmniTool, South Bend, Allis-Chalmers, Lincoln. AUCTION LIVE & ONLINE AT
Homes starting in the $180-200's
216-990-1831
WWW.BIDROSEN.COM
Saturday February 20, 2016, 10:00 A.M. 2.36 acre industrial lot, Strongsville, Ohio The corner of Rt. 82, and Foltz Parkway See details and pictures at jeffbubauction.com
Keller Williams Greater Cleveland West Jeff Bub Auctioneer 216-544-6729
For daily on-line updates, sign up @ CrainsCleveland.com/Daily
Need someone to write business plans. Part-time as needed www.empirebusinesses.com
440-461-2202
BUSINESSES FOR SALE 46-year-old small specialty women's store Excellent reputation and loyal following. Owners ready to retire. Energetic new ownership should restore sales volume and profitability.
OFFICE/WAREHOUSE SPACE Office/Warehouse 4500 sq ft. East 30th & Superior Clean, modern space w/ 3 offices, conf room, restrooms, 18' ceilings, drive-in door, parking. $2,200/mo.
216-789-4491
FOR LEASE Bratenahl Cleveland Premium Storage 1st mo. free with 3 month rental. Office space available. Mr. Carthon
440.319.6662
To find out more, contact Denise Donaldson at 216.522.1383
Selling a Business?
CHAIRS; TABLES; LATERAL FILE CABINETS (2,3,4 & 5 DRAWER ), TABLES, CHERRY EXECUTIVE DESKS W/CREDENZAS, HERMAN MILLER CUBICLES
USED OFFICE FURNITURE FOR SALE Ohio Business Brokers Assoc. WWW.OBBA.ORG Find hundreds of businesses. Find a good broker to help.
330-374-0658 ext. 1
Buying a Business?
PUBLIC NOTICE
DON’T FORGET:
City of Bedford Developer RFQ The City of Bedford, Ohio seeks retail developers to submit qualifications to develop a ten acre downtown site overlooking the scenic Great Falls of Tinkers Creek (aka Bedford Falls) into a non-residential, mixed use development including restaurants, retail and light office. Deadline for submissions is March 11, 2016. For details, see http://www.bedfordoh.gov/site.cfm/City-Hall/ City-Manager/Projects-out-for-Bid.cfm or call Director of Finance at 440.735.6501.
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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Contact owners at P.O. Box 241053 Cleveland, OH 44124
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SEE WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS, PHOTOS AND TERMS OF SALE
Real Estate Auction Opportunity
Business Writer Wanted
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Crain’s Executive Recruiter Job Opening: AIA Cleveland Executive Director The Board of the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects is seeking a qualified candidate to fill an immediate opening for Executive Director. Our ED is the media-relation face of the chapter locally and the day-to-day manager of active volunteers to ensure that AIA Cleveland professionally fulfills its mission. For more information, please visit our website: www.aiacleveland.com/ executivedirector. We invite strong candidates to apply by 5pm on Sunday, February 28, 2016 by sending their resume and references to EDSearch@aiacleveland.com. Please no phone calls. Questions to same email address.
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z FEBRUARY 15 - 21, 2016 z PAGE 27
The List THIS YEAR RECIPIENT
LARGEST 2015 NEO PHILANTHROPIC GIFTS
DONOR
Ranked by Gift Amount
GIFT AMOUNT
2015 GIFT DATE
PURPOSE OF THE GIFT
CONNECTION TO RECIPIENT
(1)
DEVELOPMENT CONTACT PHONE NUMBER
Case Western Reserve University
Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and the Maltz family
30,000,000
May, Aug., Sept.
Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center (phase 1), Temple-Tifereth Israel
Generous supporters
Lawrence Gibson (216) 368-4352
Cleveland Foundation
Estate of Beverly Higley
22,970,364
Oct. 14
Addition to a supporting organization
Donor
Kaye M. Ridolfi (216) 861-3810
Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School (2)
Joseph and Florence Mandel Family Foundation
17,050,000
Aug. 25
Endowment fund and capital
Generous supporter; current and past students are family members
Karil Bialostosky (216) 464-4055
Baldwin Wallace University
Steve Boesel
15,000,000
May 15
School of Business
Trustee and alumnus
Patrick Dunlavy (440) 826-3623
Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Clinic
The Richard J. Fasenmyer Foundation
13,500,000
Aug. 18
Clinical immunology, fellowship and endowment
Foundation donor
Lawrence Gibson, (216) 368-4352 (CWRU); Armando Chardiet, (216) 445-8695 (Clinic)
6
University Hospitals
Karen L. Mole and the Hampson Family Foundation
10,600,000
Dec. 9
University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center
Friend and benefactor
Sherri Bishop (216) 983-2200
7
Breakthrough Schools
Haslam 3 Foundation
10,000,000
Dec. 23
Growth Fund
Generous supporter
John Zitzner (216) 373-7801
7
Cleveland Clinic
Anonymous
10,000,000
July 22
Capital priorities
Grateful patient, trustee
Armando Chardiet (216) 445-8695
7
Cleveland Clinic
Anonymous
10,000,000
Dec. 18
Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute
Grateful patient
Armando Chardiet (216) 445-8695
7
University Hospitals
Anonymous
10,000,000
Dec. 7
University Hospitals
Friend and benefactor
Sherri Bishop (216) 983-2200
Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Clinic
The Mandel Foundation
8,000,000
Aug. 12
Health Education Campus
Alumnus (CWRU); foundation donor (Clinic)
Lawrence Gibson, (216) 368-4352 (CWRU); Armando Chardiet, (216) 445-8695 (Clinic)
11
Cleveland Foundation
Anonymous
8,000,000
Dec. 29
To establish two donor advised funds
Donor
Kaye M. Ridolfi (216) 861-3810
13
Community Foundation of Lorain County (3)
LifeShare Foundation
7,937,358
Jan. 16
To improve health and wellness of residents of Lorain County
Community partner organization
Danielle M. Locke (440) 984-7390
14
Lorain County Community College (3)
LifeShare Foundation
7,500,000
Jan. 14
To create permanent endowment funds, LifeShare Legacy Fund
Community partner organization
Garis F. Distelhorst (440) 366-7559
15
College of Wooster
Stanley C. Gault
7,000,000
May 28
Integrated Life Sciences Center and the Flo Kurtz Gault Endowed Chair in English
Alumni
Laurie K. Houck (330) 263-2583
16
Cleveland Museum of Art
Anonymous
6,000,000
Sept. 25
Transformation building campaign
Friend
August A. Napoli Jr. (216) 707-2154
17
Cleveland State University
The Cleveland Foundation
5,500,000
June 25
NEOMED-CSU partnership for urban primary care
Community foundation
Berinthia R. LeVine (216) 523-7275
18
Cleveland Foundation
William A. Brahms Trust
5,103,741
June 5
Established a named fund for unrestricted purposes
Donor
Kaye M. Ridolfi (216) 861-3810
19
Case Western Reserve University
Larry Sears and Sally Zlotnick Sears
5,000,000
Oct.
Support for think [box] innovation hub
Trustee and alumni
Lawrence Gibson (216) 368-4352
Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Clinic
Marc A. and Rhonda L. Stefanski Foundation
5,000,000
Sept. 15
Health Education Campus
Civic leader (CWRU); Grateful patient (Clinic)
Lawrence Gibson, (216) 368-4352 (CWRU); Armando Chardiet, (216) 445-8695 (Clinic)
Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Clinic
Timken Foundation of Canton
5,000,000
Feb. 27
Health Education Campus
Foundation donor
Lawrence Gibson, (216) 368-4352 (CWRU); Armando Chardiet, (216) 445-8695 (Clinic)
19
Cleveland State University
Donald and Pamela Washkewicz
5,000,000
May 5
Engineering program
Alumnus and friend
Berinthia R. LeVine (216) 523-7275
19
University Hospitals
Rainbow Babies & Children's Foundation
5,000,000
Dec. 3
UH Rainbow Center for Women & Children
Friend and benefactor
Sherri Bishop (216) 983-2200
24
Cleveland Museum of Art
Anonymous
4,500,000
April 30
Transformation building campaign, endowment
Trustee
August A. Napoli Jr. (216) 707-2154
25
Cleveland Foundation
Anonymous
4,312,055
Nov. 18
To establish a donor advised fund
Donor
Kaye M. Ridolfi (216) 861-3810
26
Akron Community Foundation
C. Blake Jr. and Beatrice K. McDowell Foundation
4,267,671
March 16
To create a donor-advised fund
Community philanthropist
Margaret Medzie (330) 436-5610
Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Clinic
Anonymous
4,000,000
Dec. 31
Health Education Campus
Alumnus (CWRU); volunteer leader (Clinic)
Lawrence Gibson, (216) 368-4352 (CWRU); Armando Chardiet, (216) 445-8695 (Clinic)
Cleveland Clinic
Anonymous
4,000,000
Sept. 9
Cardiovascular medicine fellowships
Foundation donor
Armando Chardiet (216) 445-8695
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum
Anonymous
4,000,000
July 29
Jack Caine Endowment Fund for Education and Jack Caine Endowment Fund for Visitor Experience
Longtime member, volunteer and donor
Caprice H. Bragg (216) 515-8404
30
Case Western Reserve University
Oreste "Russ" Zanni
3,000,000
July
Health Education Campus, periodontics education
Alumnus
Lawrence Gibson (216) 368-4352
30
Cleveland Clinic
Anonymous
3,000,000
Dec. 22
Taussig Cancer Institute
Corporate donor
Armando Chardiet (216) 445-8695
30
Playhouse Square
George Gund Foundation
3,000,000
March 16
Advancing the Legacy Campaign
N/A
Michelle Ryan Stewart (216) 640-8410
33
Cleveland Foundation
Medical Mutual of Ohio
2,959,045
July 13
Addition to the Medical Mutual of Ohio Charitable Gift Fund
Philanthropic partner
Kaye M. Ridolfi (216) 861-3810
1 2 3 4 5
11
19 19
27 27 27
RESEARCHED BY DEBORAH W. HILLYER Source: Information is from the gift recipients with additional research by Crain's. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these listings are complete or accurate. We welcome all responses to our lists and will include omitted information or clarifications in coming issues. (1) Donations to religious organizations are not included. (2) Formerly The Agnon School. (3) Distribution came from the dissolution of the LifeShare Foundation.
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