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VOL. 37, NO. 29
JULY 18 - 24, 2016
Business of Life
Source Lunch
New café Rebol now open in Public Square Restaurateur Bobby George plans to offer healthy food choices. Page 23
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
The List
Region’s Top 100 employers. Pages 27, 28, 30, 31
Page 24
RNC IN CLE
REAL ESTATE
Cleveland, The convention by the numbers Philly put 50,000 1,000+ $20 million on spot By RON RUTTI clbfreelancer@crain.com
National political conventions have evolved into cookie-cutter productions. The drama borne from back-room dealings that begat delegates beholden to certain candidates was eased out four decades ago. Now, with party primaries and caucuses determining the nominees for president well before the conventions, the assemblies are scripted get-togethers for party stalwarts and springboards into the fall campaigns. The Democrats have the larger gatherings, with more than twice as many delegates. The GOP typically has the more tranquil conventions. “They (Republicans) sit in their chairs. When you watch on TV, you can see the color of their carpet. Everything is so pretty,” said the Rev. Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, her second time as a convention chief. “At our conventions, you don’t even know there is carpeting. People are always talking with each other. The aisles are never there.”
Jacqueline Greene, National Lawyers Guild
Total number of people expected to come to Cleveland to participate in, report on or be close to the action surrounding the Republican National Convention.
4,776 Total delegates,
2,472, and alternate delegates, 2,304, from 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia, that the Republican National Committee is expecting to be Cleveland when the convention opens July 18.
8,000 Volunteers
expected to help delegates, media and other visitors make their way in and around Cleveland.
15,000 Credentialed
media expected to be working in Quicken Loans Arena and the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.
Businesses who registered to be included in the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee supplier guide.
350 Buses brought in
from around the region to move delegates and others staying at area hotels.
135 Hotels the Cleveland
2016 Host Committee has contracted with within 35 miles of downtown Cleveland for the more than 16,000 hotel rooms needed for convention delegates, media, party officials and guests.
Money from the $50 million federal security grant allocated for equipment for the 2,500+ law enforcement officers who will patrol the city during the convention. That includes 2,000 riot suits and 300 patrol bicycles.
3.7 miles The length
of the interlocking steel barriers that will be used for crowd control during the convention.
■ Test yourself: Think you know GOP convention history? Take our quiz at crainscleveland.com
Numbers compiled by Jay Miller
SEE PHILLY, PAGE 12
Photograph by David Kordalski Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc.
CEO’s exit has DDR facing questions By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltyWriter
David J. Oakes, the just-deposed CEO of DDR Corp., is known to have frequented Ratatouille, a FrenchItalian fusion restaurant near the shopping center owner’s Beachwood headquarters, so much that associates who stopped in would ask if he had been there that night. Milo Valenti, a co-owner of Ratatouille, said Oakes would sometimes show up at 11 p.m. and say he was taking a break before going back to the office. “I told him they must be paying you a lot of money to work so many hours,” Valenti said. “He’d just smile.” Valenti is dumbfounded by Oakes’ sudden termination last Monday, July 11, wondering why the DDR board would fire the person who created and executed the plan to save the company in the recession. Like many observers, he scratches his head over the outcome. Oakes became CEO in February 2015, at age 36. He had a genuinely meteoric rise at the Beachwood-based company. He joined the big publicly traded owner of shopping centers in 2006 with experience at Cohen & Steers Capital Management and a Goldman Sachs security analyst. Oakes, 38, was the first hire in a strategy by DDR to bring young people, including recent graduates, into its ranks to train them in its own mold. The switch reflected the maturation of the real estate investment trust business because real estate companies historically had relied on hiring older people with on-theground experience in commercial property. A CEO of Oakes’ age at an SEE DDR, PAGE 25
EIGHT OVER 80
These Clevelanders still give their all to make NEO great FOCUS, Pages 17-22
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Falls Communications is adding government and public affairs to its strategic communication services in Cleveland and has expanded to Washington, D.C., with its first office outside the city. The additions are part of the ongoing evolution of the full-service strategic communications and investor relations firm, said Rob Falls, president and CEO of Falls Communications. “We didn’t really offer the strong — even though my background was politics — the strong government affairs and public affairs offering until we could find the best people,� said Falls, who previously worked on Capitol Hill as a press secretary and ran congressional campaigns. “We’ve got that now, both on the national and local basis.� Leading the Cleveland Government and Public Affairs Group as a vice president is Maureen Harper, who has 16 years of experience leading public sector communication efforts, including serving as chief of communications for Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson for almost nine years. Harper begins at Falls on Monday, July 18. Tom Medaglia, who has more than 40 years of experience in government and public affairs, is president of the Washington, D.C., firm, which is up and running with some new clients at 555 12th Street NW, Suite 630B. Falls said forming public affairs groups at the local and national level simultaneously helps bring comprehensive communication services to new and existing clients, who sometimes had to be referred to other agencies for governmental affairs support. The move will boost the firm’s ability to help clients navigate public policy issues, increase civic engagement and connect constituencies in the digital world.
“We didn’t really offer the strong government affairs and public affairs offering until we could find the best people. We’ve got that now, both on the national and local basis.� — Rob Falls, president and CEO of Falls Communications
“Public affairs, civic engagement, public communications work these days is dramatically different than it was even five or 10 years ago with the rise of social sharing,� Harper said. “That’s an intersection that I think some government agencies, governing bodies struggle with shifting to, and I think that’s one thing that we will add to the mix locally in Cleveland.� Medaglia agreed and hopes to help Falls Communications step into the grassroots side of communications. With the federal government as a large purchaser of products, he said he hopes to help build brand awareness for companies and give them the ability to do work in Washington.
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“I think our goal really is to help companies understand the Washington maze, help them build strategic relationships at high levels within the government, so that they can actually help move their business in either a growth area or in a different area for that matter,� Medaglia said. Harper said she sees opportunities to connect private companies with local governments big and small, and her passion for and background in Cleveland and public affairs will support that. Before working in the Cleveland mayor’s office, Harper was the public relations manager for Cleveland City Council and a publicist for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. “In local government, there’s often challenges to resources, and building this practice is a great way for us to help support their internal resources to do outreach, civic engagement, public relations, on major policy issues happening in the moment and also long-term projects,� Harper said. The Cleveland Government and Public Affairs Practice will bring an understanding of how government agencies work, assist clients in creating and implementing public policy, and demonstrate how to share work and effectively engage with constituents. Medaglia has a bachelor’s degree in education from Ohio State University and a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School at Western Michigan University. He will continue his role as principal of Thomas Advisors, a lobbying and consulting professional services firm. Required lobbying will be conducted by Thomas Advisors. Harper received her bachelor’s in English and communications and theatre arts from Heidelberg University and her master’s in interpersonal communication from Bowling Green State University. Falls said getting the right people for each of the new groups was critical. Plans for the Washington office were well underway when he met with Harper to discuss her returning to Cleveland. “For us, it’s a huge feather in our cap to have somebody that has that deep knowledge on the city and the county and the state, so it’s a home run for us,� Falls said. “So we decided to take a look at how we can put these offices together, working together, and it just seemed to fit.�
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RNC IN CLE
Law firms invite attention during RNC By JEREMY NOBILE jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile
With the Republican National Convention in town, Cleveland law firms are in a unique position to shape and facilitate the national dialogue surrounding policy and politics this week. And they’re not missing their chance. For a global firm like Jones Day, which boasts close ties to Capitol Hill, Wall Street and federal courts, this certainly isn’t new territory by any stretch. However, the opportunity to host these people and conversations in the city the firm was founded in 123 years ago is unquestionably special. The Jones Day complex on Lakeside Avenue, which is still open for regular business — although staffers are encouraged to work remotely if they can — won’t be an open house for politicians. But it will host a variety of forums to further the discussion on business topics and policy issues, something Chris Kelly, a former Jones Day Cleveland-office managing partner and one of four host committee chairs, said has been entirely lacking from this year’s presidential race. “Our clients have been under siege the last eight years by the federal government in terms of policies toward corporate America,” Kelly said. “We wanted to highlight issues important to our client base we think haven’t been discussed much lately.” He said the events “truly” aren’t about politics “for me or my firm.” But he did emphasize that, “It’s
our belief the country needs adults again.” “There’s a lack of leadership, seriousness, a lack of integrity of people who could be our future leaders,” Kelly said. “That’s why we are pushing for this serious discussion. We haven’t had it in a long time.” He wouldn’t name any politicians who may have come to mind. The panel discussions, which have been in the works for well over a year, will cover topics ranging from tax and trade policies to economic development and a presidential campaign’s impact on international business. Speakers range from Cleveland business elites like Cavalier owner/Quicken Loans chairman Dan Gilbert and KeyCorp CEO Beth Mooney to a variety of politicians and Jones Day’s own lawyers. At least one event is being co-hosted with Bloomberg Politics. Of course, Jones Day is far from the only Cleveland-based firm with a strong Capitol Hill presence and robust government relations group making moves. Squire Patton Boggs — a legacy Cleveland firm that formed when Squire Sanders & Dempsey combined with Washington, D.C., lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs in 2014 — has its own slew of events planned at its space on the 49th floor of Key Tower. One celebratory reception will feature former House Speaker John Boehner and former Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott (who was co-founder of Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a lobbying and consulting firm that was acquired by Patton Boggs prior to its Squire merger). A separate cocktail reception will
The Jones Day complex will host a number of forums on business topics and policy issues during the RNC. (David Kordalski) feature the Florida GOP and Georgia Republican Party at an event hosted by former Florida GOP chairman Al Cardenas and former Georgia congressman Jack Kingston. “Our deep roots in Cleveland and strong connections in Washington make this year’s convention a natural opportunity for us to come together with clients at a time when Ohio is on the international stage,” said Angelo Kakolyris, global spokesman for Squire Patton Boggs. Thompson Hine LLP, another Key Tower tenant, doesn’t seem to have any major programs lined up. However, it has coordinated with the host committee to provide volunteers who will assist delegates staying at the Hilton Hotel. The firm has a ticker counting down to the RNC in their Key Tower headquar-
ters, which will still be open — it even set up additional sites away from the tower for staff and clients to meet and work in. Near Public Square, Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP will host a variety of programs at its offices on East 6th Street. John Mino, a prominent member of Calfee’s government relations team, said the firm sees RNC week as a strategic opportunity in several ways. Connecting clients with influential politicians and delegates is one of those. They’re working directly with Ohio’s Republican Party delegation on the programs, in addition to clients. A variety of receptions, breakfasts, lunches and panels are on tap. A ver-
itable who’s who list of speakers and participants ranges from Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman and Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers to House Speaker Paul Ryan and Donald Trump Jr. — just to name a few. Some programs will feature participation and coverage from national media including Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal and Politico. The event is inherently special to Cleveland, but Mino said there’s also a bit of a hometown feel for all businesspeople and politicians in Ohio — an always critical battleground state in presidential elections. That’s why the firm has been working with political groups in Cincinnati and Columbus alike to coordinate things. Like Jones Day and Squire Patton Boggs, Calfee is certainly no stranger to the political realm. But the significance of facilitating a connection between those folks with clients — like the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of Commerce, for example — can’t be measured, Mino said. And for Cleveland firms themselves, this is also a banner moment to showcase both multidimensional capabilities and connections across federal, state and local political levels in their hometown. “When you think about an institution such as Calfee with our brand and client base and capabilities, this is putting that out there for everyone to understand,” Mino said. “These vectors are highly relevant in driving the value proposition.” By the way, if you don’t already know about these programs, don’t plan on getting in: They’re invite only.
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Meet key team members By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
The job of planning for the Republican National Convention has been likened to planning for a wedding. Maybe, because of its complexities, more like an outdoor wedding.
It takes months of executing small and large tasks — inviting guests (selecting delegates), finding the venue (Quicken Loans Arena), hiring caterers, florists and the like (same for the convention, actually) and then hoping nothing goes wrong as the big day approaches, and knowing that the event goes off, ready or not. David Gilbert, president and CEO
of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, recently compared it to planning an indoor wedding and an outdoor wedding. Weddings have party planners to handle those tasks. Pulling off the Republican National Convention took a team. The individuals below, including Gilbert, have been the key players on that team.
Frank Jackson
David Gilbert
Mayor, City of Cleveland
President and CEO, Destination Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission and the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee
Hosting a political convention has been a goal of Cleveland mayors as far back as Ralph Perk in the early 1970s. Jackson took up the task in 2006, shortly after he became the city’s mayor. When a group of Republicans scouted the city that year for a site for the party’s 2008 convention, Crain’s reported that Jackson told the group, “When you leave, you will see that Cleveland is the best place for your convention — and we can raise money for you.� It took eight years to get that message across. The city was an unsuccessful finalist that year and for the Democratic convention in 2012. But Jackson, who is nothing if not indefatigable, kept at it until July 2014, when the Republicans picked his city for its 2016 convention.
Gilbert already was president and CEO of the local convention and visitors bureau, Destination Cleveland, and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission when he took on the additional job as president and CEO of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, the nonpartisan nonprofit that is making the Cleveland convention happen. He and his existing staff, with a few additions, have done the heavy lifting of getting hotels committed,
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responsible for planning RNC in Cleveland
volunteers lined up and keeping the world informed about the progress of getting the city ready for the convention. In December, he told the Business Insider website that negotiating arrangements over hotel rooms with the Republican National Committee created for a time “a tension-filled relationship” over who would get which hotel rooms. With that past, the expectation is that a well-prepared city and a smoothly run event will make Destination Cleveland’s job of attracting tourists to Cleveland easier — and make the city more attractive to new and growing businesses.
Jon Pinney
Valarie McCall
Jeff Larson
Managing partner, Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz
Chief of government and international affairs, City of Cleveland
CEO, Republican Committee on Arrangements
Cleveland was a client of Pinney and his law firm, Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz, in 2006 when the city received an invitation to bid on the Republican Party’s 2008 convention. Now the firm’s managing partner, Pinney is credited with putting together the bid that won over the Republicans, after pouring over the contracts from prior winning bids. As counsel, secretary and treasurer of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, Pinney has been deeply involved in the committee’s work, reviewing contracts and negotiating insurance policies, including the police and security professional liability policy, the protester insurance. And since he’s treasurer, he even signs all the checks.
“Finally.” That was how McCall, who has been Mayor Jackson’s convention point person over the years, described her reaction when she learned that a convention would, finally, be coming to town. She made the comment at a host committee luncheon in January 2015. McCall has been a close Jackson aide since before he became mayor, serving as clerk of city council when Jackson was council president. She now is his chief of government and international affairs and represents the city on a large handful of civic organizations, including Destination Cleveland, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority.
Test your conventional wisdom Think you know GOP convention history? Take our quiz at crainscleveland.com
Larson, a long-time Republican official, was put in charge of the party’s planning for the convention, and moved to Cleveland, in early 2015. As CEO of the party’s Committee on Arrangements, he leads a staff of more than 70 people who allocated hotel rooms, arranged for 350 buses to shuttle delegates between hotels and downtown, and are putting on the show at Quicken Loans Arena — down to making sure red, white and blue balloons rain down at the candidate at the right time. Before taking on the Cleveland job, the North Dakota native was executive director of the independent expenditure operation of the 2014 National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party committee’s chief of staff and, earlier, he was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush. He became a minor celebrity when it was reported that it was Larson’s credit card that was used to pay for the $130,000 wardrobe hastily purchased for 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
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RNC IN CLE
Local Democrats will be plenty busy, too By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com @millerjh
This week, most Northeast Ohioans will be thinking Republican. After all, the Republican National Committee has invited 50,000 people — delegates, guests and media — to officially elect a presidential and a vice presidential candidate. But not everyone is thinking that way. Certainly not the area’s Democrats. Northeast Ohio is a Democratic stronghold. Nearly 369,000 voters in the seven counties of Northeast Ohio voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the March primary. That primary selected several dozen local Democrats, among 159 statewide, who will be taking time from their week to plan and pack for that party’s convention in Philadelphia the week following the Republican convention. Not that those delegates won’t have politics on their mind and in their plans this week. Local attorney Jan Roller will be going to Philadelphia for her second convention. At her first convention in 2008, she was elected as a delegate supporting Hillary Clinton who, by the time of the convention, had conceded to Barack Obama. “It was the most exciting event I ever attended in my life,� she said. “There was tension at that convention, but by that point I was supportive of the Obama campaign and his nomination.� Roller described it as a mix of fun and serious politics 24/7. “It’s not a lot of work. It’s activities
Northeast Ohio Democrats also have big RNC plans. (David Kordalski) that you enjoy because of your passion for politics and the importance to the country,� she said. The two convention weeks will be hectic ones for Angela Shuckahosee. The executive director of the Cleve-
land Tenants Organization is a delegate to the convention in Philadelphia. To help cover the cost of her trip, she’ll be moonlighting during the Republican convention week as a driver for the ridesharing service Lyft.
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“The overarching factor for me is ensuring that visitors have a good time in Cleveland and are safe,� she said, adding that as a Lyft driver she expects to help visitors navigate the city. “That’s what you do when you drive Lyft. It’s nice when you get a driver who knows the lay of the land.� Lana Moresky, a longtime women’s rights activist, will be attending her sixth Democratic convention. She is looking forward to seeing Hillary Clinton be the first woman to win a presidential nomination. “It will be the fulfillment of all the work I’ve done all my adult life,� she said. “It’s very exciting.� County councilman Anthony Hairston will be attending his second convention. His first was in 2012. “The whole convention was really fun,� he said. “I never experienced something like that.� Off the convention floor, meetings the Ohio delegation had with groups like the Congressional Black Caucus were especially valuable to Hairston, but it was the activity in the conventional hall that he remembers best. “You hear about things and read about them in history books, but really seeing that stuff, like the tribute to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, were especially memorable,� he said. “So I had to go again.� These delegates and their fellow Democrats and allies also will hold their own events while the Republicans are in town. Some, like Roller, also plan to rub shoulders with the Republican visitors at many of the parties and sponsored lunch briefings scheduled for venues around town. Before she leaves for Philadelphia, Roller will be part of an effort by Planned Parenthood Advocates of
Ohio to lobby the Republicans. She chairs the group, which is the political action arm of Planned Parenthood, and several staffers will be guests in her Cleveland home. The Dems also will sponsor some of their own events. Stuart Garson, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, said the party is planning several events during the week. Reached by phone shortly after the Fourth of July, Garson said the party was scouting for two sites for events, watch parties, one on the East Side and one on the West Side. “We’re not going to be making trouble for the RNC. We want Cleveland to be an attractive place for big events,� he said. “We certainly don’t want anybody to get hurt.� In addition, the local labor organization, the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, which is backing Clinton’s bid for the presidency, is making plans to ruffle some Republican feathers and grab some attention from the national media for their candidate. Harriet Applegate, the labor group’s executive secretary, said her organization is planning several events, including a news conference on July 17 that will include labor leaders from the United Auto Workers, public sector unions and from Keystone Tailored Manufacturing, the unionized West Side men’s clothing maker. Applegate said the news conference will showcase how it can be profitable to manufacture clothing in the United States and to point out that clothing that bears the brand of presumptive Republican candidate Donald Trump is made in foreign countries.
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Opinion From the Publisher / Editor
To see more photos of Bruce Hennes’ political memorabilia, go to www.CrainsCleveland.com.
A twist on office politics Editorial
It’s time The Republican National Convention that’s now upon us is not the one Cleveland expected in that big week in July 2014, when the city was awarded RNC hosting duties and learned LeBron James was coming back to town. James’ return, of course, worked out spectacularly well for the NBA champion Cavaliers. We should be so lucky with the convention, which has lost some luster as many big-name Republican politicians decided to stay away to avoid associating with controversial nominee Donald Trump, and has gained some anxiety in the wake of several tragic, violent incidents this summer. Political conventions usually are by-the-book coronations, an occasion for highly scripted political messaging during the day and early evening, and lots of parties and fun at night. (Plus, the silly hats and other convention gear.) This one feels different, with an unpredictable nominee adding some uncertainty and scaled-back corporate support taking away some of the festive nature of the event, even with an estimated 50,000 people coming to town. But predictions of disaster often are wrong. How many smart people thought the Cavs were done when they were down 3-1? Or for that matter, how many thought in July 2014 that Trump would be the nominee? Let’s see how this plays out, and let’s hope this is a safe, productive convention that helps make voters at least a little more informed about the current state of the Republican Party. With that in mind, we offer a few thoughts for the various groups that have come together for Cleveland’s first political convention since 1936. ■ To the convention organizations: We offer a hearty thank you, starting with David Gilbert, president and CEO of the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, and including all the staffers who have put in countless hours to make this the best convention possible. This is a massive undertaking. Not
everything will go smoothly. You will undoubtedly hear on social media about various problems, often in nasty ways. Fix things that are fixable, give good direction to your volunteers, and ignore the trolls. ■ To the security forces: Our thoughts and prayers are with you. You have an incredibly difficult job that 99.9% of you do with bravery and distinction. Be safe. Be smart. Know that most people respect and appreciate the work you do. ■ To motorists and downtown workers: Be patient. Your normal routine will be upset, at least a little and perhaps a lot. If you’re allowed to work at home this week, thank your employer and be productive. If you’re at the office, you should still work hard, but make at least a little time to walk around and take in the spectacle. ■ To the nominee: We won’t presume to offer advice to Trump. He wouldn’t listen to it, anyway, and after rolling to the nomination doing his own thing, he doesn’t need it. ■ To the delegates: We know you have work to do, but make sure you get out and enjoy the town. Cleveland has amazing restaurants, cultural attractions, architecture, local shops, parks and more for you to explore. Feel free to be a little loose with the credit card, too. ■ To the media: Be responsible. There are a lot of people willing to say and do weird, outrageous things to get your attention. Don’t fall for it. Use discretion. Be fair in your coverage but cut through politicians’ rhetoric. ■ To the protestors: By all means, have your say. It’s the American way. But after you leave the convention, make sure your words meant something. Find an organization that suits your cause and support it with your time, talent and treasure. Talk really is cheap. Do the work to make something better. ■ To local residents: Cleveland’s getting a lot of attention lately. This convention is the biggest challenge to date. Let’s all be at our best and show the country what we’ve got.
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
MANAGING EDITOR: Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com) SECTIONS EDITOR: Timothy Magaw (tmagaw@crain.com)
Bruce Hennes hangs out in his office with political figures who have made history. Barack Obama. John McCain. George W. Bush. Richard Nixon, George McGovern, Barry Goldwater. And many more. The public relations practitioner has amassed an impressive collection of political memorabilia that he displays in his office on the 32nd floor of Terminal Tower. Like most people, I’m sure, I was struck the first time I walked into Hennes’ office to see life-size cutouts of politicians — Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and both Bush presidents. There are framed posters of Gerald Ford, Spiro Agnew and Ronald Reagan. Tables are laden with political tchotchkes and souvenirs, like a Dole/Kemp pocket knife. I recently sat down with the managing partner of Hennes Communications on the eve of the Republican National Convention in Elizabeth Cleveland to discuss the virtual political conMcIntyre vention that surrounds him each day. A student of 20th century history, Hennes said he was bitten by the politics bug as a teenager when he helped run the Canton office for Democrat George McGovern’s presidential campaign. His collecting started soon after, but his stockpile really grew after the launch of eBay. Hennes is a bipartisan collector, but he has a soft spot of sorts for Richard Nixon. The 37th president smiles out of several ads emblazoned with: “Now more than ever.” Some visitors, Hennes says, assume he’s a Nixon fan. “Actually, no, but Nixon has the better posters,” he said. “Not only are the posters better looking, but the contradiction between having great political posters and being likely as flawed a human being as ever has been in politics before is interesting to think about.” Surrounded by his collection, Hennes has enjoyed watching the preparations for the RNC out his office windows. And he can’t wait for the show to begin. “Any time I look out the window on three sides of the building, I see in my mind’s eye people in funny hats, and I see protesters and I see squads of police officers, and I realize we are in the middle of the world’s biggest story,” he said. “That’s right in front of us. How cool is that?” This week, through his window, Hennes will watch history and democracy. So will many of us who work or own businesses or live downtown. Despite some inevitable inconveniences, step back and recognize, like Hennes does, that history is happening around you. And if you get a chance, snag a souvenir. A life-size cutout of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence might be valuable some day.
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.
SOUND OFF: Send a Personal View for the opinion page to emcintyre@crain.com. Please include a telephone number for verification purposes.
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Web Talk Re: Crain’s July 4 Donald Trump cover Sorry, that cover was out of line. Yes, Trump is colorful, but he is also the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States. And then to offer a poster of the cover?? Obviously you have shown your hand. Can’t you have a little respect as a business/news outlet? Would you have portrayed Hillary Clinton as some misguided Asian restaurant hostess because of her dress choices, too, had the DNC been in Cleveland? You’ve clearly put yourselves in the same category as a lot of the other rags out there. — Marty Kruszynski Donald Trump is a business man. Your paper is a business publication. If he lived in Cleveland, we would be extremely happy to have the jobs that he could create. Why would we imply that his convention will be a “circus” which has all kinds of negative implications? The word circus implies clowns, entertaining acrobatic acts, animal acts, and side shows. These things are appropriate for a circus, not a political convention. If your opinion is that Trump will create a “circus” environment when it should be a convention, you have done a good job of rendering this opinion. … Your newspaper should be about promoting a positive image of Cleveland as being business friendly. I think nothing less than a letter to Mr. Trump apologizing for this reckless “cartoon” is in order. Hopefully, this letter will go out soon. The RNC is one of the best things to hit this city in a long time. Let’s not tarnish the inviting and positive image that our city wants to portray to Mr. Trump and the RNC attendees. — Vic Voinovich Please! An apology? Really? Don’t even think about it. It’s your right to publish whatever you choose. (Of course, Mr. Trump has suggested muzzling the press, so publish while you can, lest he win.) His campaign has been the most disrespectful, toward both opponents of his party and Hillary Clinton, of any in recent memory. He hasn’t apologized for anything he has said ... nor has he ever asked forgiveness, he claims. Regarding the content of the cover, it’s flattering, I think. The circus is a beloved institution, it’s well organized and brings joy to attendees. And Trump is depicted as the ringmaster, the leader, not a clown. Satire (think about the New Yorker cover depicting the Obamas in an unflattering light) is a skill to be treasured. Don’t stop. — Bob Stern Kudos to artist Randy Palmer on an excellent cover, which captures the scenario well with much-needed lightheartedness. I don’t think it “leans” either way, and that’s why Crain’s is getting all the criticism. Get a grip, people! We’re all waaaay too touchy these days. — Cindy McQuade
Personal View
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Stay focused, Cleveland: Our work isn’t done By MiCHAEL OZAN
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“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit.” — Coach Vince Lombardi The Republican National Convention is our opportunity to show the world that Clevelanders are the best America has to offer. As I have told my children, this is the greatest time to be a Clevelander in the past 100 years or, arguably, ever. Growing up I never owned a Cleveland T-shirt. Nobody did. Throughout my life being a Clevelander was an exercise in taking it. Every year brought another joke, another business closing, another corporate headquarters relocating. Mix in an assortment of “near misses” and “not even close” attempts by our sports franchises and we reached a point where it seemed our veins were empty. We were the city of heartbreak. It was all we knew. We had made losing a habit and it ruled our collective subconscious. We had lost control of the conversation. Remember the “brain drain?” My parents told me, run! (True story.) And every baby boomer we encountered in the early years of our agency warned us to have low expectations for success as a Cleveland business. They labeled the land barren and warned us to seek greener pastures. The one-two punch of the post 9/11 recession followed by the Great Recession said to Cleveland business, “go down and stay down” and like a cleansing rain, it drove the remaining Cleveland non-believers to the exits. Our agency, like so many local entrepreneurs, felt a duty to our hometown. We sought to take an active role in our city’s rise. When the dust settled, those of us with the grit to get back up saw this community through a completely different lens. Where some boomers saw only blight and decline, we saw raw, untapped opportunity. So while the world looked the other way, we began to work together to craft a new conversation. We looked around and asked: Why not us? Why not here? We have everything that every successful city has had: proximity, ports, natural resources, a willing workforce, access to higher education, arts and a philanthropic community like no other. We have it all. Welcome to Believeland: Brought to you by a ton of regular people working their asses off for a decade straight. It has taken real heart and real hard work to create that new habit for us Clevelanders. So many people have taken part in creating the collective destiny that is now Cleveland. But our success is not solely a result of hard work. We have begun to collectively believe that “we can.” We have changed our collective subconscious. Is it possible that we, Cleveland, a community with a collective winning mindset propelled the Cleveland Cavaliers to an historic, odds-defying victory? I say yes. That was us. President Ronald Regan often talked about the “Shining City on the Hill,” that not so distant vision that represented the best America had to offer. Well, congratulations, that’s us, that’s Cleveland. We dream, we work and we win together. On to the RNC: Remember what it took to get here. When the world asks what makes our nation great? The answer will be Clevelanders. During the RNC, we need to remember that we are hosts, our city is the context within which our power, ideals and values will be on international display. We have been entrusted to be part of our American political process. We are not spectators — we have a civic duty to help communicate American strength and stability to the world in any way we can. This is a challenging assignment but it’s the one we worked for — we’ve earned it. When we are done, the new global conversation about Cleveland will be set for decades to come. We have one shot to leverage this exposure. So we all have to answer the call and put politics and our fears aside. We were chosen for this because we are the best America has to offer. When the world asks, “What makes this nation great?” I believe the answer will be Clevelanders.
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RNC IN CLE
PHILLY
O’Neil said. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney noted the distance the Democratic convention will be from Center City in an op-ed piece in which he invited people to come down for festivals, restaurants and the atmosphere as part of a “You Don’t Want To Miss This” theme. “If you are worried about the crowds, don’t be,” the mayor wrote.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The slick productions that flow over four days every four years take a lot of planning — both for organizers and for the nonprofit host committees that raise money to pay for the conventions and that promote the home cities. This year the contrasts are many, and we can start with the cities involved, Cleveland and Philadelphia. “Philadelphia was constructed to host big events like this,” said Anna Adams-Sarthau, a spokeswoman for that city’s host committee. The Republicans had their convention there in 2000. Pope Francis visited last September, luring around 1.5 million pilgrims. For each, Philadelphia had months to prepare. Cleveland last had a national political convention in 1936. It was the Republicans, who return here now. About 1 million people swarmed downtown recently for the Cavaliers victory parade. There were scant days to get ready for that celebration. Cleveland did have the Senior Games in 2013 and the Gay Games a year later. That helped planners. “Both of those events probably brought 20,000 people to town. There were multiple venues, lots of moving parts and lots of logistics,” said David Gilbert, CEO of Cleveland 2016 Host Committee. What Philadelphia really gained was experience working with federal agents who oversee security at a high-profile event, Gilbert said. Gilbert has communicated with heads of past host committees and compared notes with Kevin Washo, his counterpart in Philadelphia. “It’s helpful to know what they have gone through. It is a unique type of organization and structure,” he said.
Keep the peace
Philadelphia last held a national political convention in 2000, when the Republicans nominated George W. Bush. (Getty Images)
A tale of two cities This year’s organizers are working with different topographies. The Republican convention will be in Quicken Loans Arena, right downtown, making security trickier. Road closings and parking restrictions will impact businesses and residents. And while downtown hotels are walking distances for delegates, media and others, there just are so many rooms. Only 30% of the 50,000 people coming to Cleveland to attend the convention will stay downtown. The rest will be bused to and from hotels as far away as Sandusky. When Democrats convene the next week, about 70% of their delegates will be quartered in Philadelphia. But none will be walking to the convention site. Wells Fargo Center is 3.5 miles from downtown, in a complex of sports facilities surrounded by a 1mile radius of parking lots. The security perimeter around the
center will be easier to police. Disruptions in Center City will be minimal. “One of the reasons the RNC really liked Cleveland is we had everything they needed in our downtown. Yet it is very compact,” said Gilbert. “That created challenges as well. Everything is within where people live and work. It is definitely a twosided coin.” David O’Neil, spokesman for the RNC, said estimates are that 80% of the people coming to the convention have never been to Cleveland. That is exposure that will be invaluable for the city. “For a journalist, they are going to have an opportunity to experience this city and talk about it and write about it,” he said. For locals, it will be a chance to see national figures. “You are going to be walking down the street and you are going to see Rudy Giuliani and Marco Rubio. Everyone coming to the event will be in full view,”
Cleveland has stumbled some bringing in police officers to work convention week. Some cities balked at sending officers because of workers’ compensation issues. A department in North Carolina questioned Cleveland’s preparedness. The city intends to bring in at least 2,000 officers to bolster its force. Philadelphia has a much larger police department and will supplement its force only with officers from surrounding counties where it has mutual-aid agreements, said Lauren Hitt, the mayor’s spokeswoman. Philadelphia also has a new law that should lessen the number of protesters jailed during the week. Many persons who could be hauled off for offenses such as disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and public drunkenness will be ticketed instead and fined $100. Cleveland police chief Calvin Williams said ticketing is an option in Cleveland. Mayor Frank Jackson said, “Our purpose is to allow for a successful convention in The Q and for constitutional rights to be allowed to happen (outside). There are things that happen in the moment. You will see us controlling the situation. That’s what you will see.” When Philadelphia hosted the GOP in 2000, more than 400 protesters were arrested. Most who went to
trial were acquitted. Some then sued the city. Both Philadelphia and Cleveland are buying “protest” insurance as protection in case of lawsuits that claim civil-rights violations and police brutality during the weeks. A large number of protesters are expected in each city. That has become the norm at the major conventions. Advocates for the protesters have sparred with both cities over parade routes and where people will be allowed to congregate. Riots outside the 1968 Democratic gathering in Chicago changed how business is conducted inside conventions. That year, Eugene McCarthy won the relatively small number of primaries held, yet came out of the convention a loser. It was a time of political turmoil in the United States. “The primaries were not how you won the delegates. Hubert Humphrey won the nomination, and the convention broke into riots,” said Justin Buchler, a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University. “What frequently happened was delegates to the convention were picked as a result of deals, and a result of those deals was the nomination,” he added. “They were often done in those smoked-filled backrooms.” The embarrassment of the riots and the subsequent Humphrey loss in the general election to Richard Nixon drove the Democrats to reform their delegate selection process. The Republicans followed suit, and soon delegates won their slots during caucuses and primaries. Since then, with the drama gone, the conventions have been scripted, Buchler said. That does not mean they have to be boring. Watch Cleveland 2016, for an example.
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RNC IN CLE
DCA ambassadors play crucial roles in cleanup efforts By BOB SANDRICK clbfreelancer@crain.com
Cleveland city workers picked up tons of trash after the Cavaliers’ June 22 victory parade downtown. But with the Republican National Convention on the horizon, the downtown cleanup never stopped, thanks to a group of area nonprofits and government agencies. Downtown Cleveland Alliance, a nonprofit charged with improving the downtown experience, has led the way. It has expanded its staff of “ambassadors,” who help keep downtown streets clean and safe. DCA recently hired 10 additional ambassadors, bringing the total number to 80. Heather Holmes, DCA director of marketing and public relations, said the agency would have beefed up its ambassador crew with or without the convention because the ambassador program is expanding into other parts of Cleveland. However, hiring was accelerated due to the RNC. “Our ambassadors have been out there for 10 years,” Holmes said. “There are definitely differences in downtown from then to now. Having a uniformed presence that is approachable has changed the perception of downtown over the years, as far as people feeling safe.” The nonprofits HandsOn Northeast Ohio and Keep Ohio Beautiful, along with the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, have also lent hands toward tidying downtown. The cleanup is part of a larger campaign by the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee to prepare for the RNC. In May, the host committee announced plans to beautify downtown, with help from businesses, by planting trees and gardens, stringing lights and installing 85 new planters. DCA’s “clean” ambassadors, in their gold and blue uniforms, will water and maintain the planters, which will total 250 with the new installations. And with the influx of visitors for the RNC, clean ambassadors will likely pick up even more litter than usual. Clean ambassadors, as part of their regular duties, also powerwash graffiti, stickers, paint and gum from public surfaces. They straighten newspaper boxes and trash cans and wipe off benches. Meanwhile, “safe” ambassadors patrol beats on bikes and on foot. They look for problems, and radio police if necessary. They are taught how to interact with homeless people and can connect them to social services. Both clean and safe ambassadors can provide information about hotels, restaurants, events — and conventions — to Cleveland visitors. “They are like walking concierges,” Holmes said. “We hire them based on their personalities. They have to be welcoming.” Shawnte Berry of Euclid has been a DCA ambassador since the program was established in 2006. She said she applied for the job to make the city a better place. “I love to clean and make a difference
in the community,” Berry said. “To see the changes from what it (downtown) was, it’s just overwhelming.” Holmes said the ambassador program is so popular that nonprofits supporting other Cleveland neighborhoods — including University Circle, Shaker Square, Gordon Square Arts District and Ohio City — have requested ambassadors. Berry, as operations supervisor, oversees ambassadors in these areas. “They see the (ambassador) model has worked, so other neighborhoods have tried to duplicate that,” Holmes said. That’s important now because political delegates will visit those neighborhoods during the Republican convention. “With the RNC, we will try to double them up in high-traffic areas, and have two ambassadors there instead of one,” Holmes said. But will 10 extra ambassadors be enough for the Republican convention? DCA thinks so. “We’re expecting a lot of hospitality questions — ‘Where should I go?’ and ‘Where can I eat?’ — and we believe the 10 new ambassadors will really help with that,” said Meghan Tinker, a DCA spokeswoman. On June 4, HandsOn Northeast Ohio, ODOT and Keep Ohio Beautiful recruited volunteers to pick up litter in parks, neighborhoods and beaches, and on streets between Interstate 90 and Marginal Road. On June 11 and June 26, RTA managed a cleanup of its Red Line, a rapid transit that connects Cleveland Hopkins International Airport with Tower City downtown. The work was done in conjunction with the “Inter|Urban” art project, which involved the installation of art along the Red Line. The art was made possible by grants from the Cleveland Foundation and the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency. And on June 26, volunteers working for ODOT collected trash along the I-71 corridor of downtown. As for the beautification campaign, DCA is down with it. The group and the city of Cleveland planted 275 trees downtown for the RNC. In addition, DCA will repair sidewalks and work with parking lot owners to make parking lots look nicer. Other beautification projects have included new gardens in Willard Park, Shaker Square and Market Square Park in Ohio City, thanks to contributions from ScottsMiracleGro and Petitti Garden Center. On five days between May 21 and June 25, DCA volunteers strung more than 1.4 million twinkle lights on trees and light poles along East 9th Street, Mall B, Public Square, U.S. Bank Plaza and around Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex. The lights — nearly 14,250 sets of energy-smart micro LEDs — were donated by GE Lighting. The estimated value is $350,000. “As we have been headquartered in Northeast Ohio for more than 100 years, it is not only a duty but a privilege to be part of this beautification event for all of the visitors to our region,” said Andrea Vullo, manager of public affairs with GE Lighting.
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Behind-the-scenes view is on students’ RNC docket By RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty
For the 130 students participating in The Washington Center’s Republican National Convention program, this week is about more than nominating a presidential candidate. It’s a hands-on learning experience. The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars in D.C. provides experiential learning opportunities for students across the country through its more traditional internship program, as well as through its academic seminars for the Democratic and Republican conventions. This year, the group has partnered with Baldwin Wallace University in Berea to host students from across the country for the Republican convention in Cleveland. The goal of the program is to give the students a deep look behind the political scenes with academic programming and field work placements in all parts of the convention. Students will work with media agencies, state delegations and local interest groups, said Kevin Nunley, vice president for student affairs at The Washington Center. The center wants students to leave with an understanding of the political process and how it can affect them, no matter what career they pursue. “Public policy is not just a political science thing,” Nunley said. While the convention program is nothing new for The Washington
Center, the organization this year received funding, in part from the Cleveland Foundation, to offer scholarships to local students for the first time. The scholarships went to students from Baldwin Wallace and Cuyahoga Community College, though Nunley said not all local participants were funded. The Washington Center program attracted 130 students for the Republican National Convention, a good deal less than the goal of 175 to 250 Nunley gave Crain’s in January, when the partnership with Baldwin Wallace was announced. He wasn’t certain what had caused the lower numbers and speculated that the timing of the event could be part of it, as could a lack of interest in the Republican convention. But the students who did choose to attend seemed engaged during a session last Wednesday, July 13. Alicia Kurtz, a plant science major at Cuyahoga Community College, is one of the local students taking part in the program. She wants to go on to a premed program at a four-year university once she’s done at Tri-C and wanted to make sure she was “well-rounded.” Cassidy Lowden, a Baldwin Wallace student majoring in political science, international affairs and English, said the convention was an out-of-the-ordinary opportunity for students. She thought it would be a good way to get to know the city so close to her college better. For Andy Henthorn, the Washington Center program offers a direct connection to the career he wants to
pursue. The political science major at Baldwin Wallace would like to get into politics someday, and his beliefs align with those of the Republican party. He said the program has already given him the opportunity to network with established professionals and his fellow students, as well as learn more about what went into getting the convention to Cleveland. Students arrived on campus about a week before the convention got underway. Programming started with an overview of safety and security measures on Sunday, July 10, Nunley said. While the center includes safety training as part of all its programming, it was ramped up for the Cleveland convention because of the current political climate, Nunley said. The program brought the Secret Service and the Cleveland police in to talk to the students, and there’s an on-call system students can contact 24/7. The program wanted students to be aware of the protocols in case of an emergency. The week before the convention, students participated in a series of academic lectures and small group sessions with faculty leaders. The lecture topics ranged from gender politics in elections to the role of communications and media in campaigns to an Electoral College simulation. Students learned their field work placements Thursday evening, Nunley said. The weekend before the convention started, some students began orientation and training for their field work, while others were encouraged to visit downtown Cleveland.
Geis Co. is converting the Whitlatch Building into offices. (Stan Bullard)
Geis is renovating Whitlatch Building By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter
Real estate developers in downtown Cleveland for the most part are focused on slashing the amount of office space by turning it into apartments or hotels. However, an affiliate of Geis Cos. is doing the opposite: setting to work on a project to update an old office building for modern use. Through HD Medina LLC, Streetsboro-based Geis is starting to renovate the Whitlatch Building, 1910 Carnegie Ave., into contemporary offices — and it already has a tenant committed to the space. Miami-Jacobs Career College, a business and technical college owned by Delta Career Education Corp. of Alexandria, Va., has leased the first floor and basement of the building for an additional Northeast Ohio location, according to Jim Doyle, a member of HD Medina LLC
with developers Fred and Greg Geis in the project. Doyle said the partnership has the top two floors left to lease. The developers plan to fully renovate the building inside and out, he said. Miami-Jacobs will occupy almost 13,000 square feet of the structure of the 33,000-square-foot building, according to online county records. Doyle said the new Cleveland location will not harm Rockside Road, as the tenant plans to retain its location in Independence. “I think it’s a dynamite location for a sales organization, because it has direct access to highways,” he said. The improvements will cost more than $3 million. The developers received a $2.7 million loan for the work from Pittsburgh-based Dollar Bank, according to county records. Cuyahoga County shed the building in 2013 as it consolidated offices scattered throughout downtown in the Geis-developed Cuyahoga County Administrative Headquarters at 2079 East Ninth Street.
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Focus For these eight individuals, age is simply a number and the word ‘retirement’ has been tossed from their vocabularies. In Crain’s first Eight Over 80 feature, we chose eight people who are still making a mark on Northeast Ohio’s business, civic and philanthropic circles. They’re still creating, advocating, building, healing and teaching. Here are their stories.
Eight over 80 Row one: Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Jr. Caroline ‘Connie’ Luhta Row two: Iris Wolstein Robert P. Madison Row three: Bill LaPlace Belle Likover Row four: Marilyn Tobocman Norman Krumholz
Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s
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Caroline ‘Connie’ Luhta, 86 When Caroline “Connie” Luhta says she doesn’t give up easily, she’s putting it mildly. Before she took office as a Concord Township trustee in 1992, she lost not one, not two, but three campaigns against an incumbent. She ultimately won an open seat and has since been re-elected for seven terms spanning a near quarter-century. Will the seventh be her last? The 86-year-old says so. “I think it’s time for me to let someone else become a trustee,” Luhta said. “Eighty-nine is pretty old to be a trustee. But I said that before, I said, ‘This is my last term,’ and then they talked me into running for another.” This May, Luhta received two awards: the Lake County Republican Party honored her for outstanding service to the citizens of the county, and she also was inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizen Hall of Fame. Gretchen Reed, a friend to Luhta for 30 years, nominated her for the latter. “Connie is a selfless contributor to the community in many ways,” Reed said. “She is committed to being non-partial, seeing all sides of things. She is a politician without enemies, which is a rare quality.” Luhta is remarkable, Reed added, not just because of her enduring public service but her continued ownership and operation of an airport (Concord Airpark) and her involvement as president of the board of trustees of the International Women’s Air & Space Museum at Burke Lakefront Airport. “I’m 72, so Connie is 14 years older than I
am,” Reed said. “She is absolutely my role model for how to age gracefully and energetically. I’ve learned that you don’t stop growing, you don’t stop caring, you don’t stop contributing because of the number of birthdays you’ve had.” Reed and Luhta actually both own and operate airports. Luhta’s late husband, Adolph,
The Luhta file Mentor: Her husband, Adolph, to whom she was married for nearly 25 years. “He just thought I could do whatever it was I thought I wanted to do, and so I tried and I did.” Best piece of advice she’s received: “Don’t fall in love with things. Fall in love with people.”
started the airport from a dairy farm in 1954, and when he passed away in 1993, she took over. He’d encouraged her to be ready to do so, and as a result, Luhta, who’d earned a chemistry degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and worked for Standard Oil of Ohio for 16 years, returned to Lake Erie College for a business administration degree. “He wanted me to do it all,” Luhta said. “To this day I do the tax returns for both corporations (Painesville Flying Service and Concord Airpark). He must have known I would like it.” While Luhta no longer races airplanes, she still flies them (normally a Piper Cherokee 180), but she’s not teaching others to do it. “I don’t have time,” she explained. “If I were to insure my airplane to teach flying, I would have to teach eight hours a day to pay for the insurance. “I enjoy being up in the air,” she added. “You can look down at something and if you have a problem, you can look down and think, it can’t be too bad, it’s too small.” Luhta lives in Concord Township and has a daughter, stepdaughter, and stepson. To her, the key to longevity of life and community contributions is easy: “Just keep doing things. Don’t retire. “If I sat here and wasn’t interested in things, I would begin to hurt,” Luhta explained. “If I didn’t move around, then I would start thinking about myself and then I would just wither up and no one would like to come and see me because I’d be grouchy. It’s important to keep your outlook positive.” — Michelle Park Lazette
Dr. Edgar B. Jackson Jr., 81 When Dr. Edgar Jackson retired from private practice in 2005, it was not his first time. He had retired five years earlier from his role as chief of staff and senior vice president for clinical affairs at University Hospitals. Nor did his second retirement stick. Jackson, who joined UH in 1973, was soon back in the thick of Cleveland’s health care universe as senior adviser to the president and CEO of UH and University Hospitals Case Medical Center. He retired from the post in 2010. No, the third time was not a charm, either. Today, Jackson is executive in residence at Cleveland State University and co-chair of the Northeast Ohio Medical University-Cleveland State Partnership for Urban Health, an ambitious initiative that aims to improve the health outcomes of inner city residents via — to a large degree — the recruitment of urban students into primary care fields. “I just have not been able to be contented being retired,” he said. “I like to stay busy, that is part of it, but a bigger part is that I still see tremendous need and I still have the energy to help. I feel like I need to help.” Jackson credits a home visit from Dr. Cleon A. Flowers, a noted Arkansas physician, with piquing his interest in medicine at an early age. The family moved from rural Arkansas to Cleveland when Jackson was a teenager. While a student at the now-closed Central High School, former Case Western Reserve University professor Dr. Lowell Orbison recruited Jackson to work in his pathology lab. “He was doing affirmative action before it had a name,” Jackson said. “He was the one that encouraged me to go to college and mentored me throughout.” Jackson was one of the first African Ameri-
Photographs by Jason Miller for Crain’s
can graduates from the medical school at Case, and the only one in his class. He was also president of his class each year. Along with private practice, teaching and hospital administration, his professional roles included serving as the health director for the city of Shaker Heights and first assistant dean of minority affairs at CWRU. Currently, he also is also vice chair of the board of Saint Luke’s Foundation and a member of the boards of Cleveland School of Science and Medicine and
The Jackson file Mentors: Edgar and Willie Jackson, father and mother, and Dr. Lowell Orbison, a former professor at Case Western Reserve University who operated a pathology lab where Jackson worked in his youth Best piece of advice he’s received: “My mother who taught me as a child to believe in Christ. Her specific words were: ‘I’ve got a friend I want you to meet, and I want you to trust him just like you trust me. He will never leave you or forsake you, and his name is Jesus.’”
the Health and Education Institute at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Quincy Avenue — all of which aim to improve the health of Clevelanders. Jackson said a common thread in his medical career and community service was — and still is — a desire to provide medical education and access to health care for minorities. On that front, he’s proud of the advances. “I think there’s more experience now on the support systems needed for students who come from urban and minority populations and a commitment to provide those supports,” Jackson said, “understanding that societal needs dictate that we do better. “At my age, I am just delighted to have something that I can help do.” Organizations like Saint Luke’s are delighted as well, according the foundation’s president and CEO Anne Goodman, who said despite being in “high demand” Jackson takes his board commitment seriously and is always present at site visits and meetings with thoughtful comments and questions. “While Dr. Jackson is accomplished, enthusiastic and compassionate, he has not ceased to be forward-thinking and innovative,” Goodman said, noting that Jackson helped establish the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health, which he now co-directs. She also praised Jackson’s gracious and welcoming character. “He has this remarkable, joyful laugh that you can hear from a mile away,” she said. “He always gives hugs, is kind to absolutely everyone and fills any room he is in with good spirit. … Dr. Jackson is kind, gracious, humble and smart, and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him.” — Judy Stringer
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Robert P. Madison, 92 Robert P. Madison is more than a Cleveland treasure — he’s a walking slice of American history. And architectural history, too. Madison has been an architect for most of his life, and for all of most people’s lives. He’s one of the few in his profession alive today, let alone working, who was personally trained by Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School. He studied under Gropius in a master’s program at Harvard University in the early 1950s, which only admitted 15 other students. They were, Madison recalled, the cream of the crop of the nation’s young, up-and-coming architects. For any of the students, a master’s degree earned under one of the pillars of modern architecture was a free pass to success. Any of the students, except Madison, that is. “All the best architects in the country descended on Harvard to hire the graduates of Gropius’ class,” Madison said. “But no one interviewed me.” Because Madison was black. It might be hard for some to believe today, but there was a time in the United States when even an African-American man with a prestigious degree was not considered capable of designing major buildings. Even if Walter Gropius said otherwise. Madison lived through that time. He also lived in Selma, Ala. But if you ask him about the civil rights movement there, he’ll laugh. There was no question about who could eat at the lunch counter or sit at the front of the bus when Madison lived there in the 1930s. But his family highly valued education. His father was an even rarer bird than the younger Madison, and was a trained engineer, who later taught college. There were no schools good
enough for what their son wanted to accomplish, so the Madison family moved to Cleveland, where Robert was born, in time for him to attend East Tech High School. There, he learned Latin, French and Greek — “as well as calculus and other subjects,” he said. What followed, was enough adventure and adversity to fill a book. His education at his father’s alma mater, Howard University, was interrupted by World War II. That saw Madison off to Europe, where he fought in Italy with the famous Buffalo Soldiers of the 92nd Infantry
Division and was wounded in action. After the war, he decided that instead of returning to Howard, he would attend Western Reserve University, but that wasn’t easy. “They didn’t want me in the school, they tried to flunk me out and everything else … But
The Madison file Mentor: “My father was the inspiration behind my whole life. He was an engineer and he suffered all of the disappointments and stuff that I found out about later. But he was my hero.”
I had the G.I. Bill of Rights and with the G.I. Bill of Rights you can go anywhere,” Madison said. So he persisted, graduated, and was off for Harvard. Luckily, Madison didn’t need a job right after Gropius’ class. He won a Fulbright scholarship and was off to Paris for the next year. In 1954, he founded Robert P. Madison International in Cleveland, where he and his family have been designing buildings ever since. It’s in the blood. “My uncle is a great architect,” said nephew and firm vice president Kevin Madison. “My father was an architect, my wife is an architect, my daughter is an architect — then myself. And Robert’s brother was an engineer,” he continued with a chuckle. But his uncle Robert was always special, he said. “Robert was my main mentor and he helped me out so much in getting through architecture school … He would invite me down to work during the summer to get some practical experience,” Kevin Madison said. A lot of Robert Madison and his firm’s work, especially in the early days, was for churches, especially A.M.E. churches, Madison said. But it eventually won recognition and larger projects, including major public buildings, museums, airports and other projects. But one stands out in Madison’s memory: the U.S. embassy office building in Dakar, Senegal. It’s a former slave port, where Madison might have had his life’s greatest victory. “Here I was, where my ancestors had been held and shipped as slaves 400 years before, designing an embassy …. That is one I feel very good about,” Madison said. — Dan Shingler
Best piece of advice he’s received: “Simply put, it was, ‘Get something in your head because they can never take that from you.’”
Photograph by Jason Miller for Crain’s
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Iris Wolstein, 87 Iris Wolstein is still developing real estate — and still excited about it, as well as her other activities from philanthropy and charitable work to gardening. When Wolstein, Heritage Development Co.’s CEO, talks about the company’s next project, a $15 million Aloft Hotel in North Olmsted, she is as excited as many people would be about a new baby. In her case, the hotel is the new project after finishing the second phase of the $500 million Flats East Bank Neighborhood that transformed part of the city’s riverfront with an Aloft hotel, apartments, restaurants and offices in a joint venture with her son Scott Wolstein and Fairmount Properties of Cleveland. And that’s on top of a lifetime of participating in projects as her late husband, Bertram “Bart” Wolstein, who died in 2004, created a real estate empire. Wolstein said matter-of-factly that she has land around the country. “If it’s a viable site,” she said, “with the economy the way it is, I figure I’m better off investing in real estate than the stock market.” Such is the case with the North Olmsted Aloft, which is near the Moen Inc. headquarters on a site Heritage developed years ago. For the most part, her schedule is like that of any CEO, though they are likely half her age. Every Monday morning she meets with “my top guys” in her various business ventures. The locations circulate between the multitenant office building in Moreland Hills that serves as Heritage’s headquarters, Bertram Inn in Aurora, the Glenmoor golf course community in Canton or the downtown Aloft. When the meetings are at the hospitality-associated sites, she also meets with chefs and food and beverage managers. Wolstein said she likes to schedule “one or two free days each week to hang out at home.” Even on those
days, though, there are calls to George Kimson, Heritage chief operating officer, and every weekday ends with a call to him to check in on business developments. Scott Wolstein said his mother remains “razor sharp. It’s amazing that she is on top of everything she is involved with.” He said she also remains incredibly focused on details, especially those that deal with two longtime interests, design and landscaping. “In the Flats, every plant and element of décor has her flair for design,” Scott Wolstein said. “When my father died, things could have gone two ways. She could have liquidated
everything. Instead, she threw herself into the business. She was always involved, but the
The Wolstein file Mentor: Her late husband, Bertram “Bart” Wolstein, a shopping center developer whose Developers Diversified Corp. was the foundation for publicly traded DDR Corp. as well as a residential, golf course, hotel and office building developer. Best piece of advice she’s received: “Always give back to the community,” was advice her late husband gave her. “Being in real estate, we could have lived anywhere, but Cleveland was and is home.”
equation changed. She took on tremendous responsibility to continue his legacy.” For her part, Iris Wolstein said, “I could never do nothing. I’m not a country club lady.” She said she benefits from the real estate and operations team her late husband developed. Including the hotels, Heritage has almost 300 employees. Her schedule of civic activities is also busy. She’s served on more than a dozen boards, from First Tee of Cleveland to the Ohio State University Foundation. Her resume lists contributions totaling more than $40 million, the most recent $3.4 million to Ohio State for the Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Entrepreneurial Leadership Fund for educating and inspiring current and future business creators. “When I make a donation of any size,” she said, “I stay in touch with the charity or program to make sure it is accomplishing its goals.” A friend for 50 years, Jackie Rothstein of Gates Mills, said Wolstein enjoys being outdoors and working in the garden, one where Rothstein has borrowed thyme and other herbs. “She’s not changed a bit over the years,” Rothstein said. “She’s a nice lady. She’s Iris.” Wolstein, who enjoys boating although she notes she “doesn’t drive,” recently took her 34foot cigarette boat to the Cuyahoga River to view Flats East Bank from the water. How did she feel? “Really good,” Wolstein said, then pulled out her smartphone to share something many Clevelanders enjoy. “Look at this,” she said as she showed a video of LeBron James waving the National Basketball Association championship trophy to a crowd of partying people; he was dancing above them on a balcony at Flats East Bank. — Stan Bullard
Bel le Likover, 96 After a little more than nine decades, one World War and three careers, Belle Likover is still speaking. Visit her small apartment in Shaker Heights, and she will touch on Medicaid policies to the still-life drawings with carefully placed pauses, gentle hand swipes and a diplomatic lilt. “If I speak too fast, people are going to miss the essence of what I say,” Likover asserted before a crackling laugh. “In order for people to process, they need the time, and slight pauses make all the difference. If you notice, that’s the way I talk. It’s just automatic.” A skillful habit that stems from years of talk, whether it be from competing on the Ohio State University female debate team in the 1940s or touting Social Security in front of the White House Conference. As a member of Senior Voice, a trainer of hundreds for the Speaker’s Bureau, or as a mover-shaker of the Jewish Community Center, Likover has solidified herself as one of the most singular advocates in Cleveland. Likover grew up in Beaver Falls, Pa. Instead of dolls, she begged for chemistry sets. Other than chasing boys at Beaver High, Likover went toe-to-toe with them as the only female on the varsity debate team, led at the time by a teacher named Aldy Smith. Initially, Smith doubted Likover’s potential. Yet soon, seeing Likover’s determination, he was swayed. Her life was never the same. “He said, ‘When I’m done with you, you won’t think the same, you won’t talk the same,’” Likover recalled. “He taught us how to present in front of an audience so that your ideas actually sink in. Every position of leadership I’ve had, I owe to that debate coach.” Battling professor’s skepticism and riding Photographs by Jason Miller for Crain’s
high on the female debate team, Likover graduated from Ohio State in the midst of world war. Though she never was without work, tragedy was interspersed with fortune. Her first husband died overseas, and Likover had a newborn to raise. She relocated to Cleveland in 1945 to work as a research assistant, and was eventually offered a position in the Jewish Community Center’s senior department in 1960, where she’d spend the next decade. In the years following, Likover published papers without a Ph.D. The JCC sent her to grad
The Likover file Mentor: Aldy Smith, teacher at Beaver Falls High and coach of its all-boys debate team — well, except for Likover. Best piece of advice she’s received: “The most important thing of getting to the heart of an issue and then being able to communicate? First of all, you have to make eye contact with your audience. You never, ever read a speech, or refer to notes. And when you present each important point, each important word, you emphasize with a slight pause. That pause allows it to be absorbed.”
school. She won $1 million arts grants from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare due to solo car trips to D.C. “Their mouths fell open. Nobody had ever come to visit them like I had,” she said. In 1982, following the lead of her teacher husband Edward, Likover retired at 63. But she wasn’t eschewing her duty. As she grew older, her loyalty to senior activism became even more dear. To pass down her talent, Likover joined the Speaker’s Bureau, helping amateur talkers — under the auspices of former coach Smith — to speak in front of thousands. The then octogenarian’s life was so emblematic that she was named a “Myth Buster” by the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging. An award, Semanthie Brooks, Benjamin Rose’s director of community advocacy and longtime pal to Likover, said is rightfully given. “She’s not only an advocate,” she said, “but brings with her advocacy a lot of compassion, fairness and independence. And she takes that passion with her wherever she speaks. I mean, you can hear it when she talks to you.” Though Likover’s lived a storied life, she owes most of her longevity, she said, to luck. That, daily exercise, no prepared foods or salt. Oh, and of course, to be fortunate to discover a lifelong passion of advocacy. Likover will always, it seems, go to whatever means necessary to be heard. “Whenever I went to speak to the legislature, I always got their attention. But what gets their attention now?” said Likover, adding her trademark pause, a smile. “Well, I start by letting them know I’m 96 years old. Yep, I play the age card. And you know what? It works every time.” — Mark Oprea
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Bil l LaPlace, 88 When Bill LaPlace joined a predecessor to financial giant Deloitte in 1953, the company was a very different place — no cell phones, no computers and a wide range of accounting work accomplished all in one office. Now a retired partner with the multinational network known as Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL), LaPlace’s daily routine is also quite changed from the days he was growing the company’s tax department. The Fairview Park resident has a desk at Deloitte’s Public Square office, where he employs his well-honed tax expertise to manage a handful of charitable foundations and organizations. So-called “retirement” finds LaPlace at his desk most every day for up to five hours, tracking and scrutinizing funding requests for, among others, the Kent H. Smith Charitable Trust, Cleveland Rotary Foundation, Lakewood Hospital Foundation and the Fund for Our Economic Future. LaPlace ramped up his charitable efforts upon retiring in 1990, choosing organizations he had previously assisted as clients. “I joined the boards of these different groups, which I couldn’t do when I was employed,” he said. “This charity work has become my new business role, in a sense. I don’t play golf, and I’m not ready to sit on my hands and watch TV.” LaPlace also meets fund representatives to discuss donations, though he prefers his weekly 15-20 hours at Deloitte’s downtown digs. “Most of my files are still down there, and there’s a secretary available if I need the help,” LaPlace said. “It’s convenient from a business standpoint, and I like to be down where the younger staff members are. I’m not involved in any direct work, but having (young people) around is a plus.” Even after 26 years of nonprofit tax work — and a career’s worth of complex money man-
agement before that — LaPlace still finds challenge in dispersing funding in a manner that satisfies a particular organization’s mission. “I was never on the decision side of grantmaking before. I was doing the tax returns,” LaPlace said. “Now it’s about having a familiarity with these organizations. I’m on the other side of it now.” Not to say the Deloitte alumnus doesn’t miss his previous profession. LaPlace, an Ohio State University graduate who served as a Marine in World War II and the Korean War, joined what in 1953 was called Haskins & Sells. The firm, at the time located across from the former May Co. building, did audits and tax returns along with offering business
Photograph by Jason Miller for Crain’s
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advice. Unlike the specialized tax prep of today, one person often handled multiple services. “Today you see specialists in silos, but in the old days, we covered all the silos,” said
The LaPlace file Mentor: Elmer G. Beamer, head of office at Haskins & Sells in the 1950s. “The office was small then, maybe 20 to 25 staff. That made it easier to have a close relationship with the partners. Elmer was easy to talk to in regards to handling tax work and clients.” Best piece of advice he’s received: “Do everything above board. In other words, don’t do what would involve substantial questions that are hard to answer. Staying out of trouble is what it comes down to.”
LaPlace, named a Deloitte partner in the mid1960s. Whether in corporate taxes or his current nonprofit arena, LaPlace said building personal associations with clients is critical to any money-related venture. “You need to develop close relationships because some people have to be drawn out to offer information,” LaPlace said. “That’s the human side of it.” Ellen Stirn Mavec, president of The Kelvin & Eleanor Smith Foundation, considers LaPlace a close friend and mentor. She called him a “great visionary” instrumental in funding various projects around University Circle, including a floor-wide collaborative lab at think[box], Case Western Reserve University’s innovation and entrepreneurship space. “Both of us share a great love for University Circle,” Mavec said. “I’m proud of what Bill has accomplished in the area, especially at Case.” What’s more, LaPlace has always been Mavec’s go-to source for business and even personal advice. “Bill really is one of the kindest and most visionary thinkers I know in the foundation arena,” Mavec said. “If anything ever happened to me, he’d be the first person on my doorstep to make sure I’m OK. He’s a solid, caring, great guy.” For his part, LaPlace looks back fondly on his long career and the friends he made at Deloitte offices around the country. He still checks the markets on CNBC and enjoys watching his alma mater Ohio State wreck shop on the football field. Having a purpose through his foundation activities also helps keep LaPlace going. “Doing this work is fulfilling,” he said. “These are all good organizations with good goals. I like being part of what they’re accomplishing.” — Douglas J. Guth
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Marilyn Tobocman, 82 At 82 years old, Marilyn Tobocman still carries the same workload at the Ohio Attorney General’s civil rights division as she did when she took the job more than two decades ago. Her reason for not scaling back her practice is quite simple. “I haven’t been doing it that long,” Tobocman said quite matter-of-factly. “I’m not done. I feel like I’d be cheating myself if I left early.” It’s true that Tobocman’s legal career started later in life. After raising her four daughters and being inspired by her work with the League of Women Voters and other organizations, specifically in regards to fair housing, Tobocman enrolled at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at age 47 where she was, for the most part, twice the age of her classmates. “Volunteer work can be very satisfying, and it was,” Tobocman said. “But it certainly tempts you to try the real thing.” She described her law school experience as a “chance to put on jeans and tell your kids ‘I have homework. You can certainly take care of the kitchen.’ It was the most freedom I could have ever imagined.” After graduating, she spent the next decade working at a nonprofit organization and a civil rights law firm before joining the attorney general’s office. Within a year of joining the attorney general’s office, she was at the head of some of the most complex civil rights cases. In 2001, she tore down gender barriers common at country clubs by obtaining an order that granted all members equal access. In 2003, she was part of a legal team that won a $4.3 million settlement against Farmers Insur-
ance, which was accused of offering substandard insurance products in minority neighborhoods. More recently, she settled a case involving hundreds of housing units with barriers to people with mobility impairments. Today, those units are accessible. “She’s a tireless advocate and someone you can always count on,” said Duffy Jamieson, assistant section chief for the civil rights division. “She works long hours, and is always making sure there’s no stone that goes unturned …
She’s had a lifelong career helping people who are not in a position to help themselves.”
The Tobocman file Mentor: Betty Montgomery, former Ohio attorney general, who “reminded us that we have the heavy hand, and we didn’t have to wave it around. And she was a very good role model.”
That passion for helping others stems from a lesson her father, an immigrant from Poland who worked as a truck driver, taught her. During one of his deliveries, he saw an AfricanAmerican family carrying a suitcase. In that suitcase were all of the family’s possessions. “My father had accumulated a great deal more than that driving a truck,” Tobocman said. “He was very moved by that, and America was supposed to be a place of opportunity. It was for him, and it was supposed to be for everybody.” Much of Tobocman’s work is centered on education, ensuring tenants know their rights and that landlords understand the law. Perhaps the most rewarding part of her work, though, is helping people find their voice. “It’s a very hard thing to admit you’ve been discriminated against,” Tobocman said. “If you don’t get the house you want, you don’t want to think it’s because you’re Jewish, black, Catholic or you have too many kids. That can be very humiliating. But in many cases, we can turn that around before there’s a lawsuit or litigation. Then people have a chance to stand up for themselves and set a good example for their children.” Beyond her work, Tobocman said she enjoys music and art. But the law is her true passion. “There is nothing routine about what I do,” she said. “That’s the part that’s very compelling. Rights are reluctantly broadening all of the time. There are new barriers to break down, and we try to find a way the law can serve a broader range of people, so that people who were previously excluded are now included.” — Timothy Magaw
Best piece of advice she’s received: “When I got my first C on a law school exam, a professor said, ‘Don’t worry about it. You belong here. You can do this.’”
Norman Krumholz, 89 Norman Krumholz spent a career shaping a precise vision for equitable urban planning, whether through his work with three successive mayoral administrations or 30 years educating thousands of college students on fairminded city and neighborhood development. At 89, Krumholz’s vision for Cleveland hasn’t wavered. Last month, he joined the board of the Cleveland Tenants Organization, serving as an advocate for low-income renters looking for affordable, quality housing, sometimes in the face of racial prejudice or unscrupulous landlords. In theory, at least, these labors are not far from Krumholz’s time as the city of Cleveland’s planning director under mayors Carl Stokes, Ralph Perk and Dennis Kucinich. As creator and proponent of a development model called “equity planning,” he places transportation, housing and recreational solutions for the underserved over splashier, headline-grabbing initiatives. “It’s more important for the equity planner to ensure neighborhoods are stable than to renovate Public Square,” Krumholz said. “It’s a question of priorities.” Until recently, he also taught future generations of would-be planners at Cleveland State University’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs. Though Krumholz taught his final introduction to neighborhood planning course last fall, he still keeps an office at the urban affairs building, where he’s contributing a chapter to a larger compilation on equity planning. Krumholz spends 15 hours a week writing about a subject he’s been invested in since graduating from Cornell University in 1965 with a master’s in regional planning. And even decades before then, raised along with his two brothers by a single mother during the Great Depression. “Cleveland State has always been receptive to my ideas and work,” Krumholz said. “I love it. Photographs by Jason Miller for Crain’s
You’d have to drive me out of CSU with a stick.” Prior to arriving in Cleveland in 1968, Krumholz — originally from Passaic, N.J. — acted as a planning practitioner in Ithaca, N.Y., and Pittsburgh. During his tenure as planning director from 1969 to 1979, he promoted land banks and a network of community development corporations. With Stokes, Krumholz helped endorse public housing as a bid to decentralize the African-American population, while the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority came into being as part of his tenure with Perk. While equity planning didn’t generate much widespread interest either in the 1970s or during Krumholz’s stint as president of the American Planning Association a decade later, issues such as sustainability and income
disparity have put the discipline he pioneered into a clearer focus nationwide. Krumholz recently observed equity plan-
The Krumholz file Mentor: Paul Davidoff, planning educator at University of Pennsylvania. “Davidoff set up the idea of advocacy planning, where planners represented the interest of the poor. I read his stuff in college and eventually put it into practice at City Hall.” Best piece of advice he’s received: “Paul Davidoff’s article on advocacy and pluralism really made a difference for me. He pointed out that planners didn’t have to serve the establishment, but could serve other groups in society, including the poor.”
ning’s growth as a Cleveland City Planning Commission appointee under Mayor Frank Jackson, a position he held until 2014. The practice’s influence can be found today largely among CDCs and nonprofit organizations. “Equity planning is like a long-term relay; you pass the baton to the next guy,” Krumholz said. “I’ve seen Chris Ronyane (president of University Circle Inc. and a former city planning director) and other young professionals locally refocusing away from glitzy projects onto more substantive issues. There are people in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle doing things I was promoting 40 years ago.” Bill Whitney, chief operating officer of the Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corp., is proud of the progress made by his years-long friend and mentor. As part of Krumholz’s City Hall planning team, Whitney helped jumpstart Cleveland’s land bank and tackled additional projects designed to advance the lives of struggling families. “Norm has the ability to work with a variety of very different people and gain their trust,” Whitney said. “His most important skill is understanding particular situations and successfully navigating the course to a desired outcome. CDCs continue to be the backbone and a major force in the redevelopment of Cleveland’s neighborhoods.” Krumholz is cautiously optimistic his dream of equity in city planning can continue to prosper, even as Cleveland still too often puts capital projects ahead of housing and other ground-level needs. “Looking back I managed to do some good things with help from many people,” Krumholz said. “So long as the machinery is still working, I’ll continue on writing, researching and trying to make Cleveland a better place.” — Douglas J. Guth
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Business of Life
Rebol, which recently opened at Public Square, is owned by Bobby George, who also operates the popular TownHall in Ohio City. (Contributed photos)
Amped up about spot on Square By LEE CHILCOTE With the opening of Rebol, the sleek new café on Public Square, entrepreneur and restaurateur Bobby George has a platform for not only providing people with great food but also helping people enjoy a healthier lifestyle. George’s new eatery offers indoor and outdoor seating on the newly revitalized square. The menu features Asian-style street food in “bols” well as “taco baos” or tacos wrapped in bao buns. It is open from 6 a.m. into the evening (exact hours to be determined) and has outdoor picnic tables with views of the square as well as pingpong and shuffleboard tables. “What we want to do is fuel people with the proper food and beverage so that they can go out and innovate,” said George, who owns the popular TownHall venue in Ohio City and is president of Corporate Management Group, a company with more than 20 bars and restaurants across the country. “That’s our mission.” Rebol’s goal is to deliver fresh, healthy food in minutes for under $10. Taco bao options include chickpea and vegan chicken tikka, grilled chicken and spicy tuna. Patrons can also choose gluten-free corn tortillas. Bowls begin with salad, rice or zucchini noodles and can be topped with barbecue pork, grilled chicken, “beyond meat” vegan chicken and other choices. Flavor profiles include kale-peanut, chickpea tikka masala, and cilantro-lime pesto. Side dishes include banh mi barbecue pork nachos and Thai street corn with yum yum sauce.
Rebol will serve breakfast, as well, offering three different egg sandwiches, cold-pressed juices and organic pour-over coffee. Mike Schoen, who serves as co-executive chef along with Mike Keyerleber, is pretty psyched about opening a restaurant on Public Square. “It’s a pretty cool office to have,” he said. “With what’s happening right now in terms of the city’s revitalization and the Cavs’ win, this is a great place to be.” Before returning to Cleveland, Schoen spent six years working in restaurants in Chicago. He first met Mike Keyerleber when they worked together at Great Scott Tavern in Euclid. George got involved in the project after Bedrock Real Estate Services, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s real estate company, approached him with the opportunity. Bedrock manages the
Employees Adrian Marti, below left, and Paige Decker are shown at Rebol’s café at Public Square.
café space. George immediately got excited because he had a new concept he wanted to try out. Rebol is dubbed an “urban performance café” because it delivers healthy, flavorful food designed to give people more energy, not make them fall asleep at their desks. Like TownHall, the venue places a strict ban on all genetically modified food (known as GMO), and all of the meat, produce and dairy is organic. Some of the menu items are also locally sourced. The entrepreneur first developed his passion for healthy eating after being diagnosed with hemochromatosis as a young man. Through switching up his diet and making healthier choices, he was able to mitigate the effects of the rare genetic disorder. Today, George attributes his high energy level to health-conscious eating. George developed his healthy eatery concept at TownHall, where servers routinely ask customers if they have any dietary restrictions. If patrons identify themselves as vegan, paleo, glutenfree or vegetarian, the server simply taps an icon on their handheld device, avoiding mistakes. George also requires his servers to watch “Genetic
Roulette,” a documentary about the negative impact of genetically modified foods on the nation’s food supply, and to read “The Unhealthy Truth” by Robyn O’Brien, a nonfiction book about the same topic. The number of non-GMO restaurants around the country is small but growing, George said. Customers have responded well to TownHall, and business there is good. “We just make less money, to be honest,” said George of the difficulties of sourcing non-GMO foods at his restaurants. “I figure if I deliver the best product, I can have higher volume and make money that way instead of worrying about my margins. My model is a little bit different than everybody else’s.” Rebol uses a Poursteady, a new invention that automates the pourover process, to serve organic coffee. Non-alcoholic beverages, bone broth and smoothies are located in a case near the counter. The restaurant uses coconut oil instead of vegetable oil in its fryer. Rebol also has a liquor license so patrons will be able to enjoy a beer or glass of wine on the square. With a nonstop flow of people stopping by to peek in the windows on a recent Thursday afternoon, interest in the new café is already high. “We want to help activate the square,” George said. Schoen said Rebol’s unique concept adds to downtown’s food scene. “There’s really nothing like what we’re doing in Cleveland,” he said. “We took fast casual concepts from New York and L.A. and brought them to the middle of downtown.”
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Source Lunch As delegates pack Quicken Loans Arena to the brim this week for the Republican National Convention, scores of activists and protesters will fill lawns, streets and sidewalks in attempts to spread their own messages to a litany of visitors to downtown Cleveland.
And while police officers will play a crucial role in protecting those freedoms of speech, a different group behind the scenes will play an equally essential part in helping those who will undoubtedly have their — let’s call them disagreements — with authorities: the National Lawyers Guild. The nonprofit will offer pro bono attorneys to people who need it, as well as placing constitutional rights observers in key areas to police the police, among other efforts. Crain’s sat down with Jacqueline Greene, co-coordinator of the NLG’s Ohio chapter, to gain a better understanding about the role the nonprofit plays in the activist scene during an event the caliber of the RNC and why that matters. — Jeremy Nobile
Recap for me how the NLG lends its support to these protesters and the motivation for getting involved. Legal support, including legal observers and pro bono attorneys, provided by the NLG is designed to enable people to express their political views as fully as possible without unconstitutional disruption. Historically, looking back at previous nominating conventions and other large-scale political events, mass civil rights violations are rampant. The presence of legal observers acts as a deterrent to police misconduct, and the ability of those observers to serve as third-party witnesses in criminal and civil rights cases allows for testimony at trial beyond the one-sided, often inaccurate narrative provided by police in these types of cases. Does the NLG work with any of these activists before these events take place? The Ohio chapter of the NLG does not get involved in any planning for protests or demonstrations. However, we do provide know your rights trainings upon request. We also provide legal observers upon request and in protest scenarios where we think police response is likely. The Ohio NLG also operates a jail support hotline for people to call at the time of arrest or during detention, which allows us to advocate for safe and humane housing, as well as speedy release for detained people.
Does this taking place in Cleveland pose any unique concerns? The Cleveland Division of Police is currently under federal oversight because of the Department of Justice’s 2014 findings that our police department has engaged in a pattern of unreasonable and unnecessary use of force, which resulted in a consent decree outlining broad goals for police reform. The historical problems with unconstitutional use of excessive force coupled with the high-powered, military-grade weaponry and surveillance equipment available to the CDP through a $50 million federal grant specifically provided for obtaining policing equipment for the RNC is highly concerning, and raises serious questions about the likelihood of civil rights violations. It’s been reported that some law enforcement have been knocking on doors of known activists. What’s the NLG’s position on this? We have received widespread reports of door knocks by FBI agents, sheriff’s deputies, police detectives, and even Secret Service and homeland security agents. Law enforcement is entitled to engage in investigations, but we believe these door knocks over the past few weeks in Cleveland have crossed the line from investigation to intimidation. The people law enforcement are visiting include community organizers, activists, and people with very limited connections to political protest activity, as well as their friends, families and workplaces. We believe visits
Jacqueline Greene
by law enforcement are nothing but a fishing expedition designed to create fear and to have a chilling effect on the lawful exercise of constitutional rights. What kind of turnout is the NLG expecting in terms of protesters? There is no way to predict or speculate about how many protesters may come to Cleveland. Typically, we see between 5,000 and 10,000 protesters at RNCs. But in New York City in 2004, during the Bush re-election campaign, we saw approximately 100,000 protesters. While there is some indication about who may protest during the RNC through the city’s permitting process for parades and other spaces, at this stage, we will have to wait and see who shows up. At least the protest zone is closer to the actual event now than what was originally planned. That’s a plus, right? The city was forced to compromise by a federal court after finding that the original parade route and event zone were constitutionally inadequate and in violation of the first amendment. While the new parade route is slightly improved, and though the event zone is now smaller than it was previously, the Ohio NLG still has concerns about whether the parade route and other restrictions will permit effective exercise of free speech and assembly rights. Constitutional policing practices are our utmost concern.
LAW
FIVE THINGS: ANY HOBBIES? I like to check out the salsa dancing scene and art galleries, and the food and drink scene around town.
SPEAK ANY OTHER LANGUAGES?
German, poorly, though. I’d like to learn French, Arabic or Spanish.
WHAT’S SOMETHING PEOPLE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU?
I like pickling things and making fermented foods, like kombucha and sauerkraut.
FAVORITE PLACES YOU’VE TRAVELED?
Cape Town, South Africa. The people are so friendly and warm. And the landscape is gorgeous. They’ve also got great wine, which doesn’t hurt either.
WHAT’S SOMEWHERE TO VISIT ON YOUR BUCKET LIST?
Latin America, maybe Buenos Aires.
LUNCH SPOT Mabel’s BBQ 2050 E. 4th St., Cleveland 216-417-8823
The meal ½ lb. of lean brisket and ½ rack of pork spare ribs shared at the table served with thick, farmstyle white bread, pickle chips and Cleveland kraut.
The vibe
Inside, the converted warehouse space is big and open but loaded with people, even at lunch, with a crowd ranging from families gearing up for a Cleveland Indians game to suited-up business folks. The tangy, ubiquitous smell of barbecue is only slightly less intoxicating than the extensive drink list featuring a slew of bourbons and potent cocktails. Sharing a variety of meats with your table guests is the way to go.
The bill $30.24 + tip
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DDR
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EDUCATION
CONSULTING Glenn Garson Vice President of Consulting Pathfinder | MPI Consulting
Fran Bisselle Head of School Hathaway Brown Dr. Mary Frances "Fran" Bisselle is Hathaway Brown's 14th Head of School, beginning July 1. Fran comes to HB from Manchester Center, Vt., where she was head of Maple Street School for nine years. She holds an undergraduate degree in History from Boston College; an M.A. in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University; and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont. Fran also is a graduate of the prestigious Klingenstein Head Fellowship program at Columbia.
ACCOUNTING Greg Henderson, CPA Associate Manager The Siegfried Group Greg returns to Siegfried as an Associate Manager in the Cleveland Market. He comes to Siegfried from Forest City Realty Trust, where his focus was financial planning and analysis. Prior to his time at Forest City, he spent five years in public accounting at Ciuni & Panichi, Inc. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration and his Master of Science in Accounting from Kent State University.
ACCOUNTING Chase Canter, CPA Senior Associate The Siegfried Group Chase joins Siegfried's Cleveland Market as a Senior Associate. He comes to Siegfried after spending nearly five years in public accounting at BKD, LLP and Deloitte. His industry experience includes energy and natural resources, financial services, manufacturing, and health care. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Penn State University.
ADVERTISING & MARKETING Jennifer Cho Salaff Senior Content Producer shark&minnow shark&minnow has appointed Jennifer Cho Salaff to the role of Senior Content Producer. Jennifer's love of storytelling transcends medium whether it's print or digital, news or features, blogging or creating content for small businesses. An award-winning newspaper reporter and magazine editor, Jennifer's work has appeared in publications across the globe. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Visit sharkandminnow.com for more information.
Glenn is responsible for driving Pathfinder | MPI Consulting's U.S. growth strategies. Glenn has many years of experience in Human Resources and labor relations particularly with regards to preventing union organizing efforts. Most recently, Glenn was Area Human Resources Manager for Republic Services, a Fortune 500 company with over 30,000 employees. He previously was Director Labor Relations Midwest US at Walmart. He has also held positions at Kenan Advantage Group, Marc Glassman and Handl-It.
established Cleveland company is a rarity. In the REIT industry, analyst Haendel St. Juste, a managing director of Mizuho Securities USA Inc., can point to just two others among the nation’s 200 REITs. Oakes was succeeded July 11 by Tom August, a DDR board member with deep REIT experience in the office side of the business, who is the firm’s fourth CEO in eight years. August, 68, is 30 years Oakes’ senior. He also extracted from the get-go a three-year employment agreement that eluded Oakes until late spring — almost 14 months after taking over as CEO, although the company said that was because its board compensation committee revised its formula in that period. The five-month gap this year was “too long” for a salary dispute, St. Juste said. Although the company’s board clearly was motivated by a desire for stability, Rich Moore, a REIT analyst for RBC, called the three-year agreement for August “remarkably quick. So easy.” DDR said little in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Oakes’ firing except that it was not due to disagreements about strategy or execution at the firm. There is no severance payable in the termination, DDR said. The company declined to elaborate on the termination and said it expects to provide more detail on the move at its next conference call with investors on July 27.
HEALTH CARE
Personal history
Gary Robinson
Kevin R. McKinnis
With the termination not linked to business, analysts and others immediately began scouring Google for references to find whether something in the former CEO’s personal life prompted the move. Although he is virtually unknown on a personal level in the Northeast Ohio business community, Oakes has a reputation privately among colleagues as a partier, as well as a brilliant, hard worker. One case, albeit dated, supports the partying part of that reputation. Aurora police stopped Oakes, a resident of the suburb, at 2:46 a.m. on March 13, 2013, for driving left of center at 899 Aurora Road. An alcohol breath test put his blood alcohol level at 0.17%; the legal limit in Ohio is 0.08%. Oakes that fall pleaded no contest to operating under the influence for a first offense and the prosecutor dismissed charges for the 0.17% blood alcohol level and driving left of center. Kent Judge Barbara Oswick on Oct. 30, 2013, applied three days of jail time to the 180day jail sentence and suspended 177 days. His license already had been suspended from March 13 to Oct. 10, 2013. Oakes also was assigned 16 hours of community service and paid $623 in court costs and fines. Another publicly recorded setback came Dec. 30, 2014, when Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court approved the dissolution of the marriage of Oakes and his wife, Hannah K. Oakes. The dissolution petition and a proposed separation agreement had been filed Nov. 24, 2014. Both events were before DDR’s board made Oakes its CEO. Oakes did not return three calls to his cell phone to discuss the DDR termination and his personal life.
Associate
Smart, capable, not ‘warm and fuzzy’
President Centers for Dialysis Care (CDC) Robinson joins the CDC as President, will oversee the internal operations for clinical & admin. services. Gary comes to CDC with 25 yrs. exp. in the healthcare industry. CDC is led by CEO Diane Wish, who leads strategic & externally focused initiatives focused on growth & expansion. CDC is a nonprofit independent provider of dialysis & related health services to individuals with kidney failure & is a leading innovator providing outstanding patientfocused dialysis treatment, education support, & training.
HOSPITALITY & TOURISM Bryce B. Humbarger Director of Marketing Executive Caterers and Landerhaven Executive Caterers and Landerhaven are pleased to welcome Bryce Humbarger as Director of Marketing. Humbarger, a graduate of Bowling Green State University, brings a diverse background in marketing, social media, and advertising to Northeast Ohio's premier caterer and event center. Humbarger spent the past two years as Newscast Director for NBC 24 News in Toledo. Prior to that he was a graphic designer for 13abc Action News in Toledo.
LAW
Walter & Haverfield LLP Walter & Haverfield LLP is pleased to announce that Kevin R. McKinnis has joined the firm as an associate in its Tax and Wealth Management group. He focuses his practice primarily in the areas of Federal, State and Local Tax Planning and Controversies, Mergers and Acquisitions, Estate Planning, and Probate and Trust Administration. Kevin graduated from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where he was Managing Editor of the Cleveland State Law Review. For more information, visit www.walterhav.com.
Mizuho’s St. Juste said the gap in time in awarding Oakes his CEO employment contract suggests DDR’s board was not fully comfortable with him. The outcome for Oakes was a surprise to Joseph Padanilam, who as a senior vice president of acquisitions and dispositions at DDR reported to Oakes. “I thought he would last longer as CEO than he did,” said Padanilam, who now operates his own Aurora-based shopping center ownership firm, Optimus One LLC. “He’s very smart, very capable. He came from a financial background, and I was assigned to help teach him about real estate such as what you buy, how long you keep it, and the demographics of where you buy,” Padanilam said. Moore, the RBC REIT analyst, knew Oakes
DDR Corp. cut ties with CEO David J. Oakes on July 11. (Contributed photo) from when Oakes was a college intern for him while attending college at Washington University in St. Louis. He said Oakes was a “talented and excellent chief financial officer,” and like others, he gave Oakes much credit for DDR surviving the 2008 financial crisis by shedding properties and reducing its debt level. Likewise, St. Juste said he never had any doubts about Oakes’ professional competence. “Was he warm and fuzzy? No. A lot of CEOs are not sociable or likable,” St. Juste said of the man some said could at times be robotic in answering questions. “His knowledge of the portfolio was uncanny. For as smart as he is, (Oakes) ran into a situation we don’t know much about.” However, as CEO Oakes continued the same cost-cutting mantra with little vision beyond saying the firm would focus on what he called “fortress” power centers or the best of the breed. Moore said Oakes did not impress him as CEO and considered the firm’s performance below average. Meantime DDR needs to make changes to improve its stock price, Moore said, although the Oakes tenure was too short to be telling. By appointing August as the successor to Oakes, DDR brought in a “well-respected and experienced” leader, St. Juste said. However, August, who joined DDR’s board in April, headed one REIT that was bought and was CEO of Equity Office Properties after it was purchased by Blackstone, the investment giant. DDR has said more about its new hire than its last CEO. Terry Ahern, DDR chairman, said in a prepared statement that both of August’s prior firms were best in class and “rewarding to the companies’ shareholders.”
The future of DDR Although DDR’s board has not said it is not analyzing alternatives and looks to be staying on course, many wonder if the Beachwood company is buyout bound. August’s Blackstone connections feed the idea. The region already lost a REIT last year as Associated Estates Realty Corp. was bought by Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management Corp., which had family-connected management which is no longer the case at DDR. However, the new CEO may be ramping up for a run of his own. Moore pointed to DDR’s appointment on July 11 of former Dick’s Sporting Goods real estate head Vincent Corno as executive vice president of leasing and development as a counter argument to a sale. “Why bring him in to kick him out the door?,” Moore asked. More important, Moore and St. Juste both say there are no likely buyers for DDR in the publicly traded REIT universe. If a sale were to transpire, it likely would be to a private group. For his part, St. Juste said it’s his understanding from speaking with August after his appointment that the company plans to continue as an independent firm despite the personnel change. Moreover, St. Juste said DDR is likely beyond needing to sell at this time. “You don’t want to walk around with a ‘for sale’ sign around your neck,” St. Juste said. “DDR has come a long way at this time. It has no credible reason to sell. I’d put near-term prospects for a sale at less than 50%.”
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THE NAUTICAL BAR This significant Bar was originally built into the "Cutty Sark", a Paddle Wheeler operating in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the La Plata River. With changing times, updating and "modernization", the Ship was withdrawn from service and scrapped. The bar was removed and purchased by the owner(s) of the "Oldest Whore House" in Buenos Aires, where it served many happy customers for many years! A new "Regine" took over the city, and in a effort to "clean up" things, the house was closed. The "Bar" was taken apart and put in storage for about 30 years. A gentleman from Georgia happed across it and made arrangements to purchase it, and thereby shipped it to the States. The Cargo Net purchased it at Auction in March, 2006 and now offers it to you. Yes, it's "Expensive" but it's REAL and has a profound History! You'll not find another one.
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Life after the RNC: What’s next?
Hear three of the event’s top architects — Jon Pinney, David Gilbert and Joe Roman — discuss what needs to be done to keep the region’s positive momentum going.
CONVENTION REPORT PRESENTED BY
David Gilbert President & CEO, Cleveland 2016 Host Committee President & CEO, Destination Cleveland & The Greater Cleveland Sports Commission
Jon Pinney Counsel, Secretary and Treasurer, Cleveland 2016 Host Committee Managing Partner, Kohrman, Jackson and Krantz
Joseph Roman Vice President, Cleveland 2016 Host Committee President & CEO, Greater Cleveland Partnership
Tuesday, August 16 • 5:30 - 7:30 P.M. • Venue TBD - Downtown Cleveland
Tickets available at CrainsCleveland.com/Events
20160718-NEWS--27-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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1:35 PM
Page 1
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z JULY 18 - 24, 2016 z PAGE 27
The List THIS YEAR
COMPANY ADDRESS PHONE/WEBSITE
100 LARGEST NORTHEAST OHIO EMPLOYERS Ranked by Full-Time Equivalent Local Employees FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT LOCAL EMPLOYEES 6/30/2016
TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN OHIO % CHANGE 6/30/2015
TYPE OF BUSINESS
TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE TITLE
1
Cleveland Clinic 9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44195 (216) 444-2200/www.clevelandclinic.org
34,328
35,291
(2.7%)
34,403
Health care provider
Toby Cosgrove, M.D. president, CEO
2
University Hospitals 11100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44106 (216) 844-1000/www.uhhospitals.org
21,519
19,907
8.1%
21,519
Nationally recognized, integrated health care system comprised of hospitals and outpatient health centers throughout Northeast Ohio
Thomas F. Zenty III CEO
3
U.S. Office of Personnel Management (1) 1900 E St., NW, Washington 20415 (202) 606-1800/www.opm.gov
14,382
14,059
2.3%
49,371
Federal government
NA
4
Progressive Group of Insurance Companies 6300 Wilson Mills Road, Mayfield Village 44143 (440) 461-5000/www.progressive.com
9,490
9,387
1.1%
9,819
Insurance and financial company
Tricia Griffith president, CEO
5
Giant Eagle Inc. 5300 Richmond Road, Bedford Heights 44146 (216) 292-7000/www.gianteagle.com
9,080
9,016
0.7%
NA
Multi-format food, fuel and pharmacy retailer
Bill Artman senior vice president, retail operations
6
Group Management Services Inc. 3296 Columbia Road, Suite 101, Richfield 44286 (330) 659-0100/www.groupmgmt.com
8,499
6,506
30.6%
15,677
Professional employer organization
Michael Kahoe president
7
State of Ohio 30 E. Broad St., Columbus 43215 (614) 466-2000/www.ohio.gov
8,139
9,003
(9.6%)
52,806
State government
John R. Kasich governor
8
U.S. Postal Service 2200 Orange Ave., Cleveland 44101 (800) 275-8777/www.usps.com
7,607
8,478
(10.3%)
19,543
U.S. postal service
Troy Seanor district manager
9
Cleveland Metropolitan School District 1111 Superior Ave., Cleveland 44114 (216) 574-8000/www.clevelandmetroschools.org
7,558
7,203
4.9%
7,558
Education
Eric S. Gordon CEO
10
Cuyahoga County 2079 E. Ninth St., Cleveland 44115 (216) 443-7220/www.cuyahogacounty.us
7,498
7,772
(3.5%)
7,498
County government
Armond Budish county executive
11
City of Cleveland 601 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland 44114 (216) 664-2406/www.city.cleveland.oh.us
6,608
6,666
(0.9%)
6,608
Municipal government
Frank G. Jackson mayor
12
The MetroHealth System 2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland 44109 (216) 778-7800/www.metrohealth.org
6,381
5,844
9.2%
6,381
Health care provider
Akram Boutros, M.D. president, CEO
13
General Motors Co. P.O. Box 33170, Detroit 48232-5170 (313) 556-5000/www.gm.com
6,000
6,000
0.0%
8,850
Automotive manufacturing
Rick Demuynck, plant manager, Lordstown Complex; Lamar Rucker, plant manager, Parma Metal Center
14
Summa Health 1077 Gorge Blvd., Akron 44310 (330) 375-3000/www.summahealth.org
5,869
5,526
6.2%
NA
Integrated health care delivery system encompassing eight hospitals, multiple foundations and a health plan
Thomas Malone, M.D. president, CEO
15
FirstEnergy Corp. 76 S. Main St., Akron 44308 (800) 736-3402/www.firstenergycorp.com
5,085
5,167
(1.6%)
6,975
Electric utility holding company
Charles E. Jones president, CEO
16
KeyCorp 127 Public Square, Cleveland 44114 (216) 689-6300/www.key.com
5,076
5,040
0.7%
5,887
Bank-based financial services company
Beth E. Mooney chairman, CEO
17
Kent State University P.O. Box 5190, Kent 44242 (330) 672-3000/www.kent.edu
4,907
4,927
(0.4%)
5,239
Higher education
Beverly Warren president
18
Akron Children's Hospital One Perkins Square, Akron 44308 (330) 543-1000/www.akronchildrens.org
4,519
4,463
1.3%
4,585
Pediatric health system
William H. Considine president, CEO
19
Case Western Reserve University 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44106 (216) 368-2000/www.case.edu
4,455
4,443
0.3%
4,455
Higher education
Barbara R. Snyder president
Cleveland Clinic Akron General One Akron General Ave., Akron 44307 (330) 344-6000/www.akrongeneral.org
4,277
3,938
8.6%
4,277
Integrated health care delivery system
Janice G. Murphy, acting president, Cleveland Clinic Akron General; COO, Cleveland Clinic Regional Hospitals and Family Health Centers
21
Aultman Health Foundation 2600 Sixth St. SW, Canton 44710 (330) 452-9911/www.aultman.org
4,078
4,395
(7.2%)
NA
Health care
Edward J. Roth III president, CEO
22
Swagelok Co. 29500 Solon Road, Solon 44139 (440) 248-4600/www.swagelok.com
3,917
4,182
(6.3%)
3,917
Designer and manufacturer of industrial fluid system components
Arthur F. Anton president, CEO
23
Akron Public Schools 70 N. Broadway, Akron 44308 (330) 761-1661/www.akronschools.com
3,615
3,713
(2.6%)
3,615
Public school district
David W. James superintendent
24
Summit County 175 S. Main St., 8th floor, Akron 44308 (330) 926-2525/www.co.summit.oh.us
3,446
3,643
(5.4%)
3,446
County government
Russ Pry county executive
25
Signet Jewelers Ltd. 375 Ghent Road, Akron 44333 (330) 668-5000/www.signetjewelers.com
3,292
3,318
(0.8%)
4,148
Specialty jewelry retailer
Mark Light CEO
26
Sherwin-Williams Co. 101 W. Prospect Ave., Cleveland 44115 (216) 566-2000/www.sherwin.com
3,126
3,602
(13.2%)
5,044
Coatings and related products
Christopher M. Connor executive chairman
27
Ford Motor Co. One American Road, Dearborn 48126 (800) 392-3673/www.ford.com
3,076
2,400
28.2%
NA
Automobile manufacturer
NA
20
SEE LIST, PAGE 28
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z JULY 18 - 24, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
The List THIS YEAR
1:35 PM
100 LARGEST NORTHEAST OHIO EMPLOYERS
COMPANY ADDRESS PHONE/WEBSITE
Ranked by Full-Time Equivalent Local Employees FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT LOCAL EMPLOYEES 6/30/2016
TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN OHIO % CHANGE 6/30/2015
TYPE OF BUSINESS
TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE TITLE
28
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. 200 Innovation Way, Akron 44316 (330) 796-2121/www.goodyear.com
3,000
3,000
0.0%
0
Tire manufacturer
Richard J. Kramer chairman, CEO, president
29
Lincoln Electric 22801 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland 44117 (216) 481-8100/www.lincolnelectric.com
2,670
2,866
(6.8%)
2,700
Designer, developer and manufacturer of arc welding products
Christopher L. Mapes chairman, president, CEO
30
Howard Hanna Real Estate Services 6000 Parkland Blvd., Mayfield Heights 44124 (216) 447-4477/www.howardhanna.com
2,650
2,600
1.9%
2,750
Residential and commercial real estate
Howard W. "Hoby" Hanna IV president
31
Nestle USA (2) 30003 Bainbridge Road, Solon 44139 (440) 349-5757/www.nestleusa.com
2,635
2,277
15.7%
3,148
HQ for Nestle USA's Prepared Foods, Baking and Pizza divisions, Nestle USA Business Services and Nestle Professional's Culinary business
Paul Grimwood chairman, CEO
32
The Lubrizol Corp. 29400 Lakeland Blvd., Wickliffe 44092 (440) 943-4200/www.lubrizol.com
2,300
2,431
(5.4%)
2,362
Specialty chemical company
James L. Hambrick chairman, president, CEO
33
TimkenSteel Corp. 1835 Dueber Ave. SW, Canton 44706-0932 (330) 471-7000/http://timkensteel.com
2,262
2,471
(8.5%)
2,352
Customized alloy steel products and services
Ward J. "Tim" Timken Jr. chairman, CEO, president
34
University of Akron 302 Buchtel Common, Akron 44325 (330) 972-7111/www.uakron.edu
2,211
2,422
(8.7%)
2,211
Higher education
Matthew J. Wilson interim president
35
ArcelorMittal 3060 Eggers Ave., Cleveland 44105 (216) 429-6000/www.usa.arcelormittal.com
2,157
2,161
(0.2%)
3,110
Steel manufacturer
Eric Hauge vice president, general manager, ArcelorMittal Cleveland
36
Discount Drug Mart Inc. 211 Commerce Drive, Medina 44256 (330) 725-2340/www.discount-drugmart.com
2,135
1,998
6.9%
2,718
Regional drug store chain
Don Boodjeh CEO
37
Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority 1240 W. Sixth St., Cleveland 44113 (216) 566-5100/www.riderta.com
2,101
2,316
(9.3%)
2,101
Public transportation
Joseph A. Calabrese CEO, general manager, secretary and treasurer
2,095
2,075
1.0%
NA
38
JACK Entertainment 100 Public Square, Cleveland 44113 (216) 297-4777, (216) 662-8600/www.horseshoecleveland.com, www.thistledown.com
JACK Cleveland Casino and JACK Thistledown Racino are part of JACK Entertainment.
Mark Tricano senior vice president, Northeast Ohio operations
39
Mercy Medical Center 1320 Mercy Drive N.W., Canton 44708 (330) 489-1000/www.cantonmercy.org
2,059
2,075
(0.8%)
2,059
Health care provider
Thomas E. Cecconi president, CEO
Alcoa (2) 1616 Harvard Ave., Cleveland 44105 (216) 641-3600/www.alcoa.com
2,000
1,600
25.0%
2,115
Aluminum forgings for aerospace, automotive and commercial transportation markets
Eric Roegner, COO, Alcoa Investment Castings, Titanium and Engineered Products; president, Alcoa Titanium & Engineered Products; president, Alcoa Defense; Tim Myers, president, Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products
41
Parker Hannifin Corp. 6035 Parkland Blvd., Cleveland 44124 (216) 896-3000/www.parker.com
1,990
2,250
(11.6%)
2,990
Fluid power systems, electromechanical controls
Thomas L. Williams chairman, CEO
42
Lake Health 7590 Auburn Road, Concord Township 44077 (440) 375-8100/www.lakehealth.org
1,916
2,074
(7.6%)
1,916
Hospital
Cynthia Moore-Hardy president, CEO
43
Medical Mutual of Ohio 2060 E. Ninth St., Cleveland 44115 (216) 687-7000/www.medmutual.com
1,900
1,800
5.6%
2,400
Mutual company providing health and life insurance, dental, vision products and TPA services
Rick A. Chiricosta president, CEO, chairman
44
Avery Dennison 8080 Norton Parkway, Mentor 44060 (440) 534-6000/www.averydennison.com
1,886
1,778
6.1%
2,456
Manufacturer of pressure sensitive paper, film and foil, graphic materials and specialty tapes
Darrell Hughes vice president, general manager, Materials Group North America
Huntington National Bank 200 Public Square, Cleveland 44114 (800) 480-2265/www.huntington.com
1,848
1,902
(2.8%)
8,401
Financial services
45
Renee Csuhran, interim president, Cleveland Region; executive managing director, CRE and community development
46
Rockwell Automation Inc. 1 Allen-Bradley Drive, Mayfield Heights 44124 (440) 646-5000/www.rockwellautomation.com
1,812
1,899
(4.6%)
1,914
Global provider of industrial automation control and information solutions
Frank Kulaszewicz senior vice president, architecture and software
47
City of Akron 166 S. High St., Akron 44308 (330) 375-2330/www.akronohio.gov
1,800
1,813
(0.7%)
1,800
Municipal government
Daniel Horrigan mayor
48
Eaton 1000 Eaton Blvd., Cleveland 44122 (440) 523-5000/www.eaton.com
1,771
1,771
0.0%
2,676
Electrical, hydraulic, aerospace, truck and automotive products
Craig Arnold chairman, CEO
49
Southwest General 18697 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights 44130 (440) 816-8000/www.swgeneral.com
1,754
1,821
(3.7%)
1,754
Private, not-for-profit 350-bed hospital with a 90 year history
William A. Young Jr. president, CEO
50
The J.M. Smucker Co. One Strawberry Lane, Orrville 44667 (330) 682-3000/jmsmucker.com
1,700
1,700
0.0%
2,200
Fruit spreads, retail packaged coffee, peanut butter, shortening and oils
Mark T. Smucker president, CEO
51
Diebold Inc. 5995 Mayfair Road, North Canton 44720 (330) 490-4000/www.diebold.com
1,610
1,753
(8.2%)
1,790
Innovative self-service technology, software, security systems and related services
Andreas W. Mattes president, CEO
52
Parma City School District 5311 Longwood Ave., Parma 44134 (440) 842-5300/www.parmacityschools.org
1,579
1,584
(0.3%)
1,579
Public school system
Carl H. Hilling superintendent
53
Fred W. Albrecht Grocery Co. 2700 Gilchrist Road, Akron 44305 (330) 733-2263/www.acmestores.com
1,576
1,595
(1.2%)
1,576
Retail grocery and pharmacy stores
Jim Trout president
40
SEE LIST, PAGE 30
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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS z JULY 18 - 24, 2016 z PAGE 29
THE DISH: Lee Chilcote
Food businesses find opportunity in revamped Arcade The Hyatt Regency Cleveland at the Arcade reopened following a $6 million renovation last year, part of a wave of new or revamped hotels coming online in Cleveland. Now Skyline International Development Group, the Toronto-based developer that purchased the hotel at auction five years ago, is filling the empty retail spaces with stores, offices and restaurants. Skyline is offering reduced rents, flexible leases and generous tenant improvement allowances to local food businesses, an approach that has already lured several new tenants, including Rising Star Coffee, which opened last winter in a space along Superior Avenue, and Pizza 216, which recently opened in a space along Euclid Avenue. Rose’s Braai, a Portuguese and South African restaurant, also just opened on the first floor, and Boney Fingers BBQ plans to go into the food court later this summer. Rising Star General Manager Robert Stockham said the company might not have opened a downtown location at all if not for the Arcade. “We had been talking about going downtown for a while, but rents are generally higher,” he said. “I didn’t expect in the old arcade I’d be able to afford anything.” Then he received an email from Colliers International, the leasing agent for the property, and set up a meeting. He came away impressed with the developer’s vision, the potential for the space, and the historic qualities of the building. “First of all, it’s beautiful,” Stockham said. “It’s a gem in Cleveland that’s been underappreciated and
They chose the location because of Cleveland’s rising food scene and the dearth of barbecue restaurants downtown. Huff said their offerings will be different from Mabel’s BBQ, Michael Symon’s new venue on East 4th Street. Boney Fingers will be open Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. The quick service menu will include classic Southern side dishes like coleslaw, potato salad and collard greens. Most items are priced under $10. Brad Wiescinski of Pizza 216 said he and his partner, Johnny Lis, fell in love with the building after stumbling on it with their real estate agent. The restaurant offers quickservice brick oven pizzas and other menu items during the day, and transitions to more of a full-service restaurant in the evening hours. The 4,200-square-foot venue offers craft beers, wine and cocktails, as well. “We thought it would be amazing to open in such a historic building across from East 4th in the middle of downtown,” Wiescinski said. So far, the most popular menu items include the meatballs, Italian nachos and the specialty pies, including the Spicy Pie, which features locally made Italian sausage, mushrooms, pepperoncinis, spicy red sauce, and a cheese blend topped with pecorino romano. Stockham said the developers’ vision is starting to become a reality. “The owners are really interested in filling the space with local vendors, which I think is fantastic,” he said. “I’m trying to explain to people that now is the time to get in.”
Chilcote is a freelance writer and editor who has written for Vanity Fair, Next City, Belt and other publications. He is cofounder of Literary Cleveland.
underused for a really long time. It’s close to downtown office buildings and there’s just a lot of people and a lot of progress happening in this section of downtown. We felt it was perfect timing for us.” The redevelopment is a new lease on life for the old Arcade, which opened in 1890 as one of the earliest indoor shopping centers in America. Modeled after the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, it contains unique finishes like iron balconies and a soaring glass ceiling. After languishing in the 1980s and 1990s, it reopened as a Hyatt after the Sep. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It immediately suffered a series of setbacks as businesses cut travel, Euclid Avenue construction got underway, and the nation plunged into recession. Eventually, the developers defaulted on a $33.3 million mortgage.
A unique destination Lauren Wiant, an associate with Colliers International, said there’s a lot of interest in the building. Much of the second floor has recently been leased to retail and office tenants, and the developers are now focused
Incentives were helpful in luring Rising Star Coffee Roasters to open a downtown location in the Arcade. (Lee Chilcote) on filling up the first floor. The proactive, curatorial approach is modeled after the 5th Street Arcades, where Wiant’s previous employer, Cumberland Development, engineered a dramatic turnaround a few years ago. “Our vision for the Arcade is to create a unique, artisanal destination for downtown’s visitors, workers and residents,” said Wiant. “Food — more specifically, creative food concepts — are every bit as important a component to our vision as merchandising retail. Food draws traffic — and if it’s good food, which it is here, that traffic keeps coming back. Every tenant we add to the mix at the Arcade Cleveland will play an equally unique role in shaping our identity as a destination.” These lofty goals combined with
startup-friendly rents are what attracted Boney Fingers BBQ. Partners Erik Huff, Paul Altig and Christian Huff, who have worked in the restaurant industry for years, have long dreamed of opening their own place. They’re finally getting that opportunity now that they’ve landed a space in the Arcade. “It’s a passion we all have,” said Erik Huff. “We all love to cook and love barbecue.” Huff isn’t worried about the fact that much of the first floor is still vacant, because he believes businesses will flock there once they see new activity. “A lot of businesses have not gone in there because they think it’s risky,” he said. “It takes people like us who are willing to take that chance. We have a good product and good food, and we can be part of the turnaround.”
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20160718-NEWS--30-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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z JULY 18 - 24, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
The List THIS YEAR
1:56 PM
COMPANY ADDRESS PHONE/WEBSITE
100 LARGEST NORTHEAST OHIO EMPLOYERS Ranked by Full-Time Equivalent Local Employees FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT LOCAL EMPLOYEES 6/30/2016
TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN OHIO % CHANGE 6/30/2015
TYPE OF BUSINESS
TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE TITLE
54
Cleveland State University 2121 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44115 (216) 687-2000/www.csuohio.edu
1,573
1,522
3.4%
1,573
Higher education
Ronald M. Berkman president
55
Hyland, creator of OnBase 28500 Clemens Road, Westlake 44145 (440) 788-5000/www.onbase.com
1,566
1,425
9.9%
1,566
Independent software vendor; developer of the OnBase enterprise content management software suite
Bill Priemer president, CEO
56
American Greetings Corp. (3) One American Road, Cleveland 44144 (216) 252-7300/www.americangreetings.com
1,564
1,806
(13.4%)
NA
Creates and manufactures innovative social expression products
Zev Weiss Jeffrey M. Weiss co-CEOs
57
Westfield Insurance One Park Circle, Westfield Center 44251 (330) 887-0101/www.westfieldinsurance.com
1,522
1,568
(2.9%)
1,727
Insurance, banking and related financial services
Edward Largent Westfield Insurance president, CEO, board chair
58
Mercy 3700 Kolbe Road, Lorain 44053 (440) 960-4000/www.mercyonline.org
1,521
1,506
1.0%
1,521
Health care provider
Edwin M. Oley CEO
59
Dominion East Ohio 1201 E. 55th St., Cleveland 44103 (800) 362-7557/www.dom.com
1,516
1,595
(5.0%)
1,662
Natural gas distribution
Jeff Murphy vice president, general manager
60
Ganley Auto Group 8748 Brecksville Road, Suite 210, Cleveland 44141 (440) 584-8202/www.ganleyauto.com
1,468
1,442
1.8%
1,468
Automobile dealerships, sales and service
Kenneth G. Ganley president
Bridgestone Americas Inc. 10 E. Firestone Blvd., Akron 44317 (330) 379-7000/www.bridgestoneamericas.com
1,436
1,150
24.9%
2,196
Tire manufacturer
Steve Charles vice president, product development, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations
62
Cuyahoga Community College 700 Carnegie Ave., Cleveland 44115 (216) 987-6000/www.tri-c.edu
1,376
1,350
1.9%
1,376
Higher education
Alex Johnson president
63
Scott Fetzer Co. 28800 Clemens Road, Westlake 44145 (440) 892-3000/www.scottfetzer.com
1,358
1,333
1.9%
1,756
Diversified manufacturer
Bob McBride president, CEO
64
Ernst & Young LLP 950 Main Ave., Cleveland 44113 (216) 861-5000/www.ey.com
1,311
1,292
1.5%
1,967
Assurance, advisory, tax and transaction advisory services
Julie Boland, Cleveland office managing partner; Jerry Gootee, Akron office managing partner
65
United 5300 Riverside Drive, Cleveland 44135 (216) 501-5170/www.continental.com
1,307
1,283
1.9%
1,308
Airline
Lang Swearingen general manager
66
JPMorgan Chase & Co. 1300 E. Ninth St., Cleveland 44114 (800) 935-9935/www.chase.com
1,300
1,400
(7.1%)
21,000
Financial services
James R. Geuther managing director, market executive
67
Safeguard Properties Management LLC 7887 Safeguard Circle, Valley View 44125 (216) 739-2900/www.safeguardproperties.com
1,251
1,416
(11.7%)
1,251
Inspection and maintenance of defaulted and foreclosed properties nationally
Alan Jaffa CEO
68
Shearer's Foods LLC 100 Lincoln Way, Massillon 44646 (330) 834-4030/www.shearers.com
1,225
1,237
(1.0%)
1,225
Manufacturer of snack foods
CJ Fraleigh CEO
69
Oberlin College 101 N. Professor St., Oberlin 44074 (440) 775-8400/www.oberlin.edu
1,167
1,178
(0.9%)
1,167
Higher education
Marvin Krislov president
70
Medina County 144 N. Broadway St., Medina 44256 (330) 723-3641/www.co.medina.oh.us
1,038
1,018
2.0%
1,038
County government
Board of Commissioners
71
Pepsi Beverages Co. 1999 Enterprise Parkway, Twinsburg 44087 (330) 963-5300/www.pepsico.com
1,025
1,006
1.9%
1,486
Manufacturer, seller and distributor of PepsiCo and Allied Beverages
Dan Hungerman vice president food service, Great Lakes region
72
Philips 595 Miner Road, Highland Heights 44143 (440) 483-3000/www.philips.com/healthcare
1,000
1,000
0.0%
NA
Diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation
Chad Collins head of site operations
73
Portage County 449 S. Meridian St., Ravenna 44266 (330) 297-3600/www.co.portage.oh.us
998
978
2.0%
998
County government
Board of Commissioners
74
RPM International Inc. 2628 Pearl Road, Medina 44258 (330) 273-5090/www.rpminc.com
976
959
1.8%
1,158
Specialty coatings for industrial and consumer markets
Frank C. Sullivan chairman, CEO
BWX Technologies Inc. 24703 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44117-1714 (216) 912-3000/www.bwxt.com
950
NA
NA
950
Pressure vessels, steam generators, electromechanical components
Doug Paulson, general manager, BWXT Nuclear Operations Group Euclid; Jim Bittner, general manager, BWXT Nuclear Operations Group Barberton
76
Menorah Park Center for Senior Living 27100 Cedar Road, Beachwood 44122 (216) 831-6500/www.menorahpark.org
944
956
(1.3%)
944
Full continuum of care for seniors including residential and community services
Steven Raichilson executive director
77
PPG Industries Inc. One PPG Place, Pittsburgh 15272 (412) 434-3131/www.ppg.com
930
957
(2.8%)
854
Coatings and speciality products company
Keith Schneider plant manager
78
Newell Rubbermaid 3200 Gilchrist Road, Mogadore 44260 (330) 733-7771/www.newellrubbermaid.com
926
840
10.2%
NA
Global marketer of consumer and commercial products
Joseph Soldano director of operations
79
Hospice of the Western Reserve 17876 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland 44110 (800) 707-8922/www.hospicewr.org
915
814
12.4%
915
Hospice
William E. Finn president, CEO
61
75
SEE LIST, PAGE 31
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THIS YEAR
COMPANY ADDRESS PHONE/WEBSITE
FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT LOCAL EMPLOYEES 6/30/2016
TOTAL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 6/30/2015 % CHANGE IN OHIO
TYPE OF BUSINESS
TOP LOCAL EXECUTIVE TITLE
80
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center 2351 E. 22nd St., Cleveland 44115 (216) 861-6200/www.stvincentcharity.com
896
887
1.0%
NA
Health care provider
David F. Perse, M.D. president, CEO
81
Third Federal Savings & Loan 7007 Broadway Ave., Cleveland 44105 (216) 441-6000/www.thirdfederal.com
864
845
2.2%
912
Savings and loan
Marc A. Stefanski chairman, president, CEO
82
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland 1455 E. Sixth St., Cleveland 44114 (216) 579-2000/www.clevelandfed.org
853
845
0.9%
985
U.S. central bank
Loretta J. Mester president, CEO
82
Ohio Savings Bank, A Division of New York Community Bank 1801 E. Ninth St., Cleveland 44114 (216) 588-4100/www.mynycb.com
853
840
1.5%
NA
Financial institution/bank
Cynthia Flynn chief administrative officer
84
Shaker Heights City School District 15600 Parkland Drive, Shaker Heights 44120 (216) 295-1400/www.shaker.org
829
816
1.6%
829
Public school district
Mark Freeman superintendent
85
Lakewood City School District 1470 Warren Road, Lakewood 44107 (216) 529-4092/www.lakewoodcityschools.org
826
817
1.1%
826
Public school district
Jeffrey Patterson superintendent
86
Saint Gobain North America 20 Moores Road, Malvern 19355 (610) 893-5000/www.saint-gobain-corporation.com
779
982
(20.7%)
786
Construction products, high-performance materials, glass containers
John Crowe president, CEO
87
Western Reserve Hospital 1900 23rd St., Cuyahoga Falls 44223 (330) 971-7000/www.westernreservehospital.org
778
734
6.0%
778
Full-service hospital with ED and urgent care
Robert Kent president, CEO
88
PolyOne Corp. 33587 Walker Road, Avon Lake 44012 (440) 930-1000/www.polyone.com
777
779
(0.3%)
1,082
Provider of specialized polymer materials, services and solutions
Robert M. Patterson chairman, president, CEO
89
Invacare Corp. One Invacare Way, Elyria 44035 (440) 329-6000/www.invacare.com
766
785
(2.4%)
766
Medical devices for the home and long-term care markets
Matthew E. Monaghan chairman, president, CEO
90
Vitamix Corp. 8615 Usher Road, Cleveland 44138 (800) 848-2649 /www.vitamix.com
736
851
(13.5%)
736
Manufacturer of high-performance blending equipment for home and commercial use
Jodi L. Berg president, CEO
91
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District 3900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44115 (216) 881-6600/www.neorsd.org
685
704
(2.7%)
685
Wastewater and stormwater management for all or part of 62 communities in Northeast Ohio
Julius Ciaccia CEO
92
Sandridge Food Corp. 133 Commerce Drive, Medina 44256 (330) 725-2348/www.sandridge.com
663
588
12.8%
663
Manufacturer of refrigerated salads, soups and side dishes
Mark D. Sandridge chairman, CEO
93
Automated Packaging Systems Inc. 10175 Philipp Parkway, Streetsboro 44241 (330) 342-2000/www.autobag.com
659
680
(3.1%)
659
Manufacturer of genuine Autobag, SidePouch, AirPouch and AutoSleeve packaging products
Hershey Lerner, chairman Bernie Lerner, CEO Cliff Brehm, president
94
Oriana House Inc. P.O. Box 1501, Akron 44309 (330) 535-8116/www.orianahouse.org
658
601
9.5%
703
Nonprofit agency providing community corrections, substance abuse treatment and reentry services
James J. Lawrence president, CEO
95
Forest City Realty Trust Inc. 50 Public Square, Suite 1100, Cleveland 44113 (216) 621-6060/www.forestcity.net
655
753
(13.0%)
682
Owner and developer of real estate
David J. LaRue president, CEO
96
Jones Day North Point, 901 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland 44114-1190 (216) 586-3939/www.jonesday.com
644
631
2.1%
735
Legal services
Heather Lennox Cleveland partner-in-charge
97
The College of Wooster 1189 Beall Ave., Wooster 44691 (330) 263-2000/www.wooster.edu
640
646
(0.9%)
NA
Higher education
Sarah Bolton president
98
Shiloh Industries Inc. 880 Steel Drive, Valley City 44280 (330) 558-2600/www.shiloh.com
634
557
13.8%
634
Steel processing
Ramzi Y. Hermiz president, CEO
99
Republic Steel 2633 Eighth St. NE, Canton 44704 (800) 232-7157/www.republicsteel.com
600
1,000
(40.0%)
600
Manufacturer of special bar quality steel
Jaime Vigil president, CEO
Fifth Third Bank 600 Superior Ave. E, Cleveland 44114 (216) 274-5300/www.53.com
599
650
(7.8%)
8,498
Diversified financial services company
Jerry Kelsheimer regional president, CEO, Fifth Third Bank, Northeastern Ohio
100
RESEARCHED BY DEBORAH W. HILLYER Source: PNC and Steris Corp. do not report local employees. Information is supplied by the companies unless footnoted. 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)
Information is from the 2015 list of 100 Largest Northeast Ohio Employers. (2) Information is from the 2016 list of Manufacturing Companies. (3) Information is from the 2016 Private Companies list.
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VOL. 37, NO. 29
JULY 18 - 24, 2016
Business of Life
Source Lunch
THE AKRON EDITION
New café Rebol now open in Public Square Restaurateur Bobby George plans to offer healthy food choices. Page 23
The List
CLEVELAND BUSINESS
Region’s Top 100 employers. Pages 27, 28, 30, 31
RNC IN CLE
By RON RUTTI clbfreelancer@crain.com
National political conventions have evolved into cookie-cutter productions. The drama borne from back-room dealings that begat delegates beholden to certain candidates was eased out four decades ago. Now, with party primaries and caucuses determining the nominees for president well before the conventions, the assemblies are scripted get-togethers for party stalwarts and springboards into the fall campaigns. The Democrats have the larger gatherings, with more than twice as many delegates. The GOP typically has the more tranquil conventions. “They (Republicans) sit in their chairs. When you watch on TV, you can see the color of their carpet. Everything is so pretty,” said the Rev. Leah Daughtry, CEO of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, her second time as a convention chief. “At our conventions, you don’t even know there is carpeting. People are always talking with each other. The aisles are never there.”
4,776 Total delegates,
2,472, and alternate delegates, 2,304, from 50 states, five territories and the District of Columbia, that the Republican National Committee is expecting to be Cleveland when the convention opens July 18.
8,000 Volunteers
expected to help delegates, media and other visitors make their way in and around Cleveland.
15,000 Credentialed
media expected to be working in Quicken Loans Arena and the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.
Businesses who registered to be included in the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee supplier guide.
350 Buses brought in
from around the region to move delegates and others staying at area hotels.
135 Hotels the Cleveland
2016 Host Committee has contracted with within 35 miles of downtown Cleveland for the more than 16,000 hotel rooms needed for convention delegates, media, party officials and guests.
Money from the $50 million federal security grant allocated for equipment for the 2,500+ law enforcement officers who will patrol the city during the convention. That includes 2,000 riot suits and 300 patrol bicycles.
3.7 miles The length
of the interlocking steel barriers that will be used for crowd control during the convention.
■ Test yourself: Think you know GOP convention history? Take our quiz at crainscleveland.com
Numbers compiled by Jay Miller
SEE PHILLY, PAGE 12
Photograph by David Kordalski Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc.
Page 24
REAL ESTATE
Cleveland, The convention by the numbers Philly put 50,000 1,000+ $20 million on spot Total number of people expected to come to Cleveland to participate in, report on or be close to the action surrounding the Republican National Convention.
Jacqueline Greene, National Lawyers Guild
CEO’s exit has DDR facing questions By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltyWriter
David J. Oakes, the just-deposed CEO of DDR Corp., is known to have frequented Ratatouille, a FrenchItalian fusion restaurant near the shopping center owner’s Beachwood headquarters, so much that associates who stopped in would ask if he had been there that night. Milo Valenti, a co-owner of Ratatouille, said Oakes would sometimes show up at 11 p.m. and say he was taking a break before going back to the office. “I told him they must be paying you a lot of money to work so many hours,” Valenti said. “He’d just smile.” Valenti is dumbfounded by Oakes’ sudden termination last Monday, July 11, wondering why the DDR board would fire the person who created and executed the plan to save the company in the recession. Like many observers, he scratches his head over the outcome. Oakes became CEO in February 2015, at age 36. He had a genuinely meteoric rise at the Beachwood-based company. He joined the big publicly traded owner of shopping centers in 2006 with experience at Cohen & Steers Capital Management and a Goldman Sachs security analyst. Oakes, 38, was the first hire in a strategy by DDR to bring young people, including recent graduates, into its ranks to train them in its own mold. The switch reflected the maturation of the real estate investment trust business because real estate companies historically had relied on hiring older people with on-theground experience in commercial property. A CEO of Oakes’ age at an SEE DDR, PAGE 25
EIGHT OVER 80
These Clevelanders still give their all to make NEO great FOCUS, Pages 17-22
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A wider market
Tobin Buckner
Jergens looks to extend into Akron P. A2
What I wish I had known before I started my business P. A8
Climbing high Daring fun and fitness at the Rock Mill P. A6
Pavloff: University of Akron is vital to the region’s economy The University of Akron must face some major issues going forward, according to Jon Pavloff. (Univerisity of Akron photo)
In a Q&A with Crain’s, the recently retired chair of the university’s board chatted about how the turbulent past year has affected the school, UA’s role in the community and what the next president must do. By RACHEL ABBEY MCCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty
At the end of June, Jon Pavloff retired from the University of Akron’s board of trustees after five years. He served as chair during his last year on the board, a tumultuous one that saw the university drastically cut costs and struggle to explain its new “polytechnic” branding to the community. In May, the president behind these changes, Scott L. Scarborough, stepped down. Though his time on the board has ended, Pavloff believes in the role the university plays in the future of the Akron area. There are two variables that the Federal Reserve has found affect the growth of a region, Pavloff said: education, measured by percentage of college graduates in the region, and innovation, measured by the number of patents in a region. “Nothing could be more directly related to the economic growth of this region than the university, which provides college-educated members of society and a research-driven university that is focused on innovation,” Pavloff said. “That’s why it’s important.” A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Pavloff had a long career in logistics in Greater Akron, working with companies, including Roadway Express, and as a consultant. He’s served on several other nonprofit boards as well. We sat down with Pavloff, and while we didn’t specifically talk about Scarborough, he did address the effects of this tumultous past year, the challenges the univesity faces and what lies ahead for UA.
What made you want to serve the university as a board member? Well, I really think that the city itself is going through a transition. I mean, I’ve been here long enough to see what it was like when Akron was home to so many corporate headquarters. I worked in one of them that is no longer here (Roadway Express) … And when we had that kind of economic activity that kind of provided support for the community, we ended up with infrastructure that is not ordinarily available to cities our size. As that economic model changed and those major industries were no longer available to drive activity in the city, what’s left as a major driver is the University of Akron. What did you see change at the university in the five years you were on the board? Well, I think the university is reacting to a series of stimuli, if you will, that affect all of higher education. There’s lots of dialogue about the increasing cost of higher education, not just in Akron and not just in Ohio, but across the country. We’ve had to react to that — and to do so, dealing with variables that are unique to the University of Akron. And there are a couple of keys to that. One was our decision in 2011 … to have a more selective admissions policy. So we limited open enrollment, so that had an effect on our student population.
And the second is the major building campaign that took place here on the campus over the past 15 years. So those two things take us right to the major issues that confront the university today. How would you define those major issues? Well, the major issues have to do with our ability to provide an enrollment base that will give us tuition revenue to address our needs. And at the same time, that then relates to our ability to handle financial obligations that are brought about by the big building campaign. The University of Akron has had some enrollment struggles. Why do you think that is? We’ve been on a steady decline since 2011, primarily due to our decision to limit open enrollment, but also due to the demographics of Northeast Ohio. We primarily draw our students from Summit County and the contiguous counties, and there’s a diminishing population base of high school students that are looking to move on and continue their education at college level. Do you think the university is equipped to handle this going forward? The past nine months have been SEE UA, PAGE A4
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Matt Schron, general manager of JIS, Jergen’s industrial supply division. (Dan Shingler)
Jergens extends its reach to Akron’s industrial supply market
www.felberpr.com | 330.963.3664 Call us … or just wait a few more months for sales to improve.
By DAN SHINGLER
A new geography
dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler
The deals accomplish a number of objectives, Matt Schron said. For one, they add sales people with existing customer relationships, which generally means Jergens gets an immediate sales boost. The acquisitions also give Jergens new channels through which to sell its own manufactured products, as well as products that Jergens distributes exclusively in its market. Finally, the deals give Jergens the opportunity to sell new products, carried by the acquired companies, through its existing sales channels. But the B&G deal brings something else as well, Matt Schron said – a new geography. Jergens had been trying to sell in the Akron and Canton markets remotely from Cleveland. Now it will have a physical presence and representatives within a short drive of those customers. “It definitely is an investment in the region’s manufacturing economy,” said Jack Schron. Jergens serves the metal-cutting market – machine shops and related operations. That’s not a high-growth market in Akron at the moment, the Schrons said. But it is a strong and stable market, and Jergens wants more of it. “We do a lot with tire mold people down there and that kind of stuff,” Matt Schron said. “From our standpoint, we want a bigger piece of the pie. I don’t think the industrial supply pie is necessarily growing quickly – but we want a bigger piece of it.”
Industrial supply company Jergens Inc. is based in Cleveland, where it’s well known among local metalworking shops for the tools and fixtures it manufactures and the industrial supplies it distributes. Now it wants more of Akron’s industrial supply pie. To get it, the company in May purchased Akronbased B&G Supply Co. Inc., and, since then it’s been bulking up operations in the Rubber City. “We were going to open a branch anyway, and this helps us to add additional sales volume, add people and get closer to our customers,” said Matt Schron, general manager of JIS, Jergens’ industrial supply division. Schron said Jergens already has added seven people to B&G’s fiveperson shop and likely will bring total staffing there to 15. Schron, son of company CEO Jack Schron, has been on a buying spree since he began running JIS eight years ago. He’s mostly picking up small, regional industrial distributors and suppliers, he said, with an aim of growing market share in Jergens’ core market and then extending its geographic reach into Akron, Canton and perhaps other areas. Before the B&G deal, Jergens purchased most of the assets of Cleveland’s Gray Industrial Supply in 2013, gaining Gray’s capacity to do quick turnarounds on sharpening jobs for metal-cutting saws. At the end of 2012, it purchased John M. Allen Co. of Independence, and in 2010, it purchased Cleveland’s well-known George Whalley Co. In terms of the number of employees, the deals are small. The companies generally have fewer than 10. But the acquisitions have helped increase Jergens’ industrial distribution revenue by 400% since 2010, Jack Schron said. The company does not disclose its financials, but he said total revenues are between $50 million and $100 million.
Eyes on Akron Ethan Karp, CEO of Clevelandbased Magnet, a manufacturing advocacy and consulting agency, also has been eyeing the Akron market for expansion. His potential client base has quite a bit of overlap with Jergens’ customer base, and Karp thinks Akron is a good market for his organization as well. “Recently, growth has been there, both in terms of wage growth and in the amount of product –
GRP (gross regional product) – that they produce, which are both healthy signs for that region. But I think the bigger story is (Akron) still remains the city with the thirdlargest number of manufacturers in Ohio,” Karp said. “Magnet is expanding because of the importance of the manufacturing sector in Akron – so much so, that in the coming days we’ll be announcing an office that we’ll be operating there to help better serve manufacturers in the local community,” Karp said at the end of June. There’s also the potential for future growth, particularly in Canton, said Jack Schron. “It’s on the north side of the Utica shale field,” he said. “There’s no reason to think that the Utica shale fields are not going to do well when natural gas prices go back upward.” Jergens wants to go after customers who serve the drillers working the Utica – companies that machine and repair the parts and equipment used in fracking operations. “They need a lot of replacement parts, and there’s a lot of machining that goes on for those parts,” Matt Schron said. So, will Jergens make additional acquisitions in Akron or Canton? It might. The Schrons aren’t saying, but Matt Schron said that he always has two or three new acquisitions in the pipeline, including right now. A lot of industrial supply companies are run by owners who are aging, with no heirs to take over the business, he said. It can be a delicate courtship while existing owners and family members determine their roles in the company after an acquisition. Jergens spent almost two years trying to convince B&G to sell, Matt Schron said. But Jergens is bent on expanding – and that can be a daunting proposition that leads some companies to sell. “I’m either going to open a branch next to you, or you can sell your business to us,” Matt Schron said.
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How we munch and crunch boosts Hickory Harvest Foods By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler
Business is just nuts at Hickory Harvest Foods in Coventry Township. The company also sells dried fruits, trail mix and some other snacks — more and more of them, actually, which is leading to the company’s second major expansion since it moved to its present location in 2009. “We added about 16,000 square feet (in 2009), and we plan to add another 16,000 (square feet) this year,” said Mike Swiatkowski, vice president of sales and marketing, and a member of the third generation of his family to work in the business. The company has about 50,000 square feet after the latest expansion, and it plans to grow to about 65,000 square feet in total by the end of the year. Hickory Harvest was started in 1972 by Swiatkowski’s father and grandfather. Today, his mother, Darlene, is CEO, and his older brother, Joe, is president. The company started out making meat and cheese snacks that it sold at area fairs and events, and through the mail. But since the 1980s, the bulk of its business has been dried snacks. The private company does not disclose its financials, but Mike Swiatkowski said Hickory Harvest does upward of $20 million in annual sales. And it’s growing steadily. “We’ve had double-digit growth, on average, over the past 15 years, 10% or 15% on average,” he said. The company has hired more people along the way. When it moved to its present facility, it had about 40 employees. Today, it has 75, and a few more during the holiday season, when business picks up. The last expansion was to add warehouse space, but the next one will be to add more production space at the end of this year, Swiatkowski said. The company is riding a number of trends to achieve its growth. For one, grocery chains and other stores are expanding their selection of nuts and other dried snacks, often via their own private-label brands. Such brands make up as much as 40% of Hickory Harvest’s sales, and the company plans to expand further in that area. Hickory Harvest also has been expanding its offering of organic products, which are among its fastestgrowing lines. But what might really be driving sales is the way that Americans eat, Swiatkowski said. Nut sales are up, and so are snack sales — especially healthy snacks as people are tending to eat smaller, more frequent and healthier meals. Sales of nuts alone have been growing by about 8% annually in recent years, he said. “There’s some stagnant sales in
the grocery business, but typically they’re adding more space for things in this category,” Swiatkowski said. The city of Akron sold the company 6 acres in its North Turkeyfoot Industrial Park within the AkronCoventry Township Joint Economic Development District in 2009. Now the city hopes the company continues to grow, because it has more land available right next door. “We are working with them on an option to purchase additional land for future growth. They’re a great business,
— Mike Swiatkowski, vice president of sales and marketing and they’re growing,” said Adele Dorfner Roth, the city’s deputy director of planning and urban development.
Mike Swiatkowski. (Dan Shingler)
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CORRECTION A June 27 Crain’s Akron Business story, “Akron is the nation’s ‘Silicon Valley’ of polymer science,” incorrectly stated the expected drop in enrollment at the University of Akron. University officials expect a 9% enrollment decrease in the fall.
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Cureo finds successful niche with nonprofits By LYDIA COUTRÉ lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre
After several iterations and lessons learned, Cureo CEO Andrew Vaeth says everything has clicked for the digital collaboration platform. After revising Cureo this spring to more specifically target nonprofit and mission-driven organizations, the Wooster-based company signed about 30 new clients in just eight weeks. Individually, the hundreds of thousands of groups, organizations and agencies working to address complex social issues are “doing hero’s work,” Vaeth said. But collectively, it can be difficult to see if they’re on the right track. So a tool to facilitate collaboration among these entities is critical, he said. “It’s very difficult to see the forest through the trees, and for creative ideas to emerge,” Vaeth said. “And technology is now at a place where this can happen.” Cureo has been a “huge change” for United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties, said executive director Todd Jasin. He sees “tremendous” applications for the software in the nonprofit world. “We solve complex social issues, and those require a different tool set and skill set,” Jasin said. Cureo accomplishes what many other independent products do, but “they’re just that: They’re bits and
pieces,” said Ken Ward, executive director of Anazao Community Partners, a nonprofit providing outpatient behavioral health services in Wayne Vaeth and Holmes counties that has been using Cureo since spring. “In our world, in not-for-profits, for us to effectively impact the community, we need to be engaging with all of the other not-for-profit entities in the community,” Ward said.
Trial and error Cureo founders initially pitched the software to JumpStart Inc. as a communication tool for venture firms and their portfolios. Four years ago, with JumpStart funding, Cureo launched the product, which was “almost like a private Flipboard meets LinkedIn,” Vaeth said. Despite early regional success and a couple of years of trying to make it work, the idea ultimately failed. “We learned a lot from that, and over that time period, we were building an ever-improving network, almost like a collaboration platform that was ideally suited for any smallsize, midsize business,” Vaeth said. About 18 months ago, Cureo relaunched the product as a collaboration tool for companies to use internally. Cureo entered the larger market, competing to offer an alternative to SharePoint, Microsoft’s
team collaboration software. A whole industry has emerged trying to compete in this space, Vaeth said, most notably, team communication app Slack. When assessing their work, Cureo staff noticed the platform’s biggest fans were nonprofits. They’d been the most engaged and eager to use the software. Volunteers, board chairs, organization staff, donors, government officials – any stakeholder – can work together on the platform, which was a huge plus. The more people trying to collaborate, the more painfully clear the limits of email become. “In a world where you’re trying to fly information back and forth, email is a very, very cumbersome tool,” Ward said. “The problem is it’s very linear.” The big draw for the nonprofit world is that the software enables cross-agency collaboration. Nonprofit agencies often work daily with a lengthy list of other entities: social service agencies, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, governmental agencies, schools, religious leaders, businesses and more. “The connections … begin to organically form into a microcommunity,” Vaeth said. “So the solution you’re using internally actually starts to organically connect naturally in the course of business with everybody else on the platform, where it makes sense.”
What’s next? The growth Cureo has seen since targeting nonprofits and missionbased organizations doubled its business. In recent months, Cureo has brought on dozens of paying customers, achieved more than 10% market penetration and is in the hands of hundreds of community leaders, Vaeth said. Jasin said Cureo has been “spreading like wildfire” in Wayne County. “For every project that United Way uses it for, we are bringing on new organizations into it just because they are included in our work,” he said. “And they are quickly turning to it as well.” Cureo continues to serve and add clients outside of the nonprofit space. Now that it has identified the need for interagency communication tools, Jasin sees a lot of other possibilities: associations, marketing firms, franchises and really any group with a community reaching outside the walls of a particular organization. Though not willing to provide specifics, Vaeth said Cureo is in talks with many other organizations in Akron, Cleveland and Columbus. In the nonprofit world, Ward said, people spend an “inordinate” amount of time in meetings. He thinks Cureo can cut that time down significantly. “I think that when you strip everything else away, it’s going to mean that we are providing a more relevant and a more timely level of service, and (can) be more responsive to needs in the community much, much quicker,” Ward said. “I think at the end of the day, it’s going to improve service tremendously.”
The University of Akron must address enrollment issues, according to Jon Pavloff, recently retired board chair. (University of Akron photo)
UA
CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 very difficult from a public relations standpoint, and that’s had an effect on our projected enrollment for next fall. OK, we’re not going to measure up to the freshman class enrollment numbers we’ve had the previous three years. … I think the adverse publicity surrounding all of the actions has had an effect, and we’re going to have an enrollment decline this year. What’s different, I think, about the situation going forward is now everyone in the university community recognizes the need to address the enrollment issue at the university. It’s not simply a function of the admissions department — but we’re all in this together, and we all have to work in a collaborative fashion. And one where we complement each other’s efforts, not work on a series of individual agendas. And by that, I mean, you have different constituency groups. You have the alumni. You have the students. You have the faculty. You have the normal admissions, and they need to be directed in a coordinated fashion. And I think that recognition is what’s different today than any time in our past. What are some other challenges facing the university? On the financial side, one of the things that we have to deal with is the governor’s budget that’s restricted our ability to affect the tuition lever, if you will, so we have frozen tuition for two years. That, coupled with the debt-service level that we have because of the building, puts us in a different financial situation than other major universities. So we have a larger portion of our annual budget going to service our debt that compromises our ability to invest in academic programs and other things that might otherwise benefit the university. What are some things you think people might not be aware of about the university? Well, I think, interestingly enough, people here in Akron are very
aware of the kind of experiential learning opportunities that we give our students because the companies here are involved in internships and providing jobs for folks. But we need to tell that story outside this footprint. … The sweet spot, the real key to student success, and there’s lots of research to back this up, is the ability for a student to engage in something during their academic career. So it’s not just about the classroom; it’s about what they connect to and how they find their place. And with a university setting as large as the University of Akron, we have lots of those opportunities, and students have the ability to navigate and find their place. Why do you think the polytechnic tagline didn’t resonate, when it seems like a lot of the message behind it did? The elements of what we wanted to define as the polytechnic tagline are all things that everyone bought into. It’s just that the name by itself, even though it was a tagline, somehow hit nerves the wrong way. And it didn’t work. And it was kind of ironic that as we came out with it and said it was a tagline, (that) this was a way of differentiating ourselves, if it doesn’t work then we’ll stop using it — well, it just kind of created more community dialogue, if you will, on the subject. So the elements of the experience at the university have not changed. They are the same. What types of qualities and characteristics would you like to see in the next president? Well, initially, we have to address the environment on the campus and in the community, and we need to bring people together in a way that has everyone working together to address the common issues. And I think that the next president is going to have to focus on that. The issues haven’t changed — the issues being enrollment and the financial infrastructure. But what’s different is that the environment around the campus has changed, and the next president is going to have to be able to reach out and bring people together to address those issues.
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Nonprofit boards get an infusion of youth By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler
A recent effort in Akron aimed at getting young professionals more involved with the boards of area nonprofits has found what it needs most to succeed: a surplus of smart, engaged, young people who are ready and willing to lead their community forward. “We had to expand our very first class,” said Elizabeth Winter, regional vice president of BVU: The Center for Nonprofit Excellence, which supports nonprofits and promotes business volunteerism. BVU was tapped by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to develop a program called YP Leader Corps, which began operations last fall. Its mission is to bring more young professionals into board and committee positions at nonprofits working in and around the city. BVU figured it would try to fill an initial class of 15 candidates – a number Winter said was both manageable and, perhaps, optimistic. The first class last year had 21 members, and demand was so strong, others were still turned away, Winter said. This year’s first class had another 16, and Winter said it’s already looking like a fall class will have more than 15 people. Eventually, BVU likely will get class size to a consistent 15 candidates,
with two classes a year. But demand is stronger than anticipated among Akron’s millennials, Winter said. “It’s amazing. It’s wonderful that we have so many people that want to be involved in the community,” Winter said. And the area’s employers are supportive of their efforts — mentoring young volunteers, and helping them with flexible schedules — in part because many employers know that volunteerism is important to young professionals. “They’re looking for companies that are going to be good corporate citizens, and they want to be supported in their efforts,” Winter said.
“It was a great experience, learning about it, and then being able to get connected to a board and being able to give back to the community,” said Vizmeg, who has long volunteered with organizations such as the American Cancer Society and with her church. While the training was not overly demanding, Vizmeg said, the YP Leader Corps program did a good job of preparing her by teaching her about the responsibilities of board members, how boards are structured and governed, and how they oversee the organizations they direct.
A leadership void
Julie Johnson, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Western Reserve. (Dan Shingler)
It’s a good thing that Akron’s young professionals are responding to BVU’s efforts, too, because the area’s nonprofits always have difficulty filling their boards and committees. Winter said she works with more than 100 nonprofits, and at any given time, about 70% of them are looking for a board member. “We will never fully meet the demand,” she said. But the program is making a difference. Nonprofits that have worked with the YP Leader Corps said they’ve been able to find and bring aboard valuable new board members. And volunteers are finding rewarding opportunities.
“I usually give our graduates their choice of between five and seven boards,” Winter said. That means would-be board members can work with a nonprofit that is aligned with their values or with causes they’ve already adopted. For example, Cindy Vizmeg is manager of financial planning and analysis for Signet Jewelers in Akron. She wanted to work with an organization involved with children and education. BVU gave her five or six choices, based on her skills and preferences, and she ultimately chose to work with Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio. She joined the board this year.
Promising results Nonprofits, too, say they’ve been pleased with the results from working with YP Leader Corps. Julie M. Johnson, president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Western Reserve, said she’s constantly on the hunt for new board members. She recently got one – University of Akron director of athletics development Anthony Henderson Sr. – through BVU. “He’s been amazing. One of the things we specifically like about Anthony, which BVU helped us with, is we’re always looking for people with a development and marketing background – and he has both,” Johnson said. She also likes the fact that the program helps reach out to new audiences of potential board members. “One of the things we liked about
the YP Leader Corps was they’re all between 25 and 40, and we were looking to diversify our board,” Johnson said. Johnson hopes to continue to use the program to recruit board members or fill advisory committees. She seems likely to get that chance, too. The Knight Foundation recently gave BVU a small amount of additional funding to begin a mentorship program associated with YP Leader Corps. The foundation has been pleased with what it has seen from YP Leader Corps so far, said Kyle Kutuchief, Knight’s program director for Akron. “It’s going very well. We’re interested in the attraction and retention of talent to Akron, and programs like the one BVU is doing helps people discover the town outside of their work and home,” said Kutuchief. “Then there’s the board matching piece, helping them find a board where they can serve. This is all part of a process of making them sticky to Akron.” Like Winter, Kutuchief said he’s constantly impressed by how engaged many Akron young professionals are. But he warns that without nurturing, that resource might not be enough. “We do have a good core, but we always have to be mindful of expanding that pipeline. Summit County has half a million people in it, and the BVU program has 30 slots a year,” Kutuchief said.
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AKRON
Scaling up the thrill factor At Rock Mill ‘bouldering’ gym, climbers rise (or fall) free of ropes, harnesses By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler
Nahomi Longstreth from Cortland climbs for fun. (Shane Wynn for Crain’s)
The road to business success can be rocky and steep – vertical, even. Nathan Yokum sure hopes it is, because that’s exactly the road he’s set up to conquer with Akron’s Rock Mill rock climbing and yoga studio. “It’s going well. Indoor climbing is becoming its own sport, especially with millennials,” Yokum said as a dozen or so climbers filed into the gym on a recent Tuesday afternoon. Yokum and his wife, Liz, opened Rock Mill as the city’s first “bouldering” gym for area climbers in January. Since then, the place has been busy with patrons scampering and crawling up the walls of Rock Mill’s 6,000-square-foot gym, which allows climbers of all abilities to test their skills on a 16-foot ascent. Or …. “When you fall, you hit the floor,” said Yokum, who smiled as he explained that, unlike sport climbing, there are no ropes or safety harnesses in bouldering. There is a thickly padded floor at Rock Mill, though. “It’s not bad at all,” says Annette Nowak, an Akronite who is an avid mountain biker, rock climber and a frequent fly on the wall of the Rock Mill gym. But then, Nowak is an experienced climber, as her rippling back attested to as she climbed. She doesn’t fall much. Yokum and his wife were already in the climbing business. Ten years ago, they founded Rock Candy Holds, which manufactures the odd shapes bolted onto climbing walls. In the climbing world, they’re known as “slopes, pinches, crimps,” among other names – but to most of us they are the things climbers put their feet and hands on to work their way up the wall. The couple, who met as students at Kent State University, were frustrated that it cost so much to buy the holds they needed to build their own wall. So they decided to make their own. Today, Rock Candy has its products in about 250 gyms around the world, Yokum said. Rock Candy moved its production to Colorado last year, but Yokum still designs the holds that the company sells from Akron. Without the need for production space, he had the room to do what he really wanted — build a gym. Now Rock Mill has a state-of-theart climbing facility in what Yokum says is an ideal location – on Carroll Street, right down the road from the
Co-owner Nathan Yokum. (Dan Shingler)
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University of Akron. That’s critical, he said, because rock climbing, especially indoor climbing, tends to attract a younger crowd. “Demographic-wise, the participation rate in the 18-22 age group is the highest,” he said. Like other gyms, Rock Mill offers a variety of rate formats. Visitors can come for a day for $16. Yokum said many climbers who come from Cleveland and other places often choose this option to check out the gym or vary their climbing routine. Those who climb on a more regular basis can pay $595 for a year, $55 for a month or $135 for a 10-visit pass. The gym also offers various degrees
of difficulty, all on the same wall – just use the green or pink holds for an easy climb, or stick to the black ones if you’re feeling like Spiderman. And then there’s what the gym’s climbers call “the cave” – a section of the wall that goes beyond vertical and requires climbers to hold themselves to a wall that arches out above them. The private company does not report its revenue, but Yokum said he’s been pleased with the reception the gym has gotten so far. On most weeknights, there are 75 or so people in the gym — as many as 150 a day during the weekends, and even more during the winter months, he said. Nowak says climbers like her use
Above: Aaron Svoboda creates climbing paths at Rock Mill. Left: Chalk helps the hands get a grip. (Shane Wynn for Crain’s)
the gym to improve their technique and keep their strength up. The gym is also a place where climbers meet and network. “It gets pretty crowded sometimes,” said Nowak, who at 34 has been climbing for about eight years. Yokum said he hasn’t begun to think about whether to further expand Rock Mill – for example, with other locations or even franchises. For now, he said, he’s happy that the gym appears to be off to a successful start. And, in the meantime, he’s still working to expand Rock Candy Holds. And now he has a whole new place — his own gym — to develop and test new holds, he said.
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AKRON ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Tobin Buckner
7 things I wish I had known before starting my business When I started my first business, things were much different. We were still in the Stone Age — no internet, and people were still rewinding VCR tapes. Still, there are a few common elements to this “entrepreneur thing” that might resonate with a business owner just getting started today. Here are seven that stand out:
Tobin Buckner is JumpStart’s Akron entrepreneurial community manager and contributes a monthly blog about entrepreneurship in the region.
Know thyself If you don’t know who you are, you likely are not winning at life. An ocean of time and money can be saved if aspiring entrepreneurs were more honest with themselves about their strengths and weaknesses. Without self-awareness, you can’t learn new things. And in entrepreneurship, success depends on your ability to learn new things. It’s adapt or die — simple as that.
Learn to sell Anytime you are courting investors, they will want to know how your sales are growing and what kind of traction your company has in the market. If you (as in, you personally) can’t sell your product or service, you most likely won’t be
able to show investors what they need to see, especially in the beginning. One extra word of caution: While early sales to family and friends often are necessary for a startup’s survival, they should never be relied upon for market validation. Don’t let love, pity or a sense of obligation skew your data.
You’re really selling yourself It often takes time to understand that selling yourself usually is a necessary precursor to selling your product (see above). People like to think that amazing ideas stand on their own. Usually they don’t. Even the best ideas can fall flat if the customer (or the investor) doesn’t believe in the person behind the idea.
Financials are heart of the business How is the money actually coming into your business every month? What does your business really cost to operate? What will happen to your financial model if a big customer doesn’t pay on time, or if you lose a big client? Good financials are like a health and wellness plan — don’t neglect them, and never fool yourself into distorting your model to make yourself, or a potential investor, feel better. Optimism is a necessary trait of entrepreneurship, but so is realism.
Fail fast Great entrepreneurs create a culture where questioning and pivoting are encouraged and celebrated. But that’s not always as easy as it sounds when so many people are trained to blindly take orders and deliver results. It can be hard to question your work constantly. It can be even harder to pull the plug. But no matter how painful it is to acknowledge that something is not working, ignoring the problem never helps. It only leads to more waste and less learning — both of which will kill a startup.
Good financials are like a health and wellness plan — don’t neglect them, and never fool yourself into distorting your model to make yourself, or a potential investor, feel better. Optimism is a necessary trait of entrepreneurship, but so is realism.
Consider co-working A co-working space is a community of like-minded individuals from different industries, at different stages of business, who are interested in meeting and networking. When I started out, I wish I had known the value of joining a community from which you can ask advice and feedback, and troubleshoot problems with. There is always someone to bounce ideas off of. You also are exposing yourself to the other members’ immediate circle and networks.
Help is everywhere There are literally more than a dozen organizations in Northeast Ohio to help entrepreneurs get where they are trying to go. Today, I work for one of them. Each organization has a slightly different focus, but they all work together and have decades’ worth of combined knowledge to offer. If I were starting a new business today, one of the first things I would do is leverage this network. By no means is this a comprehensive list of things to think about before starting a business. The truth is there are hundreds of things to think about. These are only seventof them, but that’s a better start than I had.