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EDUCATION: Teacher shortage takes a toll on Northeast Ohio. PAGE 10

CRAIN’S LIST

KeyBank continues to dominate deposit market share. PAGE 18

CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM I OCTOBER 3, 2022

Aer Lingus will fly the Airbus A321neo, a more fully efficient, quieter airplane, four times a week from Cleveland to Dublin beginning in May 2023. | CITY OF CLEVELAND

WHEELS UP

Hopkins’ new flight to Dublin is a sign of things to come for Cleveland BY KIM PALMER

Starting May 19, 2023, and initially for less than $500, travelers will be able to fly direct to Dublin, Ireland, out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport four days a week — Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

The impact, though, is bigger than that. Dublin’s airport, an Aer Lingus hub with direct flights to 183 destinations in 20 other countries, “is a gateway to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa,” said Baiju Shah, president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership. “From a business

community perspective, having the opportunity for a two-flight journey to many of the Dublin airport locations is a big deal.” JobsOhio, the state’s nonprofit economic development organization, estimates the expanded access to global markets will create $85 million in economic impact to the re-

gion in the next three years. Getting the Cleveland-to-Dublin flight required lots of work and the promise of a financial “back-stop” that includes providing revenue guarantees of $600,000 from the city of Cleveland and $825,000 from Cuyahoga County. The Greater Cleveland Partnership, Team NEO and Destination

Cleveland are committing nearly $1 million to the effort. Dublin is the only European airport with a U.S. immigration clearance facility, which allows travelers to clear customs before arriving in America. As Shah noted, “The ability See HOPKINS on Page 20

Helmet maker gets creative ‘Doing good is

good business’

Riddell working to solve pandemic-related riddles BY JOE SCALZO

MetroHealth expands access to care, doubles annual revenue under the helm of CEO Boutros

Earlier this summer, Ashtabula Edgewood athletic director Steve Kray discovered what it felt like to go without football helmets. It made his head hurt. Kray had ordered helmets for his middle school football program in February, but due to COVID-19-related supply chain problems, he found himself short 15 helmets at the start of training camp. “The kids were sharing helmets,” Kray said. “I’d go to Dick’s (Sporting Goods) once a week to see if anything was in stock. Even if it was a green helmet, I’d grab it. I was doing everything I could to find helmets.” So was his Riddell representative, Brad Keck. While Keck didn’t have any extra stock — Riddell spends the football offseason operating like a pizza place on Friday night — he knew a team that did: Walsh University. So, on a Tuesday morning in August, Keck and Kray drove down to North Canton to purchase 15 small and medium helmets from the Division II program. See RIDDELL on Page 21

BY LYDIA COUTRÉ

Riddell employee Matthew Vargo assembles a new Axiom helmet at the company’s North Ridgeville plant. | ERIN GRIFFIN/ RIDDELL

For years, a movement in health care has been reimagining hospitals as more than just places to provide clinical care, but instead as a critical economic, social, environmental and health anchor for the community. Dr. Akram Boutros, president and CEO of MetroHealth, “has been one of the first to deliver on the reinvention of the American hospital,” said Dr. Bruce Siegel, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals. While many become CEOs by being “incredibly conservative and careful,” he said, Boutros was willing to “go out on a limb” and achieved things others are now seeking to replicate. As Julie Jacono, MetroHealth’s executive vice president and chief strategy and innovation officer, put it, Boutros leaps and then worries about where he’s going to land. “After five years, six years of

working for him, you stopped worrying about not landing on your feet — you started worrying about the sizzle and flash that was going to be in the landing,” she said. Within months of arriving at MetroHealth, Boutros canceled the system’s contracts with every major insurance company upon realizing it was receiving substantially less than other hospitals providing the same care to patients. He gave the companies until the end of the year to renegotiate the contracts, a move that many people and the board thought was a risky strategy but ultimately resulted in MetroHealth being paid 40% higher than it had been before. “That was the beginning of our financial turnover and permitted us to invest in programs and hire leaders who knew what they were doing to be able to do more in the neighborhoods,” Boutros said. See METROHEALTH on Page 22

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