Construction Again Has `Meat`

Transcription

20131104-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
3:21 PM
Page 1
$2.00/NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
Construction
again has
‘meat’ to it
Many in industry remain
cautious, but recent data
suggest healthier outlook
By STAN BULLARD
[email protected]
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The Cavaliers drew a sellout crowd of 20,562 for their opener against the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 30 at Quicken Loans Arena.
Cavs are hot on biz side
Team’s single-game ticket sales already have passed
total for 2012-13 season; other key areas are up, too
By KEVIN KLEPS
[email protected]
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ 2013-14 season
opened last Wednesday night, Oct. 30, at
Quicken Loans Arena with the usual bells
and whistles.
The much-hyped introductory video lived
up to its billing, highlighting the Cavs’ ties to
the city by weaving in images of many Cleveland landmarks. The 70-second clip displayed on the giant scoreboard concluded
with All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving shouting, “We are here to make some noise!”
Off the court, they already have.
After struggling at the gate in the 2011-12
and 2012-13 seasons — ranking 19th and
22nd in attendance, respectively, in the 30team league — the Cavs’ revised season- and
single-game ticket strategies are paying early dividends this fall.
See CAVS Page 25
The go-go construction market that was driven
by a number of megaprojects in Northeast Ohio
has turned into a so-so market, but the level of activity still looks far better than the dire years of the
Great Recession.
Tony Panzica, president and CEO of Panzica
Construction Co., said three months ago he was
certain nonresidential construction spending
would be off a lot this year. However, he recently
has become more encouraged about the last part
of this year and the future.
In Mr. Panzica’s view, the market has gained
momentum, particularly in the last few months,
as “small things are starting to pop up, the
$500,000 to a few-million-dollar projects.”
See CONSTRUCTION Page 24
BUILDING HOPE
A look at several key figures from a Crain’s
analysis of McGraw Hill construction data about
the Northeast Ohio market:
Category
x-2013
2012
Future construction
$1.69B $1.53B
Contracts for residential projects $785M
$565M
Future nonresidential contracts
$976M
$909M
■ Note: x-Figures are through August. ... The
2012 numbers are for the like period last year.
OPINION
It’s time to say farewell to the Chief
O
pportunity is knocking for the Cleveland Indians to
turn a negative into a positive by engaging their
fans in the process of creating a new name and
logo for the city’s baseball franchise.
For now, the NFL’s Washington Redskins are drawing most
of the heat for the refusal of owner Daniel Snyder to change
the name of his football team. However, it’s only a matter
of time before the media spotlight fixes its glare on the
Cleveland Indians when the subject arises of racial
insensitivity in sports toward Native Americans.
44
Read the full editorial on PAGE 4
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SPECIAL SECTION
GENERAL COUNSEL
Crain’s honors some of the best and brightest
legal minds in Northeast Ohio ■ Pages 13-22
PLUS: LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD ■ EVENT INFORMATION
Entire contents © 2013
by Crain Communications Inc.
Vol. 34, No. 44
11/1/2013
1:23 PM
Page 1
11/1/2013
4:02 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
3
INSIGHT
Private exchanges can be healthy choice
But they also may be a more confusing option for workers
who aren’t used to employers using the online marketplaces
By TIMOTHY MAGAW
[email protected]
Employers across the country,
including a handful locally, are
punting their employees to private
marketplaces to sign up for health
care benefits much in the same way
they might buy plane tickets on
Travelocity.
At its core, the private exchange
concept is similar to the glitch-ridden public marketplace that
launched last month as part of
President Obama’s health care
overhaul, though the private marketplaces are reporting fewer bugs
than their public counterpart. But
instead of the government subsidizing the coverage, the onus is on
the employer.
On the private exchanges, employers can cap their contribution
toward employee medical coverage
as a fixed dollar amount or as a percentage of the total costs. The employee then delves into an online
portal armed with cost calculators
and other tools to select from a
bevy of medical plans — sometimes from different carriers. Employers have steadily eroded benefits options in recent years in favor
of a one-size-fits-all approach, and
exchange advocates say this is a
way to tactfully inject more choices
into the equation.
“It’s kind of like a gift card for
benefits,” said Mark Alder, president of the Cleveland office of Gallagher Benefits Services, which recently
launched
a
private
marketplace powered by the New
York-based Liazon Corp.
See EXCHANGE Page 8
THE WEEK
IN QUOTES
“Obviously, the last
three years, in terms
of wins and losses,
haven’t been great.
We feel like it’s a
coming-out party in
terms of potential for
the business.”
— Kerry Bubolz, president of
business operations, Cleveland
Cavaliers. Page One
“We
looked at
80 houses
before we
found the
right one.
It’s the same
approach we took for
locating the right
business. We didn’t
want to settle until we
were sure.”
— Britt-Marie Culey (above),
co-owner of Coquette Patisserie
with her husband and business
partner, Shane Culey. Page 10
JANET CENTURY
Bizdom startup MascotSecret raised $600,000 in venture capital this past summer. Shown are founders Donna Lee, middle, and Jen Jeng, along with Jake
Goodman, whom the pair hired after moving to Cleveland from San Francisco.
BIG THINGS
I
START HERE
By CHUCK SODER
[email protected]
“He’s done some
pretty transformative
things for not only
Lincoln Electric, but
the industry.”
— Vincent K. Petrella, Lincoln
Electric senior vice president
and chief financial officer,
regarding General and In-House
Counsel Lifetime Achievement
winner Frederick Stueber.
Page 13
LaunchHouse and Bizdom are
generating plenty of interest from
out-of-state entrepreneurs
See START Page 12
Website provides an all-encompassing view
Hudson startup uses ‘secret sauce’ to mine data
“It’s a delicate dance
that she dances well.”
— Claire Zangerle, president
and CEO, Visiting Nurse
Association of Ohio, regarding
General and In-House Counsel
finalist Emily Smayda Kelly.
Page 20
t’s a fact: Some entrepreneurs will move to
Cleveland from bigger cities if you offer
them a little bit of cash and a lot of assistance.
The LaunchHouse Accelerator and Bizdom
Cleveland have proof: The two boot camp-style
business accelerators have attracted a total of 12
startups from outside Ohio over the past two
years.
They’ve come from New York, San Francisco,
Los Angeles, Seattle — even China.
By TIMOTHY MAGAW
[email protected]
Quigg
The way Dan Quigg sees it, there never
has been a shortage of data spewed out by
governmental entities in Ohio, especially
since the rise of the Internet. However,
making sense of it all, particularly for the
average Joe, has always been the problem.
That’s where Mr. Quigg’s newest venture comes into play: www.360public.com, a website he recently
launched as part of his Hudson-based
startup Public Insight Corp. The website
aggregates thousands of data sets from
public bodies across the state and makes
them easily searchable and comparable.
“It’s not about the data but what you do
with the data and how you leverage it,”
said Mr. Quigg, also the CEO of Tecquiti
LLC, an information technology consulting company in Hudson. “That’s really the
secret sauce that we’ve got.”
See WEBSITE Page 26
4
11/1/2013
12:59 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:
Brian D. Tucker ([email protected])
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL:
John Campanelli ([email protected])
EDITOR:
Mark Dodosh ([email protected])
MANAGING EDITOR:
Scott Suttell ([email protected])
OPINION
Chief issue
O
pportunity is knocking for the Cleveland
Indians to turn a negative into a positive
by engaging their fans in the process of
creating a new name and logo for the city’s
baseball franchise.
For now, the NFL’s Washington Redskins are
drawing most of the heat for the refusal of owner
Daniel Snyder to change the name of his football
team. However, it’s only a matter of time before the
media spotlight fixes its glare on the Cleveland Indians when the subject arises of racial insensitivity in
sports toward Native Americans.
The Indians and particularly their logo, Chief Wahoo, already are brought up in stories and commentaries about what’s going on in Washington, and not
in flattering ways.
Three weeks ago, Marc Tracy of The New Republic
wrote a piece titled, “The most offensive team
names in sports: A definitive ranking.” In Mr. Tracy’s view, the worst offender of the 17 teams he listed were our Cleveland Indians.
While the name of Washington’s team “is by no
means a term of honor” when referring to Native
Americans, Mr. Tracy wrote, “there is nothing in the
world of sports quite like Chief Wahoo, who at the
first glance is revealed to be a demeaning and racist
caricature.”
Indians spokesman Bob DiBiasio said last week
team officials talk about the topic of the name and
logo “with regularity,” but that there is “no effort at
this time to change.” That’s unfortunate.
No team today would call itself the Sambos, nor
would any team feature a grinning, sombrero-wearing Mexican on its cap, helmet or jersey. They simply wouldn’t fly with the large black and Hispanic
populations that rightly would protest such offensive depictions of their races.
Just because Native Americans lack the numbers
to object loudly enough to the many Indian-related
names and images in sports doesn’t justify their
ongoing use. That’s particularly true of Chief Wahoo. It’s hard to see how the tomato-red, bigtoothed chief honors a proud people.
And therein lies the opportunity.
Unlike the Redskins’ stubborn Mr. Snyder, the Indians’ ownership and management could make
themselves look like the most enlightened people in
sports by initiating a change in the ballclub’s identity.
Rather than begrudgingly relinquish a name that
has been connected with the team for a century, the
top brass could market the change as a way to write
a new and exciting chapter in the franchise’s history.
The team could energize fans by conducting a
contest to come up with a new name and logo
(think of the merchandising potential!) and holding
a ceremony where they could bury a streak of 65
years of championship-less seasons. In other words,
make the transition fun.
We’ll even kick off the process by suggesting the
name Bulldogs. Orel “The Bulldog” Hershiser, a
hero of the glorious 1990s teams, could throw out
the first pitch on Opening Day.
The owners can bring praise to themselves and
the city they call home by putting the past in the
past. It is time.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Riding non-conservative winds of change
ion, thumbed his nose at a “bloody the
here are some winds blowing,
opposition at any costs” political strateand it’s not just the kind that
gy and thanked the president,
swoop down from Onpraising his team for its quick
tario and cause that BRIAN
action to help New Jersey’s batlake-effect thing we all dread TUCKER
tered residents and businesses.
this time of year.
Now, a year later, the governor
It seems everywhere I look, I
withdrew
his appeal to New Jersee signs of active admission by
sey’s gay marriage law right after
many of the Republican Party’s
his state’s Supreme Court alstars — or stars in waiting —
lowed gay marriages to proceed
that they personally must chart
under a new state law. Of course,
a course away from the GOP’s
the governor’s spin doctors tried
ultra-conservative faction.
to say he still opposes gay marOf course, some of the tea
riage, but it’s clear that’s all about winning
party’s true believers are having their
a coming election as well as positioning
own thinking-out-loud moments about
himself as anti-Romney in advance of the
their place in the Republican firmament,
2016 presidential election.
but that’s another story. For now, I’d like
Closer to home, our own state’s chief
to remind you of some news developments from just the past couple weeks.
executive has been taking similar tacks
In no certain order, I begin with New
in his political voyage, which may or may
Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropping his
not include the presidential cycle. Gov.
fight against gay marriage in his state. A
John Kasich got the attention of lots of
year ago, the governor — no stranger to
folks recently when he used the State
controversy —caused apoplexy among
Controlling Board to expand Medicaid’s
some tea partiers with his good words for
reach by using new money from the fedPresident Obama and the administraeral government.
tion’s help in the wake of Hurricane
And what did he tell The New York
Sandy. Gov. Christie, in very public fashTimes? That he is “concerned about the
T
fact that there seems to be a war on the
poor; that if you’re poor, you’re somehow
shiftless and lazy.” Of course, that doesn’t
change some of the things he’s done —
like the deep cuts to local governments —
that seem targeted to keep his conservative brethren in the fold as he heads to his
own re-election vote next year.
It just appears to me that the smart
money might be on those Republicans
who can find a way to distance themselves from the slash-and-burn radicalism of the tea partiers. And that’s despite
the sincerity of the move, challenged by
the other side.
“This is someone who realized he had
to get to the center and chose Medicaid
as the issue,” the Times quoted a Democratic strategist as saying. “This doesn’t
erase the first three years of his governorship when he pursued policies that
rewarded the wealthy at the expense of
the middle class.”
Well, few are more skeptical than career journalists, but I believe there are
more Republicans out there who want a
Christie- or Kasich-type than want a Ted
Cruz.
I’m just sayin’.
■
TALK ON THE WEB
POLL POSITIONS
Re: Nestle pizza operations
coming here
■ That’s GREAT news for Solon. It
seems we’re constantly seeing businesses leave Northeast Ohio. Nice to see additional jobs added to the local economy.
I think I’m going to toss a DiGiorno
pizza in the oven to celebrate. Maybe I’ll
wash it down with some Nesquik!
— Mark Madere
Re: Introducing the Akron
RubberDucks
■ Well, I am 56 years old … and this
might be one of the stupidest things that
I have ever heard. — Scott DePerro
■ I hope ShurTech jumps on this. It’s
a no-brainer sponsorship opportunity
for their Duck Tape line. (Duck Tape uniforms? An infield tarp that looks like a
roll of Duck Tape?) — Steve Corcoran
■ Forget “small potatoes” Duck Tape
Reader responses to stories
and blogs that appeared on:
www.crainscleveland.com
(as a potential corporate sponsor.) I
think they are really targeting the region’s largest company — Goodyear. —
David Janus
Re: Global Center
for Health Innovation
■ It’s a great start for Cleveland’s
newest economic engine.
All those sitting on medical industry
boards should encourage their organizations to hold their next meeting in Cleveland. With new demand for hotel rooms
and supporting businesses, these new facilities and Cleveland should flourish.
— Leland Lewis
See WEB Page 6
What do you make of all the
technical problems
of HealthCare.gov, the
Obamacare website?
It proves government can’t handle large
projects.
46.3%
Stop the partisan bickering; just fix it.
51.9%
Not surprising; insurance websites are
always hard to navigate.
1.9%
Vote in the poll each week
at CrainsCleveland.com.
11/1/2013
2:24 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
COMING NEXT WEEK
Care — on the go
Crain’s Small Business
section will take a look at
mobile companies, such as
Nicki Gambitta’s vet service.
Consumer demand and
the desire for flexibility are
helping to drive growth in
such businesses.
LOWERING THE DOOM
In August 2013, unemployment rates were lower in August than a year
earlier in 311 of the 372 metropolitan statistics areas (MSAs), higher in 47
areas, and unchanged in 14 areas. The national unemployment rate in August
was 7.3%, down from 8.2% a year earlier. Here’s the change in unemployment
rates in the 13 Ohio MSAs:
MSA
REGULAR FEATURES
Classified ....................26
Editorial ........................4
From the Publisher ........4
Going Places .................9
Letters ..........................6
Reporters’ Notebook....27
Talk on the Web .............4
What’s New..................27
Change in unemployment rate
August 2012-August 2013
Akron
+0.2 percentage points
Canton-Massillon
0.0
Cincinnati-Middletown
-0.2
Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor
-0.2
Columbus
0.0
Dayton
-0.1
Lima
+0.3
Mansfield
-0.2
Sandusky
+0.3
Springfield
-0.5
Steubenville-Weirton
-1.0
Toledo
+0.4
Youngstown-Warren-Boardman
-0.2
■ Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; www.bls.gov
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11/1/2013
12:05 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
LETTERS
LEASED 5775 ENGLE ROAD
Issue 1 is of utmost importance
CLEVELAND, OHIO
W
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank
is pleased to announce that
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e strongly support all
the programs that are
funded by Issue 1, the
Cuyahoga
County
health and human services levy.
We congratulate the members of
the County Council, who did the
necessary financial and needs
analysis that identified the increasing financial struggle resulting from
decreased revenues and the increasing demand for services. We
support the use of levy funds to
provide mental health and addiction services that are not covered by
Medicaid and access to services for
persons who are not eligible for
Medicaid or the insurance exchange. We also support services
for children and the elderly provided by the county.
As mental health professionals,
each of whom has been active in
various aspects of mental health
services for more 45 years each, we
strongly support this levy.
Recent research shows adverse
lifetime events contribute to the incidence of both health and mental
health problems and reduce life expectancy for those with chronic
health and behavioral health problems by as much as 25 years. For
adults, in addition to providing
more effective integrated medical
treatment and medications, we also
know the importance of care management, counseling, rehabilitation, supportive stable housing, and
jobs, some of them provided by local agencies. In addition, there has
been significant research that
demonstrates the importance of
early childhood intervention and
specialized education for children
to improve their health.
Issue 1 will assist 100 local agencies in providing services to residents of the county. These provide:
■ integrated primary health and
behavioral health care management that will improve both health
and behavioral health of adults and
children. This is often referred to as
a medical home, a place or organization where all of a person’s health
and behavioral health needs will be
met;
■ more rehabilitation to adults
to enhance their skills and enable
them to participate more actively
in their family or community,
including jobs and employment
services;
■ more early intervention treatment and education for children
with early behavioral health problems in order to build their skills
and enable them to become selfsupporting adults;
■ more crisis intervention services for families and children and
single adults to prevent suicide, violence, incarceration and adverse
lifetime events; and
■ more rehabilitation services to
persons who are sent into juvenile
and adult justice systems and enable them to live a more productive
life.
All these services will contribute
to the recovery of persons who have
experienced behavioral health
problems.
Cuyahoga County is fortunate to
have two excellent medical schools
that do advanced research on behavioral health problems, from genetics to neuroimaging, and clinical
research, so the agencies providing
integrated health care have early
access to new treatments or new
studies of the efficacy of treatment,
and evidence-based treatments
that may be developed.
We urge you to vote for Issue 1.
It is the most important issue on
the November ballot, It is a direct
and a wise investment in the improved health of Cuyahoga County
residents.
Dr. L. Douglas Lenkoski
H. Bernard Smith
Kathleen H. Stoll
All former members of the
Community Mental Health Board
WRITE TO US
Send your letters to: Mark Dodosh,
editor, Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700
W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland,
OH 44113-1230
Email: [email protected]
Don’t pity hospitals
Regarding your Page One story,
“High deductibles up hospitals’
worry” in your Oct. 28 issue:
Seeing this headline caused me
to immediately wonder if we will be
seeing a follow-up article headlined, “High hospital costs and excessive services worry consumers.”
If hospitals are worried about
consumers selecting high-deductible plans as way to balance the
financial impact of unaffordable
premiums, why don’t the hospitals
seek help from the people who designed and passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act?
The paramount question is,
“Who is looking out for the interests
of the consumers?”
David W. Stetler
Westlake
Compromise? No
Brian Tucker’s continual effort to
demonize the tea party is obsessive
and getting a little boring. Progressive Republicans and Democrats
love to compromise as long as
they’re growing government and
securing their jobs.
Our country is $17 trillion in debt
and our government’s addiction to
spending is unsustainable and getting worse.
The hell with compromise — the
direction this country is heading
needs to stop and folks who put
America ahead of their own selfish
ambitions need to lead. That, Mr.
Tucker, would be the conservative
wing of the Republican Party —
namely, the tea party.
Jeff Longo
North Royalton
25651 Detroit Rd, Suite 203, Westlake, OH 44145
Web: Renewable energy isn’t enough
Re: Renewable energy
Re: Future
of Chief Wahoo
Re: JobsOhio’s
performance
■ The reality is that renewable
energy will never be able to provide
more than 5% of our energy needs.
It is not clear if the study (cited by
guest blogger John Colm of WireNet) took into account the fact that
solar and wind energy would not
exist unless heavily subsidized by
the government.
Many of the solar and wind companies which were heavily funded
and subsidized by the government
have declared bankruptcy. Demand cannot be created in a heavily subsidized industry.
— Stephen Pasternack
■ I am a born and raised Clevelander and I believe that it should
be changed.
Yes, Chief Wahoo is cartoony, but
the red-faced Wahoo has reached
his end. I have no issue with the Indians name, but an arrowhead
tipped spear with two feathers
hanging from it would be better
and less offensive.
It could be a marketing flurry
with a money prize and tickets to
games for the winning entry. But it
is time to make a change.
— Kevin Peeples
■ Prior to the current administration, Ohio had the Third Frontier
to help startups. Everyone knew exactly what they were doing, and it
was trying to be very transparent.
Unfortunately, we now have JobsOhio, which swallowed up the
Third Frontier and made it a tool to
serve an elite group.
This goes hand-in-hand with a
governor trying to appeal to everyone and consequently getting
everyone mad.
If only he were a true moderate!
— Neil Dick
continued from PAGE 4
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Chem Technologies Ltd. is expanding again, this time with a
36,000-square-foot addition a few
miles away from its site in Middlefield, giving the company its eighth
mixing line.
Chem Tech also just completed
an addition to the Middlefield operation, adding a research and development center and wing of executive offices.
“We’ve had some excellent
growth considering the economy,”
said Randy Vancura, Chem Tech
chief operating officer. “We’re taking care of the customers. We really listen to the customer and try to
sort out where we can create value
for them.”
The company just broke ground
on the addition last month, and Mr.
Vancura said the goal is to get the
foundation in place before the end
of 2013. Chem Tech is targeting
next spring for an opening date.
Chem Tech’s Middlefield site
consists of four blend lines for
chemical dispersion and three rubber mixing lines. Mr. Vancura said
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“Our goal is to never run out of
capacity,” Mr. Vancura said. “The
site we just broke ground on can go
up to 500,000 square foot (of space).
Now we’re not building that much
yet. I don’t need that much. But
we’ll be building that in modules.
That will give us the ability to grow
into the future. We should be set for
some time before we have to look at
a new physical location expansion.”
Chem Tech is expanding to keep
up with its rapid growth. Mr. Vancura said the company has grown
by 50% each of the last two years. So
far through 2013, the company has
posted a 30% sales increase. The secret to the company’s success is its
focus on the customer, said Jim
Schill, its chairman and CEO.
“Our philosophy can be summed
up in four words: do the right
thing,” he said. “We are very, very
conscious of our customers. We do
a lot of things the way they were
done 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago.”
Mr. Schill founded Chem Tech in
2001. He was a founder of Elastochem in 1979, and started Gold
Key Processing in 1998. He worked
for Burton Rubber as chief financial
officer and vice president of finance
in 1966. Elastochem was sold to
Rhein Chemie in 1996, and Gold
Key was sold to Hexpol in 2007.
Mr. Schill has brought the same
approach to Chem Tech as he did
his other two successful ventures:
creating the best job possible for his
employees.
“We make it worth their while to
work here,” Mr. Schill said. “We pay
100% of health care; there’s practically nobody else in the county that
does that. The way I look at it, at
some point in time if you say to
your employee from here on in, you
have to pay for a portion of your
health care, that’s a pay cut.”
Mr. Vancura also was involved
with Gold Key and stayed on as
managing director when the company was sold to Hexpol. He joined
Chem Tech as chief operating officer after doing consulting work for
the company.
“It isn’t just the equipment; it’s
the people,” Mr. Vancura said. “It’s
our systems and how we’re doing
business.”
■
(Chris Sweeney is a reporter with
Rubber & Plastics News, a sister
publication of Crain’s Cleveland
Business.)
Exchange: Employees can make more
‘educated decisions’ based on needs
The private exchange model has
been around for some time, though
insurance experts say the health
care affordability crisis ensnaring
employers is expected to accelerate
its popularity during the next three
to five years, particularly among
middle-market firms. Companies
increasingly see the exchange model as a vehicle to more accurately
predict their health care spending
and simultaneously to give employees more options for coverage.
Exchanges are viewed as a way to
transition more easily from a defined benefits model to a defined
contribution model — a shift akin
to the migration away from pension
plans toward 401(k) accounts. That
said, the migration toward private
exchanges and defined contributions doesn’t necessarily pull costs
out of the system; it just shifts them
to the employee from the
employer.
“When you crawl across the
desert and are really thirsty, anything looks good to drink,” said
Robert Klonk, CEO of Oswald Cos.,
a Cleveland-based benefits brokerage developing its own private exchange. “Anything that potentially
lowers an employer’s health care
costs looks good. This is what I call
the shiny new tool.”
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The bulk of the activity in the private exchange arena has been fueled by big corporations such as
Walgreens, Sears Holdings Corp.
and Darden Restaurants. All three
firms are part of the multicarrier
private exchange administered by
Aon Hewitt, a nationwide benefits
brokerage company. In total, Aon
expects more than 600,000 U.S. em-
ployees and their families will be
covered in 2014 under plans offered
on Aon’s exchange.
“This is an opportunity for individuals to make their health care
purchasing decisions through an
online environment that offers
competitively priced products and
services from differing insurance
companies,” said Gregory Hubbell,
a senior vice president in Aon Hewitt’s Cleveland office. “It’s not
much different from other marketplaces, like Amazon or iTunes.”
However, a middle-market firm
engaged in a private exchange likely will work with a single insurance
carrier offering a slate of plans. An
exchange populated by only a few
hundred employees and multiple
carriers, for instance, would expose
the insurance companies to too
much risk. Still, brokers contend
employees of middle-market firms
will have plenty to choose from on
their private exchanges.
About 150 employees at Nations
Lending Corp. in Independence, for
example, recently chose from 12
Medical Mutual offerings on Gallagher’s private exchange, according to Cheryl Lieber, Nations Lending’s chief administrative officer.
“They could choose whatever
they wanted to based on their finances and health needs,” she said.
“They could make a more educated
decision for themselves than us as a
company saying, ‘This is what you
get.’ ”
Choosing wisely
Exchange advocates say the decision-making tools on the exchange
websites ensure the enrollment
process goes smoothly and wards
off most people’s apprehension
over having too many options from
which to select. Ms. Lieber characterized Gallagher’s marketplace as
a “very user-friendly system” and
said, “The support that was given
for it was phenomenal.”
Of course, as with 401(k) plans,
poor plan selection in the exchange
could come back to haunt someone
later. As with the Obamacare exchanges, some health care
providers fear that when presented
with so many choices, employees
might flock toward the plans with
the lowest premiums — plans that
often come with the highest deductibles and other out-of-pocket
costs.
Mr. Klonk of Oswald predicts that
while people might enroll in the
cheaper plans from the outset, they
likely will migrate toward richer
plans in the coming years as they’re
faced with larger medical bills. And
despite all the gizmos associated
with the exchanges, it’s not going to
be a simple purchase for everyone.
“Going back decades, employees
have always counted on their employers to make their decisions for
them,” he said. “It’s going to be very
challenging for people initially.”
While the exchange concept
might be attractive initially, it could
come back to trouble employers
who view exchanges as a way to get
out of the health care business entirely. Should employers forego an
increase in the size of the subsidies
they’re offering their employees
and health care costs continue to
rise, employee retention and attraction could become an issue.
“That cycle can’t continue very
long without people leaving the
company,” Mr. Klonk said. “Exchanges and all those other things
don’t reduce health care costs. It
shifts them.”
■
11/1/2013
1:27 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 11, 2013
9
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John Carroll receives $2.5M
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Mr. Smiley, a 1951 graduate of the
university, was an executive at McDowell-Wellman Engineering Co.
and Gilford Instrument Laboratories. He finished his career as chief
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20131104-NEWS--10-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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3:26 PM
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NOVEMBER 4 - 11, 2013
Pastry chef finds
enticing new digs
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Pastry chef Britt-Marie Culey and her husband, Shane, soon will open Coquette Patisserie in the Euclid 115 Building across
from the Cleveland Institute of Art.
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astry chef Britt-Marie Culey’s patience has paid off.
After five years of carefully
searching Cleveland’s East
Side for the ideal location in which
to expand her fledgling home-based
bakery, Ms. Culey secured what she
considers the perfect space.
Ms. Culey and her husband and
business partner, Shane Culey, are
scheduled to open soon Coquette
Patisserie at 11607 Euclid Ave. in
the Euclid 115 Building, across from
the Cleveland Institute of Art.
“The space is situated between all
these cultural gems and institutions,” Ms. Culey said. “Our target
clientele is people who frequent
University Circle.”
The patisserie café and retail
shop will serve authentic pastries,
plus a small savory menu of about
10 French dishes that fuse Ms. Culey’s Scandinavian heritage and
French grower champagne.
About 600 square feet of the
1,000-square-foot space will be
dedicated to a commercial kitchen,
and the remaining real estate will
accommodate about 20 to 30 seats
for an intimate dining setting.
The duo will continue each Saturday to operate at Shaker Square
Farmers Market, which has been a
boon to their organic growth (along
with a wholesale restaurant and
catering business). So much so that
Ms. Culey nearly moved on two different Shaker Square locations.
“We realized a space in Shaker
Square would conflict with our
farmers market presence, and we
wanted to maintain that,” she said.
“Our customers there have been so
supportive. Then we heard about
the University Circle space, and
Shane and I knew this was it.”
The chef transplanted her growing startup from rural Connecticut
to her Cleveland Heights home in
2008. The reception was immediate,
she said, prompting the need to expand beyond her kitchen.
Ms. Culey, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in
Portland, Ore., garnered industry
experience in southern France before relocating to New York City,
where she worked at Manhattan’s
Financier Pâtisserie. A year-long
stint in her native Connecticut preceded the move to Cleveland
Heights, a market she and Shane
had identified as an ideal location in
which to grow their business and
KATHYAMESCARR
WHAT’S COOKING
raise a family.
“We looked at 80 houses before we
found the right one,” Ms. Culey said.
“It’s the same approach we took for
locating the right business. We didn’t
want to settle until we were sure.”
Other local morsels
■ The East Side is gaining another
French-inspired eatery, which aims
to provide classic French cuisine and
superb service with a social cause.
Edwins Restaurant and Leadership Institute opened last Friday,
Nov. 1, at Shaker Square, as both a
high-quality dining destination for
the public and a training center for
former prisoners. The nonprofit’s
mission is to teach the adults through
an intensive six-month training program all aspects of running a restaurant and prepare them for successful
re-entry into the professional world.
“It’s about eating well and doing
good,” said founder Brandon Chrostowski, an accomplished chef, sommelier and former general manager
of L’Albatros in University Circle.
Edwins has raised more than
$300,000 from various entities, including the Cleveland Foundation,
RPM International and Fairmount
Minerals. Judging by a soft opening
on Monday, Oct. 28, where spot-on
cuisine and attentive service
aligned with Mr. Chrostowski’s high
expectations, Edwins is a suprême
choice for a business lunch or dinner. Located at 13101 Shaker
Square, Cleveland; 216-921-3333;
edwinsrestaurant.org.
■ Granite City Food & Brewery is
entering the Cleveland market with
its opening this Wednesday, Nov. 6,
at Legacy Village. The 11,300square-foot space will seat 375 and
employ about 200. Operators say the
restaurant’s menu items are prepared fresh daily and from scratch.
The Minneapolis-based chain has 30
restaurants in 13 states. Located at
24519 Cedar Road, Lyndhurst;
gcfb.com.
■
20131104-NEWS--11-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/31/2013
1:35 PM
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20131104-NEWS--12-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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11/1/2013
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NOVEMBER 4 - 11, 2013
Start: Software startup MascotSecret is ‘going to blow up’
And those entrepreneurs should
keep coming, because LaunchHouse and Bizdom both are pushing harder to recruit out-of-state
startups than they did when the
state-supported programs were
created two years ago.
For instance, five of the 11 startups now going through the
LaunchHouse Accelerator had
been based in other cities. Plus,
LaunchHouse has received applications from Spain, France, Singapore and Azerbaijan, said Shannon
Lyons, who runs the accelerator,
which is based at the Shaker
LaunchHouse incubator in Shaker
Heights. The incubator recently
worked with the city to renovate a
few run-down houses on a nearby
street, which already house a few
out-of-town entrepreneurs and
should help the accelerator attract
more, Ms. Lyons said.
“We want to be known as a place
… where startups come from
across the world,” she said.
Like LaunchHouse, Bizdom has
promoted itself through online directories that entrepreneurs use
when looking for accelerators to
join. As a result, six startups have
moved to the company’s downtown Cleveland accelerator from
other states. A third local accelerator, FlashStarts, mainly works to attract local entrepreneurs.
Like other accelerators cropping
up across the country, Bizdom and
LaunchHouse provide even the
youngest companies with up to
$25,000, three months of intense
mentoring and office space in exchange for equity.
This year, Bizdom upped the
ante to help it attract entrepreneurs
who otherwise might sign up with
big-name accelerators in other regions, such as TechStars and Y
Combinator: The Cleveland accelerator now plans to make an additional investment of up to $100,000
in its most promising tenants, said
Paul Allen, who manages the program.
“We want to be competitive with
other accelerators like TechStars,
and we recognize that amazing
founders have other options,” Mr.
Allen said.
Granted, many accelerator tenants have no customers when they
arrive. Some will die within a few
years of graduating from the 3month-long programs. And in
LaunchHouse’s case, some startups coming from outside Ohio
probably will move away, because
the accelerator doesn’t require
them to remain nearby.
But some will stay and thrive,
creating jobs and wealth that Ohio
otherwise would have missed out
on, Mr. Allen said.
The process, however, will take
time, he cautioned.
“You have to plant lots and lots
and lots of seeds, and you have to
wait for those seeds to grow into big
flowers or big trees,” he said.
Sharing a secret
A few seeds that blew in from out
of state have started to sprout.
Bizdom’s MascotSecret raised
$600,000 in venture capital this
summer in a round led by Toba
Capital, which has offices in
Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco — where MascotSecret’s
founders used to live.
The company has developed
smart phone software that allows
people at events to upgrade their
seats for a fee. The Cleveland Cavaliers started testing it with a limited
number of people last season, and
since then the startup has struck
deals with the Houston Rockets
and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
Four of MascotSecret’s seven
employees live in other regions, but
that could change as the company
grows and increases its ability to recruit people from outside Northeast Ohio to the area, according to
founders Donna Lee and Jen Jeng.
They were attracted to Bizdom because it was founded by Dan
Gilbert, who owns large stakes in
the Cavs and Veritix, a digital ticketing company that shares space
with Bizdom.
“We’re going to blow up … and
be Dan Gilbert’s biggest competitor
for real estate,” Ms. Lee said with a
laugh.
However, many of the startups
that moved here are just getting
started. Vendalize.com consists of
just two people, Mitch Turck, who
moved to LaunchHouse from Pittsburgh, and developer Adam
Leonard, who still lives in New York.
The big city wouldn’t be a great
place to test the company’s locally
focused search engine technology,
Mr. Turck said. Cleveland resembles the rest of the country, unlike
New York and San Francisco, Mr.
Turck said.
Granted, Vendalize.com’s next
step would be to focus on a major
city. Might the company move
away once it takes that step? That
depends on how much money the
startup can raise from area investors, Mr. Turck said.
There’s no telling how many
LaunchHouse startups begun by
non-Ohioans might return home
after graduating from the program.
The founder of blogging platform
Sliced Apples, the one out-of-state
startup that joined the accelerator’s
2012 class, since has moved back to
Florida. Norin.TV also has a high
likelihood of returning to China: The
company, which is developing a way
to teach English via the web using
TV shows and movies with subtitles,
will need to be near the market for
its services, according to co-founder
Chris Baek.
Given its potential, Norin.TV is
the rare exception where LaunchHouse would accept a company
that has a high likelihood of leaving
town, according to LaunchHouse
partner Todd Goldstein.
Ties that bind
LaunchHouse can maintain
many startups by helping them
raise money from investors and
find local customers, Ms. Lyons
said.
Like Bizdom, LaunchHouse has
received grants from the Ohio
Third Frontier economic development program, in addition to assistance from Shaker Heights. But requiring the startups to remain in
Northeast Ohio could make it
“tough for a startup that needs to
be nimble” in order to attract customers and investors, Mr. Goldstein said.
The Brandery, a Cincinnati accelerator that has been ranked as
one of the best in the country, has a
similar policy. Three of the eight
startups that went through the
Brandery accelerator last year are
now based elsewhere, while the
rest still have a presence in Cincinnati, according to general manager
Mike Bott.
“If we can retain two or three or
four … we’re a net importer of startups that otherwise wouldn’t have
come to Cincinnati,” he said, noting that Ohio entrepreneurs account for only 15% of Brandery’s
applicants.
On the other hand, Bizdom startups sign a contract requiring them
to base their headquarters in either
the city of Cleveland or Detroit,
where there is another Bizdom
branch. No applicants have told
Mr. Allen they have a problem with
the rule, which is meant to spur
high-tech entrepreneurship in
those cities.
“There is a sense of responsibility to help cultivate this critical
mass,” he said.
■
20131104-NEWS--13-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/31/2013
3:55 PM
Page 1
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
FREDERICK STUEBER
Senior vice president, general counsel,
chief compliance officer and secretary
Lincoln Electric
hen he first heard
about the job he’s held
for nearly two decades,
Fred Stueber actually
asked several other attorneys to
consider the opportunity.
Then an attorney at Jones Day
who learned through his work with
Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc. that
it wanted to expand its legal department, Mr. Stueber
ultimately decided to try going in-house himself.
He’d not been seeking to leave the law firm, but had
watched his late uncle lead a successful career as general counsel for a bank.
“I sized up the opportunity, and I thought it was a
company where I could make a difference,” Mr. Stueber said.
Those who work alongside him say he has.
In all, Mr. Stueber — senior vice president, general
counsel, chief compliance officer and secretary for the
Euclid-based welding equipment manufacturer — has
led a 33-year legal career. Eighteen of those, he’s
spent at Lincoln Electric.
“He’s done some pretty transformative things for
not only Lincoln Electric, but the industry,” said Vincent K. Petrella, the company’s senior vice president
and chief financial officer. “Fred led an industry defense group against what’s referred to as fume litigation. Fred engineered … a collective defense plan that
ultimately resulted in the dismissal of literally thousands of cases against Lincoln Electric and the industry.
“It isn’t oftentimes that a company and an industry
survive the onslaught of the plaintiffs’ bar,” Mr. Petrella added.
That multi-district welding fume litigation, wherein
plaintiffs’ attorneys sued Lincoln Electric and numerous competitors, alleging neurological disorders from
welding fumes, spanned a decade and was dissolved
this year. It was not the first high-stakes litigation Mr.
Stueber handled.
A year after he joined the company in 1995, he
found himself defending in 1996 a class action suit
brought by plaintiffs who claimed that Lincoln Electric weld metal used in buildings damaged by the 1994
Northridge earthquake in California was defective.
“We were able in both instances to prove the substance of the claims was false,” Mr. Stueber said. “We
were successful because the Lincoln employees were
able to tell their story persuasively. The Lincoln employees really know the welding business, and they
can tell that story, and that, I’ve found, has been extremely useful.”
Mr. Stueber has built a solid, “world-class” legal department within Lincoln Electric, Mr. Petrella said.
He’s not one to settle, but instead is “very aggressive”
in defending the company against “almost any and all
attacks,” he added.
“I’m on that page completely from a CFO perspective because I think too often in American business,
you look at situations where somebody’s suing you
(and think), ‘It’ll cost me half a million dollars to defend this, but I can settle,’” Mr. Petrella said. “Fred has
the foresight and the vision to understand that when
you do that, you’re welcoming more and more litigation and you become a soft target.”
Mr. Petrella said the message is clear: “You better
think twice because we’re going to defend ourselves.”
And it still is: The company’s now involved in litigation with insurance carriers over excess coverage issues.
Mr. Stueber attributes his successes to the career
track he’s followed: He earned his law degree from
Harvard University, gained perspective on managing
litigation as a clerk for a federal judge in 1980 and
joined Jones Day as a corporate lawyer in 1981, where
he spent 13 years, the final six as a partner.
Within his current role, Mr. Stueber oversees a staff
of four lawyers and two paralegals who handle more
than litigation; corporate governance matters, mergers and acquisitions, corporate compliance, intellectual property and labor law matters fall under their
purview, too.
A native of Shaker Heights, Mr. Stueber, 60, today
lives in Cleveland Heights with his wife, Betsy. They
have two college-aged sons, a yellow Labrador named
Maizey and a summer home on Kelley’s Island in Lake
Erie, where they spend time boating and enjoying the
water.
He last week was elected as a trustee of ideastream,
a nonprofit multiple-media public service organization serving Northeast Ohio, and also is a trustee of
the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and University School, which
he attended for four years. — Michelle Park Lazette
W
F
or the second year, Crain’s
Cleveland Business is honoring
those working in the region’s
general and in-house counsel
positions.
Winners and finalists were determined
by an independent panel of legal experts.
Consideration was given to leadership;
business strategy achievement; protection
of company interests; governance/compliance; notable legal achievements; and
community volunteer efforts.
Judges for this year’s program were:
Luke Cleland, associate general counsel,
University Hospitals Health System;
Rusty Hood, vice president, general
counsel, Bendix Commercial Vehicles
System; Henry Grendell, vice president,
general counsel, Family Heritage Life
Insurance Company of America; and
Barbara Roman, partner, Meyers,
Roman, Friedberg & Lewis.
❇❇❇❇❇
Winners and finalists will be recog-
FINALISTS
■ Sheryl King Benford, Greater
Cleveland Regional Transit Authority;
Page 16
■ Kim F. Bixenstine, University
Hospitals; Page 14
■ Kevin Brokaw, Geis
Companies; Page 15
■ A. Steven Dever, Ganley
Management Co.; Page 15
■ Matthew Donnelly, Cleveland
Clinic; Page 14
■ Steve Eisenberg, AssuraMed;
Page 17
■ Elizabeth Evans, Republic Steel;
Page 15
■ Patricia Gaul, PlayhouseSquare
Foundation; Page 18
■ Jennifer M. Griveas, Eliza
Jennings; Page 18
■ Matthew Heinle, Mercy Medical
Center; Page 16
■ Shannon Fogarty Jerse, Sisters
of Charity Health System; Page 19
■ Emily Smayda Kelly, Visiting
Nurse Association of Ohio; Page 20
■ Douglas Kordel, Proforma;
Page 20
■ Scott M. Lewis, Meyers, Roman,
Friedberg & Lewis; Page 22
■ Chris Mason, Clinical Research
Management Inc.; Page 16
■ Duffield E. Milkie, Cedar Fair LP;
Page 19
■ John C. Orlando Jr., Orlando
Baking Co.; Page 17
■ Geri Presti, Forest City
Enterprises; right
■ Marilyn Tobocman, Ohio
Attorney General’s Office; Page 21
■ Willis Walker, Kent State
University; Page 20
RISING STAR FINALISTS
■ Nadine Ezzie, Broadvox;
Page 21
■ Amanda Kitzberger, GOJO
Industries; Page 22
■ John Warren, University
Hospitals; Page 17
■ Ashlee Webster, GCA Services
Group Inc.; Page 19
nized during a program from 4:30 to
7 p.m. on Nov. 13 at Executive
Caterers at Landerhaven in Mayfield
Heights, which will follow morning and
afternoon education sessions.
The education portion — for which
up to six hours of continuing legal
education credits are available — starts
at 8 a.m. with three morning sessions:
■ Ethics: Perils of Privilege and
Production (1 hour, Ethics)
■ Professionalism: Developments in
Spoliation of Evidence (0.5 hour,
Professionalism)
■ Professionalism: Social Media
Issues (0.5 hour, Professionalism)
The morning speaker, for which one
substance abuse hour is available, will
be Gary Stromberg, author and speaker,
The BLACKBIRD Group.
A luncheon keynote address will be
given by Judge Jed S. Rakoff, senior U.S.
District Judge for the Southern District
of New York, who will speak on “The
GERI PRESTI
Executive vice president;
general counsel; corporate secretary
Forest City Enterprises Inc.
A
s a publicly traded national real
estate development concern with
almost $11 billion in assets,
almost 3,000 associates
and operations in 26
states from Boston to
Hawaii, a lot of lawyering needs to be done at
Forest City. Overseeing
the legal side of things
is Geri Presti’s job.
Ms. Presti is responsible for all of Forest
City’s legal matters, including real estate
development, financing, corporate governance and securities law. She heads a
group of more than 20 in-house attorneys
and oversees the company’s relationships
with outside law firms. She is a member
of the company’s executive management
team and works closely with its CEO, CFO
and other business leaders to promote
Forest City’s initiatives, according to the
nomination. When employees and directors have ethical concerns, their queries
go to an email she monitors to provide
rapid responses.
David LaRue, Forest City CEO, called
Ms. Presti “the glue that keeps the enterprise on track,” and she has played a key
role in the company’s drive to reduce indebtedness and improve its balance
sheet.
Looking back at the past year, he noted
that many major transactions, from
bringing in a partner at 8 Spruce Street to
early redemption of debt “do not happen
without tremendous support and leadership from your general counsel.”
She joined Forest City fresh from Case
Western Reserve University in 1989 as she
completed a joint program to receive a
master’s degree in social service administration and a law degree. She also brought
with her five years of experience as a licensed music therapist at the Cleveland
Music Settlement. She became general
counsel in 2002, the company’s corporate
secretary in 2008 and an executive vice
president in 2012.
Surprising Paucity of Criminal Prosecutions Arising from the Financial Crisis.”
Participants then will be able to
choose to attend two panel discussions:
From 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. (running
concurrently): (1.5 hours, general)
■ Creating a living, breathing and
current compliance program
■ Contemporary employment issues:
From your boss to the loading dock
From 3 to 4:30 p.m. (running
concurrently): (1.5 hours, general)
■ Managing social media risk in
turbulent times
■ Preparing for the inevitable
litigation or regulatory crisis
❇❇❇❇❇
Attendees can opt to attend all or part
of the day; different pricing tiers are
available. For more information, go to
www.crainscleveland.com/
GENERAL_COUNSEL or contact Kim
Hill at 216-771-5182 or
[email protected].
Andy Passen, Forest City’s executive
vice president of human resources, said
Ms. Presti commits herself 100% to the
problems and assignments that go her
way.
“I know that I can trust her judgment
and that her advice is backed by well-reasoned thought” and, Mr. Passen said,
“where appropriate, well documented
and detailed research.”
Specific areas in which Ms. Presti has
been personally involved, according to
the nomination, include increasing the legal department’s focus on regulatory requirements, helping the company’s board
of directors with succession plans, and
supporting its human resources diversity
programs and leadership development
among women by participating in its
Women’s Leadership Associates Resource
Group.
Colleagues describe her as responsible,
professional and giving. Amy Kellogg, cochair of BakerHostetler’s national real estate practice, said it is easy to forget that Ms.
Presti’s responsibilities extend far beyond
Cleveland and describes her as “a great role
model not only in the legal profession, but
in giving back to the community.”
At a company that is well known for
charitable activities, Ms. Presti has “never
ceasing” dedication to the community,
Mr. Passen said.
Ms. Presti has served as a trustee for the
Greater Cleveland General Counsel Association and for the L.L.M. Program for Legal Studies at the CWRU School of Law.
She also has been involved with Business
Volunteers Unlimited, the International
Council of Shopping Centers, Boys and
Girls Clubs of Cleveland, the executive
committee of CWRU and the In Counsel
with Women trade group.
Since joining Forest City, she has remained active at the Cleveland Music Settlement, serving as its vice chairman and
vice president, and chaired its executive,
strategic planning, governance and
finance committees.
Mr. LaRue said Ms. Presti’s enthusiasm
can recharge a room but she is not all
business. “She’s also attuned to the personal side of things,” he said, “and supports people in their challenges or their
celebrations.” — Stan Bullard
20131104-NEWS--14-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/31/2013
1:37 PM
Page 1
GENERAL AND IN-HOUSE COUNSEL
14 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
KIM BIXENSTINE
W
Peer-Reviewed.
Rated. Recognized.
Porter Wright salutes all attorneys selected by their colleagues
for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America©, including seven of
our Cleveland-based attorneys.
Michael A. Ellis
Donald J. Fisher
Phillip E. Langer
Hugh E. McKay
Leo M. Spellacy, Jr.
Tracey L. Turnbull
William R. Weir
The Best Lawyers in America© 2014. Copyright 2013
by Woodward/White, Inc., Aiken, SC
We earn our stripes.
porterwright.com
Cincinnati | Cleveland | Columbus | Dayton | Naples | Washington, D.C.
Cultivating Our Talent
Wednesday,
December 4
Presented by:
Advancing NE Ohio’s Brain Gain for Business Success
CrainsCleveland.com/BREAKFAST
Congratulations,
Willis Walker
on being named a 2013 In-House and
General Counsel finalist. You are an
example of excellence in action, happening
every day at Kent State University.
Vice President
Willis Walker, Esq.
General Counsel
Kent State University
Kent State University congratulates
all In-House and General Counsel finalists.
Kent State University, Kent State and KSU are registered trademarks and may not be used without permission. Kent State University, an equal
opportunity, affirmative action employer, is committed to attaining excellence through the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. 13-2243
Vice president and deputy general
counsel
University Hospitals
hen Kim Bixenstine arrived at University Hospitals a decade ago, the
health system didn’t
have an inhouse claims
and litigation
department.
However, Ms.
Bixenstine, now
serving as vice
president and
deputy general
counsel, worked closely with Janet
Miller, the health system’s chief legal officer, to persuade UH’s top
brass that such a department was
needed. And good thing UH’s administration listened because the
department that Ms. Bixenstine
now steers has paid dividends.
According to the nomination,
since the end of 2004, the number of
pending medical malpractice and
general liability lawsuits against UH
has been reduced by more than 70%
despite the fact that the health system has seen a 24% increase in the
number of patients seen.
The net result is an addition of
approximately $180 million to the
health system’s bottom line since
2006, according to the nomination.
In recent years, Ms. Bixenstine
also has helped settle 80% of medical malpractice and general liability matters in house, resulting in
about $2 million in legal fee savings, according to the nomination.
“She typically gets some of the
knottiest, most complex issues and
comes up with creative solutions,”
Ms. Miller said. “She’s one of the
most creative lawyers I’ve ever
worked with.”
Even if UH wins a medical malpractice case, Ms. Bixenstine leads a
MATTHEW DONNELLY
Deputy chief legal officer
Cleveland Clinic
atthew Donnelly’s fingerprints can be found
well beyond the Cleveland Clinic’s stronghold
in Northeast
Ohio. Indeed, his
influence can be
felt even in the
Clinic’s most
distant ventures.
As one of the
Clinic’s deputy
chief legal officers, Mr. Donnelly has been instrumental in the health system’s ongoing project in Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates. The Clinic partnered
with Mubadala, a wholly owned affiliate of the government, to build
the international, 350-bed hospital.
The United Arab Emirates is a
young country in the process of
evaluating health care systems
around the world to find the best
models of care for its citizens. As
such, Mr. Donnelly has shared
what he has learned at the Clinic
over the last seven years.
Stateside, Mr. Donnelly has contributed to the Clinic by putting an
emphasis on evaluating cases well
before lawsuits are filed. These
early assessments have enabled
the litigation team he steers to
more efficiently manage the claims
process. As a result, the Clinic’s legal spend and the number of lawsuits against the health system
both have decreased.
“He’s a star performer,” said
David Rowan, the Clinic’s chief legal officer. “We are at our best
when we’re working as a team, and
Matt is a great team player. He
M
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
review process to discern whether
any lessons could be learned from
the ordeal. It sounds like a difficult
task, but Ms. Bixenstine approaches
each situation in a manner that exudes confidence and collaboration,
according to Ms. Miller.
“She has an infectious smile,” Ms.
Miller said. “She gets people to collaborate because of the way she talks
through the issues. She’s got terrific
negotiation skills. People love her.
Ms. Bixenstine’s efforts haven’t
gone unnoticed inside the organization. A few years back, her team
won an in-house achievement
award for demonstrating the greatest measurable impact on UH’s
pillars of quality, service excellence, employee engagement and
financial performance.
“Kim’s close collaboration with
human resources and the organization’s clinical partners has resulted
in the creation of a culture of transparency,” the nomination said.
“The goal is to focus on the humane
aspects of patient care, and apologizing to patients when merited,
which is instrumental in advocating
that policy of (putting) patients
first,” the nomination said.
Beyond UH, Ms. Bixenstine is a
member of several community organizations and a frequent speaker at
seminars. She’s a member of Leadership Cleveland’s 2009 class and
serves on the boards of trustees at
the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, the
Great Lakes Theater and the Shaker
Heights Development Corporation.
She is also an active member of the
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association and has worked with the Northeast Ohio chapter of the American
Arbitration Association, the Boys &
Girls Clubs of Cleveland and Planned
Parenthood of Greater Cleveland.
“She is a remarkable lawyer and
deserves all the accolades she can
get,” Ms. Miller said.
— Timothy Magaw
works well with docs, nurses and
other caregivers.”
Mr. Donnelly recently was
charged with developing an inhouse ethics committee for the
Clinic’s legal department. Having
the foresight that ethical issues
don’t only affect attorneys, he corralled a diverse group of attorneys,
paralegals and administrative assistants for the venture.
“In this capacity, Matt serves as
a valued ethical resource for the
organization and promotes the
Clinic’s tradition of carrying out
daily activities within appropriate
ethical and legal standards,” the
nomination said.
Mr. Donnelly also was instrumental in helping with the installation of
the legal department’s electronic
billing system, which has helped the
legal department better gauge where
monetary resources are going. According to the nomination, the effort
already has had a positive effect on
the organization’s bottom line.
“He’s a valued member of the
team and someone I rely upon for
judgment,” Mr. Rowan said. “I can’t
say enough good things about him.”
Mr. Donnelly was heavily involved with the development of the
first Northeast Ohio Medical Legal
Summit, which was held last year.
Last year, he served as the vice chair
for the event and will serve as chair
for the 2014 summit. The summit
brings together lawyers, doctors,
health care professionals and others. He’s also one of the founding
members of the Brehon Law Society
for Greater Cleveland and Northeast
Ohio, a newly formed Irish-American Bar Association.
In his spare time, Mr. Donnelly
coaches both his sons’ baseball
teams. — Timothy Magaw
20131104-NEWS--15-NAT-CCI-CL_--
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
A. STEVEN DEVER
General counsel
Ganley Management Co.
o many folks in the area,
Steve Dever is probably remembered, fondly or otherwise,
for his days as
assistant Cuyahoga County
prosecutor. But
since fall 2010,
Mr. Dever has
served as general
counsel to the
Brecksville-based Ganley Auto
Group, an association of independently operated automobile dealerships and Ohio’s largest automotive retailer.
“Coming to our industry is a little bit of a switch for him, but he
has managed to do it seamlessly,”
said CEO Kenneth Ganley, who has
been Mr. Dever’s boss for the last
three years.
As general counsel, Mr. Dever is
Ganley’s chief legal adviser relating
to a wide variety of matters regarding litigation, acquisitions, regulatory issues, employment matters, risk
management and consumer affairs.
But given that the auto business
is fairly litigious, Mr. Dever’s experience as a trial lawyer also has
come in more than a little handy,
Mr. Ganley said.
“His plate’s very full, because
not only does Steve handle all
of our transaction work and
litigation, but he also oversees our
human resources,” Mr. Ganley
said.
That’s no small bit of work either,
given that the chain of dealerships
has more than 1,300 employees.
In addition, Mr. Dever assists in
the expansion of the Ganley automotive brand by implementing
strategies for better employee train-
T
ELIZABETH EVANS
Vice president; general counsel;
secretary
Republic Steel
lizabeth
Evans
only has
been
with Republic
Steel for a year
and a half, but the vice president,
general counsel and secretary already has made a big difference at
the steel manufacturer.
“As the first general counsel for
the company, Elizabeth created
the legal department from
scratch,” the nomination said.
“In the process, she decreased
the company’s legal expenses by
more than $1 million in less than
12 months. She created numerous
policies and procedures designed
to help the company minimize its
risk and exposure to liability,” according to the nomination. “Elizabeth also successfully settled an
outstanding preference case that
had been going on for more than
six years and has settled a handful
of smaller legal issues before they
grew into litigation matters, thus
saving the company money and
minimizing negative publicity.”
The nomination noted that Ms.
Evans was both the company’s first
general counsel and the first woman
to become an executive at Republic
Steel. Michael Humphrey, the vice
president of supply chain management and security at Republic Steel,
confirmed that was the case, at least
since the company’s new ownership took over in 2005.
Mr. Humphrey said the company decided it was more cost effective to bring its legal affairs inside.
Ms. Evans said the cuts to the legal
expenses added up to more than
E
10/31/2013
1:37 PM
Page 1
ing and policies for the workplace.
“With his experience he has
been able to be more effective in
representing Ganley Automotive
Group before regulatory agencies.
On risk mitigation, he has become
actively involved in developing
corporate policies and procedures
in the areas of consumer sales
practices, human resources and
compliance. He is actively involved
in the structure, planning, and financing of new acquisitions,” Mr.
Ganley wrote in nominating his
top attorney for this year’s General
Counsel awards.
But one of the qualities Mr.
Ganley said he values the most in
his lawyer is Mr. Dever’s integrity.
His boss has grown to trust him
so much that Mr. Dever not only
works on dealership issues, but
handles family and estate planning
for the Ganley family, Mr. Ganley
said.
Yet, Mr. Dever still finds time for
plenty of outside work. He serves
on the board of directors for the
Lake Erie Energy Development
Corporation (LEEDCo), a regional
nonprofit economic development
organization formed to build an
offshore wind power industry in
Northeast Ohio. LEEDCo’s mission
is to create employment, drive
economic prosperity, generate
clean energy and expand Ohio’s
electricity portfolio.
He brings a slew of honors from
his past position as a prosecutor
to the job as well — lest anyone
question his lawyering skills.
Mr. Dever has been recognized
by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the Inspector
General of the Department of
Housing and Urban Development
for his efforts in the pursuit of
justice, Mr. Ganley noted.
— Dan Shingler
50% of the company’s outside legal
spending. Ms. Evans said Republic
Steel had been a client when she
was an attorney at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP and
that the company sparked her interest. The Cleveland-Marshall
College of Law graduate worked at
Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP prior
to her time at Benesch.
At Republic Steel, Ms. Evans
manages all the legal aspects of the
company, including managing the
two in-house attorneys she hired
and all outside attorneys. In addition to her responsibilities with the
legal department, Ms. Evans also is
the vice president of labor relations, human resources and environmental health and safety. Mr.
Humphrey said those departments
are highly regulated, and it just
made sense to have Ms. Evans
oversee them to make sure the
company is in compliance, as well.
Ms. Evans said the executive officers at the company are enthusiastic
about bringing change to the company, which can trace its roots back
more than 125 years. It can be a challenge, but it’s a lot of fun, she said.
“It’s a very ambitious, energetic
executive team. And everyone works
well together,” Ms. Evans said.
Mr. Humphrey called Ms. Evans
a “sharp” and “no-nonsense”
leader who is effective in and out
of the legal department. She has a
“keen ability to manage,” he said,
and she’s fun to be around.
Outside of her work at Republic
Steel, Ms. Evans serves on the
board of directors for City Year
Cleveland and the board of directors for the Cleveland chapter of
the Association for Corporate
Growth. She also is a founding
member, board member and president of Young ACG Cleveland. —
Rachel Abbey McCafferty
KEVIN BROKAW
Director of development; general
counsel
Geis Cos.
K
evin
Brokaw
does not
wear a
hard hat for his
job, but his role
is as essential on
building projects and developments by Streetsboro-based Geis
Cos. as that of the construction
workers who do.
As general counsel for the Geis
family-owned concern, Mr.
Brokaw works with the 90-person
firm’s other professionals in
putting together projects from site
selection and acquisition to financing and construction as well
as any claims that may occur in
the litigation-intensive construction business. He developed the
in-house counsel office when he
joined the company in 2009 and
also coordinates legal work farmed
out to outside counsel.
While Geis has achieved a new
level of prominence this year with
The 9, a $200 million conversion of
the onetime 21-story Ameritrust
Corp. skyscraper to a hotel, apartments and retail uses, and construction of a new Cuyahoga
County headquarters building, Mr.
Brokaw also enjoys working on the
CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS 15
smaller build-to-suit industrial
projects that have been the firm’s
bread and butter for decades.
“It’s exciting to work on a little bit
of both,” Mr. Brokaw said. “Ameritrust is a game-changer for the city.
It is taking something that was a
black eye for the city and helping
create a positive for the city. In our
niche as a build-to-suit industrial
contractor, those are the projects
that bring jobs into the state.”
Mr. Brokaw achieved a lifelong
goal earlier this year when Geis
gave him the added title of director of development in addition to
general counsel.
“The goal for me always has
been to move the meter from law
to general business. That evolved
here over time,” Mr. Brokaw said.
That goal ran deep, for Mr.
Brokaw feels it’s the kind of law his
father, Glenn Brokaw, practiced in
a long career that included a job as
general counsel at the old First
Union Real Estate Corp., a publicly
traded Real Estate Investment
Trust based in Cleveland until the
1980s. He also equipped himself
for it by going through the dual
track law and MBA program at
Cleveland State University.
Mr. Brokaw had substantial
construction law experience before he joined Geis with stints for
retail developers such as Doppco
Development Co. of Pepper Pike
and Cedarwood Cos. of Akron. He
served as a lawyer for the Akron
Metropolitan Housing Authority
and ran his own firm before he
joined Geis.
He also put in his time learning
the nuts and bolts and paperwork
side of law practice, working in estate planning and product liability
for Wegman, Hessler and Vanderburg in Independence immediately after getting his law degree from
the Cleveland-Marshall College of
Law as well as a stint at Levy &
Dubyak, a Beachwood law firm
that represents many Northeast
Ohio realty developers and property owners.
Jack Waldeck, chairman of the
real estate unit at the Walter &
Haverfield LLP law firm, said Mr.
Brokaw’s visibility in the Northeast
Ohio legal community has risen
dramatically the past few years as
Geis entered the urban market with
projects in MidTown and downtown Cleveland from the suburbs.
“He knows what he needs on
behalf of his clients,” Mr. Waldeck
said. “He also has a parallel skill
set on the financial side to understand projections and forecasts.”
Mr. Brokaw said he knows
where he will find his opportunities and challenges in the future:
continuing to work with brothers
Fred and Greg Geis as they push to
make the regional developer a nationally known real estate concern. — Stan Bullard
From your friends and colleagues at
Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio
Congratulations
Emily Smayda Kelly
and all of the
finalists for the
2013 General & In-House
Counsel Awards.
Thank you
for your leadership
and commitment to
our employees.
216-931-1400
VNAohio.org
20131104-NEWS--16-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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1:36 PM
Page 1
CHRIS MASON
General counsel;
director of contracting
Clinical Research Management Inc.
hen Chris Mason
joined Clinical Research Management 15
years ago, the Medina
County company had fewer than
40 employees.
Now, the firm — a full-service
contract research organization
that supports clinical research and
clinical trial services for biologics,
drugs and devices — has 370 workers.
In the last 18 months, Mr. Mason’s “invaluable experience, advice and expertise has led to the
award of four large government
contracts with ceilings” of more
than $125 million, according to the
nomination.
Wayne Mosley, ClinicalRM’s
chief financial officer, said the contracts involve clinical trials with
the National Institutes of Health,
along with basic and applied research for the U.S. military.
“As one of the first points of contact, Mr. Mason is integral in maintaining positive relationships with
ClinicalRM’s customers,” the nomination said. “This has facilitated
growth on current contracts and
the re-awarding of expiring contracts.”
Mr. Mason’s efforts have helped
ClinicalRM increase its net income
W
by 43% in the
last two years,
the nomination
said.
“We are
proud to have
Chris as part of
our leadership
team,” Mr.
Mosley said. “His leadership and
management skills benefit the firm
on a daily basis. He is ethical,
strategic and innovative, serving as
an invaluable resource for every
function and person at ClinicalRM.”
Mr. Mosley cited Mr. Mason’s
“extraordinary analytical abilities”
as a big reason for his success.
Mr. Mason helped lead the development of ClinicalRM’s strategic plan, and he’s directly involved
in key strategy sessions on business growth.
Mr. Mosley said ClinicalRM’s
“corporate success and excellent
relationships with clients are a direct result of having Chris Mason
as part” of its team.
Mr. Mason has been a volunteer
for the Hudson Kiwanis Little
League as an assistant coach the
last four years.
He also supports the Brunswick
Salvation Army by sponsoring its
“angel campaign” during the holiday season. Mr. Mason donates
funds, and he shops for children
and families in need.
— Kevin Kleps
SHERYL KING BENFORD
General counsel; deputy general
manager for legal affairs
Greater Cleveland
Regional Transit Authority
hile she might prefer to
be recognized for the
legal work that has
cleared the way for
RTA’s new rapid transit stations or
for being one of Cleveland-Marshall
College of Law’s alumni of the year
in 2004 along with the late NBC
“Meet the Press” moderator Tim
Russert, public transit riders and
pedestrians regularly interact with
Ms. Benford when they hear her
voice say, “Caution, bus turning.”
As, literally, the voice of RTA,
she adds a cautionary admonition
to the transit system’s safety effort,
said the nomination from RTA
general manager Joe Calabrese.
More substantively, he notes that
the RTA safety program Ms. Benford leads has won bus safety
awards from the American Public
W
MATTHEW HEINLE
Executive vice president;
general counsel
Mercy Medical Center
atthew Heinle has more
than a few things to
keep track of as general
counsel for Mercy Medical Center in Canton.
M
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FREDERICK G. STUEBER
on winning the Lifetime Achievement Award
attorneys at law hahnlaw.com
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Transit Association for the last
three years.
At RTA, Ms.
Benford supervises 35 employees, including
nine attorneys,
in the legal, risk
management and safety departments and the Office of Equal Opportunity. The legal department’s
work focuses on contracts, real estate and civil litigation and employment, labor and civil rights disputes.
The civil litigation has probably the
highest profile since it often involves
a defense of the agency when a bus
is involved in a traffic accident.
“Sheryl is a trusted adviser
whose candor, intellect and judgment are invaluable,” the nomination said. “Sheryl leads not by her
rank or through intimidation, but
by wise and effective listening,
communication and action.”
A key part of her job in the last
two years has involved the transit
system’s real estate acquisition
and construction program. That
has included legal work for relocating a rapid transit station from
Euclid Avenue to Little Italy and
for the rehabilitation of the CedarUniversity and the BuckeyeWoodland rapid stations.
Ms. Benford got her first taste of
RTA’s legal work when she served
as associate counsel from 1991 to
1992, wrapping up work on the
construction of Tower City station.
Before that she was an assistant
law director for the city of Cleveland. She returned to RTA as general counsel in 2000 after eight
years as director of law for the city
of Shaker Heights.
In the mid-1980s, she got her
first taste of civil litigation working
for the Cleveland law firm of Bailey,
Benford & Associates, where she
met her late husband Ronald Benford. Before graduating from law
school in 1979 she was a teacher
and principal in the East Cleveland
school district. — Jay Miller
More, say,
than general
counsels who
have to deal
with contracts,
lawsuits, corporate governance
and the other
more typical legal issues that corporate attorneys,
including Mr. Heinle, have to deal
with every day.
“There’s medical staff issues
dealing with credentialing, peerreview processes — Matt has to be
up on all of that,” says his boss,
CEO Thomas Cecconi.
Then there are the human resources issues — Mercy has nearly
2,400 employees and Mr. Heinle is
actively involved in HR issues as
well, Mr. Cecconi said.
And, of course, there are a slew
of federal and state health care
laws and regulations.
There are organization-specific
projects as well, such as in 2010
when Mercy successfully challenged rival Aultman Health Foundation’s practice of paying insurance brokers to steer clients to
Aultman’s insurance company.
Mr. Heinle oversaw those efforts
as well, including getting the verdict against Aultman upheld by
the Ohio Court of Appeals and the
Ohio Supreme Court.
But Mr. Heinle does all of that
and more, his boss says.
“I do like him very, very much,”
Mr. Cecconi said. “I think he does
an absolutely outstanding job at
MMC and he’s also involved to a
certain degree with some of the legal concerns of our health system,
Sisters of Charity Health System in
Cleveland as well.”
But one of the things Mr. Cecconi likes best about his main
lawyer is the fact that Mr. Heinle
finds ways to get things done. It’s
easy to find a lawyer to tell you
why you can’t do something, but
what executives more often need
to know is how they can get something done, Mr. Cecconi said.
Mr. Cecconi actually hired Mr.
Heinle, who he already knew from
his days in private practice. In the
five years since, he’s only become
more convinced he got the right
guy, Mr. Cecconi said.
“It’s not an easy job that he has,
either,” Mr. Cecconi attests.
Others agree, including Baker &
Hostetler partner Daniel Warren,
who nominated Mr. Heinle for this
year’s general counsel recognition.
“My dad spent more than four
decades as the general counsel of a
large company, so I know how rare
the qualities are that make for greatness in that difficult position,” Mr.
Warren wrote. “Matt Heinle possesses every one of those qualities ...
When I look back on my career of 30
years, I feel that one of the very best
experiences I have had was working
closely with Matt Heinle.”
— Dan Shingler
20131104-NEWS--17-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
1:25 PM
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
STEVE EISENBERG
Vice president; general counsel
AssuraMed
teve Eisenberg has not even
been on the job for two
years as general counsel for
Twinsburg-based AssuraMed, a national medical supply
distribution company.
But he’s already made a mark,
as well as some fans at the company — including CEO Michael Petras, who nominated Mr. Eisenberg for this year’s recognition.
“We have grown rapidly over the
past decade, and approximately two
years ago embarked on a search for
our first general counsel. We were
looking for someone who not only
could facilitate the growth and help
us proactively manage risks that
come with growth, particularly in
the health care industry, but someone who understood the business of
health care. … Steve has exceeded
our expectations,” Mr. Petras wrote
in nominating his main lawyer.
“Since joining the company 18
months ago, AssuraMed, like the
S
JOHN C. ORLANDO JR.
General counsel;
director of operations
Orlando Baking Co.
ohn C. Orlando Jr. had other
options. Mr. Orlando was
practicing law for a firm in
Cleveland in 2008, when he
joined Orlando
Baking Co.
In other
words, John Anthony Orlando
knows that he
shouldn’t take
his younger
cousin’s presence for granted.
“We’re glad he came and joined
the family business,” he said.
As general counsel and director
of operations for the 140-year-old
bakery, John C. Orlando Jr. has a
broad range of responsibilities.
Sure, he handles your typical
lawyer stuff, such as negotiating
contracts, setting policies and procedures, and working with outside
counsel. But Orlando Baking’s human resources staff also reports to
Mr. Orlando, who created the procedures used to train the company’s 400 employees.
Plus, he does a lot of other work
related to the company’s day-today operations, according to John
Anthony Orlando. In general, he
helps make sure things get done,
J
Page 1
health care industry, has undergone many
changes, and
Steve’s leadership during this
period has been
instrumental to
the success associated with these changes,” Mr.
Petras continued.
Mr. Eisenberg was, of course, not
stepping into a fully functional legal
department as AssuraMed’s first inhouse general counsel. So he had to
learn the company’s business while
setting a department up — and he
did it seamlessly, Mr. Petras said.
Then, he quickly became a trusted
adviser to the CEO and the rest of
the company’s executive team.
After that, Mr. Eisenberg went to
work helping the company with
several key initiatives.
“Steve was a key player in the
team that renegotiated our freight
transportation contract. Most of
our supplies are delivered directly
to the home, so freight is a major
component of our business. The
new agreement achieved significant long-term savings while maintaining service levels across our distribution network,” Mr. Petras said.
“Additionally, Steve was instrumental in negotiating both the
purchase of a major software
package and an implementation
agreement that will lead to a completely new website providing an
enhanced online experience for
our customers,” he added.
Mr. Eisenberg’s accomplishments also have included increasing productivity by implementing
a contract database that allowed
the company to monitor and track
key milestones in its customer
contracts, while at the same time
working to strengthen AssuraMed’s
relationships with its own vendors,
Mr. Petras said.
And all of that was just the light
lifting — in the past six months, Mr.
Eisenberg has helped AssuraMed go
through a refinancing of its own
business, the acquisition of another
company and, finally, the acquisitions of AssuraMed itself by
Cardinal Health. — Dan Shingler
“from making the bread to packing the bread and shipping it out,”
said his older cousin, who is executive vice president of operations.
John C. is good at both the legal
and operational sides of his job: On
the legal side, he has “participated
in the negotiation of major union
contracts that resulted in significant
savings to the company, ultimately
benefiting both the company and
its employees,” the nomination
said. He also is involved in planning
efforts related to an ongoing expansion project at the company’s headquarters on East 79th Street in Cleveland.
On the operational end, “Mr. Orlando has spearheaded initiatives
designed to reduce unnecessary or
unproductive employee overtime
and improve profitability,” the
nomination said. He also has led efforts “to increase efficiency in the
plant and reduce waste, which has
increased the company’s profits,”
according to the nomination.
Mr. Orlando — who reports to his
father, co-CEO John C. Orlando Sr.,
as well as John Anthony Orlando —
graduated from St. Ignatius High
School in 1996 before going on to
earn his bachelor’s in financial
management from Ohio State University in 2001. Along the way, he
spent some summers working at
Orlando Baking, John Anthony said.
John C. started working for the
law firm Climaco, Wilcox, Peca,
Tarantino & Garofoli in 2003. After
earning his law degree in 2005, he
stayed on with Climaco until 2008.
John Anthony said he isn’t surprised at how thorough his cousin
is, given his legal background.
“He’s very detailed in the work
that he does,” Mr. Orlando said.
— Chuck Soder
PlayhouseSquare’s staff and trustees
congratulate Patty Gaul and
all of the General and In House Counsel
Award finalists.
PlayhouseSquare... a world-class performing arts center,
arts education champion and downtown developer
playhousesquare.org
JOHN WARREN
Assistant general counsel
hen Harlin Adelman
first met John Warren,
Mr. Warren was interviewing for a position
as a law clerk.
Mr. Adelman, who is vice president and general counsel for University Hospitals, believed then
that Mr. Warren would be a good
addition to the staff — and it looks
like those instincts were correct.
“He’s very unassuming … he
didn’t toot his own horn,” he said.
More than six years later, Mr.
Warren now works as assistant
general counsel in UH’s 35-person
corporate legal service department, which includes 15 attorneys.
He splits his time between a
number of areas, and his work has
included serving as a liaison for outside ERISA (Employee Retirement
Income Security Act) counsel.
According to the nomination, Mr.
Warren over a three-year period reduced UH’s outside counsel legal
spend on benefit matters by more
than 50%, saving UH more than
$500,000 per year on legal costs.
Additionally, Mr. Warren works
on the recruitment side, including
acting as lead attorney for the new
department chairs of ophthalmology and genetics and a new
division chief of cardiothoracic
surgery.
W
Mr. Adelman
said that in both
of these areas,
Mr. Warren has
worked to become a subject
matter expert,
and in doing so,
has earned respect among his
peers and UH’s senior leadership.
“You don’t need a position of authority or fancy title to be a leader,”
said Mr. Adelman, who describes
Mr. Warren as a terrific communicator, low-key, low-maintenance
and highly motivated.
“There’s no ego about this guy,”
he said.
Mr. Warren served in the U.S.
Army Reserves from 1999 to 2007.
In 2003, he served active duty in
support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and was deployed to both
Iraq and Kuwait. He is an active
member of the community, volunteering in his church, Divine Word
Catholic Church in Kirtland.
“Through his exemplary work, he
has successfully built trust in his relationships with clients and colleagues by consistently treating
them with dignity, respect and fairness,” Mr. Adelman said in a letter
accompanying Mr. Warren’s nomination. “John has also assumed responsibility for helping others in the
organization to strengthen specific
knowledge and skill areas and model behaviors essential to UH values.”
— Amy Ann Stoessel
20131104-NEWS--18-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/31/2013
2:54 PM
Page 1
PATRICIA GAUL
Senior vice president;
general counsel; CFO
PlayhouseSquare Foundation
aybe this will give you a
sense of Patricia Gaul’s
versatility: In 2008, she
was
featured in
Crain’s CFO of
the Year section
for her efforts to
keep PlayhouseSquare’s budget
balanced and to
manage the financing of multiple construction
projects.
But she’s also a great general
counsel, according to Art Falco,
president and CEO of the downtown Cleveland institution.
“It would be very difficult to replace her,” he said.
She took a job at PlayhouseSquare as its financial controller
back in 1984, after working in the
U.S. Senate offices of Sens. Edward
Kennedy and Bill Bradley. That
was roughly six months before Mr.
Falco came on board.
While working at Playhouse, she
earned her J.D. from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law., immediately giving the institution an
in-house lawyer who also happened to have an accounting degree from Georgetown University.
Ms. Gaul’s legal skills have been
particularly valuable as PlayhouseSquare has expanded its real estate
portfolio in downtown Cleveland,
according to Mr. Falco. Doing so required establishing multiple new
limited liability corporations, applying for all sorts of state and federal tax credits and working with
more specialized legal experts at
outside firms, he noted.
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JENNIFER M. GRIVEAS
Director of legal affairs
Eliza Jennings
n-house lawyers have long
had a reputation for telling
their colleagues what they
can’t do.
Not Jennifer
Griveas. Instead,
the director of
legal affairs at
Eliza Jennings is
known for being
welcoming and
funny, according
to Deborah Lewis Hiller, president
and CEO of the nonprofit, which
provides services for the elderly.
Her colleagues know that they
can ask her legal questions without
feeling like she’s wearing a badge,
Ms. Hiller said.
“Jen is exceptionally talented in
that regard,” she said.
Those interpersonal skills may
have come in handy for Eliza Jennings. Since coming on board in
April 2011, Ms. Griveas has helped
the nonprofit develop a better relationship with the Service Employees International Union. She’s got
some expertise in labor relations,
too, having previously provided
employment counseling for corporate and nonprofit clients.
She’s also done a lot to help employees throughout the Eliza Jennings network work together to
better manage legal risks the organization could face — from customers, employees or government
regulators — if the organization
doesn’t do its job correctly. She
promoted networkwide best practices to staff at multiple sites
throughout the organization and
helped teach the organization’s
leaders how they can look for ways
to identify risks and manage them.
It helped that she’s not afraid of
I
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NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
She was a big contributor to
PlayhouseSquare’s recent effort to
renovate the Allen Theatre complex. The $54 million project involved refurbishing three theaters
and buying the nearby Middough
Building on East 13th Street. Ms.
Gaul helped secure tax credits and
bank financing to support the project, according to the nomination.
Beyond the legal issues related
to securing real estate, as PlayhouseSquare’s CFO, Ms. Gaul also
helps make sure those properties
don’t disrupt the institution’s budget. Thus, she helps approve tenants, set rental rates and come up
with financial projections related
to the properties, Mr. Falco said.
That project is “just the tip of the
iceberg as she continues to push
for excellence in all areas of the
PSF portfolio,” the nomination
said.
She also makes sure that the organization’s performances “pay
their way as best as possible,” according to the nomination.
Ms. Gaul embraces the artistic
mission of PlayhouseSquare as
well as efforts to improve its theaters and the neighborhood that
surrounds the institution, which
has about 100 employees and $60
million in annual revenue, according to the nomination.
“There are few who could provide the legal and business knowledge and service to make this happen, and Patty is phenomenal at
it,” the nomination said.
Ms. Gaul is a member of the audit committee for both the Downtown Cleveland Alliance and the
Greater Cleveland Partnership.
Mr. Falco described her as
“incredibly talented.”
“She’s very intelligent. She’s a
great team player,” he said.
— Chuck Soder
Eliza Jennings’ information technology department. She worked
with IT staff “to create a database
that allows the risk management
team to analyze raw incident data
to identify risk trends more easily,”
the nomination said.
Ms. Griveas also was a key member of the team that negotiated a
partnership with the Kumon Institute of Education in Japan, the
nomination said. That 2010 deal
allowed Eliza Jennings to use SAIDO Learning, a non-pharmaceutical method used to treat
Alzheimer’s and dementia, and license it to other elder care service
providers in the United States,
according to the nomination.
Now Ms. Griveas is trained in the
SAIDO Learning method. Each
week, she conducts the therapy with
Eliza Jennings residents on a volunteer basis. She also helps train other
employees to provide the therapy.
Ms. Griveas studied journalism
at Kent State University and was a
design editor at Crain’s Cleveland
Business. She earned her law degree in 2005 from the ClevelandMarshall College of Law, and spent
the next five years at Frantz Ward
LLP in Cleveland.
She also volunteers outside of
Eliza Jennings. Ms. Griveas is a new
lawyer mentor through the Ohio
Supreme Court’s Lawyer to Lawyer
program. In addition, she belongs to
the Citizens League of Greater Cleveland, the Friends of Lakewood Public
Library and the Lakewood High
School Alumni Association (she’s editor of the alumni newsletter).
Also worth noting: At the start of
2014, she’ll receive what Ms. Hiller
described as a “very well-deserved”
promotion. Ms. Griveas will be
named vice president of legal affairs.
“She has been certainly an
incredibly talented lawyer,”
Ms. Hiller said. — Chuck Soder
20131104-NEWS--19-NAT-CCI-CL_--
10/31/2013
2:54 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
DUFFIELD E. MILKIE
Corporate vice president; general
counsel and corporate secretary
Cedar Fair LP
D
uffield E. Milkie is the
only attorney for Cedar
Fair, one of the largest
amusement park operators in the world.
Mr. Milkie’s seemingly daunting
task was made even more challenging by the March 2008 timing
of his arrival in Sandusky — which
was shortly before the financial
crisis struck and a legal battle began with an activist hedge fund.
Apollo Global Management, a
private equity firm, bid $11.50 a
share in an effort to take over
Cedar Fair in December 2009. Investors voted down the buyout,
and the company’s share price has
increased 30% in the last 10
months.
The hedge fund “pursued combative strategies that threatened to
distract from the hard work and
long-term focus required to move
the company past the hardships
visited on the industry by the (financial) crisis,” the nomination
said. “Dealing with that activist and
making peace were of paramount
importance to the company moving
forward, and Duff was right at the
center of those discussions.
“Duff’s steady leadership in the
midst of those challenging events
SHANNON FOGARTY JERSE
Deputy general counsel
Sisters of Charity Health System
hannon Fogarty Jerse’s years
of community and professional involvement are tied
to the Sisters of Charity
Health System’s mission and ministry, said Terrence Kessler, its interim president and CEO.
Ms. Jerse, the deputy general
counsel at the health system, was
part of Cuyahoga County’s Child
Protection Coalition for three years,
where she said she helped set policy on topics like how sexual abuse
investigations should be run.
Her experience in health care and
sexual abuse-related issues led to
her work with the Catholic Diocese
of Cleveland Review Board that was
created by the “Policy for the Safety
of Children in Matters of Sexual
Abuse.” She spent seven years on
the board and was also on the investigations committee and served as
chair of the search committee.
S
helped steer the
company
through the
most tumultuous time in its
history,” the
nomination
continued.
Cedar Fair — which owns 11
amusement parks, including
Cedar Point — recently announced that its 2013 revenues
through Sept. 1 were $927 million,
an increase of 6% from the like period a year ago.
“His stable demeanor and measured voice during the turmoil,
and since, have been a key contributing factor to Cedar Fair’s
continued, successful growth,” the
nomination said of Mr. Milkie.
In the last 10 months, Mr. Milkie
led two significant dispositions —
negotiating the sale of Knott’s
Soak City in San Diego to Sea
World Parks & Entertainment, and
leading a deal to sell Knott’s Soak
City in Palm Springs, Calif., to CNL
Lifestyle Properties.
“The sale of these non-core assets generated $30 million in cash,
which is forming the backbone of
a plan to invest increased capital
in Northeast Ohio, including the
refurbishment of Hotel Breakers at
Cedar Point,” the nomination said.
Mr. Milkie also led talks with the
San Francisco 49ers, which led to
an agreement in which the NFL
“Shannon is
well-versed in
her field and has
participated in
numerous pro
bono and volunteer activities
throughout her
25-year legal career,” the nomination said. “She
has dedicated considerable volunteer time to matters involving child
welfare and safety, and has integrated her scholarly work with pro
bono efforts designed to serve and
protect children and women at
risk.”
Ms. Jerse worked at Clevelandbased Arter & Hadden, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals before coming to Sisters of
Charity, the parent organization of
five Catholic hospitals, including
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center
in Cleveland, and other foundations, organizations and health
care facilities.
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team is allowed to use a portion of
the parking lot at Cedar Fair’s
Great America amusement park in
Santa Clara, Calif., for the construction of a parking facility at its
new stadium.
“The deal,” according to the
nomination, “provided a new revenue source for Cedar Fair and allowed it to build a new signature
roller coaster at Great America
that has driven increased attendance at the park.”
Mr. Milkie steered the process of
interviewing and vetting each of
Cedar Fair’s nine new board members, leading to an “exceptional”
leadership team, the nomination
said.
Known as the “Mayor of Sandusky,” Mr. Milkie is a “personable
friend to the community and a
committed family man,” according to the nomination.
Mr. Milkie is active with several
schools in the Sandusky area, including St. Mary’s, where his four
children attend, and Bellevue High
School, his alma mater. He is a coach
and mentor, and he helps both
schools with fundraising efforts.
Mr. Milkie also has served on
multiple civic boards and community organizations. He is a current
member of the board of trustees for
the Sandusky Area YMCA, and a
member of the boards of directors
at Firelands Regional Medical Center and St. Mary’s. — Kevin Kleps
ASHLEE WEBSTER
Corporate attorney
GCA Services Group
A
shlee Webster always
knew she wanted to eventually
practice
law on the corporate side.
“That was my
ultimate goal,”
said Ms. Webster, who earned
her bachelor’s
degree in business management
from North Carolina State University. “I kind of like being on the
same team.”
Ms. Webster is a corporate attorney for the commercial side at
GCA Services Group, a position she
has held since March.
Cleveland-based GCA Services
Group is a national provider of facility services. It has more than
32,000 employees in 47 states,
Washington, D.C., and Puerto
Rico.
At GCA, Ms. Webster’s work runs
the gamut, including drafting and
reviewing contracts and anything
that comes up in the commercial
division. “There’s no telling what’s
going to come across my desk,”
she said.
Ms. Webster is described by
Samuel Knezevic, GCA corporate
vice president and general counsel, as a “glass half-full” kind of
person.
“She’s delightful to work with;
she’s always positive and upbeat,”
he said. “She’s a fine corporate
lawyer … she’s probably more
experienced beyond her years.”
Prior to starting work at GCA,
Ms. Webster was general counsel
and director of human resources at
Climax Metal Products in Mentor,
where she started in August 2011,
and she worked for a North
Carolina law firm as well.
“Ashlee’s contributions to Climax Metal Products are considered exemplary for a professional
with less than 10 years of experience because of the array of challenges she faces on a day-to-day
basis,” said a nomination submitted in 2012 for Ms. Webster and
her work at Climax. “She is an extremely hard worker and is committed to protecting and fighting
for our company. She is always
willing to put forth extra effort and
is making a difference in our company.”
A North Carolina native, Ms.
Webster received her J.D. from
North Carolina Central University
School of Law. She recently
became a member of the board for
the Northern Ohio Hemophilia
Foundation.
— Amy Ann Stoessel
20131104-NEWS--20-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
EMILY SMAYDA KELLY
General counsel; chief human
resources officer
Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio
E
mily Smayda Kelly has
made a big difference in
the culture at the Visiting
Nurse Association of Ohio
in the two years since she joined
the staff as the nonprofit’s first
general counsel and chief human
resources officer.
“While she has been a terrific
asset to the HR department, her
role as general counsel at the VNA
has helped transform the organization from a historic ‘we/they’
culture to an ‘us’ culture. Ultimately, this has improved employee retention and enabled us to deliver higher quality services to our
patients and clients,” the nomination said.
The Visiting Nurse Association
of Ohio, whose members provide
home and hospice care to patients, serves 28 counties. In about
16 of those, the direct care nurses
are part of either the Ohio Nurses
Association or the Service Employees International Union. President
and CEO Claire Zangerle said that
Ms. Kelly has been instrumental in
bringing labor and management
together and putting the mission
of the organization at the forefront.
“It’s a delicate dance that she
1:29 PM
Page 1
dances well,”
Ms. Zangerle
said.
In Ms. Kelly’s
role as general
counsel, she
leads all labor
contracts. In the
two years since Ms. Kelly joined
the association, the number of
grievances filed by the unions to
management has decreased by
about 60%, Ms. Zangerle said.
Ms. Kelly has experience in the
public, private and corporate sectors. She said she started her career with the city of Cleveland in
the labor and employment section, and then she worked on the
labor side of the aisle for Wuliger,
Fadel & Beyer LLC and Tradesmen
International. She also had a brief
stint at Goldstein Gragel LLC.
“Having served both labor and
management in her legal career,
Emily brings that perspective to
the VNA which allows for tighter
compromises and understanding
of issues on both sides,” the nomination said. “Whether it is negotiating labor contracts, handling
sensitive employee issues or ensuring the organization manages
its risk, Emily brings a level of creativity to this nonprofit organization that it has not seen in its 111
years of existence.”
Ms. Kelly said that she was
drawn to the Visiting Nurse Asso-
ciation because she personally valued home care after experiencing
a difficult labor with her child.
“I came to a part of my career
that I wanted to give back to the
community, as well,” she said.
Ms. Zangerle praised Ms. Kelly’s
creativity tempered with realism,
and said that she understands that
health care isn’t always straightforward.
“She does understand that the
world of health care can sometimes be a gray world,” Ms.
Zangerle said.
Ms. Kelly is also responsible for
the human resources responsibilities in the association, from hiring
to benefits to organizational development.
Outside of work, she is very involved in the community, including with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the In-House
Employment Attorney Roundtable, the alumni association at
the Cleveland-Marshall College of
Law and the board at the Early
Childhood Enrichment Center in
Shaker Heights.
A former competitive ice skater,
Ms. Kelly also teaches ice skating
to children and adults in Shaker
Heights and Cleveland Heights.
She said she enjoys it as a unique
way to build relationships and network, as well as a way to stay
active. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty
DOUGLAS KORDEL
Chief strategic planning officer;
general counsel
Proforma
hen Proforma is considering adding another
franchise to its more
than
700 current franchises, it relies
on Douglas
Kordel.
When the
company, which
provides backoffice support to
its franchises from its offices in Independence, is considering an acquisition of another’s book of business or a group of would-be
franchise owners, it relies on Mr.
Kordel.
“Almost everything that happens runs through Doug and his
department,” sums up Brian
Smith, president and chief operating officer for Proforma, whose
franchise owners sell print and
promotional products ranging
from apparel to mugs to pens.
“We can’t onboard a franchise
without going through the legal
process that he created,” Mr.
Smith added. “We can’t do an acquisition without understanding
the impact to our franchise disclosure document. That’s why it’s so
gratifying to have someone who
has the great legal mind, but also
the great business mind.”
Mr. Kordel joined Proforma,
which employs roughly 150 people
in Independence, 10 years ago. He
is both the company’s general
counsel and chief strategic planning officer.
Mr. Kordel’s leadership has
helped the company respond well
to a highly regulated and “con-
W
WILLIS WALKER
Vice president; general counsel
Kent State University
illis Walker could be
considered Kent State
University’s Yoda —
the
soft-spoken and
wise Jedi master
from the Star
Wars saga.
At least that’s
how Kent State
president Lester
Lefton characterized Mr. Walker, the university’s
vice president and general counsel, who also serves as one of Dr.
Lefton’s most trusted advisers.
“His deep voice and wise counsel give you a sense that this is a
guy who really knows what’s going
on,” Dr. Lefton said about Mr.
Walker. “It’s in the same way a very
experienced minister, priest or
rabbi does. He can cut through the
legal issues and tell you what’s really going on.”
“Willis is taciturn,” Dr. Lefton
added. “He’s quiet and speaks only
when necessary, but when he
speaks, everyone listens. “
Over the last decade, several major court decisions and an increasingly complicated regulatory landscape have changed the way
universities — both public and private — do business. However, Mr.
Walker, who has been with the university for 15 years, has helped Kent
State keep its finger on all of those
changes. In addition to his legal duties, Mr. Walker also steered Kent
State’s human resources division
for a period of time.
Mr. Walker approaches his legal
work with the sensitivity of a human resources professional, according to Dr. Lefton.
“He also continuously
W
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
stantly changing” franchise environment, according to the nomination. Recent Federal Trade
Commission changes to how a
franchise discloses its prospects,
and the document used for such
disclosure, required a major restructure of Proforma’s franchise
disclosure document, along with
adherence to varied nuances of the
states.
That’s “no small task with Proforma operating in all 50 states,
plus Canada, the United Kingdom
and Ireland,” the nomination said.
And, where it has an international
presence, Mr. Kordel also must
ensure the company meets all
guidelines in foreign countries, as
with Proforma’s expansion into the
United Kingdom and Ireland.
The time Mr. Kordel spends
originating and reviewing merger
and acquisition opportunities “is
hugely important to us,” Mr. Smith
said. This year alone, Proforma will
do 30 to 40 individual transactions,
Mr. Smith projected.
“Proforma’s franchise owners
benefited from the M&A program’s
lead identification, negotiation,
due diligence and deal structure,
as well as its post-acquisition integration,” the nomination said.
Mr. Kordel also has left his mark
in getting the company certified by
the National Women Business
Owners Corp., which opens the
door for franchise owners to earn
their certification, an advantage
when competing for new clients,
and his “advanced use of alternative resolution techniques” has
helped Proforma avoid litigation
“at all levels of the court system —
not a bad track record for a business maintaining $400 million in
sales on an annual basis across
700+ franchise owners,” the nomination said. — Michelle Park
approaches matters with a compassionate lens for the individual
plaintiff issues, which often occur
in higher education litigation,” the
nomination said.
Because of Mr. Walker’s leadership over the past year, in particular, the university’s considerably
small litigation portfolio has seen
several successful outcomes, including a recent case involving
Kent State’s former basketball
coach, Geno Ford.
A Portage County judge, for example, last summer awarded Kent State
$1.2 million after ruling that Mr.
Ford breached his contract in 2011
by leaving to become head coach at
Bradley University in Illinois.
“He’s very strategic,” Dr. Lefton
said. “One of the key things about
Willis is that he really understands
how to keep his eye on the ball.
He’s not distracted.”
Whether the case is large or
small, the nomination said Mr.
Walker applies equal consideration to the university’s position
and interest in each, which is directly reflected in the university’s
successful litigation practices.
As a veteran of the university,
Mr. Walker serves as a professional
mentor to the university’s faculty
and staff, according to the nomination. He also mentors several
students. He regularly attends
charity events on behalf of the university or through his own involvement in extracurricular activities.
Before joining Kent State, Mr.
Walker served as vice president,
general counsel and corporate secretary for Lockheed Martin Idaho
Technologies and was the assistant
chief counsel for Lockheed Martin
Energy Systems. Also, he served as
special counsel for Ohio’s attorney
general and assistant law director
for the city of Chillicothe.
— Timothy Magaw
20131104-NEWS--21-NAT-CCI-CL_--
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
MARILYN TOBOCMAN
Principal assistant attorney
general, civil rights section
Ohio Attorney General’s Office
arilyn Tobocman was
into her fifth decade before she started practicing law. But she’s left
her mark on civil rights law in Ohio
in the two decades since she graduated in 1983 from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland
State University.
Since 1993, Ms. Tobocman has
been with the Ohio Attorney General’s office, where she now is principal assistant attorney general for
civil rights, based in Cleveland. Part
of that job is being counsel to the
Ohio Civil Rights Commission.
Her career includes a decade
with Housing Advocates Inc., a civil rights nonprofit, and with the
law firm of Kramer & Tobocman, a
civil rights law firm.
“Marilyn Tobocman has been
instrumental in providing access
to the justice system for those who
often have been excluded,” the
nomination from Diane Citrino, a
shareholder in the Cleveland law
firm of Thacker Matinsek LPA,
said. “She has an unwavering passion for civil rights and justice.”
Ms. Citrino worked with Ms. Tobocman when Ms. Citrino was regional director of the Ohio Civil
Rights Commission for the Akron
region from 2003 to 2007.
Though her career began with a
private practice that specialized in
housing discrimination, Ms. Tobocman has broadened her efforts
to help defend the rights of women
and the disabled.
Ms. Citrino believes that Ms.
M
Jerse
Ms. Jerse said she always had
her eye on St. Vincent and that her
goal was to work at the faith-based
organization where she serves as
general counsel. She said she enjoys the people she works with and
the organization’s rich tradition.
Ms. Jerse has been with the health
system for about four years. In that
time, the organization has moved
from primarily keeping paper files to
using a contract database that Ms.
Jerse implemented and oversees.
Ms. Jerse is also the general counsel for the St. Vincent Charity Development Foundation as part of her
work with St. Vincent Medical Cen-
11/1/2013
11:54 AM
Page 1
Tobocman’s
work has been
instrumental in
the way companies do business
in Ohio.
One of the
biggest cases of
Ms. Tobocman’s
career with the attorney general’s
office came in 2003 when she was
a member of the legal team that
won a $4.3 million settlement
against Farmers Insurance, which
had been accused of red-lining, or
discriminating, against the owners
of older homes in select neighborhoods in the Toledo area.
That case led to changes in company policy.
Ms. Citrino and Ms. Tobocman
teamed up in 2009 when the Ohio
Civil Rights Commission agreed to
assist the Housing Research & Advocacy Center in Cleveland in a lawsuit
against the K&D Group and others
responsible for design and construction of the Stonebridge apartments
and condominiums in Cleveland’s
Flats. The suit asked for changes to
bring the project into compliance
with state accessibility laws. In 2011,
a settlement was reached with the
building owner agreeing to make alterations to the properties.
Ms. Tobocman speaks regularly
on civil rights issues in housing
and real estate and has been an
adjunct professor of law at Cleveland-Marshall working in the Fair
Housing Law Clinic.
Ms. Tobocman was a volunteer
for several organizations, including the League of Women Voters
and Housing Advocates in the
years leading up to her decision to
go to law school. — Jay Miller
ter. She is responsible for contractual matters and governance issues at
all three, said Mr. Kessler, who is
also the general counsel for the Sisters of Charity Health System.
Mr. Kessler said Ms. Jerse has a
good sense of when to check in
with him and when to take the
lead. She’s bright and easy to work
with, he added.
“She’s got a great sparkle,” he
said.
Outside of work, Ms. Jerse spends
time with her family — she has four
children, ages 10 to 20 — and volunteers at Our Lady of the Lake
School Steering Committee and
Our Lady of the Lake Endowment
Committee. Her husband, Ed Jerse,
is a former state representative who
is now running for state Senate.
— Rachel Abbey McCafferty
NADINE EZZIE
Deputy general counsel
and assistant secretary
Broadvox
adine Ezzie works for a
digital phone service
provider, so it makes
sense that she’s an exemplary communicator.
“She’s very direct and concise,
and she brings a rigorous intellectual approach to discussions,” says
Arnaud Gautier, chief marketing
officer at Broadvox, the telecom
provider Ms. Ezzie joined about
two-and-a-half years ago. “That’s
something I really appreciate in
working with lawyers.”
Mr. Gautier, who joined Broadvox in May 2012 from telecom
company MegaPath, said he was
surprised to learn, upon meeting
Ms. Ezzie, that she only had been
at the company for about a year.
“I definitely thought she had
joined quite a bit prior to that,
based on the expertise” she
brought to internal discussions,
and, subsequently, to external negotiations with vendors and other
parties, he said.
According to her nomination,
Ms. Ezzie “has provided leadership in both the legal aspects of
the company’s work but in the culture of our company as well.”
For instance, the nomination
noted that Ms. Ezzie recently
worked on a $32 million asset pur-
N
chase agreement
in which she
“participated in
the negotiations,
drafted the document, interfaced with management to
produce the
multitude of documentation required, and most importantly, provided the organization skills to
keep the process on track and focused on the required achievables.”
As a national telecom provider,
Broadvox’s work “is highly regulated by the FCC and by multiple
state public utility commissions,”
the nomination stated. Ms. Ezzie
works closely with regulatory bodies, and, in addition to making
sure required filings are correct
and timely, “provides insight and
guidance to employees so that
they are knowledgeable of the
many laws and regulations that
impact their work.”
One way she has done that is
through the launch of an employee training program, in which
Broadvox’s legal and human resources areas present one-hour
seminars open to all of the company’s 240-plus employees.
Topics have ranged from leadership development to unfair competition. Mr. Gautier described the
program as a measure that helps
identify “the rocks beneath the
water” on regulatory and other
matters.
Ms. Ezzie also launched a
Women’s Leadership Committee
within Broadvox; it’s a group comprised of about 50 women from
the company’s U.S. offices in
Cleveland, Atlanta and Seattle.
The program, which draws on
some of the principles raised in
the best-selling book “Lean In:
Women, Work and the Will to
Lead” by Facebook chief operating
officer Sheryl Sandberg, helps
women “share strengths and increase business skills,” according
to the nomination.
“In a time when the business
day is already filled with time-sensitive projects and last-minute
deadlines, (Ms. Ezzie) has managed to inspire and guide a significant group of employees to take
initiative and grow skills and abilities that … will continue to benefit
the company, and the people in
the group for many years,” the
nomination stated.
Ms. Ezzie also co-authored the
company’s first employee handbook, and other Broadvox employees “seek her out for advice and
guidance,” according to the nomination.
She serves on the board of
Joseph’s Home and currently is
vice chair of that nonprofit, which
provides a nurturing, caring environment for men in transition
with acute medical needs.
— Scott Suttell
Eliza Jennings
would like to congratulate
Jennifer Griveas,
Director of Legal Affairs,
on being selected as a finalist for the
Crain’s Cleveland Business
General and In-house Counsel Summit.
elizajennings.org
20131104-NEWS--22-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
AMANDA KITZBERGER
Associate legal counsel
GOJO Industries
S
trong legal judgment. Technical expertise. Business
acumen. Amanda Kitzberger covers all the bases GOJO
Industries looks for in its in-house
legal counsel, said Joe Kanfer,
chairman and CEO of the Akronbased maker of skin health and
hygiene products.
Ms. Kitzberger joined the company in 2008 as a patent agent after
graduating from the University of
Akron School of Law, Mr. Kanfer
said. Patents are important at
GOJO, which makes products including hand sanitizers and soaps,
moisturizers, surgical scrubs, wipes
and skin conditioners. But it wasn’t
just the patent work — or her technical background stemming from a
bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Ohio Northern University — that marked Ms.
Kitzberger as an up-and-comer
within GOJO, which has about
1,500 employees in Ohio.
“She had a really strong, intuitive
feel for the business aspects of the
company,” Mr. Kanfer said, noting
that patents “aren’t worth anything
without a business purpose.”
Indeed, Ms. Kitzberger and her
team “developed an intellectual
property strategy for the organization that was aligned with busi-
1:24 PM
Page 1
ness and enterprise strategy,”
according to the
nomination.
“This provided a
road map for research and development,
product management and the (GOJO) business
units. The strategy aligned various
groups within the organization
around one common vision, accelerating research and the patent
process.”
Ms. Kitzberger led the formation
of what GOJO calls its IP Assets
Management Team, which “manages strategy and ensures execution of the strategy,” the nomination stated. Leading that team
“requires whole-systems thinking,
understanding how processes interconnect and are related to one
another and anticipating and adjusting for impact upstream or
downstream in the many related
IP processes.”
The nomination noted that Ms.
Kitzberger “developed an intellectual property docket system that
provided reports to different parts
of the organization to assist in
strategic planning and business
reporting.” She also “partnered
with outside counsel to implement
a trademark use library which assists in documenting trademark
use for registration, enforcement
and renewal purposes,” according
to the nomination.
In-house counsel need to be
able to communicate with company executives, other members of
the legal department and with outside counsel. The nomination stated that Ms. Kitzberger excels at
this balancing act, as her “regular
reporting and follow-up have established her as a trusted and reliable business partner.”
Mr. Kanfer said he also appreciates Ms. Kitzberger’s skills as a
communicator because she’s “very
straightforward, very direct in stating her views. You always know exactly where she stands.”
He likes that style because some
lawyers “talk legal-speak, not business-speak,” adding quickly, “I’m
a lawyer, so I can say that.”
Away from work, Ms. Kitzberger
volunteers through the Akron Bar
Association and University of
Akron School of Law as a mentor
for a law student whose second career will be in law. She also is a
volunteer on the board of directors
for her children’s preschool, where
she is believed to be the first attorney to serve on the board.
In 2008 and 2009, she was a Legal Aid volunteer at the Lawton
Street Community Center in
Akron, assisting low-income families in counseling and referring issues to appropriate agencies.
— Scott Suttell
SCOTT M. LEWIS
Partner; administrative partner
Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis
ll the while that Scott M.
Lewis is guiding his clients
through
expansion and other
business matters, he’s responsible, too,
for a “long list of
administrative
functions” for
his own company.
And busy as that keeps him, he
stays ahead, says Peter Turner,
who, as managing partner of Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in
Woodmere, serves with Mr. Lewis
on the law firm’s three-person
management committee.
“He is an amazing multi-tasker,”
Mr. Turner said. “His priority is
service to his clients, but he does a
whole lot more than that.”
Administrative partner for the
firm since Sept. 1, 2011, Mr. Lewis
handles insurance, accounting and
timekeeping, and maintenance of
the office furnishings and decorations, to name a few.
But he also serves many clients,
among them G. Herschman Architects Inc. in Cleveland, which
nominated him.
“He looks out for the present and
future opportunities for our company,” the nomination said. “… He
has a deep knowledge of ‘what ifs,’
and helps us identify solutions that
… may not have been on our radar.
“As our industry has come off its
worst recession in our lifetime, it was
(and is) critical to have the best consultants assisting us with the future
growth and expansion of our business,” the nomination continued.
“He also responds 24-7 to critical issues and questions when situations
arise with very short timeframes.”
Mr. Turner agreed.
“You might send something at
10 at night, and 1 in the morning,
A
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
you’ll get a reply from him,” he
said. “He is so connected and responsive. It’s great for the clients,
it’s great for us.
“He pays attention to detail and
is very thorough in covering all the
bases to make sure that the client’s
legal position is sound and protected,” Mr. Turner added. “Scott
is not a shoot-from-the-hip type of
person. He’s very careful in how he
goes about advising.”
From the nominator’s perspective, that “care, diligence, and excellent collaboration with all parties” is directly responsible for the
architectural firm’s multiple successes throughout the years.
Mr. Turner said he’s known no
one who’s matched Mr. Lewis’
breadth and depth in addressing
administrative issues.
“He is so responsive and ahead
of things,” he said.
Months before it’s time for the
law firm’s annual renewal of legal
malpractice insurance, for example,
Mr. Lewis is contacting agents to see
what quotes are, Mr. Turner said.
“He’s constantly on the lookout
for what needs to be done,” he
said. “If you get behind on those
things, then you’re sometimes
forced to accept something other
than what you would want.”
According to the nomination,
Mr. Lewis has been a “community
activist” for most of his adult life.
He currently serves as a trustee
of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar
Association and the Legal Studies
Community Advisory Board of
South University, and also is a
member of the Orange Village
Planning & Zoning Commission.
He’s a former board member of
the Cleveland Sight Center, International Services Center, Cleveland Hillel Foundation and Cleveland Jewish News.
In addition, Mr. Lewis has extended his musical talents to NoteOriety, a show choir, for more than
a decade.
— Michelle Park Lazette
20131104-NEWS--23-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
12:10 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
23
LARGEST HOSPITALS
RANKED BY 2012 NET PATIENT REVENUE
Company
Address
Rank Phone/Website
Net patient revenue
($ millions)
2012
2011
% change
Staffed
beds
FTE
employees as
of 9/1/2013
Year
founded
Top executive
Health care system Title
1
Cleveland Clinic
9500 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44195
(216) 444-2200/www.clevelandclinic.org
3,829.8
3,450.2
11.0
1,277
22,638
1921
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Delos M. "Toby" Cosgrove, M.D.
president, CEO
2
University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Subsidiaries
11100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland 44106
(216) 844-1000/www.uhhospitals.org
1,711.0
1,684.8
1.6
801
12,192
1866
Fred C. Rothstein, M.D.
president
3
MetroHealth Medical Center
2500 MetroHealth Drive, Cleveland 44109
(216) 778-7800/www.metrohealth.org
683.3
669.4
2.1
NA
5,516
1837
Boutros, M.D.
MetroHealth System Akram
president, CEO
4
Summa Akron City Hospital and Summa St. Thomas Hospital
525 E. Market St., Akron 44309
(330) 375-3000/www.summahealth.org
668.9
655.2
2.1
396
4,306
1892 and
1922
5
Akron Children's Hospital
One Perkins Square, Akron 44308
(330) 543-1000/www.akronchildrens.org
509.4
460.0
10.7
345
3,794
6
Akron General Medical Center
One Akron General Ave., Akron 44307
(330) 344-6000/www.akrongeneral.org
443.6
467.1
(5.0)
450
7
Fairview Hospital
18101 Lorain Ave., Cleveland 44111
(216) 476-7000/www.fairviewhospital.org
408.8
399.6
2.3
8
Hillcrest Hospital
6780 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights 44124
(440) 312-4500/www.hillcresthospital.org
374.3
350.0
9
Aultman Hospital
2600 Sixth St. S.W., Canton 44710
(330) 452-9911/www.aultman.org
364.5
10
Southwest General
18697 Bagley Road, Middleburg Heights 44130
(440) 816-8000/www.swgeneral.com
11
Summa Health
System
Thomas Malone, M.D.
president
1890
NA
William H. Considine
president, CEO
3,762
1914
Akron General
Health System
Alan J. Papa
president, COO,
Akron General Health System
390
NA
1892
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Neil P. Smith, D.O.
president
6.9
391
NA
1968
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Brian Harte, M.D.
president
371.5
(1.9)
580
3,328
1892
Aultman Health
Foundation
Christopher E. Remark
CEO
290.8
274.8
5.8
340
1,790
1920
partnering with
Thomas A. Selden
president, CEO
St. Elizabeth Health Center
1044 Belmont Ave., Youngstown 44501-1790
(330) 746-7211/www.hmpartners.org
285.3
275.2
3.7
429
NA
1911
Humility of Mary
Health Partners
Donald Koenig
executive vice president,
operations
12
Mercy Medical Center(1)
1320 Mercy Drive N.W., Canton 44708
(330) 489-1000/www.cantonmercy.org
269.5
256.1
5.2
338
2,038
1908
Sisters of Charity
Health System
Thomas E. Cecconi
president, CEO
13
Firelands Regional Medical Center(1)
1111 Hayes Ave., Sandusky 44870
(419) 557-7400/www.firelands.com
200.4
200.8
(0.2)
221
1,460
1876
Firelands Regional
Health System
Martin E. Tursky
president, CEO
14
Mercy
3700 Kolbe Road, Lorain 44053
(440) 960-4000/www.mercyonline.org
193.6
198.8
(2.6)
317
1,635
1892
Catholic Health
Partners
Edwin M. Oley
president, CEO
15
EMH Elyria Medical Center
630 E. River St., Elyria 44035
(440) 329-7500/www.emh-healthcare.org
188.0
189.4
(0.7)
250
1,611
1908
EMH Healthcare
Donald S. Sheldon, M.D.
president, CEO
16
West Medical Center(2)
36000 Euclid Ave., Willoughby 44094
(440) 953-9600/www.lakehealth.org
177.6
177.6
(0.0)
267
2,193
1961
Lake Health
Cynthia Moore-Hardy
president, CEO
17
Summa Barberton Hospital
155 Fifth St. N.E., Barberton 44203
(330) 615-3000/www.summahealth.org
174.3
174.3
(0.0)
139
1,100
1915
Summa Health
System
Thomas A. DeBord
president
18
Parma Community General Hospital
7007 Powers Blvd., Parma 44129
(440) 743-3000/www.parmahospital.org
174.0
177.4
(1.9)
288
1,390
1961
NA
Terrence G. Deis
president, CEO
19
TriPoint Medical Center(3)
7590 Auburn Road, Concord Township 44077
(440) 375-8100/www.lakehealth.org
171.0
163.9
4.3
135
2,193
2009
Lake Health
Cynthia Moore-Hardy
president, CEO
20
Trumbull Memorial Hospital(1)
1350 E. Market St., Warren 44482
(330) 841-9011/www.trumbullmemorial.net
169.4
163.0
3.9
311
1,130
NA
ValleyCare Health
System of Ohio
John Walsh
CEO
21
Marymount Hospital
12300 McCracken Road, Garfield Heights 44125
(216) 581-0500/www.marymount.org
159.2
155.7
2.2
315
NA
1949
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Joanne Zeroske
president
22
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center
2351 E. 22nd St., Cleveland 44115
(216) 861-6200/www.stvincentcharity.com
150.7
135.5
11.2
154
844
1865
Sisters of Charity
Health System
David F. Perse, M.D.
president, CEO
23
St. John Medical Center
29000 Center Ridge Road, Westlake 44145
(440) 835-8000/www.stjohnmedicalcenter.net
142.1
148.4
(4.2)
194
988
1981
UHHS/CSAHS Cuyahoga, Inc.
William A. Young
president, CEO
24
Northside Medical Center(1)
500 Gypsy Lane, Youngstown 44501
(330) 884-1000/www.northsidemedicalcenter.net
140.0
140.2
(0.1)
168
983
NA
ValleyCare Health
System of Ohio
Kirk Ray
CEO
25
University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center
3999 Richmond Road, Beachwood 44122
(216) 844-2273/www.uhhospitals.org/ahuja
132.3
69.7
89.7
108
822
2010
Susan Juris
president
26
St. Joseph Health Center
667 Eastland Ave., Warren 44484
(330) 841-4000/www.hmpartners.org
131.7
130.7
0.7
138
NA
1924
Humility of Mary
Health Partners
Kathy Cook
president
27
Lakewood Hospital
14519 Detroit Ave., Lakewood 44107
(216) 521-4200/www.lakewoodhospital.org
130.3
127.8
1.9
250
NA
1907
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Shannan Ritchie
interim president
28
Robinson Memorial Hospital
6847 N. Chestnut St., Ravenna 44266
(330) 297-0811/www.robinsonmemorial.org
118.9
121.5
(2.1)
117
1,035
1917
Summa Health
System
Stephen Colecchi
president, CEO
29
South Pointe Hospital
20000 Harvard Road, Warrensville Heights 44122
(216) 491-6000/www.southpointehospital.org
117.4
124.6
(5.8)
173
NA
1957
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Robert Juhasz, D.O.
president
30
Euclid Hospital
18901 Lake Shore Blvd., Euclid 44119
(216) 531-9000/www.euclidhospital.org
110.5
105.4
4.8
371
NA
1952
Cleveland Clinic
Health System
Mark Froimson, M.D.
president
Source: Information submitted by the hospital unless otherwise noted. Crain's Cleveland Business does not independently verify the information and there is no guarantee these
listings are complete or accurate. (1) Information is from the American Hospital Directory based on Medicare cost reports, www.ahd.com. Employee numbers represent total
employees, not full-time equivalent employees. Staffed beds is the number of total complex beds. (2) Numbers are estimates. Employee numbers include West, TriPoint and
subsidiaries. (3) Numbers are estimates and include 13 off-site locations and LHPG practices. Employee number also includes West Medical Center.
RESEARCHED BY Deborah W. Hillyer
20131104-NEWS--24-NAT-CCI-CL_--
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11/1/2013
3:16 PM
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NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
Construction: Employers are still hesistant to bring in more help
have started moving.
For instance, the proposed, $260
million convention center hotel in
Cleveland was not discussed earlier this year as workers on the convention center were wrapping up
that project. Also, it wasn’t until last
January that developer Geis Cos.
won the competition to buy the 21floor Ameritrust Tower and associated buildings from Cuyahoga
County as part of a plan to create a
new county headquarters. Today,
steel is going up for the eight-floor
county building, and Ameritrust
Tower is amid a $200 million
makeover as apartments, a hotel
and retail space.
In addition, K&D Group of
Willoughby only recently launched
its $65 million conversion to apartments of the former East Ohio Gas
Co. headquarters building at 1717 E.
Ninth St. in downtown Cleveland.
“That is the meat and potatoes
for a good construction market,”
said Mr. Panzica, who feels good
about 2014 and 2015.
Statistics show a level of construction activity that, if not robust,
is at least decent.
According to a Crain’s analysis of
McGraw Hill data, contract awards
for future construction in Northeast Ohio climbed 10% through August this year, to $1.69 billion from
$1.53 billion in last year’s like period.
Builders can thank the resurgence in residential construction
for that steady pace as the housing
market shook off its worst period
since the Great Depression, though
nonresidential construction also
hasn’t fallen off a cliff.
Jim Wymer, president of WXZ Development in Fairview Park, which
is building condominiums in Rocky
River and apartments at University
Circle, is benefitting from the residential rebound. And, as a developer of smaller real estate projects, he
sees an aspect of the market that the
big contractors do not.
“At our level, the market for subcontractors and (construction)
trades is tight,” Mr. Wymer said.
“It’s hard to get subcontractors to
commit and to be committed on a
tight time frame. Many of the
smaller (subcontractors) cut way
back and are reluctant to staff up.
They’re spreading themselves thin.
Everyone is hesitant about how
long they will stay busy this time
around.”
According to McGraw Hill data,
contracts for residential construction through August in Northeast
Ohio climbed 41%, to $785 million
this year from $556 million in last
year’s like period. The market has
been paced by a rash of apartment
A good worry
STAN BULLARD
Steel is going up at the eight-floor building that will serve as the new Cuyahoga County headquarters.
construction, renewed townhouse
construction and a revival of singlefamily home building.
Meantime, McGraw Hill’s data
show nonresidential construction
won’t recede as much as many observers had expected, thanks to a
bunch of smaller development projects in the $20 million range.
Its report on future nonresidential construction contracting
through August showed a dip of almost 7%, to $909 million this year
from $976 million in last year’s like
period. More projects started up
late this year than were expected
last year, when the new Cleveland
Convention Center and the Ernst &
Young Tower and Aloft Hotel were
going up near the Cuyahoga River
as part of the Flats East Bank
project.
Tim Lavelle, president and CEO
of Gorman-Lavelle Corp., said his
company finished plumbing work
on the Global Center for Health Innovation and Cleveland Convention Center earlier this year and
since has gone into a “holding pattern” as it waits for more big-ticket
projects to hit the market.
“We have work, but we hope to
see more in the future,” said Mr.
Lavelle, who noted that his company works on “the high barrier-toentry, complex projects.”
“I’m not giddy,” Mr. Lavelle said.
“I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Competition intensifies
The annual construction survey
by accounting and business advisory firm Skoda Minotti Group indicates the achingly slow economic
CFO of the Year
recovery has tempered the old
bravado among builders.
Last year, 49% of the survey respondents said they were optimistic about more opportunities in
the next three years in Northeast
Ohio. In this year’s survey, a smaller number — 43% — said there will
be more opportunities the next
three years. However, the report
noted that the latest figure is still
the second-highest positive outlook since Skoda Minotti started
the survey in 2008, when the worst
of the recession began to kick in.
Likewise, competition for construction work rose this year over
last, according to the survey. This
year, 66% of the respondents saw
five or more bidders on most jobs,
compared with 51% last year. However, this year’s figure also is well
below the survey results of 2010,
when 82% of respondents reported
that level of competition for work.
Roger Gingerich, partner-incharge of the Skoda Minotti construction and real estate group, said
builders “have to keep going to the
mat” to get work.
“Talk to the contractors, and we
have a lot, and many don’t know
where the next job is coming from,”
Mr. Gingerich said.
Still, a few large projects have appeared this year, and others recently
Just how marginal the movement is in the construction market
becomes clear from construction
employment figures provided by
the AGC Contractors trade group.
Construction jobs in Northeast
Ohio dipped in August to 47,600,
down 2% from 48,700 in August
2012, according to the trade group.
The betwixt and between nature
of this year’s construction market is
reflected in how Doug Price, CEO of
K&D Group, sees the world.
Mr. Price’s company recently finished two projects in downtown
Cleveland: the Residences at the
Hanna, which converted an office
building to apartments, and conversion of the Embassy Suites Hotel at Reserve Square back to apartments. As construction crews mass
to work on the East Ohio Gas building’s conversion, Mr. Price noted
that K&D has hit the construction
market at a good time as a buyer of
services, though that good time
might not last.
“We’re in the middle of a bunch
of huge projects,” Mr. Price said.
“The market slowed down, and
now it’s coming back. I worry that
when the convention center hotel
and some other projects get going,
we’ll strain the labor base.”
That worry is a far cry from the
handwringing over the industry’s
future that was pervasive in 2009
and 2010.
■
Richard T. Marabito
Chief Financial Officer
Olympic Steel, Inc.
Thanks to Crain’s Cleveland Business for
recognizing Rick with this well-deserved honor,
acknowledging what we have always known.
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Congratulations Rick!
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20131104-NEWS--25-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
3:01 PM
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NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
Cavs: Offseason moves have sparked
interest in team that has struggled
Brews + Prose
(+ Phi Beta Kappa)
Come join us!
Single-game sales for the 2013-14
campaign already have exceeded
the season total from all of last year,
which is more impressive when you
consider that individual tickets for
this season have been on sale for
less than a month — and ducats for
only 23 of the Cavs’ 41 home games
are available.
The Cleveland Association of Phi Beta
Kappa invites all Northeast Ohio ΦBK
members to join us as guests of “Brews
+ Prose.” Meet novelist Varley O’Connor
(“The Master’s Muse”) and poet Bruce
Weigl (“The Abundance of Nothing”) and
enjoy a craft microbrew with fellow ΦBKs!
An advantageous split
Last season, the Cavs for the first
time split single-game ticket sales
into two stages. In explaining the
move, the team said historical data
showed that during the initial preseason selling period, a “significant
number” of single-game tickets for
contests that occurred in the second half of the season were bought
by “non-affiliated secondary markets ” — that is, ticket brokers and
other ticket resellers.
The Cavs have their own secondary ticket market in Flash Seats,
which is part of Veritix, a company
controlled by team owner Dan
Gilbert. However, the Cavs believe
delaying single-game sales for contests played in the last three months
of the season prevents other brokers
on the secondary market from snapping up most of the available seats for
the marquee dates on the schedule.
The team continued the practice
in 2013-14, and made single-game
tickets available Oct. 5 for the first
23 contests at The Q. Individual
tickets for the 18 home games
played in February, March and
April — a stretch that includes the
only visits by prime Western Conference attractions San Antonio,
Oklahoma City, Houston and the
L.A. Lakers — will go on sale Dec. 7.
Thanks in large part to a frantic
offseason that featured the return
of coach Mike Brown, the drafting
of Anthony Bennett first overall and
the free-agent signings of Jarrett
Jack, Andrew Bynum and Earl
Clark, the results of the ticket strategy have been more encouraging
than the oft-injured Mr. Bynum
making a surprise return to the
court for the season opener.
The team does not disclose sales
figures. However, it did say individual ticket purchases in the first 24
days of the on-sale period exceeded
the season total for 2012-13 — a figure that included the sales for the
first and second halves of the home
schedule.
“I’m excited,” said Kerry Bubolz,
the Cavs’ president of business operations. “Obviously, the last three
years, in terms of wins and losses,
haven’t been great. We feel like it’s
a coming-out party in terms of potential for the business.”
That momentum is evident in
other areas, too.
The team said group deposits —
for purchases of 20 tickets or more
to a single game — have jumped
200% over the like period in 2012.
Also, renewals among existing
group buyers are up 5% compared
with the like period in 2012.
The team’s first big foray into free
agency since LeBron James took his
talents elsewhere, combined with
winning the draft lottery and the
surprisingly welcomed return of
25
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JASON MILLER
Andrew Bynum made a somewhat surprising return to the court in the Cavs’ win
over Brook Lopez, left, and the Brooklyn Nets on Oct. 30.
Mr. Brown, have made a large impact on the bottom line.
“That’s a big piece of it,” Mr.
Bubolz said. “We’re not talking
about a move or two. There were
major changes to the basketball
side of the organization. Coach
Brown, Anthony, three new players
in free agency and the development
of our core young players. That’s
significant.”
Fans flock online, too
The moves also made quite a
technological stir.
The Cavs rank in the top five in
the league’s “team website metric
rankings,” which track page views
to each team’s site, page views per
visit, the average time spent per
website visit, the average unique
visitors per day and video streams.
The team also passed 1 million
likes on Facebook in September —
the Cavs’ current total of more than
1.1 million is more than 400,000
ahead of the Browns — and has a
Twitter following of almost 250,000,
with significant leads on both the
Browns and Indians.
“It’s represented in ways near
and far, both directly and indirectly,” said Tad Carper, Cavs vice president of communications, of the increased buzz the team has
generated. “Things continue to
move in the right direction.”
As for building the team’s seasonticket base, the Cavs have adopted a
new engagement strategy.
In late January, the Cavs
launched Wine & Gold United, a
membership club for season-ticket
holders that features VIP events,
“chalk talks” with members of the
front office, conference calls with
Mr. Gilbert and other perks. It’s an
effort to create a “365-day-a-year
relationship” with season-ticket
holders, Mr. Bubolz said.
As part of that effort, the Cavs
and Milwaukee Bucks this season
became the first two NBA teams to
display the names of their seasonticket holders on the court. The
floor at The Q now features the
names of hundreds of Wine & Gold
United members in gold lettering
on the “ALL FOR ONE. ONE FOR
ALL.” decal that is located on the
halfcourt sideline.
The initiative apparently is working.
The league doesn’t allow teams
to disclose season-ticket numbers.
However, the Cavs said new revenue generated this season by the
Wine & Gold United club already
has doubled the 2012-13 total for
new business generated by seasonticket holders.
“I think we felt the vibe and the
interest,” Mr. Bubolz said, when
asked if the early numbers surprised him. “It goes back to the belief and the changes we made in the
offseason.”
■
ACG CLEVELAND
CORPORATE
WTH AND M&A
GROWTH
Issue date: January 27, 2014
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Materials due: December 16, 2013
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Dream.Dare.Do.
Meet Alexandra.
In 1999 she was an aspiring
music student. Today, she is
Assistant Concertmaster with
The Cleveland Orchestra.
1999
Do
the amazing.
2013
Laurel School Open House
Sunday, November 10 12:30-3:00 pm
Girls Kindergarten-Grade 12 and Coed Pre-Primary
Volume 34, Number 44 Crain’s Cleveland Business (ISSN 0197-2375) is published weekly, except for combined issues on the fourth week of December and fifth week of December at 700 West St. Clair Ave., Suite
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20131104-NEWS--26-NAT-CCI-CL_--
26
11/1/2013
1:02 PM
Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
Website: Nonprofit now can ‘migrate into the world of analysis’
“Hopefully, it will also
generate a new source
of revenue to support our
organization over the
long term.”
In a matter of clicks, for example,
a user can compare the average
ACT scores for students from the
Lakewood City Schools and Cleveland Metropolitan School District
(23 and 15, respectively). Interested
in comparing the median home
values of Strongsville and Akron?
No problem — a few clicks will get
you an answer of $202,600 and
$89,800, respectively.
“We’ve broken down those barriers and given people more power
than they ever would have had
themselves,” said Chris Lintner,
who was heavily involved in the
site’s development as Public Insight’s product manager.
Contact:
Phone:
Fax:
E-mail:
– Dan Quigg, entrepreneur,
on his newest venture,
www.360-public.com
The basic service is free, but additional capabilities — such as the
ability to compare data over a certain time frame — are available for
a fee. The company’s leaders are
pitching the site’s services to school
districts, municipalities, nonprofits
and others they believe could find
Denise Donaldson
(216) 522-1383
(216) 694-4264
[email protected]
value in the ability to quickly access
and digest large amounts of data.
School districts and their associated teachers’ unions, for instance,
might find the site of value from
opposite sides during contract negotiations, Mr. Quigg noted.
“Whether it’s friend or foe, we’re
Switzerland,” he said.
Its founders believe the website
has the potential to make money,
and so does the Center for Community Solutions, a century-old social
nonprofit in the Cleveland area that
recently invested $100,000 in the
project for an undisclosed stake in
the company.
Admittedly, it’s an unusual approach for the nonprofit, according
to its executive director, John Begala. It’s the first time the Center for
Community Solutions has invested
its own money in a for-profit venture.
However, the site potentially
could provide a payoff besides the
return on investment, as Mr. Begala
said the center will use the website
to build research studies and analyze public data to better identify
social problems and the areas most
afflicted by them.
“This allows us to migrate more
into the world of analysis, which is
good for our funders,” Mr. Begala
said. “Hopefully, it will also generate a new source of revenue to support our organization over the long
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term. These kinds of unique partnerships between nonprofits and
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At present, the website encompasses only Ohio data, but Mr.
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He said his team also is developing a Wikipedia-like platform that
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■
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• Highly motivated, proactive and enthusiastic team player to go the
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Vice President of Communication and External Affairs
SUMMARY: The Vice President of Communication and External Affairs will
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News Director for WKSU Radio
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Oversee news and information programming; responsible for the
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20131104-NEWS--27-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
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Page 1
NOVEMBER 4 - 10, 2013
27
THEINSIDER
THEWEEK
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK
BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
OCTOBER 28 - NOVEMBER 3
An idea no one
thinks is horrible
The big story: Nestle USA is moving its
Nestle Pizza Division to Solon from Northbrook,
Ill., and is bringing 250 jobs with it. The move is
expected to be completed in mid-2014. Solon is
home to multiple Nestle divisions, including
Nestle Prepared Foods and Nestle Baking. The
company already employs about 2,500 in the
city. Nestle plans to use its existing facilities in
Solon and does not plan to build a plant for the
pizza division.
■ Jon Stahl’s sky-high dream could start at
the top of a hotel that has yet to be built.
Mr. Stahl is the driving force behind a
grand plan to build an elevated cable car
system that, if completed,
would whisk people all over
downtown Cleveland.
If he has his way, the first leg
of the Cleveland SkyLift would
carry people between the lakefront and the new hotel that’s
slated to be built next to the
Cleveland Convention Center.
The cable car lift could do a lot
to make the new hotel stand
out, Mr. Stahl said.
“We can’t think of a better
way to make it iconic,” he said,
adding that the lift would serve as a novel
alternative to the pedestrian bridge that the
city of Cleveland wants to build nearby.
Mr. Stahl — president of LeanDog Inc., a
software company based on a barge next to
Burke Lakefront Airport — is a long way
from realizing even the first leg of the Cleveland SkyLift. He’s had formal conversations
with officials from Cuyahoga County but not
with Hilton Worldwide. Plus, the city of
Cleveland has yet to pick the company that
will redevelop the downtown lakefront. Mr.
Stahl wants the cable car lift to land between
the Great Lakes Science Center and the Rock
and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
But several people and organizations
have voiced support for the plan, including
the Port of Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland
What’s next for Comex?:
SherwinWilliams Co. suffered a significant setback in its
year-long effort to acquire the operations in
Mexico of Mexican paint maker Consorcio
Comex in a $2.3 billion deal. The Federal
Economic Competition Commission of Mexico
informed Sherwin-Williams that the company’s
appeal related to its pending acquisition of Comex
was denied and the acquisition is not authorized.
Sherwin-Williams said it’s reviewing the decision “and is considering all options, including
whether to refile with the commission.”
Security blanket: Securus Medical Group
Inc., a privately held medical device company in
Cleveland, announced the initial closing of a
$6.5 million Series B financing round led by new
investor 3X5 Special Opportunity Fund and
named Steven Girouard as its president and
CEO. Securus plans to use proceeds to further
develop its Aurora thermographic mapping
system, a thermal measurement device that is
expected to have several clinical applications for
temperature monitoring during energy-based
surgical procedures.
Downtown shuffle: McKinsey & Co.’s move
to the new Ernst & Young office building in
Cleveland’s Flats is a gain for corporate communications/public relations firm Dix & Eaton,
which will move from the 14th floor of the 200
Public Square building to the 39th floor — a
space McKinsey is shedding along with its 40th
floor office. The big management consulting
firm has leased less than 20,000 square feet at the
Ernst & Young building at 950 Main Ave. Dix &
Eaton will be in its new suite next summer. It will
occupy 25,000 square feet compared with its
current 29,307 square feet, thanks to a more
efficient space plan.
They’ll play in Quackron: Using a tire-track
theme that would
seem to make the
Rubber City proud,
the Akron Aeros
announced a name
change. The Akron
RubberDucks, a
Double-A affiliate
of the Cleveland Indians, have a new website,
new color scheme and a logo featuring a fierce
duck with tire tracks in its black feathers.
Off the acclerator: The leader of the Bizdom
Cleveland business accelerator is moving to Colorado. Paul Allen plans to leave early next year,
once he can hire and train someone else to run
Bizdom, a three-month-long boot camp for
entrepreneurs. Mr. Allen has provided advice to
numerous startup companies since arriving in
Northeast Ohio seven years ago. He’s leaving
because his wife, Dr. Rebecca Boxer, accepted
a position at the University of Colorado’s
Anschutz Medical Campus.
No small feat: Two Case Western Reserve
University researchers received a $424,000
grant to develop simpler ways to make complex,
two-sided nanoparticles. Nicole Steinmetz, an
assistant professor of biomedical engineering,
and Rigoberto Advincula, professor of macromolecular science and engineering, received the
grant from the National Science Foundation.
WHAT’S NEW
Regional Transit Authority, Cleveland City
Councilman Joe Cimperman and the
Greater Cleveland Partnership, which
through a subsidiary is serving as fiscal
agent for the project. Cable car manufacturer
Leitner-Poma is paying for an engineering
study and estimates the proposed first leg
would cost about $10 million
to build.
People who listen to Mr.
Stahl’s pitch tend to get excited
about it, said Fred Geis of Geis
Cos. The Streetsboro-based
real estate developer has an
option to build an office park
on city-owned land near
Burke.
“I don’t think I’ve been in
one meeting where someone
saw the project and said, ‘I
think this is a horrible idea,’”
he said with a laugh.
— Chuck Soder
MetroHealth takes its
act to the classroom
■ Middleburg Heights and Brecksville aren’t
the only areas primed for colonization by
The MetroHealth System. The Cleveland
Metropolitan School District is next.
This Wednesday, Nov. 6, MetroHealth will
open a health center inside the Mound-STEM
School on Ackley Road in Cleveland’s Slavic
Village, and others could be on the way.
The health center won’t offer the same
breadth of services as it does on its main
campus on West 25th Street or at its multimillion-dollar community health centers.
Spate of layoffs started here
PRODUCT: MagnaForce alloy
Alcoa, which makes forged aluminum
wheels in Cleveland, said it has rolled out its
“most advanced aluminum wheel alloy in 45
years.”
The new material “opens the door for
lighter-weight wheels at increased strength
with the same corrosion-resistant characteristics as the industry standard,” according to
the company. Alcoa said it expects to introduce a state-of-the-art wheel featuring the
alloy in early 2014.
Unveiled at the American Trucking Association Management Conference & Exhibition
in Orlando, Fla., the new lightweight alloy,
called MagnaForce, “is on average 16.5%
stronger than the industry standard, Alcoa’s
6061 alloy, in similar applications,” the company said.
Alcoa said it will use the material to make
wheels for commercial transportation, where
lighter-weight products that increase fuel
efficiency are in high demand.
Tim Myers, president of Alcoa Wheel, said
the alloy “opens the door to production of the
strongest, lightest wheels to increase fleet
payload, improve fuel efficiency and enhance
sustainability.”
The alloy was developed over two years.
For details, visit www.alcoawheels.com.
Send information about new products to managing editor Scott Suttell at
[email protected].
A merger of
bank brothers
■ With the aim of eliminating duplicate
expenses as well as two sets of bank examinations and two sets of audits, Middlefield
Banc Corp. will merge one subsidiary,
Emerald Bank, into its other subsidiary, The
Middlefield Banking Co., according to a
public filing dated Oct. 25.
Executive vice president and chief operating officer Jim Heslop wouldn’t call the
merger material, but he said there will be
cost savings, and “now, we only have to worry
about one of those (safety and soundness
exams) a year.”
The unified Middlefield Banking Co. is
tentatively set to open Jan. 21, 2014. It will
absorb two Emerald Bank offices in Dublin
and Westerville, Mr. Heslop said. The bank
will have a total of 10 branches in Northeast
and central Ohio.
No layoffs will occur, according to Mr.
Heslop. — Michelle Park Lazette
BEST OF THE BLOGS
Excerpts from recent blog entries on
CrainsCleveland.com.
COMPANY: Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products, Cleveland
Instead, the clinic will offer primary and preventive health care services such as checkups, immunizations and other services. It
also will offer referral services for issues such
as behavioral health.
The clinic will be staffed by Dr. Christine
Alexander, interim chairwoman of family
medicine at MetroHealth, as well as a
MetroHealth nurse and the school nurse.
MetroHealth’s school-based health center
program is financed by grants from the
Third Federal Savings & Loan Foundation,
Eaton Corp. Charitable Fund and individual
donors. — Timothy Magaw
■ It turns out Cleveland was ground zero for
a contagion of layoffs in Bank of America’s
mortgage operations.
The lender in August announced cuts of
1,100 mortgage employees at two centers in
the Cleveland area, as well as 500 more in Sunrise, Fla.; Buford and Atlanta, Ga.; Richmond,
Va.; South Jordan, Utah; and Taunton,
Mass. Then it cut another 1,200 mortgage
jobs in late October “and is aiming to shed
another 2,800 such jobs in the fourth quarter,”
The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Journal said the layoffs in California,
Florida and Texas “follow similar moves at
Wells Fargo, which cut about 6,200 jobs in
its mortgage unit, and Citigroup Inc., which
has trimmed about 1,100 jobs.”
The cuts are “in response to lower demand
for mortgage refinancing and shrinking portfolios of bad loans,” the story stated. Offices
“that sprouted up to help banks process
a wave of mortgage-related transactions in
recent years,” including those in the Cleveland are, now are closing, The Journal said.
Public financing,
private approach
■ Increasingly, states’ pro-business organizations — like JobsOhio here — are publicly
financed but privately controlled and not
particularly transparent.
That was the conclusion of an analysis by
The Center for Public Integrity, which said
Ohio and about 10 other states “have given
control over lucrative corporate tax incentives” to organizations “which are often run
by the states’ most influential businessmen,
generally at the pleasure of the governor,”
according to the center.
Supporters “say these partnerships are
more nimble than government bureaucracies and are insulated from the vagaries of
electoral politics,” the center noted. “But
both liberal and conservative watchdog
groups say the practice takes a government
function already prone to mismanagement
and obfuscation and makes the situation
worse by giving oversight of business incentives to businesses themselves.”
JobsOhio, created in 2011, operates as an
independent nonprofit, “exempting it from
most state ethics and open records laws
and, as of this year, from government audits,” the center said.
“What they’ve done is taken a system that
didn’t have a whole lot of disclosure and
wasn’t that great a system under any governor,
and they’ve privatized it so that you don’t
know what’s going on with all those public
dollars,” said Brian Rothenberg, executive
director of ProgressOhio, a liberal group,
that has sued the state, arguing the liquor
sales lease is illegal.
The holidays are coming up ...
■ Matthew Chojnacki, a Clevelander who
writes about film and music, last week published a book that could make a nice gift for
the movie lover in your life.
“Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art from
the Underground” features 200 posters from
more than 100 artists and 20 countries, plus
commentary.
The movies include
“Pulp Fiction,” “Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off,”
“Star Wars,” “A
Clockwork Orange,”
“Pretty in Pink,”
“The Rocky Horror
Picture Show,” “Gremlins,” “Carrie,” “Mean
Girls” and “The Shining.”
If the book’s cover image, a rethinking of
the “Taxi Driver” poster, is indicative of the
project as a whole, it should be a fun book.
20131104-NEWS--28-NAT-CCI-CL_--
11/1/2013
11:58 AM
Page 1
The NEW 2014 BMW X5.
Entertaining
Versatility has never looked this good.
by De s i g n
November 8-9 at The Ohio Design Centre
A Fundraiser
for The North Union Farmers Market
Sponsored by The Ohio Design Centre
COME SEE IT TODAY!
Featuring over 30 spectacular themed tabletop,
dining and entertaining vignettes created by
Cleveland’s most talented interior designers.
BMW Cleveland
6135 Kruse Dr. • Solon • 1-866-210-6710
www.BMWCleveland.com
Friday, November 8 12 noon – 7pm
& Saturday, November 9 11am – 4pm
BMW Cleveland
Ohio Design Centre
23533 Mercantile Road | Beachwood, Ohio 44122
$10 to benefit the communication and education programs
of the North Union Farmers Market
More information:
216-831-1245 or visit
ohiodesigncentre.com
and click on events
BMWCleveland.com
440-542-0600
The Ultimate
Driving Machine®
RANGE ROVER EVOQUE
120 AWARDS AND COUNTING.
A JOURNEY 65 YEARS IN THE MAKING.
LET IT SNOW. LET IT RAIN.
LET IT ROAR.
Introducing Instinctive All Wheel Drive.TM
Jaguar doesn’t care what the weather is doing. The supercgarged V6 Jaguar XF with Instinctive
All Wheel Drive* helps keep you in control under any sky. Without sacrificing performance. Visit your Jaguar Retailer and learn more about the only AWD vehicles with the instincts of a Jaguar.
$399 PER MONTH FOR 36 MONTH LEASE
*
2013 XF AWD
MONTH
569 PER
$
36-MONTH LEASE, $2,799 + TAX, TITLE AND FEES DUE AT
SIGNING, $0 SECURITY DEPOSIT, BASED ON $58,845 MSRP ✝
6137 KRUSE DR., SOLON
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$2,995 DOWN, BANK FEE, DOC FEE, PLATES.
$4,455 DUE AT DELIVERY PLUS TAX
LAND ROVER SOLON
6137 KRUSE DR., SOLON • 1-866-210-6707
CLEVELAND
** Not a substitute for safe and attentive driving, nor can it overcome all extreme circumstances. ✝ For well-qualified lessees as determined by approved lender. All amounts shown are estimates; retailer sets actual amounts. Residency restrictions apply. 2013 Jaguar XF AWD. $2,799 due at signing includes $1,995 down, $0 security deposit, and first month’s payment; excludes retailer fees, taxes, title and registration fees. Actual rates and payment may vary. Lessee responsible for insurance, maintenance, excess wear and excess mileage over 10,000 miles at $.30/mile. Lessee has option to purchase vehicle at lease end at price negotiated with retailer and approved lender at signing. Termination fees may apply. Take new retail delivery from retailer stock by 11/30/13. Jaguar Retailer or approved lender may recind or amend this offer without notice. Vehicle shown with optional equipment. Images © 2012 JAGUAR LAND ROVER NORTH AMERICA, LLC
www.landroversolon.net
* Lease rates shown for 2013 Range Rover Evoque to qualified buyers through US Bank. $2,995 down plus bank fee, doc fee, license fees and tax. Total due at delivery $4,455
plus local taxes. Actual rates and terms may vary. All amounts shown are estimates, retailer sets actual amounts. Lessee responsible for insurance, maintenance, excess
wear and excess mileage over 40,000 miles at $0.30 /mile. Based on MSRP of $42,040 (including destination and delivery). Lessee has the option to purchase vehicle at lease
end at price negotiated with retailer at signing. For special lease terms, take new vehicle delivery from retailer stock by 11/30/13. Termination fee may apply. See your Land
Rover Retailer or call 1-800-FIND-4WD for qualifications and complete details. ©2013 Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC.
6135 Kruse Dr. • Solon • (440) 542-0600 • www.DavisAutomotive.com

Construction Again Has `Meat`

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