Columbus CEO January 2021 issue

Face of Weiland’s

Cash contest

Jennifer Williams is holding her own against the grocery chains.

Page 6

Ric Dillon is back

Aventi’s inaugural business plan competition.

Lauded money manager has a new firm with old colleagues.

Page 56

Page 19

January 2021

R

e

t a

i

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reckoning Who’s winning and losing the online shopping game.

Page 59

$4.99

January 2021 01

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25274 77384

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Contents

59 The large retail companies based in Columbus already faced pressures pre-pandemic. Here’s how they’re faring in the race to online.

Departments 03 Editor’s Note Hello 2021, hello DispatchCEO combined operations, hello Jess Deyo!

66

The details guy Lease wizard Steve Morris has spent four decades configuring the largest retail firms to run smoothly and profitably.

69 Leaderboards Columbus region MBA programs.

72 Office Space: M/I Homes The homebuilder’s new digs at Easton.

January 2021 Cover illustration by

Yogesh Chaudhary January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289 Columbus, Ohio 43216 Phone: 614-540-8900 • Fax: 614-461-8746

ColumbusCEO.com

VOLUME 30 / NUMBER 1 Columbus Site Manager

Alan D. Miller Publisher/General Manager

Ray Paprocki E d ito r ia l

EDITOR

Katy Smith associate eDITOR

Jess Deyo

14

Insider

05 Breakdown Housing is hotter than ever.

06 Profile: ‘We can do this’ With her father’s grocery store at a crossroads 10 years ago, Jennifer Williams and husband Scott Bowman decided to go in-all at Weiland’s Market.

And it’s worked, even in the pandemic.

06

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jeff Bell, Rebecca Walters

Doug Wolf, Jordan Miller and Brian Yeager

D es i g n & P ro duct ion

PRODUCTION/DESIGN DIRECTOR

Craig Rusnak ART DIRECTOR

14 Spotlight: Nonprofit

Yogesh Chaudhary

New Boys and Girls Clubs building will give children a better place to play and learn.

Digita l

EDITOR

Julanne Hohbach ASSISTANT DIGITAL EDITOR

16 Spotlight: Innovation

Brittany Moseley Ph otog raphy

Fuel cell technology is turning the corner because of a Columbus company’s work.

PHOTO EDITOR

Tim Johnson

Jennifer Williams

Associate photo editor

Rob Hardin A dvert ising

Vice President of Sales

Chris Pettograsso Sales Director

Holly Beardsley Senior Multimedia Sales Executive

Holly Gallucci Multimedia Sales Executives

Tia Hardman, Jackie Thiam CLASSIFIED SALES

Amy Vidrick Production designer

Rebecca Zimmer M arke t ing

MARKETING MANAGER

Lauren Reinhard PRESS RELEASES

10 Tech Talk

19 Estate planning

Matic uses its tech advantage to integrate the way we buy home and auto insurance.

Investment whiz Ric Dillon has gotten the old band back together with VELA.

11 Briefing

Severance packages can be risky business for employers. Here’s how to avoid potential lawsuits.

12 Spotlight: Small Business

56 Business incubator

Harley Blakeman helps ex-offenders find jobs and gain a fresh start.

Aventi Enterprises is helping women and minority entrepreneurs build foundations for success.

12

Advertising Section

ADVERTISING

advertise@columbusceo.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

53 Labor and employment

Hexion’s 2020 resilience and major national recognition for Moody Nolan.

pressreleases@columbusceo.com

Columbus CEO (ISSN 1085-911X) is published monthly by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2020, all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials. Known address of publication is 62 E. Broad St., Columbus, Ohio 43215. Periodicals postage paid at Columbus, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Columbus CEO, 62 E. Broad St., P.O. Box 1289, Columbus, OH 43216.

In-Depth

One Columbus: The case for optimism (Inserted after page 20) Harley Blakeman

Toll Free: 877-688-8009

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Editor’s Notes * ksmith@ColumbusCEO.com

W

Ringing in what comes next

e did it. Welcome to 2021. Right now, it’s pretty much the same as 2020. But not for long— especially at Columbus CEO. In the weeks ahead, we will begin the transition to an unprecedented collaboration with our sister publication, The Columbus Dispatch. The business staff at the newspaper and the magazine will begin working together to create a streamlined reader experience across our print publications and our websites. As part of this transformation, I will become the newspaper’s business editor, while remaining editor of CEO. Combining forces makes sense to us because we complement one another so well. The Dispatch brings the breaking business news and authoritative coverage of record, while CEO offers a more in-depth look at the personalities behind the news and the chance to tell longer, richer stories with elevated design. Simply put, we are stronger together.

Key in this transition is the addition of a new associate editor at CEO, Jess Deyo, who has her first byline with us in this issue on page 13,

Jess Deyo

Jennifer Williams and Scott Bowman a piece about Moody Nolan being the recipient of the nation’s highest architectural award. I’m thrilled to have her as my partner in producing the magazine each month. Jess is a pandemic grad, through and through. She’s already shown us her toughness and ability to thrive in a bit of chaos.

A native of Johnstown, Deyo graduated summa cum laude from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University this past May, where she focused on the art and science of making magazines. She previously held positions as a writer and intern for Ohio Magazine, as the sports and entertainment editor for the school’s Backdrop magazine, and as a department editor for Southeast Ohio magazine.

Please join me in welcoming Jess Deyo to Columbus.

In this month’s issue, on page 56 freelance writer Tim Feran brings us solid analysis of the region’s publicly traded retail behemoths and the woes and triumphs of 2020. With online shopping dominating the scene while people stay home to stay safe, some companies have not been able to

keep up, while others have done better. A standout performance comes from outlet discounter Big Lots, whose vibrant stores full of bargains have proven irresistible to shoppers during the pandemic.

And don’t miss this month’s profile. Beginning on page 6, freelance writer Laura Newpoff spins a delightful story about another person who’s demonstrated she can hold her own in crazy times.

Jennifer Williams, who owns Weiland’s Market in Clintonville with her husband Scott Bowman, is a grocer’s daughter who took her father’s legacy to the next level. Weiland’s is a neighborhood favorite—and some even travel from farther afield to visit.

Stocked with local cheeses, desserts, produce, coffee and old-fashioned, full-service meat and seafood counters, it’s the kind of place where you get a little plastic slip in between every slice of deli cheese. There’s a healthy wine selection and a state liquor store, too.

Williams and her staff made the most of a challenging 2020 with COVID-19 and the restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the virus, even as demand for groceries soared.

She and her husband worked untold hours of overtime keeping the store stocked and clean. She was an early adopter of mask requirements. She limited the number of people who could be inside Weiland’s at any given time. And she absolutely will ask you to leave her store if you walk in without a proper face covering.

Enjoy the story. And here’s to hoping by the end of 2021, we won’t need masks to go grocery shopping.

Katy Smith, Editor January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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Columbus CEO presents Diverse Leaders in Law, a quarterly discussion from local thought leaders advancing gender and racial equity in the legal profession at a critical time.

How can organizations remove obstacles from the paths of young women attorneys and attorneys of color who aspire to become partners and beyond? How do you develop a book of business when the existing social and business network is dominated by people from privileged backgrounds?

This forum will address pathways to partnership from various perspectives including the experience of Black, minority and first-generation lawyers, women who want time to raise families, and how in-house attorneys can raise their profiles while serving just one primary client.

Moderator: Katy Smith, editor of Columbus CEO Panelists: Yvette McGee Brown, partner-in-charge of diversity, inclusion and advancement, Jones Day Terri Meldrum, senior vice president and general counsel, OhioHealth David Paragas, partner, Barnes & Thornburg Jennifer Readler, member, Frost Brown Todd

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Breakdown Compiled by katy smith + Infographic by Yogesh Chaudhary

Housing’s hotter than ever The coronavirus pandemic sent buyers in search of fresh spaces to spend all their time in, sending the market even higher than it has been in recent years. Through the end of October, Columbus region home sales were up 2.9 percent year to date, and prices were up 9.1 percent. October was especially hot, with closings up 19.4 percent over October 2019 and average sales prices up 15 percent. Meanwhile, the inventory of homes for sale was scarce, down 38.6 percent from October 2019.

File/istockphoto.com/anilakkus

Y E A R

T O

D A T E

Through 10-19

% change

Closed Sales

27,130 27,914 2.9

In Contract

28,911 29,660

Average Sales Price

242,586 264,714 9.1

Median Sales Price

210,000

231,000 10

Original List Price Received

97.40%

98.80% 1.4

Days on Market Until Sale

31

28

-9.7

New Listings

33,973

31,836

-6.3

Source: Columbus Realtors for all of Franklin, Delaware, Fayette, Licking, Madison, Morrow, Pickaway and Union counties, plus parts of Athens, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Fairfield, Hocking, Knox, Logan, Marion, Muskingum, Perry and Ross counties

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Through 10-20

2.6

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profile

By Laura Newpoff + Photos by rob hardin

Jennifer Williams Co-owner

Weiland’s Market Clintonville Founded: 1961

Jennifer Williams in the Weiland’s seafood department.

In position since: 2011 Age: 54 Employees: 80 Education: Bachelor of Science, journalism,

Ohio University

Community involvement: Vice chair, Ohio

Grocers Association

Getting it done Jennifer Williams didn’t plan to leave a career in marketing to run her father’s grocery store with her husband. But their customers are glad she did.

S

aturday, Nov. 14, started like any typical day for Jennifer Williams. After her morning routine of breakfast with two cups of tea, an email and social media check and then a shower, she made the 35-minute trek south from the Morrow County home she shares with her husband, Scott Bowman, to open the doors to Weiland’s Market at 10 a.m.

That afternoon, as Williams was at the front of the store on a call with a customer who was placing an order for a Thanksgiving meal, she saw a man come in without a mask. For Williams, a staunch proponent of face coverings since the earliest days

of COVID-19, that was a no-no.

As she weaved her way through the Clintonville store to find him in the deli department, she could hear customers pleading with him to put on a mask. There’s a sign at the entrance that says face coverings are required for service along with messaging throughout the store that leaves no doubt—the issue is not up for debate. The exchange went like this.

“Sir, you’ve got to put on a mask,” Williams says.

“Miss, you can leave me alone now,” the man says.

“No, I’m not going to leave you alone. You put a mask on, or you leave. My husband and I own this store. That’s the rule.”

He reached for his mask—he had one—and Williams went back to her call. But she knew that wasn’t the end of it. When she hung up,

she found him in the liquor department with his mask pulled down below his nose. Her message to him was the same. Yet this time, as she delivered it, he whipped out his phone and took her photo to intimidate her. On his way out he whispered to her, “You would have made a great Nazi.”

Williams banned him from the store. A customer who had been behind him in the liquor department told Williams the man had put on a pair of brass knuckles after he took her picture.

Turns out, amid COVID-19, for Williams, Bowman and their team, there really aren’t days that can be described as “typical” anymore.

Four generations of grocers Williams is the daughter of John Williams, who co-founded Weiland’s Fine Meats in 1961 with George

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Weiland in a Clintonville storefront at North High Street and West Beaumont Road. The store later moved to Indianola Avenue and Garden Road, about 2 miles north of its current location on Indianola. Her grandfather, Thomas “Harvey” Williams, owned the Williams Food Market on High Street at Weisheimer Road in the 1950s. And her great-grandfather, Thomas B. Williams, owned grocery stores in Grandview in the 1920s and 1930s.

Jennifer Williams grew up on Colerain Avenue in Clintonville with her dad, her mom Jan, a Montessori educator, and her sister, Jill an educator and author. As kids, when the store was closed on Sundays, the sisters went in with their dad so he could tend to the books. Unwrapping cinnamon buns and running them through the meat wrapper became a ritual on the weekends. On weekdays, when the sisters knew their dad was

on his way home in the white van he delivered meat in, they’d run over to the intersection of East Schreyer Place and Colerain Avenue to jump in so they could ride with him—five driveways down.

By the time Williams reached the seventh grade at St. Michael School in Worthington, her dad would drop her off in his brown Ford LTD pickup truck that had a large refrigerated meat container on the back. When the kids at school started referring to her as “Jenny in the meat truck,” she asked her dad to drop her off a little bit farther away.

During high school in 1983, Williams became the first woman to work at the store. While her dad was hesitant to have her among an all-men crew, Williams fit in quickly. She started running the only register in the store, then worked the meat and deli counters, made gift baskets and stocked groceries.

With that lineage and those formative experiences, it might seem like a no-brainer that Williams would carry on the family tradition as a fourthgeneration grocer. That never was the intention, however.

“Dad encouraged me and my sister to get an education so we wouldn’t have to do something that’s this hard, physically,” Williams says. “There was never a discussion, ‘Oh, Jen and Jill, do you want to take over the business?’ It wasn’t that he didn’t think we couldn’t do it. It was more like, ‘Go get an education so you don’t have to do this.’ ” Williams graduated from Ohio University in 1988 with a B.S. in journalism. She returned to Columbus and worked at Suburban News Publications as a reporter for four years before moving to an internal communications position at Banc One. She worked at the company, now JPMorgan Chase & Co., for nearly 20 years in marketing and communications. Her dad was proud of her role in corporate America and Williams’ vice president title.

That dynamic changed in 2009 when John Williams began struggling with heart-valve disease, putting the future of the business he had built into question.

‘I think we can do this.’

Bowman grew up in Cleveland, where he worked for a butcher cutting meat starting at age 14. He moved to Columbus to study photography with a minor in Russian at Ohio State University. Unhappy with a job doing dishes in a university cafeteria, he set out to find a job cutting meat. Heading north from

Even though we’ve been in business almost 60 years, we can’t ever afford to rest on our laurels. Customers have a choice where to shop, and we can’t assume they’ll choose us.

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Q&A

Jennifer Williams credits the success of Weiland’s Market to her team’s willingness to try new things.

What’s the trick for a small, independent grocery store to hold its own against the big chains?

Pandemic or not, we focus on continuous improvement in everything— even small adjustments customers may not notice, but add up to a better experience.

Even though we’ve been in business almost 60 years, we can’t ever afford to rest on our laurels. Customers have a choice where to shop, and we can’t assume they’ll choose us.

We’re never afraid to try something new. We continue to ask “Why?,” and we find most problems have operational solutions. The benefit to having an independent store is we can pivot quickly. If something doesn’t work after we give it a chance, we adjust again.

“Because we’ve always done it this way” isn’t usually the best answer (unless we’re talking about our chicken salad!). At the same time, we can’t be everything to every customer. We’re not going to reinvent the store constantly or try to chase the corporate stores.

How have your employees been affected by the pandemic and how have they adapted?

Our team has worked so, so, so hard over the past nine months. They’ve gotten the job done, and done it well in a very difficult situation—day after day, week after week, month after month. We encourage our team to take care of themselves mentally. The pandemic continues to be a marathon, not a sprint, and we have to pace ourselves. campus, his first stop was Weiland’s Fine Meats where he was hired on the spot. He and Jennifer met in the summer of 1985. Their first date was to see “Back to the Future” at the old Continent in north Columbus.

They’ve been together ever since.

Bowman would go on to work as a meat salesman for John Morrell & Co. before starting his own handyman business. Even so, he has worked at

Weiland’s every holiday season since he started.

“My dad said he couldn’t have picked a better husband for me,” Williams says. “The only time he ever closed the store was on a Saturday for our wedding.”

After John Williams’ health got worse, Williams and Bowman sat down and talked about taking over the market. “I think we can do this,” she told him. “Honey, you have no idea how hard this is going to be,” he replied.

Those who know Williams know her as tough and direct. In deciding to take over the store, she put it like this: “Well, if we hate it, we can just not do it anymore.” The pair took John Williams to dinner in September 2010 at Bravo Italian Kitchen at Polaris. “What do you think if Scott and I take over the store?” she asked her father. He paused and said, “OK,” and, typical of his generation, that was the end of it.

A local ‘springboard’ When Jennifer Williams and Bowman started at the store in fall 2011, Weiland’s had dingy brown carpet riddled with wine stains, old light fixtures, stains in the ceiling tiles and outdated food cases. Called Weiland’s Gourmet Market at the time, its décor included a John Deere riding mower and woven baskets scattered on top of the food cases. “What is this? Is this a farmer’s market or a gourmet grocery store?” Williams wondered.

Williams and Bowman got to work to breathe new life into the business while John Williams continued to work part-time behind the meat

counter. Some of the changes included getting rid of the tractor (which customers asked about for several years), removing “gourmet” from the store name, replacing the carpet with tile, replacing the lights and ceiling tile, repainting the walls and decluttering.

They also added new food cases every time they could afford to. Another big focus was on Ohio products. Weiland’s carries dozens of home-grown brands, and Bowman thinks that gives it a leg up on the larger competition.

“If you’re a small mom-and-pop making desserts and you want to get into one of the larger chains, there’s a $20,000-per-item slotting fee,” Bowman says. “We don’t have any of that, and that’s allowed us to be an incubator for local producers to come here first, get their foot in the door and then move on to other places.”

That was the case for North Country Charcuterie, a Columbus handcured meats business that’s run by “a chef, his brother and their mother.”

The business was just getting off the ground in 2015 when Duncan Forbes, “the brother” who is in charge of sales, got a meeting with Weiland’s cheese-

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Jennifer Williams and Scott Bowman at the Weiland’s butcher counter.

Left, her father John Williams, who co-founded the store. monger Kent Rand.

“He was excited enough about our products and our story that he wanted to move forward even though we were still sifting through a lot of regulations at the time,” Forbes says. “I remember sitting in my car leaving that first meeting and I just turned to mush, almost in tears (of happiness at the) positive reception.”

Weiland’s would become the first store to carry North Country Charcuterie’s products, which Forbes says has been instrumental in the company’s success. Rand was so eager to help the family succeed, he helped them figure out pricing, understand the difference between margin and mark-up, and he customized North Country’s in-store product displays.

Forbes says Williams and Bowman empower the heads of the different departments to have these kinds of relationships. Rand even helped the business create an Italian salami from scratch.

Team effort John Williams died in 2016 at the age of 78. His daughter had become

the face of Weiland’s, and she adopted his philosophy of “don’t make a production about it—just get it done” in operating the store. But Weiland’s, as it exists today, is a team effort. Both Williams and Bowman, who leaves for work each day at 3 a.m., insist they need each other to run the business along with their 80 employees.

Kristin Mullins, CEO of the Ohio Grocers Association, knows Williams and Bowman as customers, and Williams more so through her involvement in the group as vice chair of operations. Weiland’s, in fact, will be the recipient of the association’s 2021 Pinnacle Award, which recognizes operational excellence.

Mullins says the pandemic has given some independent grocery stores across Ohio a shot in the arm. “There’s a recognition in communities of how important a grocery store is to them,” she says. “There’s a feel you get when

Don’t make a production about it— just get it done.

you walk into Weiland’s that you’re not a stranger. That’s really important right now.”

The pandemic caused all sorts of chaos for Williams and Bowman.

Aside from the mask issue, Plexiglas barriers had to be put in to protect employees, social distancing and mask signage had to be installed and protocols had to be implemented to limit the number of customers in the store during peak hours.

Williams likens it to “changing tires on a car on a freeway going 80 miles per hour.” Out of concern for the physical and mental health of their employees, she and Bowman changed the store’s hours from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. to 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Even with shortened hours, there was a buying surge in the early days of the pandemic that had Bowman cutting meat 16 hours a day.

While the confrontations with customers who won’t wear face coverings have brought out the worst in people, Williams says the pandemic has brought out the best in most people.

More customers than not have expressed their appreciation to Williams, Bowman and their team.

Emmanuel Remy, a longtime customer and member of Columbus City Council, is one of them. He could see what Williams and Bowman were going through, especially as it related to the mask issue. In May, he decided to host a video chat with Williams that he would share on his social channels.

“Running a small grocery store in today’s world has been a real challenge,” Remy says. “I wanted people to understand, whether you agree with the mask issue or not, it’s for the safety and mental well-being of the employees who see hundreds of people a day.

She’s really tough and my hat is off to both of them.”

Amy Lozier, another long-time customer who owns Omega Artisan Baking in the North Market, drives from Upper Arlington to shop at Weiland’s. She has pre-existing conditions and says it is the only store she goes to these days.

“I have come to really trust Jennifer and Scott, and the people who work there are so knowledgeable and nice,” Lozier says. “I feel better when I leave there than when I went in.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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Matic

Tech talk

585 S. Front St. Suite 300 Columbus 43215 Matic.com

By Cynthia Bent Findlay

Insurance quotes where you’d need them Matic integrates the insurance buying process.

M

atic, a digital insurance agency with a key tech advantage, has been growing rapidly if quietly over the past few years.

Now with its latest funding round, Matic is in good shape to grab its own headlines alongside the region’s other rising insurtech firms.

Matic’s secret sauce is that it’s the only insurance marketplace embedded within the interface of customers’ financial institutions.

Founder and CEO Ben Madick dreamed up Matic while building a compliance risk management company serving banks and lenders.

Madick says he kept seeing one- to

Business: Digital insurance agency

two-day home loan closing delays because of the slow process of manually gathering information on the homes and buyers for insurance purposes.

“Insurance is all about underwriting good data,” Madick says. “I kept asking why, when we have access to all this great data in our own databases, this should be automatic, so that’s where the name Matic comes from.”

In 2017, Matic launched as an insurance agency embedded within the customer interface of lenders.

If your lender is working with Matic, you can get a custom quote within a couple of minutes rather than having to gather a nest of paperwork. And the company automatically reshops for customers annually, saving them an average of $614 a year, Madick says.

“Most people know that if you have a claim, your price will go up,” he says. “But what they don’t know is if other customers have claims, your price will go up, too.”

Matic now offers Progressive, Allstate, Nationwide, Travelers, and more than 30 other carriers, and is carrier agnostic.

The company is adding partners such as mortgage servicers in 2018 and real estate agents in 2019.

Founder and CEO: Ben Madick Launched: 2017 Employees: 160 Revenue: Would not disclose Investment to date: $32 million Growth has been rapid. Currently, about 20 percent of all U.S. households mortgaged through a bank or Maya and Mica Caine other lender are connected to Matic.

The company has also begun to “upfunnel” in its partnerships with banks, adding the ability for customers with checking or savings accounts to find insurance quotes when banking, not just during a refinance.

Matic also began providing instant quotes through auto loan lenders.

Madick says the company recently signed a top-five global bank as a partner, although details will not be public until first quarter of 2021.

In October, Matic closed on a $24 million Series B round led by IA Capital; investors include Clocktower Technology Ventures and Nationwide Ventures. The company plans to add some 50 to 80 employees to its current 160 employees in 2021.

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

Courtesy matic

You can shop local from the couch Stuck at home shopping online because of COVID? Tired of big box fare and wishing you could find something unique? Shop Small Collective has got your back. Can’t Stop Columbus, the volunteer COVID relief effort, has partnered with Venture for America to help shoppers support local business by buying their wares from home. Venture for America is a fellowship program helping connect recent college graduates with startups across the country looking for help. The two “thinkubators” came up with Shop Small Collective, a volunteer-maintained national database of local retailers at shopsmall.co, where shoppers can filter retailers by city, category or cause.

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briefing

Craig Rogerson

Katy Smith and Jess Deyo

Hexion CEO returns

E

very CEO faced enormous challenges in 2020, even if their companies were soaring, with the flight to work-from-home and the pandemic recession. At Columbus-based Hexion, those challenges were a bit more complicated for President and CEO Craig Rogerson.

Returning from investor meetings in New York City in mid-March, he and his wife both came down with COVID-19. While his wife began to recover, about two weeks after they became ill, Rogerson went into the hospital in Sarasota, Florida. He woke up on May 7 after six weeks on a ventilator.

He spent months after that recovering from the effects of the disease.

Calling himself an “early adopter,” he returned to work in December.

Rogerson praises the leadership team at Hexion, who executed contingency plans and kept the company running through an uncertain spring, summer and fall, with CFO George

Photo courtesy Hexion

Craig Rogerson on the trials of 2020, including a serious bout with COVID-19.

Knight at the helm. Hexion, which makes resins and coatings for the automotive, durable goods and other industries, was deemed essential and has continued operating its 46 global locations. Of its roughly 4,000 employees, about 250 work at its headquarters in Downtown Columbus.

The $3.4 billion chemical manufacturer went about its business so well, it went forward with a planned sale of its phenolic specialty resin, hexamine and Europeanbased forest products resins businesses—which include the Bakelite brand—for $425 million to Black Diamond Capital Management and London-based private equity group

Investindustrial. In September, the company outperformed the same month in 2019.

“We saw across most of the businesses a recovery that was faster than we thought,” Rogerson says.

Strong U.S. housing construction and increasing demand for renewable energy contributed to Hexion’s bounce back from a rough second quarter.

“Momentum has been good going to 2021,” Rogerson says. “I think that’s a good sign for all of us, presuming there is not another significant lockdown prior to the vaccine becoming effective. But we’ll see how that plays out. That uncertainty causes a lot of CEOs to pause.”

–Katy Smith

Moody Nolan named 2021 AIA Firm of the Year for at least a decade. Moody Nolan is the 58th recipient of the award, and the first in Ohio.

File/Columbus CEO/TIM JOHNSON

When Moody Nolan was founded nearly four decades ago, Curt Moody says he didn’t imagine his architecture firm becoming a national leader. Years later, with son Jonathan now serving as CEO, they’re celebrating being named the 2021 Firm of the Year by the American Institute of Architects.

Each year, the AIA bestows just one Firm of the Year award, the highest company honor to be had in an industry that likes its awards programs. To be eligible for the award, firms must have produced top-notch architecture

Jonathan and Curt Moody

Since 1982, Moody Nolan, the largest Black-owned firm in the country, has grown to more than

230 staff members with offices spread throughout the country.

The firm has received over 300 awards, and currently receives an award every 30 days, on average, Curt Moody says.

The father-son duo credits much of their success to having a widely diverse staff, which allows for a variety of perspectives to be applied to projects. Moody Nolan cherishes the voices that contribute to each success, the Moodys say, along with the clients they have the opportunity to represent.

–Jess Deyo January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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spotlight

By Joel Oliphint + Photo by rob hardin

Small Business

From prison to startup CEO Harley Blakeman’s company, Honest Jobs, helps people with criminal records find employment through an online marketplace.

H

arley Blakeman has never been afraid of risk. Back in 2010, when Blakeman was 18, he knew trafficking drugs from Florida to Georgia was a risky endeavor. But he was making good money. He thought he was on the path to becoming a millionaire.

Instead, that year he ended up in a Georgia jail for two months, and then prison for a year.

“Before I was incarcerated, I had been a homeless teen for a couple of years. I was abusing drugs and alcohol really badly before I was locked up,” says Blakeman, who lost his father at 15; his mother came in and out of his life. “When I got locked up, I was sober for the first time in a couple of years. I looked around and was able to see the path I was headed down.”

Honest Jobs Honestjobs.co

Business: Marketplace helping formerly

incarcerated people find jobs with fair-chance employers.

Founder: Harley Blakeman Employees: 5 Investment to date: $270,000

Harley Blakeman Blakeman has family in Central Ohio—two aunts and a grandmother—and while he was in prison, they started sending him books. “I was a high school dropout, so I didn’t like to read, but this was the first time where I didn’t have anything to distract me,” he says. “I read a book or two and realized I really enjoyed reading. Then I read 50 or 60 books, mostly on business and personal development, and it opened my mind that I’m not an idiot. So I got my GED while I was in prison.”

When Blakeman got out of prison, he had a couple of things going for him: He had a place to stay, and it was far from the people and places associated with his past. One of his aunts, a schoolteacher, let him live in her family’s basement, and she also helped him get a job working in the kitchen of a Japanese steakhouse.

He saved for an apartment, a car and community college. After a year at Columbus State, Blakeman trans-

ferred to Ohio State University, and during his senior year he began his job search, but he got rejected again and again due to his prison record.

Eventually, Blakeman got a manufacturing job in Newark, and worked his way up to supervisor. The pay wasn’t bad, but the night shifts and long hours were brutal. And the plight of his post-prison life nagged at him. He knew other people were having an even more difficult time with re-entry, trying desperately to get new jobs and careers instead of falling back into situations that could lead them back to prison.

It was time for Blakeman to take a risk again. “One day, in late 2018, I decided I’m going to take out my 401(k), and I’m going to start a company where I help people get back to work.” He created an online platform to help ex-offenders rebuild their credit, go to college and get jobs. That idea stalled, but he had another: Honest Jobs, a marketplace

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“Our criminal justice system is broken.

Poor communities and communities of color are over-policed and they’re over-punished.”

Start your

COMPLIMENTARY SUBSCRIPTION TODAY at columbusceo.com.

Harley Blakeman, founder, Honest Jobs

for people with criminal records and their probation officers to match with fair-chance employers. Another local entrepreneur, Claire Coder of Aunt Flow, introduced him to an investor who put $100,000 into the company and enabled Blakeman to officially launch Honest Jobs last year.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing. The company had government contracts lined up, but those fell through once COVID-19 began shutting things down. But through “sheer willpower,” a couple of loans and some new contracts, Blakeman and his team have kept Honest Jobs afloat. Another recent development put more wind in its sails: This fall, Honest Jobs was one of 11 companies chosen to participate in the Techstars Workforce Development Accelerator.

The opportunity includes a cash investment, but even more important to Blakeman is the business accelerator’s three-month mentorship program.

He acknowledges the stress of startup life, but he’s motivated by his mission.

He says the protests after the death of George Floyd served as a wake-up call for the business and tech sectors.

“Our criminal justice system is broken. Poor communities and communities of color are over-policed and they’re over-punished,” Blakeman says. “Every company is trying to prove to the world that they care about the Black and brown community right now. More and more companies are saying, ‘We stand with them rather than against them.’ ” Still, there’s a long way to go for people with criminal records. “It’s a slow development. [Most] companies haven’t implemented an effective way to practice what they preach,” Blakeman says. He’s hoping Honest Jobs can help them do just that.

Joel Oliphint is associate editor for Columbus Alive.

Support local, now more than ever.

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January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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spotlight

By Shannon Shelton Miller + Photo by rob hardin

Nonprofit

Community effort Local business partners are making sure the children of Columbus have a brand new Boys & Girls Club.

T

hanks to a charity basketball game in an aging gym, hundreds of children in Columbus’ Milo-Grogan neighborhood will soon be playing basketball and much more in a stateof-the-art facility designed to be a community centerpiece.

Late last year, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio and the Champion Cos., a multifamily development firm, razed the 65-year-old clubhouse in Milo-Grogan and broke ground on a new 24,160-square-foot facility at 1012 Cleveland Ave. When it opens in 2022, the new clubhouse will combine two existing neighborhood clubs and house the nonprofit’s

administrative offices. Community, civic and business partners have donated nearly $10 million to the $13.5 million campaign, with Champion providing a $2.5 million lead gift.

The birth of the project took place years earlier when Brian Yeager, Champion’s CEO, attended a Cleveland Cavaliers game with another developer. After some friendly back and forth about their respective basketball skills, they decided to host a charity game in Columbus, with the losing team donating $25,000 to the winning team’s charity of choice.

Yeager chose Boys & Girls Clubs and a game was scheduled at the MiloGrogan clubhouse.

Champion won the prize, but during the game Yeager noticed the wear-and-tear throughout the gym, including basketball rims that tilted sideways. “I just had a strong

conviction about how much this club needed some improvements,” Yeager says. “I knew it wasn’t the best environment for all of the kids that went to the club every day.”

Yeager matched the prize amount to give the Boys & Girls Clubs a $50,000 gift that day, and he began conversations with the organization’s leadership about doing much more. They first considered renovating the facility before deciding to launch a comprehensive campaign to fund the construction of a new one. Yeager also teamed up with Jordan Miller, a retired Fifth Third Bank regional market president, to co-chair the initiative. Yeager and Miller had done business together in the past, and when Yeager told Miller about the project, he didn’t hesitate to get involved.

“It was serendipitous because we

Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Ohio CEO Doug Wolf, left, community advocate Jordan Miller and Champion CEO Brian Yeager.

Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio

1108 City Park Ave., Suite 301 Columbus 43206 bgcentralohio.org

Mission: To give young people ages 6 through

18 support, guidance, tools and skills for a successful future through afterschool and summer programming.

CEO: Doug Wolf Employees: Pre-COVID-19 staff of 70 Revenue: $4 million Funding sources: Corporations/foundations

50%, government 36%, individuals 13%, membership dues 1%

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“It was serendipitous because we were having some internal conversations around a campaign, but at that point, it really did not include a capital component and certainly not a goal of this magnitude.”

Doug Wolf, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio were having some internal conversations around a campaign, but at that point, it really did not include a capital component and certainly not a goal of this magnitude,” says Doug Wolf, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio. “Brian and his team really strengthened this campaign.”

For Miller, the project was personal. As a child growing up in MiloGrogan, he visited the clubhouse regularly as a member of what was then the Boys Club. For seven years, he’d go to the clubhouse with his

brothers after school and stay until their father picked them up at the end of his workday.

“This is a kickstart for that neighborhood,” Miller says. “It’s a bluecollar neighborhood with a lot of hardworking people. They deserve this kind of place for their children.

When I look at all that the city of Columbus and Milo-Grogan has done to get me off to a good start, I can’t think of a more fitting way to give something back to the community.”

In addition to housing the nonprofit’s administrative offices, the new clubhouse will have theater seating, an outdoor garden, career development rooms and a new gym.

The old clubhouse served about 100 kids, and Wolf said many more will be able to access services in the new building. In 2019, the Boys & Girls Clubs served about 4,200 youth across the region, a number expected to increase when the new clubhouse opens next year.

Before the old building was demolished last October, the organization opened the clubhouse to the community for a final goodbye.

Club alumni shared their stories, including Jim Cleamons, the LindenMcKinley High School and Ohio State University basketball standout who played nine seasons in the NBA and won titles as a player and coach. The Milo-Grogan gym, which opened in 1955, was one of the first venues to showcase his talent, and alumni like Cleamons will be recognized and honored in the new facility.

“I know there were some members of the Milo-Grogan community and our staff who shed some tears when that building went down because there are so many memories there,” Wolf says. “We will honor those memories in the new space, and there’s lots of excitement for what’s to come with this new building.”

Shannon Shelton Miller is a freelance writer.

MARCH 2021

Healthcare Achievement Awards Cyber Security: Roundtable Health Watch: Covid-19 Vaccinations CEO Leaderboards

Online Degree Programs Space Deadline: January 29

For advertising information, call 614-540-8900 today or email advertise@columbusceo.com January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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spotlight

By Cynthia Bent Findlay + Photo by ROB HARDIN

Innovation

Fuel cell solution A Columbus company is advancing tech that’s been slow to develop.

F

uel cells have been talked about decades as the magic bullet solution to the carbon conundrum. Fuel cells take hydrogen and convert it to electricity, leaving only water instead of carbon dioxide and other toxins as waste.

As the technology has been slow to develop, fuel cells have taken a back seat to electric charging for vehicles. But fuel cells power buildings, vehicles, even submarines.

Worthington-based pH Matter, which has produced components for mobile fuel cell applications since 2009, is poised to take advantage of technological breakthroughs in the field. pH Matter produces a catalyst, the heart of the cell itself, made of proprietary specialized carbon and

“We want to be the leading supplier of catalysts for heavy duty truck applications.”

Paul Matter, CEO, pH Matter

pH Matter

6655 Singletree Dr. Columbus 43229 pHMatter.com Business: Fuel cell materials R&D,

manufacturing and solutions

CEO/founder: Paul Matter Employees: 10 Revenue: Would not disclose

Paul Matter

platinum that makes cheaper, more durable fuel cells.

The company’s market and competitors are primarily in Japan and Europe, where the hydrogen fuel infrastructure is more advanced.

Fuel cells pose an advantage over battery-electric engines because they can refuel rapidly and with much less labor. Many large warehouse-dependent companies such as Amazon already use fuel cell forklifts—in 2017 Amazon began the switch to fuel cells.

Industry insiders say North American companies are on the brink of breakthroughs in the heavy duty truck industry, including Cummins, GM and Nikola Motors.

“When you see a big dog like Cummins doing this, you’re seeing ... opportunity here,” says Pat Valente, executive director of the Ohio Fuel Cell Coalition. “We have a number of companies in the state in fuel cells.

It’s a booming market.”

Valente points to rapidly growing Plug Power, which is headquartered in Albany, New York, but is expanding its service center in Dayton.

Buses present another opportunity—Canton’s transit agency is piloting a fleet of 12 H2-powered buses. Over the 12-year lifespan of a transit bus, fuel cell vehicles are close to reaching cost parity and solve a lot of problems for cities, says David Cooke, senior associate director for Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research. Cooke was part of the team that created the world’s fastest hydrogen-powered car, the Buckeye Bullet II, in 2009.

“Think of the cities with the worst

air quality problems—throughout Europe they’re starting to ban internal combustion vehicles in city centers. Anywhere there are air quality problems, it’s a way to turn off emissions,” Cooke says.

Cooke says pH Matter has an important role to play in putting fuel cell vehicles on the road—and in giving Ohio manufacturing a role.

The U.S.-based supply chain, says pH Matter CEO Paul Matter, is why the DOE is funding a $2.3 million project with the company. “We want to be the leading supplier of catalysts for heavy duty trucks,” he says. pH Matter also recently won a $3.4 million grant from NASA for a project using solar power to produce hydrogen from water over the 14-day long lunar days, and then converting it back to electricity and water to run space stations over the equally long, dark lunar night. pH Matter was just awarded a patent for that reversible fuel cell on Dec. 2. pH Matter recently spun off a new entity, Power to Hydrogen, to advance that research. It hired Tad Dritz as CEO. The company has backing from Rev1 Ventures, Ohio Third Frontier and Shell. It’s in the midst of a $2.5 million seed fundraising round for Power to Hydrogen and has raised $1.5 million of that from non-dilutive sources including Shell.

Matter projects Power to Hydrogen will grow to 40 employees, and pH Matter could double in five years to 20 workers.

Cynthia Bent Findlay is a freelance writer.

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Future Headquarters, Andelyn Biosciences

Breaking Ground to Make Columbus a Groundbreaking Biotech Hub Andelyn Biosciences is one of Columbus’ newest companies expanding the city’s reputation as a high-tech hub.

Andelyn is already a world leader in gene therapy development and manufacturing thanks to foundational research from its affiliate partner Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Currently located at Nationwide Children’s, Andelyn Biosciences has broken ground on a new 185,000-square-foot facility that will expand its gene therapy manufacturing capabilities and Central Ohio’s pioneering biotech reputation.

• 200+ new jobs created • Life-changing gene therapies for pharma and biotech companies worldwide

• New educational and occupational opportunities • Commitment to creating treatments that give families hope

Andelyn Biosciences is grateful to the following organizations who have helped make this new facility a reality, opening in 2022.

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Estate planning

Taking the long view Two years after retiring from Diamond Hill, Ric Dillon is back.

By Tim Feran + Photos by ROB HARDIN

S

tarting a new business just as a global pandemic is beginning may seem like an invitation to failure, if not disaster.

But that’s the short-term view. And one of Ric Dillon’s strengths is that he resolutely takes the long view.

Dillon is well-known in the investment community for founding the wildly successful, publicly traded Diamond Hill Investments in 2000.

Under his leadership, Diamond Hill grew from nothing to be ranked in the top 1 percent of all public companies in the United States in shareholder total return, with an annualized total return of 27 percent. By 2018, assets of Diamond Hill were $21.8 billion.

The following year, Dillon retired as chairman of the board. He had just become a father and was looking forward to enjoying this “new venture” with his wife Marina.

Dillon’s retirement was brief, however.

Ric Dillon CEO, VELA Investment Management Since: 2019 Age: 62 Previous: Founder and CEO of Diamond Hill

Investments; prior experience includes founding Dillon Capital Management, which was acquired

by Loomis, Sayles & Co.

Education: MBA from University of Dayton,

master’s in finance and bachelor’s in business administration from Ohio State University

Personal: Splits time between homes in New Albany and Naples, Florida, with wife Marina and their 2-year-old daughter Luisa.

Ric Dillon “I was driving on 161 with my wife and I got a phone call last fall, last year,” Dillon says. “The new CEO at Diamond Hill, Heather Brilliant, called and told me that the company would be exiting the private asset management business, ‘and I know that’s been near and dear to you,’ she said, and she was calling as a courtesy to let me know.

“I said thank you,” Dillon says.

“And then I said, ‘I guess I’ll come out of retirement.’ About 30 seconds later I called (Diamond Hill’s former chief operating officer) Lisa Wesolek and said, ‘Want to join me?’ ” Soon after that, Dillon told another former Diamond Hill colleague, Jason Job, “We’re getting the band back together.” The new company now had three co-founders.

In the year since those calls, the firm has moved forward quickly, pandemic be damned. The company was registered with the Securi-

ties and Exchange Commission, established a headquarters in New Albany, hired a team of experienced investment professionals (almost all from Dillon’s old gang at Diamond Hill), attracted more than three dozen clients and $128 million in assets under management and, oh yes, came up with a name—VELA Investment Management.

“It’s been made a lot easier since I go back 20 years with many of (my VELA colleagues),” Dillon says. It’s also been easy because Dillon “left Diamond Hill in great shape,” says Jack Kessler, chairman of the New Albany Co. and a longtime friend.

“I’m just thrilled he’s back. I think his clients are thrilled. Besides, there are only so many days a week you can play golf.”

Dillon’s legacy at Diamond Hill “truly was extraordinary,” says David Meuse, who was chairman of the board for Diamond Hill Investment January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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VELA Investment Management

Ric Dillon and Lisa Wesolek

220 Market St., Suite 208, New Albany vela-im.com Business: Personal investment management Co-founders: Ric Dillon, Lisa Wesolek, Jason Job Launch date: November 2019, regulatory approval in January 2020 Employees: 15 full-time, and a chief

compliance officer shared with another firm

Assets under management: $128 million Group from 2000 to 2011. “It went from zero to $22 billion—that’s an unbelievable accomplishment.”

Like many entrepreneurs, Dillon “has a lot of drive,” Meuse says. “He’s very focused, sometimes stubborn— but I still love him. I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like that. He wanted to get back in the game. I worry about entrepreneurs who get back and it doesn’t work out. But it will work out with Ric because he’s very disciplined, very focused.”

Dillon also has other significant differences from other entrepreneurs and money managers.

“He had a lot of respect from people in the firm,” Meuse says. “He’s wellliked, a kind person. That’s not the case with many money managers—a lot of them don’t care about people.

They’re just interested in making

“I was driving on 161 with my wife and I got a phone call last fall, last year. The new CEO at Diamond Hill, Heather Brilliant, called and told me that the company would be exiting the private asset management business, ‘and I know that’s been near and dear to you,’ she said, and she was calling as a courtesy to let me know. I said thank you.

And then I said, ‘I guess I’ll come out of retirement.’ ” Ric Dillon, VELA Investment Management

money. I think that’s a big deal. I care for him and I respect him, and I think most people respect him.

“He’s an interesting combination of entrepreneur with vision, and a good, long-term oriented money manager. He’s going to develop a nice firm there.”

One of Dillon’s hires at Diamond Hill, and now at VELA, is indicative of his approach.

Jenny Hubbard was working at a small investment firm in Nashville in 2002 when Dillon happened to get a look at a research report that she had written “and had a very favorable impression,” she says. “He was looking at building his research staff. He had a couple large clients in Nashville and whenever he was in town, we would have breakfast.”

A few years later, Dillon sought to hire Hubbard as an analyst at Diamond Hill, but Hubbard and her husband had recently moved their family to Denver. That didn’t deter Dillon.

“Ric said, ‘We can make it work,’” she says. “I was their only telecommuter and went back and forth every other week to Columbus. He’s just that kind of guy. When he finds someone who is going to be a good fit, he cultivates them. He treats employees like family. He’s very focused on attracting the right people.”

Today, Hubbard is a portfolio manager for VELA, one of a very few women in that role in the country.

When pandemic conditions permit, she flies to Ohio from Denver to have face-to-face meetings with colleagues and clients.

Dillon believes the reasons he and his colleagues have been so successful

boil down to four points.

The first is a valuation-centric philosophy. “I like to say, God knows what every company is worth. Humans can only estimate,” Dillon says.

But in buying stock it’s important to have a best estimate on a company’s value, because “the price you pay, that is the only thing you can be certain of.”

The second is having experienced investment managers. “That’s a huge advantage,” Dillon says. In addition to having trust in his colleagues, trust that has been built up over years of working together, “we’re long-term in everything we do,” giving all of them deep knowledge of the businesses they cover and the events that have affected them.

The third is hewing to a long-term investment strategy. “I really do think that, over the short term, the market moves based on emotions,” he says.

“But over the long term, the market moves based on economics. And by focusing on long-term economics, it’s more predictable.”

The final point is aligning clients’ investments with the company’s personal investments. Those words— valuation, experience, long-term, alignment—make VELA. “We didn’t think ‘veal’ would be very good. And we found that ‘Vale’ was a Brazilian company involved in a dam collapse, so that wasn’t good.”

The final order, vela, turned out to be a Latin word meaning sails of a ship. That’s appropriate for a firm that seems to have had the wind at its back from the outset.

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

20 ColumbusCEO l January 2021

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special advertising section

moving forward with optimism

In partnership with

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COULD WE REALLY HAVE BEEN NAMED

BEST SUBURB TO DO BUSINESS? (YEP, 10 YEARS IN A ROW.)

EVERY THING GROWS HERE.

Named “Best Suburb to do Business” for 10 consecutive years by Columbus CEO

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Columbus Site Manager

Alan Miller

Marion

Publisher/General Manager

Ray Paprocki

Morrow Logan

EDI TO RIAL

Knox Union

Editor

Katy Smith Contributors

Evan Weese and Laura Newpoff

Delaware

DES IG N & PR ODUC TI ON

Licking

Production/Design Director

Craig Rusnak Art Director (Columbus CEO)

Franklin

Yogesh Chaudhary DIGI TAL Digital Editor

Madison

Fairfield

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Brittany Moseley

Pickaway

PH OTO GRAPHY Photo Editor

Tim Johnson Associate Photo Editor

Rob Hardin

Contents 04 One Columbus Board and Team 06 The compelling case for optimism A note from One Columbus chairman Pablo Vegas

The Bright Spots 08 Investment shows continued confidence in Columbus Region.

12 Economic Engines Key industries have emerged to take the Columbus Region into the future.

16 The Right Stuff Why site selectors and economic development experts are bullish on the Columbus Region: A talented workforce, major educational institutions and a growing population.

24 Communities of Innovation When the economy was revived in May, the Columbus Region came back strong: People helping other people, smart ideas for supporting businesses and a communal desire to get things back on track for the good of all.

Cover IMAGES:

Clockwise from top, Columbus Downtown Development Corp., Transportation Research Center, Tim Johnson, Kyle Robertson

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62 E. Broad St. P.O. Box 1289 Columbus, OH 43216 614-888-4567 One Columbus, a supplement to Columbus CEO, is published annually by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted Š 2020, all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials. l

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special advertising section

moving forward with optimism

board of Directors

One Columbus

Pablo A. Vegas, Chairman

office of the ceo

EVP and COO, NiSource Inc., and President, NiSource Utilities

Sue Zazon, Secretary President and Executive Vice President, Central Ohio Region, The Huntington National Bank

Gregory R. Overmyer, Treasurer Chief Executive Officer Overmyer Hall Associates

President and Chief Economic Officer

Jackie Pervan Executive Assistant to the CEO

Sean Grant Chief Administrative Officer

Jennifer Randall

Kevin Boyce

Senior Staff Accountant

County Commissioner Franklin County Board of Commissioners

Tara Griffin

Corrine Burger

Haley Young

President and Chief Executive Officer The Columbus Partnership

Administrative Specialist

Business Development and Project Management Matt McCollister Senior Vice President, Economic Development

Director of Economic Development City of Dublin

Matt McQuade

Andrew J. Ginther, Mayor, City of Columbus

Deborah Scherer

Aaron Pitts, Senior Managing Director of Healthcare

Managing Director, Global Trade and Investment

JobsOhio

Justin Bickle

Robert H. Schottenstein Chief Executive Officer and President, M/I Homes

Managing Director, Client Services and Project Management

Tom Shoupe

Logan Dawson, Project Manager

Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Honda of America Mfg., Inc.

Tom Stipkovich, Project Manager

Mark Smolik

Director, Workforce and Talent Solutions

Raja Sundararajan President and Chief Operating Officer AEP Ohio

David Williams, Ph.D., Sc.D., Executive Dean, College of Engineering, The Ohio State University

A

Staff Accountant

Colleen Gilger

Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, and Chief Compliance Officer, DHL Supply Chain

O

finance and administration

Nationwide Property & Casualty

Alex R. Fischer

O

Kenny McDonald, CEcD

Mark Berven, President and Chief Operating Officer

Chief Control Officer, Consumer and Community Banking JPMorgan Chase & Co.

O

Managing Director, Business Development

David White Jay Knox Research Manager

Shelly Ma Economic Development Data Analyst

Investor Relations Chip Holcombe Managing Director, Investor Relations

EX-OFFICIO Matthew Bailey, Partner Squire Patton Boggs

Kenny McDonald, CEcD President and Chief Economic Officer One Columbus

4

Marketing and Communications Amy Harman Director, Marketing and Communications

Research Jung Kim

Sean Grant, Chief Administrative Officer

Managing Director, Research and Business Intelligence

One Columbus

Juliet Hall, Research Analyst

P

ColumbusCEO l

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ONE FOR OPPORTUNITY.

ONE FOR ALL OF US.

Partners for Regional Growth & Prosperity

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Working together to create a more prosperous future has never been more important.

See what we’re doing at columbusregion.com/onecolumbus

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moving forward with optimism

Compelling case for optimism The Columbus Region has claimed an outsized share of bright spots in the midst of a challenging time. Companies are expanding, development projects are breaking ground, and people throughout Central Ohio are continuing to innovate.

Our region is resilient and growing for many reasons. We have a location that provides unmatched market access, a talented population, and a diverse set of industries. And we have One

6

Columbus, our regional economic development partner, recently named one of the best in the country.

During the last decade, these advantages propelled the Columbus Region’s rise to prominence as a leading U.S. metro for population, wage and job growth.

Now, we face historic challenges that must be addressed. As we work to build economic growth and opportunity for everyone in our region, I have no doubt that the Columbus Region will emerge stronger than ever before.

Pablo Vegas EVP/Chief Operating Officer, NiSource and President, NiSource Utilities; Chairman, One Columbus Board of Directors

Courtesy Nick Adams

ColumbusCEO l

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Facebook, Google and other leading tech companies all saw the same thing in New Albany.

The future.

They saw a business park with a clear vision of tomorrow. They saw the strength of our technological infrastructure. They saw one of the nation’s most robust and affordable fiber optic networks, triple electric feeds and the power of tremendous bandwidth.

They saw what every company wants when looking for a new home. A place that delivers the resources they need to grow.

To thrive. And look ahead with confidence.

The New Albany International Business Park.

Where will your business be tomorrow?

The New Albany International Business Park and its Information and Technology Cluster are home to a growing list of leading mission critical facilities. We invite you to join them.

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special advertising section

moving forward with optimism

The Bright Spots Investment activity shows confidence in the Columbus Region

By Evan Weese Even a historically challenging year isn’t softening confidence in the Columbus Region.

Despite the sudden recession brought on by Covid-19, major investments are taking place, from new biosciences laboratories to millions of square feet of speculative warehouse developments around Rickenbacker International Airport and the creation of an entirely new neighborhood on the edge of downtown Columbus.

Not all metropolitan areas are as fortunate. The remarkable level of activity is happening in part thanks to longstanding advantages: a diverse economy, the presence of stable institutions like the state government and Ohio State University, an educated talent pool, affordability and the Columbus Way of getting things done.

entire neighborhoods.

Most notably, the Scioto Peninsula project expands downtown Columbus west of the river and creates a dense mini-downtown on 26 undeveloped acres. The Columbus Downtown Development Corp. and a group of private partners broke ground on the project in September, with the first phase to be developed over the next 10 to 15 years and include up

to 1,800 residential units, 2 million square feet of office space and 400 hotel rooms.

Despite the uncertainties surrounding long-term remote work, the project includes a sizable investment in speculative office space. Daimler Group, developing the office portion, believes there is no replacement for the culture that comes with collaborating with team members in person.

Investing and growing The 11-county Columbus Region is expected to grow from about 2.2 million residents to 3 million by 2050, according to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.

Of those moving to the region, 42 percent are college graduates, meaning educated young people are coming from around the world to enjoy the high quality of life, a key factor in leading Columbus to be named a top-five city for new college grads.

To ensure the region is prepared to accommodate the influx, real estate developers are working full steam ahead on new housing developments, apartment complexes, office buildings and

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Proposed Rockbridge hotel on the Scioto Peninsula

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Robert White Jr., Daimler’s president, credits the collaboration between the public and private sectors, as well as the city’s tax abatements, for laying the groundwork.

“We also still believe strongly in the Columbus Region,” White says. “What the city and CDDC have invested in the area—these unbelievable urban outdoor environments, the upgrading of the river, the investment in Vets Memorial, the investment in COSI, the proximity to the downtown core and the ease of access to come and go all make us really bullish on the site itself.”

The CDDC has been eyeing the project for more than a decade, believing the peninsula is a premier development site. It’s no time to slow down, CEO Guy Worley says.

“We want to recruit new employers, not only from within our city, but we think this site is going to be

very competitive from a national perspective as well,” he says.

Not all U.S. metros are moving forward with such ambitious projects.

“Many projects were put on pause as soon as the pandemic started—I think that’s what differentiates us moving forward,” Worley says. “I think our city is well positioned because of the talent, the diversity of our businesses. I think Columbus will weather the storm much better.”

Elsewhere, the region’s growth prospects are driving investment at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, with the development of a new hotel, rental car facility and the utilities required for a new terminal to be built in the coming decades.

The Columbus Regional Airport Authority is looking beyond the short-term drop in passenger traffic brought on by the pandemic, leaning on support from partners in the region including elected officials, One Columbus and the Columbus Partnership.

“This is one community working together to make this place better— it’s amazing,” says Joseph Nardone, CEO of the CRAA. “Everybody is in growth mode in Columbus, so that creates a backdrop of success.”

Adapting and responding

Rendering courtesy Johnson Nathan Strohe

Through a period of tumult and uncertainty, the Columbus Region is relying on the investments already made while leaning into new opportunities in developing industries.

The regional growth strategy laid out by One Columbus involves developing and attracting the world’s most competitive companies, growing a highly adaptive workforce, preparing communities for the future and inspiring innovation from corporate, academic and public sectors.

The biomedical industry is proving to be one of those bright spots of innovation. Spinoffs from health care systems and larger companies are leading medical breakthroughs and cutting-edge technology.

The Abigail Wexner Research Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a global leader in gene

therapy, is prompting an outgrowth of related investment.

Sarepta Therapeutics, a leader in precision genetic medicine for rare diseases, will expand its Gene Therapy Center of Excellence by investing $30 million to open a new facility and create over 100 new jobs. Sarepta plans to open its new center in an 85,000-square-foot facility near Easton Town Center.

Dr. Louise Rodino-Klapac, senior vice president of gene therapy for Sarepta, says the new center will underscore the region’s status as a leader in gene therapy, building on the advances of its long-standing partner, Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

“It was clear that the talent pool, not only in my lab, but in the broader Columbus Region was high, and it really made sense to stay here in Columbus to make sure that we could achieve our goals,” says Dr. Rodino-Klapac, who led the Laboratory for Gene Therapy Research at Nationwide Children’s Hospital before joining Sarepta.

“There’s a collection of strong academic institutions... So you have a rich talent pool from those regions to draw from as well.”

Also this year, the children’s hospital announced the creation of Andelyn Biosciences, an affiliate company that will manufacture gene therapy products for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.

When it begins operating in 2023, the $200 million, 140,000-squarefoot building will be central Ohio’s first commercial-scale Good Manufacturing Practices clinical manufacturing facility devoted to gene therapies.

“Andelyn Biosciences is another powerful example of the ways Nationwide Children’s Hospital is advancing health care and innovation in the Columbus Region,” says One Columbus CEO Kenny McDonald. “The impact they have had, and will continue to have, has proved invaluable to our economy, communities and residents.”

The investments come more than 20 years after Nationwide Children’s Hospital made a commitment to developing new gene therapies, proving the value of laying l

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“It was clear that the talent pool, not only in my lab, but in the broader Columbus Region was high, and it really made sense to stay here in Columbus to make sure that we could achieve our goals.”

Dr. Louise Rodino-Klapac, senior vice president of gene therapy, Sarepta Therapeutics

Columbus Region 15-county projected population growth for 2018-2050

the groundwork for emerging industries.

Dr. Dennis Durbin, chief scientific officer of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at NCH, believes the Columbus Region is becoming a hub for gene therapy similar to the way that Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Research Triangle in Raleigh, North Carolina, have positioned themselves.

“Having all of that co-located together is really advantageous,” Durbin says.

In another major investment, Singapore-based Nodis said it is moving its executive team to the region with the goal of transforming the emerging “smart glass” industry.

The company has developed what it says is a less expensive way to produce glass that can be tinted by the user. It plans to open a factory in the Columbus Region to manufacture its key “nano particle” component, in part because of the proximity to much of the U.S.—46 percent of the country’s population is reachable within a one-day drive from Columbus.

That geographic positioning also makes the region an ideal location for distribution and fulfillment operations.

Rickenbacker International Airport, one of the only cargodedicated airports in the world, is now taking eight weekly arrivals of clothing, auto, and electronics deliveries via Korean Air Cargo.

Columbus is an emerging cargo base for American retail distribution and logistics companies.

Additionally, a cold pharmaceutical storage facility is being constructed at Rickenbacker International Airport. For something the agency has been working on for years, the facility’s timing during the coronavirus pandemic is “impeccable,” Nardone says. He and his team are being aggressive to secure business, flexing with the market to make sure they meet the needs of customers.

There is also millions of square feet of speculative warehouse development occurring near Rickenbacker.

The airport broke records

i n v e s t m e n t s

a c r

2018 population

2,373,300 2050 projected population

3,007,300 2018 jobs

1,196,303 2050 projected jobs

1,490,303 42%

Share of people moving to the region who are college educated

Source: Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission

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Scioto Peninsula

Transportation Research Center

Location: West State and Belle

Location: 10820 State Route 347,

streets, Columbus, Ohio 43215

East Liberty, Ohio 43319

Specifics: Initial plans include up to 1,800 residential units, up to 2 million square feet of new office space and 400 hotel rooms.

The first phase broke ground in September and the project, which represents the creation of a new Downtown neighborhood, will be developed over 10 to 15 years.

Specifics: Largest independent vehicle test facility and proving grounds in the U.S. Includes 4,500 acres of road courses, wooded trails, a 7.5-mile high-speed oval test track, 50-acre vehicle dynamics area, or “black lake,” and a mix of smart mobility testing areas and facilities.

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for international cargo in June, reflecting its ability to shift gears in response to pandemic needs.

During this time of extreme supply chain disruption, Rickenbacker has proven to be an indispensable asset for the region, Nardone says.

“Rickenbacker is an unbelievable story,” he says. “Our people have scrambled to continue developing business. They leave no stone unturned.”

With multiple smart mobility assets and testing grounds, the Columbus Region provides the most comprehensive mobility ecosystem in the U.S and one of the most cost-effective markets for testing, development and physical operations.

In 2016, Columbus won the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge, which led to the creation of Smart Columbus and several mobility initiatives, including efforts around electric car adoption.

In Union County, the Transportation Research Center is the largest independent vehicle-testing and

a c r o s s

proving grounds in the U.S. TRC has about 400 employees, from automotive technicians to world-recognized PhD research scientists, benefitting from the network of collective assets that ranges from government to academic and the private sector and includes the U.S. 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, the OSU Center for Automotive Research, Connected Marysville and DriveOhio.

CEO Brett Roubinek expects the company could double revenue from $40 million to $80 million in about five years.

“We have strong players in all of those segments and, in the central Ohio way, we work together and that is helping to drive the growth,” Roubinek says. “The pieces are absolutely all there, and it’s a matter of continuing to refine alignment to better answer the ongoing development needs. The technology is developing so quickly, the collaboration is pivotal to being able to bring the assets in alignment and create the opportunities to draw the companies in.”

d i v e r s e

All these futuristic jobs will demand a whole new set of skills.

That’s why JPMorgan Chase and others are preparing hundreds of thousands of people for the workforce of the future.

Columbus is one of 10 global cities to receive career readiness philanthropic investments as part of the bank’s $75 million global initiative.

In the Columbus Region, a $7 million investment builds on this work and brings together partners including Columbus City Schools and the Ohio Department of Education to institute career pathways in every high school that align to postsecondary education opportunities.

“It’s really important that we continue to invest in skills that we need as a firm, and our community needs, to continue to have great employment here in Columbus,” says Corrine Burger, managing director and Columbus location leader for JPMorgan Chase, the region’s largest private employer.

Evan Weese is a freelance writer.

s e c t o r s

Rickenbacker International Airport

Andelyn Biosciences

Sarepta Therapeutics

Location: 7250 Star Check Drive,

Location: Lane Avenue and

Location: 3435 Stelzer Road,

Columbus 43217

Carmack Road, Columbus 43221

Columbus, Ohio 43219

Specifics: Cargo airport that supports the world’s largest aircraft.

Rickenbacker offers a geographic advantage for shippers and distributors, quickly and reliably moving goods through North America. Millions of square feet of speculative warehouse development is taking place around the airport.

Specifics: An affiliate company of Nationwide Children’s Hospital that will manufacture gene therapy products for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry scheduled to begin operations in 2023. Plans call for building an approximately $200 million, 140,000-square-foot facility.

Specifics: Expanding Sarepta’s Gene Therapy Center of Excellence by investing $30 million to open a new facility and create over 100 new jobs at an 85,000-squarefoot facility. Project builds on the advances of Sarepta’s longstanding partner, Nationwide Children’s Hospital. l

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moving forward with optimism

Economic Engines Several key industries are taking the Columbus Region into the future.

By Evan Weese Through economic expansions and recessions, alike, six industries have proven to be key growth drivers for the Columbus Region.

Several have maintained the status for decades, while others are newer to the list. All six, though, are evolving with new players, major investments and changing technology.

There’s finance and insurance, a stalwart since Bank One (now JPMorgan Chase), Huntington and Nationwide first called the city home decades ago. Among the industry’s newcomers, however, is the newly public insurtech company Root, which is leveraging the industry’s deep local talent pool as it digitizes insurance. It is difficult to mention Root without noting the presence of Drive Capital, the Columbus-based venture capital firm that first funded it and which has bolstered the region’s startup ecosystem since its founding in 2013.

And there’s the biomedical industry, a more recent addition to the list of six. The Columbus Region is becoming a hub of gene therapy activity, a process more than 20 years in the making with investments made by Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

The automotive and mobility industry has been a big slice of the region’s economy since Honda set up shop in 1982, and has taken on a new sort of national-testinggrounds role with the presence of the Transportation Research Center and the Smart Columbus program.

The industries adapted during

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the Covid-19 pandemic and even benefited from the shift to digital operations.

Together, they will be key to powering growth for years to come.

E-commerce

90,000 Columbus Region transportation and logistics workers

fulfillment operations, providing unparalleled market access to U.S. consumers. More than 150 million people—46 percent of the country’s population—are reachable in a one-day drive, more than any other large metropolitan area. In addition to being home to major hubs for FedEx, UPS and DHL, Amazon and other ecommerce retailers set up distribution and fulfillment operations in the Columbus Region.

(Source: One Columbus)

270 million Square feet of logistical and industrial space in the Columbus Region, making it the 11th-largest distribution location in the U.S. (Source: Cushman & Wakefield)

It was a historic year for the development of new warehouse space in the Columbus Region, driven in part by a surge of ecommerce. The region is ideally located for distribution and Amazon’s facility in Etna

File/Columbus Dispatch/DORAL CHENOWETH III

Facebook data center in New Albany File/Columbus Dispatch/DORAL CHENOWETH III

Advanced computing

50 Data centers in the Columbus Region (Source: One Columbus)

The Columbus Region has the infrastructure needed for data center development—long-haul fiber, robust and reliable electric service, water and land—and it’s paying off. The region is home to more than 50 data centers, including large campus locations for Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud and Facebook, along with many corporate-owned facilities.

Key assets include the Ohio Supercomputer Center, which provides supercomputing, cyber

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Facebook data center in New Albany File/Columbus Dispatch/JOSHUA BICKEL

infrastructure, research and educational resources. With no tangible personal property tax in Ohio, qualifying data centers can receive an exemption on sales and use tax for data center equipment and construction materials.

Auto and mobility

$2.7 billion Regional economic output for the automotive industry

Transportation Research Center is the largest independent vehicle testing and proving grounds in the U.S. Additional assets in the Columbus Region include the U.S. 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, the OSU Center for Automotive Research, Connected Marysville and DriveOhio. “The pieces are absolutely all there, and it’s a matter of continuing to refine alignment to better answer the ongoing development needs,” says Brett Roubinek, CEO of the Transportation Research Center.

Retail

No. 4 Region’s ranking among large U.S. metro areas for concentration of retail headquarters (Source: One Columbus)

The Columbus Region is home to some of the world’s most recognizable retail and apparel brands. The concentration of

(Source: One Columbus)

650,000 Cars produced annually in Columbus Region (Source: One Columbus)

With smart mobility assets and testing grounds, the Columbus Region provides the ideal environment for companies to innovate for auto and mobility.

In 2016, Columbus won the U.S. DOT Smart City Challenge which has led to the creation of Smart Columbus and several local mobility initiatives. In Union County, the

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Abercrombie & Fitch, Express and other retail headquarters has turned the region into the nation’s renowned test market for retail and a hub for market research, analytics, design, technology and omni-channel efficiencies. Due in part to the disruption caused by Covid-19, however, the future is unwritten. “This is going to define a generation of retail,” says Kenny McDonald, president and chief economic officer of One Columbus.

“For a town as invested in retail and retail technologies and leadership as we are, that’s going to be really important. Are we going to lead through that?”

Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital

O O

Biomedical

8,700 Degrees granted locally in biology, biomedical science, chemistry, and pharmacy over the past five years (Source: One Columbus)

From medical breakthroughs to cutting-edge technology, the Columbus Region is home to one of the most dynamic life science industries in the country. The Abigail Wexner Research Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is a global leader in gene therapy.

Innovation coming out of the organization has led to investments

by Sarepta Therapeutics and Andelyn Biosciences, which are investing millions for cutting-edge facilities in the region. “Having all of that co-located together is really advantageous,” says Dr. Dennis Durbin, chief scientific officer of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute.

Finance and Insurance

Sarepta Therapeutics

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Courtesy sarepta

40 Estimated number of academic and vocational institutions in the Columbus Region with business, finance and communication programs

institutions and national insurance providers to upstart technology companies, finance and insurance accounts for the greatest economic output in the Columbus Region.

Columbus is home to JPMorgan Chase’s second largest employment market in the world with over 20,000 employees, including the company’s largest global technology center. High-growth companies like Root Insurance, Upstart, Beam Dental, Bold Penguin and Homeside Financial have positioned the Columbus Region as a fintech and insurtech hub. One key development is the growth in venture capital, as Columbus is now home to the nation’s largest noncoastal VC fund in Drive Capital.

(Source: One Columbus)

Ranging from global banking

Evan Weese is a freelance writer.

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Our home is Ohio.

Our reason is water.

Advanced Drainage Systems designs, manufactures and delivers water management solutions for companies and communities.

As an industry leader in sustainable business practices, we’re proud to be the second largest plastic recycling company in North America.

Learn more about how we’re protecting water, a precious natural resource, at sustainability.ads-pipe.com. Š 2020 Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. 10/20

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moving forward with optimism

The Right Stuff Why site selectors and economic development experts are bullish on the Columbus Region.

By Laura Newpoff The Columbus Region is poised to emerge from the recession in a position of strength. Available land, low cost of living, a deep talent pool and a central location are all boxes site selectors check when they help companies make location decisions— and Ohio’s capital city has them all.

Columbus CEO magazine recently talked with some of the country’s most prominent site selectors and economic development strategists to gauge their feelings about the region’s future. They’re unanimous the Columbus Region will be able to aggressively compete for expansion and relocation projects as the country works to recover

from the economic turmoil related to Covid-19.

Robert Hess vice chairman of Newmark’s Global Corporate Services practice in Chicago Hess is a longtime site selector, having conducted more than 275 assignments on a global basis.

While Columbus is considered a “tier three” metropolitan area, its prospects for the future are promising, he says. He cited the Site Selectors Guild, which this fall ranked Columbus No. 1 in a tie with Phoenix as the “biggest winners as candidates for new or expansion projects in the next year,” he says.

In addition to the talent pipeline

coming out of the region’s colleges and universities, the area is wellpositioned to lure future projects because of the sites it has available, whether at the New Albany International Business Park, near Rickenbacker International Airport or in the northwest corridor that leads to the Honda manufacturing base in Marysville and the Transportation Research Center, a one-of-a-kind facility where the smart mobility technology of the future is being built.

That the region demonstrates the confidence to continue developing new sites in the urban core, like the Scioto Peninsula project in the heart of Downtown Columbus that will add 2 million square feet of office space to the market over the next decade, will be attractive to site selectors.

Scioto Peninsula looking east

“Columbus has all the elements to attract bigger projects. The next step is to get bold and loud.”

Robert Hess, vice chairman of Newmark’s Global Corporate Services practice in Chicago

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“Columbus has all the elements to attract bigger projects,� Hess says. “The next step is to get bold and loud� about everything the region has to offer.�

The Columbus Region is well positioned in today’s most active sectors such as life sciences, industrial, e-commerce and food processing, and could be an attractive landing spot for businesses looking to move away from high-cost centers, such as single-occupancy tech, Hess says. It’s also an attractive spot for companies nearshoring and reshoring amid the fallout of Covid-19. A savvy digital strategy will be key to attracting those businesses. “Digital and the skills to support workplace innovation is going to be a big part of every community’s future,� he says.

We’ll let you in on a little secret...

YOU ARE READY.

Â

Darin Buelow principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Chicago office

| upperarlingtonoh.gov | 614-583-5046

Courtesy infinite impact

In more than 20 years, Buelow has guided hundreds of major corporations in the deployment of talent, facilities and equipment around the world. Columbus, he says, is perceived favorably by site selectors.

He considers One Columbus among the top 5 percent of economic development groups in the country,

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well-stocked with “sophisticated, thoughtful industry leaders.”

The Columbus Region’s diverse set of employers and large base of talent coming out of area universities have it poised to emerge from the recession in a strong position

“Digital and the skills to support workplace innovation is going to be a big part of every community’s future.”

Darin Buelow, principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Chicago office

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for corporate growth.

“Columbus is a contender,” Buelow says. “The region is still an unknown quantity to some, but it’s an up-and-coming talent market.”

Buelow likens the region to a “giant vacuum cleaner that’s sucking up talent,” a reference to Columbus being one of the fastest-growing big cities in the country. Other positives include its central location, lower-cost resources compared to larger cities, its diverse employer base and its strength in manufacturing, transportation and logistics. Being home to Ohio State University is a plus, too.

“Being a big college town helps the economy enormously,” Buelow says. “When you talk about the flow of talent, Columbus enjoys a big advantage. Capital cities with big colleges are vibrant, youthful locations that are constantly importing talent, and that’s what big companies are looking for.”

Covid-19 has several implications for economic development groups going forward. Many companies may reconsider their physical

footprint, and some will shift the assets they maintain from high-cost centers to lower-cost ones. Jobsbased tax credits could also impact how corporate site selectors pick locations in the future. Criteria for counting at-home workers given the likelihood that many of them will continue to operate remotely could be the difference between winning and losing a project.

Economic development groups will need to understand the specific language contained in their incentive programs around qualified jobs, and perhaps modify it to attract more projects, he says.

Amy Holloway Ernst & Young’s U.S. economic development advisory services national director, Austin Holloway is a national economic development strategist who has served more than 200 communities since 1995, including benchmarking that allows them to see how they stack up against other regions.

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The best thing we can do is to always do what’s best.

—Bruce K. Thorn, CEO Our customers have always known they can depend on us to help them live as big as they can and save lots on everything they need to create a home full of comfort, pride, and happiness.

That trust is even more important to us now, amidst the pandemic.

To help meet the needs of this new reality, we’ve invested heavily into our omni-channel capabilities, reinvented our promotional strategy, and broadened our product assortment.

We also increased our loyalty benefits, introduced dedicated discounts to our frontline heroes, and expanded many services that offer more ways to shop, buy, and benefit.

Curbside pickup. Same-day delivery. 2-day ship-from-store that leverages our retail locations as distribution centers—it all gives our customers the flexibility they need to get the products they want.

But none of these advancements would be possible if our hometown wasn’t behind us along the way. And for that, we are eternally grateful.

Thanks lots, Columbus!

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r i g h t

s t u f f

National site selectors and economic development strategists are unanimous the Columbus Region will be able to aggressively compete for expansion and relocation projects as the country works to recover from the economic turmoil related to Covid-19. Here are some of the region’s strong suits.

Smart: Top 10 U.S. metro in millennial concentration, ages 25-34

She’s worked with One Columbus on two economic development strategies when she was with a different consulting firm that has since joined Ernst & Young LLC to lead its national economic development practice. Most recently, she and her team assisted One Columbus with its new 10-year strategy.

Holloway says the region has three characteristics that make it particularly strong in moments of crisis—corporate leadership, experienced resilience and its value proposition.

Corporate leadership—The region

(U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2018.)

42% of people moving here are college graduates (U.S. Census Bureau)

Growing: No. 1 for population, job and GDP growth in the Midwest (U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, 2010-2019; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010-2019 annual averages, not seasonally adjusted; U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, real GDP, 2010-2018.)

+1 million projected population growth by 2050 (MORPC Insight 2050 report)

Business Oriented: Reach 46% of U.S. population in a one-day drive (ESRI Business Analyst, 2019, based on 10-hour drive time)

No corporate income tax and no personal property tax (Department of Taxation)

Global: 302 foreign establishments with over 60,000 employees (Columbus Council on World Affairs)

80+ languages spoken (Columbus Council on World Affairs)

Connected: FTZ #138 is one of the 10 most active in the U.S. (Columbus Regional Airport Authority)

One of the world’s only cargo-dedicated airports (Columbus Regional Airport Authority)

Open: No. 1 opportunity city

by Forbes

Headquarters here have perfect scores on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index (Human Rights Campaign)

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“We work with organizations like One Columbus across the country.

When I’m asked to give an example of a community with strong corporate leadership guiding economic development, the Columbus Region is the example that I most often cite.”

Amy Holloway Ernst & Young’s U.S. economic development advisory services national director, Austin

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Sarah Steinbrunner ’19 Founder, Yippea Foods (allergen-friendly foods) Associate Researcher, Abbott Laboratories

Championing ™ human potential At Ohio State, we inspire passionate leaders, advance research and shape innovative partnerships that build vibrant futures in Columbus and central Ohio.

Together, we’re moving Columbus forward. go.osu.edu/talent Scan for Talent / Partnership Info

© 2020 The Ohio State University

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Top Mid-Size Cities for New Projects Boise, ID Colorado Springs, CO Columbia, SC

Columbus, OH Greenville, SC Huntsville, AL Indianapolis, IN Kansas City, MO Raleigh-Durham, NC Reno, NV Tucson, AZ Source: Site Selectors Guild (listed in alphabetical order)

is one of the best in the nation at having a strong group of private sector leaders who are driving economic development. CEOs from across the region, especially through the involvement of the Columbus Partnership, are willing to be engaged, collaborate and take on tough challenges with others.

“We work with organizations like One Columbus across the country. When I’m asked to give an example of a community with strong corporate leadership guiding economic development, the Columbus Region is the example that I most often cite,” Holloway says. “The collaboration between the Columbus Partnership and One Columbus in the prioritization of economic development is fairly unique nationally.”

That’s important because when companies are scouting for a new location, they will consider whether the community is unified in its vision and goals for the future.

Experienced resilience—The Columbus Region was hard hit during the Great Recession and leveraged

that moment to unify its approach to economic development and “go bold,” Holloway says. “They exceeded all of their (jobs and population growth) goals over the last decade.

I anticipate that muscle memory will help them rebound from this.”

A more recent example of the community’s resilience was the effort to keep the Columbus Crew professional soccer team in town.

Under the leadership of Alex Fischer at the Columbus Partnership, the community “stepped up and took bold action. Not every community has a leadership body that can quickly unify and accomplish something like that,” she says.

Value proposition—The Columbus Region has a rare combination of a large pool of skilled talent, quality of life and relative affordability of housing and goods and services.

That should allow it to recover from the recession by competing nationally for projects, she says, including with peer cities in Austin, Seattle, Minneapolis and Nashville.

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

BUILDING IT TAKES ALL OF US. As a top integrated communications company with proven economic development experience, we unite diverse talents and disciplines to make great things happen—for our clients, our communities and beyond.

Learn more about our economic development leadership at FAHLGRENMORTINE.COM

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moving forward with optimism

Communities of innovation When the economy was revived in May, the Columbus Region came back strong: People helping other people, smart ideas for supporting businesses and a communal desire to get things back on track for the good of all.

By Laura Newpoff

Delaware County Not just a pandemic, but a major flood brings community together Olivina Taproom sits in the heart of downtown Delaware, just a stone’s throw from the historic Ohio Wesleyan University to its south.

Immediately to its north is the Delaware Run, a 6-mile tributary that empties into the Olentangy River to the east and is known for its chronic problems with flooding.

Chris Schobert opened the store in 2016 to sell high-end extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars and host cooking classes for the community. Like other retailers, the business was hit hard by a drop in sales because of Covid-19, but optimism about the future came

on May 19 when Gov. Mike DeWine lifted Ohio’s “Safe At Home” order.

In a cruel twist of fate, that was the same day record torrential rains caused the tributary to flood wildly.

Schobert’s store would not be spared.

The following day he called off from his full-time job at a local credit union so he could survey the damage. Schobert describes what he saw as “just a disaster.” Mud— and it was thick—was everywhere.

The flow of water through the store had been so violent that it shook the building, causing ceiling tiles to fall from a storage

room in the back and be swept all the way to the front of the store.

Garbage cans were toppled. Debris was everywhere. Inventory was destroyed. The walls were ruined.

The floors, which Schobert had just had refurbished for thousands of dollars, were trashed.

“It was heartbreaking and devastating,” Schobert says. “I put my life savings into trying to build up that store. You can only take so much as a business owner.

You question, ‘Is this a sign from God that maybe I should just shut it down? Let’s just not do this anymore.’ ”

“The speed of survival— the city recognized the need [to help]. This was getting the job done on our own.” lee yoakum, Delaware community affairs director

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Olivina Taproom Executive Chef Michael Turner and owner Chris Schobert

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As he was cleaning up the muck, in another twist of fate, a group of people who had heard about the flooding felt compelled to stop by and asked what they could do to help. Wave after wave of other good Samaritans would join them over the next week to help Schobert clean up the mess. Others would drop off pizzas, supplies and personal protective equipment to keep everyone safe. Another person donated a dehumidifier.

The gestures were so uplifting that Schobert decided to press forward with Olivina.

Just to the north of Schobert’s store sits Delaware City Hall.

Officials there had a front-row view of the aftermath of the flood.

To get help out quickly, the city created a “COVID-19 & Spring Flood Small Business Recovery Grant Program.” Local businesses like Schobert’s were urged to apply.

Just three weeks after the program was approved by City Council, the first check went out—to Olivina

Taproom. Schobert, in fact, got the $2,529 just 10 days after he signed his application.

“It was an amazing moment,” he says. “You never think a government can move that quickly. It was exactly what we needed at the time we needed it.” The money was used to pay expenses to get the store up and running again. Schobert also has obtained two liquor licenses and has opened a café at the store to help boost revenue that’s down 32 percent year over year.

‘The speed of survival’ Delaware Community Affairs Director Lee Yoakum says larger businesses were able to handle the initial shock of the pandemic, but smaller businesses needed help. So Delaware created the grant program by tapping into money it had in a development reserve fund set up

by City Council several years ago to support economic development.

“The speed of survival—the city

recognized the need,” he says. “This was getting the job done on our own. Like a Marshall Plan on a local scale.”

The program awarded about $84,000 to 33 businesses to help them cover expenses related to the pandemic and flooding.

In August, the city approved a $300,000 loan fund to bolster the city’s small businesses, which is administered by the Economic and Community Development Institute.

In October, a second round of recovery grants totaling $300,000 was approved for the fall that allows small businesses to apply for up to $10,000 to pay for eligible costs like mortgage payments that were missed, PPE, equipment to extend the outdoor dining season and materials and equipment to allow for safe social distancing. Olivina, in fact, will receive money from this second round to pay bills and to stock up its inventory for the holidays.

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analogy of our small business sector being in a kind of intensive care and whatever we could do to nurse them along, we tried to do,” Yoakum says.

Sean Hughes, the city’s economic development director, said that even though Delaware has been growing rapidly over the years the city still has a small community vibe where leaders take the time to get to know business owners.

“What hurts them ultimately hurts us and hurts us personally not just economically,” he says. “What it came down to was not seeing yourself as two separate entities, but rather seeing each other as partners. That’s how you have success in a community.”

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Franklin County Historic partnership springs up to support Black-owned businesses The Black community has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic from a health care

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“We want this new alliance to be accessible and trusted by those who have been historically marginalized.”

Keena smith, chief economic equity and inclusion officer for Franklin County

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standpoint and from a financial one.

Considering how under-banked Black-owned businesses are, it wasn’t shocking that less than 2 percent of them nationally received loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program and more than half weren’t expected to survive because of the economic fallout of the pandemic. Those statistics helped lead to the creation of a historic partnership among Franklin County, economic development group One Columbus and social justice and racial equity advocate Columbus Urban League.

Announced in August, the Franklin County Business Growth and Equity Alliance was formed to establish the Franklin County Community Equity Fund. That lays the foundation for a Community Development Financing Institution that will provide grants to small, Black-owned businesses.

In October, the Equity Alliance announced that it had awarded grants totaling $1.62 million to 65 local small businesses, nearly twothirds of which did not receive PPP loans. Most of the funding will be dedicated to payroll, helping to retain or create 250 jobs.

Keena Smith, chief economic equity and inclusion officer for Franklin County, says improving access to capital is the No. 1 goal of the alliance. That will include building a big table where community leaders, entrepreneurs and lending institutions come together to figure out “this wicked problem of lack of access.” The new Equity Alliance is a milestone on a trail the county has been paving for several years and builds upon its “Innovating New Pathways to More Equitable Prosperity” initiative that is working to make the community “vibrant, sustainable and livable for all.”

“There’s an intentionality about this that wasn’t there previously,” Smith says. “We want this new alliance to be accessible and trusted by those who have been historically marginalized.”

Stephanie Hightower, president and CEO of the Columbus Urban League, says the pandemic, plus the social unrest tied to the murders of unarmed Black men, have created

tim johnson

Stephanie Hightower

new platforms to talk about racial injustice and to increase awareness in the community that Black businesses don’t operate on a level playing field when it comes to access to capital.

In addition to its role in the new Equity Alliance, the organization’s Minority Small Business Resiliency Initiative has helped more than 1,800 of its clients access more than $6.5 million in grants and loans since April to save at least 1,000 jobs.

“This is a great opportunity to really have crucial conversations in a productive way so that people don’t continue to look at the Urban League and the work we do as a

reminder of the stain of slavery,” Hightower says. “We want people to look at us as that economic engine that has the ability to help level the playing field for many people who haven’t had that opportunity for over 100 years in this country. We are leaning into this.”

Logan County New funding for distressed communities boosts manufacturers For the past two years, The Ohio Wire Harness LLC has been manufacturing a line of cable assemblies and wire harnesses at l

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its 10-person shop in Bellefontaine.

Because cash flow is tight, buying new equipment to increase production or expand its product line isn’t something that happens frequently, says Ben Vollrath, president of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce.

As the pandemic persisted over the summer, a sense of uneasiness hovered over the city’s base of small manufacturers. Vollrath realized several of them would qualify for the new JobsOhio Inclusion Grant program that aims to boost businesses in distressed communities. So, on a hot August morning, he and 15 area manufacturers got on a phone call with One Columbus to talk about it.

The businesses were excited about what they heard and many of them decided to apply. Once they did, the economic development group served as the conduit to get the applications over to the state.

As of late October, seven businesses had been awarded grants of $225,000, and several more plan to apply. Ohio Wire

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Logan County Chamber President Ben Vollrath with Linda Botkin and Kim Weber, mother and daughter co-owners of Ohio Wire Harness

Harness got $50,000, which it will use to buy five new pieces of machinery. Vollrath says the business has been operating on outdated, used equipment and didn’t have the funds to upgrade.

The new machinery is more flexible and efficient, which will allow Ohio Wire Harness to expand its product

offerings and better serve its customers.

“This money is a big deal to businesses that want to take the next step but haven’t been able to do so, even before the pandemic,” Vollrath says. “Getting the money to be able to purchase a piece of equipment and perhaps even be

Proud to call this region

home

The Central Ohio business community has responded to the challenges of 2020 with resiliency and hope: supporting one another, creating new ways to work together and committing to difficult conversations about race and social equity.

We’re committed to making the Columbus of tomorrow an even better place to live, work and play.

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able to pay to train a person to run that equipment makes a huge difference for a business and has a lasting impact.�

Licking County

On the field. In the locker room.

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Just east of Columbus, a thriving business park boasts a specialty in cleanroom space The Heath-Newark-Licking County Port Authority operates the Central Ohio Aerospace & Technology Center, an industrial park that traces its roots to the Kaiser Aluminum Co.’s operations there in the 1940s. While the business still has a presence there today, the park has diversified over the years and now is home to a host of industries—Boeing Co., Samuel Packaging Systems and Homestead Beer Co. are some of its tenants.

Key to the 350-acre park’s success has been speculative building—10 facilities have gone up over the past 10 years. That means when a business decides to call Central Ohio home, the

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“The park has really become a home to critical industries that had to stay open during the pandemic.�

Rick platt, CEO, Heath-NewarkLicking County Port Authority

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park is a logical place to ramp up operations quickly.

Because of its experience working with Boeing, the port authority has developed a niche building clean room space that’s suitable for microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, food processing and life sciences.

That allowed it to stay active during the pandemic and welcome in two new tenants.

Neurxstem, a predictive and precision genomic brain medicine company, inked a three-year lease in August. The company plans to focus on Covid-19-related research in its 1,000-square-foot lab.

Organic infant nutrition company Nature’s One opened a $32 million, 92,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at the campus in the second quarter. It joins three other plant-based food processing businesses at the park that occupy 200,000 square feet in four buildings.

The port authority also opened two speculative industrial buildings during the pandemic, says Rick Platt, president and CEO of the port authority.

“The park has really become a home to critical industries that had to stay open during the pandemic and they successfully did,” says Platt, who referenced the defense, energy, metals, life sciences and food production sectors as essential industries.

“Because of the coronavirus pandemic, more manufacturing work is going to come back to the U.S. through reshoring.

Going forward, having the kind of buildings those manufacturers need ready to go has Central Ohio positioned for success.”

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

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Labor & employment

Severance plans dos and don’ts

Helen Robinson, Marshall & Forman

In a time of economic uncertainty, layoffs are increasing. Know the rules around offering term packages.

By Laura Newpoff + Photo by ROB HARDIN

B

efore Helen Robinson went to law school, she worked at a large insurance company for 20 years, where she spent the bulk of her time climbing the executive career ladder. She remembers the boss who promoted her to a human resources management position, telling her that when it came to employee disputes and there was a 50-50 tie about whether an employee or the company was right, giving the edge to the employee would allow the company to win every time.

“It shouldn’t be us vs. them,” she says. “You get better business results when you treat people fairly.”

Today, Robinson practices law at Marshall & Forman, where she represents only employees in matters such as discrimination, wrongful termination and sexual harassment claims. With the job market shaky because of COVID-19 and interest in severance plans increasing, she says it’s a good time for employers considering them to make sure they are structured to eliminate errors that could land them in court.

“It shouldn’t be us vs. them.

You get better business results when you treat people fairly.”

Helen Robinson attorney, Marshall & Forman LLC

Robinson and Columbus labor and employment attorneys who represent companies recently talked with Columbus CEO magazine about severance plan dos and don’ts, including the impact of COVID-19.

ERISA or not The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 is a federal law that sets minimum standards for most retirement, health and other welfare benefit plans. ERISA-compliant severance plans allow companies to avoid claims for damages under state law, but require extra steps for reporting and compliance.

Going through those steps might be worth it for a company that has recurring terminations and wants a plan that allows uniform administration across states.

“If a company has a plan structure that is facially nondiscriminatory that applies to everybody who is in a particular category who is severed, that makes it relatively difficult for an affected employee to assert an age discrimination claim,” says Jennifer Dunsizer, a partner at Vorys Sater Seymour and Pease and a member of the firm’s labor and employment group.

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mal ERISA plan and instead negotiate severance packages on an individual basis, she says. In that case the employer should document what it offers and to whom so that it can be proven that there is a defensible business justification for providing one employee with a richer benefit than another had received.

Age matters One of the most common ways an employer can mess up is tied to informational requirements related to age and group termination, says Bill Nolan, managing partner of Barnes & Thornburg’s Columbus office. That’s because all it takes to constitute a “group” is the termination of two people, he says.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) requires that the employer give an employee age 40 or older at least 21 days to consider a severance offer. But when it becomes a group termination, if the employees are 40 or older, they are given 45 days to accept or reject the offer.

“Not only do employers have to think about the challenges of potentially terminating someone via Zoom, but the employer must also consider in advance how to handle many details.” joelle khouzam partner, Bricker & Eckler

Do this, not that It can be all too easy for employers to make mistakes in the process of offering severance plans. Here are some basics.

Do: Anticipate how to conduct termination meetings during COVID-19 Do: Be aware of cross-border issues Do: Understand the difference between an ERISA plan and a non-ERISA plan Don’t: Ignore age discrimination laws Don’t: Make unforced errors

“Employers tend to overreact when they hear about the 45-day requirement instead of the 21 days,” Nolan says. “It doesn’t often matter that much because most people don’t take the whole time because they want their money.”

The Older Workers Benefits Protection Act also gives employees certain rights that companies should be aware of. It’s an amendment to the ADEA and requires the employer in a group termination to advise each employee of who in their decisional unit was also let go and who was kept, identified by title and age.

Ohio is not Cali In Ohio, in the absence of a contractual obligation to do so, there is not a statutory requirement for employers to offer severance payments to terminated employees. Many companies, however, have employees and operations in other states and countries.

“Some states may require that certain payments be made when an employee is separated,” says Joëlle Khouzam, a partner at Bricker & Eckler. “For example, in California, employees are statutorily entitled to any accrued but unused vacation time, which is treated as a form of earned wages. Some countries also have requirements that a certain amount of severance be paid at the time of separation. So, companies with multinational locations should be familiar with the requirements in the countries where they may be doing business.”

Keeping tabs on changing laws by state is a good idea, Nolan says.

Earlier this year, for example, New Jersey became the first state to require severance for mass layoffs, HR Dive reports.

Be consistent Robinson says severance agreements usually contain nondisclosure and confidentiality requirements, but even though the affected employee may not discuss it, employees may still find out about severance agreements from other sources or, unfortunately, through the grapevine.

“Put formal policies in place so you are using objective criteria to determine who gets how much,”

she says. “Using objective criteria lessens the chance someone can successfully make a claim based on sex, age or race.”

Position eligibility and years of service are two ways to chart out the amount of severance someone might receive, she says.

Dunsizer says another easy way to err is how a termination is communicated. Trying to smooth something over by making an older employee who is not tech savvy feel better about the fact that he can’t do his job as it’s currently constructed could lead the terminated employee to think the termination was age-based and not performance-based.

“It’s a mistake to try and soften the blow,” she says. “Something perfectly valid ends up being tainted. It’s the No. 1 thing I see.”

Term meetings According to management consulting firm Korn Ferry, during the pandemic, many companies have kept severance policies in place and instead have instituted pay cuts and salary freezes and made changes to bonus plans and incentives to save money.

What’s different because of the crisis is the new dynamic of remote termination, Khouzam says.

“Not only do employers have to think about the challenges of potentially terminating someone via Zoom, but the employer must also consider in advance how to handle many details that are normally addressed during a face-to-face exit interview,” she says. “That would include things like collecting company keys, fobs or scan cards; getting computers or company tools and uniforms back; getting all intellectual property or confidential information back; and settling up the terms of any loans or advances the employee may have.”

Other planning considerations include how voicemail, email and the cell phone number of the separated employee will be handled, whether a press release or internal announcement is in order and whether local counsel should be consulted in addition to regular counsel if the affected employee is out of state.

Laura Newpoff is a freelance writer.

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Idea incubator

Building business

Deonna Barnett

Aventi Enterprises launched in 2019 to support women and minority entrepreneurs.

It’s taking off quickly.

By Mary Sterenberg + Photo by ROB HARDIN

D

eonna Barnett started her small business in January 2019 with the goal of supporting other women, Black and minority entrepreneurs.

By the close of 2020, her company, Aventi Enterprises, had served more than 300 clients and launched a virtual business plan competition.

Barnett founded Aventi Enterprises after serving as the executive director of Increase Community Development Corp., a Columbus small business development organization that ceased operations in 2018. “After I left, people were looking for me asking, ‘Can you continue to help me?’ ” Barnett says.

Aventi offers consulting, coaching and training for emerging CEOs and leaders of nonprofits. It

“Aventi is really pushing for an inclusive economy.”

Deonna Barnett founder, Aventi Enterprises

Aventi Enterprises 4200 Regent St., Ste 200 Columbus 43219 aventienterprises.com Founder: Deonna Barnett Employees: Three full-time, one part-time Revenue: Would not disclose

specializes in supporting women and minority-owned businesses with strategy and planning, financing and certifications. “Aventi is really pushing for an inclusive economy,” Barnett says. Women and minority leaders need extra support because “they are the most disadvantaged business owners” due to lack of funding, education and the networks needed to successfully run a business, she says.

Aventi supported about 100 clients in 2019 with Barnett working as a

solopreneur, and then she brought on two full-time staff members in 2020 as she doubled her clientele. She helped businesses secure more than $700,000 in funding in 2020.

COVID-19 boosted Aventi’s business during the pandemic, with the company helping many small businesses walk through the process to access federal and local pandemic relief funding. Barnett and her team also worked with the Columbus Urban League and the Franklin County Community Equity Fund

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to help connect grants to minorityowned businesses.

One of Aventi’s core services is providing business strategy and planning, with a strong focus on online education. Barnett says she’s served businesses worldwide with an online course focused on business model design and planning. It takes founders one to three months to complete, and they have a complete business plan by the end. Aventi reviews the plans of all companies that complete the course to help them know when they’re ready to proceed to funding sources and additional business consulting.

Technology is a strategic priority for Aventi moving forward, and Barnett sees it “moving to the forefront of our services.” Beyond online education, Aventi looks to help businesses build e-commerce sites and utilize technology, and to make sure consumers can access and use the technology needed to connect with these businesses.

A third major service Aventi offers to small businesses is helping them get certified to do business with the government. Barnett worked as a certification coach while starting her business and acquired Essentia Strategy Group in 2019 to solidify this service offering for Aventi.

Markeisha Johnson Mason, founder and owner of skin care company Bom Bombs, completed Aventi’s “Side Hustle to CEO” education program in 2020 just as the pandemic hit.

Aventi then helped Mason’s small business secure a Local Economically Disadvantaged Enterprise certification, which led to a contract with Columbus City Schools to provide hand sanitizer to schools.

Mason says Aventi’s education and coaching were a “powerful game-changer” for her small business. She told Barnett in goalsetting meetings early in 2020 she wanted to generate $14,000, but by the end of the year was projected to book $250,000 in revenue.

Beyond serving individual clients, Barnett uses her expertise to create an environment where more femaleand minority-owned businesses can thrive. Barnett serves as vice president of programming for the National Association of Women Business Owners Columbus Chapter, and she

Business plan competition lifts founders

17 local founders vied for a cash prize and promotion.

Here are the top 5.

In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week in November, Aventi Enterprises launched a virtual business plan competition that it hopes to parlay into an annual affair. The contest invited women and minority business owners to compete for a cash prize, promotion of their business and a certificate. The winning business plan pitch received $1,000 and the runner-up $500.

Seventeen businesses entered the inaugural competition, and five finalists pitched their business plans on a live Zoom session to a panel of judges. Aventi announced the winner and runner-up on Nov. 28, Small Business Saturday.

winner

Lorii Wallace Evolve Productions Evolve Production creates unique productions and campaigns in partnership with different organizations to raise awareness of social issues using the arts as the focus.

The nonprofit produces “edutainment” that combines education with entertainment for the good of the community while developing and showcasing the talent of dancers, singers and other artists in the community.

“I try to look at how I can use the arts to bring awareness to inspire change—even if it’s just someone’s thought process or recognition,” founder Lorii Wallace says.

Evolve has partnered with organizations such as Lifeline of Ohio, the Ohio Diabetes Association and Ohio State University on productions that raised awareness of issues including organ donation, diabetes and human trafficking.

Wallace says using art and performance to raise awareness of societal issues can be more effective because “people will come for a production as opposed to someone just telling them a story about it.”

All productions are created specifically for

a partner organization or topic and include dance, the spoken word, original music and singing. Community members volunteer to work the event and participate as artists.

Evolve Production also provides professional and healing workshops using the arts as its focus for individuals who may have been affected by homelessness, trafficking or cancer. “We give them a safe space to create art,” Wallace says.

As next steps for Evolve, Wallace hopes to find consistent space for rehearsals and productions and potentially bring on other staff members. She plans to use competition prize money to support the creation of a company website and production of a minifilm about the year 2020 that could ultimately become a full production. She’s also working to launch an inaugural Grace Awards in August for dance educators, companies and schools.

Runner-up

Anique Russell Too Good Eats Too Good Eats sells gourmet frozen popsicles made with 100 percent real fruit and vegetables that include no sugar, water or dairy.

The business was founded by two young parents right out of college on a mission to sneak more vegetables into their son’s diet.

After watching many family members suffer from chronic health diseases, they were determined to make healthier choices and encourage others to do so as well.

Popsicles include ingredients like kale, celery, apples, pears, lime, mint, jicama and spaghetti squash.

Customers can find Too Good Eats’ gourmet frozen pops at the Hills Downtown Market and City Folks Farm Shop as well as at the Clintonville and New Albany farmers markets.

Through the Too Good Eats website, customers can also purchase subscriptions to receive January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

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offering services for natural hair, chemically treated hair and scalp treatments. Her purpose is to provide luxury hair care services, products and knowledge for all hair types.

Clients can purchase monthly memberships for monthly shampoo and style services,

“We’re continuing to advocate for resources under that WBE certification program, whether it’s financial or networking-wise, grant opportunities, contracts.”

Deonna Barnett, founder, Aventi Enterprises

popsicle packs monthly or Juice Pop Re-Set packs with 12 popsicles as a one-day diet cleanse.

Finalist

Valerie Easley RiseUp Credit Services RiseUp Credit Services provides clients with financial and credit education through group sessions, one-on-one consultations and a 30-Day Financial Bootcamp. Clients receive live training with the opportunity to ask questions. Every class includes goal setting, financial assessment and a personal credit analysis for each participant.

discounts on services and retail items, priority booking and early access to scheduling. Burton also sells silk bonnets for holding natural hair, braids, weaves, rollers, hair clamps, long hair and up-dos.

Marion Gamble Me2Concepts and Solutions Me2Concepts and Solutions is an education and development company. It provides consulting to assist with changing employee behavior and programs that foster healthy social norms for businesses and communities. Its programs include performance management strategies, “For the Love of B.A.E.” focusing on healthy relationship skills, “Professional Me” on business etiquette, and “Sorry Not Sorry” on social and emotional intelligence.

RiseUp also works with credit bureaus and creditors to challenge the negative report items that affect a client’s credit score.

Clients can track status updates on improvements on credit reports and scores live 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Jade Burton Hair by Jade Jade Burton is an advanced licensed cosmetologist and the owner of Hair by Jade.

She specializes in maintaining healthy hair,

worked with NAWBO to help Ohio get a Women Business Enterprise certification in 2020.

“We’re continuing to advocate for resources under that WBE certification program, whether it’s financial or networking-wise, grant opportunities, contracts,” Barnett says. She adds that Aventi is also working with institutions and agencies that would help minorities access capital, credit and government opportunities.

Aventi also launched a virtual business plan competition for women and minority business owners to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week in November.

Finalists had to share “the problem they’re solving, concept, marketing, pricing, operations, competitive advantage, sales projections, in five minutes,” Barnett says.

Finalists received a consultation with Aventi, resources from a panel of judges and public recognition.

Aventi awarded $1,000 to winner Lorii Wallace of Evolve Productions and $500 to runner-up Anique Russell of Too Good Eats.

Evolve Productions collaborates with other organizations to create “edutainment” experiences— productions and campaigns that advance social change through the arts using talent from the community.

Wallace says she thinks her company stood out because it looks at how the community can work together to create messages that leave a lasting impression.

“Art is unifying. It doesn’t care what color or gender you are,” she says.

“My work with Aventi helped me fine-tune exactly what I wanted the nonprofit to be and how exactly I want it to impact the community.”

Mary Sterenberg is a freelance writer.

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reckoning Retail

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rely tes become appare ted, winners and losers nt quickly.

I

By Tim Feran t looks like just another Zoom chat in a pandemic year full of them. Two colleagues—let’s call them “Kim” and “Andy”—have a friendly discussion about work. Kim sits center screen with a tastefully decorated room as her backdrop. Andy, obviously a laid-back guy, barely appears at the bottom of his screen, which is improbably dominated by a couple of closet doors and the bedroom ceiling.

But instead of the usual banter about work, this is an earnings call chat between two high-powered busi-

ness players—Morgan Stanley Managing Director Kimberly Greenberger and L Brands and Bath & Body Works President and CEO Andrew Meslow.

The contrast between the prosaic 2020 webcast and previous years’ glamour-packed presentations could not have been more striking—or more emblematic of the changes COVID-19 has hastened at L Brands and among Columbus’ publicly traded retail giants in general.

Even before the pandemic, big Columbus-based retailers were scrambling to meet rapidly changing consumer tastes and shopping habits, not to mention the impact of the retirement of the godfather of

“We actually had three of the six biggest (e-commerce sales) days in the history of our company after stores closed.”

Roger Rawlins, CEO, Designer Brands

Columbus retail, Les Wexner, the founder of L Brands.

“The whole COVID-19 thing has been an accelerator and not a disruptor,” says Lee Peterson, an executive vice president at WD Partners, a Dublin retail consulting company.

“The demise of specialty retail, the demise of millions and millions of square footage of retail real estate, was already happening. The malls were already getting vacant, and now they’re really vacant.

“Retail has always been Darwinian, but with COVID coming along, this is a Darwinian process— survival of the fittest—on hyperspeed.

It’s going to shift even more rapidly.

Something that might have happened in 20 years is going to take four or five years at most.”

To illustrate this shift, Peterson points to a survey WD Partners took two years in a row—in July 2019 and July 2020. In the two studies, consumers were asked to rank the ways they preferred to shop, online or in stores, or some combination of both.

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In 2019, the majority of consumers—about 74 percent—said even after 20 years of Amazon aggressively wooing them to shop online, they still preferred to shop in a brick-and-mortar store. However, a year later in the middle of the pandemic, the consumers who preferred to shop in a store had plummeted to 48 percent.

“Talk about accelerated,” Peterson says. “There’s about 30 percent who are not going back to stores even after the pandemic ends. Think of all those seniors and older baby boomers who used to enjoy going to stores. Not anymore. They’ve gone from zero to 100 percent. Even Gen Z, they say they prefer shopping in stores, but they don’t. I think they prefer to hang out in stores (to socialize), but they’re not going there to buy something.”

In the face of such a massive change

in shopping habits, “there’s this huge metamorphosis going on, a distinct bifurcation that COVID-19 sped up,” Peterson says. At one end of the spectrum are new ventures, nimble little startups “that will become the new specialty retail. Think about it: You can start a really strong business in your basement now. At the other end of the spectrum are the massive corporations, the guys who had the wherewithal to shift to the changes in the way the modern consumer shops.

Those are guys like Walmart, who were on top of the whole buy-onlinepick-up-in-store trend at least four years ago.”

The retailers in the middle, especially those who are predominantly mall-based? “Their doom got accelerated,” Peterson says. “Everyone could see it coming.”

Zombie-walk fashion Express, the purveyor of mall fashions that got its start as a brand at Wexner’s flagship The Limited, was chasing the buy online, pick-up in store model pre-COVID, but it was too slow.

Then the pandemic came along and painted Express into a corner that will be difficult for the retailer to escape.

During the third quarter, Express reported a loss of $1.39 per share, much worse than Wall Street expectations of a loss of 47 cents per share. For the past few years, Wall Street has taken an increasingly dim view of Express executives’ efforts to revive company fortunes. In March 2016, Express stock sold for about $21 a share. Two years later, in March 2018 the stock was selling for a little more than $7 a share.

Abercrombie & Fitch Business: Specialty fashion retail CEO:

Fran Horowitz

Employees: File/Associated Press/GENE PUSKAR

2019 total revenue: 2019 profit: 2019 total revenue through q3: 2020 total revenue through q3: 2019 loss through q3: 2020 loss through q3:

Ascena Retail Group

44,000 $3.6 b $45 m $2.4 b $2 b $40.2 m $194.2 m

Business: Women’s fashion, shoes, accessories

(Ann Taylor, LOFT, and Lou & Grey), women’s plus-size fashion (Lane Bryant and Cacique) and children’s fashion (Justice)

Gary Muto

Employees:

13,000 $5.5 b $661.4 m $1.3 b $1.2 b $71.5 m $97.4 m

2019 total revenue: 2019 loss: 2019 revenue through February: 2020 revenue through February: 2019 loss through February: 2020 loss through February:

Courtesy ABERCROMBIE & FITCH

CEO:

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By March 2020, the stock was scraping along between $1 and $2 a share, flirting “with penny stock status,” one analyst says.

A big part of the problem: During the pandemic, the company’s typical customer works from home and wears sweatpants and T-shirts. That customer has little need for men’s suits or women’s cocktail wear, and “our historical strength has been in occasionbased dressing, so of course we have been disproportionately impacted,” CEO Tim Baxter acknowledged in an earnings call. As a result, Express at one point during the summer had to cancel an order of 500,000 men’s dress shirts, “our biggest category.”

Company leaders rowed as fast as they could all year long, trying to keep the Express boat from being swept away in the currents. They reduced

the corporate workforce, permanently closed 100 stores and pushed to meet the demand for buy-online, pick-upin-store. And they began testing an off-mall location substantially smaller than any existing Express store.

But it all seemed too little and too late to Wall Street doubters. Even Express officials acknowledge that after stores reopened following the pandemic shutdown, “traffic has been consistently off by nearly 50 percent

when compared to last year.”

In a note to investors, D.M. Martins Research founder and portfolio manager Daniel Martins wrote that he feared that Express shares “will continue their descent to oblivion in zombie-walk fashion” after a sales decline that was “one of the steepest that the company has ever printed.”

“Express is one of those cases in retail in which the company’s demise had been forming slowly since well

“I do believe that some of what we’ve experienced so far this year is probably here to stay in terms of how customers behave.”

Andrew Meslow, CEO, L Brands

Designer Brands/DSW Business: Footwear and accessories retail

Roger Rawlins

CEO: Employees: 2019 total revenue: 2019 profit :

File/Dispatch/ADAM CAIRNS

2019 total revenue through q3: 2020 total revenue through q3: 2019 profit through q3: 2020 profit

through q3:

15,800 $3.5 b $94.5 m $2.7 b $1.6 b $273.3 m $165.7 m

Big Lots Business: Discount and closeout retail

Bruce Thorn

Employees: 2019 total revenue: 2019 profit: 2019 total revenue through q3: 2020 total revenue through q3: 2019 profit through q3: 2020 profit through q3:

34,000 $5.3 b $242.5 m $3.7 b $4.5 b $148.7 m $531.2 m

File/Dispatch/Doral Chenoweth III

CEO:

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before COVID-19 struck,” Martins says. “The pandemic seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back, rather than the root cause of the retailer’s troubles.”

The dire news kept coming all during 2020 for two brands that had been circling the drain for several years before the pandemic hit.

Ascena Retail Group, owner of two central Ohio-based brands—plus-size women’s clothier Lane Bryant and “tween” fashion retailer Justice—was riding high in March 2016 with a stock price of $217 per share. But by March 2018, after a series of costly missteps that indicated the company wasn’t aware that the ground was shifting under it, shares plunged to about $40.

By the time the pandemic hit in March 2020 and the company was

forced to close its stores along with almost all other retailers, Ascena stock price was a measly $1.63 a share.

So it was hardly a surprise when, in July, Ascena was forced to throw in the towel and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company, which at the start of 2020 had about 1,500 employees in its Columbus and New Albany operations, immediately laid off more than 300 workers who worked for Justice and Lane Bryant. While private equity firms Bluestar Alliance and Sycamore Partners have bought the respective remains of Justice and Lane Bryant, few expect the new owners to return the one-time L Brands stablemates to their glory years.

“The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated Ascena’s longstanding brand and execution issues,

as well as the ongoing challenges in the apparel retail sector,” Moody’s vice president and senior analyst Raya Sokolyanska says. “Significant challenges remain.”

Digital is king

While those companies struggled, there are other Columbus-area retailers that were well-positioned to meet the challenges of 2020, and sometimes to profit from them.

Designer Brands’ DSW began its reorientation toward modern customers’ needs several years ago, led by CEO Roger Rawlins. Significantly, Rawlins rose through the ranks at DSW on the then-new digital side of the business.

As CEO he emphasizes the integration of online and in-store functions, so much so that he and other company officials refer to their 500 brick-and-

L Brands Business: Home fragrance (Bath & Body Works)

and lingerie (Victoria’s Secret) retailer CEO:

Andrew Meslow

Courtesy Abercrombie & Fitch/MARK A. STEELE

Employees: 2019 total revenue: 2019 loss: 2019 total revenue through q3: 2020 total revenue through q3: 2019 loss through q3: 2020 loss through q3:

94,400 $12.9 b $366.4 m $8.2 b $7 b $174 m $158 m

Express Business: Specialty fashion retail

Employees: 2019 total revenue: 2019 loss: 2019 total revenue through q3: 2020 total revenue through q3: 2019 loss through q3: 2020 loss through q3:

Tim Baxter

14,000 $2 b $164.4 m $1.4 b $778 m $22.7 m $352 m

File/Associated Press/MARY ALTAFFER

CEO:

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At Bath & Body Works, the strongest of L Brands’ businesses, sales were up 55 percent in the third quarter thanks to pandemic demand.

File/Columbus Monthly/TIM JOHNSON

mortar stores as “warehouses” that not only serve as retail locations but as distribution centers.

That proved to be “a competitive advantage as retailers shifted to digital-only sales beginning in the second half of March,” Rawlins said in an earnings call. “We essentially became a dot-com only retailer starting on March 18,” CFO Jared Poff agreed. “We actually had three of the six biggest (e-commerce sales) days in the history of our company after stores closed,” Rawlins says, “like Black Friday, Cyber Monday kind of days.

All these omni tools we have invested in, we were fulfilling 80 percent, 90 percent of that demand out of our what we call warehouses.”

To beef that up, Designer Brands signed a deal in April with supermarket chain Hy-Vee to add more locations for buy-online, pickup-in-store.

Even so, DSW scrambled in 2020.

During the initial lockdown, “we ended up having to furlough about 88 percent of our entire workforce,” Rawlins says. DSW also announced “reduction in compensation for

nearly all employees not placed on temporary leave as well as the board, and the freezing of hiring and merit raises for 2020.”

DSW also rushed to respond to the immediate change in customer choices as fewer people wanted or needed business attire and more people wore comfortable “athleisure” shoes.

“Jared and I were in the office for the first time (in June after the shutdown) and I said, ‘I think it’s the first time in 13 weeks I have actually worn a pair of pants that’s not a sweat pant,’ ” Rawlins says. “So we’re going to continue to figure out ways to get after this athleisure kind of look.”

Even so, all that work couldn’t prevent the coronavirus from having a crushing impact on DSW. In the first quarter of the pandemic, the company lost $216 million and, in late July, the company cut its staff by more than 1,000 positions, eliminating about 380 corporate office positions and 700 store jobs.

Flagships set sail

Abercrombie & Fitch is another brand that was in the throes of a massive turnaround when the pandemic hit.

“I think the expression goes, crisis accelerates change,” CEO Fran

“I think the expression goes, crisis accelerates change, and that’s certainly what we’ve seen throughout this whole year.”

Fran Horowitz, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch

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Horowitz said during an earnings call, “and that’s certainly what we’ve seen throughout this whole year. We’ve really been able to lean into our omni capabilities and build on the strength of our digital business to over $1 billion, a growth of 47 percent just in the third quarter.”

Significant investment integrated online and in-store for Abercrombie, and it also focused on improving customer engagement via social media, a big deal for the company’s youth-oriented Hollister brand. During the third quarter, the company’s partnership with social media stars Charli D’Amelio and Dixie D’Amelio helped launch its back-to-school jeans campaign along with fellow influencer Noah Pugliano and teen favorite Bill Nye the Science Guy. That campaign had more than 5.4 billion views on TikTok and was the top TikTok brand campaign of the year based on brand lift metrics.

The pandemic also sped up Abercrombie’s moves to shift its brick-andmortar stores to smaller locations and away from its big, tourist-oriented flagship stores.

“Large, expensive flagships are really not part of our go-forward strategy, and we have been working really diligently with our landlords over the past few years,” Horowitz says. “We don’t really know where the stores are going to end up. We’ve got a lot of leases due at the end of (2020).

Ultimately, our goal is to be a global omnichannel retailer, balancing both digital as well as stores. The stores do matter because you need both in order to be effective in omni.”

The big nesting spend

Unlike other retailers who have struggled to meet the challenges of the pandemic, Big Lots has actually seen some boosts from the rapid changes in customer behavior. During the third quarter, the discount and closeout retailer reported its highest-ever earnings, far exceeding 2019’s figure.

“We have seen continued momentum from the COVID-induced nesting trend,” President and CEO Bruce Thorn said during an earnings call.

“The current way of living, our assortment of everyday essentials and stay-at-home products continues to

It seems simple, but it’s highly complex and expensive for large retailers to streamline the online and in-store experiences for customers.

File/istockphotos.com/SDI Productions

strongly align with customer wants and needs.” In 2020, Big Lots introduced curbside pickup. In July, the retailer launched same-day delivery from biglots.com, allowing delivery of items as large as furniture and mattresses and as small as snack food and cleaning products.

Like DSW, Big Lots spent the past few years integrating its online operations with its brickand-mortar locations, a point that Total Retail magazine highlighted when it named Big Lots as its top omnichannel retailer of 2020. The award “is validation of how quickly

“While it was very difficult for all of us to go through COVID-19, we picked up a lot of new (customers) and they discovered Big Lots maybe for the first time in 2020.”

Bruce Thorn, CEO, Big Lots

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we have adapted our approach to meet our customers’ evolving needs,” Thorn says.

“While it was very difficult for all of us to go through COVID-19, we picked up a lot of new (customers) and they discovered Big Lots maybe for the first time in 2020,” Thorn says.

Business went so well in the past year, in fact, that Big Lots plans “a marked acceleration in the growth of our store” number in 2021, including the company’s highest number of firstquarter openings “in many years.”

Back at the Zoom call with “Kim” and “Andy” there’s good news, too.

L Brands’ Bath & Body Works chain, while not as sexy as its flashy corporate sibling Victoria’s Secret, has quietly churned out earnings during the pandemic that exceeded even the company’s own optimistic forecasts.

The even better news at Bath &

Body Works is that sales for some of its products have “actually been enhanced by the pandemic, specifically soaps and sanitizers and to a lesser extent, but still material, our home fragrance business as well, with people spending a lot more time in their homes.”

To meet the “tremendous growth” of online purchases, L Brands dramatically increased its delivery fulfillment capacity in 2020, Meslow says, “to the point where in third quarter, we were able to be looking at about two and a half times the amount of capacity that we had last year.”

The surprise? L Brands’ previous signature enterprise, Victoria’s Secret, showed “a pretty remarkable recovery” in its profit margins, says Mark Altschwager, an analyst at Baird.

Only a year before, Victoria’s Secret had seemed in danger of pulling

down the whole company. Digital disruptions, an outdated brand image, reports of a misogynistic work culture and Wexner’s connections to money manager and sex predator Jeffrey Epstein led to demands by Wall Street investors for Wexner to retire and for L Brands to sell off Victoria’s Secret.

By the fall of 2020, however, it appeared Victoria’s Secret was “well on the way to break even,” Altschwager says. If those sales trends continue into 2021, “the brand would seem to be nicely profitable again.”

The revival of Victoria’s Secret doesn’t surprise Peterson.

“Don’t forget they’re still market leaders, the kings of intimate apparel. I really don’t see them evaporating. More than anybody (during the pandemic year), the two L Brands commodities have a good chance of recovery.”

Meslow shrugs off the drama, saying, “Customers have noticed the changes that we’ve made in our merchandise assortments and marketing and are responding positively.”

The planned sale of Victoria’s Secret will happen in 2021, he says, although neither he nor any other L Brands official will say exactly what form the deal will take—whether it’s a public offering, a sale to private equity or something else L Brands financial advisers dream up.

Regardless of what happens, the year of the pandemic has left a mark.

“I do believe that some of what we’ve experienced so far this year is probably here to stay in terms of how customers behave,” Meslow says.

“Some of the growth and movement to the (online) direct channel I think has been an acceleration of a multiyear trend that we had already been observing.”

And there’s one more wrinkle to the story, Peterson adds.

“The thing that’s different about all this is that there’s definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. After 9/11 and the Great Recession, we really didn’t know how long the economy would be in the tank.

“But we’re pretty sure that by next Thanksgiving, we could be beyond this.”

Tim Feran is a freelance writer.

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Steve Morris

Co-founder and CEO, Asset Strategies Group Age: 72 In position since: 2002 Previous: Senior vice

president, chief administrative officer and CFO, real estate and store planning, L Brands (1996–2001); president, international, MicroProse (1994-96); vice president, Ames Department Stores (1990–93); vice president, Sega, Tonka Toys (1987-89); director, Dayton Hudson (1977–87) Education: Antioch College

(1970); Harvard Business School (1976) Resides: New Albany Family: Wife Nancy, son Adam, daughter Stacy, grandson Alex

T

By Steve Wartenberg Photo by rob hardin he leases a retailer signs with a shopping center or mall seem like a fairly straightforward legal document. Right?

Not so for Steve Morris, who saw all sorts of inconsistencies, issues, negligence and opportunities for savings in the fine print and the practices of landlords. While he was senior vice president of the L Brands real estate and store planning division, Morris dug into thousands of leases, found issues, and he and his team of lease detectives saved the iconic local retail giant $150 million. In the process, they became pioneers who changed the way shopping center leases are drawn up.

In 2002, Morris started his own company, Asset Strategies Group (ASG), that began by specializing in the lease-detective work he was nationally known for. That work has changed with the times and technol-

Retail

l i a t de

cognized as a re ly k ic u q s a w Steve Morris izard early in his career, and ons w ng the largest ri lease negotiati u g fi n o c s e d a dec profitably. d n a he’s spent four ly th o o m s s to run retail companie ogy, and ASG now offers retailers a wide range of services.

“I always wanted to run a business, ever since I was a kid,” Morris says.

“I’m not sure why, maybe I was good at Monopoly.”

Starting out

Paul Hiers worked at L Brands and was a little nervous about his new boss. “They told me they’d hired some guy from Harvard, and I was thinking, great, another one who doesn’t know what they’re talking about,” he says. “But my first and immediate impression of Steve was that

Morris earned an MBA in finance at the Harvard Business School and then went to work in retail, including stints at Dayton Hudson, Tonka Toys and Ames Department Stores. “My skillset was I could be thrown into these restructuring situations and build a team and do the financial and organizational engineering,” he says. “I’ve always had a lot of success doing that.”

Then he was recruited by L Brands.

“They recruited me for CFO of real estate and my comment was, ‘That’s not a real job, is it?’ ” Morris says.

“There can be a lot of creativity on the landlord’s side. For example, there could be a clause that you had to pay 75 cents per square foot to the mall’s marketing fund, but only if everyone else did.”

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he was the smartest person I had ever worked for.”

He did have one concern about Morris: “He’s too nice.”

Real estate management was a new and increasingly important division for large retail chains, and Morris reports that the 6,000 L Brands leases totaled $1.5 billion back then. The Gap and Foot Locker had already begun looking into their leases, and L Brands saw an opportunity to save money. “I think the talent of Les [Wexner, founder and longtime CEO of L Brands] is hiring good people and empowering them to go do things. I was given an unlimited budget and told to fix real estate.”

Fix it he did, as he and his team began auditing thousands of the leases.

“There can be a lot of creativity on the landlord’s side,” Morris explains. “For example, there could be a clause that you had to pay 75 cents per square foot to the mall’s marketing fund, but only if everyone else did.”

It turned out a lot of L Brands stores were paying the 75 cents, while many of the retailers in the centers were not.

Seventy-five cents times hundreds of square feet in thousands of stores can add up quickly. “Trash seems simple,”

Morris continues. “Whatever it costs, you charge back, but that turned out not to be the case.”

Morris also recommended something a bit radical for L Brands: Closing stores.

“They’d never closed a store before,” he says. “But it was simple math. Line up the 6,000 stores by profit, and the bottom 10 percent have to go. They’re losing money.”

Going solo

Morris left L Brands in 2001 and soon after started ASG, bringing in Hiers as a founding partner. The initial business model was to do the leaseauditing work they specialized in, and they quickly signed up several clients, including the Gap and Foot Locker.

“There was a lot of low-hanging fruit if you audited landlords, and that business model was pretty selfevident,” Morris says. “We each threw in maybe $10,000 and we got it back pretty quickly and made money that first year,” Hiers says.

Morris, Hiers and their ASG team were so successful they pretty much destroyed their business model, as landlords adapted their leases to avoid givebacks. “They were incurring such

heavy settlements, they changed their leases and there was no longer anything to audit,” Morris says.

Morris and Hiers had a productive working relationship that enabled ASG to adapt and thrive. “Steve is this amazing strategic thinker, and we’d hash out these ideas and then it would fall on me to figure out how to make it work,” Hiers says, who retired a few years ago. “That’s why we were a good team.”

ASG has worked with 150 retail clients in recent years in four primary areas: predictive analytics and strategy; deal negotiations; store design and construction; and lease administration and rent accounting. The company manages 5,000 leases for 25 retail clients.

“Steve and his team are straightforward people who want to do good work and get the job done,” says Denny Gerdeman, who founded Chute Gerdeman, a retail design firm, with his wife, Elle Chute, in 1989. “Here’s who we are and what we can do and how it will help you.”

The couple sold their company to FCB Chicago, a marketing firm, for an undisclosed sum in 2017. When Gerdeman learned FCB Chicago planned to sell the design firm, he contacted Morris, and ASG bought Chute Gerdeman in September for an undisclosed amount.

“This addressed a gap in our offerings to retailers,” Morris says. “What we were missing was upfront, prototype design that they did so well.”

Morris also founded and is the chairman of CBUS Retail, a group of retail professionals who meet regularly to share information, best practices, and promote retail in the region.

The next step

Morris, 72, is having too much fun to retire anytime soon. ASG has 58 employees and projects revenue will be $7 million in 2020.

“I love retail,” he says. “It’s a huge industry and there have always been winners and losers and new players and, if we knew which of these new players to invest in, we’d be rich. The key, here in Columbus, is to make sure we capture the new ones, that they locate here and that we continue to be a retail headquarters.”

Steve Wartenberg is a freelance writer.

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068-069_Leaderboard_MBAPrograms.indd 68

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ION

RT Y

MBA Programs

Ranked by Columbus region enrollment

INSTITUTION 1

Ohio State University Fisher College of Business 2100 Neil Ave., Columbus 43210 614-292-8511 • fisher.osu.edu

2

Franklin University

201 S. Grant Ave., Columbus 43215 614-797-4700 franklin.edu

Columbus region enrollment 2020-21

3 President St., Athens 45701 740-591-6927 business.ohio.edu

1216 Sunbury Road, Columbus 43219 614-251-4500 ohiodominican.edu

$31,139 1925

varies varies

$24,120 1992

36 14 months

Evening, online

$17,514 2009

36 2 years

Weekend, online

$14,604 2002

36 2 years

Daytime, evening, full-time, online

$11,328 2004

36 19 months

Online

123

$25,800 1978

30 12 months

Evening, weekend, full-time, online

100

$12,780 1973

36 2 years

Part time, evening

87

$15,900 2011

36 18 months

Online

56

$23,400 1997

36 2 years

Daytime, evening, full-time, online

515 481 233 163

5 Mount Vernon Nazarene University

800 Martinsburg Road Mount Vernon 43050 • 740-392-6868 mvnu.edu/gps

136

6 Ashland University Dauch College of Business & Economics

1900 E. Dublin-Granville Road, Columbus 43229 • 614-333-1633 • mba.ashland.edu

7 Capital University

1 College and Main, Columbus 43209 614-236-6670 capital.edu/mba

8 Ohio Christian University 1476 Lancaster Pike, Circleville 43113 877-762-8669 ohiochristian.edu

9 Otterbein University 1 S. Grove St., Westerville 43081 614-890-3000 otterbein.edu/mba

The CEO Leaderboard features selected topics each month. The April Leaderboards will feature Columbus region commercial real estate brokers. The deadline for inclusion in those surveys is Feb. 14. If you want your company to be considered for an upcoming CEO Leaderboard, contact Columbus CEO at rwalters@ columbusCEO.com.

Information included in this survey was provided by companies listed and was not independently verified.

068-069_Leaderboard_MBAPrograms.indd 69

Format

Program Length

4 Ohio Dominican University

Credit hours

year established

3 Ohio University College of Business

Annual tuition

Average student age Daytime, evening, weekend, full-time, part-time

34

Dean of school Online application and fee, academic record, GMAT or GRE, one letter of recommendation, resume, essay/personal statement, video interview, TOEFL for international applicants.

Anil Makhija

34

Bachelor’s degree with a cumulative 2.75 GPA or graduate entrance exam; work history, references and other personal characteristics will be considered as well if the GPA requirement is not met.

Alyncia Bowen

32

Two years of professional work experience, bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited university; resume, personal statement, two letters of recommendation. No GMAT or GRE required.

Hugh Sherman

26

Bachelor’s degree and 3.0 cumulative GPA or minimum 2.75 cumulative GPA in at least 60 hours; score in the 50th percentile in each section of the GMAT; foundational coursework with a B or two years of professional experience.

Ken Fah Baccalaureate degree with a 2.80 GPA; transcripts of previous college or university undergraduate and graduate coursework; completed registration agreement form.

31

Jim Dalton 2.75 undergraduate GPA; 2 years professional experience.

Elad Granot

29 27

Bachelor’s degree, minimum 3.2 GPA; professional work for minimum of 3 years; professional references, personal interview and/or GMAT may be requested

Sharon Peck Baccalaureate degree or higher from a regionally or ABHE-accredited college or university with a 3.0 or higher GPA.

40

28

admission requirements

Jon Tomlinson Application. GMAT scores, completion of statistics 1, financial accounting, micro- and macroeconomics.

Barbara Schaffner

Source: Survey of MBA programs Information compiled by Rebecca walters

January 2021 l ColumbusCEO

69

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what % of US adults say they read magazines in the last 6 months?

91

Le A (9 w

This includes 95% of those under 35 and 95% of those under 25.

228.7

MILLION THAT’S AN INCREASE OF 18 MILLION SINCE 2012.

(MRI-Simmons, Fall 2012-2019)

THE MAGAZINE ROAS OF $6.51 WAS DOUBLE THAT OF THE TV ROAS OF $3.23, AND MORE THAN DOUBLE OF THE DIGITAL ROAS OF $2.43.

(NCSolutions 2005-Q12019)

(MRI-Simmons, Fall 2019)

HOW MANY ADULTS AGES 18+ READ MAGAZINES?

M S C

when advertisers were asked which medium offers the highest ROAS, which was the highest overall?

S A C

THE PRINT MAGAZINE INDUSTRY IS GROWING 139 new print magazine brands with a frequency of quarterly or greater were introduced in 2019 (Samir “Mr. Magazine” ™ Husani Monitor 2020)

PRINT READERS

REMEMBER MORE.

B (6 b s

MAGAZINES REACH PREMIUM AUDIENCES IN HIGH-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS*

At a greater rate than newspapers, internet, radio or TV * Household income $250K+ (MRI-Simmons, Fall 2019)

compared to top tech sites MAGAZINES outperform reaching

WOMEN

RE M GE VI

(MRI Media Fusion)

Al (6 al re

AGES 18+

PRINT STIMULATES EMOTIONS AND DESIRES PRINT IS PREFERRED BY THE MAJORITY (EVEN MILLENNIALS) PRINT READERS EXPERIENCE MORE FOCUSED ATTENTION AND LESS DISTRACTION, WHICH DRIVES SENSORY INVOLVEMENT CONTRIBUTING TO GREATER READER IMPACT, COMPREHENSION AND RECALL.

R A

(MPA, Scott McDonald, Ph.D. Nomas Research)

For advertising information call Columbus CEO at 614-540-8900 or email advertise@columbusceo.com.

For your complimentary subscription to Columbus CEO visit columbusceo.com.

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E (6 em em

Information provided by

12/17/20 9:58 AM

Wouldn’t you like to be looking at your home?

Ask your Realtor to market your home in the Executive Living section of Columbus CEO Magazine!

East of I-71 call Telana Veil at (614) 469-6106 or e-mail at tveil@dispatch.com West of I-71 call Amy Vidrick at (614) 461-5153 or e-mail at avidrick@dispatch.com

MICHAEL SAUNDERS & COMPANY

CUTLER REAL ESTATE

Leslie Emery & Aaron Corr (941) 400-9710 www.beach2barn.com

Neil Mathias (614) 580-1662 neil@themathiasteam.com

DEER RUN - A limited number of building lots available in this exclusive private gated community. Deer Run is a secluded, private lush wilderness in the heart of Dublin. Bring your own builder and design your dream home in one of the last centrally located communities in the city of Dublin. Acreage from 2-3+ Acres and Pricing starting at $825,000/lot. www.deerrunoh.com

From sand to sunsets and live oaks to acreage, Florida is calling to you.

Team Beach2Barn is your Buckeye connection to your new Florida dream home and lifestyle! Our passion for hands-on service provides you a knowledgeable and trustworthy experience, before and after closing. For new construction or re-sale, we look forward to working with you.

SORRELL AND COMPANY

CUTLER REAL ESTATE

Ben Goodman (614) 537-4867 ben@ sorrellandco.com

Jean Ann Conley (614) 595-4712 jeanann@conley andpartners.com

ROMANELLI & HUGHES STUNNER IN GALENA Custom built, open concept home in Walnut Grove Estates. Chef’s kitchen boasts custom cabinetry and oversize island. Home office! Large owner’s suite with stunning walk-in closet. 3D movie theater! This home has it all! 4/5 bed, 4.5 bath, 4,829 sq ft (incl. finished bsmt). $779,900

8395 DEEP RUN, POWELL - Custom cape cod flooded w/ natural light. Private wooded backyard & patio adjoining a wooded reserve. Country covered front porch w/ Mahogany door sets tone for the quality throughout. Brazilian cherry wood floors.

Kitchen w/ Blue Eyes Granite & high end appls. 1st flr owner suite w/ private screen porch. Walkout LL features bar, full bath, game & rec rms. 4BR 4FB 1HB $1,025,000

RE/MAX METRO PLUS GERMAN VILLAGE

RE/MAX METRO PLUS GERMAN VILLAGE

Al Waddell (614) 832-4079 al.waddell@ remax.net

Al Waddell (614) 832-4079 al.waddell@ remax.net

60 MIAMI AVENUE – Elegnt home w/ leaded glass entry opens to a vestibule that opens to a center hall foyer. Home office and magnificent staircase, working FP flanked by two wood trimmed arched doorways into the FDR. Coffered ceilings, stained glass, updated kitchen w/ center island & new pro-style appls. 2nd floor has 4 BRs & 2 full baths + sunroom. Owner’s BR adjoins full bath & 2nd BR to create a lavishly lg owner’s suite. $624,900

39 N OHIO AVENUE - American 4SQ with every update imaginable! The 30’ center hall leads to a stunning, original 3 story staircase. 2 sets of dbl pocket doors open to a Music Rm & Liv. Rm (each w/ FP), LR opens to banquet-sized FDR. A large island centers the kitchen w Quarts counters. 2nd flr has 2 en-suite BRs, custom dressing room & 4th BR (or home office). The 3rd flr is a private owner’s suite, with vaulted ceilings, sitting area & luxurious bath. $659,900

RE/MAX AFFILIATES

RE/MAX PREMIER CHOICE

Emma Yanok (614) 946-0728 emmayanok@ emmayanok.com

Debbie Bower (614) 496-4477 debbiebowerteam@ gmail.com

5105 SQUIRREL BEND - 1 acre corner lot in UA, Bates & Nau Design, extensive updates & additions. Open floor plan, floor to ceiling windows provide views to fountain, patio, terrace, private fenced in yard. Five En-suites, gourmet kitchen, cherry flooring & cabinetry, which opens to a casual eating area, sunroom, family rm & 1000 sq. ft. great rm. Winding stairs to 1200 bottle wine cellar.

070-071_ExLiv.indd 71

FABULOUS PENTHOUSE IN GRANDVIEW! - “The Heights” located on 3rd Ave! Floor to ceiling windows in great room w/amazing views of Downtown Columbus & OSU! Walk to Restaurants, Shops & Parks! Beautiful 2 BR, 3.5 BA w/maple floors & 11ft ceilings. Storage unit & 2 side by side parking spaces in garage!

12/17/20 9:58 AM

Office Space

By Laura newpoff + Photos by Rob Hardin

M/I Homes 4131 Worth Ave. Columbus 43219 mihomes.com

Homebuilder gets refreshed workspace as the anchor tenant of Georgetown Co.’s new office building at Easton.

Residential flair

Sense of community

Next-gen work spaces

Amenities like a cafe, a series of terraces and satellite coffee points are meant to give employees a variety of places to work and gather— or get space.

Visit columbusCEO.com for a full article on the space.

Materials that are used in homebuilding—brick, steel, concrete and reconstituted wood—were an important part of the new office being able to showcase who M/I Homes is as a business.

Gensler and M+A Architects designed the new office.

Showcasing the brand

There are several spots for internal branding in the new office, which was done

by Columbus creative firm Tenfold.

72 ColumbusCEO l January 2021

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12/17/20 9:36 AM

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To learn more visit cancer.osu.edu/lung.

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