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Milestones S p e C i a l

a d v e r t i S i n g

S e C t i O n

Central Ohio companies celebrate years of serving their customers as they plan for many more.

Miles of success

M January 2018 l ColumbusCEO

110 CAS Celebrates 110 Years

cience transforms our lives every day. From the air we breathe to the water we drink, to the foods and medicines that keep us healthy, science is part of everything we do. But have you ever

Staff forms the CaS logo on the front lawn of the Columbus campus.

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wondered what it takes to help scientists unlock the secrets to challenges that are yet unsolved? For more than 110 years, CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, has been doing just that! Located in Columbus, Ohio, CAS analyzes the world’s scientific content and delivers information used by Fortune 500 companies, universities and government research institutions around the world.

CAS impacts innovation across industries from pharmaceutical development to material sciences. Just as you turn to Google to find out how to make that special birthday cake, businesses turn to CAS for insights that help them make the next blockbuster drug or renewable energy source. CAS’s strength is founded on our highly talented employees. Hundreds of scientists analyze the world’s

disclosed research, identifying novel discoveries and curating this information to advance science. Technology experts manage data and build leading-edge solutions to tackle the unique challenges associated with scientific content. CAS leverages content, people and technology to help organizations make faster, more efficient discoveries, improving people’s lives through the transforming power of chemistry.

A Storied History of Innovation

Scientific Information at Your Fingertips

CAS was founded in 1907 to manage the overwhelming amount of disclosed chemistry information. Started as an idea among cousins Arthur and William Noyes at the University of Illinois Urbana to better promote U.S. chemistry research, the initial publication was called Chemical AbstractsTM. Austin Patterson became editor in 1909 and moved the operation from Illinois to The Ohio State University. As the amount of information grew, so did CAS. Needing more space, the operation moved to its current location north of campus in 1956. In 1965, CAS invented the CAS Registry Number® system, providing a persistent identifier for each unique chemical substance upon discovery, similar to Social Security numbers assigned to each person at birth. Many national and global bodies use CAS RN identifiers, including the global government regulatory

For the last 30 years, CAS delivered value to its customers primarily through its market-leading digital solutions, STN® and SciFinder®. STN was launched in 1983 as the first global network for scientific information. The STN platform was designed to permit online searching across hundreds of technical databases. In 1994, CAS introduced SciFinder, a new-generation research tool to assist scientists worldwide. This was the first time ever that scientists were able to directly find information, ranging from chemical structures to literature available at the fingertips with little or no online search expertise. It changed the way scientific research was done.

organizations. Chemical Abstracts were initially published in printed books. As technology advanced, CAS was a pioneer in digital research solutions, with the launch of CAS Online in 1980. Information was available to users who had access to mainframe terminals and featured search-andretrieval functionality specialized for scientific and technical information. This included the first chemical structure search engine, a time-saving revolution that enabled direct retrieval of chemical substance information.

A New Century, A New Era Since 2014, CAS has introduced a portfolio of new solutions designed to speed scientific productivity and improve business decision-making.

CAS helps to uncover deep insights for the scientific enterprise that lead to innovations ranging from product improvements to ah-ha moments. Most recently, CAS is expanding its offerings to design custom solutions that combine the right content, specialized technologies and proven subject matter expertise to help CAS customers capture more opportunity and accelerate results.

Our Work Changes the World, but Our Hearts Belong to Columbus At CAS, we enable groundbreaking research that improves people’s lives every day. We’re proud to inspire innovation in our great city! If you want to become part of our amazing team, visit cas.org/careers.

CAS 2540 Olentangy River Rd. Columbus, OH 43202 614-447-3600 cas.org January 2018 l ColumbusCEO

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King Furnishes Success for 20 Years

t King Business Interiors, we want people to love where they

work. As a family-owned commercial furnishings company, we are proud to be celebrating 20 years in the business of creating desirable work spaces. Thanks to our loyal clients, business partners and associates and a commitment to top-notch service, King has grown from a small five-person startup into one of central Ohio’s largest office furniture suppliers with more than 70 employees. And we’re more than just a commercial office furniture dealership. Along with being a preferred dealer of Haworthmade furnishings, King represents 300 product lines, operates a full-service commercial flooring division, offers inventory and warehousing and provides total move management services. Our scale as a multimillion-dollar company allows us to take on the largest of projects. Still, we remain committed to giving every client, no matter the size, the attention they deserve. All projects are done with one goal in mind: providing our customer with a “zero punch list,” meaning every request is met with full satisfaction. “We’re always in tune

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with what they need,” our founder and CEO Darla King says. “We become an extension of our clients’ facilities departments and support their growing businesses.” Two decades after Darla made the leap to run her own business, we continue growing and thriving alongside our customers and the Columbus community. And our passion for quality service extends beyond the traditional commercial office user. King’s Connect the Dots program provides gently used business furniture to budget-conscious nonprofits—more than 160 of them, in fact, since the program was launched in 2004. Connect the Dots has become instrumental to our culture, and word of the program has spread throughout the industry. “One of our competitors said, ‘call King,’ when a client had used furniture,” Darla says. “It’s very rewarding. It feels good, just giving back.” Also benefiting from Connect the Dots, our busi-

King Business Interiors 1400 Goodale Blvd., Suite 102 Columbus, OH 43212 614-430-0020 kbiinc.com

darla King ness clients appreciate the seamless process when upgrading their own offices. “The last thing they think about is how to get rid of their old furniture,” Darla says. In addition to Connect the Dots, we’re passionate about our Create for a Cause event, which every year benefits a different nonprofit organization in central Ohio. The special evening includes a silent auction of artistic ceramic plates, bowls or ornaments hand-

painted by local architects and designers, clients and employees, with all proceeds going to the local charity chosen each year by our team. So, why do we do all this? Early on in the company’s history, the vision was clear: King Business Interiors will always be more than a furniture vendor. And the sustained growth of the business over 20 years has created even more opportunities to give back.

Chelsea King, Chris King, dave King and darla King

tony Casey

Brad Hammond

diane Flinders Darla personally does so by mentoring fellow women leaders, including her own daughter, Chelsea, who is a designer for the company (her son is in sales and her husband is CFO)! Through the National Association of Women Business Owners, Darla is helping to support the next generation of Columbus women business owners. “It’s been the best thing in my career,” Darla says. Growth also has led the company to move head-

quarters to Goodale Boulevard in Grandview, just minutes from Downtown Columbus. The new office is centrally located for clients and truly reflects our family atmosphere: photos of all King employees are blown up on the wall in our lobby, and there’s another “brag wall” where we give each other credit for accomplishments. Our family-like culture includes accommodating policies, such as flexible paid time off, to help pro-

mote work-life balance for employees. “They’re the ones who make this successful,” Darla says. “We like to say, ‘love where you work.’ It’s not about living to work, it’s about working to live.” In our efforts to make central Ohio as green as possible, we have been recognized as a Columbus GreenSpot participant, and our new office space meets the standards of the International WELL Building Institute. For our current and pro-

spective clients, the new showroom space features a larger library, where we display more furniture to experience. We always welcome visitors, so please stop by for a coffee and a tour through our showroom. Whether in need of a minor project or a whole facility furnishing partner, we’d love to work with you over our next 20 years. Visit our showroom to experience our sample library for furniture and flooring ideas!

January 2018 l ColumbusCEO

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McKee Celebrates 40 Years in doors and loading docks

o say that Brian and Matt Girard grew up around the overhead door industry is, well, a bit of an understatement. “My dad (Mark Girard) was a union carpenter for one of the area’s door companies,” says Matt Girard, 37, President of McKee, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary and bills itself as: Your Doorway to Opening & Dock Solutions. Brian, 40, is Executive Vice President.

Mark Girard had an entrepreneurial spirit and dreamed of owning his own business. He made the leap in 1978, and became the Columbus-area distributor for McKee Door Industries, an Illinois-based manufacturer of industrial overhead doors. Mark Girard’s first local McKee “headquarters” office? “The basement of our house,” says Matt Girard. The office included a typewriter and phone atop a door-slab desk supported by two filing cabinets, surrounded by an algaegreen shag carpet and an assortment of toys for the boys, who learned all about industrial overhead doors as they began to crawl, walk and talk. Mark Girard handled “all the sales and installation and he even drove to Illinois to pick up the doors,” Matt Girard explains, adding McKee (the manufacturer) was eventually sold and went out of business (the Brian girard

Matt girard

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Girards now work with a group of the industry’s top manufacturers). The local McKee business grew steadily, and Jan Girard soon left her teaching job in the Pickerington Local School District to help her husband run the business from the basement office. Skip ahead a few decades and McKee is one of Ohio’s largest industrial overhead door and loading dock companies. Mark and Jan are retired and their sons run the business. Headquarters is a modern, 20,000-squarefoot building in Groveport with 32 fulltime employees and a corporate culture that values leadership, integrity and service, and encourages employees to think outside the box (and overhead door) to come up with new ideas. “Sales have doubled in the past several years,” Matt Girard says. While most central Ohio residents haven’t heard of

McKee, the odds are most have been in a facility in which the company has installed (and services) overhead doors. The growing list includes: Wexner Medical Center and Ohio Union at The Ohio State University, Amazon, the Pizzuti Collection museum in the Short North, Hilton Columbus Downtown and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Central Ohio has become a major warehouse and distribution hub, and McKee is a big player in providing the overhead doors and loading-dock equipment at these

massive buildings. Other major McKee market segments include medical centers, retail outlets, aviation and transportation facilities, schools and colleges, and sports venues. Brian and Matt Girard were destined to run the family business. Brian earned a degree in construction management at Ohio State and joined McKee on a fulltime basis in 1998; Matt earned a degree in business at Capital University and joined the company in 2003. “There’s no school that teaches what we do at

McKee,” Matt Girard says. “Our parents taught us the business.” Brian runs the installation and service side of the business; Matt runs the day-to-day business operations. As they expanded and modernized McKee, the Girard brothers have built the company around a philosophy they call “The Four C’s of McKee Customer Care.” They are: caring, creativity, clarity and consistency. “We feel we have the right recipe for success in place,” Matt Girard says, adding it centers around understanding the needs

of their customers and “educating them about what we do so they can make the best possible decisions.” Another key is McKee’s employees, who make scores of visits to clients. “They’re the face of our organization,” Matt Girard says. “We’ve worked hard to empower them to do more, to interact more with our customers and to come up with ideas to provide even better customer service. That benefits our customers and it benefits us.” The next step in McKee’s steady growth could be an

acquisition. “We’re looking within a 150-mile radius and it doesn’t have to be an overhead-door company,” Matt Girard says, adding a company in a related business could be an ideal target. “You can’t grow without the right systems, culture and business plan,” he says. “And we have all that right now.”

McKee 4200 Hamilton Sq. Blvd Groveport, OH 43125 614-833-1416 mckeedoor.com January 2018 l ColumbusCEO

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Safelite Starting up at 70…With purpose

ou won’t find Safelite getting set in its ways. With 70 years of history, the company is soaring to new heights. How? By transforming its business with purpose. In 1947, the company’s roots were humbly established in a junkyard in Wichita, Kansas. As pioneers in the auto glass repair and replacement industry, Safelite ultimately catapulted the brand (and their infamous jingle) to national recognition. Over time, the company evolved with Safelite Solutions®, offering major insurance and fleet companies a third-party claims management service, and with Service AutoGlass®, a national provider of wholesale vehicle glass products, installation tools, and materials. Safelite’s track record of solid performance led to a 2007 acquisition by Belron®, the world’s largest vehicle glass company, providing service in over 32 countries. Belron® shared best practices and a core belief that meaningful success begins with a clear purpose and prioritization of people and leadership. In 2008, that core belief became a pivotal point in the company’s

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history when Tom Feeney officially stepped into the role of Safelite’s CEO and President. “At that time, I could see we had greatness within us and potential to double our business and double it again,” he says. “Even more compelling was our ability to do more and be more than an auto glass company. But to reach our full potential, we would need to transform our business and culture.”

People Powered, Customer Driven Steve Miggo, SVP of field and supply chain operations, believed in Safelite’s vision. He joined the company in 2008 and quickly identified the key. “We needed to start

thinking about people first,” Miggo shares. Soon, Safelite’s People-First philosophy was born. “For us, the concept is simple,” says Natalie Crede, SVP, people and leadership development. “Happy people create happy customers. We believe the customer experience is grounded in the associate experience—one that provides an engaging culture, great leadership, and people programs that create a passion for work that transcends to our customers.” “I don’t think any of us really realized the scope of change a cultural transformation would bring to how we operated the business,” says Feeney. “It

tom Feeney, CeO was a bold step during a tough economic climate, but our people power the performance of our business, so it just made sense.” Building on their

momentum, the Safelite team recognized the customer experience is produced by multiple touchpoints. So, the next leg of their journey entailed transforming their infrastructure to become customer driven. “Customers today are empowered by technology that’s available at their fingertips,” says Renee Cacchillo, SVP of customer, brand, and technology. “They expect optimal service from any business they engage with.” Cacchillo maintains that staying relevant means making it easy for customers and delivering a memorable experience in every interaction. Converting legacy

systems, moving to an agile work environment, and creating a Safelite Works innovation lab with a failfast attitude has enabled Safelite to offer innovative solutions for its customers, clients, and associates. Safelite’s objective of being a peoplepowered, customer-driven organization is to drive business performance by having talented and engaged associates who look at the business through the eyes of their customers and deliver extraordinary results. It’s working. Since the start of its transformation, the company has quadrupled in revenue, increased profits almost six-fold, and more than

tripled their associate population (now close to 14,000) with record customer satisfaction results. Feeney proudly states “We’re a different company today. We’re number one, but we act like number two. We’re proud of our history, but we think and act like a startup.”

Why it matters At the core of Safelite’s perseverance is a clear purpose. “What we do is important. How we do it is unique. But that’s not why we’re driven,” says Feeney. “The greater purpose of our organization is to make a difference and bring unexpected happiness to people’s everyday lives.” Safelite’s purpose is

infused in its culture and brought to life by three valued characteristics of its associates: a service mindset, a can-do attitude, and a caring heart. “As a growing organization, our purpose guides our choices and our interactions with our customers, clients, communities, and each other,” describes Feeney. “With that, our potential is boundless … for at least another 70 years.”

Safelite 7400 Safelite Way Columbus, OH 43235 877-664-8932 safelite.com January 2018 l ColumbusCEO

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Lake Shore Cryotronics Has low-temp tech down Cold

ake Shore Cryotronics began in the home basement of John Swartz, who along with his brother, David, formed the company. When the company was formed, David coined the term “cryotronics”, an amalgam of “cryo,” which refers to low temperatures, and “electronics.” The sensors and measuring devices produced at the company’s modern Westerville facility are used by scientists and researchers around the world—and beyond. That’s right, Lake Shore’s reach extends beyond this world. The company’s sensors are in NASA satellites currently circling the Earth and will be used in the James Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch in 2019 and explore the galaxy. “We provide sensors, instruments and system products to researchers at universities and national

labs around the world studying electronic and magnetic materials, the materials that’ll end up in your smart phone in 10 years,” says Lake Shore President Michael Swartz, the son of the founder. “And, we’re the world leader in producing the cryogenic temperature sensors that enable researchers to characterize materials at super-low temperatures. For example, thousands of our cryogenic sensors are in the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.” Lake Shore’s cryogenic sensors can survive the radiation and excessive vibrations of a space launch and operate in the harsh environment of space, where temperatures approach absolute zero (-459.67 degrees Fahrenheit). Lake Shore systems enable scientists and engineers to evaluate materials that will eventually wind up in the high-tech products used by billions around

John Swartz, phd., Susan ruhl, Karen lint, Michael Swartz the world: smart phones, computers, electric motors in automobiles and MRI machines. An emerging market is cryogenic sensors for quantum computers, which are super-computers “that operate at very low temperatures, close to absolute zero,” Swartz says. Lake Shore has 145 employees, annual revenues of $25 million to $50 million and customers all over the world. The U.S. is its largest market, followed by China, then

Japan and Germany. From its modest start in a Columbus basement, Lake Shore Cryotronics has evolved into a hightech, world leader now celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Lake Shore Cryotronics 575 McCorkle Blvd. Westerville, OH 43082 (614) 891-2243 lakeshore.com

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Mid-Ohio Building the Future for 55 Years

id-Ohio Development Corp., born out of a single central Ohio warehouse project in 1963, is proud to be celebrating 55 years in business. Now a full-service development company operating throughout the state, Mid-Ohio has amassed a diverse real estate portfolio ranging from industrial parks of more than 1 million square feet to apartment and condominium communities, shopping centers, office buildings, manufacturing facilities and singlefamily subdivisions. By integrating development, construction,

ownership and day-to-day property management, we ensure quality in everything we do. Most of all, to grow and thrive over more than a half-century, we’ve served our clients by operating with honesty and integrity, a caring attitude and a commitment to work hard. More than just constructing buildings, we’ve built a reputation for outstanding quality, long-lasting value and designs that satisfy the wants and needs of our clients. We like to say, “When we

build, we build like it’s for ourselves.” We extend this same personal touch in giving back to the community through our Murphy Foundation. Thanks to this culture of dedicated service, and a family-like atmosphere, Mid-Ohio has very little turnover—in fact, many of our employees have been with us for decades! This consistency provides our clients with a familiarity they’ve come to appreciate. It all started with MidOhio Chairman Herb Murphy Jr., who created the

company in 1963 to build a distribution center in Licking County. Herb has since turned over daily operations to his sons, Roney, serving as CEO since 2001, and Patrick, senior vice president. Further building on the legacy Herb established 55 years ago, a fourth generation of the Murphy family has joined the business. We’re actively building around the state, and we invite you to see what we have to offer. We hope what you learn about MidOhio will positively reinforce your decision to choose one of our residential or business properties. Our clients will hear the phrase, “We look forward to serving your real estate needs” and we truly mean it. We’ve been building the future since 1963 and we welcome the opportunity to serve your needs for many years to come.

Mid-Ohio Development Corp. 4393 Arbor Lake Dr. Groveport, OH 43125 614-836-0606 midohiodevelopment.com January 2018 l ColumbusCEO

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Ohio Transmission 55 Years’ Strong and driving ahead

hen L. Philip Carstens and David Derrow bought the Columbus branch of a Toledo industrial distribution company in 1963, they saw an opportunity to make a difference for their families, employees and customers. The pair moved their families to the Buckeye State and launched the Ohio Transmission Corporation. Within months of the purchase, the company

was appointed as a full-line Worthington Pump and Compressor distributor and as a full-line Allis-Chalmers distributor. The industrial equipment service provider and distributor went on to develop new lines, add locations and hire more employees. In the 55 years since its inception, OTC has grown from six employees and sales revenue of $412,000 to more than 800 associates in 32 locations and

philip derrow, CeO

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revenues of over $400 million. But Carstens and Derrow were focused on more than growth, says current CEO and Derrow’s youngest son, Phil Derrow. The OTC founders were intent on investing in employees and becoming a trusted resource for their customers, says Phil Derrow, noting that the company created an employee stock ownership plan in 1975. “They saw an opportunity to create a better company and build wealth—not just for themselves but for their employees, as well,” he says. “They understood that the people who work for the company are the people who are building the business.” They sought to differentiate themselves from their competitors by learning their customers’ businesses in order to add value to each sale, Derrow says. “We prioritize understanding how our customers’ businesses work so that we can use our technical expertise to help them streamline processes and solve prob-

lems,” he says. “Our people are there to listen to their needs, ask questions and provide solutions.” The company’s fastest growing business line— the sale of compressed air—was the result of an employee working with a customer to address a need. If the employee wasn’t committed to his customer’s business or didn’t feel empowered to suggest new opportunities—two traits the company values—the product line might not have emerged, Derrow says. “A lot of people mischaracterize serendipity as luck,” he says. “Serendipity happens because people put themselves in a position to be lucky by asking questions, doing research and looking for new solutions.”

Ohio Transmission Corporation 1900 Jetway Blvd. Columbus, OH 43219 (614) 342-6123 Otpnet.com

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Vista Celebrates 33 Years in Business

ince its inception in 1985, Vista Packaging & Logistics has been customerfocused. Its business has been built one customer at a time, with a keen eye to product/service quality, ontime delivery and organization-wide teamwork. Providing services to a variety of different industries—personal care, food and beverage, automotive, and packaging—has meant competing with a broad range of 3PL companies, large and small. To establish competitive advantage, Vista invested in technology and facilities, and

earned its ISO 9001:2008 certification. After a successful start in Columbus, Vista opened its second facility in Cincinnati in 1990. Now 27 years young, the Cincinnati operations have a parallel focus on growing one customer at a time, quality services and meeting

customer deadlines. In 2015, Vista opened a third facility in Hebron, Kentucky, and within 18 months added additional building space in Columbus. Today, all facilities together comprise over a million square feet of warehousing space, and customer services are provided by nearly 400 associates during peak periods of the year. In just the past three years, Vista’s workforce has more than doubled. Martha Cahall is a recognized and respected leader of the woman-owned and WBENC-certified company. With her sons and management team, growth has been carefully planned but aggressively sought. Since 2012, growth has been more rapid than most, placing Vista on the CBF “Fast Fifty” list, and growth in the Hebron facility has been

the most accelerated. Growth and success in the past are no guarantee of a continuing pattern in the future. Ongoing investments in technology, equipment and speed to market, along with vigilant cost control and attention to ever-changing markets are the requirements to remain a top-tier service provider. Looking forward, Vista plans to continue its strong customer service and market reputation and is pushing for growth in current and new markets. Several technology projects are in process and on the drawing boards, as are strategic facility additions. New customers have been added recently in all markets, and Vista’s consistent quality and on-time, versatile services to existing customers continue to earn it new opportunities. Here’s to the next 33 years!

Vista Packaging & Logistics 4700 Fisher Rd Columbus, OH 43228 614-851-8888 vistapl.com January 2018 l ColumbusCEO