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8/19/2011
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SPECIAL REPORT A DOSE OF REALITY: Is all this health care building good for us? PAGES 13-19
Market’s volatility leads to buybacks
IN SEARCH OF RESEARCH RECOGNITION Kent State’s new hire has tough task: Boost coffers amid budgetary upheaval
Firms see their shares as value investments
By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com
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s the point man for filling marching orders by Kent State University president Lester Lefton to build in a big way the school’s stash of research dollars, Grant McGimpsey knows he faces an uphill battle — but one he intends to take on at full speed. Though he has been on the job as Kent State’s vice president for research for just a few weeks, Dr. McGimpsey already is kneedeep in discussions about how to inject more research money into the university’s coffers, an amount often perceived as a metric that gauges a school’s prestige. “Kent State needs to be recognized as a research university, and that’s why I’m here,” Dr. McGimpsey said. “I want to work at an institution that recognizes the value of what research can do for a society, and I’m not being corny here.”
By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com
A number of public companies in Northeast Ohio aren’t sitting on the sidelines as insiders and investors pocket their shares at reduced prices in a yo-yo stock market. They, too, are buying or are poised to do so. The boards of both Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. and Invacare Corp. just last week authorized new stock repurchase plans that allow both companies to buy back millions more of their own shares. The Cliffs board last Monday, Aug. 15, authorized a new repurchase plan allowing the iron ore producer to buy up to 4 million shares of its common stock outstanding. Citing “recent volatility in the global equity markets,” Cliffs chief financial officer Laurie Brlas said last week’s buyback authorization “will allow Cliffs to opportunistically acquire shares at attractive valuations.” And Invacare, based in Elyria, announced last Friday, Aug. 19, that its board had authorized the company to repurchase more common stock, boosting its overall authorization to 2.5 million shares. Asked why Invacare executives sought a new authorization, Gerald B. Blouch, president and CEO, cited widespread uncertainty over equities and the general economy, as well as
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See BUYBACKS Page 21
MARC GOLUB
Dr. Grant McGimpsey, Kent State University’s new vice president for research, stands next to a confocal microscope in the biology department at KSU.
See RESEARCH Page 11
New convention home luring industrial groups back By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com
Cleveland is the place to be — at least if you are holding a big industrial trade show. That’s the word from Positively Cleveland, the group that markets Cleveland as a tourism and convention destination, along with those who hold the shows themselves.
Even two years before the city’s new convention center is finished, big industrial organizations already are signing up to use it. And when they do, some shows will bring thousands of people to town, Positively Cleveland says. It wasn’t that the industrial groups ever had a beef with this shrunken old manufacturing giant; there just weren’t good places to hold con-
ventions here, Positively Cleveland leaders say. Their audience — those in rubber, plastic and steel-related manufacturing businesses — never left town. “The shows are returning because this is their market. Their wheelhouse is right here,” said Eric Julian, national sales manager for Positively Cleveland. Mr. Julian said his organization
so far has been encouraged to see not just medical device companies drawn to the city as it prepares to build and unveil the Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center in late 2013, but basic industrial groups as well. For some, it will be déjà vu all over again, as many of those groups used to hold their meetings here See SHOWS Page 21
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INSIDE
Growth in road racing, Corporate Challenge give sports management outfit Hermes Cos. boost ■ Page 3 PLUS: ALUMNI STEP UP GIVING ■ TEAM NEO DATA ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 32, No. 34