Crain's Cleveland Business

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Cedar Fair CEO wants state to invest, too Ouimet is trying to convince Ohio to increase its out-of-state advertising, as Michigan has

By TIMOTHY MAGAW tmagaw@crain.com

Cedar Fair CEO Matt Ouimet wants to invest roughly $100 million over the next three years in the amusement park giant’s bigticket attractions in the Buckeye State — Cedar Point in Sandusky and Kings Island in Cincinnati.

But before he and his board take their shovels to earth, Mr. Ouimet Ouimet wants to ensure the state doesn’t brush off the touris industry as a driver of Ohio’s steadily recovering economy.

In the hope of convincing the state to boost its tourism marketing, Mr. Ouimet recently has spent a fair amount of time in Columbus chatting with legislators about the vital role tourism plays in Ohio. It’s a pitch the former Walt Disney Co. executive said doesn’t quite fall on deaf ears, but isn’t as embraced as it was during his stints in tourism hotspots such as California and Florida.

“This is a great place to do business, and we want to spend that $100 million here,” Mr. Ouimet said in an interview last week with Crain’s.

See INVEST Page 6

ON THE WEB For photos of Cedar Point’s much-hyped roller coaster, the GateKeeper, read the above story at: www.tinyurl.com/cx5dr3j

INSIDE Driving for ladies

16

Jamie Taylor, right, and other Northeast Ohio golf pros are trying to make women feel more welcome on the course. PAGE 3

DAN SHINGLER

Former Major League Baseball star Mo Vaughn started a trucking company in Solon in 2010.

MO MEANS BUSINESS Former baseball star Vaughn owns successful trucking company in Solon, along with 8,000 housing units in N.Y.

By DAN SHINGLER dshingler@crain.com

BY THE NUMBERS

T

he biggest baseball star to finish his career in Cleveland just might be Mo Vaughn. But the career — assuming it’s his last — is trucking.

“In my mind, if you do it right, it’s a recession-proof business,” reasons Mr. Vaughn.

See MO Page 7

A look at Mo Vaughn’s Major League Baseball career: ■ Vaughn batted .293 with 328 home runs and 1,064 RBI. ■ He was selected to three All-Star teams in his 12-year career.

■ He won one American League MVP and one Silver Slugger award.

In need, Tremont Electric swims with sharks Airing of appearance on TV show occurs as board discusses shakeup

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com

Aaron LeMieux recently went swimming with bait in hand among a shiver of sharks.

We’ll soon find out whether any of them took a bite.

Mr. LeMieux is scheduled to appear this Friday, April 26, on the ABC television show “Shark Tank,” where he hoped to hook some cash

to help keep his Cleveland company, Tremont Electric LLC, afloat.

Mr. LeMieux, the company’s CEO, wouldn’t characterize the situation as sink or swim for Tremont Electric, which makes a portable

generator that uses kinetic energy from a person’s body motion to power small devices. However, he acknowledged that the last couple years have been rocky.

He’s had to deal with many of the struggles startups face — product See TREMONT Page 17

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74470 83781

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SPECIAL SECTION

WHO TO WATCH We highlight some of the nonprofit leaders who are lending a hand in the region ■ Pages 13-16 PLUS: Q&A WITH FIVE NONPROFIT EXECUTIVES

Entire contents © 2013

by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 34, No. 16

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

COMING NEXT WEEK It can be a tough plan It’s difficult to leave college and make good money as a financial planner. But, as Baby Boomers approach retirement, there also is plenty of opportunity.

Crain’s will tackle that subject and more, including public vs. private company strategies, in our Finance section.

REGULAR FEATURES Best of the Blogs .........18 Classified ....................17 Editorial ........................8 From the Publisher ........8

Going Places ...............12 Letters ..........................8 Milestone ....................18 Reporters’ Notebook....18

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

APRIL 22 - 28, 2013

BUMPS ALONG THE ROAD Ohio drivers spend an average of $212 each year on car repairs due to bad roads, according to a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The group’s Infrastructure Report Card gave Ohio a grade of “C” — and found that driving on roads in need of repair costs Ohio motorists $1.7 billion a year. The report said 42% of Ohio’s roads are of “poor or mediocre quality.” Here are some other numbers from the report: ■ 2,462 of Ohio’s 27,045 bridges, or 9.1%, are considered structurally deficient ■ 4,311 of the state’s bridges, or 15.9%, are considered functionally obsolete ■ There are 427 “high-hazard” dams in Ohio ■ Ohio’s ports handled 90.6 million short tons of cargo in 2009, ranking it ninth in the nation ■ Ohio’s highway vehicle miles traveled in 2009 was 9,693 per capita, ranking it 33rd nationwide ■ The state’s gas tax of 28 cents per gallon has not been increased in seven years ■ Ohio produces 1.129 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy every year, ranking it 45th in the country SOURCE: www.InfrastructureReportCard.org

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

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PD risks losing its best customers “If they weren’t going to meet my needs, why pay for it?”

‘Digital first’ strategy could anger older readers, experts say

By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com

The first thing attorney Christopher Hewitt did after learning The Plain Dealer planned to cut home delivery of the newspaper from seven days a week to three was to shoot off an email canceling his subscription.

“I might have waited, but I wanted to send a message,” said Mr. Hewitt, an attorney with the Cleveland firm of Tucker Ellis LLP, in an interview last week. In Mr. Hewitt’s

mind, he was “paying for the convenience of having it (The Plain Dealer) delivered to my house so I could have a physical paper to flip through.”

“If they weren’t going to meet my needs, why pay for it?” he reasoned.

When the subscription department responded with an email offering to switch him to the newspaper’s e-edition, which delivers the full paper in a page format that can be flipped through online, he declined.

“I can get (online) content from all over the place; there’s lots of

other sources out there,” he said.

The Plain Dealer is likely to find out soon enough whether there are tons of Christopher Hewitts out there as it adapts to the digital age.

On April 4, Plain Dealer executives announced a major overhaul that sometime this summer will reduce home delivery to Sunday and two other days yet to be determined. The Plain Dealer is one of the first of the country’s 1,300-plus daily newspapers to move away from seven-day-a-week delivery.

The strategy the newspaper is

– Christopher Hewitt, attorney with Tucker Ellis LLP, on his decision to cancel his subscription to The Plain Dealer adopting, called “digital first” in the industry, refocuses the news organization on its online product — in this case, cleveland.com — at the expense of the print paper. On days without home delivery, it expects those craving a daily newspaper fix will pick up a paper at a news box, convenience store or other retailer.

INSIGHT

With its digital first focus, the news organization’s emphasis will be on feeding the needs of cleveland.com and building print editions from the online postings, where shorter stories and subjects such as sports and entertainment draw the most page views.

It’s a move to capture the attention and long-term loyalty of younger people who increasingly communicate by computer or smart phone and don’t subscribe to a newspaper. A key problem, observers say, is that the strategy ignores the reading habits and digital literacy of key groups of readers.

See PD Page 6

Startup moving fast, with big boost Software designed

by LineStream is now being used by Texas Instruments

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

MCKINLEY WILEY

Jamie Taylor, the head professional at Seneca Golf Course in Broadview Heights, has designed a training program geared specifically toward women.

DRIVING FOR BALANCE Area golf courses make a big push to be more welcoming to women

By KEVIN KLEPS kkleps@crain.com

T

he “Gentleman’s Game” is receiving a makeover locally and nationwide — and not a moment too soon if it hopes to see a lot more women on the links.

According to the National Golf Foundation, 26.2 million adults played at least one full round of golf in the United States in 2006. Included in that figure were 6.5 million women, ages 18 and up — an increase of 2.1 million in a seven-year span.

See BALANCE Page 10

THE WEEK IN QUOTES “When we get new business, Mo goes out and buys trucks. When I go to Mo and say one of my customers wants to expand, he makes it happen immediately.”

— Mark Cuccia, vice president, Mo Vaughn Transport. Page One

“I can guarantee you that there are enough good ideas to go around. I have a pile here on my desk. Some of them are bad ideas, but the pile is enormous.”

“I just don’t want any girl to feel like they’re worthless or like their life isn’t going to go anywhere.”

— Charles Stack, entrepreneur and founder of the FlashStarts business accelerator. Page 7

— Liz Ferro, founder, Girls With Sole. Page 13

“I’m a firm believer in destiny … eventually you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be.”

— Annemarie Grassi, CEO, Open Doors Academy.

Page 16

Texas Instruments is helping a Cleveland startup take the first step on its quest to teach motors everywhere how to handle heat, hiccups and hard knocks.

Last week, the semiconductor giant based in Austin, Texas, released the first computer chips that contain LineStream Technologies’ software, which is designed to help motors ignore anything that might disturb the way they operate.

INSIDE: Business accelerator FlashStarts is attracting quite a bit of interest from entrepreneurs. Page 7 The software dramatically can improve the performance of all kinds of motors, said LineStream CEO David Neundorfer, citing tests performed in labs and factories. Now Texas Instruments has given the company a chance to show the world what it can do, Mr. Neundorfer said.

“This is the type of opportunity that startups dream about,” he said.

The chips launched last week will be the first of many Texas Instruments microcontrollers that contain LineStream’s software.

Obtaining an endorsement from such a big, well-known company is helping LineStream gain credibility with other potential customers, Mr. Neundorfer said. LineStream’s SpinTac software is being tested by companies that want better control over motors used in cars, appliances, medical devices and industrial products such as fans, pumps and compressors.

See STARTUP Page 9

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Summers Rubber buying into boom

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Summers Rubber Co., a Cleveland-based fabricator and distributor of rubber hose, wants to take advantage of the region’s shale energy boom, and is investing accordingly.

The company recently bought a new hose crimper that will allow it to crimp larger hoses, a necessity for serving the oil and gas exploration business. Summers Rubber is well-positioned geographically to expand in that sector, as it has a total of eight plants across Ohio and Pennsylvania — states that have emerged as prime drilling spots because they are home to the Utica and Marcellus shale formations.

Frank Tiernay, vice president and general manager of Summers Rubber, said the company has been preparing

to expand in the shale market for the last 18 months. It has received training from current vendors that also serve the oil and gas industries and has been advertising in directories for the oil and gas industry.

Summers Rubber also will be able to learn best practices in serving the shale industry from at least two of its sister companies at Singer Equities, a Maryland-based group of industrial rubber products distributors that acquired Summers last December. Mr. Tiernay said Singer portfolio companies R/W Connection Inc., a hose, conveyor belt and gasket distributor, and Allied Rubber and Supply Co., a hose and mechanical rubber fabricator and distributor, already serve shale-related businesses.

Mr. Tiernay, who joined the company in March 2011 shortly after for-

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mer owner Mike Summers stepped aside from day-to-day operations to become Lakewood’s mayor, sees great potential in the shale business. He said the new equipment opens new markets for Summers Rubber because it will allow the company to crimp a hose with a diameter of 10 inches; currently, the largest hose Summers Rubber can crimp is six inches.

The machine is expected to be installed and running by mid-May, Mr. Tiernay said. He would not disclose the amount of the investment.

Any new use or process, including hydraulic fracturing, is good for the hose industry, said Joseph Thompson, executive vice president of NAHAD, the Association for Hose and Accessories Distribution. The hose business has remained strong during the past 10 years, even through the recession, in part because it serves so many markets, Mr. Thompson said.

“There’s always a pretty strong demand,” he said.

Mr. Tiernay said one of the strengths of Summers Rubber is that it serves so many markets. There are no large percentages tied up in any one industry.

“It is extremely diverse,” he said.

In addition to the expected shalerelated growth, the company is expanding its Findlay branch. Summers Rubber recently hired a new outside sales person and will move this spring to a 4,800-square-foot building, about 1,800 square feet larger than its current location.

The value of stability Don Fritzinger, president of Singer Equities, said the firm had been interested in Summers Rubber for a few years prior to the acquisition. The Cleveland company is well-run, has many long-term workers among its approximately 50 employees, and has respected leadership, Mr. Fritzinger said.

Mr. Tiernay may be relatively new to the company, but he has a strong background in sales and distribution.

He spent time in leadership positions at Premier Farnell and Lawson Products Inc., which both distributed maintenance and repair supplies, and Danville Partners LLC, an equity holding company.

Singer Equities typically acquires companies with solid management in place to run the day-to-day business.

The firm isn’t interested in enacting big changes at the companies it takes on, Mr. Fritzinger said, focusing instead on finding ways new acquisitions can benefit from synergies with its existing portfolio companies.

Before Singer acquired the company, Summers Rubber had been a familyowned and family-run business for more than 60 years. Singer decided to keep the Summers name, even without family ownership, because the branding is strong. Mr. Fritzinger said Singer likes to keep local brands intact.

Mr. Summers said he is “grateful” Singer Equities wasn’t the type of owner to come in and throw out existing employees and investments. The new owners plan to grow the company, he said, adding that Summers Rubber was in a better place now than in his last months as owner.

“I was becoming less tolerant of risk as an absentee owner, and I don’t think that was healthy for the company,” Mr. Summers said.

■

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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continued from PAGE 1 “We have opportunity,” he added.

“We have 11 parks and where we spend our capital is always a big debate with the board, but so far, the board is strongly behind the parks we have in Ohio.”

Mr. Ouimet said Cedar Fair would like to see Ohio amplify its out-ofstate advertising as Michigan has done in recent years. Longwoods International, a national market research firm, estimated the neighboring state’s “Pure Michigan” ad campaign drew to the state about 3.8 million people who spent more than $1.1 billion during their stays.

In another report, Longwoods noted that Ohio’s 2012 advertising efforts generated about $427 million in new visitor spending and an estimated 2.5 million trips, though Office of TourismOhio noted the state’s return on investment from tourism marketing is on the upswing.

Mr. Ouimet said he sees Cedar Fair as a leader in bringing together Ohio’s “fragmented” tourism industry for a collective pitch to out-of-towners.

He said he’s already had discussions with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Greg Harris about how both institutions could collaborate further, as the two already offer a joint ticket for entrance to the Rock Hall and Cedar Point.

“I’m a big believer that we all need try to get people here and then we can fight for our share,” Mr. Ouimet said. “Literally, if you brought one more person and stayed one more night, we could double the tourism business in Ohio.”

His ‘honors student’ Analysts suggest Cedar Fair’s overall performance is driven, or at least mirrored, by how well Cedar Point performs individually as a park — another reason why Mr. Ouimet is adamant about driving tourism in Ohio. Given the $30 million in invest-

ments Cedar Point has on the books for its 2013 season, which officially kicks off May 11, attracting patrons shouldn’t be a problem this year.

Cedar Point’s investments are anchored by a new winged roller coaster, named GateKeeper, which will fly above a revamped main entrance to the park, passing over arriving guests with rolling flyover maneuvers.

Typically, when you ask Mr. Ouimet about his favorite ride — a question he no doubt fields daily — he brushes off the inquiry.

“Usually, I say they’re like my children, and I can’t pick my favorite one, but right now GateKeeper — my honors student — is my favorite ride,” said Mr. Ouimet, though at the time hadn’t yet ridden the coaster.

Cedar Fair officials wouldn’t disclose how much they expect the new coaster, its first in seven years, to buoy attendance, though Mr. Ouimet said the buzz surrounding GateKeeper already has fueled strong season pass sales and hotel bookings for the 2013 season.

“There’s no doubt that this will be a good year for Cedar Point,” he said.

“I do think that it will be a catalyst to drive people who haven’t visited in a while to come back, and my hope is we’ll continue to impress the.”

Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services Inc., a Cincinnati-based amusement park management and consulting firm, suggested that GateKeeper could bump Cedar Point’s annual attendance up by 5% to 7%. Assuming a park is well managed and the weather cooperates, Mr. Speigel said attendance spikes for theme parks from new or refreshed attractions usually hover around 1.5%.

“Coaster is still king,” Mr. Speigel said. “Coaster is still the No. 1 attraction in the theme park industry and the product that will drive the most attendance. GateKeeper is ultra-special because of its location and its

general layout and nature.”

Another record year?

GateKeeper surely is Cedar Point’s most dramatic investment in recent years, though its parent company hasn’t slowed in upgrading its parks since Mr. Ouimet took over as CEO in January 2012.

Last year, Cedar Fair invested $90 million across its properties, which included the Leviathan, a $27 million, 306-foot-tall steel roller coaster at Canada’s Wonderland in Toronto.

Cedar Point, meanwhile, launched a late-night music and light show dubbed “Luminosity” — an investment that, according to Mr. Ouimet, kept guests in the park and drove additional overnight stays. The show will be redesigned for this season.

“Our guests unequivocally told us they really enjoyed coming last year,” he said. “Without that, I don’t have any other cards to play.”

Cedar Fair full-year net revenues for 2012 hit $1.068 billion, an increase of 3.9% over 2011’s numbers, making last year the company’s third straight year of record revenues. Mr. Ouimet said the revenue growth was due in large part to a surge in attendance across many of Cedar Fair’s properties and an increase in in-park average guest per capita spending.

Last year, Cedar Fair for the first time said its guest could buy their season passes over the course of three payments. This year, the company is offering season pass sales over six payments and extending a similar offer for hotel bookings.

Rob Plaza, a consumer analyst at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, said given the economy’s slow improvement and the sound management in place under Mr. Ouimet’s leadership, Cedar Fair is on solid footing.

“The changes the company has through over the last few years have been pretty dramatic. They’re on a good path going forward,” he said. ■

PD: Reducing home delivery is risky continued from PAGE 3

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Advance Publications, the New York-based owner of The Plain Dealer, is on the front lines of the digital first approach, moving a number of its nearly 30 daily newspapers to alternative publication schedules.

The only major newspapers to adopt the distribution structure planned at The Plain Dealer are another Advance paper, the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y., and the two Detroit newspapers, which operate jointly. Newspapers in those two cities have dropped all-week doorstep delivery — Detroit in 2009 and Syracuse in February.

In March 2009, Gannett Co. and MediaNews Group, which jointly manage the business and production operations for Gannett’s Detroit Free Press and MediaNews’ Detroit News under a corporate umbrella called the Detroit Media Partnership, trimmed home delivery of their publications.

The Free Press now is home-delivered three days a week — Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The News, which does not have a Sunday edition, is home-delivered only on Thursday and Friday.

Some observers are skeptical about how well this approach will work over the long haul.

“I don’t know how it’s possible that it’s profitable,” said Bill Shea, who covers media for Crain’s Detroit Business, a sister publication of Crain’s Cleveland Business.

“It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen here in six months,” Mr. Shea said.

He cited Gannett’s decision to put up for sale in January the Detroit News Building, which the newspaper has occupied since 1917, as an example of the efforts by newspapers to keep afloat.

exactly the people who don’t want to read a product online,” said Mr. Lessenberry, formerly a foreign correspondent and executive national editor of The Detroit News. “So they’re losing their best customers.”

‘Losing their best customers’

New-found competition

Asked about the success of the new delivery system, Rich Harshbarger, vice president for consumer marketing and communications for the Detroit Media Partnership, responded with an emailed statement.

“The distribution model that we introduced four years ago is working well for us,” he wrote. “Advertisers and readers are accustomed to the changes. And, as we said when we launched this in 2009, the change enabled us to focus our attention and our resources on what is most essential to our business today: growing our digital product.”

Audited circulation reports, however, show a significant decline in readership on weekdays, when home delivery is curtailed.

As of last Sept. 30, weekday circulation of the two Detroit dailies was 336,885, down 29% from 476,369 as of Sept. 30, 2009, according to reporting

by Bill Mitchell of Poynter.

Jack Lessenberry, a lecturer in news media management at Wayne State University in Detroit, maintains the decision to end home delivery four days a week jumps the gun.

“The whole problem with this is that, it might be just fine in 10 or 20 years from now, but older readers are the most loyal readers, and those are

In Syracuse, the Advance-owned Post-Standard ended seven-day-aweek home delivery on Feb. 3, dropping papers on doorsteps only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Almost immediately, circulation of the Daily Orange, the five-day-aweek newspaper produced by students at Syracuse University, shot up in the days following the move, said Roy Gutterman, an associate professor of communications law and journalism at Syracuse University and a former Plain Dealer reporter.

Mr. Gutterman’s key complaint is that Advance operations in Cleveland, Syracuse and elsewhere share a website template that is universally panned — an odd failing for a news organization that plans to rely on its digital products.

Mr. Gutterman said the Post-Standard also has seen an unlikely competitor jump aggressively into online local news coverage — WSYR-TV. Shortly after the Post-Standard announced its move to three-day home delivery last August, the television station created “Morning Home Delivery,” an electronic newsletter delivered daily to subscribers at 5 a.m. that Theresa Underwood, general manager of the ABC network affiliate, said has been well received. ■

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7

FlashStarts is attracting rapid entrepreneur interest Business accelerator under leadership of Stack has 65 applications for June 3 debut

By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com

Sixty-five startups have applied to join FlashStarts, a business accelerator being formed by Charles Stack, one of Northeast Ohio’s most prolific entrepreneurs.

However, only 10 companies will be chosen to spend the summer at the downtown Cleveland accelerator, which aims to help entrepreneurs launch companies as fast as possible, with the help of a little bit of money and a lot of mentoring.

Any startup can enter, but FlashStarts plans to focus on companies developing information technology products for businesses and health care providers.

When FlashStarts opens June 3, it

will be the third boot camp-style accelerator to open in Greater Cleveland since the start of 2012. It will join the LaunchHouse Accelerator in Shaker Heights and the downtown Cleveland branch of Bizdom, which was started by billionaire Dan Gilbert.

But Mr. Stack says there’s plenty of room for one more.

“I can guarantee you that there are enough good ideas to go around,” he said. “I have a pile here on my desk. Some of them are bad ideas, but the pile is enormous.”

Mr. Stack has produced a few good ideas of his own over the years. He started and sold two local companies: Books.com, an online bookstore, and Flashline Inc., which developed software for software

Mo: Trucking revenues doubled from 2011 to ’12 continued from PAGE 1

The 1995 American League MVP and one-time rival of Indians sluggers such as Albert Belle and Jim Thome found a pitch he really liked in a local gal, settled down in Gates Mills and now is building a trucking company in Solon, called Mo Vaughn Transport.

He says he’s still knocking it out of the park. Well, he doesn’t really put it that way — but he rattles off the stats to tell the story.

After starting with one leased truck in 2010, the company has grown to own 22 vehicles, while still leasing another 15 and contracting with five owner/operators, Mr. Vaughn said. Revenues hit $2 million in 2011, doubled to $4 million in 2012 and Mr. Vaughn says he’s projecting they’ll top $6 million in 2013.

But then, he’s got a DH on the roster.

Mr. Vaughn partnered with a trucking industry veteran, Mark Cuccia, who had been both a salesman and traffic manager for other trucking companies, including one of his own, dating back to 1979.

“He had the customer base,” Mr. Vaughn said. “He’s my right-hand guy and my vice president.”

If surrounding one’s self with good and hard-working people is a CEO’s chief skill, Mr. Vaughn has been a pretty good life executive. All through his career he had good people in terms of his agent, money managers and other professionals, he said.

And Mr. Cuccia is not the first to help the man who in his playing days was known as the Hit Dog get some wood on the business ball.

More than anyone, Mr. Vaughn credits his post-baseball business career to the help and mentoring he has received from his longtime lawyer, Eugene Schneur.

“He’s my mentor, my best friend and a guy that I was very, very fortunate to meet coming out of baseball,” Mr. Vaughn said.

Heavy hitter in housing, too The two have their own business

venture in New York, Omni New York LLC, in which they are equal partners and sole shareholders.

Using some of Mr. Vaughn’s capital and drive, along with Mr. Schneur’s business acumen and ability to deal with matters ranging from major construction contracts to tax credits, the two have amassed a portfolio of more than 8,000 housing units in New York City, mostly in affordable-housing developments they’ve rehabilitated.

Along with housing, Omni works with community groups to provide programs for school kids, adult learning opportunities, career training and other services meant to revitalize targeted neighborhoods.

That business still is growing, but Mr. Vaughn spends more time in Northeast Ohio these days, where he’s continuing to build his trucking business.

The business is both profitable and bankable now, Mr. Vaughn said, so he plans to double the size of his fleet by the end of this year.

He opened a second terminal in New Jersey on April 5, adding New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia to the states he serves, on top of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The company will haul most anything, from manufactured goods to plastic bottles and materials used by packaging companies. It specializes in short- to medium-length hauls of 200 or 300 miles, Mr. Cuccia said, working dedicated routes for customers with regular supply or delivery lines.

Competitive pricing, service and consistent on-time deliveries are critical to attracting and keeping customers, but new trucks help, too, Mr. Cuccia said. Whenever he has found a new customer willing to sign up for a new route, Mr. Vaughn has stepped up to the plate with the financial wherewithal to accommodate the growth.

“When we get new business, Mo goes out and buys trucks,” Mr. Cuccia said. “When I go to Mo and say one of my customers wants to expand, he makes it happen immediately.”

■

“I can guarantee you that there are enough good ideas to go around. I have a pile here on my desk.”

Stack

Neundorfer

developers.

And he won’t be the only one providing advice to companies.

Two weeks ago, FlashStarts hired a managing partner, Jennifer Neundorfer, who last year helped Fox Networks Group launch a mobile broadcast network called Dyle Mobile TV. Plus, a long list of local investors, entrepreneurs and business executives have committed to mentoring companies that go through the accelerator.

FlashStarts is modeled after TechStars and Y Combinator, two out-of-state accelerators that have become magnets for investors that want to find promising startups.

The for-profit accelerator plans to give each startup as much as $20,000 in exchange for a 6% stake in the company. When the program

– Charles Stack, founder, FlashStarts ends in August, promising companies could receive up to $200,000 in the form of a loan that would convert to equity if they raise more money from investors. FlashStarts is receiving financing from Mr. Stack, though other accredited investors are welcome join him.

Other accelerators also make small investments in their startups.

And, like other accelerators, FlashStarts will encourage its startups to get feedback from mentors and potential customers as early as possible. That way, if an idea is going to fail, they find out quickly and change course.

“We literally try and fail on a daily basis,” he said.

FlashStarts differentiates itself by providing feedback to every company that applies to join the accelerator long before they are accepted. The accelerator also is hiring

interns to work with the startups, and it accepts individuals interested in being assigned to one of the companies.

Welcome to Cleveland Ms. Neundorfer, FlashStarts’ managing partner, moved to Northeast Ohio from Silicon Valley about 18 months ago to follow her husband, David Neundorfer, a Cleveland Heights native who leads a Cleveland startup called LineStream Technologies. (For more on that company, see Page 3.)

Ms. Neundorfer — who held internships at YouTube and Bottlenotes, a website for wine lovers, while studying for her MBA at Stanford — said she’s been surprised to learn that Northeast Ohio has its fair share of entrepreneurs, investors and professionals who support them.

FlashStarts can help the region take the next step in creating a culture that fosters entrepreneurship, the Boston native said. She has seen the impact that kind of culture has had on the economy in Silicon Valley, which, she added, isn’t the only place with innovative minds.

“A lot of the talent we have here can rival that talent,” she said. ■

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APRIL 22 - 28, 2013

PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:

Brian D. Tucker (btucker@crain.com) EDITOR:

Mark Dodosh (mdodosh@crain.com) MANAGING EDITOR:

Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)

OPINION

Right aid

T

he 130th edition of the Ohio General Assembly may be the most confounding group of legislators we’ve ever encountered.

There may be no better example of why we make that statement than the reluctance of the Republican-dominated body to side with Gov. John Kasich, a fellow Republican, as he seeks to make more Ohioans eligible for Medicaid assistance.

It isn’t as though the Republican leadership of the Legislature is trying to appease business interests with its stance. If anything, those interests must be just as frustrated as we are.

Gov. Kasich first voiced his support for the expansion of Medicaid back on Feb. 3. The very next day, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce was quick to issue an “amen” to his decision, which would allow the state to pick up more of the cost of caring for the uninsured largely at the federal government’s expense.

“Due to cost shifting resulting from uncompensated care, employers are already paying a hidden tax that makes their health insurance premiums higher than they should be,” Keith Lake, vice president of government affairs for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement issued by the chamber. “Without expansion, this cost shifting would be even more severe.”

Providers of medical care also haven’t been pressing the Legislature to block Medicaid’s expansion.

Rather, it has been quite the opposite.

In a Feb. 4 media advisory, the Ohio Hospital Association said the governor’s desire to expand Medicaid eligibility to 456,000 more Ohioans “is an important step along the path of redefining the program for Ohio.”

“As both world-class health care providers and as some of Ohio’s largest employers — responsible for sustaining more than 600,000 Ohio jobs — Ohio hospitals stand with the Kasich Administration in seeking additional flexibility from the federal government under Medicaid, as well as safeguards in state law should the federal government reduce scheduled funding for expansion,” the association stated.

It’s now 12 weeks later, and Republican lawmakers continue to drag their feet on the expansion of Medicaid despite the economic and humanitarian justifications for such action.

To which we ask, “Why?” If Republican legislators truly fear the federal government will renege on its promise to provide hundreds of millions of dollars for insuring more of the poor, then include in any Medicaid bill language that would let the state reduce its own commitment to the program in such an event. However, these same lawmakers shouldn’t let political fear of Tea Party backlash for supporting any single part of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act drive their decision.

Ohioans deserve their fair share of the big pot of Medicaid money created by the act. Letting those dollars go to other states would accomplish nothing, other than make every legislator who refuses to take them guilty of gross negligence.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

To skywalk, or not to skywalk?

Dealer argue that skywalks are ugly, and egardless of where you stand on that removing pedestrians from street two hotly debated skywalk prolevel makes a city less attractive, and in jects in downtown Cleveland, the extreme, even less safe. one thing is clear. It Dan Gilbert and his partners wasn’t all that many years ago BRIAN in the Horseshoe Casino now when very few people would TUCKER are buying their building from have cared, or even paid any atForest City, and it’s safe to tention. assume that a big reason is to For those new to the discusenable them to proceed with a sion, Cuyahoga County’s govplanned skywalk from their ernment is building a new new parking facility across headquarters on the northeast Ontario Avenue to the second corner of East Ninth Street and floor of the casino.

Prospect Avenue. It will demolThat’s even more controverish the vacant, nondescript sial because of the historic place that the building on the site and replace it with a casino building — long the home of the modern, attractive, usable facility to flagship department store of Cleveland’s house the largest part of the county’s once-treasured Higbee Co. — holds in employees, many of whom had been the hearts and minds of Clevelanders. scattered at various county-owned facilCleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is ities hither and yon. supportive of the casino’s plans. HowevWell, that eyesore of a building is ater, some of the very people his city needs tached to a parking deck across Prospect to attract — namely young professionals by a skywalk that either must be who want to live and spend money removed or refurbished, and keeping it downtown — are among those who prebut adding the proper HVAC is an fer more, rather than less, people walkexpensive initiative. Critics such as archiing on downtown streets. tecture reporter Steve Litt at The Plain

R

Last winter, a friend and I were at a Cavaliers game and decided to go to the casino while game traffic dissipated.

Neither of us went to gamble, but he was interested to see the casino since I had told him how well I thought the restoration/reuse had turned out. Besides, it was snowing and blowing, so why not?

Well, some 30 or 40 minutes later, probably somewhere around midnight, we left to retrieve my car from the casino parking deck, and there were still groups of folks walking to and from the casino.

In a snowstorm.

It reminded me vividly of another February weeknight evening when I stood in my Warehouse District office and marveled at the bustle of outside activity, despite the weather.

This is the kind of city that Cleveland must be, now and in the future. Our downtown is Cleveland’s only growing residential neighborhood, and apartment developers can’t build new units fast enough. On this skywalk issue, I tend to agree with those who want more feet on the streets.

But then, I’m not paying the bills. ■

LETTERS

Arts’ impact on community is broad ■ Thanks to Mark Dodosh for his insightful, April 8 column, “Arts for more than art’s sake,” in which he explained how important Cleveland’s rich and diverse cultural treasures are to our region.

In 2006, the residents of Cuyahoga County passed Issue 18 and created Cuyahoga Arts & Culture to provide a dedicated stream of public funding for arts and cultural organizations and programs.

Since then, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture has invested more than $95 million in 208 arts and cultural organizations in Cuyahoga County. Public funding for arts and culture is making a difference by contributing to our local economy,

WRITE TO US Send your letters to: Mark Dodosh, editor, Crain’s Cleveland Business, 700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310, Cleveland, OH 441131230; Email: editor@crainscleveland.com

enhancing education for learners of all ages, and enriching our community by improving our quality of life, as demonstrated in our new Report to the Community, “Your Investment. Strengthening Community.” (It can be found at www.cacgrants.org/report.)

In 2011, CAC-funded organizations employed a work force of nearly 9,000 and served more than 6.1 million resi-

dents, including more than 1.4 million children. And, for every $1 CAC invested in arts and culture, nearly $20 was pumped back into our economy.

We at Cuyahoga Arts & Culture wholeheartedly agree that our cultural institutions are among our region’s most vital assets. There is truly something for everyone in our community’s arts and culture scene, and we will continue to do our part to ensure that this legacy continues for years to come.

Karen Gahl-Mills Executive director Cuyahoga Arts & Culture See LETTERS Page 9

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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Sunglasses, with a different view

By RACHEL ABBEY McCAFFERTY rmccafferty@crain.com

Dane and Melanie Clark had been retired for less than half a year when the entrepreneurial bug struck again.

The couple now runs Nautique Optix, a maker of wooden sunglasses in the Lake County community of Perry. They base their designs on classic boats and boating culture.

“We just think they’re so beautiful on the water,” Mr. Clark said.

The Clarks sold their precision optics company, Visimax Technologies, in 2010, and officially stepped down in the summer of 2011. They spent a lot of time boating on Lake Erie that summer and traveling that fall. When November hit, Mr. Clark was restless.

“OK, something’s got to change now,” he remembers thinking.

“Something’s got to happen.”

Both Mr. and Mrs. Clark had started their careers in the glasses business, working at companies that applied coatings to lenses. And

ON THE WEB For photos of Nautique Optix’s sunglasses, log on to: www.crainscleveland.com/ glasses

both love boating.

Mr. Clark quickly latched onto the idea of starting his own wooden sunglasses company, targeted at boaters who love the look of classic boats. And, as a bonus for boaters, wooden sunglasses float.

Mrs. Clark said she initially looked at the idea as just one of her husband’s projects, but the company got started quickly. By Christmas 2011, the Clarks’ garage was filled with equipment. They moved into a small space in Perry in 2012 and started selling sunglasses at the end of the year. To date, they’ve sold about 250 pairs of sunglasses, said Mr. Clark, who serves as the company’s president and CEO. The cost of the pairs range from about $180 to $290, depending on the style and type of wood used.

The Clarks designed all the sunglass

styles, and they plan to add two more before the end of the year.

Each pair takes about two weeks to make, Mr. Clark said. A digital fabrication machine makes the first cut, forming the general shape of the glasses and frames from a block of wood. The machine allows Nautique Optix to offer curved frames that fit to the wearer’s face. The shop also uses a machine to cut the lenses to fit each individual frame.

Aside from those steps, one of Nautique Optix’s employees takes care of the rest manually, either by controlling a small machine or finishing them by hand. That work ranges from carefully sanding the frames to the final inspection of each pair. Mr. Clark said he and his wife hope to hire more employees, possibly to six or eight from the current four.

At present, Nautique Optix sunglasses are sold online and at trade shows, but Mr. Clark said he’s talking to boat dealers about carrying the products in their stores and online.

■

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Startup: Company attracts key execs continued from PAGE 3

To prepare for the launch of its SpinTac software, LineStream raised $5 million in venture capital about a year ago. U.S. Venture Partners, which is based in Silicon Valley, threw in $4 million, and Cleveland’s Early Stage Partners put in another $1 million, bringing its total investment in LineStream to $2 million.

Since then, LineStream has expanded its staff to 12 employees from five a year ago, and it expects to hire five more this year. The company also plans to expand into a 2,000-square-foot space next to the 4,000 square feet it occupies on the first floor of downtown’s Western Reserve Building, which sits next to the Detroit-Superior Bridge.

LineStream has attracted executives from big name-companies in the motor control world.

For instance, the company’s new research and development director, Vladan Jevremovic, previously was lead architect for Tesla Motors’ Model S electric sedan.

LineStream’s new vice president of sales and marketing, Greg Jackson, was president of Pavilion Technologies, an advanced controls firm that was acquired by Rockwell Automation in 2007. He stayed on with Rockwell until LineStream hired him late last year.

LineStream’s ability to attract

investors, big customers and highprofile employees suggests the company has potential, Mr. Neundorfer said.

“There are a lot of people who realize the magnitude of this opportunity,” he said.

Things are getting real LineStream has been preparing for this moment since it spun out of Cleveland State University in 2008.

Back then, Mr. Neundorfer was studying for his MBA at Stanford University. But, while visiting home, the Cleveland Heights native had breakfast with one of his father’s friends, Jim Petras, who is a managing director at Early Stage Partners.

Mr. Petras told the former Eaton Corp. engineer to take a look at the Cleveland State software, which was developed by Zhiqiang Gao, associate professor and director of the university’s Applied Control Research Lab. Computer simulations suggested the software could increase the efficiency of motors by up to 50%. Mr. Neundorfer — who was accustomed to working on automotive projects designed to deliver single-digit percentage improvements — was skeptical. That was until LineStream tested the software on all 10 of Parker Hannifin Corp.’s hose-extrusion lines at its plant in Ravenna.

The software cut power con-

sumption by more than 50%.

“That’s when it really became real to me,” Mr. Neundorfer said.

Mr. Petras is impressed by both the technology and LineStream’s team.

“It is probably one of the best teams in motor control technology in the world,” he said.

Fine-tuning Other companies have written software that can help motors cope with disturbances as they occur, but those products tend to be designed to manage one specific process — producing milk cartons, for example, said Chris Clearman, worldwide manager of the motor control solutions segment at Texas Instruments.

Not only can LineStream’s software be used by all sorts of motors, but it also makes the process of tuning motors faster, Mr. Clearman said.

Texas Instruments’ new InstaSpin-Motion technology — which incorporates the company’s own motor control technology with LineStream’s software — is “hugely important” to Texas Instruments’ motor controls segment, especially given how many companies are pushing to add more intelligence to their motors, Mr. Clearman said.

“It’s enabling us to take our core technology to more places,” he said.

■

Letters: More obstructionists are needed continued from PAGE 8

Up with obstruction ■ Brian Tucker should do a little homework before his next attack on conservatism, as found in his April 15 commentary, “Enough of the Tea Party obstructionism.” His mindless statement regarding our outdated notions about immigration reform defies logic.

Surely he knows Tea Party Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is one of the gang of eight working feverishly to pass bipartisan immigration reform. And incredibly, Mr. Tucker never once mentions border secu-

rity in his column.

Tea Party Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, on numerous occasions, has stated his willingness to work with Democrats on immigration reform. His condition is enhanced border security. Is Mr. Tucker against securing our borders?

Does Mr. Trucker know that in 1986 Ronald Reagan signed immigration reform that immediately freed 3 million illegal immigrants?

He was assured border security would follow, but oh well, here we are 12 million illegal immigrants later and guess what — it never

happened.

Oh, those liberal obstructionists, you just can’t trust them.

This country is $17 trillion in debt and we’re talking about expanding government support programs. We have an obese government addicted to spending, and thanks to ideologies like Mr. Tucker’s, it’s getting worse.

America is broke, Mr. Tucker, and I say thank God for the obstructionists. They may be the one thing that might just save us.

Jeff Longo North Royalton

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Fast-forward to 2011, and the foundation estimated the total number of adult golfers nationwide fell to 23.3 million, with women accounting for almost half the decrease — a 21.5% drop in their numbers to 5.1 million.

Jamie Taylor knows the reasons often cited for the paucity of women in the sport — elitist, intimidating, too difficult, too rule-driven or, worse yet, too male-driven — even if she might not have experienced the drawbacks herself. The head professional at Seneca Golf Course in Broadview Heights won her first tournament at age 9, played on several junior tours and was a standout at Gannon University.

As an employee of the Cleveland Metroparks, Ms. Taylor has designed her own program, Ladies Play Golf Activities — complete with the slogan, “Who says the golf course is no place for a woman?�

The Metroparks’ 2013 golf calendar includes a 200 Series, the first of its two beginners’ programs. Each 200 Series consists of four sessions, and two of the 23 sets of beginners’ classes are strictly for women.

Ms. Taylor said the first one, which begins May 2, already has filled all its openings, and the second, slated for July 2, is about halffull, even though she hasn’t “pushed it big-time yet.� “I’ve been trying to tap into the women’s market since I started a few years ago,� said Ms. Taylor, who was the head pro at Shawnee Hills Golf Course from 2008 to 2011. “Over the years, we’ve been trying to grow the women’s activities.

They weren’t always successful, but we’ve been trying to play around with different things women like.

We’re focusing on social events more this year.�

Among the monthly programs the Metroparks has on tap for women this spring and summer is a “WomenOnCourse Happy Hour�

April 30 at Fleming’s Steakhouse in Woodmere and a “Wine and Nine�

Sept. 30 at Seneca. The latter event will feature nine holes, followed by drinks — something with which the men are quite familiar.

Bringing down barriers Paul Metzler, senior director of marketing and industry relations for the PGA of America, said the golf business is aware of its need to change. “What we’ve found is that since women in many cases control what households spend, we have to create a more women-friendly product,� Mr. Metzler said. “Our product is more suited for the typical male who is looking for competition. We have to be more womenfriendly.�

The National Golf Foundation hasn’t released its statistics for 2012, but its 2011 numbers marked the fifth consecutive year in which there was a decline in the number of adult golfers. The 5.1 million women who played at least one round that year were down considerably from five years earlier, but were 300,000 higher than the 2009 total and 400,000 above 2010.

Mr. Metzler attributes that improvement in part to the push made by the PGA and individual golf courses to make the game more

LADIES FIRST A look at two of the programs designed to help beginner golfers, especially women: â– Get Golf Ready: Designed by the PGA of America and consists of five 90-minute lessons. The cost is typically $99 total. For more information, go to: www.playgolfamerica.com/GGR â– Ladies Play Golf Activities: Created by Jamie Taylor, head pro at Seneca Golf Course. There are monthly events that cost between $10 and $75, as well as a series of five 90-minute lessons for $145 or $175.

For more information, go to: tinyurl.com/cea9kqk female-friendly.

The PGA has instituted several programs with that in mind.

One, Get Golf Ready, consists of five 90-minute lessons that typically cost $99 total. Beginners — men and women — are taught the basics, with the hope they won’t be intimidated to attend a local course on their own. “It gets rid of some of those barriers,� Mr. Metzler said. “We have found that 60% of the people who have signed up for the program are women, and roughly 78% of those who participate in the program are still playing golf a year later.�

Good for the bottom line Two of the Northern Ohio businesses that use the PGA’s Get Golf Ready program are Golf Galaxy in Akron and Pines Lakes Golf Club in Hubbard.

Teaching pro Michael L. Dessecker said 2012 was the first year Golf Galaxy tried Get Golf Ready. There were two classes of seven — 11 women and three men in all — for the free program. “From that, every one of my students came back to see me for further instruction,� Mr. Dessecker said.

When asked about the PGA’s attempt to get more women involved, Mr. Dessecker said, “I think it’s more ‘anybody’ involved. It’s promoting the game. It brought in people who were probably scared when they first got there. And it made them at ease. They were happy. It got them out on the course. We had a husband and wife who took the class, and they were able to spend time together.�

Christopher J. Carfangia, head pro at Pines Lakes, said his course has been using Get Golf Ready for about 2½ years, with four or five programs per year. “It’s really made an impact on our bottom line by doing it,â€? Mr. Carfangia said. “We have found that people are using our practice facility more and they’re playing more.

It’s been good for us.�

Mr. Carfangia estimates the beginners’ course consists of about 65% women. “Only about 25% come back and golf. But that is still good for business,� he said.

‘Great for golf, period’ Jimmy Hanlin, a golf pro who is a popular Northeast Ohio television and radio personality, knows the old-school mentality, and he is pushing the new approach. “It’s going to be great for golf, period,� said Mr. Hanlin, who owns some of the most highly regarded courses in the state, including Little

Mountain Country Club in Concord, StoneWater Golf Club in Highland Heights and Cumberland Trail Golf Club in suburban Columbus. “We’re opening the game to a new group of people who want to play golf and spend money in the business,� said Mr. Hanlin, who also is a coach of both the men’s and women’s programs at Notre Dame College.

For example, women “like to shop more than men,� Mr. Hanlin said, and so are more inclined to spend money at the course. “Also, a lot of families are realizing that golf is really good family time,� said Mr. Hanlin, who works with other courses on redesigning their marketing and operations. “It’s not as much the father takes the two boys out and the mom and daughters do something else. It’s hard to get four or five hours with kids these days. Golf is a good way to do it. I see a lot of moms taking their sons golfing.�

Mr. Hanlin said he believes the biggest growth potential for the sport is attracting young women. “I remember 20 years ago, I’d do clinics and there would be 32 boys and one or two girls,� he said.

That’s not the case anymore.

StoneWater has several ladies clinics, and Mr. Hanlin said “it’s the fastest-growing group for us.�

He added, “Women are having more success in golf now. With the ability to fit women into golf clubs that are light enough for them, they can enjoy golf quicker. That’s been one of the biggest benefits.�

Don’t forget the girls Sean McHugh, director of golf operations at Cleveland Metroparks, agrees with Mr. Hanlin about the growth potential for girls in the sport.

Seneca’s Ms. Taylor and John Fiander, head pro at Sleepy Hollow Golf Course in Cleveland, have done programs at middle schools in Northeast Ohio. They instruct kids on the basics of golf, in the cozy confines of the school gymnasium.

Mr. McHugh said by the end of the school year, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Fiander will have had sessions at as many as 10 schools. And they plan to be more active in 2013-14.

Ms. Taylor is familiar with the hesitation many women have about trying the sport. She and her colleagues are trying to change that. “Some women feel like there are so many rules, and they don’t know them and they don’t want to look silly,� Ms. Taylor said. “Some do feel it’s a man’s sport, and they don’t feel welcome at times. This happens at all courses. It’s a combination of things. But what we’re finding as we try to get women more involved is some women want to use it as a business tool.

And some, like my mother, like to do it because they can be active and not have to run around.�

Whatever gets them to the course is OK with Nancy Berkley, founder and president of Berkley Golf Consulting and a nationally recognized voice on getting women more involved in the game. “I think that the golf courses realized they had to work for their business,â€? Ms. Berkley said. “They had to figure out how to be good marketers and put out a welcome mat so women really felt comfortable.â€? â–

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM

APRIL 22 - 28, 2013

GOING PLACES Attn: Manufacturers & Warehouses

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n e o m e d . e d u

Local Real Estate Financing

MBI | K2M ARCHITECTURE INC.: Geoff Varga to director of architecture; Debbie Andrews to accounting specialist.

CONSTRUCTION

WELTY BUILDING CO.: Donald Lydon to group president, Welty Facilities Services.

Westerheide

Sofranko

Hinkle

Dey

Gettings

McFadden

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Heublein

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CONSULTING CENTRIC CONSULTING: Kindra Helm to manager; Tom Perrone and Kyle Bacher to consultants.

EDUCATION CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY: Deborah Dey to director for advancement, College of Sciences, Nursing and Health Professions; Laurie Gettings to manager, annual giving and Megan McFadden to manager, donor relations, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law; Scott Hamilton to director for principal gifts; Carla Howard to director, advancement services; Patricia Lohiser to senior accountant; John McCreery to director for advancement, athletics; Christina Menges to director for advancement, Monte Ahuja College of Business; Ashley Presutto to prospect analyst; Julie Rittenhouse to director for corporate and foundation relations; Julia Ross to director of annual giving; Terri Steindler to director for donor relations and stewardship; Paul Wolansky to director for advancement, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

HOSPITALITY RITZ-CARLTON, CLEVELAND: Kelly Steward to general manager.

LEGAL PORTER WRIGHT: Allyson O’Keefe to partner.

ROETZEL: Robert B. Casarona to partner-in-charge, Cleveland.

MANUFACTURING

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY: Mark Altieri to full-time professor, department of accounting.

DRAKE MANUFACTURING SERVICES CO.: Kenneth Lonsberry to vice president, operations.

NEW HORIZONS COMPUTER LEARNING CENTERS: Dennis Plescia to strategic account manager; Brian Kilbane to account executive.

MAIN STREET GOURMET: Nathan Searles to director of sales.

ENGINEERING

NONPROFIT

AUSTIN CO.: Frank Spano to managing director, Austin Consulting division.

SALVATION ARMY: Rebecca Baker to social service director.

FINANCIAL SERVICE BCG & CO.: Tiffany L. Herbert to manager, forensic and valuation services.

CBIZ MHM LLC CLEVELAND: Ellen Wisbar to director.

VERITAS SOLUTIONS GROUP LLC: Gregory H. Blate to managing director.

Jonathan Mokri 440.526.8700 jmokri@cbscuso.com

Sasz

RUHLIN CO.: Michael Sasz to payroll supervisor; Doug Westerheide and Eric Sofranko to project engineers; Mark Hinkle to network administrator.

CEDAR BROOK FINANCIAL PARTNERS LLC: Kelly Smith to associate director, wealth strategies; Lucy Skillicorn, executive assistant to Ted Lorenzen and Anthony Podojil.

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TECHNOLOGY INFORCE TECHNOLOGIES LLC: Delia Cianci to senior business analyst; Winston B. Bell to director of business development and strategic alliances.

Debra Griest (D.L. Griest & Associates) to president; Colin Bell to vice president; Matthew Galen to treasurer; Timothy Foust to secretary.

LAKE ERIE ASSOCIATION OF USA BOXING: Rocky Cash to president; Cliff Pinkney to vice president; Alex Cooper to secretary; Tom Miller to treasurer.

THE PRESIDENTS’ COUNCIL FOUNDATION: Robert H. Rawson Jr. (Jones Day) to chairman.

AWARDS CLEVELAND ENGINEERING SOCIETY: Wes Hall (CT Consultants) received the 2013 Hall of Fame Award.

UNIVERSITY OF AKRON: Jeffery Walters (CBiz and Mayer Hoffman, McCann P.C.) received the Frank L. Simonetti Award.

UTILITY

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FIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING CO.: Paul A. Harden to senior vice president, Fleet Engineering.

FIRSTENERGY NUCLEAR OPERATING CO.: Danny L. Pace, after a 37-year nuclear industry career, effective July 1.

BOARDS BUILDING HOPE IN THE CITY:

Send information for Going Places to dhillyer@crain.com.

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W WATCH IN NONPROFITS WHO TO

ith a strong network of organizations focused on

everything from providing social services to preserving natural resources, Northeast Ohio has no shortage of standouts in the nonprofit sector.

This section highlights just a few of those who are lending a hand to a variety of efforts in the region.

Whether they’re spearheading new initiatives, planning for the future or serving as leaders within their individual nonprofits, these are just some of those who are ones to watch.

WHAT THE NONPROFIT COMMUNITY IS SAYING

FOTOLIA ILLUSTRATION

LIZ FERRO Founder Girls With Sole iz Ferro knows how devastating abuse can be to a young woman — but she also knows how empowering athletics can be.

So much so, in fact, that Ms. Ferro credits athletics with her own survival.

Ms. Ferro, who was in the foster system and later adopted, said the experience of being sexually abused by a nonfamily member as a child ultimately led her to create Girls With Sole, a fitness and wellness program for at-risk young women, ages 9 to 18.

“I just don’t want any girl to feel like they’re worthless or like their life isn’t going to go anywhere,” she said.

Ms. Ferro had worked as the executive director of Westlake-based Wigs for Kids before she decided to combine her passion for fitness with her passion for helping young adults.

She founded the Girls With Sole program in August 2009, and she estimates about 550 young women have taken part since.

The program consists of participa-

L

JOSE ESTREMERA Youth program director WIRE-Net osé Estremera is a champion of manufacturing and a promoter of youth, which is good because he spends most of his time doing both as youth program director for the manufacturing advocacy and consulting group, WIRE-Net. Mr. Estremera is the point man for the organization’s partnership with Max Hayes High School, a trade school on Cleveland’s West Side that prepares students for jobs

J

tion in and exposure to a wide variety of sports, from football and yoga to running, as well as self-esteem building activities. It is for young women who have experienced or are at risk for any type of abuse, from sexual abuse to bullying.

Currently, Girls With Sole hosts six weekly groups in Northeast Ohio. Ms. Ferro does get help from volunteers, but she is the only one dedicated to the effort full-time.

Bobby Taylor, director of operations at the Boys & Girls Club of Lorain County, said the participants look forward to the meetings. Ms. Ferro helps build their self-esteem, he said, and she creates an environment where “it’s OK to try.”

“The girls really gravitate to the energy that Liz brings,” Mr. Taylor said.

Rocky Melendez, the youth and recreation coordinator at the Merrick House in Cleveland, called the program “invaluable” and said it helps empower the young women and gives them confidence.

As for the future, Ms. Ferro, a runner, triathlete and married

mother of two, said she eventually would like to earn a salary and hire a small staff.

She also hopes to by 2020 spread the Girls With Sole program nationally. Ms. Ferro said a lack of funding is the group’s biggest obstacle to expansion — it’s hard to hire people to run chapters without money for salaries — so she has been fundraising and looking into available grant funding. She also plans to encourage interested volunteers to hold fundraising runs.

Ms. Ferro said there’s often a lot of eye-rolling at the start of the program, but she’s had breakthroughs, too. Indeed, some girls tell her the program changed their lives and some choose to come back to Girls With Sole even after they’ve left residential treatment or a juvenile detention center. Ms. Ferro said she’s always shocked when the young women choose to come to the program after they no longer are required to attend.

As for the curriculum that Ms. Ferro created, she said she tries to ensure that there is something for everyone, which includes the focus on self-esteem.

“They find their way to feel good,” Ms. Ferro said.

— Rachel Abbey McCafferty

in advanced manufacturing and other industry sectors. The school is being rebuilt, and Mr. Estremera is recruiting students and organizing its 2014 reopening.

Oddly enough, Mr. Estremera spends much of his time giving kids the same advice his father gave him: Consider a career in manufacturing; it can be good-paying work with a future. It’s odd because Mr.

Estremera didn’t take the advice — he wanted to work with young people and went to college so that he could teach English.

However, he has found a more satisfying career working with youth on career matters. And, in the process, he’s been exposed to enough modern manufacturing to see that his dad was right. He goes so far as to say there are even more opportunities in manufacturing than his father ever could have dreamed.

Still, it isn’t always an easy message to get across.

See ESTREMERA Page 15

MICHAEL MATONEY

BRAD WHITEHEAD

CEO New Directions

President Fund for Our Economic Future

What attributes are necessary to be a leader in the nonprofit sector of tomorrow?

■ To be and become an “outside-in leader.” To be flexible and respond to the changing external environments of funding and community priorities (70%), all the while being able to inspire a dedicated staff to deliver your mission (30%).

■ The ability to be able to say “no” to chasing dollars and programs that do not fit their mission or expertise. …

■ Energy, enthusiasm and effort — a great leader is seen as a servant first.

■ Sees greatness and strengths in people and holds them accountable.

■ Envisions and pursues a great purpose so compelling that it requires and motivates everyone’s best efforts to achieve it.

■ 80% of energy focused on assets, strengths, possibilities, connections and synergies.

What attributes are necessary to be a leader in the nonprofit sector of tomorrow?

Positional leadership has largely become a relic of a past.

Instead, leadership effectiveness increasingly stems from the ability to shape and influence networks of players through vision, collaboration, enthusiasm, the ability to listen and follow through.

Increasingly, the most effective organizations realize that complex problems cross geographic and sector boundaries and meaningful change requires the active participation of scores, if not hundreds, of players.

At the same time, technology and cultural expectations have democratized civic decision-making processes. No one gets to be “the boss” anymore because of where they sit; real community leadership is now earned rather than bestowed, which means that the next generation of leaders who will carry our community forward can come from anywhere.

From your perspective, what are some of the most significant challenges in nonprofits going forward?

The great resource squeeze is not an abstraction, it is a reality. Virtually every civic and social cause confronts increasing need, declining government resources, strained philanthropic capacity and rapidly advancing complexity. This implies that we must find new models for funding large-scale change. Nonprofits must move beyond simply asking for donations and grants and utilize alternative forms of nonprofit finance such as performance bonds, success fees, and private investment models.

For example, if a social service program can demonstrate reduced recidivism, this leads to real savings in the justice system and that savings can be monetized. This allows us to start thinking about social service or other nonprofit expenses as investments with value rather than costs that must be endured. Called Impact Investing, these rapidly developing instruments allow nonprofit organizations to capture more of the value they are helping to create so that they can scale their efforts and operate more sustainably.

From your perspective, what are some of the most significant challenges in nonprofits going forward?

■ Not just to provide services the community desires, but to deliver the outcomes the community needs. Delivering a mission will go hand in hand with delivering measurable outcomes.

■ The question most organizations will be asking themselves is, “What other nonprofits are they considering merging, collaborating, partnering or talking with?” This will require time, energy and effort by the chief executive, senior leaders and governing boards.

There will be calculated risks to be taken and traps to be avoided.

■ The integration of physical and behavior health care will become a standard of care for nonprofits. The investment in an infrastructure to accomplish this, along with the ability to recruit primary care physicians, will be incredibly important.

■ Competition with other nonprofits for the recruitment and retention of dedicated and valued board members, the next generation.

INSIDE: Answers from more Northeast Ohio nonprofit leaders on the challenges they will face in the future. Page 14

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14 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WHO TO WATCH IN NONPROFITS

LISA MERANTI

leisure activity was hiking.

She studied environmental science at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, focusing on water quality research. Out of college, she landed a job at the conservancy’s environmental education unit.

Ms. Meranti says that job reinforced how she “loved connecting people with the outdoors” and ultimately led, beginning in March 2011, to her current position directing volunteer services. It’s a job she has performed while simultaneously earning a master’s degree in environmental studies and a certificate in nonprofit management from Cleveland State University last December.

In addition to coordinating the activities of about 25 volunteer organizations that serve the park, Ms. Meranti works with corporate groups that use teambuilding activities at CVNP — planting trees, for example — as an opportunity to give something back to the community.

Deb Yandala, CEO of the conservancy, says Ms. Meranti already is

“viewed as a leader in the volunteer management arena and is consulted by other national park nonprofit leaders about the program she has helped build.”

CVNP encompasses 33,000 acres along the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland and Akron. As its huge number of volunteers would suggest, CVNP is a popular place; a recent National Park Service report for 2011 showed that there were 2.16 million visitors to CVNP that year. Ms. Meranti likens her role in coordinating volunteers for CVNP to “managing a giant jigsaw puzzle,” with the goal of getting the pieces to fit together so everyone “can enjoy the park to the fullest.”

She certainly does; among her own volunteer activities has been working as an elf for the Polar Express event at CVNP’s Scenic Railroad. Ms. Meranti also is active with the Forum for Volunteer Administrators and volunteers with Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron. Her hobbies include biking, hiking (still), kayaking and yoga. — Scott Suttell

August. In some respects, after years in the private sector she decided to follow her family’s path in civic service; both her parents have worked in community development in Cleveland.

Mrs. Ryzner, who grew up in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood and is expecting her second child, lives in the Cudell-Edgewater neighborhood with her teacherhusband and 1-year-old.

Rich Cochran, conservancy president and CEO, said that he’s been so impressed by her strength as an emerging leader he feels she will someday run a nonprofit.

“She is a proven leader who cut her teeth in a very competitive forprofit real estate business,” said Mr. Cochran, who leads the organization dedicated to preserving the region’s natural resources. “In that business, she excelled in transactions as well as management of others, a rare combination in the world of real

estate.”

With the move last year, she has traded getting government approvals and readying sites for construction with working to put vacant land in urban areas back into productive use at the street and policy level.

Jim Rokakis, director of Thriving Communities, notes Mrs. Ryzner took a pay cut to join the nonprofit.

“She is invaluable to me,” he said.

“For the conservancy to go into urban areas is virgin territory. She’s taking on some difficult projects.”

She currently oversees college interns who will evaluate conditions of homes in Lorain and map them to help the city strategically use its abandoned-home demolition funds.

Mrs. Ryzner has both a bachelor of arts and a master’s degree from the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs and a law degree from the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. — Stan Bullard

Director of volunteer services Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park

I

n her job at the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Lisa Meranti most definitely sees the forest for the trees, both literally and figuratively.

Ms. Meranti is a detail person, and she has to be. As director of volunteer services for the conservancy, Ms. Meranti manages a program with 5,900 volunteers serving in about 150 distinct volunteer positions.

She’s also mindful of how the volunteer program serves the broad goals of CVNP and other national parks: encouraging visitors to engage with nature, promoting environmental awareness, preserving beautiful corners of the country for future generations to enjoy.

“I feel very, very fortunate … that as a young professional I have really found my place,” says Ms. Meranti, 31, a lifelong lover of the outdoors.

As a kid growing up in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, her favorite

SARAH RYZNER Director of Projects Thriving Communities Institute of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy

S

arah Ryzner worked as a real estate lawyer and as a site-acquisition consultant for commercial interests before becoming projects director for the Thriving Communities Institute, an effort of the nonprofit Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

“I’ve evaluated each opportunity as it came along. I stuck with my gut, and I’m very happy with where my career has taken me,” the 32-yearold Mrs. Ryzner said. Today, she’s using her legal, real estate and planning skills to work on the ground level to tackle the region’s problems with urban blight, including coping with acres marked by homes emptied by foreclosure.

She joined the institute, which the conservancy launched in 2011, last

WHAT THE NONPROFIT COMMUNITY IS SAYING BILL KITSON President and CEO United Way of Greater Cleveland What attributes are necessary to be a leader in the nonprofit sector of tomorrow?

Leaders in nonprofit, first, have to be authentic. It’s essential to listen to the community. We have to find out what their aspirations are for their families and the community where they live, work and play. Second, we need to be accountable. We have to continue to deliver on promises and set measureable objectives and benchmarks to evaluate our impact.

And lastly, leaders in nonprofit should be transparent. At United Way of Greater Cleveland, our donors, volunteers and the community have a tremendous level of trust in us. We maintain their trust by telling the whole story — openly communicating about financials, processes and both positive and negative information.

From your perspective, what are some of the most significant challenges in nonprofits going forward?

At United Way, we focus on meeting our community’s aspirations for education, income and health because these are the building blocks for a good quality of life.

However, as with any nonprofit, we have limited resources. Unlike business, nonprofits can’t leave people behind. Our challenge is streamlining our initiatives while not neglecting the community’s other important aspirations; we have to choose to do something while choosing not to do something else.

This challenge presents an opportunity for nonprofits to be collaborative and inclusive. If we share our common goals, we can ensure we’re not duplicating efforts. An efficient nonprofit community allows for us to effectively address our community’s problems and advance the common good in Greater Cleveland.

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President and CEO Centers for Families and Children What attributes are necessary to be a leader in the nonprofit sector of tomorrow?

The nonprofit leader of tomorrow must have the courage to be disruptive. She must be in it, not just to sustain an organization, but to truly solve big problems for good. I am convinced that changing the world begins by changing the conversation — by reframing the questions and by really listening to what you get back and by starting with transforming yourself and not stopping until you transform your industry. This requires a nonprofit leader willing to institutionalize disruption by pushing the organization to constantly take a hard look at who they are and how they are inspiring innovation inside.

By asking the tough questions, particularly at the top levels of their board of directors and executive

staff — such as, “Are we the kind of leaders we need to be for the organization we are becoming?” and “Are we living our theory of change every day?” and “Are we creating a culture that inspires innovation?”

— and by embracing disruption as a strategic imperative — essential, unavoidable, urgent, valued — I believe the possibilities for lasting, positive change are limitless and within our grasp to achieve.

From your perspective, what are some of the most significant challenges in nonprofits going forward?

Nonprofits — particularly those in human services — are more likely to be the “disrupted” than the “disruptors.” Our work is done in an ever-changing, highly scrutinized and often hostile environment. The constant outside disruptions, no matter how well-intended, usually come off as overly bureaucratic, arbitrary and destructive. Rather than promoting the innovation and collaboration we need from the nonprofit sector to truly solve big problems for good, these disruptions keep many of us overly focused on our own survival and in a constant state of fear about our ability to deliver on the promises we have made to those that depend upon us the most.

The problems we are trying to solve are massive in scale and our nonprofits are tiny against them.

For nonprofits to achieve the scale, strength and endurance we need to solve big problems for good, we must have the ability to attract and retain the very best people, work with the very best partners within and outside the social sector, and invest in the very best tools to get the job done. This is the challenge not just for nonprofits, but for all of us going forward.

NATALIE RONAYNE Executive director Cleveland Botanical Garden What attributes are necessary to be a leader in the nonprofit sector of tomorrow?

Courage and conviction, optimism and hope are the core attributes of leadership.

Building and empowering great teams, and self-renewal, are also crucial. A leader must be able to see her vision clearly amid constant noise and resource challenges, and to build ownership for that vision among a broad spectrum of stakeholders. Listening effectively, building trusting relationships and developing empathy — the key competencies of emotional intelligence — distinguish a person from being merely a good manager to being an inspired leader.

From your perspective, what are some of the most significant challenges in nonprofits going forward?

Nonprofits — and for-profits, for that matter — will always be resource-challenged. No matter what a nonprofit’s mission is, the pressures to diversify revenue streams and build broader support networks remain. The challenge is to convey your value and your relevance to a broad set of audiences while creating and sustaining loyalty to your mission and brand.

■

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APRIL 22 - 28, 2013

REBECCA KUSNER Director WorkAdvance at Towards Employment fter she graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1997, Rebecca Kusner was a case manager at a halfway house. She then went to work for a staffing agency.

In those early years, she learned a valuable lesson. “People really wanted permanent jobs,� Ms. Kusner said. “Employment plays such a prominent role in people’s well-being.�

Ms. Kusner went on to receive a master’s degree from Cleveland State University, and later became the work force policy manager for Community Research Partners, a nonprofit organization in Columbus.

She eventually was recruited by Towards Employment, a Cleveland nonprofit with an ambitious goal — to start a program called WorkAdvance that would supply a total of 650 qualified candidates from low-income households to Northeast Ohio employers between 2011 and 2015. “As we were writing the grant proposal, we had her in mind,� Christie Yonkers, Towards Employment’s deputy director, said of Ms. Kusner.

For Ms. Kusner, it was a homecoming of sorts. “I’m originally from Cleveland,� the Orange High School graduate said. “I was excited about the chance to come back to Northeast Ohio and work on a program that not only has an impact on employers, but also has an opportunity to change how we do business.�

WorkAdvance is a collaboration of more than 13 Northeast Ohio work force and economic development organizations. It helps disadvantaged adults find employment and works with its manufacturing and health care partners to ensure that their needs are being met, too.

The WorkAdvance model was developed by the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, the NYC Center for Economic Opportunity and as the result of several national studies that took an industry-focused approach to work force development. After early success, the government-sponsored Social Innovation Fund provided grants to spread the program to new communities in New York, Oklahoma and Ohio.

Ms. Kusner was hired in April 2011 to direct the programs in Northeast Ohio (Cuyahoga and Lake counties) and the Youngstown area, where WorkAdvance is present in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties. “It’s an enormous program to get up and running,� Ms. Yonkers said.

Unemployed and low-income adults are selected. Once they are in the program, they receive counseling, learn interviewing skills and are taught industry-specific skills — all with their future employers in mind. “What it really is, is a partnership with multiple organizations in Northeast Ohio,� Ms. Kusner said. “We are working really hard to meet the needs of our manufacturing and health care partners. We know that business needs come first, and we are designing programming in response to what business is telling us.�

Ms. Kusner said the majority of the 650 qualified candidates will be enrolled in the Northeast Ohio program by the end of June. “We have had some exciting early results,� she said. “The overall goal of the program is to help individuals increase their earnings. Of the individuals who were placed in the first year, 20% have already seen wage increases. Those wage increases are averaging $2 an hour. We’re very proud of that.� — Kevin Kleps

A

SEAN SHACKLETT Executive director Susan G. Komen Northeast Ohio affiliate hile arguably a young executive director at age 39, Sean Shacklett brings to his newest work a diversity of perspectives, forged from experience in the for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors. And that’s exactly what the people who hired him to lead the Susan G. Komen Northeast Ohio affiliate wanted. “His sort of medley of experiences and exposures was a perfect fit for what we were looking for,� said Mike Gall, the local affiliate’s board president and one of the people who interviewed and hired Mr. Shacklett. “He just stuck out as someone who could take the organization to new and much better places,� Mr. Gall said.

Mr. Shacklett started as the local affiliate’s first male executive director on Feb. 4. His resume had been on file because he’d applied for another position previously, and Komen reached out to ask if he still was interested in working there.

Having earned some leadership stripes and feeling the desire to serve his local community again, he was.

Mr. Shacklett had worked most recently for an academic nonprofit, but his focus and impact were nationwide, not “directly impacting the folks that lived down the street.â€? “What I found very quickly is I had a significant hole ‌ I was not engaged in this community,â€? he said. “I needed that.â€?

As executive director, Mr. Shacklett oversees a staff of nine and is responsible for developing the strategy and vision for the local affiliate, whose annual revenues total nearly $3 million.

Mr. Gall said the new leader already, in the first couple months,

W

has immersed himself in the organization’s operations and community work. “This is someone who’s going to look at how we’ve done things in the past and find improvements,� he said. “He’s a visionary (and) also practical and strategic.�

Mr. Shacklett is committed to raising the organization’s brand awareness in Cleveland so more people know it invests the money it raises in services for women and men around breast health, screening and education.

So, Mr. Shacklett is leading his staff to increase attendance at the 20th Race for the Cure on Sept. 21, partly through a media campaign.

They also will begin community conversations, wherein they will sit with professionals and community members to uncover the challenges different communities face in terms of access to care. “This isn’t a woman’s disease,� he said. “Women and men both get this. This is an issue that affects our entire community.�

Mr. Shacklett lives in Richfield with his wife, their three children and two dogs. “Always a big wearer of pink,� he is more purposeful about wearing it now and owns a handful of pink ties and a pink bowtie. — Michelle Park

JACOB VANSICKLE Executive director Bike Cleveland ight now, Jacob VanSickle is gearing up for “Bike to Work Day� May 17. After that it might be lobbying Cleveland City Council to improve safety for bicyclists or helping design and build a bicycle trail through another city neighborhood. “You have a lot of flexibility� working in the nonprofit sector, said the founding executive director of Bike Cleveland. “It’s not like a corporate job or a government job where you’ve got to be very meticulous; at a nonprofit you can be more strategic.�

That freedom to leap from one imperative to another is certainly true at Bike Cleveland, where Mr. VanSickle is the only employee and the point person for a small but growing bicycling community in Cleveland and its suburbs.

Among his big victories in 14 months on the job were the opening of a bikeway on the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge and a Cleveland bicycle safety ordinance that requires passing cars, trucks and buses to keep a three-foot buffer zone between them and bicycles at the curb.

It’s all part of an effort to build a

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continued from PAGE 13

“When I do a presentation to parents, I say, ‘How many of you in the last year have told your child, I would like you to consider a career working in a factory,’ and everyone laughs,�

Mr. Estremera says, referring to the 2,500 to 3,000 students who, along with many of their parents, he presents to each year.

But then he talks about how much money a good welder makes or what a machinist takes home, along with how many job openings there are just in Northeast Ohio for workers with those same skills. Suddenly, parents who never thought of it before, start to consider sending their children to Max Hayes. “That’s really surprising to these parents to know that these companies are here and that they’re really interested in hiring talent from our school,� Mr. Estremera said.

That’s what drives Mr. Estremera’s enthusiasm for his work, and also what led him to return to WIRE-Net in 2011, after an 11-year stint in health care. “We approached him two years ago to direct our new Max Hayes project because I knew he was passionate about helping young people find the best path forward,� said WIRE-Net president John Colm.

Mr. Estremera had worked on youth manufacturing programs at WIRE-Net before, so the organization knew what it was getting. It has expanded Mr. Estremera’s role, however, and expects him not only to attract students to Max Hayes, but also to work with those developing the school to ensure it meets the needs of manufacturers by offering a first-class facility and curriculum. — Dan Shingler

bicycle culture, “something we really need in Cleveland,� he said.

Mr. VanSickle, 29, grew up in Michigan and met his Clevelandborn wife at a small college there.

Now, he and his wife and their infant son, Milo, live in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood, a four-mile (plus two-wheel ride) to Bike Cleveland’s office on West 25th Street.

He first landed a job with Slavic Village Development, a community development group, where part of his job as the active living coordinator got him involved with building the Morgana Run Trail, a bike path along an abandoned rail line that runs through the neighborhood.

From that experience he was drawn into a local bicycle advocacy community that hadn’t yet gelled into a formal organization. But government planning agencies and foundations realized bicyclists — both those who don’t have cars and those who use two wheels for recreation — needed a seat at the regional transportation planning table.

Still, the job wasn’t his for the taking when Bike Cleveland got organized and started looking for an executive director.

After a national search, however, Mr. VanSickle still pedaled out ahead of the pack, said board chairman Christopher Alvarado, “because he had been at Slavic Village and with people face to face — that was the winning experience that he brought. We’re very happy with his performance.� — Jay Miller

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16 CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WHO TO WATCH IN NONPROFITS

ANNEMARIE GRASSI

STEPHEN LOVE

CEO Open Doors Academy nnemarie Grassi swore she would never work with middle school students.

But that’s exactly what she’s doing today as CEO of Clevelandbased Open Doors Academy, the nonprofit enrichment and leadership program for teens that she founded more than 10 years ago. “I’m a firm believer in destiny ‌ eventually you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be,â€? she said. “It is very different from anything I expected.â€?

Dr. Grassi — who last year defended her Ph.D. dissertation at Cleveland State University with her Open Doors students in tow — initially started her career working with autistic children and those with traumatic brain injury.

But the Geauga County native also had maintained a connection with her former youth minister, who was associated with St. Paul Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights.

The East Side church had a growing youth program, and before Dr. Grassi knew it, at the age of 23, she was given a $70,000 budget and hired to build the after-school dropin program. “They said, this is your baby ‌ grow it,â€? she recalled.

And grow it, she has.

Open Doors Academy today has a $2.1 million budget and serves more

A

than 350 middle and high school students annually at eight locations. She hopes that someday the program is in every middle school in Greater Cleveland, and more locations are in the works. “I never could have imagined it being what it is,� she said.

The after-school program focuses on internal growth for middle school students and college preparations and work force development at the high school level.

The overall curriculum includes service-learning trips, tutoring, volunteer work, SAT and ACT preparations, college trips and internships. Summer programs are available, and the program has a presence within individual schools during the day.

Phylicia Delic, a 2008 graduate of Cleveland Heights High School, was one of the first students, along with her twin sister, to go through the program. “I just think it’s an amazing program,� said 22-year-old Ms. Delic, who works as promotions coordinator at Radio One and is a graduate of Northwood University in Midland, Mich.

As for Dr. Grassi, she feels about the same: “She’s always been an amazing person ‌ she believes in all her students.â€? — Amy Ann Stoessel

Information specialist Cuyahoga County Land Bank tephen Love dropped his plan to go to law school in the summer of 2009 when, through the Cleveland Foundation, he became an intern with the Buckeye Area Development Corp.

He knew he found his nonprofit calling when he started helping residents of Cleveland’s Buckeye neighborhood work together to improve their community, Mr. Love said. For instance, one community block club didn’t even have money to buy bushes and flowers for a streetscape project. So he gathered donations from area nurseries and recruited volunteers to spruce things up. “This is something I really like to see — a community coming together to really improve their neighborhood,� he said.

Today, Mr. Love’s an information specialist with the Cuyahoga County Land Bank, which finds new uses for run-down properties. He runs the database that the organization uses to manage its long list of properties, but he also is the land bank’s communications specialist and helps communities develop their own land re-use projects.

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Lake Erie beaches, which he describes as “a passion gone wild.�

After he got a taste for community development, he and a few other Baldwin-Wallace College students started doing regular cleanups at Euclid Beach Park.

Then two Collinwood nonprofits joined in, as did area residents.

The growing group won a grant to add recycling and trash bins at the park and signs stressing the importance of the environment.

They also started holding events at the park.

Now they’re working on an even bigger plan: They’ve received an $18,000 Cleveland Foundation grant to start an Urban Beach Ambassadors program. This spring, volunteers will start visiting different beaches to talk to people

about why it’s important to take care of the lake and its beaches. “What started out as a rinkydink cleanup, it’s really taken on some legs now,� Mr. Love said.

Nelson Beckford, program officer at the Cleveland Foundation, described Mr. Love as a “tireless, tireless, tireless� person who thinks about community development day and night. “He’s not a talker. He’s a doer,�

Mr. Beckford said.

Mr. Love — who studied political science, Spanish and international studies at B-W before earning a master’s in public administration from Cleveland State University in 2011 — does sometimes think about things other than community development, though.

For instance, he has a girlfriend, Allison Lukacsy, and plays trombone in an eight-piece Latin music fusion band. — Chuck Soder

JULIE CHASE-MOREFIELD

campaign to help fund the construction of a new headquarters, which is expected to increase the organization’s space from 16,000 square feet to 40,000 square feet. The campaign got a major boost in January with a $1.5 million gift from the Nordson Corporation Foundation. “It was three times more than we had asked, and the largest gift in their foundation’s history,� Ms. Chase-Morefield said. “I don’t think it gets any better than that.�

Ms. Chase-Morefield credits the organization’s success to Second Harvest’s staff and the communities in which it operates.

However, Deb Mills-Scofield, a local consultant who helped Second Harvest with its strategic planning process, credits Ms. Chase-Morefield’s ability to embrace Second Harvest’s mission and carry it out effectively. “She has a very unique ability to lead internally and externally,� Ms. Mills-Scofield said. “She’s got the respect of the community, she makes things happen, she’s down to earth and, quite frankly, her leadership qualities are powerful and better than I see in a lot of for-profit companies.� — Timothy Magaw

Executive director Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio espite making inroads in the private sector at a research and development firm, Julie ChaseMorefield always was drawn to the nonprofit arena. “There just felt like there was something more than the bottom line,� said Ms. Chase-Morefield, now the executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, which serves Lorain, Erie, Huron and Crawford counties. “I wanted there to be a different bottom line. In food banking, the end result is people are fed. At the end of the day, that makes me feel better than zeroes on a balance sheet.�

When Ms. Chase-Morefield arrived at the organization in 2004, she said Second Harvest was in the “midst of a transition, which is the best and nicest way to put it.� The quiet organization employed only five and distributed about 2 million pounds of food each year.

Since her arrival, Second Harvest distributes roughly 7 million pounds of food annually, its staff has grown to 19 and the organization has launched a bevy of new programs.

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APRIL 22 - 28, 2013

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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17

Tremont: Employees have been working for equity, not checks continued from PAGE 1

development and production problems to personnel issues, among them — to get to positive cash flow before investors lose interest and the money runs out.

Hence, the appearance on “Shark Tank,” where a panel of five “sharks” — experienced, wealthy entrepreneurs — hears pitches from operators of young companies who try to convince the sharks to invest their own money in their startups. The hope is that if one of the sharks doesn’t come to their aid, someone who sees the show will.

“For us, it’s really our free Super Bowl commercial,” Mr. LeMieux said. “It’s something we could never pay for as a company.”

Mr. LeMieux is bound by a confidentiality agreement that forbids him from divulging details of the show in advance, so he couldn’t talk about the success or failure of his pitch.

But Mr. LeMieux and his wife, Jill, the company’s vice president of marketing, were willing to talk briefly about the state of the organization. The other member of the top management team is president Charles Ames, who is responsible for day-to-day operations.

In a joint telephone interview last Friday, April 19, the couple acknowledged a report that Tremont Electric’s board of directors discussed a management shakeup at a meeting on Thursday.

“That is accurate, but no deci-

sions have been made,” Mrs. LeMieux said.

Carol Latham, a member of the board, said the company was going through a rough transition.

“It’s been tough. It’s taking its toll on management,” she said. “It needs to go forward with new management.”

Will work for equity Mr. LeMieux said he and most of the other six Tremont Electric employees have been working for equity in the company rather than a paycheck, a practice not unknown in the startup world.

“The most I can say is it’s never an easy road to be able to do the things we’re trying to do,” Mr. LeMieux said. “You hope you don’t have these trials and tribulations.”

Neither the LeMieuxs nor Ms. Latham, who founded and then sold her own manufacturing company, Thermagon Inc., would comment further on the financial and management issues the company faces.

The visibility on “Shark Tank” could be a valuable lifeline, even though it could come at a high price.

Like contestants on “American Idol” who must agree to a recording contract with the producers as a condition of appearing on the show, companies that appear on “Shark Tank” must agree to give the show’s producers a financial interest.

The “Shark Tank” contract states that if the appearance results in a financial investment in the company,

the contestant must give the producers the option of either a 2% royalty on operating profits; warrants that give production entities a 5% equity interest in the company; or 5% of the value from a liquidation of the company.

The reality show, now in its fourth season, puts an entrepreneur in a room with a small group of wealthy investor types who probe for weaknesses and strengths. Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team and an Internet billionaire, is among the current sharks.

A technological challenge Tremont Electric rose to prominence after winning a competitive $55,000 loan in 2008 from Cuyahoga County. In 2010, the company would win a NorTech Innovation Award.

By then, the concept of a personal portable generator was touted by National Public Radio, The Wall Street Journal and Agence France Presse. In January 2011, PC Magazine reported that, “Although it was launched a couple of months ago, one of the early hits at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show seems to be the nPowerPlug from Tremont Electric.”

Mr. LeMieux began thinking about the product while hiking the Appalachian Trail, where he needed to leave the trail to buy batteries.

What’s now called the nPEG personal energy generator uses a patented energy conversion technology to create a portable power

supply. It puts a magnet and a lithium battery into a nine-inch-long tube and takes the kinetic energy produced from walking, running or any side-to-side or back-and-forth motion and stores that energy in a lithium battery. It can be used to power cell phones and other consumer electronic devices.

That’s sophisticated technology, and transforming that idea into a consumer product that can be reliably built at a reasonable price hasn’t been easy.

“People look at it and say it’s like the shake flashlight,” a product that sells for as little as $10. “If it was that easy, we would have been there a long time ago.”

Mr. LeMieux said various challenges that hit two years ago, including quality issues and problems with a battery supplier who couldn’t deliver a quality product in quantity, kept the nPEG from breaking out commercially.

“Thankfully we were able to connect with some local investors, and our original investors had enough confidence to give us more investment and some loans,” he said.

Mum’s the word A local contract manufacturer, Delta Systems in Streetsboro, helped smooth out the problems, Mr. LeMieux said, and the product, which retails for $199, is now available on the shelves of some retailers and online, including through REI, a leading outdoor products retailers.

Still, Mr. LeMieux knows the

nPEG will remain a niche, rather than mass market, product at the $199 price point, so reducing cost is an issue.

A byproduct of the company’s financial struggles is three tax liens filed by the IRS and the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services between November of last year and April 3 totaling slightly less than $50,000. The liens reflect a failure to pay in a timely fashion employer contributions to federal taxes and state unemployment taxes.

Mr. LeMieux said the company has adopted a low media profile after a flurry of positive press coverage a few years ago.

“We’ve had a lot of really good successes, things that I certainly would really like to be able to talk about out loud, but I’m not allowed to say too much about them,” Mr. LeMieux said.

But, he added, he’s receiving calls from companies that see the commercial uses of the technology.

Also giving it a look is the U.S. Department of Defense.

Mr. LeMieux said the military got interested after the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan was closed in late 2011 and fuel deliveries to forward units stopped. That situation meant generators in the field couldn’t run, which meant field radios couldn’t be recharged.

“We always knew there would be a level of interest there; things are moving along,” Mr. LeMieux said, though he couldn’t discuss the military’s interest further.

■

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APRIL 22 - 28, 2013

THEINSIDER

THEWEEK APRIL 15 - 21 The big story: Lester Lefton announced he will retire next summer as president of Kent State University — a post the 66-year-old Boston native has held since 2006. Dr. Lefton, who has presided over the university during an era of marked growth, said in a message to university faculty, staff and students that he was proud of where Kent State is today and that its “record-setting Lefton performances have exceeded even our own high expectations.” The university said a national search for his successor will launch in the coming weeks.

Turf battle: A Streetsboro manufacturer said it will close this summer in a move that will eliminate 290 jobs. Commercial Turf Products Ltd., a maker of lawn and garden equipment, will shut the plant at 1777 Miller Parkway starting June 14.

Commercial Turf Products is a subsidiary of MTD, a maker of outdoor power equipment. The Valley City company is closing the plant because it has excess capacity. The work at Commercial Turf Products will be split among three plants in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Willard, Ohio.

Shell of a move: TravelCenters of America LLC entered into a definitive agreement with Shell Oil Products U.S. to construct and run a network of natural gas fueling lanes at TravelCenters locations along the U.S. Interstate Highway System. Shell will construct at least two natural gas fueling lanes for large over-the-road trucks and related storage capacity at up to 100 TA and Petro Stopping Center locations, at Shell’s cost, within several years. Shell agreed to supply natural gas fuel to these locations, and Shell and TravelCenters separately will market natural gas fuel to their respective customers.

REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS

OhShift wins laughs, if not any awards

■ The volume of business loans issued by several Northeast Ohio credit unions that share a loan officer has exceeded expecta-

tions in the first full calendar year that he has been on the job.

Jonathan Mokri, who was hired in September 2011 to originate loans for six institutions including Taleris Credit Union in Brooklyn Mokri Heights and Cardinal Community Credit Union in Mentor, originated 16 business loans totaling $5.52 million in 2012, according to Cooperative Business Services LLC in Cincinnati.

“For a first year in a new market … it exceeded our expectations, given the fact that we … were an unknown name and the credit unions hadn’t offered commercial loans of this type of manner,” said Andy Weingartner, executive vice president of Cooperative Business Services.

Cooperative Business Servcies is a credit union service organization that helps more than 70 credit unions in 10 states originate, underwrite and syndicate business loans.

Mr. Mokri is its newest loan officer, and its sixth in Ohio.

The most prolific of the Ohio shared loan officer arrangements — in Columbus — closed more than $10 million in loans in 2012; that region has two business development professionals.

The average size of loans made in Northeast Ohio’s arrangement was roughly $350,000.

Eaton Family Credit Union Inc. in Euclid joined the arrangement last October, bringing to seven the number of credit unions issuing the loans Mr. Mokri originates.

Mr. Weingartner said attributes credit

MILESTONE

BEST OF THE BLOGS

■ OnShift didn’t win anything at the Northeast Ohio Software Association’s Best of Tech Awards last week.

However, the Cleveland-based producer of staff management software did get a few laughs.

Sure, the award for Best Software Product went home with UrbanCode — a Cleveland company that makes software for software developers — but, during a compilation of videos made by the finalists, the crowd laughed hardest for OnShift.

During the video, someone dressed like a robot does the things OnShift’s software is supposed to do: It makes a replacement employee appear out of thin air and (violently) stops people from racking up overtime and clocking out early.

OnShift also fell short in the Tech Company of the Year category, which was won by Westlake’s Hyland Software. What a shame — the employees at the company work so hard, according to OnShift’s second video.

“If you want to close more deals, you have to get faster on the phones!” a drill sergeant boss screams at three employees in training.

“Faster! Faster!”

“What are you doing with coffee???” he yells at one of them. “Coffee is for closers!”

See the videos at youtube.com/onshiftsoftware. — Chuck Soder

Give them credit in business lending

Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.

Swimming? Keep your mouth closed

Orders take off: Nextant Aerospace in Richmond Heights is on course to fill an 18-aircraft order valued at $89 million that is headed for the Chinese market. The company announced the order along with the appointment of the China Great Wall Industry Corp. as the company’s exclusive sales agent in a region that includes mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Nextant began selling its remanufactured aircraft, the 400XT, after receiving Federal Aviation Administration certification in October 2011.

Powering up:

University Hospitals and a group of smaller health systems known as the Community Health Collaborative have banded together to create a purchasing collaborative to save money on supplies and other services. University Hospitals, EMH Healthcare in Elyria, Parma Community General Hospital and Southwest General in Middleburg Heights have formed what has been dubbed the Purchasing Organization of the Western Reserve, or POWR.

Win some, lose your job: Three consecutive losing seasons, the last of which will result in at least one high lottery pick, cost Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Byron Scott his job — even as the team continued to say it was building through the draft. Mr. Scott was fired last Thursday, April 18, one day after Cavs finished 24-58, which was the third-worst record in the NBA. He was 64-166, a .278 winning percentage, in three seasons. The Cavs never won more than 24 games in a season during Mr. Scott’s tenure.

Change at the top: Forest City Enterprises Inc. said Bruce Ratner has been named executive chairman at its Forest City Ratner Cos. subsidiary, and that MaryAnne Gilmartin has succeeded him as the New York unit’s president and CEO. The company said the transition is part of its ongoing succession planning.

SUBMITTED PHOTO

Paul Gorton bought Ford’s Clothier in 2008.

COMPANY: Ford’s Clothier, Rocky River OCCASION: Its 100th anniversary Ford’s this year marks a century of “serving gentlemen and their sons” with fine men’s clothing on Cleveland’s West Side.

The store’s current owner, Paul Gorton, started working at Ford’s when he was 16.

After working part-time and then full-time for the Ford family for 37 years, Mr. Gorton bought the business in 2008, keeping the familiar Ford’s Clothier name.

Ford’s Clothier traces its roots to 1913 when William Ford started what was called the W.N. Ford Supply Co. The original store was at 1824 W. 48th St. in Cleveland; a photo of William Ford standing in front of that store still hangs in Ford’s Clothier’s current location.

William Ford’s son George eventually took over the store, and throughout the years he moved it to several locations on Madison Avenue in Lakewood. George Ford settled at the Rocky River location on Detroit Road around 1960.

George’s son Jeff Ford took the reins of Ford’s Clothier in 1979 and retired in 2008, when Mr. Gorton became the owner. Jeff Ford still works at Ford’s Clothier part-time.

For details, visit www.FordsClothier.com.

■ “When people swim in Lake Erie, they’re frolicking not just among perch and walleye but a vast, inanimate presence of garbage.”

That’s the unappealing first sentence in a story from TheAtlanticCities.com. The piece said the material “floats just beneath the surface and is made of little bits of plastic, known as microplastics or ‘mermaids’ tears,’ which come from trash dropped by humans and probably industrial facilities around the lake as well.”

Lorena Rios-Mendoza, an oceanographer at the University of WisconsinSuperior, is among scientists “who’ve plunged the polluted depths of American lakes,” according to TheAtlanticCities.com.

“Her team recently sampled sections of Lake Erie — which can’t seem to catch a break these days, what with its mercury infection and rashes of poisonous algae — and discovered that the water’s been invaded by great quantities of microplastics mostly smaller than grains of rice,” the website reported.

“Specifically, they measured concentrations between 1,500 and 1.7 million particles per square mile, which is 24 percent greater than what they found in the Atlantic Ocean’s debris field,” the piece stated.

This “thriving plastics colony represents a significant hazard to biodiversity, because the small chunks look like food to fish, birds and other creatures,” the website said. Once swallowed, “the indigestible material can fill up an animal’s stomach and create a fatal blockage.”

unions’ lending success to the low interest rate environment and a slowly improving economy. — Michelle Park

UH, Summa to star at health systems powwow ■ In recognition of the strides two local health systems have made in terms of population health management, a national summit will take place in Cleveland this week that will explore the rising role of the accountable care organization — a still murky facet of health care reform aimed at banding together providers to coordinate patient care.

The conference is presented by Premier Inc., a health care alliance based in Charlotte, N.C, and co-hosted by University Hospitals and Summa Health System in Akron.

The ACO summit, which will be held April 23-24 on the UH campus in Cleveland, will bring together representatives from 40 health systems from across the country that are part of Premier’s ACO collaborative Premier vice president Joe Damore said in an email that the health systems gathered in Cleveland will gain insight into UH and Summa’s “innovative approaches to improving health care and lowering cost.”

“Members of our team have worked with health systems across the nation in more than 120 cities helping them build accountable care organizations,” Mr. Damore said.

“Summa and UH are among the nation’s leaders in redesigning health care to achieve higher quality, more cost effective and patient-centric care. Our collaborative is designed to enable health systems to learn from the leaders, and that is why we are here in Cleveland.” — Timothy Magaw

Get in the game ■ The first quarter “has been the ugliest for corporate outlooks since 2001,” Reuters said in a story noting that, among S&P 500 companies making earnings forecasts, “4.5 have come in below Wall Street estimates for every one above them.”

But Reuters said downbeat outlook announcements from companies have a way of creating the conditions for big gains.

“First, the share prices of the companies tend to decline,” according to the story.

“Then, Wall Street analysts often lower their own estimates in line with the corporate outlooks. Finally, having created an environment of lower expectations, many companies manage to beat the forecasts … after all when the results are announced.”

Nick Raich, CEO of The Earnings Scout, an independent research firm in Cleveland that specializes in earnings trends, told Reuters, “The companies are doing a very good job of guiding the analysts lower to pave the way for what I call ‘manufactured earnings surprises.’ That’s the way the earnings game is played.”

Near the top of the barrel ■Great Lakes Brewing Co. in Cleveland landed at No. 19 on a list of the top 50 craft brewing companies in the United States, based on 2012 beer sales volume.

The Brewers Association — a nonprofit trade group in Boulder, Colo., that tabulates production statistics for the U.S. brewing industry — also included data on the top 50 overall brewing companies nationwide, 39 of which are small, independent craft brewers.

Even on the list that includes beer giants such as Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors, Great Lakes ranks as the country’s 28thlargest brewer.

The largest craft brewer in America is Boston Beer Co., followed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. of Chico, Calif.

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