Crain's Cleveland Business

VOL. 40, NO. 28

JULY 15 - 21, 2019

Source Lunch

Health care Akron’s two big health systems will have outside ownership. Page 28

The List

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Amy Wong, Dot Org Solutions Page 31

Highest-paid female executives Page 26

Margot James Copeland, page 10

Françoise Adan, page 12

Christine Amer Mayer, page 13

Gina Beredo, page 13

Ellen Burts-Cooper, page 14

Toi Comer, page 16

Veronica Isabel Dahlberg, page 17

Marsha Dobrzynski, page 18

Ka-Pi Hoh, page 20

Lisa Kristosik, page 20

Cynthia Leitson, page 21

Kristen Lukas, page 22

Lori McClung, page 23

Ilene Shapiro, page 23

Jill Rizika, page 24

Vanessa Whiting, page 25

WOMEN of NOTE E

very year, Crain’s Cleveland Business salutes a group of inspiring women whose dedication and achievements enrich Northeast Ohio, its institutions and its people. A panel of Crain’s editors chose this year’s class from a deep and broad pool of nominations. In addition, our partner, The Cleveland Foundation, selected Margot James Copeland, just retired as CEO and president of the KeyBank Foundation, for this year’s Women of Note Legacy Award.

The 2019 Women of Note will be honored at a luncheon at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium on Wednesday, July 17.

Their stories, pages 10-25

Women of Note portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

ENERGY

Bailout of Ohio’s nuclear power plants may come too late for FES

By Dan Shingler dshingler@crain.com @DanShingler

Akron’s FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) might not get the bailout it says it needs in time to save its Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants unless the company is able to change the deadline for refueling the plants a second time.

The company said it’s counting on the Ohio Senate to pass something akin to the recently passed House bailout bill, dubbed HB 6. FES said that plan, as recently amended by the Senate but not yet voted on, would give the plants a $150 million annual subsidy they need to remain open.

If FES doesn’t get it, the company said, it is set to close the plants by May 2021, resulting in probable layoffs for more than 1,300 Ohio em-

Entire contents © 2019 by Crain Communications Inc.

ployees who staff and service them.

FES initially said it needed a subsidy in hand by June 30 or it would not be able to refuel the plants in time to keep them in service. When that came and went without a bill’s passage, FES said it would need the subsidy approved by July 17.

“We remain on path for a safe deactivation and decommissioning,” the company said in a July 1 statement. “Should we receive the longterm certainty that comes with an affirmative vote within this timeframe, we will immediately re-evaluate our options. Given the expectation that the legislation will be passed in the coming weeks, we have communicated our commitment to doing everything possible to accommodate this process, which will come with increased financial burden associated with missing the June 30 fuel purchasing deadline for Davis-Besse.”

SEE BAILOUT, PAGE 29

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REAL ESTATE

IMG Center owner faces foreclosure

By Stan Bullard sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

Office building owner and highprofile office broker James Breen always has been a free spirit in the Greater Cleveland real estate scene, such as being a candid critic of downtown development efforts when few realty types would go that route.

Breen now is moving to a different tempo as a property owner, a generally happy group amid the prolonged positive cycle in real estate investments and development in the region and nation. However, Breen faces multiple fiscal challenges, most prominently a foreclosure filing against his largest asset, the 16-floor IMG Center, 1360 East Ninth St., and lawsuits from other creditors against properties or his James Breen Real Estate LLC

brokerage.

Wells Fargo Bank, serving as trustee for the collateralized mortgage security loan referred to as UBSCM2018C9-OH IMG LLC, on Breen July 2 sued 1360 E. Ninth St., doing business as IMG Center, in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. The court filing, assigned to Judge Daniel Gaul, although it technically has to go through mediation, states that the property is in default on the $16.8 million loan Breen took out against the property in a 2018 refinance for failing to make monthly payments since February, as well as being in a technical default for having liens against the property.

SEE IMG CENTER, PAGE 29

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NEO universities step up tech transfer efforts

By Rachel Abbey McCafferty rmccafferty@crain.com @ramccafferty

Cleveland State University has launched a new webpage, designed to more easily connect potential inventors and entrepreneurs with university researchers and local resources.

The CSU Innovation page aims to “streamline access to innovation” at the university, said Jerzy Sawicki, vice president for research at Cleveland State.

As the global economy becomes more competitive, Sawicki said, companies and universities both are feeling pressure to be more innovative. Companies need to increase return on investment, and universities need to seek additional funding sources as competition for federal research dollars grows.

Ultimately, jobs, technology and education are all changing, “and CSU is transforming how we collaborate to keep pace and help the region to take a leading position in all of these areas, including innovation and technology,” Sawicki said.

The new CSU Innovation page offers a searchable database of experts at the university, as well as information on partners in the region, such JumpStart and the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise.

The page also highlights university resources such as the Weston Ideation Lab, the Dan T. Moore Makerspace and the Technology Transfer Office that entrepreneurs can use. And if entrepreneurs and companies aren’t sure where to turn, they can submit

The Cleveland State webpage designed to connect with entrepreneurs can be found at https://innovation.csuohio.edu. (Crain’s screenshot)

their technology needs to the university through the page and be connected with the best expert or resource.

The goal is to promote “economic engagement” in the region, Sawicki said, connecting students, faculty and industry.

“It basically serves as a front door that makes it easier for industry to find relevant research activity across campus and connect with us,” Sawicki said.

He added the portal could serve as an invitation to companies and entrepreneurs to engage with Cleveland State on research projects, as the university hopes to see more of that kind of collaboration.

All of the region’s public four-year institutions are engaged in similar technology transfer work to some degree, though none have yet rolled out a site like Cleveland State’s innovation portal.

Kent State University plans to do so in the coming months, and the University of Akron’s technology transfer office intends to update its website, including some elements similar to Cleveland State’s new page, in the future.

Youngstown State University as yet has no plans to launch such a page, and the university has perhaps not done as much commercialization work as the other public universities in the region. But that’s poised to change. As YSU has increased its research function over the years, a focus on technology transfer is a “natural evolution,” said Michael Hripko, associate vice president for external affairs, government relations and economic development.

In recent years, Youngstown State has worked closely with nearby additive manufacturing institute America Makes and the Youngstown Business

Incubator.

But the university is taking steps to do more comm e rc i a l i z at i o n work on its own.

Last fall, Youngstown State hired an associate general counsel to foSawicki cus on matters of intellectual property and technology transfer. This fall, the university will break ground on the planned Mahoning Valley Innovation and Commercialization Center, which will focus on advanced manufacturing.

Technology transfer is vital to the mission of these public universities.

“Our mission is to diffuse knowledge, and while we can file patent applications and stick them on the shelf or hang them on the wall, it’s not as meaningful as if we can take some of that knowledge and push it into markets and find customers who could use this technology in their everyday lives,” said Stephen Roberts, director of technology commercialization at Kent State.

Kent State and Cleveland State recently received a second round of funding from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission for their joint commercialization and startup fund, the TeCK Fund. The goal of the TeCK Fund is to build and test prototypes, Roberts said. It can be difficult for scientists who are used to working in a lab to find the right company to make their products. And though the process has taken longer than expected, the universities are “encouraged” by the fund, he said.

Roberts said the two universities felt they could create a stronger technology accelerator by combining forces, as opposed to working separately.

The commercialization of technology has a few benefits for universities. It can offer some financial returns, said Elyse Ball, assistant counsel and project manager at the University of Akron Research Foundation. And the connection to industry can help faculty and students ground their work to the needs of society. There’s some great research going on in Northeast Ohio, Ball said.

“And we want to see that technology better society, better the world by being able to actually be implemented,” she said. “Without the commercialization component, the technology is something cool. it’s something interesting to read about in a publication. The commercialization component is what brings that technology to everyday people.”

The University of Akron is the Northeast Ohio site for the National Science Foundation I-Corps program. Akron has been offering the program for about five years, Ball said. It connects research teams with prospective customers and end users to make sure the technology they’re looking to commercialize will solve a real problem.

The I-Corps program is available to researchers at the University of Akron, but also to teams outside of the university. The university also hopes to offer a pilot program this fall that would build off the I-Corps program. The focus would be on helping teams, from the University of Akron or otherwise, looking to develop physical products.

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Ex-TRW headquarters could attract interest outside NEO

By Stan Bullard sbullard@crain.com @CrainRltywriter

As Cleveland Clinic Foundation has CBRE Group of Cleveland begin marketing the massive former TRW headquarters and its land-rich site in Lyndhurst, look for efforts to snag a new corporate headquarters for the property. And after they likely come to naught, it may end up as a massive land development project.

Consider how things played out in 2002, when Northrop Grumman Corp. acquired the former aerospace and aut-parts supplier based at 1900 Richmond Road.

Donating the bucolic rolling site to the Clinic made more sense for the company in terms of tax savings than undertaking the difficult task of finding another corporation for it.

Seventeen years later, it’s a short list of corporations of scale that could undertake such a project.

However, David Browning, managing director and head of CBRE’s Cleveland and Akron offices, argues there is a very big difference in the market today and then. “There are just two office opportunities of that size in Ohio,� Browning said, “and both are in the Cleveland area.�

Besides the TRW headquarters, which has about 400,000 square feet of usable office space, the other existing office of such size is the former AT&T Building, 45 Erieview Plaza, originally constructed as the headquarters of the former Ohio Bell Telephone Co. Geoff Coyle, executive consultant at Hanna Commercial’s Cleveland office, said he wishes there were more than a handful of local prospects for such a site.

However, Coyle said the site represents an opportunity for the region to do something it has not done much of: reach high and attract a large company that needs substantial office space into the region. “It’s what makes the most sense for the best use of the site in terms of numbers of employees and jobs,�

Coyle said.

Lyndhurst Mayor Patrick Ward said in a phone interview last Wednesday, July 10, that he hopes

The atrium and four projecting wings of the former TRW headquarters may make it hard to find a buyer. Insiders wonder if the building might be demolished to use the 90-acre site for new buildings. (CoStar)

the Clinic finds a single user for the landmark headquarters. “My ideal would be for the TRW building to have that right entity that will take full advantage of the prestige of that building and everything that it has to offer,� Ward said. “There are not many of those right entities.

But one is out there.�

The other factor is that although it’s a gorgeous corporate headquarters with a terrific central atrium, the building dates from 1985. Insiders say it would need tremendous internal upgrades to make it function for today’s office user.

Even if a big office concern is landed, about half of the 90-acre property could still be devoted to other uses.

Hunting that needle in a haystack is clearly part of the game plan for CBRE as it starts to conduct the marketing of the property for the Clinic.

However, the marketing efforts might as easily snare an out-of-town development group with the deep pockets to undertake such a substantial land development project. A search on CoStar, the online realty data service, shows there is no other parcel 90 acres in size zoned for mixed-use available in Ohio.

The existence of mixed-use zoning on the site means the potential buyers would not have to go through the rigors of rezoning the property from corporate or institutional use.

Ward said the mixed-use overlay zoning of the site opens the door for

“Success has a way of following success.

office, residential and retail on the site. However, he said he doubts retail makes any sense given today’s weak retail environment.

Browning said CBRE intends to market the property locally, regionally and internationally. He said the brokerage will work with the city and the Clinic to collaboratively develop a plan to market the property. CBRE marketed the 60-acre Beechbrook property in Pepper Pike in the same manner. That site may be sold to a Beachwood-led group if appropriate zoning is obtained. “There were multiple groups from across the country that looked at the site,� Browning said.

Meantime, the most likely local buyer acknowledged interest.

Mitchell Schneider, president of First Interstate, wrote in an email, “Of course, given the adjacency to Legacy Village, we are exploring the situation. Repurposing the existing former TRW HQ building presents a real challenge as the building was conceived and built as a single special-purpose building. Beyond that, we have no further comment.�

There is one outcome for the property that Ward adamantly opposes. “It will not be a park,� he said.

Acacia Reservation, which fronts on Cedar Road in Beachwood, largely is located in Lyndhurst, and it had been seen for years as a development site until its current use as a park became an option.

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CWRU and VA team up to train more nurses for primary care

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Though nurses have traditionally been employed in inpatient acutecare settings, more and more nurses are now playing a larger role in providing and coordinating care across the continuum of care.

As services move from inpatient to outpatient services, Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center are teaming up to help address that shift.

A four-year, $2.2 million grant from U.S. Health Resources & Services will support the two institutions’ efforts to prepare nursing students to work in nontraditional areas of health care delivery and train students and working nurses to lead more outpatient care.

“So, in nursing programs in the past, most of our curriculum is based on working in a hospital or inpatient, and I guess the community also,” said Mary Dolansky, an associate professor at the school of nursing. “However, we have 2/26/19 11:13 AM not focused on the competencies for new nurses to work in clinics and home-care services. ... So how can we get nurses ready to practice in these areas and also help nurses in these clinics to work to the top of their license?”

The institutions were awarded the grant last year and at the start of this year began a pilot program, dubbed the ENRICH Fellowship, with four students. Those participating in the pilot complete their clinical hours in a primary care setting, rather than the usual inpatient or community-based agency settings. The program highlights the importance of nurses’ role in chronic-care education and man-

“Nurses, and the entire health care team, can inspire and coach individuals to work to achieve better health, but there is much we still need to learn about how to do that.”

— Carol M. Musil, CWRU nursing school dean

agement, Dolansky said.

In addition to the clinical hours, the fellowship requires that students participate in interprofessional learning sessions and quality-improvement initiatives. In Cleveland, putting students on interprofessional teams has been “sporadic,” Dolansky said, but this model is more of a “continual, longitudinal program.”

Students in the fellowship also participate in what are being called “field experiences”: visiting organizations that address problems such as homelessness, food scarcity, mental health issues and addiction. The goal is to introduce them to community resources so they have a broader knowledge of the supports available when they’re in a primary care set-

ting, explained Rebecca Mitchell, project liaison for the grant.

“Preparing nursing students for the work that they will actually be doing, across the spectrum of care, is essential,” nursing school dean Carol M. Musil wrote in an emailed response to questions. “Learning in an interprofessional environment is also important to maximize the potential to help patients achieve better health even in the face of chronic health problems.

Nurses, and the entire health care team, can inspire and coach individuals to work to achieve better health, but there is much we still need to learn about how to do that.”

Right now, the program places students in the fellowship at the VA for their primary care clinical hours, but Dolansky said the plan is to expand to other locations next year. They also intend to expand the pilot from four to 12 students, and then, over the course of the grant, grow it to up to 60 students.

Dolansky said the outpatient-focused experience will strengthen the students’ understanding of the impact nurses have in patient care; enhance registered nursing students’ communication and relationship skills with patients; and help students appreciate population health.

Chester Nguyen, a third-year student at CWRU studying nursing, is one of the four students participating in the pilot. He’ll do his clinical hours at the VA in September after two-anda-half weeks of intensive coursework.

“I was really interested to see how nursing was integrated in the primary care setting,” he said, “and to not just be like hyperfocused on a certain aspect of their life but actually see how their health care fits in with their regular daily activities and their preferences and not just like a single acute problem.”

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Huntington sharpening health care strategy

By Jeremy Nobile jnobile@crain.com @JeremyNobile

Huntington Bank is looking to draw new business from private health care and medical practices in a strategy that doubles down on its work both in health care itself and with small businesses.

The bank is marketing that business as serving doctor, dentist and veterinarian offices with fewer than $20 million in revenue east of the Mississippi. The region is a focus of its eight-state Midwestern footprint.

But Northeast Ohio — with its own thriving health care sector and the second-largest density of Huntington bankers outside Columbus — will be a key feature of that strategy.

“If you’re going to begin it anywhere, it makes sense to do it in one of our largest markets,” said Sean Richardson, Huntington’s regional Cleveland president. “What we realize is there is a very significant opportunity here.”

While strategy to serve the smaller, private end of the health care industry isn’t exactly novel, it speaks to where Huntington sees opportunity to differentiate itself in a crowded field for health care banking.

Every large bank offers some kind of health care financing team today.

They tend to focus more on large, corporate players where the largest deals can be made.

PNC Bank, for instance, has had a team like that in place for 25 years.

Nick Spanakis, the Cleveland-based national practice group manager for PNC’s health care business banking, said his team works with clients who have no money yet and simply are looking to open a practice to the market’s largest hospital systems.

Most health care banking teams are building up as they have been for the last decade, both directly, by adding headcount of relationships managers and support staff, and indirectly. The latter often is achieved by rolling up additional companies that complement the strategy.

KeyBank, for instance, acquired investment banking unit Cain Brothers in 2017 to strengthen its health care vertical, establishing it as a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets in a sign of its interest in the space. That same year, the bank took an equity stake in Billtrust, a cloud-based payment-cycle manager that could work with clients from large systems to small, private practices.

For an industry that accounts for nearly 18% of GDP, any bank not competing for some market share in the space would be conspicuous by its absence.

But when it comes to the smaller end of the spectrum populated by private practices, while many banks will serve that group, not every one goes to market with a specialized team like Huntington now is looking to build under David Burch.

Burch was recruited from one of the largest banks in the country, Bank of America, to re-create the business he built up there over the last decade, which started with a focus on dental practices and grew to a couple dozen millions of dollars in a few years.

But at $2.38 trillion in assets, Bank of America is 22 times the size of Huntington. So there’s a bit of a different spin on the go-to market strategy for the Columbus-based bank.

Burch talked about Huntington’s reputation for small-business lend-

P007_CL_20190715.indd 7

“If you’re going to begin it anywhere, it makes sense to do it in one of our largest markets. What we realize is there is a very significant opportunity here.”

— Sean Richardson, Huntington’s regional Cleveland president

ing — the company is leaps and bounds ahead of competitors in Small Business Administration (SBA) lending as the largest originator of SBA loans in the country, including here, where it was tied to 61% of SBA dollars lent in the Cleveland district last year — and suggests that gives Huntington a unique advantage as it rolls out its private health care specialization.

“Other organizations don’t look at SBA the same way. Our product is built to help people who couldn’t get conventional loans,” Burch said.

“Our underwriting teams can underwrite a conventional loan or SBA, whatever is right for the customer.”

Indeed, most banks tend to operate SBA and conventional lending teams separately. If a conventional loan can’t be made, the process often

starts over with an SBA slant in mind.

Burch indicated that wouldn’t be the case for his team, which could be appealing to prospective clients it will be looking to win over.

Locally, Richardson said he believes the smaller, private end of the health care industry isn’t as great a focus for national competitors, creating more opportunity for the bank to market this new specialization.

Besides the revenue opportunity, banks like Huntington may be looking at beefing up their health care business books with the idea of an inevitable market downturn in mind.

“Most organizations realized the health care sector was resilient through that recession if the pipeline and originations were done correctly,” Burch said.

He said the team at Bank of America was consistently building up its comparable health care banking team throughout the economic recovery.

“When you look at the potential for the economy to slow, I think this product offering puts you in place where you’re less at risk,” Burch said.

“You can still grow the portfolio, but in a way to minimize losses.”

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

Opinion From the Editor

A heartbreaking end for the Vindy and its hometown

Editorial

A healthy start MetroHealth’s ambitious, $1 billion-plus project to expand and transform its West 25th Street headquarters is just one portion of a much more far-reaching plan.

In speeches on June 7 at the City Club of Cleveland and at the health system’s annual meeting on June 28, MetroHealth president and CEO Dr. Akram Boutros laid out a strategy to revitalize the neighborhood around that main campus and to address the social factors that affect the health and well-being of both individuals and communities.

“Advancing medical care has been the central focus of every hospital system,” Boutros noted in the June 28 speech. “For MetroHealth, it is only part of what we do.”

He declared a commitment to working with local partners and residents to build “a community that, like MetroHealth, welcomes all people. A neighborhood we all want to live in.”

To that end, MetroHealth is making a $60 million investment to raise three buildings with a total of more than 250 affordable and market-rate apartments in the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

It also will offer incentives to encourage its employees to live close to its main campus or to upgrade their homes if they already live there.

Boutros has expressed the hope that MetroHealth’s creation of new affordable housing might convince other investors to develop further projects in the neighborhood.

The system also is launching the Institute for H.O.P.E. (Health, Opportunity, Partnership and Empowerment), whose Economic Opportunity Center will be housed on the ground floor of the first apartment building to go up, at West 25th Street and Sackett Avenue. The center will include a grocery store, a food pantry and a community kitchen, as well as classrooms, legal aid services and office space for the institute’s community partners.

In a program with AT&T, Digital C and MCPc, the institute is offering MetroHealth’s neighbors living within 3 miles of the main campus access to affordable, high-speed internet, with participating households receiving a free laptop and

training on computer use in English or Spanish. Next year, the institute will open a new Tri-C Access Center to provide job training and school-readiness programs to the neighborhood.

Citing out-of-pocket costs as a major barrier to care, Boutros also announced a commitment to “radically reduce” the cost of lab tests, imaging and infusions at new nonhospital locations over the next few years. In collaboration with a radiology equipment-maker, MetroHealth has formed Lumina Imaging, which by mid-2020 will open neighborhood radiology centers to offer CT scans and MRIs for up to 70% less than the cost at health systems.

In his City Club presentation, titled “What Hospitals Are Getting Wrong and How We Can Fix It,” Boutros said, “There are no such things as neighborhood issues. These are our issues.”

As part of MetroHealth’s response, it last year became the first hospital system in the U.S. to adopt the licensed Open Table model for a larger population. It has so far launched five Tables — each comprising six to 10 volunteers who provide support, training and networking for a homeless or impoverished family for a year — with a commitment to put a total of 15 Tables in place, some of them Spanish-speaking for the area’s Hispanic population, by the end of this year.

Noting that MetroHealth can’t go it alone, Boutros challenged every company of at least 100 employees to sponsor one or more Tables, encouraging houses of worship and community groups to join in as well.

He also called out his audience, and the region as a whole, to redefine what constitutes good health care, replacing emphasis on the prestige of hospitals and their professionals — “medical care administered after the fact” — with a focus on real outcomes in the community — “health care before people get sick.”

“We’re just getting started,” Boutros stated several times during his speech at the annual meeting.

It’s an impressive start, and we applaud the vision behind it.

Publisher and Editor: Elizabeth McIntyre (emcintyre@crain.com)

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Days after celebrating its 150th anniversary, the Youngstown Vindicator announced last month it would cease publication by the end of August.

Once the news settled in hours later, I wept.

I cried for the city and region where I grew up and which I will always love. I cried because the shuttering of the Vindy will mean hundreds of more Mahoning Valley jobs lost.

The idling of the General Motors Lordstown assembly plant in March: 1,500 jobs lost. The closure of Northside Regional Medical Center last September: 400-plus jobs lost.

The Vindy closing is one more in a long row of economic blows the Steel Valley has endured since the Youngstown Sheet and Elizabeth Tube laid off 5,000 workers in September McIntyre 1977 on “Black Monday”. Five years later, the job losses totaled 50,000 as the impact of “Black Monday” roiled the region’s steel industry and supply chain. The ripple effects from deindustrialization would be felt for decades, as retail closed, homes were abandoned (mine was razed last year), and Youngstown eventually would become America’s fastest-shrinking city, losing 60% of its population since the 1970s.

“Black Monday” isn’t something I studied. It’s something I lived. I lost friends whose parents moved away. I also delivered the news of “Black Monday” to the front porches, side doors and back stoops as a Vindicator newspaper carrier back in the ’70s.

When I first slung that orange Vindicator bag over my shoulder, I knew I wanted to be a journalist. I was only 8 and the youngest in my family, so I had a “mini-route,” as my parents called it. I was proud, though, to follow in the footsteps of my five older siblings, delivering the afternoon edition of the Vindy. I’d cover my small route and then help my siblings as needed, memorably during the “Blizzard of 1978” and on Christmas mornings.

After I finished my route, I’d grab our family’s edition, hunker down on the living room floor, and begin reading the Vindy from front to back, challenging myself to read at least one story per page. That little exercise opened a world of interests and knowledge: current events, sports, opinions, recipes and, always, the comics and Ann Landers. I loved the happenstance nature of coming across an unknown topic that suddenly fascinated me.

That’s the wonder a newspaper brings, and it breaks my heart that Mahoning Valley readers will soon lose that.

Yes, this means more job losses for Youngstown — 144 employees and 250 carriers. But the impact is so much greater than employment numbers. Residents will lose their watchdog, the role the Vindicator has provided for a century and a half.

The region once dubbed “Crime Town USA” by the Saturday Evening Post has long had a reputation for government corruption and organized crime. (When I’m asked to reveal a little-known fact about myself, I usually offer that a fellow classmate grew up to be a Mafia hitman whose gun jammed while trying to kill the Mahoning County prosecutor-elect.)

Thanks to the Maag-Brown family, which has owned the Vindicator for most of its existence, Valley residents have stayed informed of the happenings around the region. They had a watchdog on their side.

The family owners have invested considerably to ensure the Vindy would continue its mission with quality. For 20 of the past 22 years, though, they have operated the newspaper at a loss. While cutting overhead, they have still maintained respectable newsroom operations to ensure school board, local governments, cops and courts, high school sports and community events were covered.

Equally important, the paper has been a solid corporate citizen, supporting community endeavors such as the annual spelling bee.

SEE MCINTYRE, PAGE 29

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The Cleveland Foundation board of directors authorized moving its headquarters to Midtown, with the stated goal of creating a new civic space to “unite Cleveland into one contiguous city that benefits everyone,” yet the project is being designed by a New York architecture firm. (S9 Architecture)

Foundation overlooks local architects for new headquarters

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By William T. Eberhard

On Friday, June 28, the Cleveland Foundation announced its planned relocation to Midtown to a building designed by a New York architect, providing one of the most glaring examples of attorney Jon Pinney’s sobering attacks on the lack of leadership in Northeast Ohio. In hiring a New York architect for its Cleveland headquar- Eberhard ters, the Cleveland Foundation abdicated its moral and fiduciary duty to our community.

At its May annual meeting, the Cleveland Foundation announced a plan to allocate $150 million for “social impact investing” by the end of 2022. This was an exception to the Cleveland Foundation’s typical pattern of spreading its annual contributions thinly around, keeping the status quo alive. As a local architect who has practiced here for 40 years, I anticipated a suitable example of stewardship from Cleveland Foundation when it came to their own facilities.

In the Cleveland Foundation’s wordy press release with numerous sources praising the foundation for moving to Midtown, the selection process for its new headquarters was not defined. There is no good excuse for ignoring the dozens of Cleveland firms that could and should have been considered.

Unlike other notable projects where Cleveland architects have been ignored, allegedly because the project type was so unique that a Cleveland firm would not have sufficient experience, the Cleveland Foundation’s new headquarters is an office building, the most simple of project types.

Previously, despite the presence of distinguished Cleveland architects with applicable expertise, local firms were not considered for projects for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, the Global Center for Health Innovation, Hilton Cleveland Downtown, the Public Square “snack shack,” the Lumen at Playhouse Square apartment tower, Beachwood’s new fire station or even the Cleveland Museum of Art’s maintenance building and scores of others, all of which were awarded to out-of-town firms.

The Cleveland Foundation has criticized the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects for not having engaged with its community or having a more diverse membership. The criticism for not being more engaged with the community is regrettably fair for the chapter’s leadership and engagement has been uneven for the past two decades. But the profession has and is making great strides in diversity. At a recent lecture at Kent State University, I counted 48 women and

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49 men in the audience, and the chapter naturally mirrors the demographics of its professionals.

A weak local AIA chapter is no justification for the Cleveland Foundation to overlook the talents of its community’s outstanding architects. Despite comprising only 21% of Ohio’s total members of the American Institute of Architects, Cleveland firms have received 52% of all Ohio AIA Design Awards in the last 10 years. This indicates an above-average level of talent locally, despite the lack of support and weak design culture within the community, which the Cleveland Foundation’s action reflects.

Not only does the selection of a New York firm reveal the lack of an informed design culture within the Cleveland Foundation’s board and leadership, what is also painfully disturbing is that the conceptual design proposed by the Cleveland Foundation’s New York architect is weak in every sense. It reflects no innovation of any kind and is just a building — not architecture — as it fails to reflect the history or potential of our community. It symbolizes nothing about our community, values and/or history, and is thus a failure. Dozens of local firms could have given form to the Cleveland Foundation’s vision, context and program in more meaningful ways.

But then the Cleveland Foundation compares poorly to its counterparts in Pittsburgh and Columbus in its impact on its community. Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Conference and the Pittsburgh Foundation have a 70-year history of innovative leadership and economic development that has streamlined government and focused attention on a 32-county, four-state regional economy.

The collaboration successfully transformed the loss of 40,000 steel jobs in the 1980s by focusing on artificial intelligence, and its public-private partnership with Carnegie Mellon University has made Pittsburgh the top robotics and artificial intelligence location in the nation. Columbus is expected to grow by 500,000 people by 2050, while Cleveland’s population is estimated to continue its decline. The focus and collaboration of the foundations in these cities is not mysterious, but the Cleveland Foundation has failed to learn from it and import it to achieve impactful success here.

With the Cleveland Foundation’s New York architect selection for its new headquarters — and the resulting mediocre design — attorney Pinney’s indictment of the lack of leadership in the region has yet another compelling and regrettable failure to signify that the time for new, informed leadership willing to invest in the skills and abilities of those capable professionals earnestly laboring in our region is more overdue than ever.

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WOMEN of NOTE

Women of Note profiles continue on pages 12-25

CLEVELAND FOUNDATION WOMEN OF NOTE LEGACY AWARD WINNER

Margot James Copeland “I’m retired from KeyBank, but I am not retired from being actively engaged in this community that I love so dearly.”

CEO and president, KeyBank Foundation; director of philanthropy and civic engagement and executive vice president, KeyCorp

H

onoring the legacy of her parents and grandparents has shaped Margot James Copeland’s approach to life.

Her maternal grandfather was a railroad brakeman with a secondgrade education, her grandmother had a fourth-grade education and took in rich people’s laundry. Together, they raised seven children, sending all of them to college.

Copeland’s father Lloyd was a Baptist minister and her mother Thelma taught eighth-grade math.

Living in Petersburg, Va., home of historically black Virginia State University, the family knew “educated African-American men and women who could not really get the opportunities that their degrees positioned them for,” she recalled.

Copeland was a young observer as change swept the segregated South. “My generation really was among the first to spring forth from ... the doors that were opened by the Martin Luther Kings, if you will,” she said. “I was a child during that era, but my mother and father were very much a part of that movement.”

Nudged into the sciences by her teacher mother, Copeland became a National Science Foundation Scholar and then earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Hampton University. Although not the career she ultimately pursued, that grounding in science has served her well.

“The benefit of a scientist background,” she noted, “is you learn how to think, you learn how to solve problems, you’re very analytical. Those skills are transferable to any career.” That’s why

to this day she is a passionate advocate for STEM education for young people.

Copeland was recruited from Hampton into the educational development program at Ohio State University, where her subspecialty was research and statistics. Given a do-over, Copeland said she’d get an MBA because she was always intrigued by how economic systems drive the country and the world.

After a stint on Ohio’s Legislative Service Commission, she moved from Columbus to Cleveland to become a sales rep for Xerox. That was followed by a job as regional operations manager at Polaroid Corp., then eight years as head of professional relations for Picker International (now Siemens).

In 1992, Copeland took a position at Leadership Cleveland, part of the Growth Association, working there for seven years before joining the Greater Cleveland Roundtable. She said those

The Copeland file Favorite podcast: Thank You Very Sweet (Spotify), by her daughter, Kimberley Happy place: “Being home with my family.”

On her bucket list: Travel to Japan Currently reading: “Lead from the Outside: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change,” by Stacey Abrams

roles were “a natural transition” from her corporate jobs since both organizations were “very much enmeshed in the business community in Cleveland.”

Henry L. Meyer III, then KeyCorp chair and CEO, recruited her in 2001 to head the KeyBank Foundation, a position in which she truly flourished. Under her stewardship, it became one of the premier corporate foundations in America, named to The Civic 50 of the most community-minded companies in the U.S. four consecutive times. With Copeland as director of philanthropy and civic engagement as well, Key was consistently ranked by Diversity Inc. as a Top 50 or Most Noteworthy Company for diversity.

“In her role at KeyBank, Margot has made a tremendous difference in communities across the country,” said Ronn Richard, president and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation. “Here in Cleveland, I can attest to the fact that our schools, neighborhoods and workforce are stronger thanks to Margot’s leadership and her genuine concern for the residents of our community. She has been a steadfast partner of the Cleveland Foundation, and we are incredibly grateful to her.”

Copeland, however, stressed the collective nature of the foundation’s work. “There were many, many things that we accomplished during that 18-year period,” she said, “but those were KeyBank’s accomplishments. I just was the person lucky enough to be the leader at the time.”

She also emphasized that philanthropy should be seen not as charity but as an investment.

“Charity is when you try to give somebody a hand up, you buy them a cup of soup because they’re hungry that day,” she said. “That’s important, but what are we going to do now to shift the notion where that person goes from being hungry every day to that person being self-sustaining one day?

“For philanthropy in general to be most impactful, there has to be an accountability on both sides,” she said, with specific goals and metrics to measure success. The goal must always be to “transform” the individual, organization, neighborhood or the wider community.

“Margot has been a champion of KeyBank’s mission to help our clients and our communities thrive,” said KeyCorp chair and CEO Beth Mooney. “This is especially true in Cleveland, our home city. Under her leadership, KeyBank has forged a strong reputation for transformative philanthropy and employee volunteerism as well as an award-winning culture of diversity and inclusion.”

Though she stepped down at Key in June, Copeland is adamant that her “retirement” doesn’t involve stepping back. If anything, it’s a step forward into fresh endeavors, a transformation of her own.

“I’m retired from KeyBank, but I am not retired from being actively engaged in this community that I love so dearly,” she said. “Cleveland has been so very good to me. I’ve just been blessed beyond measure to be here.”

— Michael von Glahn

Best advice received: From her mom: “Only cry out of one eye.”

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Women of Note portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

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Leading by example.

Congratulations, Margot James Copeland, on being named one of Crain’s 2019 Women of Note honorees. We are grateful for your commitment to creating lasting change in the communities we call home while serving as Chair and CEO of KeyBank Foundation.

At KeyBank, we believe helping communities thrive means investing in their future. From education and neighborhood prosperity to workforce development and community service, you have guided our investments with kindness, professionalism, and a passion for helping others.

Margot, you are a leader to admire.

Key.com is a federally registered service mark of KeyCorp. Š2019 KeyCorp. KeyBank is Member FDIC. 190701-609984 key.com

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WOMEN of NOTE

Françoise Adan

Medical director, UH Connor Integrative Health Network, University Hospitals of Cleveland The Adan file

“It’s been fantastic to have the opportunity to grow a team and give people a platform to do what they love.”

Favorite place in Northeast Ohio: The West Side Market

Favorite restaurant: “I love Spice and the events they organized, Luxe for brunch, Fire because of Doug Katz’s personality and talents and many more.”

Most prized possession: A book of collage with cards and emails received when she was diagnosed with breast cancer Favorite podcast: TED Radio Favorite pastime: “Being with the people I love.”

“I really believe in the fact that everything you do leads you to the next step and you build upon your experiences,” she said. “Everything that’s happened to me has led me to this. ... I love UH. I think this is a special place because of the people who are always willing to go the extra mile.

It’s been fantastic to have the opportunity to grow a team and give people a platform to do what they love. By being within a system, they really have a chance to have an impact and make

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NOT MEETINGS. EXPERIENCES.

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fication in integrative medicine.

“Being bicultural and understanding differences has always been a plus. My training in family medicine and psychiatry has been an advantage. My insatiable curiosity has been a plus,” she said.

Although she didn’t exactly plan her path — in fact “the path” didn’t exist then — Adan said she can’t imagine anything better than her current pursuit.

++ ++ +

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Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

a difference on the patient and colleagues.”

Chris Connor, former chairman and CEO of Sherwin-Williams, said, “Dr. Françoise Adan is that rare individual who comes along once in a generation. She is the total package of brilliant physician, passionate caregiver, powerful innovator and inspiring leader.

Since arriving on the scene in Cleveland, she has touched thousands of lives and created an amazing following of grateful patients who are living healthier, pain-free lives thanks to her magic touch.”

Adan is the incoming chair of the global integrative health trade organization and serves on the advisory board of the Susan and Henry Samueli College of Health Sciences at the University of California, Irvine; as well as on the professional advisory council of Northeast Ohio’s The Gathering Place; as assistant professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; on the board of the Cleveland International Film Festival; and volunteers at College Now. Adan has two adult children and lives in Shaker Heights. — Paris Wolfe

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ust eight years ago, Françoise Adan took on leadership of the new Chris and Sara Connor Chair of Integrative Medicine at University Hospitals. For Adan, as both a psychiatrist and family practitioner, it was a dream job.

With 40% of Americans using complementary and alternative modalities, Adan said the time was right to formally combine conventional medical treatments with evidence-informed techniques. The nonpharmacological therapies include acupuncture, chiropractic care, massage, meditation and expressive therapy to enhance, and sometimes replace, the treatment plan patients receive at UH. This makes sense from both a clinical and a business point of view.

In just a few years, the Connor Integrative Health Network has grown to serve 10 inpatient and six outpatient locations. More than 1,300 UH clinicians have referred patients to the network.

“The Connor is developing a system approach to healing that partners with the traditional medicine,” said Adan.

Adan’s life narrative foreshadowed her career path early on. At 7 years old, she perceived a mind-body connection and wanted to be a doctor.

“I had witnessed the impact of mental and physical illness on my family,” she recalled. “I saw the impact it had on the patient, the family and community.”

She began medical school in her native Belgium at age 18 and earned a medical degree from the Université libre de Bruxelle. After practicing family medicine for several years, she and her former husband wanted adventure. So, in 1987, they moved to San Diego and then on to Cleveland “for a few years.”

Those “few years” have stretched into decades. In that time, Adan improved her ability to “rescue” people, completing a residency in psychiatry at the Cleveland Clinic and adding board certification in integrative medicine.

Adan also improved her ability to “rescue” people by completing a residency in psychiatry at the Cleveland Clinic and adding board certi-

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WOMEN of NOTE

Christine Amer Mayer

“We’re looking at communitywide systemic issues. We have the opportunity to improve conditions and make life better for a lot of people.”

President, GAR Foundation

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s a big-picture person, Christine Amer Mayer sees the GAR Foundation as more than a collection of grant transactions. “Certainly, we fund organizations and individual projects in Akron,” she said, “but the really exciting part of my role is trying to understand city issues and determine how we can address them collaboratively.”

GAR Foundation was established in 1967 by Galen and Ruth Roush. Galen was a co-founder of Roadway Express. Today, the foundation has net assets of $168 million with an annual operating budget of $8 million. Money is granted for education, economic development, arts and culture, and basic needs.

As president, Amer Mayer guides the strategy behind annual grantmaking — “strategy” being the key word.

“We do systems work,” she said. “Here’s one way to think about that: If you walked into your house and there was a huge flood and the faucet was running, what would you do first? You wouldn’t start mopping until you turned off the faucet. Likewise, we are trying to get to the root cause of city issues. We are focusing much of our resources on helping to find and address ‘the broken faucets’ in the community.”

That is best done through collaboration, she added, which is something the foundation can facilitate.

One of her favorite collaborations is Elevate Greater Akron, which brought together leaders from the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce, Summit County and City of Akron.

“They were all doing different activities in economic development, but they weren’t always well coordinated and they weren’t achieving the outcomes they had hoped to achieve,” Amer Mayer said. “We brought them together and asked, ‘How could you work together effectively?’ ” The conversation caught fire. Together, they

Amer Mayer file Favorite travel destination: San Francisco Favorite band: “My favorite artist right now is Andrew Bird because he is endlessly talented, a little eccentric and willing to try new things.”

Favorite podcast: “Stay Tuned with Preet” Role models: Her parents First job: “As a teen, I had two jobs. I sold shoes and jewelry at a fancy boutique called Sole Desire (thus seeding my lifelong shoe addiction). I also built a babysitting empire, sitting for the children of many leaders with whom I now serve our community.”

have developed a joint economic development strategy that focuses on small and middle-market business growth; economic inclusion and opportunity; talent and skill development; downtown and job-hub development; innovation and high-potential startups, as well as ways to leverage the resources that support business growth and success in the region. The group is mobilizing more than 30 economic development organizations and partners and more than 100 economic development professionals and civic leaders to implement that plan.

“Christine brings GAR to the table with more than money. She brings commitment, active thought leadership, hard questions and specific goals to the work,” said Steve Millard, president and CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber.

GAR Foundation was more of a calling than a planned path for Amer Mayer. The Akron native studied English at Duke University, then she went on to law school at Ohio State. She

Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

started her career in commercial litigation and business law at Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs in its Columbus, Cleveland and Akron offices. At that time, Buckingham managed and operated GAR Foundation. Mayer expressed interest in the GAR work —repeatedly — and eventually got a chance to help.

Years later, when the foundation decided to spin out and set up its operations independent of the firm, Mayer had to decide between law firm and foundation. She chose the foundation.

“I love the ability to generate solutions and to work on systemic issues. As a lawyer, you work for a client, one transaction at a time. At a foundation, it’s much broader. We’re looking at communitywide systemic issues,” she said. “We have the opportunity to improve conditions

and make life better for a lot of people.”

Amer Mayer is immediate past chair of the United Way of Summit County, where she helped transform the organization’s business model to focus on four Bold Goals. She recently completed a term as secretary of ArtsNow and is a member of Mayor Dan Horrigan’s Akron Growth Council. On a national level, she serves as a trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

She has received the Women’s History Project of the Akron Area’s Woman of the Year award for her innovative efforts to strengthen the arts landscape in Akron.

Amer Mayer lives in Solon with three children. In her spare time, she grows herbs, vegetables and flowers, and enjoys hiking and birdwatching. — Paris Wolfe

Gina Beredo

Executive vice president, general counsel and secretary, Nordson Corp.

G

ina Beredo didn’t have to be an astronaut to reach new heights in her life and career, but it’s helped that she wanted to be one. It has also driven her to help other women reach for the stars in male-dominated careers in the STEM fields.

After working as a litigator at BakerHostetler and then chief of litigation for American Greetings, Beredo arrived at Nordson Corp. in 2013, as deputy general counsel, stepping into the general counsel role in 2018. Her work includes providing senior counsel to executive management and the board on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, ethics and compliance issues.

The Louisville, Ky., native received her undergraduate degree at St. Louis University and then went on to Indiana University Maurer School of Law. “I started out as an aerospace engineer major,” Beredo said. “Then I switched and ended up going to law school, but I love science and math. So being in this company where I get to touch that, support it and get interested in it is really exciting.”

Nordson, founded in 1954 as a paint manufacturer, is a $2.3 billion global company with 7,500 employees in 30 countries. “We’re mainly a business-to-business supplier,” Beredo noted. “We’re not a consumer product company or a household name, but what we do is evident in your everyday life. We do everything from helping to make diapers and hospital gowns, seal parts of cellphones, and with our medical equipment, we extrude plastic into tubing and catheters.”

Beredo recalls watching the 1986 space shuttle Challenger explosion in sixth grade, and how she still wanted to follow in the footsteps of the women who were lost. “I still want to be an astronaut,” she said. “I worked at an airport in high school and college, started taking pilot lessons. I wanted to work for NASA. A lot of their programming got scrapped when I was in college and I

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The Beredo file

“I love a challenge and I want to continue to grow.

I knew I wanted to be in a C-suite or top-level management job, and now that I’m here, I think about how else can I contribute.”

Mentor: “Cathy Kilbane. She sits on the board of directors of The Andersons and the Cleveland Clinic and she opened the door for me, brought me on board as chief of litigation at American Greetings. She provided tremendous opportunities for me to grow as a professional, especially as a female.”

Travel tips: She loves Europe and tries to travel light. The longest she’s gone with just a carry-on is 10 days.

Side gig: She’s coached her kids in basketball, softball and volleyball through eighth grade.

Guilty pleasure: Malley’s Coconut Haystacks Secret skill: “I can do a Woody Woodpecker impression.”

was concerned about my long-term viability with space, so I shifted and went to law school.

“The analytics and logic that applies to science and engineering can translate easily into law, especially when making an argument. You have to be able to put things together in a logical way and be able to concisely describe it — that’s engineering.”

Beredo added that she’s never been afraid of change. “I love a challenge and I want to continue to grow. I knew I wanted to be in a C-suite or top-level management job, and now that I’m here, I think about how else can I contribute.

People get this great opportunity at Nordson to continue to evolve, improve and make yourself better, and you get the full management support. You don’t find that everywhere.”

Her work keeps her busy with international calls that can take place at odd hours, yet she manages to find free time for her husband and three children.

Beredo also works with young women interested in the STEM fields. She and a friend, Gabby Christman, CEO of Hunter International Recruiting, became concerned about girls not pursuing STEM. “We did some research and

found that girls, beginning in middle school, lose their interest in those fields,” Beredo said.

In response, in 2017 the two founded SPARK, an event that introduced sixth- through eighthgrade girls to a diverse group of role models. The following year, they collaborated with the American Heart Association and renamed the event STEM Goes Red for Girls. So far, hundreds of girls have interacted with prominent female role models and learned more about STEM careers.

“Gina is universally admired for her legal acumen and business savvy,” said Thompson Hine managing partner Deborah Read. “But she also walks the talk: She intentionally and meaningfully supports women and girls in all facets of her life.

Although she seeks role models to inspire girls to pursue careers in STEM-related fields, Gina herself is the true role model.” — Allison Carey

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WOMEN of NOTE

Ellen Burts-Cooper

Senior managing partner and chief improvement officer, Improve Consulting

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hile it might seem odd that a Ph.D. in organic chemistry is making her mark as a nationally recognized and soughtafter organizational improvement consultant, Ellen Burts-Cooper will tell you that business, not science, was her first love.

In fact, as a young girl, she wanted to own a bank. The preteen even dabbled in a bit of loansharking, lending money to kids in her Birmingham, Ala., neighborhood for pretty lucrative returns — before her parents caught on and made her donate the interest earnings.

And business school was Burts-Cooper’s top choice as an undergrad at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa. A counselor, however, encouraged her switch to chemistry, given her propensity for science.

“I was probably the only business major taking differential equations and thermodynamics as electives,” she said.

After getting her bachelor’s in science, Burts-Cooper went on to earn an organic/polymer chemistry doctorate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. In 2000, she joined 3M as a new-product development manager in Minnesota, where she obtained an MBA from the University of Minnesota and a Six Sigma Black Belt.

She landed in Cleveland in 2007, recruited by PNC Bank to help streamline its technical processes during the financial crisis. By that time, she had already begun team training and consulting on the side. In 2011, seeing an impact from her part-time work, she decided to launch Improve Consulting.

“I never set out to start a company. I always thought I would work in corporate America,” she recalled. “But I had managed numerous teams in three different industries, so I knew I had expertise that I could offer.”

At Improve, Burts-Cooper leads a seven-person firm that provides professional development training, coaching and consultation with a focus on team building. The Midtown-based consultancy, which offers three uniquely styled off-site retreats in addition to on-site organiza-

The Burts-Cooper file

“I never set out to start a company.

I always thought I would work in corporate America. But I had managed numerous teams in three different industries, so I knew I had expertise that I could offer.”

A tickler of ivories: She trained as a classical pianist from ages 6 to 18.

Secret superpower: “I love to decorate. All of our retreat centers I have personally decorated.”

Vacation strategy: In at least 14 unique cities every year, she opts to turn business trips into mini-vacays, visiting well-known restaurants, museums and other attractions.

Snowbird: She spends her winters in Cocoa, Fla., running business remotely

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

tional development services, has been featured in numerous national publications.

Business is booming. Improve is expected to see a 28% revenue increase this year over 2018, a projection based on prebooked work.

First-quarter business alone saw an 11% yearover-year bump.

“I train in over 30 cities per year, and we reach out to 80 organizations a year,” Burts-Cooper said. About half of the firm’s clients are

chemical, IT or financial services companies.

The other half comprises a mixture of large and small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Burts-Cooper is also an instructor at Case Western Reserve University in the Weatherhead Executive Education Program and The Institute for Management Studies, has authored two books and is host of “Improve Your Day with Dr. Ellen,” on Wavelengths, The Wave 107.3 community affairs show.

When she’s not on the air dishing leadership advice or in the air headed to a client engagement, she dives into research, mostly around cohesiveness in corporate teams and how trust is built among team members. The Improve principal said she’s shared trust findings with corporate clients, but has yet to release the research publicly.

JumpStart Inc. president Cathy Belk said Burts-Cooper’s success at building a thriving business in Cleveland is only a fraction of her local contributions. Burts-Cooper is vice chair of JumpStart; a facilitation leader of the Business Growth Collaborative, a network of nonprofit organizations such as the Urban League and the Hispanic Business Center; and chair of the last African-American Philanthropy Committee, which runs the biannual AA Philanthropy Summit at the Cleveland Foundation. In addition, she mentors young women and has speaking engagements all over town, according to Belk.

“But most of all, Ellen changes lives,” Belk said. “Anyone who knows her knows that she is a one-of-a kind coach, mentor, thinker and leader.

Her combination of ‘tough’ and ‘love’ in a business context enables her to radiate impact and really transform change.” — Judy Stringer

CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE (TRI-C®)

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WOMEN of NOTE

Toi Comer

Vice president and executive director, City Year Cleveland

I

t’s virtually impossible to sum up a person in two words, yet the words “service” and “education” provide a good idea of what Toi Comer is all about.

A Cleveland native, Comer is vice president and executive director of City Year Cleveland, a nonprofit that has, since 1996, fielded a cadre of 18- to 24-year-olds to support Cleveland students outside the classroom, helping keep them on track to graduate by offering homework assistance and other after-school programming.

Like Teach for America, City Year is a part of AmeriCorps, a nonprofit supported by the federal government and philanthropy to engage young adults in a year of community service.

Corps members receive a modest stipend and qualify for future educational assistance. City Year Cleveland has 76 corps members serving in nine schools.

Before she joined City Year in 2011 as development director, Comer was development director of Eliza Bryant Village, a community for aging adults and, earlier, resource development manager for United Way of Greater Cleveland. She took the lead of City Year in 2017 when her predecessor, Phillip Robinson Jr., became the organization’s senior vice president for regional and site operations.

Comer has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Cleveland State University and a master’s of public administration from CSU’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs.

In nominating Comer, Teresa Schleicher, City Year Cleveland’s corporate and foundation relations director, noted that during Comer’s tenure City Year Cleveland has gone from finishing in the red financially to increasing revenue to the point where it now has a modest surplus.

“Service is critically important to Toi,” Schleicher wrote. “A lifelong advocate for youth, Toi is driven to help young people

The Comer file

“The core of what brought me here is the whole idea of utilizing young people, galvanizing young people, to make change.”

High school sport: “I used to run track in school. The relay was my favorite, the 4-by-100-yard relay.”

About downtown Cleveland: “I remember it was like a ghost town. Now we have (places) like a Heinen’s supermarket.”

Where she sees herself in five years: “It has to be something helping with the progression of our young people.”

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

achieve their full potential.”

“The core of what brought me here is the whole idea of utilizing young people, galvanizing young people, to make change,” Comer said. “You know, (education) is the biggest social justice area there is — education and the whole thing about equity in education.”

She added that City Year corps members can

be what she called “near peers” to students, perhaps even role models and confidants for those struggling with issues in school or at home.

Comer said that an encounter when she was a mentor proved to be a defining moment in her life.

“We were talking about goals. She was a sophomore in high school and I asked a ques-

tion, ‘Where do you see yourself in three years?’ ” she recalled. “Her response was that she couldn’t see past today; she never thought about her future. I did not grow up in that type of environment. My parents always told me to dare to dream.”

Comer did not have the kind experience that a year of service provides for City Year corps members, but she performed service in other ways, such as tutoring kids and helping with food and clothing drives.

As a high schooler, at the former Erieview Catholic High School in downtown Cleveland, she volunteered for a program that helped find winter coats for people in need. As one family came through the line, she found coats for all but one young girl. It was an uncomfortable moment — for Comer as well as for the parents, for whom, Comer said, coming to the clothing bank was already an embarrassing experience.

“No one wants to be in any of these lines, but life happens, right?” Comer said. “I remember going to our (control center) and I said, ‘We have to find a coat for this child.’ ” She scrounged around the center and finally found a coat of the right size.

“That was a pivotal moment in my life,” she said. “That is not about becoming a superhero.

It’s just helping someone.” — Jay Miller

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WOMEN of NOTE

Veronica Isabel Dahlberg Founder and executive director, HOLA Ohio

I

t would be easy — even understandable — to be discouraged or immobilized by the state of immigration and border policy in the U.S., or the increasingly polarized attitudes among American politicians and citizens when it comes to those issues.

Veronica Isabel Dahlberg, however, chooses to focus on the positive. More precisely, the positive contribution Hispanic families have provided to Northeast Ohio since many of them migrated here decades ago to labor at the region’s booming nurseries and farms. Along with advancing one of Ohio’s biggest economic sectors, agriculture, she noted that immigrants started landscaping businesses, beauty salons and grocery stores. Their children — many of whom were born here — have gone to work in skilled trades or earned college degrees to serve as bilingual professionals.

“The immigrant population in Northeast Ohio has become a force to be reckoned with, economically speaking and culturally speaking,” said the activist, who founded HOLA Ohio, a grassroots Latino organization, in 1999. “So, even when times are hard, we have a lot of successes that keep us moving forward.”

The daughter of Mexican and Hungarian immigrants, Dahlberg was born in Canton and grew up in Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland’s Buckeye neighborhood before her family settled down in Ashtabula, where she still lives today. Dahlberg said that early on she acted as translator, interpreter and advocate for her parents, who struggled with English but “were very patriotic,” becoming U.S. citizens after building their Ashtabula home.

Her parents also were active in the community, where Dahlberg saw firsthand the many roadblocks facing immigrants. Yet, it was an experience as an undergrad at Christopher Newport University in Virginia that helped her realize she might want to help other Latinos knock down some of those barriers.

“Because I was bilingual, I was asked to do a practicum interviewing migrant farmworkers on

P017_CL_20190715.indd 17

The Dahlberg file

“The immigrant population in Northeast Ohio has become a force to be reckoned with, economically speaking and culturally speaking.”

One for every season: She has four brothers.

Role models: “My parents, both whom have passed, because they worked hard and were dedicated to their family and community.

Dad was civil engineer and Mom was a home health aide.”

Bookworm: “Although a lot of what I read can be around border issues, I love used, old books of many kinds, especially nonfiction books about history.”

Pets: “Duke,” a Siberian husky, and a cat named “Fluffy”

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

Virginia’s eastern shores for two weeks.” she said.

“I was shocked at the working and living conditions among these thousands of Mexican immigrants. I ended up staying eight months trying to organize the workers to improve their lives.”

Dahlberg’s article about the experience was picked up by a New York magazine and ultimately published internationally. After college, the young journalist worked as a reporter for

the Ashtabula Star Beacon, but never lost sight of her desire to effect change.

“I always had my foot in this world, too,” she explained. “I started HOLA as an informal group. We were just trying to help the Latino community who had come to work in the area’s nurseries.”

Two decades later, HOLA has emerged as a pillar of the immigrant community, not only in

Lake and Ashtabula counties but across Ohio.

More recently, Dahlberg found herself and HOLA in the national spotlight as a result of border patrol raids in Northeast Ohio.

While Dahlberg admitted it’s “difficult to avoid the national political climate that we are in right now,” she said HOLA remains centered on driving change for the families closest to its home base in Ashtabula. To that end, she, her three-person staff and the six-person board have been raising money to open a community center, tentatively planned for Painesville. So far, they have secured about $400,000 of the $1.4 million needed to retrofit a building that she envisions as an access point for educational opportunities and workforce training, particularly in manufacturing skills.

HOLA board president Jon Marten, a retired CFO from Parker Hannifin Corp., said that if anyone can make it happen, Dahlberg can.

“She’s very resilient and she does not give up,” he said. “She hits a bump in the road and figures out a way around it, because that is how deeply she cares about the people in her community.” — Judy Stringer

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WOMEN of NOTE

Marsha Dobrzynski

Executive director, Center for Arts-Inspired Learning

M

arsha Dobrzynski has overseen a lot of changes at the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning in her 25 years as executive director.

“I see the future of our community in young people,” she said, “and I want to be one of those people that helps them be successful.”

She hopes to extend that help to as many young adults as she can, which is evident in the changes she’s helped bring to the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning over the years.

The center got its start in 1953, as part of the Young Audiences program, bringing classical music performances to children in the Cleveland schools. Today, the organization looks “vastly different,” Dobrzynski noted. Its reach extends beyond Cleveland, serving thousands of students across six counties in Northeast Ohio. In 2013, it changed its name to the Center for Arts-Inspired Learning. About two years ago, it moved into a new space in University Circle and, last year, opened a second location in the city.

Instead of having students listen to classical music performances, the center primarily has them participate in or create art, which can range from music to dance to the visual arts.

Its classroom programming is directly connected to core subjects like math and science. Dobrzynski gave the example of a lesson on the solar system, which might be taught with the help of a dance artist. Instead of relying on written information on a poster, students “become” the solar system through a choreographed dance, which might help them remember the information in a different way.

“Education has changed and will continue to evolve to meet those needs of young people,” Dobrzynski said. “We have to. We have to educate for the future that we don’t even know.”

The Center for Arts-Inspired Learning has also expanded its programming to serve high

“Education has changed and will continue to evolve to meet those needs of young people.

We have to. We have to educate for the future that we don’t even know.”

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

school students, adding an out-of-schooltime college and career-readiness program called ArtWorks. The program hires teenagers to work in the arts in apprenticeship or co-op style roles in fields such as film, digital game design and theater. Dobrzynski said the students gain skills in the fields they’re working in, but also learn such skills as financial literacy and résumé-writing.

Dobrzynski’s career began in nursing, fol-

lowing in the footsteps of her family of almost all doctors and nurses. She was a family nurse practitioner when she moved to Ohio, but nurse practitioners weren’t commonly accepted in the state at the time. Dobrzynski and her husband lived in Montreal for a while, where she got involved in the arts community.

That interest continued when she returned to Cleveland. She became involved as a volunteer with Young Audiences after her children

The Dobrzynski file In touch with nature: She’s a gardener.

Favorite blooms: She loves peonies, but is a fan of annuals in general.

What she wanted to be growing up: A nurse Favorite artistic medium: Music Future project: Learn to play the cello

attended — and loved — one of its programs.

After some time, she was asked to join the board and then to take over as interim executive director. That lasted four months before the role became permanent.

Dobrzynski said that when she took the reins as executive director, the organization had been without such a leader for about half a year and wasn’t in a financially stable place. But the organization was looking ahead, toward what arts education could become, and so created a strategic plan that would help it respond to the needs of the community.

Bitty Dorr joined the board shortly after Dobrzynski became executive director. She’s now on the center’s advisory board.

Dorr has seen Dobrzynski grow and develop in her role as the organization’s leader, and watched her become a “real connector for people in the arts community in Greater Cleveland,” she said.

Dobrzynski is always looking for opportunities for the region’s arts community to collaborate and to support one another, Dorr said.

She sees the different ways organizations can work together to move forward.

“We might be able to make something that’s new and different than has existed in the past,” Dorr said. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty

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WOMEN of NOTE

Ka-Pi Hoh

Organizational change management director, Lubrizol

K

a-Pi Hoh’s thoughts on team-building in a corporate setting are a twist on the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” While knowledge and relationships are important, she said she believes the real key is how you work with other people.

“It’s not one person who is going to solve a problem,” said Hoh. “It’s about working with different ideas and pulling them together for a greater solution.”

Hoh has employed this concept in her 30 years at Lubrizol, from starting as a research chemist immersed in group projects to overseeing a companywide system upgrade with a targeted 8,000 end users. She’s also been instrumental in creating a professional women’s forum at Lubrizol, strengthening ties in a field historically dismissive of women.

Hoh joined the specialty chemicals leader in 1988 after receiving a doctorate in macromolecular science from Case Western Reserve University. During her long career, Hoh has held a variety of leadership positions involving research technology, commercial development and operations and resource management.

As the first female technical manager at Lubrizol’s Hazelwood, U.K., facility in 2000, Hoh paved the way for other women to hold similar positions. Earlier this decade, the Concord resident spent four years in China, managing a research laboratory where she developed a team of chemists, technicians and managers.

Hoh’s current position has her onboarding a new ERP system that went live nationally in July. It’s been 20 years since Lubrizol’s previous system update, so the transition has required precise communication across all departments.

“I’m a process queen,” Hoh said. “There’s a lot of IS-speak (information solutions) to transfer to the end user. If it makes sense to me, hopefully it makes sense to other people.”

Improving Lubrizol’s bottom line means lift-

The Hoh file

“It’s not one person who is going to solve a problem. It’s about working with different ideas and pulling them together for a greater solution.”

Favorite Northeast Ohio restaurant: Vittorio’s Buon Appetito in Wickliffe Last book read: “Shallow Graves: Two Women and Vietnam,” by Wendy Wilder Larsen and Tran Thi Nga Favorite travel spot: Paris Hobbies: Running, reading, solving puzzles (Sudoku, crossword, jigsaw) Favorite local destination: University Circle

Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

ing up every employee, she added. In 1999, she co-founded a women’s leadership group, establishing mentoring circles and lunch programs for women in research and development. Areas of focus included work-life balance and leadership training — crucial skill sets the group eventually offered to all women at the company.

“Ka-Pi has always been focused on helping women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), both internal and external to Lubrizol,” said Julie Edgar, corporate vice president of innovation and chief sustainability officer.

Women entering STEM fields encounter bias both conscious and unconscious, Hoh noted.

Modern media doesn’t exactly brim with images of women in lab coats, while even some teachers may dissuade girls from pursuing math and science. Though the industry has improved its recruitment measures, many companies aren’t doing enough to encourage women interested in leadership roles.

“When we recruit, we can put in measures saying we looked for diversity,” Hoh said. “But when we organize departments, the focus is not there.”

Hoh had multiple mentors at Lubrizol who provided critical insight into personnel issues and lab operations. She wishes she’d tapped this knowledge well sooner, a piece of advice she now gives to CWRU students as a professional mentor.

“I had a friend at the company and saw how well networked she was,” said Hoh. “I needed to figure out how to get things done by knowing other people rather than by solving it myself. I had good mentors, so when I wasn’t in the room I had someone advocating for me. We need more advocates and sponsors for women.

Otherwise it’s an old boys’ network.”

Hoh’s steering of women’s diversity initiatives kickstarted resource groups aimed at Asian and African-American employees. Now a long-tenured leader at Lubrizol, Hoh knows how important diversity remains in shifting patterns of representation in STEM. “I’m able to help people, improve processes and collaborate globally,” she said. “No matter what job I do, if it has those three components, I can still make an impact.” — Douglas J. Guth

Lisa Kristosik

President, Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio

A

few years ago, the Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio, facing significant financial losses, was left with three options: become a foundation, merge or close its doors.

The resounding answer was to merge, said Lisa Kristosik, who was part of a group of leaders who presented the options to the nonprofit’s board.

Ultimately, VNA of Ohio partnered with New Jersey’s Visiting Nurse Association Health Group (VNAHG), which now serves as the parent of the Ohio organization. Kristosik, who has more than 20 years of clinical and administrative experience as a nursing leader, was tapped to lead the Ohio operations as president of VNA of Ohio.

Dr. Steven Landers, president and CEO of VNAHG, said it is to Kristosik’s credit that the organization was able to continue.

“She’s an incredible leader who’s really helped make sure VNA of Ohio is strong and even exists, because things had gotten so dire with VNA of Ohio before we were able to form this partnership with VNA Health Group that it could have gone under,” he said.

Now that things have steadied for the organization, Kristosik said she expects to see “quite a bit of growth” in the next six months to a year.

In fact, VNA of Ohio in early July announced its intent to acquire Ideal Home Health Care, a Westlake company. As part of that move, Lisa Zidek, who has led Ideal since 2014, will become president of VNA of Ohio. Kristosik, who will remain a member of the leadership team through the transition, said she hasn’t made any decisions yet as to her next career move.

A firm believer in home- and community-based services, Kristosik said she had always wanted to work at VNA of Ohio. In fact, she interviewed three separate times with the organization before finally landing a job there in November 2010. Since then, she’s held a variety of

P020_CL_20190715.indd 20

The Kristosik file

“When your finances are on shaky ground, it’s very hard to be innovative because you’re always running behind.”

leadership roles at VNA of Ohio.

“I believe that people heal better at home,” she said. “They want to be at home, and how we can help facilitate that is very, very important, not only for the patient, but for the good use of resources at the federal and the state level. So, for a variety of reasons, care in the home is certainly better for the patient. It’s better economically and it allows the clinicians to work oneon-one with the patient, as opposed to an inpatient setting where you may have a lot of

Hobby: Cooking Favorite spot in Northeast Ohio: Cleveland’s Little Italy Top of her travel bucket list: Italy Skill she wishes she had: Playing an instrument or speaking Italian Best piece of advice she’s received: “Lead with your mind and follow with your heart.”

patients to take care of and not have the time to dedicate to that particular person.”

Kristosik helped launch a pediatrics home visiting program with MetroHealth to address rehospitalizations of babies discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit. Through this, every baby that goes home from the NICU gets 30 days of follow-up with the family by a nurse.

Though the program, which has been running since January 2018, operates at a financial loss, the organization is committed to the pilot and

is even trying to lobby at the state level for increased Medicaid rates.

“Lisa also implemented the Ambulatory Withdrawal Management Program, which expanded VNA’s role in behavioral health to address the growing opioid crisis,” Landers wrote in his nomination. “The program serves clients who have gone through the opiate detox but still experience symptoms of withdrawal through visits from a psychiatric nurse and licensed social worker who guide patients through the transition.”

After a difficult couple of years, VNA of Ohio is on track to potentially exceed its budget this year, Kristosik noted.

“When your finances are on shaky ground, it’s very hard to be innovative because you’re always running behind,” she said. “In order to be successful, you’ve got to get in front of it. So, however you position the organization, to be in front is what needs to happen for you to be healthy. And I think the biggest message for this organization is we are healthy, and that’s what we’ve been articulating in the community since we’ve merged with VNA Health Group.” — Lydia Coutré

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WOMEN of NOTE

Cynthia Leitson

Vice president, capital, construction and facilities, Cuyahoga Community College

E

arly on in her career, curiosity was a driving force for Cynthia Leitson.

She studied logistics and supply-chain management at Michigan State University and was always “wanting to see how it works, wanting to fix a process.”

Today, as vice president of capital, construction and facilities for Cuyahoga Community College, Leitson’s inspiration has grown. She still wants to improve the processes, but also the community’s experience.

“You feel a responsibility and a duty to make it better,” she said.

Leitson said she loves the “practicality” of her work in logistics and supply-chain management. When she was still a student, she was able to clearly see how she’d apply the lessons to the workplace. She also appreciates the lessons she’s learned in the different industries in which she’s worked.

Leitson has embraced a lot of change throughout her career, although that’s not to say she hasn’t had concerns when switching industries. She got her start in automotive, working in different types of vehicle manufacturing, before taking a job in adhesive manufacturing at Avery Dennison.

“I was a little nervous, but never nervous enough to not try,” Leitson said, adding that when switching industries, she knows the first couple years will take a lot of observing, learning and asking questions to get up to speed. That was her experience switching to health care, working in procurement for the Cleveland Clinic, and then moving to her current field of higher education.

In 2010, Leitson joined Cuyahoga Community College, overseeing supplier-managed services before moving into her current role in 2015.

In her first year as vice president, Leitson

The Leitson file

“I was a little nervous, but never nervous enough to not try.”

Hobbies: Reading — or volunteering with whatever her daughters are active in at the time.

Favorite book series: “Outlander” Travel goals: Hawaii, Alaska and anywhere in Europe — particularly Paris with her husband (they’ve both been, but not together).

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

made it a priority to meet with as many construction and architectural firms as she could.

She also wanted to ensure the college was connecting with smaller businesses and networking with diversity- and inclusion-focused groups.

Leitson is active in the community in other ways, too.

She’s a member of the National Association of Women in Construction, and she’s a mentor in the Cleveland chapter of the ACE Mentor Program, which works with high school students in Cleveland who are interested in the construction field. She also serves as a board

member at ACE and as a mentor to an emerging leader at the Cogence Alliance.

In manufacturing, Leitson was often one of few women in the field. In higher education, she’s seen more support for women at all levels, including leadership. She said that in the coming years, she thinks she’ll see more women in leadership roles in capital construction.

She’d encourage young women entering construction and manufacturing to stay open in that first decade of their careers, when there are a lot of learning opportunities and a lot of mentors who can help guide the way.

Leitson is “thoughtful, both personally and in her approach to challenges and tasks and initiatives here at the college,” said Jerry Hourigan, chief innovation and strategy officer at Tri-C. In the years since Leitson became vice president of capital, construction and facilities, Tri-C has moved into the second phase of its comprehensive master plan for construction, passing a levy for its widespread projects in 2017.

Leitson might not be “putting the shovels in the ground,” Hourigan noted, but her management of the team doing so has kept projects running smoothly.

“She’s just done a fantastic job,” he said.

Leitson said she likes getting to see the impact of her work: taking the ideas brought before the board and the community and transforming them into open, updated buildings.

She added that one of the projects she’s enjoyed at Tri-C is helping to transform the college’s truck-driving school into a full Transportation Innovation Center. The college was able to buy and renovate a building, which opened this summer. Now, Tri-C will be able to offer training for diesel engine technicians and warehousing, better meeting the needs of the community. — Rachel Abbey McCafferty

Leadership and Vision.

Integrity and Commitment.

A Passion to Serve.

Congratulations Vanessa Whiting on your well deserved recognition as Crain’s 2019 Woman of Note

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WOMEN of NOTE

Kristen Lukas

Director of conservation and science, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo The Lukas file

“I fell in love with gorillas and was so inspired by Dian Fossey and her bravery and intuition. ... She helped us to see that gorillas have complex family groups, they’re very gentle, vegetarians.”

One of her favorite things: “Recognizing ourselves, what we have in common with primates is pretty significant. I once watched a female hold up her newborn baby, look into its eyes, then hold it to her chest and bounce it. ...

That’s exactly what we do!”

Best advice she’s received: “My dad said, ‘Make time to explore’ anything from physical destinations to books.”

Her ride: “A Honda Odyssey minivan, and I’m proud of it.”

On her bucket list: A motorcycle license Secret skill: “I’m a killer karaoke singer.”

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

very gentle, vegetarians.”

She went on to graduate work at the Georgia Institute of Technology and studying gorilla behavior at Zoo Atlanta, earning her Ph.D. in experimental psychology: animal behavior. That was followed by a four-year stint as the first curator of primates for Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, where she designed a new facility for gorillas and chimpanzees.

Today, Lukas is on the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund board of directors, where she works closely with her best friend and the person she calls her hero, Tara Stoinski, president and CEO of the fund. They met 25 years ago in graduate school and together carry on Fossey’s original work, which began more than 50 years ago.

“Kristen is one of the world’s leaders in gorilla research and conservation,” said Brian Zim-

Do you know an up-and-coming professional paving the way for future generations in Northeast Ohio?

merman, CEO of the Cleveland Metroparks.

“Under Kristen’s leadership, the zoo and the Cleveland Zoological Society have contributed more than $7.5 million over the last 20 years to global wildlife conservation efforts. She oversees field conservation initiatives that protect species in the wild, including current programs in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Vietnam and Colombia. Over the past 20 years, she has authored more than 50 scientific papers that have contributed to global changes in zoo management, animal welfare and habitat design.”

When not working and traveling, Lukas spends time with her husband and three children, does yoga and explores her artistic side in photography, jewelry-making, knitting and sewing.

As for her mission, she said, “There are a lot of really devoted and talented people taking great care of the animals and we’re doing it with an eye toward the distant prize of conserving wildlife in wild places.” — Allison Carey

5K & ONE MILE WELLNESS WALK

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n primate care and conservation, Kristen Lukas wears many hats in addition to her work for Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. Her roles include the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) as chair of the Gorilla Species Survival Plan (SSP) and chair of the Gorilla Saving Animals from Extinction (SAFE) program. She also advises Ph.D. students from Case Western Reserve University, where she is an adjunct assistant professor in biology, and works with staff from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International to help students conduct senior research at the University of Rwanda.

Currently, 49 zoos out of 235 in the AZA care for roughly 350 western lowland gorillas. Lukas is in charge of all of them, from deciding where any will relocate to which females can get pregnant.

“It’s a large, dynamic population. We plan out for 200 years, hypothetically, to make sure to keep the zoo population strong. We have to watch genetic diversity and make sure we don’t let the population become too large,” said Lukas, adding that it’s rare these days for any animals to come to a zoo from the wild.

Lukas has been with the Cleveland zoo since 2002. Having grown up in Eastlake, she went to Bowling Green State University, where she discovered psychology. “I couldn’t believe how much I loved that science,” she said. “It was so interesting to understand how the brain worked, why people behave the way they do and the interplay between the environment and behavior.”

In her senior year, a National Geographic documentary about the late Dian Fossey and her study of mountain gorillas set things in motion for Lukas. “I fell in love with gorillas and was so inspired by Dian Fossey and her bravery and intuition. She opened up to the world a better understanding of the gorillas, because before that people were used to thinking about gorillas as King Kong. She helped us to see that gorillas have complex family groups, they’re

2019

TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO NOMINATE! For nearly 30 years, Crain's Cleveland Business has gathered 40 of the community's best and brightest who have made a mark before their 40th birthday. To be considered, honorees must reside in Northeast Ohio and be 39 or younger as of Nov. 18, 2019. The 2019 class will be profiled that day in an issue of Crain’s Cleveland Business and honored at the November awards reception.

NOMINATION DEADLINE: July 22 Crainscleveland.com/nominate Event Questions: Email • clevents@crain.com Sponsorship Opportunities: Megan Lemke • mlemke@crain.com

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7/11/19 2:11 PM

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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J U LY 15 - 21, 2 019

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PA G E 2 3

WOMEN of NOTE

Lori McClung

Co-founder and CEO, Advocacy and Communications Solutions

G

rowing up in Cincinnati, Lori McClung was an avid reader of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys detective books. Those adventure stories inspired her to become a detective. So, by the age of 8, she carried a spiral notebook, pen and pencil with her throughout the day, asking people questions and taking notes.

That evolved into her becoming a journalist.

She graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a bachelor’s degree in communications and a certificate in journalism and became a reporter for several local newspapers. Her beat included general assignment, crime and investigative stories.

“As a journalist, I loved writing and investigating, but I really wanted to delve deeper,” McClung recalled. She wanted to go one more step, to not only address but even solve issues.

Twenty years ago, when she moved to Cleveland, she began working in government relations to do just that. McClung served in staff and leadership positions with the Federation for Community Planning, Public/Private Ventures, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the Center for Community Solutions.

In 2004, she launched Advocacy and Communication Solutions (ACS), a women-owned and operated consulting agency headquartered in Cleveland that helps nonprofit organizations, government agencies and philanthropic organizations advocate for policy change and communicate with audiences that have the power to make change. She works with organizations nationwide in five areas: early childhood education, K-12 education, Medicaid, workforce development, and health and human services.

ACS helped create Cleveland’s nationally recognized preschool expansion plan (PRE4CLE); influenced K-12 state policy decisions

“I think women tend to have more compassion and empathy.

That’s not to say women are soft. We bring both strength and understanding to the table.”

Portraits by Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

on behalf of The Ohio 8 Coalition of urban school districts; helped secure state funding to revitalize Gordon Square Arts District; and led successful state advocacy efforts on behalf of First Year Cleveland’s commitment to combating infant mortality in the city.

The company has no boxed solution for clients.

As a one-stop shop to bring a policy or communi-

cation need from concept to completion, ACS starts with one simple word: “Why.” The team discusses what the client hopes to achieve, then develops a strategy to make that happen.

As an example, in 2018, Idaho’s Association for the Education of Young Children asked ACS to develop a toolkit to assist local decision-makers, school districts and other entities in build-

The McClung file Favorite travel destination: Aruba Favorite band/musician: Prince Favorite restaurant: Emeril’s Delmonico in New Orleans

Top of her bucket list: Going to the Olympics First job: Sweeping the streets and giving directions to tourists in downtown Cincinnati

ing a local collaborative to increase access to quality pre-K. To accomplish that, ACS created a plan to identify measurable goals as well as strategies and tactics to achieve them.

Marcia Egbert, senior program officer of The George Gund Foundation, described McClung as a tireless advocate for women and children in Cleveland and around the country. “Lori’s passion for the issues is unmatched,” she said.

“Thanks to her work on PRE4CLE and a host of other policy and community outreach projects, more children and families live better lives.”

To McClung, being a woman in the consulting industry makes a difference. “I think women tend to have more compassion and empathy,” she said. “That’s not to say women are soft.

We bring both strength and understanding to the table. We’re expected to do many things all at once. That ability to multitask really translates into our clients getting the best from ACS.” McClung lives in Cleveland with her husband and a Labrador retriever. When she has free time, she loves to travel. — Paris Wolfe

Ilene Shapiro Summit County executive

I

t might seem as if Summit County executive Ilene Shapiro was thrust into political leadership, but she’d actually been preparing for years when the spotlight hit her.

Shapiro became the top chef in the hot kitchen of county government in August 2016, when her much-loved predecessor and close friend, county executive Russ Pry, unexpectedly passed away. She was initially appointed to the top slot, but easily won her first election after five months in office and began a four-year term that ends in 2020.

If she’s at an apex now, it’s only because she’s spent a good deal of her life pedaling uphill, beginning at the very beginning, when she was born an only child to a single mother on the East Side of Cleveland.

“I grew up in a family of bricklayers. … I learned the value of hard work,” Shapiro said. “I was raised by a mom who filed for divorce before she even knew she was pregnant with me, so I grew up with a divorced single woman who worked two or three jobs. There wasn’t any child support back then.”

Shapiro stayed in Cleveland until she got married, moved to Milwaukee for a couple of years, and then landed back in Northeast Ohio — this time to Akron and Summit County, where she moved in 1977.

Once there, she almost immediately became involved in local issues and nonprofits.

“I really have always been interested in making a difference. So when we first came to Akron, I started volunteering for the Residents in Crisis Program. … When they lost the funding for that, I went to work for the rape crisis center,” Shapiro said.

Those were her side gigs, though. Throughout her career, she’s nearly always been busy with work. In the early days, it was on the front desk at the old Cleveland Press newspaper, then it was helping to run car dealerships before she became an independent business consultant. Her last job outside of politics was with FirstMerit in Akron, where she was senior exec-

P023_CL_20190715.indd 23

“I grew up in a family of bricklayers. …

I learned the value of hard work.”

The Shapiro file Favorite pastime around Akron: Boating on Portage Lakes

Notable family vacation: A trip down the Amazon last year. (“They were all ready to kill me because there are things that eat people in the Amazon.”)

Best city visited: Lucerne, Switzerland Awesome cultural site visited: Machu Picchu

Something to remember: “I try to keep my sense of humor. I have longtime good friends who are not in the political arena that I enjoy spending time with. That way I get some balance.”

utive for sales and worked with the company’s various bank presidents on strategies and goals.

Shapiro got into politics in 2007, when she was asked to chair Summit County’s Charter Review Commission. She liked it so much that she ran for County Council in 2008 and won an at-large seat.

After that, she spent nine years working closely with Pry on economic development, workforce development and collaboration with various governmental entities in the county, among other issues.

“The rest is history,” Shapiro said with some deserved pride. “I’m the first female Summit County executive and the first female in Ohio to hold this position.”

Shapiro has had a big impact on the county

and its government, according to Connie Krauss, the county’s director of community and economic development.

“Executive Shapiro has reignited economic development ingenuity in Summit County.

Under her leadership, a new economic development website, www.Summit4Success.com, launched featuring a PBS-produced short film highlighting the advantages of living and working in Summit County,” Krauss said in nominating Shapiro for this year’s recognition.

It’s also, as Krauss noted, a very big job to begin with.

“Shapiro oversees a budget of more than $500 million. With nine departments, ranging

from law to sewer services to economic development and everything in between, Executive Shapiro manages the public welfare and public safety of the community while being a regional leader in economic development,” she added.

Shapiro probably would have made more money had she remained in business, but she said there are no regrets about her switch to politics.

“Absolutely not. I have always trusted my gut, and it has served me well. I’ve been very, very fortunate that that’s led me to know and work with some very great and talented people. I’ve never been motivated by money,” Shapiro said.

She also doesn’t regret moving back to Akron, rather than to the bigger city of her birth, adding that she’s become an Akronite, through and through.

“I’ve been in Ward 8 (West Akron) the whole time I’ve been here. … I certainly know my way around Cleveland, but this is home now. We have everything that Cleveland has to offer right here,” Shapiro said. — Dan Shingler

7/11/19 2:12 PM

PA G E 2 4

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

WOMEN of NOTE

Jill Rizika

Executive director, Towards Employment

C

areer paths don’t always follow the straight and narrow. Just ask Jill Rizika, whose journey took her to Africa; Washington, D.C.; and finally Cleveland, where she now helps the community’s underserved find career fulfillment. Towards Employment serves 2,000 people annually, connecting them to jobs as well as indispensable coaching, training and legal services.

Getting clients in the door is only the beginning, noted Rizika. Towards Employment is prepared for most any situation in which a new worker may find themselves, whether parental responsibilities, continued schooling or dealing with past criminal convictions. Partnerships with area colleges and training centers ensure freshly minted employees get any basic assistance they require. The nonprofit has clients paying child support or bettering themselves in county jail prerelease programs. Many lack formal education or have difficulty locating stable housing.

“We believe by doing this we’re helping change lives,” said Rizika.

“It’s about getting people the skills they need to find a job and navigate life’s obstacles.”

Under Rizika’s leadership, Towards Employment targets industries in-

cluding manufacturing, construction, culinary hospitality and health care. A collaboration with University Hospitals has put to work 314 Clevelanders, many from neighborhoods surrounding the health campus. Workers starting in entry-level roles have advanced to patient care assistance or along UH’s administrative track.

“We understand the labor market and do the front-end work to address specific challenges someone comes to us with,” Rizika said.

She came to Cleveland in 1998 as an admittedly “kicking and screaming” trailing spouse, joining Towards Employment in 2003 as associate director prior to her promotion three years later. Before Cleveland, she spent 15 years in international development, assembling programs for NGOs throughout Africa on small business creation and AIDS education. At a health care NGO in Washington, D.C., she promoted specially branded condoms marketed toward dozens of African countries.

Now a proud Cleveland booster, Rizika is excited about ongoing Towards Employment programs and projects. Among them is WorkAdvance, a five-year national pilot designed to create effective delivery of workforce services. Later this year,

“We believe by doing this we’re helping change lives. It’s about getting people the skills they need to find a job and navigate life’s obstacles.”

The Rizika file Hobby: Cooking Favorite author: Barbara Kingsolver Last movie watched: “Rocketman” Favorite holiday: Thanksgiving What she wanted to be growing up: “Anything involving travel!”

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

Rizika plans to expand availability of WorkAdvance to low-income job seekers, ideally upskilling them for better jobs and increased earnings.

Rizika and her team are also spearheading the continued growth of Bloom Bakery, a social venture launched in 2016 that’s staffed by more than 60 Towards Employment graduates.

“Jill’s career is about being part of a solution for the obstacles that poverty presents for people,” said Jenner Tekancic, vice president of community relations for the Cleveland Browns.

“Her leadership has proven results not only for individuals seeking jobs, but nationally as a thought leader in the space of workforce development.”

In her daily duties, Rizika contends with a labor market now widening the notion of what defines a traditional workforce. Employers are more willing to bring on candidates with less experience or education, even those who have moved through the criminal justice system.

Towards Employment is there to navigate clients around the socially constructed obstacles blocking their career ambitions. Though the pro-

Growth by Design

cess is frustrating and occasionally stress-inducing, Rizika tries to learn from each person her organization assists.

“I’ll take a step back and listen to where people are coming from,” she said. “There’s a sense of knowing you’re not an expert in these people’s lives. You have to understand more about them before bringing whatever expertise you have to bear.”

Cooking or a good book are powerful de-stressers for Rizika when facing down an unfair employment system. But it’s pointing clients toward a family-sustaining wage that truly sparks her passion.

“People are coming in looking to improve their lives, and I’m part of giving them the tools to do that,” she said. — Douglas J. Guth

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P024_CL_20190715.indd 24

6/25/2019 1:18:13 PM

7/11/19 2:16 PM

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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J U LY 15 - 21, 2 019

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PA G E 2 5

WOMEN of NOTE

Vanessa Whiting President, A.E.S. Management

V

anessa Whiting grew up in an environment of faith, family and community, knowing even as a girl she wanted to be an attorney representing marginalized populations. In her career, Whiting works to serve the underserved, even when the journey takes her down disparate paths.

On one path, Whiting runs 15 Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen locations under a management company she co-founded in 1989 with her late husband, Anthony E. Smith. Harnessing extensive experience in real estate and small business enterprise law, Whiting took over the business in 2014 after Smith died of colon cancer.

In the days after her husband’s death, Whiting received two dozen calls from opportunistic franchisees seeking to buy her out. Though reeling from her loss, Whiting knew she could cross over her legal skills into the full-time entrepreneurial space.

“I’d been doing the real estate development piece for 20 years; it took the same analytical skills I used to put together a transaction,” said Whiting, a Richmond, Va., native now living in Cleveland Heights.

“People assumed I’d sell the business, but I said, ‘This is ours and I can do this.’ It never occurred to me that I couldn’t do it.”

As her first endeavor, Whiting converted a former Donatos Pizza in North Olmsted into a Popeyes. Today, she oversees hundreds of employees alongside the autumn opening of a new Popeyes in South Euclid.

Day-to-day operations can be challenging — she recently had to call the police on an employee who stole a cash deposit — but she’s seen people

rise from the cook line to managerial positions, making enough to buy homes or put their kids through school.

“We employ a lot of people that others don’t,” Whiting said. “The goal is to give them that first opportunity.”

Whiting sharpened her business chops as an attorney at Calfee, acting as consultant to real estate, corporate and public finance clients. In 1995, she launched her own firm, where she served as counsel on corporate acquisitions and other ventures that taught her the critical minutiae surrounding real estate development.

In her practice, Whiting focused on neighborhood-enhancing developments such as affordable housing and community centers. During Cleveland’s mid-’90s revitalization, she stood on the ground floor of numerous projects, including construction of intergenerational housing in the Fairfax neighborhood.

Whiting’s formative years revolved around community involvement and churchgoing. Her mother was a high school teacher and principal, serving as an alumni association president at Hampton University. Whiting drew equally important lessons from a sharecropper grandfather and extended family who graduated college in the Jim Crow South.

“I thought this is how you live your life,” Whiting said. “You help those in need, feed the hungry and clothe the poor. It’s in my DNA.” A mother of three, she’s an active member of Fairmount Presbyterian Church and a former economic development co-chair for the NAACP’s Cleveland branch. As chair of the

“We employ a lot of people that others don’t.

The goal is to give them that first opportunity.”

The Whiting file Favorite travel destinations: Tuscany and South Africa

What she wanted to be growing up: An attorney Favorite author: Zora Neal Hurston

Favorite Northeast Ohio destination: Popeyes, of course First job: Cashier in the pharmacy department of a drugstore

Jason Miller for Crain’s Cleveland Business

MetroHealth board of trustees, she helped establish the hospital’s diversity and inclusion committee. She is also a board member for Playhouse Square and the Tri-C Foundation, with additional board membership in Links Inc. and the Northeasterners, a black women’s social club.

“Vanessa has succeeded in combining her professional life with her personal passions,” MetroHealth System CEO and president Akram Boutros said in the nomination. “Her list of civic involvement is impressive.”

Travel takes up much of Whiting’s free time — she’s excited about a trip to Greece in July. Meanwhile, she’s determined to continue to work through life’s obstacles to positively impact Northeast Ohio.

“You have to be authentic and true to yourself, and have confidence in your abilities,” Whiting said. “Make

the changes you need to make (in your career) or, if that’s not for you,

find out what is and make your own path.” — Douglas J. Guth

Congratulations!

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7/12/19 10:12 AM

PA G E 2 6

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

THE LIST

Highest-Paid Female Executives - Public Companies Ranked by 2018 total compensation

TOTAL COMPENSATION

COMPANY NET INCOME

EXECUTIVE/COMPANY MOST RECENT TITLE (TENURE IN LISTED POSITION)

2018 2017

% CHANGE SALARY

BONUS

STOCK AWARDS

OPTION AWARDS

PENSION NONEQUITY VALUE INCENTIVE CHANGE (1) PLAN

1

S. Tricia Griffith/Progressive Corp. president, CEO (July 2016 - present)

$14,172,925 $9,274,439

53%

$791,346

$0

$11,000,133

NA

$2,267,207

NA

$114,239

$2,615.3

64.26%

2

Beth E. Mooney/KeyCorp chairman, CEO (May 2011 - present)

$9,064,470 $8,146,470

11%

$1,153,846

$0

$4,792,497

$532,495

$2,500,000

$4,565

$81,067

$1,866.0

43.98%

3

Catherine A. Suever/Parker Hannifin Corp. executive vice president, finance and administration; CFO (April 2017 - present)

$5,496,632 $3,550,813

55%

$715,000

$0

$1,580,843

$771,284

$860,970

$1,461,719

$106,816

$1,060.8

7.87%

4

Leila L. Vespoli/FirstEnergy Corp. former executive VP, corporate strategy, regulatory affairs; chief legal officer (May 2016 - April 2019)

$4,123,650 $5,117,611

(19)%

$761,286

$0

$2,200,498

NA

$823,483

$322,011

$16,372

$1,348.0

NM

5

Revathi Advaithi/Eaton former president and COO, Electrical Sector (September 2015 - February 2019)

$4,071,848 $5,050,398

(19)%

$772,263

$0

$1,706,335

$498,895

$861,459

$198,094

$34,802

$2,145.0

-28.14%

6

Leslie C. Kass/Babcock & Wilcox former president, CEO (February 2018 - November 2018)

$2,370,793 NA

NA%

$624,924

$0

$1,381,576

$221,971

$0

$0

$142,322

($725.3)

NM

7

Anne P. Noonan/Omnova Solutions Inc. (2) president, CEO (December 2016 - present)

$2,298,778 $2,887,842

(20)%

$699,231

$0

$1,495,860

NA

NA

NA

$103,687

$20.7

NM

8

Laura K. Thompson/Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. former CFO, executive vice president (December 2013 - September 2018)

$1,851,832 $3,547,080

(48)%

$683,333

$0

$1,236,887

NA

($111,102)

NA

$42,714

$693.0

100.29%

9

Meredith S. Weil/TFS Financial Corp.

COO (September 2018 - present)

$1,547,591 $1,525,467

1%

$526,086

$0

$116,446

$227,550

$583,268

$6,081

$88,160

$85.4

-3.9%

10

Jeannette L. Knudsen/The J.M. Smucker Co. senior vice president, general counsel and secretary (May 2016 - present)

$1,539,656 NA

NA%

$481,923

$9,700

$703,250

NA

$283,725

$500

$60,558

$1,338.6

126%

11

Jennifer I. Ansberry/Lincoln Electric executive vice president, general counsel, corporate secretary (April 2017 - present)

$1,503,477 $1,259,355

19%

$394,000

$0

$390,736

$170,009

$444,312

NA

$104,420

$287.1

15.98%

12

Carolyn E. Cheverine/The Timken Co. former executive vice president, general counsel, secretary (May 2017 - July 2018)

$1,465,284 $1,318,542

11%

$204,200

$0

$317,015

$135,314

$197,070

NA

$611,685

$302.8

48.87%

13

Cathy W. Zbanek/TFS Financial Corp. vice president; chief marketing and human resources officer of Third Federal Savings and Loan (January 2013 - present)

$1,352,566 $1,346,292

0%

$444,251

$0

$116,446

$227,550

$492,539

$3,914

$67,866

$85.4 $43.3

-3.9%

14

Kelley S. Semmelroth/Cedar Fair LP executive vice president, chief marketing officer (February 2012 - present)

$1,223,035 $1,202,644

2%

$367,500

$0

$468,617

$0

$356,953

$0

$29,965

$126.7

-41.22%

15

Kathleen P. Leneghan/Invacare Corp. senior vice president, CFO (February 2018 - present) (3)

$1,186,560 $541,712

119%

$391,150

$13,500

$760,420

NA

NA

NA

$21,490

($43.9)

NM

16

Jenniffer D. Deckard/Covia Holdings (formerly Fairmount Santrol/Unimin) former president, CEO (May 2013 - May 2019)

$1,185,566 $3,226,504

(63)%

$466,667

$400

$499,765

NA

$214,667

$0

$4,068

($270.5)

-275.45%

17

Janeen B. Kastner/RPM International Inc. vice president of corporate benefits and risk management (October 2007 - present)

$1,126,279 $1,032,282

9%

$315,000

$0

$91,671

$422,400

$220,000

$32,691

$44,517

$337.8

85.77%

18

Lisa K. Kunkle/PolyOne Corp. senior vice president, general counsel, secretary (August 2007 - present) (4)

$1,114,673 NA

NA%

$405,769

$0

$169,655

$170,200

$329,538

NA

$39,511

$159.8

NM

19

Christa A. Vesy/SITE Centers Corp. (formerly DDR Corp.) executive vice president, chief accounting officer (March 2012 - present) (5)

$1,082,113 $758,970

43%

$340,000

$136,000

$323,019

NA

$272,000

NA

$11,094

$114.4

NM

20

Laura K. Campbell/Athersys Inc. senior vice president of finance (March 2016 - present)

$677,653 $635,641

7%

$287,500

$81,100

$116,424

$178,920

NA

NA

$13,709

($24.3)

NM

THIS YEAR

OTHER

2018

% CHANGE FROM 2017

RESEARCHED BY CHUCK SODER (CSODER@CRAIN.COM)

Get the Excel version of this list — and every Crain's list. Become a Data Member: CrainsCleveland.com/data

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence (Marketintelligence.spglobal.com) and Crain's research. Net income is income attributable to ordinary shareholders. NM = not meaningful. Send feedback to Chuck Soder: csoder@crain.com.

(1) Includes change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation (2) Omnova is slated to be acquired by Synthomer plc of England in late 2019 or early 2020. (3) Leneghan served as interim CFO from November 2017 to February 2018. (4) Kunkle was promoted from vice president to senior vice president in May 2015. (5) Vesy also served as interim CFO from July 2016 to March 2017.

LIST ANALYSIS

Few women rank among highest-paid executives

By Chuck Soder csoder@crain.com @ChuckSoder

Few women rank among the highest-paid executives at local public companies, but their numbers have increased slightly since 2015 — and their pay has increased as well.

There are only 19 women who qualify as named executive officers at local public companies and made more than $1 million in 2018, according to data from our Highest-Paid Female Executives list, which is built from public data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

They account for just 11.4% of the 166 named executive officers making at least $1 million in total compensation (public companies are required to report compensation for named

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Griffith

Mooney

executive officers, a group that includes the company’s CEO, chief financial officer and, in most cases, the three other highest-paid executives).

But 11.4% is actually an increase.

When we last published this list three years ago, women accounted for just 12, or 7.1%, of the 169 named executive officers making at least $1 million. Granted, the increase is smaller when you lower the threshold to $500,000. And seven of the 27

women on the full digital list no longer work at the companies next to their names. So the number of female named executive officers could go back down if there aren’t enough women becoming named executive officers to replace them.

Also, the amount of money they’re making has increased substantially.

The top 20 women on this year’s list (the full digital list includes 27 women) earned a total of nearly $58.5 million in 2018. That’s up 50.5% from 2015, when the top 20 women made $38.8 million.

Granted, much of that increase is due to one executive: Progressive CEO Tricia Griffith saw her compensation package nearly triple in size from 2015 to 2018, which is why she’s now No. 1 on the list, just ahead of KeyCorp CEO Beth Mooney, who was No. 1 when we last published the

list three years ago (Mooney saw her pay climb 29.6% from 2015 to 2018).

Why such a big increase for Griffith? For one, she was promoted from chief operating officer to CEO in 2016. And this year, her total pay rose 52.8%, mainly due to a $3 million performance-based stock award.

The other 19 women in the top 20 brought in $44.3 million, up 31.3% compared to the top 20 (minus Griffith) from 2015.

Of course, pay for individual executives can vary widely from year to year, and 19 isn’t a big number. So if a few female executives at big companies do well, the overall numbers can rise significantly, and vice versa.

With that caveat, a 31.3% increase is large: By comparison, the top 100 named executive officers working for local public companies made $523 million in 2018, up just 2.9% from

what the top 100 made in 2015.

And like their male colleagues, the 27 women on the full list earned much of their compensation, 49.3%, in the form of stock (55.4% if you throw in stock options).

This year’s list includes five CEOs, although two of them — Leslie Kass, formerly of Babcock & Wilcox, and Jenniffer Deckard, formerly of Covia Holdings — have since been forced out. Both worked for companies that have seen their stock prices fall significantly over the past year or so.

The list shows the length of time each woman has been in the listed position, and the Excel version includes a company tenure column.

A few women have been working for the same company since the 1980s. The longest-tenured is Laura Thompson, who retired in 2018 after working for Goodyear since 1983.

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AKRON

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Summa deal shifts ownership landscape By year’s end, city’s two major health systems will have outside owners, but that can bring stability, resources

By Lydia Coutré

Harte added he doesn’t see Summa’s move with Beaumont changing the competitive or collaborative landscape in Akron.

Akron Children’s Hospital and its network remain independent.

Both Summit County executive Ilene Shapiro and Akron Mayor Daniel Horrigan issued statements expressing their support for the Summa/Beaumont partnership, but were unavailable for interviews.

lcoutre@crain.com @LydiaCoutre

By year’s end, Akron’s two major health systems will be owned by outside entities, a reality that just a few years ago some leaders were reluctant to embrace.

But now, with Akron General years into a successful integration with Cleveland Clinic, and Summa Health announcing it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Michigan-based Beaumont Health, city and hospital leaders are ready to seize what comes alongside a loss of local ownership: stability and an infusion of outside resources.

“I think Akron joins the list of good-sized cities where their major hospitals, their major institutions, are not locally owned anymore,” said Allan Baumgarten, a Minnesota-based health care consultant who studies the Ohio and Michigan markets, among others. “Which, I don’t know, it might be a cause for sadness. On the other hand, I think you can make the case that, independently, Summa Health was struggling.

And even though they’ve improved their results, they’ve improved their facilities over the last couple of years, I think that they saw that they would need some kind of partner in order to be sustainable going forward, to be successful going forward.”

Looking at the ongoing changes in health care — from reimbursement to the shift to ambulatory care to high capital costs — and the fierce competition in the industry, Dr. Cliff Deveny, president and CEO of Summa Health, said that if Summa was going to thrive as an organization into the future, it needed to find a partner

A worthy partner

Summa Health unveiled its new patient tower on its Akron campus in late May. The health system recently announced it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Michigan-based Beaumont Health. (Contributed photo)

that would help it continue to meet the health care needs of Akron and Summit County, as well as to expand.

The key, he said, was that the search for a partner, launched last fall, was more about opportunity than desperation. After a couple of tumultuous years financially and culturally, Deveny helped turn the system around. Summa closed 2018 with an operating income of $24.3 million, compared to an operating loss of $28 million the year prior. Operating revenue grew slightly, from $1.31 billion to $1.37 billion, between those two years.

In narrowing down the pool of candidates, Summa and its board focused on finding a partner that would

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help Summa maintain services — such as behavioral health and maternity care — and address community needs, such as the opioid crisis and an aging population with chronic diseases.

Beaumont rose to the top as a culturally compatible system with a similar world view, Deveny said.

Beaumont CEO John Fox said his system was drawn to Summa for its “good reputation.”

“They’re interested and committed to graduate medical education; very committed to quality and safety and service and affordability,” Fox said.

Ownership vs. control In 2017, recognizing the loss of Akron General’s independence and the acquisition of Akron’s FirstMerit Bank by Columbus’ Huntington Bancshares, Deveny said his direction from the board was that Summa would not be next.

Asked what had changed since that time, Deveny was quick to distinguish between local ownership and local control.

“Ownership's one thing,” he said.

“But then (it’s) whether you have rights, or you have governance, or you have decision-making authority.”

Summa will maintain its local 16-member board, with five seats occupied by Beaumont. Summa will have three seats on Beaumont’s board.

Over the years, as the city lost local ownership of its newspaper, its banks and its hospitals, resignation took hold, said David Lieberth, former deputy mayor of Akron, who sat on the Summa board for nearly two decades, leaving in 2017. Given that reality, he said, Summa’s arrangement with Beaumont Health is essentially the best possible outcome: Summa will maintain its name and local control and anticipates no job loss and even expanded services.

“It is the way of the world,” said Lieberth, who is currently chairman of the community engagement committee of Summa’s board. “And to stand back and sort of hold on to the

7/10/19 11:43 AM

Deveny

Fox

reins and say we’re not going to change is just not consistent with the best practice today if you want to offer a good service or product, whatever it is.”

Before Summa, Akron General forged this path back in 2015, when, after a year as a minority investor, Cleveland Clinic announced it would take full ownership of Akron General Health System.

Steve Millard, president and CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber, said there were initial worries that Akron General would disappear from the community, but the past few years have shown the opposite to be true.

“My sense is while folks were concerned about the loss of Akron General, I think the Clinic has done a pretty good job of keeping leadership active in the community, keeping the community presence out there and really bringing additional clinical services and opportunities to the region,” Millard said.

Since the acquisition, the Clinic has invested more than $160 million into the Akron campus, including a new emergency department, expansion of services and specialties, an extensive outpatient addition to the Lodi Community Hospital campus, integration of their electronic medical records systems and more.

While most of the regional hospitals in the Clinic’s network have advisory boards, Cleveland Clinic Akron General and Union Hospital (which the Clinic acquired in 2018) each have separate governing boards with fiduciary responsibility, helping to maintain local control.

“We are locally controlled and managed and owned,” said Dr. Brian Harte, president of Cleveland Clinic Akron General. “Cleveland Clinic is a Northeast Ohio organization.”

In the wake of the transaction with Beaumont, Summa has the potential to create new jobs both on the caregiver side as well as possibly in call centers or revenue centers, Deveny said.

Since it was created through a merger of three health systems in 2014, Beaumont has grown by about 3,000 jobs.

SummaCare, Summa’s insurance product, was a big draw for Beaumont, which has no insurance product. With the transaction, SummaCare will be able to expand into new Ohio markets, and Summa’s expertise in risk-based health insurance contracts could benefit Michigan employers as well.

“I think the real carrot in all this was SummaCare, the health insurance arm,” said Tom Campanella, director of the health care MBA program at Baldwin Wallace University.

“A number of health systems are looking to either collaborate or start their own health insurance arm as we have all these changes occurring in health care.”

Campanella said he sees Summa becoming part of Beaumont as a winwin, with more competition, which leads to greater transparency in both costs and quality.

Joining with Beaumont represents the end of Summa’s relationship with Mercy Health, which in 2013 acquired a 30% minority stake of Summa for $250 million. Mercy Health last year merged with Maryland-based Bon Secours.

The combined entity of Beaumont and Summa will be paying out an undisclosed amount to redeem Mercy, said Deveny, who added that Mercy has been a “great partner” for the past six years and has helped Summa achieve a lot of performance improvements.

Deveny said he doesn’t see Summa’s transition into another health system as inevitable. If the search for a partner didn’t produce a system or entity that could support Summa in the way it was looking for, it would have maintained its partnership with Mercy and continued to “grow incrementally,” he said.

But ultimately, Beaumont proved itself to be a worthy partner, marking a new chapter for Akron’s health care scene. Deveny said his sense for Summa and Cleveland Clinic Akron General is that both organizations are busy meeting the needs of the community — and that doesn’t change with outside ownership.

“The badges are still going to say ‘Summa,’ ” Deveny said. “We’re gonna still be providing the services we provide. In fact, we’re going to be expanding services, expanding sites of care. So we see this as a great opportunity.”

7/12/19 2:36 PM

CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

BAILOUT

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

But a tougher Ohio Senate seems unmoved to be forced to pass the House bill, or its own, by July 17. It has another job lined up first.

“It doesn’t make sense to pass any other bill than the budget right now,” said John Fortney, spokesman for the controlling Republican Caucus in the Ohio Senate, on July 11.

State legislators already have failed to pass a budget on time, but they passed a temporary measure that runs through July 17. So they now have to hammer out a final budget and pass it by that date, said Fortney, who conceded that may mean FES’ bill will have to wait.

But Brenda Adrian, who represents FES as a senior manager with the New York public relations firm Sitrick and Co., said FES’ position from July 1 still stands.

The Senate is more concerned with electricity rates paid by residents and businesses around the state than with anything else, Fortney said, and senators may take their time as they hammer out their own version of HB 6.

“Ratepayers come first … it’s much more important to get the language right than to pass something on an arbitrary deadline,” Fortney said.

Although both chambers are firmly in Republican control, they’ve had their differences, and continue to have them over energy issues.

To pay for the nuclear subsidies, the House favors eliminating standards for renewable energy and any charges to consumers linked to renewable subsidies. The Senate wants to cap state renewable standards before they reach their previously intended peak but not eliminate them.

That’s still to the dismay of the wind and solar energy industries, which say they’ll be severely impacted.

The Senate also has been less willing to write a blank check. It has proposed that if FES gets a subsidy, it also will get state audits in the future — something Fortney said his caucus thinks could reduce future subsidies from the initial $150 million.

“If it shows FES is turning things around or making more money, it makes sense to give them less money

IMG CENTER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The filing is almost no surprise as Trepp, a New York City-based CMBS loan reporting service, previously assigned the loan to special servicing through Rialto Capital Corp. of Miami. Special servicers frequently handle distressed loans for banks and CMBS lenders.

Breen, in a phone interview on Wednesday, July 3, before the lawsuit showed up in online court records, had downplayed the special servicing assignment.

“This is going to be worked out,” he said. “It’s nothing unusual.”

An email from Trepp spokeswoman Catherine Liu, responding to a request for more details, said notes from the special servicer indicated the lender and building owner were in negotiations to try to bring the loan back into current status. However, she noted the special servicer planned to follow a dual track in the process and pursue a foreclosure proceeding.

IMG Center, Breen said in the interview, is in “great shape” and is 96% occupied. In the past few years, Breen had landed several tenants displaced by conversions of older downtown buildings to apartments. However, he

P029_CL_20190715.indd 29

The value of FirstEnergy Solutions’ nuclear power plants, such as this one in Perry Township, is still a moving target. FES says it needs a bailout by July 17, or it will decommission the plants. (Crain’s file photograph)

“Our members aren’t interested in giving a company a major subsidy for any period of time without being able to see their books.”

— John Fortney, spokesman for the controlling Republican Caucus in the Ohio Senate

— and also reduce the surcharge to ratepayers,” Fortney said. “Our members aren’t interested in giving a company a major subsidy for any period of time without being able to see their books.”

That last point about open books has been a stickler with critics of the also has had to battle some big losses during the last several years. Oswald, the insurance brokerage, vacated the building years ago, and Bellwether Enterprise left last year.

The 1965-vintage building is on the

“This is going to be worked out. It’s nothing unusual.”

— James Breen, IMG Center owner

Nine12 Corridor, a brand-burnishing effort by property owners and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance nonprofit that has made some headway in giving the city’s 1950s-era financial district a new lease on life as a home for offices buildings turned into apartments. It’s also in a high-vacancy part of downtown.

Massive amounts of vacant office space are nearby, in buildings such as AECOM Center, Erieview Tower and others. Among them is the former AT&T Building, at 45 Erieview Plaza, better known as the former headquarters of Ohio Bell Telephone Co., which has 16 floors of empty offices in a structure dating from just 1983.

Lender woes are not the only ones Breen faces at IMG. Imperial Heating and Cooling Inc.

bailout. FES said it can’t share its financials because it’s in bankruptcy.

The company basically is asking legislators to trust it when it says its nuclear plants need a bailout.

Meanwhile, recent testimony in Columbus by outside economists might have led to a more cautious Senate.

One is Paul Sotkiewicz, a former chief economist for PJM Interconnection, which runs the electricity grid in the region. Sotkiewicz, who now is a consultant based in Florida, also is a former economist at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

On June 15, he told legislators that the FES deadline for refueling the plants doesn’t exist, and that the company already said in regulatory filings that it has paid for its refueling contracts. What’s more, he contended that the Davis-Besse and Perry plants are profitable and stand to reof Solon has been owed $53,326 by Breen’s building for work it completed in Breen’s own remodeled office suite in the structure in August 2018.

Using its rights under Ohio law, Imperial Heating also sued to collect or foreclose on the building to get its money through a sheriff’s sale. The case was filed May 31 in Cuyahoga County court. It’s scheduled for a case management conference Aug. 7 by a magistrate assigned to Judge Timothy McCormick.

Breen said in the phone interview he did not know about the Imperial bill.

Another current suit pending against Breen was filed June 27 in Cuyahoga County court by the Buckley King law firm to collect $186,291 in legal fees the Cleveland firm said it is owed for representing Breen and various Breen-led investor groups for transactional and litigation work between August 2014 and January 2017.

Buckley King attorney David J. Kovach said in a Thursday, July 11, phone interview that, “I am not in position to comment on the suit.”

Breen did not return two follow-up phone calls on the lender’s foreclosure proceeding and the law firm’s suit for unjust enrichment by 5 p.m. last Thursday, July 11.

main so for the foreseeable future.

FES spokeswoman Adrian said that Sotkiewicz’s report was funded by the American Petroleum Institute, and FES contended his findings should be discounted. The company also said it has not yet paid for its fuel and that Sotkiewicz found a similar plant in Pennsylvania to be unprofitable, questioning his analysis.

But FES said it can’t show financials to prove that, and in an interview Sotkiewicz said he is confident in his analysis. He noted that Ohio’s nuclear plants face competition from abundant shale gas not seen on the East Coast or other places.

He also said the subsidies don’t make sense from a standpoint of providing Ohio and its industries with the cheapest power.

“It just doesn’t make any sense from an economic development standpoint.

This is just crony capitalism, pure and

MCINTYRE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

The Vindicator is not alone in facing economic challenges. What newspapers are up against — the erosion of print advertising, the dwindling of readership — has been well-documented. In the last 15 years, nearly one in five newspapers has closed, according to research by the University of North Carolina’s Center for Innovation and Stability in Local Media. Youngstown will soon be the one of the largest cities in the country without a daily newspaper.

The Maag-Brown family tried since 2017 to sell the paper. Only two potential buyers emerged and eventually declined to purchase the Vindy.

In a region like the Mahoning Valley, which elected Jim Traficant repeatedly as sheriff and later U.S. congressman, the Vindicator editorial board, which never endorsed him, was a needed voice. Traficant would eventually serve seven years in prison for taking bribes, racketeering and tax evasion, among other misdeeds. You need the watchdog journalists who point out corruption at all levels of government, from city hall to school boards to the halls of Congress. You need to shine a light

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simple,” Sotkiewicz said.

He’s not the only economist telling senators the subsidy is foolish, either.

Ned Hill, a former urban affairs dean at Cleveland State University and now a professor of public affairs at The Ohio State University, is another.

Hill testified before the Senate on June 25, and in an interview with Crain’s said that by giving the nuclear plants a subsidy, Ohio will be doing the opposite of other states, like those to the south in the region served by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which are allowing old, inefficient plants to go away in favor of new, cheaper alternatives.

“Ohio is heading in the wrong direction by allowing in-state corporate redistributive politics to increase electricity rates — and picking winners and losers while a major competing region is busy cutting electricity costs and not subsidizing legacy generating capacity,” Hill said.

The testimony of Hill and Sotkiewicz may have been bolstered by Asim Haque, former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and now executive director for strategic policy and external affairs for PJM, whose electrical grid covers Ohio.

He told senators on June 5 that Ohioans could cut electricity costs by about $95 million a year if the state were able to keep the nuclear plants and continue to open new natural gasfired plants around Ohio. But he said PJM officials think there could be 50% fewer new natural gas plants built in Ohio if nuclear is subsidized, creating the opposite effect and raising costs by about $16 million a year instead.

Clearly, the Senate has a lot of conflicting testimony to wade through.

Whether senators believe the critics or FES likely will determine how it moves forward and when.

Many are hoping legislators do provide FES with a subsidy, including officials in Perry, Toledo and the company’s hometown of Akron. They say the jobs the company represents are valuable to the state, especially to their communities, and should not be taken lightly.

“If we were trying to get a new company like FirstEnergy to come here, this would not be a question.

We would be killing ourselves to get a company like that,” said Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro. on those dark corners where bad actors still operate as though kickbacks and Mafia rules are the norm.

Who will be the watchdog now?

Who will shine the light?

Beyond that, you need the Vindicator to tell the history of the Mahoning Valley. The births, the marriages, the deaths. That’s what also gets lost

Youngstown will soon be the one of the largest cities in the country without a daily newspaper. when the Vindicator ends. The TV stations will air 60-second snippets, the radio stations brief audio clips.

The Youngstown Business Journal and Warren Tribune will try to pick up the slack with their small staffs.

What happens, though, to the history, the daily life transactions the Vindicator has always chronicled? My birth, high school speech victories and graduation, my engagement and wedding announcements, and my parents’ and other loved ones’ deaths were all recorded in the Vindy.

That record stops after Aug. 31 when the Vindicator runs its last obituary: its own.

7/12/19 2:37 PM

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Michael Bowen is an associate in the firm’s Government Relations and Legislation and Litigation practice groups. Michael’s knowledge with the political process allows him to advise clients at the local and state levels of government. In addition, Michael has experience as a commercial, business litigator representing public and private corporations and public sector entities in litigation involving class-action, securities, and labor and employment disputes.

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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS

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SOURCE LUNCH

Amy Wong

CLEVELAND BUSINESS

President, Dot Org Solutions Amy Wong admittedly ended up in the world of fundraising and nonprofits by accident. The founder of Dot Org Solutions — an Akron marketing, public relations and consulting firm that specializes in nonprofits and small businesses — had an entirely different career in mind when she started college. ¶ Once on her path, though, she built a career that includes a vast amount of experience: communications, grant-writing, fundraising, TV production. She served as director of major gifts at Akron Children’s Hospital and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2009, she took that experience and put it behind the founding of her own firm. ¶ Wong, a Copley native who watched her parents volunteer, said giving back isn’t just about her livelihood. “Giving back is inherent in the type of company we are,” she said. As evidence, to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Dot Org Solutions established a donor-advised fund at the Akron Community Foundation. “Every year, we’ll donate to the fund off of our net income and as a team decide what we give to.” Our conversation was edited for clarity and length. — Sue Walton

The Wong file Her happy place Anywhere near the water

Listen up She’s a fan of audiobooks because she’s in the car so much. She just finished Michelle Obama’s “Becoming.”

On the road A travel lover, Wong’s been to about 35 states. “The world’s too big to go to the same place all the time.”

Lunch spot Sakura Sushi 3900 Medina Road, Akron 330-670-0288

The meal One had chicken fried rice; the other had a bento box with a tuna roll, Gyoza and beef Negimaki.

The vibe Tucked into an unassuming strip mall, Sakura offers sushi and traditional Japanese cuisine in a quiet, warm setting.

The bill $34.51 with tip

What made you study journalism and public relations in college?

I went to Bowling Green to be a microbiologist, because I really enjoyed science. During my freshman year, I worked in a lab where we raised fruit flies. And I realized I hated it and that I didn’t want to do it. At the time, I was taking a theater appreciation class. And one of my roommates said, “You get A’s on all our play reviews. Why don’t you go into journalism?” And I thought that sounded like a good idea. I started volunteering for the BG News, and I loved it. I thought I’d be a news ed major, but I realized I really liked marketing and PR instead.

How did you end up focusing your career on mostly nonprofits?

I graduated with a PR degree in 1991.

Nobody was hiring in PR, and I just couldn’t get a job. It took me over a year to get a job. The first job I ended up getting was at a bare-bones nonprofit organization in Canton. And that’s how I ended up in nonprofit.

You also served as director of major gifts for a couple of organizations. Was it daunting to ask people to give away large sums of their money?

It was kind of a natural progression to do something different. I always need a new challenge, and I got to the point where major gifts and planned giving were another challenge. It was hard at first. I botched a few asks along the way.

People are often giving you the money they worked their entire lives for. It’s about relationships and it’s about listening to people, connecting

the donors to things that they’re already passionate and excited about. Once I learned that, that makes it a little different. It’s the human element.

At what point did you decide it was time to start your own company?

When my contract wasn’t renewed at my last job, I started to seriously think about it. I had worked with consultants over the years and I often felt like we were paying them all of this money, but I was driving the process. So, I thought, if these people can do this, I can do this.

You started your business in 2009. What kind of effect did the recession have on its launch?

2009 was a good time for it, even with the recession, because people couldn’t afford to pay top dollar but still needed the work to be done.

So you had folks willing to try someone new?

I did. I could write, I knew strategy.

And I just started to network. I was writing copy for websites. I created a grant program and started taking on grant clients. And I started to build up a portfolio of things I could do.

How many employees do you have?

We have four full-time. And we’re going to be hiring a part-time admin.

And we have five contract workers who also do work for us.

How much of your business is nonprofit vs. small business?

It has shifted a little bit. We’re about 90% nonprofit, 10% small business.

What are the differences in working with nonprofits vs. small businesses?

Small business owners have the same challenges as nonprofits: You have limited staffing, you have great knowledge of your product or service, but you probably don’t have any communications or marketing experience. And you often can’t afford to hire someone who can take on all those roles. The big difference is a person can leave a nonprofit and find another job. A business owner isn’t going to leave their business.

The level of ownership is a lot higher with small businesses.

What kind of trends are you seeing in the nonprofit sector?

Giving, adjusted for inflation, was actually down last year. There are some concerns about what the new tax law will do to impact the nonprofit community. I think you’re going to see a lot more mergers with nonprofits. I think there’s a lot of duplication of services. I do think those who don’t do a good job of building relationships with their donors, being in front of them on a regular basis, are going to continue to struggle. We’re seeing a lot of the foundations tweaking their giving priorities. Many are going through strategic planning to determine the needs in the communities, so that’s impacted organizations. You’re seeing layoffs, which is unfortunate.

What’s next?

We want to grow. I feel like it’s time. I joke that my twin boys got their driver’s licenses in June and all of the sudden I’ve gained 15 hours a week and I can now do some other things.

700 W. St. Clair Ave., Suite 310 Cleveland, OH 44113-1230 Phone: (216) 522-1383 www.crainscleveland.com Twitter: @CrainsCleveland Publisher/editor Elizabeth McIntyre Group publisher Mary Kramer Managing editor Scott Suttell Sections editor Michael von Glahn Creative director David Kordalski Web editor Damon Sims Associate editor/Akron Sue Walton Assistant editor Kevin Kleps Senior reporter Stan Bullard, Real estate/construction Reporters Jay Miller, Government Rachel McCafferty, Manufacturing/ energy/education Jeremy Nobile, Finance Kim Palmer, Government Dan Shingler, Energy/steel/auto/Akron Lydia Coutré, Health care/nonprofits Senior data editor Chuck Soder Cartoonist Rich Williams Local sales manager Megan Lemke Events manager Erin Bechler Integrated marketing manager Michelle Sustar Managing editor custom/special projects Amy Ann Stoessel Associate publisher/Director of advertising sales Lisa Rudy Senior account executives Dawn Donegan, John Petty Account executives Laura Kulber Mintz, Loren Breen People on the Move manager Debora Stein Office coordinator Denise Donaldson Pre-press and digital production Craig L. Mackey Media services manager Nicole Spell Billing YahNica Crawford Credit Thomas Hanovich Crain’s Cleveland Business is published by Crain Communications Inc.

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THE WEEK A home run

Stepping up

Cleveland got rave reviews for its hosting of Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game and related activities.

USA Today, for instance, said the city brought back “memories of good old-fashioned baseball, celebrating the beauty and essence of the sport, in a truly wonderful All-Star experience.”

Play Ball Park downtown was a hit.

The Home Run Derby at Progressive Field on July 8 was a classic. And the All-Star Game itself, on July 9, was memorable, with the American League winning 4-3 for its seventh straight victory in the Midsummer Classic.

Indians pitcher Shane Bieber was named MVP after pitching a perfect fifth inning, striking out the side, in front of the home crowd.

The Cleveland Foundation has brought on Baiju R. Shah, former CEO of BioMotiv and co-leader of The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, as the Steven A. Minter Senior Fellow for Innovation.

With funding from the Steven A. Minter Fellowship Fund, Shah will consult foundation leadership to develop strategic initiatives and partnerships that advance Cleveland’s innovation economy. Through his work at BioMotiv and Harrington, Shah has experience in launching companies and innovation platforms, as well as economic development.

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Power move Cleveland received quite a bit of praise for the job it did as host of five days of MLB All-Star festivities. (Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)

A robotic lawnmower company, Robin Autopilot, is moving its head-

quarters to Strongsville following an acquisition by the Fahey Group.

Terms weren’t disclosed. Robin Autopilot was founded in 2015, and there are currently 15 franchisees in 12 states. The move will put Robin Autopilot closer to outdoor power equipment maker MTD Products of Valley City, which makes the lawnmowers for the company and was an original investor in Robin Autopilot.

Medical marvel Cleveland Clinic delivered a baby from a uterus that was transplanted from a deceased donor — the second time this has happened worldwide and the first time in North America.

The transplant and birth are part of an ongoing clinical trial — Uterine Transplantation for the Treatment of Uterine Factor Infertility — at the Clinic.

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