Cleveland is blessed with big talent. Look no further than members of this year’s class of Crain’s Cleveland 20 In eir 20s, who range from a young entrepreneur determined to solve a huge environmental problem to an astronomer searching the skies at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
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By Jeremy Nobile
A young Cleveland venture rm is behind the launch in the Ohio marketplace of a startup tequila brand whose spirits are cooked and fermented for nearly 100 hours to the sounds of classical music and placed in handblown glass bottles.
La Caza Tequila, made by La Caza Spirits of Austin, Texas, recently announced that it has expanded distribution to the Buckeye State through a partnership with Heidelberg Distributing Co. e product, rolled out in May, is also available in its home state and Florida currently; additional expansion e orts are in the works. e spirit is available in blanco, reposado and añejo varieties.
In conjunction with its Ohio debut, La Caza announced it has also taken up warehouse and ofce space on Lakeside Avenue near Cleveland’s Asiatown. But why would an unknown tequila brand from the South plant a ag in Northeast Ohio? at’s where La Caza Chief Marketing O cer Andy Tran comes in.
Tran is the managing partner for Arthur Street Ventures, a sort of hybrid operation blending aspects of venture and private-equity business models.
“Being a venture studio, we help build value in companies and operate brands in the portfolio,” Tran said. “Yes, we invest. But we become part of the management team and get into the weeds with the founding teams over three to ve years.”
See TEQUILA on Page 30
GUIDE
This year’s fall arts season in Northeast Ohio is stacked. Whatever your taste, there’s something to meet it.
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With substantial vacancy dogging it, the 200 Public Square skyscraper in downtown Cleveland has been listed with CBRE Group’s Chicago capital markets group for sale by a joint venture led by DRA Advisors of New York.
e partnership of the value-focused private equity group, which included the late Scott Wolstein, in October 2018 paid $187 million for the massive, 1.27-million-square headquarters and attached parking garage.
CBRE is currently o ering the tower to a select group of investors who have purchased similar investment-quality towers around the country. It said there is no asking price for the Cleveland property.
Over the years, the building has gained corporate tenants such as Huntington Bank and Cleveland-Cli s, but it lost a big tenant when the Benesch law rm moved a few weeks ago to Key Tower, also on Public Square.
e stepped-top-tower is 34% vacant. However, CBRE information on the property notes 77% of the existing tenants are investment-grade, which is valuable to prospective buyers and lenders.
Asked about the offering, David Knapp, a CBRE executive vice
president in Chicago, replied with an email confirming the listing.
“We are thrilled to be representing DRA in this trophy assignment,” Knapp wrote. “We expect it will generate significant interest from investors given its best-in-class status.”
The timing, nearly five years after purchase, could be prompted by a requirement to exit an investment after a standard holding period typical for large private equity groups. DRA, through Knapp, declined comment on why it put the building up for sale.
Most downtown o ce building sales during and after the pandemic have been for redevelopment, so they would not be good comparisons for values for sales transactions. Should it sell, the 200 Public Square building could provide the Cleveland market a sense of current o ce values, for good or ill.
Alex Jelepis, a principal of the NAI Pleasant Valley real estate brokerage, knows the building well because he represented the structure for leasing by its prior owner.
“It’ll be tough to get a price similar to the last one,” Jelepis said, because he considers the prior deal a high water-mark.
However, he said that’s unlikely, given the challenges o ces are facing post-pandemic, especially with downtown’s popularity as an o ce market challenged by the work-from-home market and the con ict between bosses and workers over how much they will work in o ce towers. He wonders if a generational change in leadership has put older o ce towers at a disadvantage.
In a telling move, CBRE has signaled it might be possible to buy the parking garage separately from the o ce tower. at’s an indication the parking might be more valuable in this market than the o ce building, which dates from 1985.
e sale e ort comes as downtown Cleveland o ce vacancy is at 23.8% as of the end of June, the most recent data reported by Newmark’s Cleveland o ce, and up slightly so far this year.
e suburban market is much healthier, with vacancy of 20% at the end of June, also trending slightly upward, though less than downtown so far this year.
In addition to Knapp, CBRE agents on the assignment include Blake Johnson, Arthur Johnson and John Saletta of the capital markets group, and Steve Ross of CBRE’s Cleveland o ce.
For 33 years, e Original Mattress Factory has manufactured and sold mattresses, but the Cleveland-based company recently ventured into the health care space with the launch of a new personal protective equipment business.
Original Medical Supply, formed by e Original Mattress Factory, produces surgical-style masks for medical and dental professionals in the company’s Cleveland facility using materials sourced exclusively in the U.S. e three-layer surgical masks are certi ed ASTM Level 3, meaning they are suitable for procedures with a high risk of uid exposure. ey recently received approval from the Food and Drug Administration as a Class II medical device for use in surgical and health care settings.
Greg Trzcinski, CEO of e Original Mattress Factory, said the idea for the company came out of the early stages of the pandemic, when health care systems across the country were grappling with personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages.
“We were getting cold calls from all sorts of folks, ‘Do we produce any masks or any PPE at all?’ ” he said. “So, we started working on some designs. ey weren’t traditional-looking masks at all because we don’t have mask equipment, we don’t have mask
materials, per se. So, we were trying to come up with some thoughts and ideas on how could we help in some way.”
Disruptions to the global supply chain combined with the “lack of e ective action by the federal government to maintain and distribute domestic” products contributed to the nation’s PPE shortages, according to a journal published
by the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information.
During the worst of the pandemic PPE shortage, Trzcinski said, the company started making and selling its own version of a mask to nursing homes and health care providers. rough conversations with health care experts, company o cials learned that a
lot of non-woven materials are used to produce masks, similar to the items used to make mattresses.
e Original Mattress Factory already had relationships with some suppliers that produced non-woven materials. After evaluating available products, Trzcinski said the company realized it could produce masks and sell them for cheaper than the price a lot of nursing homes currently pay.
“It really became a discovery of another situation like in our mattress world of great quality for less price,” he said. “Our key coming into this though was that we had to be 100%, in my mind, U.S.-made, and all the materials sourced from the U.S. We wanted to completely eliminate the overseas logistics.”
e company then secured a PPE Retooling and Reshoring Grant from the state of Ohio to purchase equipment to produce masks and hired Nathan Elseser to serve as director of PPE. e company bought a machine from a German manufacturer called Nucleus.
“It basically takes all the materials, feeds them in, folds them, pleats them, seals them,” Elseser said. “It does the bulk of the actual construction process. We can run that machine pretty quickly. It can produce up to 150 masks a minute. Now right now, I am currently inspecting each mask as it comes o the line, so I have to slow it down a little bit to keep up with
the machine and the inspection process.”
e company went through a series of tests to earn FDA approval, which it received at the end of July.
Elseser said he’s focused his marketing e orts on health care communities such as dental o ces, surgical centers and long-term care facilities.
“ e immediate response has been pretty positive,” he said. “I think folks are excited to know that there is a local manufacturer. I think many of the health care industries went through similar problems during the pandemic, which was supply-chain issues, not being able to nd PPE.”
Original Medical Supply has launched a website where customers can purchase masks directly.
“I think it’s interesting—the parallels between our parent company, Original Mattress Factory, and Original Medical Supply,” said Kristen Hastings, corporate marketing director at e Original Mattress Factory. “ ey’re both kind of factory direct. We make the best product we can at a great value. We cut out the middleman and sell directly to the consumer.”
e company plans to focus exclusively on surgical masks for now, but o cials see the potential for expansion to other products, such as gowns, booties, curtains and bedding for health care facilities.
“I think it’s interesting—the parallels between our parent company, Original Mattress Factory, and Original Medical Supply ... They’re both kind of factory direct.”
KristenHastings, corporate marketing director at The Original Mattress Factory
Recent transitions and turnover at many of Cleveland’s community development corporations (CDCs) suggest there are even more changes to come.
As a number of longtime leaders move on to new roles in the government, civic and nonpro t worlds, the CDCs — which the city relies on to help residents — are re-evaluating the most ecient way to provide those crucial services.
“ is change in leadership is not unique to Cleveland CDCs,” said Torey Hollingsworth, executive director of the Ohio CDC Association (OCDCA). “It is part of the great resignation that’s been happening across all industries.
ere has been lots of churn and movement, particularly for those on the front lines, because they have experienced some tough times over the last couple of years.”
It is not necessarily a negative that so many experienced CDC leaders are moving on and up to government, civic and nonpro t positions. When they take on new roles in the area, they bring with them all the experience of having worked on the ground in the city’s neighborhoods, Hollingsworth said.
e wave of long-term CDC executive directors leaving after years at the helm, she adds, does present an opportunity to re-evaluate the operations of organizations that, post-pandemic, are dealing with critical sta ng and funding challenges.
“ e community development industry is de nitely changing,” Hollingsworth said. “We are seeing these organizations take a look at themselves or think a little bit di erently about their core work.”
One option for CDCs struggling with attracting and/or retaining skilled sta is to do what Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization (DSCDO) and Cudell Improvement CDC, both on the West Side, did in July 2021: merge two proximate, similar neighborhood groups into one organization.
With an overwhelming 91% of residents voting in favor of unifying the two CDCs to create the new Northwest Neighborhoods CDC, former DSCDO executive director Jenny Spencer, who has since joined the Cleveland City Council as the member representing Ward 15, said more resources were available to provide services to the near West Side.
By consolidating, CDCs can bene t from having a larger pot of funding to use on salaries and programs, Spencer added.
“You want to keep good, experienced people in these jobs but often they are tempted to leave after a short time and take all that knowledge with them,” she said.
With Tremont West Development Corp. executive director
Cory Riordan announcing he was leaving in August just days after Tom McNair, the executive director of Ohio City Inc., announced he would exit to become the city of Cleveland’s economic development director, rumors swirled about a possible merger of the CDCs using the Northwest Neighborhoods model.
e rumors are premature at best, said Jason Powers, senior vice president of CDC advancement and resilience at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress (CND), which serves as a community development intermediary supporting CDCs with access to capital, professional development, advocacy and marketing.
“ ere has been a plan, which predates either executive director leaving, for the boards of both CDCs to work together on a request for proposal (RFP),” he said.
In his capacity at CNP, Powers is working with the CDC boards on writing an RFP that will look into ways Tremont West and Ohio City Inc. could work more e ciently by sharing resources, working together on larger community programs and fundraising jointly.
“Resources are more scarce today than ever,” Power said. “We could see these CDCs build eciencies by sharing health care or marketing costs or having one CFO (chief nancial o cer) for both groups.”
e RFP, funded in part by the Cleveland Foundation, is part of an overall strategic planning process that both CDCs update every ve to 10 years.
e work is similar to a previous partnership between two organizations — dubbed the Near West Partners — which was created to leverage scarce CDC resources toward larger programs and real estate acquisitions.
“ e nuance of the work can be hard to describe,” Powers cautioned. “But basically, any new plan or structure would be directed toward allowing for the use of joint resources in order to pro-
vide more capacity for things like marketing and fundraising.”
Powers said the boards of both Tremont West and Ohio City Inc. are working to create the RFP that he expects to launch toward the end of September, which could coincide with City Councilman Kerry McCormack’s push to re-evaluate how the city funds CDCs.
McCormack previously suggested “swapping funding sources” — moving from using community development block grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide for CDC operations to using funds directly from the city of Cleveland’s general fund.
“ e federal funding through HUD has a level of vague guidelines that determine how they can be used,” McCormack said. “Using them limits the scope of what they can do and means a ton of compliance paperwork that creates a big challenge for the CDCs.”
Moving to a di erent funding mechanism could help those dollars go further, he added. e measure stalled before council went on summer break, but McCormack plans to bring it up again as members reconvene this month.
As far as any merger talk between Tremont West and Ohio City Inc., which both cover neighborhoods he represents, McCormack said he would back whatever the community decides. He added that despite what some people in the city might think, the two CDCs represent “two distinct neighborhoods.”
Whatever happens to the city’s CDCs, Hollingsworth said the most important thing is to foster positive resident engagement throughout.
“ ere has been a lot of churn at CDCs across the state, but the most important thing is to keep neighborhood-level engagement, which is so powerful, as the guiding principle for all the CDCs,” she said.
Paige Bennett side Food & Farms in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and had leadership roles with Destination Cleveland and Cleveland Independents.
Cleveland chef and restaurant owner Douglas Katz has joined the culinary leadership team at the Cleveland Clinic.
Katz, owner of area restaurants Amba and Zhug, will serve as a chef partner with the Morrison Healthcare team at the Clinic. Morrison is a national food and nutrition services company that serves more than 975 hospitals and health care systems across the U.S.
In his new role, the Cleveland native will develop patient and café dining and catering menus, with a particular focus on seasonal and specialty o erings. Katz also will provide culinary learning experiences for Morrison chefs and cooks to help them elevate their abilities.
Katz said he’s excited to bring his passion for healthy food to the hospital dining experience.
He expects the new role to involve training chefs on di erent cooking techniques and teaching them how to use certain ingredients. He said his goal is always to make food delicious and avorful.
“Our culinary expertise is how we make an impact for patients and caregivers,” Morrison Healthcare Central Division president Avi Pinto said in the statement. “Our mission is to always bring vision, high-quality food, avor and top-notch presentation to all of our dishes, no matter who is eating and enjoying it. We are thrilled to welcome Chef Katz to the team and are excited for the culinary innovation
he will bring to the hospital. Chef Katz shares our vision that food plays a critical role in the healing process, providing strength for patients to recuperate and sustenance to caregivers who are providing life-saving care.” Katz has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. He also graduated from the Culinary Institute of America. Before opening Fire Food and Drink, he was the executive chief of Moxie, the Restaurant, and worked at restaurants in Aspen, Colorado, and Portland, Oregon.
Katz also serves as a chef/ partner at Provenance at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He previously owned Fire Food and Drink, which operated in Shaker Square for 20 years. He has plans in the works to open a third restaurant, called Chimi.
He said the new role balances well with his other work because his restaurants open in the evenings, and he expects much of the work at the Clinic to take place during the day. He will continue to oversee the restaurants, he said, thanks to the dedication and support of his hardworking team.
“We are pleased to have Chef Katz join our culinary leadership team and bring his expertise to our retail concepts and menu development for our patients, visitors and caregivers,” Laura Johns, senior director of patient support services at Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement. “We are proud to bring even more vision to our culinary o erings, emphasizing sustainable practices and creative and delicious dishes.”
Katz is a mentor for Global Cleveland and College Now Greater Cleveland and a board member for e Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. He previously served on the board of Country-
“Our culinary expertise is how we make an impact for patients and caregivers.”
Avi Pinto, Morrison Healthcare Central Division president
“It’s beautiful,” said Craig Hassall, Playhouse Square’s president and CEO. “One thing I’m really pleased about is Dan’s philosophy of the design. The space is really open to the street.”
By Michelle Jarboe
It’s a Friday afternoon, one week before the opening of the City Club of Cleveland’s new home, and CEO Dan Moulthrop is fretting over internet-access delays. He bounds across the airy space as workers hang lights and haul towering speakers through the doors.
“This is like the craziest this organization has been, ever,” Moulthrop says. Then he takes a breath and reconsiders. “Except for the week that we hosted Obama. That was crazypants.”
The 111-year-old free-speech forum was preparing to open its doors at Playhouse Square, in a building that once housed an F.W. Woolworth store. It’s a huge transition for the nonprofit, which spent the last 40 years tucked inside an office building a few blocks to the west.
Over the past nine months, designers and construction workers have reimagined the first floor of 1317 Euclid Ave. in the theater district. Meanwhile, the City Club has raised $9.3 million toward a $12 million campaign to pay for the renovations and build up its financial cushion.
“We have a really generous community, and we’re so grateful for that,” Moulthrop said, noting that corporate philanthropy makes up a significant slice of the club’s annual revenues. “But we know that because our corporate partners function inside of an economy they don’t always control, we can’t always count on them for that extraordinary level of support. That’s why growing the endowment is so important.”
The budget for the new space was $4.8 million. The goal for the endowment is to hit $10 million, up from only a few million before the Guardians of Free Speech fundraising campaign.
In December, the City Club announced it had signed a longterm lease with a unique landlord, the Playhouse Square Foundation. The deal brought together two prominent nonprofit organizations. It promised more daytime bustle for a district that comes alive in the evenings.
And it solved an office-space puzzle in a challenging market. Dwellworks, the corporate-relocation services firm that occupied the entire building, was looking to cut its footprint in half. The City Club took over the ground floor, about 14,600 square feet lined with curving windows.
Now the cubicles are gone. From the street, passersby can view the lobby and, through another wall of windows, the main gathering space. And speakers and patrons can peer out.
That transparency fits with Hassall’s broader aim of making the district feel livelier and safer. Playhouse Square is about to open a gallery space just west of the City Club. And on Sept. 28, the nonprofit performing-arts steward plans to show off the lighting and video capabilities of its newly installed theater marquees during a free event.
“There’s a lot of things already in the calendar which animate the streets,” said Hassall, who took the helm at Playhouse Square early this year. “I’m hoping that retail and restaurants and bars will follow, as well.”
For the City Club, transforming onetime retail and office space into an assembly hall was no small feat. To create enough room and the necessary sightlines for a 330-seat venue, workers removed four load-bearing columns from the center of the forum.
Designers found a creative, alternative way to shore up the historic building.
Instead of running thick support beams along the ceiling inside the forum, between the remaining columns, the project team installed two 60-foot-long steel trusses on the roof. Those trusses, welded to tops of the columns and tightened using bolts, now help to carry the weight of the second floor.
Each truss, which looks like a bridge, weighs 20,000 pounds and was lifted onto the roof by a massive mobile crane. Then construction workers cut out the old columns on the first floor in sections. Every four-foot segment weighed about 1,000 pounds, said Jack Myers, a structural engineer at design firm DLR Group.
“You don’t get to do that every day!” he said.
That approach was possible because the building, which dates to 1924, was constructed to support additional floors. The tops of the columns already were exposed. The structure could handle the additional weight — something Playhouse Square already took advantage of in 2014, when the nonprofit installed a 44-foot-tall, retro-style sign on the roof.
Tom Einhouse, Playhouse Square’s vice president of facilities and capital, suggested the rooftop-truss idea and worked closely with the City Club, DLR and Turner Construction.
“The thing that I really love about this project — it was extraordinarily collaborative and cooperative. . . .We just pushed through it and figured things out,” Einhouse said.
On Friday, Sept. 15, the City Club hosted a sold-out crowd for a conversation between Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval. The
The free-speech forum has moved to Playhouse Square after 40 years at its former addressA print of artwork by April Bleakney with words from the nonpro t’s creed hangs inside the new space. | PHOTOS BY MICHELLE JARBOE
choice of speakers, and the topic of leading cities, was a throwback to the club’s first forum in 1912, when the mayors of Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo collectively discussed the challenges they faced.
“I think people are going to be blown away,” Kristen Baird Adams, president of the club’s board and chief of staff for PNC Bank’s office of regional presidents, said a few days before the opening. “This space is fitting of the work that we have done to date. And it’s fitting of where we will go in the future.”
The audience saw a near-fin-
Outside the forum doors, the City Club is displaying 88 photos of speakers, along with a collection of political memorabilia. Those items were much less visible in the previous location, on the second floor of the soon-to-be-renamed City Club Building at 850 Euclid Ave.
There’s no art in the event hall. The large mural that dominated the old forum is now part of the collection at the Western Reserve Historical Society. Painted by Cleveland-trained Black artist Elmer Brown, that Works Progress Administration-era mural moved several times with the
meals.
“ e community’s investing with us, and they’re investing in our mission — not in our catering business,” Moulthrop said, adding that the City Club helped its catering employees nd new jobs and provided retention bonuses to keep them until the old facility closed in July.
In tandem with the move, the City Club raised ticket prices slightly. But the venue is now offering $5 tickets for students at Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College.
Moulthrop said he hopes to expand that discount program. e City Club’s forums will continue to be livestreamed and archived online and aired on public radio. And the partnership with Playhouse Square could lead to additional event-hosting opportunities in the district.
ished — but not totally outfitted — space. The City Club is still waiting on some furniture, which should arrive before a planned grand opening on Oct. 27.
Café tables and chairs, along with cushier seating, will line the lobby, inviting patrons to arrive early or linger after a forum. A check-in table crafted by Rustbelt Reclamation will sit just inside the main entrance. It will be inscribed with the laser-cut signatures of 250 past speakers.
A large print by April Bleakney, a local artist who included language from the City Club’s creed, hangs in the lobby. More art is scattered throughout the space, where some of walls end in soft curves instead of sharp corners, mimicking the old department-store windows on Euclid.
City Club. But it didn’t t with the aesthetic, or the ethos, of the new space.
“It played a really important role for us for a long time, but it did not communicate the sense of welcoming — that all are welcome — that we want to communicate,” Moulthrop said of the mural, which tells the story of freedom and democracy but leans heavily on depictions of muscular, shirtless, white men.
A small reproduction of the mural will hang in a hallway at the new building.
e renovated space also includes the nonpro t’s o ces, tucked behind the forum, and a catering kitchen. Before the move, the City Club had a commercial kitchen and a catering sta . Now, to keep costs down, the organization has teamed up with Driftwood Catering for
Playhouse Square views the City Club as one of its resident companies, along with Great Lakes eater, the Cleveland Ballet, the Cleveland Play House and other organizations.
“We’re going to make the programming bigger and different because of the other folks who are in that conversation,” said Mark Ross, a City Club board member who also sits on the Playhouse Square board.
Perched on a ledge just inside the new lobby, looking out over Euclid Avenue, Moulthrop said he never would have predicted this outcome in 2013, when he became CEO.
“ is is like a home that is truly be tting of the mission and the aspirations that we’ve always had for this place, that we create conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive,” he said. “You really can’t achieve that mission unless you’re including the community in the conversation.”
“This is like a home that is truly be tting of the mission and the aspirations that we’ve always had for this place, that we create conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.”
Dan Moulthrop, City Club of Cleveland CEO
Alexis Becker has found a new outlet for the competitive spirit that made her a successful soccer player at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where she played in three NCAA tournaments and had a run to the tournament’s sweet 16.
She still plays soccer in some adult leagues, but said she has found a new love.
“Since starting as an intern, I really just fell in love with this business,” Becker said of her work as an investment banker at Carlton McKenna in Cleveland, where she has quickly risen to become a vice president since joining full time in 2018.
“I really like the diversity of the day to day,” she said. “Every single day we’re working at a di erent stage of the process with di erent clients across different industries.”
It’s hard work in what’s known as a highly competitive industry where the hours can be long and the pressure intense, but Becker seems able to dribble through it.
“I grew up as an athlete, and you kind of get used to the grind,” she said. “I really enjoy the hard work we do here, and the di culties and challenges we face every day, and how we face them as a team every day.”
is is no doubt music to the ears of her boss, managing partner Paul Carleton, a former Baldwin Wallace football player.
“She’s a very accomplished soccer player, and we like to hire athletes,” Carleton said, adding that he thinks good athletes tend to have the grit, tenacity and teamwork mentality that makes them good investment bankers.
Becker has continued to score in her career, too, in part because she’s a “very, very, very quick study,” according to Carleton.
She’s certainly impressed Nora Mahoney, the rm’s managing director and counsel.
“At her level, you expect a cer-
tain technical acumen, that’s kind of just table stakes. But hers goes so much deeper than that, and she’s able to think creatively from a technical perspective and then also able to communicate that back to clients who have varying degrees of sophistication,” Mahoney said.
“She’s running transactions, she’s doing the work behind the scenes, she’s sourcing new opportunities. She’s sort of a Swiss Army knife of investment banking skills.”
Carleton puts it more simply.
“If could clone Alexis, we would,” he said.
But Becker, who attributes her professional success to having great mentors at her rm, is more than just a star at Carleton McKenna. Unlike some of the investment bankers of old, she also has a life.
When she’s not working, Becker might be found playing soccer in the couple of adult leagues she participates in, working her two small gardens at her home in Brecksville, volunteering with Torchbearers Akron developing future leaders, or serving as treasurer for the MBA Association Council at Baldwin Wallace University.
Or she might be learning a new recipe — cooking has become a passion — baking pastries or playing golf, a sport she learned two years ago. Or training to become a sommelier, another new pursuit.
“I’ve always been kind of a continuous learner,” Becker said.
And a teacher, and a mentor. But she’s not yet a coach, at least for her favorite sport. at might change, though. Becker said she has some young nephews that she hopes to teach when they get old enough to play.
“I wish,” she said when asked if she coached soccer. “But … ask me in a couple of years, and maybe the answer will be yes.”
— Dan ShinglerSCleveland is blessed with a Great Lake and relatively temperate summer and fall weather. One of its most signi cant natural resources, however, is talent. Look no further than members of this year’s class of Crain’s Cleveland 20 In eir 20s. eir stories help explain what makes Northeast Ohio rise above. | Photography by Jason Miller/Pixelate
People who work with Devontá Dickey aren’t surprised when he breaks out in song.
Whether he’s belting out some Beyoncé or reveling in Rihanna, Dickey brims with joy — a contagious energy that delights his colleagues and friends.
“ e intelligence, the wit, the brilliance, the thoughtfulness,” said Erika Anthony, running through the list of the attributes she noticed early on about the Chicago transplant who arrived in Cleveland in 2017 for an internship at Cleveland Neighborhood Progress.
“He’s just such a hard worker. He is always willing to jump in, even if it’s not his speci c role or responsibility,” said Anthony, executive director of Cleveland VOTES, a former Cleveland Neighborhood Progress a liate dedicated to boosting civic engagement.
After graduating from Denison University, Dickey joined the local nonpro t full time. He worked on voter-registration initiatives, outreach strategies around the 2020 Census and many aspects of “Undesign the Redline,” an interactive exhibit about the pernicious legacy of exclusionary lending and housing policies.
In early 2022, Dickey took on a new role at the Saint Luke’s Foundation, where he serves as communications and marketing ocer. He’s less focused on talking up the foundation — and more attuned to highlighting the individuals and organizations that philanthropy helps.
“My work is centered around elevating those people and positioning them in front of the right people to talk about their work,” he said, noting that 59% of the foundation’s grant dollars in 2022 went to groups led by people of color.
Social justice and cultural curiosity are themes on Dickey’s resume.
As a teenager, he learned Arabic. During high school, he trav-
eled to Doha, in Qatar, to study climate change. He went to Costa Rica to learn about water systems in the rainforest. And a college program about environmental policy and sustainable development took him to Cape Town, South Africa, for eight months. ose studies, and the disparities he encountered, spurred his enthusiasm for work that not only illustrates inequities but also strives to x them.
Someday, he would love to run his own marketing and communications rm serving nonpro ts. His family, including his twin brother, are still in Chicago. But Dickey has wholeheartedly em-
braced Cleveland, which he describes as a smaller, slower-paced version of the Windy City.
“I love the people. I love the grit,” said Dickey, who lives in Lakewood and, in addition to singing, enjoys hiking, biking, rock climbing and reading.
“I love that I have a community here that supports me and believes in me,” he added. “And I can legit ask them any and all questions.”
Anthony, a mentor, believes he has limitless potential.
“My hope,” she said, “is that he continues to nd places that match his joy.”
— Michelle JarboeAssociate, Squire Patton Boggs
As an associate in Squire Patton Boggs’ Government Investigations and White Collar practice, Lauryn Durham has been on the front line of “putting out some res,” but she prefers keeping her clients away from the ames in the rst place.
“A lot of the work is proactive, where you’re not just reacting to a suit or some sort of legal action, you are actively helping them with their compliance framework to avoid that,” she said.
Proactivity is something that comes naturally to Durham. While on the physical therapy track at Hampton University in Virginia, for example, she sought out a job-shadowing opportunity and quickly learned “PT was not what I expected.” Later, when she was in law school at Case Western Reserve University, Durham secured three di erent internships “again, to quickly X out what I did not want to do.”
Perhaps most importantly, she didn’t put o her mandatory “core” law courses, completing them in the rst two years at Case
— which turned out to be a godsend, as she fell dangerously ill during her third year.
“I was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension on St. Patrick’s Day of 2021,” Durham said. “ e next day, I coded and had to be in the ICU for a week.”
e Maple Heights native was left with an intravenous pump attached to her chest, facing the challenge of “learning how to be a lawyer and learning how to mix my IV medications at the same time.”
Durham gradually transitioned to an oral regimen but remains vigilant about advancing knowledge and awareness of this rare condition. She has participated in PAH studies at Cleveland Clinic, where she was treated, and partners with area specialists to produce videos and other educational tools that help patients and their families “understand what’s going on.”
Along with a bustling legal career and PAH advocacy, Durham is a committed board member of the Friends for Life Foundation,
which is a fundraising and charity arm of her Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and a new board member of the Cleveland Friends of Breakthrough Schools nonpro t.
“We close the gap between the money underserved communities get in public funding and what students — mostly students of color — need to be successful,” she said. “It’s a mission that is close to my heart, so I’m really excited to be part of that moving forward.”
Squire Patton Boggs partner Marisa Darden cited Durham’s “can-do attitude” and “diligence” as two qualities that set her apart from many young associates. Darden has also taken notice of that aforementioned penchant for proactivity.
“Lauren’s demonstrated a real aptitude for corporate compliance and being able to help clients diagnose and address potential issues within their own shop before they arise,” Darden said. “ at’s an invaluable asset to our clients.”
— Judy Stringer
As a former language arts major at Ohio State University, David Giesige still thinks in metaphors. And, when it comes to students and their career planning after high school, he sometimes thinks of those students as marbles in a big apparatus.
In the rst model, all the red marbles go to college, moving through a big tube on the right. And all the blue marbles don’t go to college, moving through a tube on the left.
“Most of those tubes just go directly to the oor, and the marbles spill out and go all over the place and they don’t have any direction after that,” he said.
“ at’s the ‘old way,’ where you’re either told to go to college or enter the workplace and you don’t have any direction after that.”
e second model looks more like a Plinko board, where every time a student gets a di erent workplace-learning opportunity (like a site visit to Swagelok, or an internship at the Cleveland Clinic), it changes the marble’s direction.
In the third (and best) model, the students aren’t marbles at all. Instead, they’re drivers, equipped with the skills and network they need to chart their own path.
“It’s my job at the Greater Cleveland Career Consortium to make sure those paths are streamlined, equitable and accessible,” he said, “and that every path leads to a high-demand, high-wage job.”
Giesige is a former red marble, a high-performing high school student who went to college without a long-term plan and
took a break after two years. After trying a litany of jobs — including a library, a T-shirt shop, a small-town newspaper and a manufacturing company — he decided to shadow his high school English teacher and fell in love with teaching.
He returned to OSU, graduated with honors in 2019, and served as a Fulbright Scholar in e Netherlands, where he was introduced to a vocational system focused on real-world experience. For instance, students who were studying to work in the hospitality industry helped run a fully functioning hotel with restaurants.
“Students were so much more engaged,” Giesige said. “It completely removes that question that every student asks, ‘When am I ever going to use this?’”
He spent the next two years in Denver, helping students from under-resourced communities with their career paths, and joined the GCCC in 2022, where he is now the director of Career Pathways. He works with more than 33,000 students in grades 6-12, giving them work — and career-based learning opportunities with industries throughout Northeast Ohio.
“David is both the right talent and culture t to support the execution of GCCC’s vision,” GCCC executive director Autumn Russell said. “He’s incredibly personable, which drives the relationship-building that is at the core of our mission. David cares. His passion shines through daily and he is intentional about keeping students at the center of his decision-making.”
— Joe Scalzo
A passion for writing and an unexpected turn of events in college laid the foundation for Tessa Gray’s budding career in intellectual property law.
Growing up, Gray had long aspired to be a professional novelist. Dabbling in sci- and horror, she wrote a variety of creative short stories as a teenager for youngadult audiences. One of them landed her a Scholastic Art and Writing Award in high school.
In college, Gray was studying English and working toward a minor in education. Her career plan was to work as a teacher while churning out stories to feed her creative side. So, when her school dropped that minor in her freshman year, she wasn’t quite sure what to do next.
“But when I look at where I am now, that was probably the biggest grace in the universe,” said Gray, an associate in the intellectual property and franchise groups at Taft Stettinius & Hollister. “Now, I can’t really imagine myself doing anything else.”
A mentor suggested that she
try pre-law. Turns out, she liked learning about the legal system and “learning to speak the language of what governs us.”
A self-described problem solver and people person, Gray now exes her legal acumen to support others in the creative sphere. Whether she’s helping a business launch a new product or preventing copyright infringement, Gray has discovered a passion for protecting the creative works of others in one of law’s most dynamic and evolving practice areas.
And she’s already making quite a name for herself, said Josh Brown, Gray’s mentor and chair of Taft’s franchise and distribution group. Gray joined the rm less than two years ago and already has several longstanding clients asking for her by name.
“Her future is very bright.”
Gray doesn’t just help clients, though.
Outside of work, the Kent native regularly lends her time to the community. She’s helped lower-income high school students as an English tutor and assistant teacher, for example, and participates in the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association’s 3Rs program, which connects legal professionals with high school students in Cleveland and East Cleveland. Gray is also involved in her rm’s pro bono committee and has volunteered time to sealing criminal records.
“
ere are many good lawyers, but Tessa has the rare combination of being smart, tenacious, kind, funny and relatable, which all are great attributes that allow her to get to know clients in a way that makes them feel comfortable working with her and the rm,” Brown said.
“To know I can have an impact on someone is important to me,” Gray said. “I didn’t come from a lot of money or a good area, and I bene ted from people giving time to me. I never want to feel like I’m too good to not give back to someone else.”
“I’ve just always wanted to nd ways to give back to my community,” she added. “It feels like my obligation.”
— Jeremy Nobile Dr. President & CEO MetroHealth
Keeley Hanzlick is dedicated to putting her stamp on the city of Cleveland. As a project manager at Gilbane Building Co. working on the Sherwin-Williams Co. headquarters project in downtown Cleveland, she is a signicant part of the team helping to reshape the city’s skyline.
“It is an exciting time for Cleveland as a city. ere is a lot going on,” Cleveland native Hanzlick said. “It is now the time for my generation and younger generations to have a voice in the industry and in the city.”
residential tower near Playhouse Square, while also spearheading the Cleveland o ce’s rst employee resource group, empoWer, a professional support group for women at Gilbane.
Prioritizing time to help other professionals and volunteers in the community so early in her career is what makes her a standout, said Keri Ash, senior project executive at Gilbane and Hanzlick’s mentor.
“Not only is she tasked with a very high-pro le, complicated project, but her devotion to giving her time to the community and others is so impressive,” said Ash. “A lot of new employees, especially women new to the industry, would only be worried about their own career.”
unteer in the after-school program designed to persuade high school students to consider careers in architecture, engineering, construction and the skilled trades. Last year, she co-led a team of students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s John Hay School of Architecture and Design who went on to win a prestigious annual design competition.
Her dedication to educating students and women about the construction and building industry is all part of her passionate commitment to giving back to the community, Ash said.
“ e students respect Keeley so much, and it’s wonderful to see her interact with them. She has this incredible ability to make everyone feel comfortable and draw out the best in people,” Ash noted.
Hanzlick began her career in the building industry with Gilbane as an intern, joining the company full time in 2019. In her short, nearly ve years there, she has already been part of the team that built e Lumen, a 34-story
Outside of Gilbane, Hanzlick is also busy helping build up a much-needed pipeline of workers desperately needed for the building and construction industry as a volunteer for the ACE Mentor Program of Cleveland.
Hanzlick has been an active vol-
In her free time, Hanzlick is busy with her own construction project — renovating her 75-yearold house with her husband. “We are trying to add character in the house where there was none,” she said.
— Kim PalmerThe board and sta of Saint Luke’s Foundation enthusiastically celebrates DevontáDickey for his well-deserved honor as one of Crain’s Cleveland Business’ 20 In Their Twenties.
We are very proud that Devontá is being recognized for his many contributions to Cleveland and its neighborhoods, both professionally and personally. We are extremely grateful to have him part of the SLF family, where he is helping to li residents’ voices and elevate stories of our strategy partners working to revitalize their communities.
Congrats, Devontá!
www.SaintLukesFoundation.org
“It is now the time for my generation and younger generations to have a voice in the industry and in the city.”
Bakita Hill joined Tucker Ellis in 2022 to work on sophisticated deals with an active support sta . e bene ts of that decision are more than apparent a year later, she said.
“Bigger deals expose me to the di erent things that can go wrong,” Hill said. “By doing this work now, it will bene t me later when I see these issues come up.”
Hill solves compliance issues, regulatory problems and software license snafus for the downtown rm’s corporate clients. She also recently navigated a global gas technology provider in a $127 million company acquisition — an outcome directly tied to hours of research and writing.
“I’ll help you start an LLC or corporation, or sell your business,” Hill said. “I’m involved with lots of negotiations and contract drafting. If people want to do business, I’ll bring that idea to fruition. Working with creative people is very rewarding.”
Hill also strives to diversify the industry through mentorship activities with minority law students. Sharing her knowledge with learners at area high schools is another
means of attracting underrepresented populations, she said.
“Sometimes people just need an inch of opportunity so they can run with it and take a mile,” Hill said. “I received a small opportunity, and look where I am now. Plus, this work creates diversity in the profession, which makes for di erent viewpoints.”
Hill is the rst person in her family to attend law school. After graduating from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 2021, she worked full time at a smaller Cleveland rm where she’d previously served as a clerk. When advising mentees, Hill suggests saying “yes” to opportunities both in and out of the o ce.
Antoine Moss met Hill through C.H.A.N.G.E. Volunteers, his Cleveland nonpro t aimed at up-
lifting underserved groups through leadership skill development. Hill orchestrated activities at a local boys’ school, connecting with young students in a way that re ects her relationship with the wider community, Moss said.
“Bakita is a glass-half-full kind
of professional,” Moss said in an email. “She is extremely compassionate and willing to join causes that will help the glass become more full. Bakita has always been a source of joy and a positive role model for the constituents that we serve.”
Strengthening her link with the community at large is a career aspiration for Hill, she said.
“I want to work for a large company as a chief legal o cer,” she said. “I can be the voice that stirs the pot for change.”
— Douglas J. Guth“Sometimes people just need an inch of opportunity so they can run with it and take a mile.”
At 29, Uriel Kim has an impressive string of degrees: A Ph.D. An MBA. And, in the spring, he’ll obtain his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University.
Talk to Kim, though, and the last thing he’ll do is clunk up the conversation with acronyms. As a researcher with a keen focus on everyday people, he’s adept at putting complex topics into human terms.
“He’s an amazing writer,” said Siran Koroukian, a CWRU professor and adviser. “He’s an amazing speaker. . . .And if you’re following him at a meeting after a presentation, then you’re in bad shape, because he raised the bar so high that it’s very hard to meet it.”
A Colorado native who grew up in California, Kim developed a fascination with medicine during high school. His interest in how the body works — and how it malfunctions — was the start of a broader educational journey into health policy and the business of medicine.
He landed at CWRU in 2015 for a combined medical-doctoral program, after graduating from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences.
While pursuing his doctorate, he co-authored papers about the impact of the A ordable Care Act and the state’s Medicaid expansion on low- and middle-income Ohioans. And he came up with a
new method for analyzing health disparities by income, by layering Census data and patient records.
“Being able to demonstrate how policy changes percolate down and actually in uence life on the ground … is really important,” said Kim, who sees opportunities to evaluate the past and shape future legislation.
He left Cleveland for two years to study business at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he gained a fuller understanding of commercialization processes and leadership strategies. en he returned to CWRU to complete his medical degree.
Now he’s applying for dermatology residencies. at area of medical care intrigues him, Kim said, because skin conditions are so visible. ey directly impact patients’ daily lives.
“My heart is always going to be
A mission-driven life does not have to be tied exclusively to religion, says Jack Lupica.
At CBIZ, Lupica works with client companies on institutional retirement plans, while supporting national senior leadership on various strategic initiatives. Not in Lupica’s job description is breaking down barriers between departments, though he’s happy to take on the challenge. Lupica’s day-to-day includes advising fellow young professionals and pairing employees with peers across disparate divisions.
that people can trust and respect, even if they disagree with me,” says Lupica, a Strongsville native. “ at’s a staple of how I hope to grow.”
Steve Sublett, senior director of employee experience and engagement at CBIZ, met Lupica through a six-month mentorship program that lasted past its original scope.
“We enjoyed our time, conversations and work together so much we decided we’d keep it going beyond the program length,” Sublett says via email.
in clinical medicine and seeing patients,” he said.
Dr. Johnie Rose, an associate professor at CWRU’s School of Medicine, met Kim in 2016 and served as his mentor for several years. Rose describes his young colleague as a researcher with the complete package: e ability to pinpoint the important questions. To develop ways to nd answers. To execute the process. And to write about it clearly.
“On a personal level,” Rose added, “he’s a pretty magnetic guy.”
Kim’s also an avid hiker and a community gardener who speaks with reverence about the bliss of the season’s rst vine-ripened tomato. “He’s kind of a joy to work with — always smiling,” Rose said. “And always bringing food to meetings, which is a huge plus in my book.”
— Michelle Jarboe“It’s about creating a space for culture to be built, and putting structure in place that develops trust between teammates,” says Lupica.
“I built the mentoring program from the standpoint of bringing people together who normally wouldn’t have reason to talk to each other. If we’re going to be on the front lines of innovation, we can’t have people sitting in silos.”
Lupica studied theology as an undergraduate, transitioning tonance with an understanding that business can be a place for good works, he says.
By working at a family-oriented enterprise like CBIZ, Lupica can harness a foundation of faith when structuring a company 401(k) or compiling a mentorship task force of senior leaders.
“It’s important to be a leader
Timothy Lewis wasn’t that outgoing in high school.
Today, he’s an extrovert who loves talking to people he can help with nancial advice and services, and the popular cheerleader he knew in school calls him for advice.
“Now he’s pretty much my business adviser,” said Dayja Smith, who rst met Lewis about 10 years ago when they were both students at Euclid High School. And yes, she was that cheerleader.
Today, she’s an entrepreneur and owner of the personal-care products company CoKo’s Crown and the a liated CoKo Lash Bar and Spa in Euclid.
Lewis is the same guy she remembers from high school. Always warm and willing to help out others, he’s just more outgoing now. She credits his career choice, and so does he.
Lewis went to school for journalism but switched gears after he was exposed to nance, rst at the banking division of State Farm and then at Bank of America, where he still works.
“I took all the (journalism) classes and thought I was going to take more of a news anchor approach,” Lewis said. “ en I just fell intonance and found I had a passion for it.”
But it’s not the numbers that drive him — it’s the people.
“Right now, what I do is primarily work with small businesses, typically anything below $5 million (in annual revenue). Basically, I help them get their funding and get their business to where they need it to be,” Lewis said.
His clients, typically, aren’t the big companies that tend to make the news, but the smaller ones, like bars and restaurants that are often
Over the years, Sublett has collaborated with Lupica on growing the company’s mentoring program. Attracting well-rounded professionals has a value that Sublett’s former mentee both understands and cherishes, he says.
“We talk often about looking at an org chart and how critical it is to expand beyond the box of your function and to take up some of the white space between positions,” Sublett notes.
“Jack gets this incredibly well. is is a person whose moral compass and work ethic all point in the right direction. Everyone I have ever encountered (who) has had the pleasure of meeting or working with Jack has nothing but compliments about how he carries himself and conducts his business.”
— Douglas J. Guth
family businesses.
“I help them come up with business plans — they’ll say this is my rst business and I don’t know where to go,” he said. “It gives me a sense of pleasure knowing I’m helping someone realize their dream. A lot of them are just starting out, or if they are established, they need help to grow even more.”
Outside of work he’s a co-founder of the Rid-All Green Partnership in Cleveland, a 19-acre urban farm dedicated to teaching and helping local people to grow sustainable food and also have a quiet place to not only garden, but to do yoga or just relax and re ect.
When he’s not working at the bank or the farm, he volunteers for the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, trying to address some of the root causes of people being on the street.
— Dan ShinglerJack Maib has never thought of himself as the sort of lawyer who could talk a dog o a meat truck — but you don’t always need the sharpest tongue to be a stellar litigator.
Maib is making a name for himself as a commercial litigator at Reminger Co. He’s already nailed some big wins in his career, including the dismissal of a $2 million lawsuit led against a nancial services company.
But Maib — whose path to the legal profession began with an interest in political science — prefers to carry himself more as an agreeable and empathetic sort.
Maib likes to make people happy, both professionally and civically. And it just so happens that his career o ers opportunities to do both.
“No client ever comes to you — no matter which side of the equation they are on — necessarily happy,” Maib said. “I like being able to just work with my clients and say, ‘Let’s take a step back, we are here to assist you, so let’s see what we can do.’”
His colleagues say he has an infectious laugh that resonates through the o ce.
“Jack brings a rare combination of intelligence, personality and hard work to our rm,” said Brian Nally, chair of the business and commercial litigation and eDiscovery practice groups at Reminger.
“He is able to navigate complex legal issues, interact well with clients, opposing counsel and people within the
rm, and he is never afraid to invest the time that is required to produce excellent work.”
Ultimately, though, the New England native said he nds ful llment in pro bono work. On that front, he’s been particularly focused on immigration and probate issues. He thinks back fondly on helping people secure citizenship and the joy that brings.
“ e big victories for clients are great, but that’s what resonates with me and makes me think, you know, this is why I became and attorney,” said Maib, a past volunteer with the Ohio Justice Bus, a mobile legal aid o ce and technology hot spot that provides legal services to rural and underserved areas.
“I almost feel like it is an obligation to give back to people in need,” he added. “It’s the sort of work that keeps things fresh and keeps young attorney skills sharp in ways you wouldn’t be able to do day in and day out.”
Maib has every intention of furthering his practice and securing wins for clients.
But volunteer work is his true passion, which is why he recently joined a reach-out committee with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association that works with nonpro ts in Cuyahoga County.
“I just really want to continue being a tool for those in need in the Cleveland area,” he said.
— Jeremy Nobile
Chelsea Maldonado likes that construction gives her the chance to work on new projects, with new people, learning new things, all the time.
She didn’t always plan to follow in her father’s footsteps, majoring in communication studies at Ohio University. But, as she got closer to graduation, her father had a job to ll on a new site through his business, Adrian Maldonado & Associates, and Maldonado stepped in, working as a project engineer on a number of RTA projects and MetroHealth’s Glick Center.
at latter job, which was through Turner Construction, led to a role tracking the diversity and inclusion data for the work. In that role, Maldonado also oversaw outreach events, like nearby home renovations, to engage the surrounding community.
“We did a lot of outreach for that project because we really wanted the community to be involved,” Maldonado said. at included work with the Spanish American Committee to help people get trained and enter the building trades.
Je Abke, project executive at Turner, said Maldonado was the company’s liaison on that program. She’s mature and professional, he said, working with a wide variety of constituents and
willing to take the reins on a project and manage it well without lots of input.
“I felt 100% con dent that she had the ability to do all of that,” Abke said.
Today, Maldonado is still working with Turner as part of Adrian Maldonado & Associates, now on MetroHealth’s Apex project. But she’s also looking to the future, getting her own company o the ground. e company, Maldonado Construction Services, is focused on what Maldonado called “labor services” from the Local 310 laborers union, from cleaning services to asbestos removal to certain carpentry services. Basically, they serve as support on larger projects.
Maldonado realized that she could continue doing the same kind of roles she’s been doing for the past few years. But she’s gotten experience quickly, and the vast majority of major players in this space already know her and her work ethic, she said.
“It made sense now to just say, ‘OK. I can do this now, or I can do this in ve years.’ But it really takes time to build this type of business, so it’s better to just start now, so that even though I am still working full time under my father and under Turner on those projects — he’s helping me on the day-to-day stu where I can’t be around, and I’m using the
connections that I’ve made to just slowly start building business,” she said.
“And in construction, you can be on a project and it’s not until nine months from now, it’s not until a year from now. ... It’s better to get things going now, because things just take so long to build up.”
— Rachel Abbey McCa ertyAndrew Ogilson doesn’t like to box himself in.
“I see all the options, and they’re all so enticing,” he said.
He’s not yet sure the path his career will take in the future. He might start his own business. He might follow his current area of expertise in data analytics to the next step.
He studied business administration with a concentration in marketing and minors in communication and entrepreneurial leadership at Gonzaga University. After graduation, he worked for a variety of companies in real estate, consulting, health care and technology. en, in mid-2021, he joined Venture for America, which
camera startup just entering the sales phase now, he’s already worked in everything from sales analytics to marketing.
“Really, what drives me is building communities. … I like to bring fun to wherever I’m at,” Ogilson said.
at includes the events he’s planned for the o ce to the fantasy football league he wants to put together with his co-workers to the regular board game nights he and his wife host, he said: just “excuses to bring people together.”
When it comes to the board games, Ogilson can’t pick a favorite. In fact, he joked that he viewed himself as something of a “board game sommelier, where I like to bring the right board game to the right situation.” Some groups of friends might prefer a strategy-based game whereas others are just looking to let loose with something slapstick, he said.
“I don’t know exactly where I want to go in terms of ‘I want this title at this place with this company,’ but I know wherever I do want to go, I want to be sure to keep building these bridges and bonds and deepening the community that I’ve built here in Cleveland,” Ogilson said.
Ogilson has built up a broad knowledge base early in his career.
brought him to Cleveland. He rst worked at Ninety.io through the program, joining med-tech device company Lazurite in the fall of 2022. He’s still there, though his Venture for America term ended this summer. He said he recently bought a house in Cleveland and plans to be here for “the long haul.”
At Lazurite, a wireless surgical
at personalized approach is how he views business, too. It’s all about reading a situation and knowing what “tools” would work best, he said.
Ogilson has a “desire to get out of his comfort zone,” said Tom Brinson, head of strategic partnerships at Ninety.io. He also can “interpolate and interpret data,” spotting trends and nding indicators others haven’t noticed, Brinson said.
— Rachel Abbey McCa ertyHealth System Specialist, VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System
Radha Patel’s journey from Michigan to Cleveland actually started with a canceled ight.
And she’s the one who canceled it.
It was the summer of 2017 and Patel had just graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience. She had spent her college years on the pre-med track and had even been admitted to a medical school in the Caribbean.
A week before her ight, she told her mom, “I don’t want to go to medical school.”
Her mom’s response?
“She was like, ‘Oh my God, what are you doing?’” Patel said, laughing. “I actually told her, ‘I think I just need to wait. I’m really tired. School drained me. I’m going to study for the MCATs again. I’ll reapply.’
“I never did any of that. I knew I was never going to be a doctor.”
Instead, she took a year o , working as an administrative intern at the Family Medical Center of Michigan. She was introduced to health administration and management and quickly realized it was a perfect t, allowing her to stay in the health care eld, but as someone who works on things like organizational structure and processes. She went back to school, getting master’s degrees in public health and business administration from Wayne State University in Detroit. While there, she learned about the Presidential Management Fellows program, a leadership development program for advanced degree holders.
Out of the program’s 6,800 applicants, 551 were selected. She was one of them, which led to a “dream position” at the VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System (VANEOHS) in Cleveland.
“ e VA has one simple mission — to provide care for veterans,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to work somewhere where it wasn’t about money, it wasn’t about how many patients you see, it’s about care.”
Since arriving at the VA, she has gained a reputation for her leadership and her creativity, speci cally in nding ways to increase e ciency and transparency.
“She’s always very inquisitive,” said James Holmes, a health systems specialist at VANEOHS. “She has a talent for guring out how to do things in a better way, she’s very detail-oriented, and she just knows how to work well with others within a team e ort.
“We’re a large organization and there are so many moving parts, and she’s done well in the time she’s been here to connect with others and gure out where she can be the best help, not only in the section she’s located in but the overall organization.”
She’s also made a positive change in one other group — the women in her family.
“After I chose not to go to medical school, all the other women in the family decided not to be doctors,” she said, laughing. “ ey say, ‘Radha, it’s your fault.’ No, it’s not. I’m advocating for them to do what they are passionate about. at’s what I’m doing.”
— Joe ScalzoRachel Payne is one of those transplants from another city who helps enrich the lives of individual Clevelanders while also moving up in a business career.
e Los Angeles native came to Cleveland to study premed at Case Western Reserve University. e premed goal did not stick. But CWRU and Cleveland did. She switched to accounting and earned a master of accountancy degree.
Payne recently became a tax manager at Deloitte’s Cleveland o ce, her second accounting job here after initially joining PWC.
She has already carved a niche for herself at Deloitte, because she is involved in e orts to integrate new software into the rm’s operations, including dipping into AI.
“Technology will help ll the hours to do accounting from the lack of people going into accounting. But it’s a heavy lift to get the technology incorporated,” Payne said. “I’m also a big fan of doing things more eciently.”
Interestingly, Payne said she did not love math. Instead, she views accounting as a language one learns in business. At Deloitte she works with corporate clients, especially helping educate clients about the tax implications of mergers and acquisitions or rami cations of new tax laws that may provide them with bene ts.
Fiona Chambers, Deloitte Cleveland managing partner, said in an email that Payne’s “hard work and commitment to delivering viable tax services has
impressed” both her colleagues and clients.
“I believe this recognition is a testament to Rachel’s bright future ahead,” Chambers wrote, “and I look forward to witnessing her continued success in our organization.”
Payne also brought with her qualities impressed on her by her parents, one being the importance of getting a college education. e other came from her mother teaching her it is important to aid the less fortunate, such as serving anksgiving dinner at a food pantry.
at dedication was harnessed by a program at CWRU that links students to area volunteer activities. at program was the highlight of her rst year, as she weathered switching majors and careers. Her volunteerism has continued past her college years. Among several volunteer activities, she is now active as a mentor at College Now Cleveland, where she is paired with a student who is or may become the rst member of their family to attend college, ground Payne knows well.
“ at’s close to my heart,” she said.
Payne also worked for the housing o ce at CWRU, which allowed her to stay on campus over the summers.
Payne said she enjoys Cleveland’s o erings. She loves the concert scene and shows at Playhouse Square. She recently took up pickleball at Studio West 117 in Lakewood. She also enjoys listening to music, especially on vinyl.
— Stan Bullard
Microplastics are small in size, but they pose a big problem for our health and climate.
Max Pennington is tackling this monumental environmental issue with a simple innovation that people can use at home.
Pennington’s CLEANR startup has developed a ltration technology to keep plastic microbers from owing into sewer systems during the laundry cycle. Based out of the ink[box] makerspace at Case Western Reserve University, the company recently unveiled its microplastic-mitigating washing machine lters at an appliance industry conference in Berlin.
In April, the company partnered with GKD Group, a German-based producer of mesh ltration. e collaboration gives CLEANR an overseas manufacturing base ahead of pending French regulations requiring all newly built washing machines to have a micro ber ltering device.
about microplastics, so I felt compelled to do something,” said Pennington. “We’ve gotten to a place where it’s solvable. Having a purpose behind where you’re going is super critical.”
CWRU president Eric Kaler can attest to Pennington’s unwavering commitment. Kaler has followed the startup’s progress ever since hearing a company pitch in 2022.
Ryan Sarkis is making it his life’s work to keep personal information safe.
“All eyes are on France,” said Pennington, who launched CLEANR in 2021 alongside fellow Case Western students David Dillman and Chip Miller. “Once Europe observes how France goes, it’s likely there will be an EU-wide
legislation that gets passed.”
CLEANR’s lter solution removes 90% of micro ber plastics larger than 50 microns. Unlike competing technologies, the venture’s lter has no motors, jets or other moving parts. e simple mechanical innovation separates micro ber fragments, which are then collected in a separate pod for disposal,
Pennington said.
Disasters like the Great Paci c Garbage Path — a literal trash vortex in the North Paci c Ocean — motivated Pennington to dive deeper into the world’s pollution problem, he said.
“Nobody was doing anything
“Max is calm, measured and thoughtful, but he is also driven and passionate about what he is doing,” Kaler said in an email. “He is absolutely focused on bringing his technology to the world. at passion, combined with his personality, will enable him to be very successful.”
In researching the issue, Pennington learned that 180 million metric tons of microplastics were entering the environment each year from washing machines alone. Making a signi cant dent in this astronomical gure may seem outlandish, but Pennington is con dent it can be done.
“Our goal is to reduce microplastics in the environment, and we’ve got a good group of people ready to sing that song,” said Pennington. “We’re watching in real time as the product is optimized and the company gets better. We can see the steps forward in solving this giant problem.”
— Douglas J. GuthFor the past seven years or so, he’s been doing that at KeyBank, where he now heads the 12-person data security operations team for one of the nation’s largest bank-based nancial services companies. Given the ever-changing nature of cyberattacks, Sarkis acknowledged, the work is inherently stressful.
“ e threats evolve faster than defenses,” he said. “Even though we in the cybersecurity industry have a lot of di erent tools to protect against threat actors, they’re constantly trying to nd ways to bypass those safeguards. So, there can be high-pressure situations where you have act fast while also trying to keep that level head to ensure you knock out every avenue of investigation and remediation.”
e Lakewood native became interested in cybersecurity while taking Cisco Networking Academy courses at the West Shore Career-Technical District. He went on to earn an undergraduate IT degree at Cleveland State University and completed a master’s program in cybersecurity at Bellevue University.
“I didn’t want to pick a career eld based on money or because it seemed easy. I was more concerned with how I was going to make an impact,” Sarkis said.
“ ese people who are trying to steal information and trying to hack networks, they’re bad people.”
In fact, Sarkis excels at keeping threat actors at bay, according to Patrick Gannon, chief information security o cer at FS Investments. Gannon was managing the cybersecurity group at KeyBank in 2016, when Sarkis came on board as a rotational analyst. Sarkis “rose through the ranks quickly,” Gannon said, becoming team lead in just three years and manager in 2022.
“Dealing with a cyberattack is really similar to playing chess in that you have to think about what your opponent’s going to do two moves from now, and that’s something Ryan’s really good at, being able to sit there and strategize and anticipate what the threat actors are going to do and prepare a defense that would account for that,” he said.
Sarkis credited his parents, Syrian immigrants, for his work ethic and desire to “make a di erence.” Although he wasn’t a “great student in high school,” Sarkis said his parents encouraged him to pursue his passion and take advantage of his potential.
“ ey wanted nothing more than to give their children a chance at success,” he said. “ at inspiration is what pushed me to keep trekking forward.”
— Judy StringerAt Gilbane, leaders build more than buildings. We build community, inclusion, and opportunity.
Congratulations Keeley Williams, for being selected as a Crain’s Cleveland 20 in their Twenties honoree
“Having a purpose behind where you’re going is super critical.”
It is Destiny omas’ job to stare out into space.
As the lead astronomer at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s planetarium, omas shares her love of the science of stars and space with visitors of all ages.
In addition to running the planetarium, omas is the museum’s educator and community outreach program coordinator. “She really loves what she does and loves to make an impact on the lives of her students,” says Meenakshi Sharma, senior vice president and chief strategy o cer at CMNH.
Anne Tillie is a rarity among young sta ers at Cleveland City Hall.
She has worked on both sides of the building, both for the City Council and the Bibb administration.
Initially, she worked as an intern for Councilman Kerry McCormack, then as a student aide, and nally for all of the council as a policy analyst. Finance director Ahmed Abonamah asked her to join his department as a project coordinator in late 2022.
Tillie said that in her current role she works on special projects “knitting things together,” because department sta ers are so busy with their regular jobs, and helping things move along.
Ward 17 Councilman Charles Slife, who nominated Tillie, said having 17 bosses at the City Council is not an easy job.
“She is not just reliable but throughout a bright light in what can often be a tense work environment,” Slife said. “I hated to see her leave council, but we have to keep young talent at the city.”
Tillie brought a passion for public service when she came to Cleveland from Baltimore. She moved here to live with her sister in Lakewood while earning a master’s degree in public administration at Cleveland State University. Her professors at Westminster College encouraged her to attend grad school because they said they thought she would do well. She said she also came here because she liked the program at the Levin College of Public A airs.
Working at City Hall was a natural for her.
“I found this is where I really, really want to work,” Tillie said of government service, a variation from her initial interest to pursue a career in a nonpro t. “I feel very lucky this opportunity plopped in my lap.”
She said she moved into the nance department because it would provide new challenges and still meet her personal goals in public service. She joked that she kids her husband, a CPA at Cohen & Co. of Cleveland, that she’s also innance.
Tillie and her husband live in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood and enjoy stopping at Mason’s Creamery in Ohio City. However, her favorite place in Cleveland is Edgewater Beach. She began swimming at 15 and became a competitive swimmer, so she feels comfortable being near the water.
As an East Coast native, she said she is often surprised to see how nice Clevelanders are.
“When I say that, people say, ‘What?’ No one from here gets it,” she said.
McCormack described Tillie as not only brilliant but diligent. He is also glad she remains in the city’s ranks, though on the other side of local government.
As for the future, Tillie plans to continue in public service.
“ is is all I really know. I think no matter where I am in the future, it will be in public service.” She’s also certain of one thing: She has no plans to seek elected o ce herself.
— Stan Bullardomas rst caught the science bug in astronomy class her junior year at Euclid High School, which led to a senior project at the natural history museum and, eventually, a degree in physics and astronomy from Emory University.
e leafy campus and city of Atlanta attracted her to Emory, where she appreciated the “small community in a big, lively city feel.” Although omas enjoyed going to school down South, after she nished, the pull of family called her back home and to a job teaching at the Great Lakes Science Center.
“Family is really important to me. I’m very family-orientated,” omas said. “I have ve siblings — three brothers and two sisters — and I was excited to come back to Cleveland and work at the Great Lakes Science
Center.”
ere, omas was responsible for imparting the love of science to local students. “I worked with middle-schoolers. It was very hands-on, teaching about the engineering design process and space science,” she said.
Currently, she runs the natural history museum’s astronomy program, a good t for someone who did research in “extra-galactic astronomy and behavioral patterns of active galactic nuclei in distant galaxies” and post-graduate work at Georgia State in planetary science and the potential environmental effects on astronauts of deep space travel to Mars.
omas has the impressive ability
Relatively few law school graduates land coveted federal clerkships. Even fewer advance from there to the Supreme Court. Jones Day attorney Sarah Welch, however, is one of them.
Welch clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during the court’s 2021-22 term, following one-year tenures with 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge William Pryor Jr. and 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Je rey Sutton.
“It was the honor of a lifetime to work in the Supreme Court building every day,” she said, “to be involved in some of the most important legal decisions in the United States that year, and de nitely not something I anticipated when I was a high schooler doing mock trial or a piano major in college or even as a law student.”
Having no attorneys in her own family, the Athens native said she awoke to the possibility of a legal career after joining a mock trial team in high school. She liked the “competitiveness” of litigating a case and the analytical thinking required. When a mock trial team was formed at Ohio University
during her senior year there, Welch jumped at the opportunity to advance her litigation skills further, winning a Best Attorney Award for her job as the defense closing attorney at a regional competition in 2016.
Welch went on to the prestigious University of Chicago Law School, where she worked ve separate summer jobs — once in the Ohio attorney general’s o ce, twice in the U.S. Department of Justice and two law rm internships — and graduated with high honors.
Now an associate in Jones Day’s issues and appeals practice, Welch excels at writing briefs, according to Jim Saywell, a 10-year veteran attorney at the rm who helped recruit her late last year.
“Being fairly junior, she’s already taken over responsibilities as the primary drafter of a few very important briefs,” said Saywell, speci cally citing Welch’s “diligence” in analyzing and understanding issues and arguments before “putting pen to paper.”
“Also, she spent a year writing for Justice Kavanaugh, so we trust her to write for our lawyers and for our clients,” he said.
to take the complex and make it accessible, Sharma said. “(S)he loves what she does, and she does it so well teaching the kids that they end up really looking up to her and want to be like her.”
When she is not staring o into space, omas is looking out into the community with programs, including a partnership with the East Cleveland Public Library aimed at bringing new visitors from underserved neighborhoods to the natural history museum.
Recently, omas was inducted into the Euclid High School Hall of Fame less than 10 years after graduation, making her one of the youngest alumni to receive the honor.
— Kim PalmerDoes Welch dream of being on the other side of the bench herself?
“Sure, being a judge would be a great job,” she responded, “but I am really enjoying litigation. … I love to win, and I want to help my clients with their cases. I think that was a piece that was missing when I was clerking, because there you don’t have a dog in the ght.”
Welch also enjoys spending some of her free time volunteering for the Ohio High School Mock Trial program, serving as a judge as needed and helping develop cases for “competitions I once competed in myself.”
— Judy Stringer
You will never run out of fun things to do in Northeast Ohio. Even by the region’s typically high standards, this year’s fall arts season is stacked. Whatever your taste, there’s something to meet it in this season’s offerings of plays, concerts, comedy, art exhibitions and more. Take a look, and start making your plans for what Northeast Ohio arts organizations have in store for you. |
By Scott Suttell
Through Oct. 1: History comes alive at “Thurgood,” a Cleveland Play House production about the life and times of a civil rights legend, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. This biographical play spans his nearly 60-year career, from his time as a young lawyer upending the landmark “separate but equal” decision to his service on the nation’s highest court.
Sept. 19: New Jersey alt rockers The Gaslight Anthem make a stop in Cleveland for a show at the House of Blues. The band formed in 2007 and put out albums steadily through 2015. After a hiatus, it reunited brie y in 2018 and last year returned to full-time status. 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 20: Swing over the Music Box Supper Club to catch the high-energy horn sounds of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Since the ‘90s, BBVD, as the band is known, has been re-introducing swing music to modern audiences. 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 21-24: There are few comic duos in recent years that have achieved the heights of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. You know them from TV, movies and awards shows, but they’re also been friends for 30 years. They bring their Restless Leg Tour to Cleveland for four performances at the KeyBank State Theatre at Playhouse Square.
Sept. 22-23: “Carmen and Other Works,” from Cleveland Ballet, features a new interpretation of “Carmen,” set to the music of Georges Bizet with live amenco guitar. Also on tap: “Pas de Dix,” a “plotless choreographic masterpiece” set to excerpts from Alexander Glazunov’s score for the grand ballet “Raymonda,” and “Nocturne,” a new piece based on piano compositions by Frédéric Chopin performed live by Gerardo Teissonnière.
Sept. 22-Oct. 8: Whatever preconceptions you might have about Tolstoy’s “War and Peace,” put them aside to embrace “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812,” a Great Lakes Theater production at the Hanna Theatre. Great Lakes calls this Tony Award-winning musical a “bold, imaginative electro-pop opera” from composer Dave Malloy, a Lakewood native who has turned “War and Peace” into something thrilling and modern.
Sept. 22-Oct. 22: Up for a Tom Clancy-style thriller on stage? That’s what you’ll nd at “Cat’s-Paw,” a drama at the Beck Center in Lakewood. It features a terrorist who leads a group responsible for a bomb attack at the White House, and a cat-and-mouse game played with a reporter, leading to a stunning conclusion.
Sept. 22-Oct. 15: “Clyde’s,” at Karamu House, is the regional premiere of a work (recently produced on Broadway) from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. It’s set at a
truck stop sandwich shop that offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at redemption, as well as the chance to create the perfect sandwich.
Sept. 25: Nick Cave, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, is much more than that. His body of work includes composing scores, writing books (and novels, and lm scripts) and even creating ceramic art. The polymath is on stage for a night at the KeyBank State Theatre at Playhouse Square. 8 p.m.
Sept. 27: What’s better than one incredible author on stage? Two, of
course. That’s why you’ll want to head to the Maltz Performing Arts Center to check out a discussion between Ann Patchett and Kevin Wilson. Patchett’s latest novel, “Tom Lake,” evokes Chekhov and is a masterpiece. Wilson is best known for “The Family Fang,” published in 2011 and later adapted into a film. 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 27: Peter Gabriel, who has pushed the musical envelope for more than 50 years, makes his way to Cleveland for a show at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse that’s part of I/O The Tour. 8 p.m.
Sept. 27: Eddie Izzard returns to North America for the rst time in four years with a show featuring off-kilter observations and surreal comedy. 8 p.m. at the Connor Palace at Playhouse Square.
Sept. 29-Oct. 14: “American Buffalo,” David Mamet’s modern classic about three small-time hustlers who want a bigger cut of the American dream, gets a fresh look from Akron’s scrappy None Too Fragile theater. None Too Fragile is taking on the modern theatrical canon with verve. A story about the similarities between the hustle and the con ts its sensibility perfectly.
Sept. 30: Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth is everywhere — on TV, movies, stage and even your local bookstore, as she’s the author of a best-selling memoir. Add Akron to the list, as Chenoweth performs at EJ Thomas Hall. 8 p.m.
Oct. 3: Maybe you’ll freak out by what you’ll hear at “The Freakonomics of Cleveland,” a show at Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre featuring Stephen Dubner, co-author of the bestselling “Freakonomics” books and host of Freakonomics Radio. Following
China’s Southern Paradise is the first exhibition in the West to tell the story of cultural impact of Jiangnan. This once-in-a-lifetime exhibition features nearly 250 works, including some that have never been seen before in the U.S. The result is an exhibition that transcends the political moment and proves how culture can generate understanding.
September 10, 2023–January 7, 2024
his talk, Cleveland Mayor Justin M Bibb will join Dubner onstage to delve into the economic landscape of Greater Cleveland. 5 p.m.
Oct 4: It’s likely to be smooth sailing as yacht rock legend Christopher Cross comes to town for a show at The Agora. A career that started in the ‘80s is still going strong. 8 p.m.
Oct. 6: Stick around the Agora for a couple days and check out a performance by Ilana Glazer, the comedian who co-created and co-starred in the critically acclaimed series “Broad
City.” She’s a talented standup as well as co-founder of the nonpro t Generator Collective, which says it aims to “humanize policy through people-powered stories” on social media. 8 p.m.
Oct. 6-29: “M ake Believe,” at Dobama T heatre in Cleveland Heights, is a new play from Tony Award nominee Bess Wohl. It follows four young siblings who, in the attic of the family home, re-create their lives in a game of make-believe, as the world below them becomes more ominous.
Oct. 8-Jan. 14, 2024: The latest blockbuster show at the Cleveland Museum of Art is “Degas and the Laundress: Women, Work, and Impressionism,” billed as the rst exhibition to explore Impressionist artist Edgar Degas’s representations of Parisian laundresses. The industry “fascinated Degas throughout his long career, beginning in the 1850s and continuing until his nal decade of work,” the museum says. He created about 30 depictions of laundresses, united for the rst time in this exhibition.
Oct. 11: Missing John Oliver on
television while much of Hollywood is on strike? You can catch up with his insights about the news and the world as he performs at Akron Civic Theatre. 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 12: Another big name in comedy, Chris Tucker, comes to P layhouse Square for a show at the KeyBank State T heatre that’s part of his T he Legend Tour 2023. Tucker, who became famous in the “Rush Hour” action-comedy movies, recently turned in a terrific performance in the Ben Affleck movie “Air.” 8 p.m.
Oct. 17: The Eagles say goodbye in a show at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse that’s part of what the iconic rockers call The Final Tour. Along for the ride: Steely Dan. Nostalgia is expected. 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 20: Another rock legend, Bob Mould, hits town for a solo electric performance at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights. He does have support on this tour from the long-time bassist in his touring trio, Jason Narducy. 8 p.m.
Oct. 20-Nov. 5: Have a little fun with Halloween at “Dracula: The Bloody Truth,” from Great Lakes Theater. It takes and twists the Dracula story into what is described as a “wild, zany, (almost) authentic adaptation that provides a spooktacular evening full of campy horror fun.”
Oct. 20-Nov. 4: Ready for more Halloween zaniness? Check out “Zombie Prom,” at Blank Canvas Theatre. It’s your typical girl-lovesghoul rock musical and is set in the 1950s at Enrico Fermi High. Madness ensues.
Oct. 21-Nov. 12: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” at Cleveland Play House, is a more traditionally dark take on October horror. The Play House calls it a “sensual, poetic and surprisingly adventurous adaptation” of Shelley’s novel, which “illuminates the real-life ‘monsters’ that haunted her greatest work.”
Oct. 24-29: If you’re in the mood for something outrageous and silly, “The Book of Mormon,” at KeyBank State Theatre at Playhouse Square, should t the bill. The energetic musical from the “South Park” guys pushes about as many buttons as the long-running TV show. And it holds up. The show won nine Tony Awards and remains a staple of musical touring productions.
Oct. 31-Nov. 19: Odds are you’ll nd something poetic in “Girl from the North Country,” the Bob Dylan musical that’s at the Connor Palace at Playhouse Square as part of the KeyBank Broadway Series. The Tony Award-winning show is set in 1934, in Duluth, Minnesota, and it revolves around a group of travelers whose lives intersect in a guest house.
Nov. 4-March 24, 2024:
clevelandorchestra.com
“RETOLD: African American Art and Folklore,” an exhibition at the Akron Art Museum, features art from the Wesley and Missy Cochran Collection and focuses on four themes that emerged during the curation process: remembering, religion, racialization and resistance. Folklore texts are used throughout the space “to provide a richer, deeper story of African American culture,” the museum says.
Nov. 8: Thanks to “Barbie,” pink is
all
So is Pink, the pop star, who brings her Trustfall Tour to Cleveland for a show at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 9: It takes a rare talent to remain relevant in American popular culture from the 1970s to the 2020s, but Henry Winkler has done that, in a career that spans the days of “Happy Days” to his remarkable performance in “Barry.” Winkler visits the Maltz Performing Arts Center to discuss his new memoir, “Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond,” which hits bookshelves in October. 7:30 p.m.
fundamentally heartwarming message. The Great Lakes version, on stage at the Mimi Ohio Theatre, boasts incredible special effects.
Nov. 30-Dec. 2: You can never go wrong checking in with the Cleveland Orchestra. Its performance of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony sounds especially delightful. The piece “paints an uplifting picture of earthly afterlife, a child’s vision of heaven as a place lled with earthly delights and tuneful melodies,” the orchestra says. For these performances, it’s paired with a new work by composer Betsy Jolas, commissioned speci cally as a companion piece to the Mahler symphony.
Dec. 1-31: You can march over to Dobama Theatre in Cleveland Heights for “Little Women,” an adaptation of the beloved Louisa May Alcott novel about four sisters experiencing love and loss. The actors re-create the timeless story via the family memories found in their attic.
Dec. 1-16: Maybe you didn’t know you needed a musical version of “Rocky” as a holiday treat. But Blank Canvas Theatre on Cleveland’s West Side is making sure that option is available to you, bringing the story of small-time Philly boxer Rocky Balboa taking on heavyweight champ Apollo Creed to the stage. This is the Cleveland premiere of a show featuring music and lyrics by Tony Award winners and Academy Award nominees Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, and a book by multiple Tony winner Thomas Meehan,
Dec. 3: Longtime friends, performing legends and “Only Murders in the Building” stars Steve Martin and Martin Short will bring chaotic energy to Playhouse Square’s KeyBank State Theatre with a show called “You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today!” (You will, of course, but just go with it.) Expect some putdowns and self-deprecating human from two veteran comedy masters who met on the set of the 1986 lm “Three Amigos.” Things have improved for them since then.
Dec. 10: “Dave Koz and Friends” has become a holiday tradition in Cleveland. The saxophonist, along with talented musical guests, has performed in Cleveland during the holidays for more than 20 years, and he keeps that streak intact with a show at the KeyBank State Theatre at Playhouse Square. 7 p.m.
Dec. 13-23: Speaking of holiday musical traditions, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus return with their popular series of Holiday Concerts that ll the Mandel Concert Hall with the sounds of the season. Get your tickets early; these shows ll up fast.
Dec. 14-23: Your Christmas season might not be complete without a trip
downtown for Cleveland Ballet’s gorgeous version of “The Nutcracker.” It’s at the Connor Palace at Playhouse Square for a total of 11 performances over two weekends. The ballet, in two acts, is based on the original story by E.T.A. Hoffman with music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. A sound and visual treat.
Dec. 16-17: Cleveland native Jim B rickman comes home for the holidays with three performances of “A Joyful Christmas” at the Hanna T heatre at P layhouse Square. The piano man’s brand new show promises “a heartwarming evening of music and laughter ... with the sounds of Yuletide carols, holiday classics and all of B rickman’s biggest hits.”
China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta
11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland OH, 44106 | 216-421-7350
| Plan your visit at cma.org
Now through Jan 7, 2024: e Cleveland Museum of Art presents China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta, a once-in-alifetime exhibition, featuring 240 masterworks, many of which will never be seen together again. is landmark exhibition is the rst in the West to explore the historical and cultural riches of a pivotal region of Jiangnan— conceived by artists as heaven on earth— and will only be seen in Cleveland. SPONSORED
Nov. 16-19: Apollo’s Fire brings the heat to “Fire and Joy,” a program featuring double concertos from Bach and Vivaldi, a Bach oboe concerto and rarely heard sinfonias. Performances take place over four nights in Akron, Lakewood, Cleveland Heights and University Circle, so no matter where you live, you have a convenient option to see it.
Nov. 24-Dec. 23: The world’s most popular ghost story (and a scary one at that) returns to Cleveland with the Great Lakes Theater performance of “A Christmas Carol.” It’s a tale of redemption, of course, with a
Dec. 8: “The Hip Hop Nutcracker” is described as a “holiday mash-up for the whole family.” The show, directed and choreographed by Tony and Olivier Award-nominated Jennifer Weber, is a contemporary dance spectacle that re-mixes and re-imagines the ballet classic. It’s on stage at the KeyBank State Theatre at Playhouse Square. 7 p.m.
Dec. 9: Iconic indie singer-songwriter Liz Phair shows off three decades of raw, groundbreaking music as she brings her Guyville Tour to Cleveland at Temple Live. Her debut album, 1993’s “Exile in Guyville,” was divisive at the time but remains a seminal work of the era. 8 p.m.
moCa Cleveland Summer/Fall 2023 Exhibition Season
11400 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland OH, 44106 | 216-421-8671 | moCacleveland.org
Now through Jan 7, 2024: Free admission. is season, delight your senses with three new group exhibitions. Relax as a conveyor belt brings art to you in Don’t mind if I do; connect to memories woven in the textiles of A so place to land; and discover the ties that bring together the artists of ¡Juntos!, presented with Julia de Burgos Cultural Arts Center.
With founding CEO Ray Leach stepping away from JumpStart Inc. at the end of this month, the agency has named an interim CEO to ll the position.
Richard “Duke” Jankura will take on the role until a search is completed for a permanent successor to Leach.
Leach, who has led JumpStart since 2004, will leave the agency on Sept. 30 as he shifts his focus fulltime to e Ohio Fund, a private venture out t formed by Leach and Drive Capital co-founder Mark Kvamme with an inaugural fund-
raising target of $500 million.
Jankura is a JumpStart vet and its original chief nancial o cer. He left JumpStart in 2015 and worked a two-year stint as CFO for Walnut Ridge Strategic Management Co., according to LinkedIn. He returned to JumpStart in 2017 as a senior partner of nance, working in that role through December 2021.
Since 2015, Jankura has also served as a board member and treasurer for Growth Opportunity Partners, a Cleveland nonprofit that o ers community development capital, services and other forms of support to Ohio small businesses with a focus on low- and moderate-income communities
Chris Rose can still hear the tone of Nev Chandler’s delivery, can still hear it rising as the legendary radio announcer transitions from “pumping once . . .” to “now throwing down the left side!” to — nally, wonderfully — that iconic shout of “(Webster) Slaughter has it, he’s going in for a touchdown!”
It was Nov. 30, 1986, and Bernie Kosar had just delivered the game-winning rainbow to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime at Municipal Stadium. And as Doug Dieken yelled “All right!” and started laughing, Chandler broke into his iconic, sing-songy capper, “ e Browns have won the gaaaaaame!”
Back then, the Browns were the city’s princes and Chandler was their voice, the one delivering the nal word on the biggest moments, the one who provided the soundtrack to what remains Cleveland’s most magical stretch of football since Paul Brown strolled the sidelines in a camel hair coat.
mean Jim was healthy enough to be in the box, and everyone wants that. ere is not one Browns fan — me included — who is happy that I’m calling this.
“I’m hoping I don’t have to do anything more than call a couple games. at would be perfect.”
Donovan was rst diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2000 and underwent bone marrow surgery in 2011, forcing him to miss preseason games before returning for the regular season.
e Browns have known about his relapse since May, just before he went public with the news, but it wasn’t until recently that the team began seriously looking for a temporary replacement. Donovan missed two games last season — one for illness, one for COVID-19 — and was replaced by Je Phelps.
Donovan called the Browns’ 24-3 opening win over the Bengals on Sunday, Sept. 10, then broke the news about his hiatus afterward, saying, “I appreciate everyone’s support. I promise I’ll be a listener, and I’ll be back as soon as
and minority- or women-owned enterprises.
JumpStart updated stakeholders about the leadership transition and Jankura’s interim CEO post via email on Monday, Sept. 11.
“With Duke at the helm, we are assured of continuity, a deep understanding of our mission and a leadership grounded in experience and integrity,” notes a joint message from Jeanne Coughlin, chair of JumpStart’s board of directors, and Cindy Torres Essell, chair of the CEO transition committee. “Leveraging his rich history with JumpStart and extensive experience in venture capital, nancial services and nonpro t management, Duke is uniquely po-
sitioned to guide us through this transitional period, ensuring seamless continuity in service and undiminished dedication to our mission.”
Leach has also agreed to work with JumpStart in a consulting capacity as needed to help ensure an orderly transition.
“We are con dent JumpStart will continue to thrive under Duke’s leadership,” Coughlin told Crain’s. “His expertise and understanding of JumpStart’s history and operations make him an ideal interim CEO. Under his leadership, support to regional entrepreneurs will continue uninterrupted while the board works to identify JumpStart’s new CEO.”
JumpStart retained executive search rm Russell Reynolds As-
sociates in May to lead the hunt for Leach’s successor.
While the organization has not laid out a deadline for placing a permanent CEO, JumpStart spokesperson Vicki McDonald has previously said that the hope is to ll that post in the fourth quarter.
JumpStart is a venture development organization and small-business support system fueled by a mix of public and private funding sources. Its venture investing arm, JumpStart Ventures, backs early-stage companies at pre-seed, seed and Series A funding rounds. e agency touts investments totaling approximately $88 million across 166 tech startups and reports approximately $140 million in capital under management today across its four core funds.
Since 1999, through the good and (mostly) bad, Jim Donovan has done the same.
Which is why, as Rose prepares to ll in for Donovan as he receives treatment for a leukemia relapse, his heart is hurting.
“I wish I was not doing this,” said Rose, a Shaker Heights native and NFL Network broadcaster who did play-by-play for the Browns’ preseason games the past two years. “Because that would
I can.” Donovan was entering his 25th year as the Browns’ radio broadcaster, passing Gib Shanley for the longest tenure in club history.
“I know Chris will do a great job,” Donovan said in a text message to Crain’s Cleveland Business. “I know he loves the Browns! I told him to have a lot of fun. is job is incredibly fun, so just go with that. And the games look like they’re going to be amazing.”
Donovan has also stepped away from his job as sports director at WKYC, and the network set up an email address speci cally so fans can send Donovan a get-well message: getwelljim@wkyc.com.
“You look around the league at the people who do his job, and Jim is the best of the best,” said Peter John-Baptiste, the Browns’ chief communications o cer. “We know how di cult this has been for him and his family, but he’s a ghter and we’re all pulling for him.”
“ e response I’ve gotten has been overwhelming — from all over the world,” Donovan said. “I’ve always been proud to be the ‘Voice of the Browns’ and the fans are a huge part of that.”
Rose understands that better than most. He’s been calling Browns games since he was 13 years old, when he and his brother, Pete, would plug a microphone into his VCR. (Pete did play-byplay, while Rose was the analyst.) Rose speci cally remembers a 1984 game against the Chiefs, one that most Browns fans (and then-quarterback Paul McDonald) would like to forget.
“I think we lost, like, 10-6 and Paul McDonald was sacked 11
times,” said Rose, whose memory was spot-on. “ at’s when I got hooked on it.”
Rose still reveres Cleveland broadcasters like Chandler (he still has a few of Chandler’s calls burned his brain, including the one at the top of this story), Joe Tait (who called games for the Cavaliers and Indians) and Tom Hamilton (Indians/Guardians), saying, “I can’t tell you how many times I fell asleep listening to Joe Tait give the Cavs’ stats after the game.” He puts the Boston-born Donovan in that same category, knowing the special connection he has developed with fans since arriving in the city in 1985.
“My guess is, the rst thing that comes out of people’s mouth isn’t, ‘Jim Donovan is a great radio playby-play guy,’ although it could, because he is,” Rose said. “He is phenomenal. It’s so tough to do what he does and he pulls it o beautifully.
“But in a world in which there’s a lot of negativity toward people in our industry, he is universally adored. at means you’re doing something right with your career. He has that ability to connect with people and just be a good person.”
Rose said the biggest compli-
ment he can pay Donovan is this: “People don’t know he’s not from Cleveland.”
Rose was slated to host NFL GameDay on the NFL Network this past Sunday, Sept. 17, in Los Angeles, then take a red-eye ight to Pittsburgh for the Browns’ “Monday Night Football” game Sept. 18 against the Steelers.
After that, he’s planning to broadcast Cleveland’s home games before the bye week: against the Titans (Sept. 24) and the Ravens (Oct. 1). Rose hopes Donovan can return for the Oct. 15 home game against the San Francisco 49ers, but no one is really sure how long he’ll be out.
“I have a job to do and I’m just going to do that job to the best of my ability,” Rose said. “NFL Network understood that these are pretty extenuating circumstances. We’re all an NFL family, so when one of the 32 teams needs you, the guys who work at the NFL are like, ‘Yeah, we get it. We understand.’
“Hopefully Jim’s health continues to improve and he gets back to doing what he does better than anybody,” he says. “ e best thing I can do is do three really good games, get three wins and get out of the way.”
Joe ScalzoNFL Network broadcaster and Cleveland native Chris Rose will ll in for play-by-play announcer Jim Donovan on radio broadcasts while Donovan gets treatment for leukemia. | CLEVELAND BROWNS
“I wish I was not doing this. Because that would mean Jim was healthy enough to be in the box, and everyone wants that.”
Chris Rose, NFL Network broadcaster
At a fundamental level, client service is about setting expectations and meeting them. Delivering the services and products you are known for is a given. Clients and customers expect that, and they should. But delivering on your promises with excellent ongoing communication, technical support, pricing and the willingness to go the extra mile are the tools that build an outstanding client service reputation.
e Covid-19 pandemic upended our ideas about customer service. Supply chains ground to a halt and product deliveries were either late or irrelevant because there were no shoppers in stores. Given the unpredictability of government-mandated shutdowns and logistical issues, customers were more forgiving. Even in professional services, where demand for new consulting services skyrocketed, clients knew the services they received o en were built around moving targets, so they were understanding when something needed to be revised.
All that has ended. Now that we’re on the other side of the pandemic, customers want to make up for lost
time and lost revenues. Fortunately, emerging technology solutions and new ways of doing business, such as remote service delivery, are fueling a rapid evolution in customer service delivery.
A recent client satisfaction survey showed that “consistent high-quality service” was the key factor behind the nding that 9 out of 10 clients would recommend our rm to others. We are proud of that result and continually try to set the bar higher for client service. It is an unending process because we know that client expectations are constantly changing. erein lies the challenge of maintaining a strong customer service culture.
All of this is an outgrowth of a rapidly accelerating evolution in customer service. e major elements of this evolution are:
24-hour self-service.
Are customers able to place orders online, upload les to a portal and pay their invoices online? ese kinds of conveniences are standard features of the marketplace today because customers like using technology to move business along.
Convenience across multiple channels. Customers want their relationship with you to be convenient, so understanding how each customer prefers to communicate is important. One customer may want to communicate by email, another by text, and another by phone. Invest in the systems to
don’t acknowledge the complaint and resolve it.
Timeliness.
Are your customers in several di erent time zones? Can they only communicate with an agent at your company during your business hours? An AI-powered chatbot on your website or 24-hour call service can reinforce the feeling that your company is “on the job” whenever customers need you.
communicate with each customer using the channel they prefer, including a CRM that serves as a central repository of every contact you have with a customer.
Immediate responsiveness. If a customer has a question, concern or complaint, an immediate response is essential, even if only to acknowledge receipt of their message. In the old days, a customer complaint was between you and the customer. But in this age of social media, it could quickly become public if you
While all of these elements are enabled by technology and bring convenience and speed to your customer service, it’s important to remember that the personal touch is still important. While the convenience of having a question answered by an AI-powered chatbot may speed an order along, your customers still want to know they have your ear and that you understand their challenges.
ese tools and tactics may not be right for every business or every industry. e key is to nd the solutions that are right for your company and – most importantly –your customers.
“The Covid-19 pandemic upended our ideas about customer service.”John Krizansky is an HW&Co. audit principal. He is also the Board Chair for Centers for Dialysis Care and is a well-known speaker for the Ohio Society of CPAs on various topics. JOHN KRIZANSKY, CPA Principal HW&Co. 216-378-7264
There’s a storm brewing in health insurance as companies approach open enrollment, and in ation is playing a huge part. Here’s what to expect of this trickledown market.
e price of health care has gone up exponentially in recent years, so much that health systems are approaching insurance partners to renegotiate mid-contract.
e costs of food, medical supplies and employee salaries are also up. For example, many nurses resigned during and a er the pandemic, as many were overworked and burnt out. Many nurses have gained a much higher salary for the same work, potentially at the same hospital, by working for nursing sta ng agencies instead of the hospital.
ese additional costs are being passed on to insurers, who are passing them along to companies through higher premiums.
BILL FISHER Senior vice president, managing director, Group Bene ts Oswald Companies 216-367-3292
For nearly 30 years, Fisher has helped employers with bene ts, risk management and health management strategy and implementation, specializing in nancial and technical aspects of employee bene ts plan design, funding and employee communication.
It’s a familiar story, as higher costs have always been passed down the line in every industry. However, there are ways to lessen the blow.
Companies entering open enrollment season for employee benefits should expect their broker to put a lot more work into finding solutions that fit their immediate needs. However, companies should also be actively involved in the process to ensure an optimal outcome.
Every company should ask the following questions of themselves as they approach open enrollment:
• Does the company have a plan to manage pharmacy expenditures?
Prescription drugs are the leading cause of increased costs in the health care industry. For example, diabetes medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro are being used for weight loss. Should they be covered under your plan for weight loss?
• Does the company receive data regularly and understand how its health plan is running?
Understand the drivers of your health care spend and use that data to mitigate your claims to lower your costs.
• How do we educate and engage employees to help with effective consumerism of health care services?
ose covered drive the costs of your plan because they are the ones utilizing the health care system. Creating a robust, multidimensional communication plan to help employees better understand their bene ts and use them more e ectively will help lower costs.
Oswald has been working on behalf of its clients for months to better prepare them for the renewal of their employee bene ts.
We begin by mining the company’s claims data to look for trends in
employee care. We consider whether the claims are ongoing or if they were a one-time event. at’s how we paint a picture of the company’s future risk pro le when we take it to market.
is season, companies should also consider self-insurance and potentially unbundling their bene ts to achieve greater cost savings. For example, the company contracted as the pharmacy bene t manager might be di erent than the company providing a health network.
e nal step is to make sure your employees understand how to best use their bene ts and the health system to focus on health and wellness and to reduce their own out-of-pocket costs.
Contact me to determine the best options for your employee bene ts package this renewal season. We’ll take a holistic look at your company and design a bene ts package that works for all involved. b sher@ oswaldcompanies.com, 216-367-3292.
A short walk north of the town square in Burton, which traces its history to 1798 and has managed to remain a village with just over 1,000 people, Det and Kiyomi Chansamone have bought the former Berkshire High School to remake it as a video production center.
e availability of the 96,000-square-foot high school, which was built in three phases beginning in 1930, drew Det Chansamone to Burton. He envisions one of the school’s gyms as a huge soundstage, with other sections, like the old band room, being converted and made available to rent by out-of-state lm and TV crews shooting in Northeast Ohio as well as area commercial production companies.
Chansamone, a special-e ects producer who has worked on major lm and TV projects, also sees it as a place to create his own shows.
Chansamone started out looking for a home for his own startup business in the Los Angeles area. But he quickly found the costs prohibitive for his bootstrap efforts and began looking elsewhere.
He saw an article about a family that had converted an old school to living quarters. He realized a school, with existing o ces and substantial parking, could meet his needs.
at led him to an ad on LoopNet, the commercial real estate sales and listing site, and ultimately to Burton.
e Berkshire School District sold the property to a Geauga County investment group at auction, and that group sold it to the Chansamones in a deal that closed in June. Hanna Commercial had the listing for the building. It was available because the high school was relocated in 2022 to a consolidated K-12 school campus a few miles away.
“He was so excited that he wanted to buy it sight unseen,” recalled his wife, Kiyomi Chansamone. Instead, they toured the place and liked it.
“A lot of expense will go into adding equipment,” said Det. “ e exibility of the building will reduce some of the physical costs.” He declined to disclose a projected budget.
Lori O’Neill, a Hanna Commercial vice president, elded Det Chansamone’s call as he zeroed in on the property.
“You never know who will be on the line,” she said in an interview about her rst call with Chansamone.
“It turned out to be an amazing concept that can help develop our region,” said O’Neill, who works part-time with the Chansamones on marketing the studio.
She was surprised to learn his
unexpected plans for the place were rooted in his experience in Hollywood. She also works now with Chansamone’s Schoolyard Studio to promote the venture.
Det Chansamone is listed on IMDb.com, a bible for lm a cionados, which notes he did work on “Men in Black II,” released in 2002, and “Spider-Man II,” released in 2004. A display of advertisements and photos show other programs he’s provided special e ects on, such as the TV series “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Suits.”
Shawn Rech, co-founder and director of Transition Studios and the TruBlu true-crime video streaming service, said he has met Det Chansamone.
“He’s a below-the-line person,” Rech said of Det Chansamone, referring to his working on the less-visible parts of shows from camera operators, costume makers and others who do the grunt work of movies and television shows. “ ey don’t always get the credit they deserve.”
Rech said Det Chansamone has worked on massive projects and is “extremely skilled at what he does.” Rech said many have tried to launch such production centers in the past in the region, but Schoolyard Studio “has gotten further than most.” It will also take a huge budget to do what’s envisioned for the place, he said.
Chansamone, during an interview and tour of the grounds, declined to say how much it will cost to realize his vision. He said he plans ve phases at the old school, the rst starting the week of Sept. 11 when a construction contractor was to install a new driveway and cut what’s called an “elephant-size” door to one of the gyms.
Under the plan, existing o ces at the school can be rented by production crews, along with a two-story soundstage that will go into one of the gyms. e former band room will be converted into a sound studio as it’s already equipped with huge speakers that crews can use to play their sound e ects.
“ e speakers will allow crews in the screening room to hear their sound e ects and adjust them with a control center in a room next to it,” Chansamone said.
While the room had multiple levels of seating, Det Chansamone said his team had to remove storage racks that once held instruments to open up the space.
“We’re also trying to retain rooms that may have additional uses for scenes,” Chansamone said, “such as one of the science labs that will stand in for a lab set.”
e former cafeteria will be divided into several rooms to serve as a hospital setting.
“We’ll add hallways in the
building’s halls and divide the room into nursing stations and patient rooms,” he added.
One storage room remains lled with old textbooks and library books.
“We’re trying to save anything we may need later on,” he said.
e former concession area outside the larger gym will become a cafe for co ee and sandwiches, he said.
“We also want to enclose areas with glass coverings to provide more space,” Chansamone said. Pointing at a section of open space between two parts of the building, “We plan to install a garden there.”
Meanwhile, the 160-space parking lot can serve production trucks and RVs. He also plans to create sets for a hospital and courtrooms, because they are so common in movies and TV. Future plans even call for installing residences on the second oor so crew may stay on site.
Although Burton is in lightly populated Geauga County, as well as 30 miles from downtown Cleveland and 34 miles from downtown Akron, Det Chansamone said he’s con dent that crews in the region will nd the space despite its location.
Rech said he doesn’t believe the Burton location will deter Hollywood studios and other lm and TV producers from using the space.
e Chansamones did not originally plan to relocate here but recently cut the cord on California.
Kiyomi said they wish for more dining options in the Burton area, but the couple enjoys its charm.
“We certainly don’t miss L.A. tra c,” she said.
Det said the village has been helpful in getting the studio launched, such as approving zoning variances. e schools were enthusiastic about his potential program; he already hosts tours of the workin-progress studio.
Moving from L.A. to Ohio was not Det Chansamone’s longest trek. He emigrated as a 5-year-old with his family from Laos to the U.S.
“We had to sneak out of the country to ailand,” he said, and recalled that his brother had to don more American-style clothes to pass for a young ai man returning
home. His family settled in Utah, where several members of the family worked at a factory.
He also followed a circuitous path to the special-e ects business. He attended UCLA and got a degree in philosophy. He had planned to become a lawyer, but working at several law rms as a le clerk while he was in college changed his mind.
“I always tell people that if you want your son or daughter to be a lawyer, don’t let them work at a law rm until after law school,” he said. He had originally planned to pursue law as a day job and creative activities in his free time.
“Our entire family is very creative,” Chansamone said. “We always had projects. I enjoy the constant problem-solving in creating scenes and movies. I had planned to pursue hobbies at night while working in law. at changed after I decided to drop law.”
So he pursued creative work instead. His start came, as is typical, “with a studio that hired young people and paid peanuts. But it was a great experience.”
For his part, Chansamone is now more worried about when the current Writer’s Guild of America strike ends. It already has cost the studio three planned productions, he said. So for now, he continues to ramp up e orts.
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From Page 1
Tran is an architect by trade who professes a “love of building brands.”
Following a nancial exit from the tech industry several years ago, he moved with his wife (who is from Northeast Ohio) to Cleveland from Washington, D.C.
Looking for somewhere to invest capital, Tran launched Muddy Shutter Media, a digital marketing agency, production house and brand incubator formed in Cleveland in spring 2020.
As that endeavor went well, Tran said his limited partners encouraged him to start a venture group. He sought guidance from Ulmer & Berne on how to run a venture shop and, with the law rm’s help and guidance, the concept for Arthur Street began to take shape.
Arthur Street has already partnered with an interesting variety of companies. Its portfolio includes
Ohio CAT
Ohio CAT is pleased to announce the promotion of Brian Speelman to General Sales Manager. Brian graduated from the University of Akron in 1992 with a BS in Industrial Management. He began working for Miller Tool Rental in 1988 prior to its acquisition by Ohio Machinery Co., currently dba Ohio CAT, in 1998. Previously a Regional Sales Manager, Brian will broaden his focus to new and used construction equipment sales statewide as well as the implementation of new sales and market share strategies.
OneDigital
OneDigital proudly announces the promotion of Kim Caffey to Director of Client Services in the Independence, OH of ce. Kim has been integral in OneDigital’s (formerly Alpha Bene ts) growth and success for over 29 years. Mrs. Caffey states her main goal is “to provide peace of mind with each client and colleague interaction, to be trustworthy and responsive, and to deliver fresh-thinking strategies with optimism.”
OneDigital is a leading employee bene ts/ nancial services/HR consulting rm.
Hahn Loeser & Parks
The Firm welcomed associate Ben Horvath to its Litigation and Construction Practices. Horvath focuses on business and commercial disputes and construction litigation. He advises individuals, small businesses and companies on a diverse area of litigation matters. He is a member of the Ohio State and Stark County Bar Associations. A Captain and Judge Advocate in the US Army, Horvath has served since 2013 as both Active Duty and Reserves and commanded a military police company of over 150 soldiers.
MMV Holdings of Charleston, South Carolina, which runs a group of ammunition manufacturers; e K Group of Washington, D.C., which is described as a “versatile government contracting entity”; Mythos Athletics, a startup athletic apparel manufacturer in Cleveland; FYTLAB Inc., also of Cleveland, a maker of athletic supplements; and Burch Barrel of Bozeman, Montana, a maker of suspended barbecue grills. Muddy Shutter is now part of Arthur Street as well.
Tran said La Caza reached out to his venture out t to pitch the business on an investment. Not only did he like the business, but his venture rm had experience in managing commodities subject to heavy regulations.
“Our group was very involved with how to navigate those regulations. And with Ohio being a control state (for liquor), we thought we could get through quickly,” Tran said. “Brands can take two to three years to get into a control state, and Ohio is one of the
most complicated. But we got La Caza in within six months, which kind of shocked the state. And we were like, yeah, this is not our rst rodeo.”
As Arthur Street decided to partner with La Caza, a Cleveland outpost for the company just made sense. Now, Arthur Street’s headquarters at 4700 Lakeside Ave. doubles as o ce and warehouse space for La Caza, which has seven employees there.
“It became an informal La Caza stronghold without us even realizing it,” Tran said.
Going back to why Tran liked La Caza in the rst place goes beyond his drive to build new brands.
According to data from their importer partners, Ohio is the seventh-largest state for tequila imports.
Being in Cleveland, they’re also a 45-minute ight to Chicago, another market La Caza wants to break into, he said, as Illinois is the fourth-largest state for tequila imports.
Launching distribution in Ohio also bodes well for the brand’s ability to break into the country’s other 16 control states.
Zachary Milvo has joined Benesch as an Associate in the rm’s Real Estate & Environmental Practice Group. Zachary is skilled in a variety of real estate law issues, including acquisition and disposition transactions, lease agreements, and re nances of housing complexes. He is experienced in leases for retail, of ce, warehouse, and industrial spaces, and has completed transactions regarding leaseback components, build to suit leases, and ground leases for international production companies.
“From a statistical perspective, we see a vast opportunity for our brand to make a large impact in a market where brands typically are not present nor personable in,” Tran said. “From an emotional perspective, there are striking parallels between our brand and the unwavering dedication and determination that de ne the essence of being an Ohioan. We want to have boots on the ground here, as the love for tequila only grows in Ohio and across the northern market, and really establish our brand in a grassroots manner.”
Tran declined to discuss sales or nancial information for La Caza. But according to Securities and Exchange Commission lings, the company has raised at least $2.25 million since its inception, including $800,000 in 2022 and $1.45 million this year. e latter raise was part of a targeted $4.5 million funding round.
Ancora
We are happy to announce that Sandy Mullin has joined Ancora as an Assistant Vice President and Retirement Plan Education Specialist. Sandy will assist the rm’s Retirement Plans division with running the education and enrollment programs for retirement plan participants. Sandy has a long history in education with over 20 years of teaching experience prior to joining Ancora, in addition to her of ce manager experience. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Ohio University.
BauerGrif th
The BauerGrif th Law
Firm is pleased to announce that Elise Hara Auvil is joining the rm as of counsel. She brings a wealth of expertise in human resources, employment and public sector law, having dedicated her career to political subdivisions and non-pro ts. She is a Case Western Reserve University law school graduate, uent in French and Spanish. BauerGrif th is an all female law rm supporting business and philanthropy in Cleveland since 2009.
Mansour Gavin LPA
Adam Uth has joined Mansour Gavin’s litigation group where he will focus on real estate matters. Adam has considerable experience representing businesses in various types of litigation and providing compliance analysis, both in the private sector and for the City of Shaker Heights. Adam earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan School of Law and a B.A. from York University.
Enterprise Title
Enterprise Title welcomes Shawn McMichael, an experienced Sales Executive assisting both residential and commercial real estate professionals throughout Northeast Ohio. Enterprise Title’s expertise includes over 30 years of closing experience. Enterprise insures a full range of real estate transactions, from rst-time homebuyers to commercial developments, agricultural transactions, investors and re nances. Shawn is a Lake County native.
As far as additional plans for La Caza, Tran said the company is actively working on partnerships with Ohio distilleries to provide ex-bourbon barrels for aging. ere are also aspirations for a tasting room here.
Other markets that Tran would like to see La Caza expand distribution to include— besides Illinois—New York, Tennessee and the Washington, D.C., metro area. He added that the company has partnered with irstie for direct-to-consumer sales in 39 states as well.
“Everyone expects a tequila brand to be in nice and warm states like Texas, California and Florida,” Tran said. “While we value those states and will have a presence, it is part of our core to be unexpected and to try different, unconventional approaches but above all else, providing an authentic and high-quality tequila to all those who will appreciate it.”
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