Chamber Presents Awards, Reflects on 20 Years
BOARDMAN, Ohio -- Katie Shroder likely will be asked about the role a ping pong table played in her husband, Bob, deciding 17 years ago to accept a job as chief operating officer at St. Joseph Health Center in Warren.
Shroder, presented Thursday with the William G. Lyden Spirit of the Valley Award by the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber, today is the president and CEO of Humility of Mary Health Partners. Unable to attend the Regional Chamber’s annual meeting because he was representing the Ohio Hospital Association at an American Hospital Association regional policy board meeting in Milwaukee, Shroder, in recorded remarks, recalled how he weighed the Warren offer and a post in Boca Raton, Fla.
“I was leaning toward the Boca and the beach," he explained. But his wife, “with the aid of a ping pong table, convinced me to take the Warren job,” he said. “I’ll let you ask her why a ping pong table was convincing but she was right. It was the best career decisions we’ve ever made, but then, I always listen to her -- well, usually listen to her,” he quipped.
Shroder was honored at the chamber’s annual meeting Thursday at Mr. Anthony's Banquet Center here, which also commemorated the organization 20th anniversary.
The Spirit of the Valley Award is presented to an individual who has displayed “exemplary leadership and commitment to the community, economic development and the overall progress of” the Mahoning Valley, said Kevin Helmick, president and CEO of Farmers National Bank, the awards underwriter. The luncheon sponsor was Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield.
The Donald Cagigas Spirit of the Chamber Award was given to Sylvester J. Frazzini III, general manager/vice president of American Business Center Inc. Frazzini “not only acts as an extension of the chamber,” Helmick said, but “truly could be” one of the staff himself. He has attended a majority of the chamber’s events since joining in 2004 and ensuring his employer participated via sponsorships. Soon after joining ABC in 2011, he became part of the chamber’s ambassador committee and later became part of its lead group. He also promotes the various chamber’s programs to its members.
The chamber is one of the strongest in the country and its advocacy for the regional business community is unmatched, Frazzini said. “Chance and hope are not strategies and the chamber makes sure through its actions that our region does not have to reply on either to attract new businesses and programs to our area,” he said.
A new award, the Spirit of Excellence Award, was presented to Chris Jaskiewicz, chief operating officer and president of VEC Inc. As it began educating the public on the emerging opportunities associated with the Utica and Marcellus shale plays in the region, the chamber discovered “what a great resource” VEC could be, Helmick said. He attributed the strong support the chamber has received from VEC to Jaskiewicz.
Jaskiewicz recalled arguing in his high school senior thesis that individuals are a product of their environment. “I used that as an excuse for the way I was living my life at that time. I was a poor boy growing up on the west side of Warren, and I realize now that I was wrong," he said. “We’re not a product of our environment. We create our environment by our thoughts and by our hearts, and we get the chance to choose whether” challenge or adversity “strengthens us or weakens us.”
Among those Jaskiewicz credited for his success were his parents; his boss, Rex Ferry, “who gave me hope at a time when hope didn’t exist,” and his wife, Kristin, “who taught me how to love and then gave me two children to test that.”
Cited for their efforts to support economic development and pursue government efficiency were Trumbull County Commissioners Frank Fuda, Paul Heltzel and Dan Polivka, who jointly received the Chairman’s Political Achievement Award
Fuda expressed the commissioners’ appreciation to the chamber's staff, in particular Sarah Boyarko, its vice president for economic development, “for keeping us informed of potential expansions of local businesses and letting us know when it’s time for us to step up to the plate” to provide assistance.
Government is about working with businesses and not putting up hurdles, Polivka said. “I think we all have worked together to make sure that that happens,” he remarked.
During the event, the chamber’s board chairman, Pete Asimakopoulos, and its president and CEO, Thomas M. Humphries, reflected on the chamber’s history
When the Youngstown, Warren and Niles chambers of commerce merged in 1993, as the Mahoning Valley was still attempting to pick up the pieces from the economic shocks of the 1970s and the 1980s, “undoubtedly there was uncertainty and fear in not knowing the outcome would be. But what we are certain of is they had nothing to lose at that time,” Asimakopoulos recalled. Even as recently as five years ago, the Valley was regularly featured on lists of worst places to live and work.
Today, in contrast, the chamber has tracked 600- to 700 positive news stories about the Valley annually for the past five years from both national and international media. “Progress and success are words that define us as never before,” Asimakopoulos observed.
“Our reputation was not so sterling” 20 years ago, said Humphries, who served as the first chairman of the entity formed from the combined chambers of commerce.
From 1993 to 2013, the chamber participated in 474 economic development projects, resulting in $4.3 billion dollars in investment and 21,198 new jobs, he reported. Another 28,176 jobs were retained over that period. “Today we visit over 1,000 companies a year on how they’re doing, what they need,” Humphries said.
Humphries’ remarks covered many milestones and initiatives over the last two decades, including efforts to support the General Motors Lordstown Complex, which in the late 1990s was on a list of plants targeted for closure and today manufactures the top-selling Chevrolet Cruze, through Vallourec’s new $1.2 billion mill and more recently VAM USA LLC’s threading mill project.
Chamber membership has grown from 1,364 in 1993 to 2,570 at the end of 2013, Humphries reported, and programs have grown from about 15 a year to 15 each month.
Humphries also pointed to efforts to improve relationships with organized labor and its relationships with elected officials, including every Ohio governor from former Gov. George Voinovich to Gov. John R. Kasich.
“I got in a little bit of trouble on that one,” he acknowledged.
The chamber CEO faced criticism for backing Kasich in 2010 over the incumbent Democrat, Ted Strickland, who formerly represented the Mahoning Valley in Congress, and the chamber’s support for Kasich’s efforts to curtain collective bargaining rights for state and local public employees triggered a backlash.
“You need relationships to get things done,” Humphries said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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