Optimism Reigns as Chamber Salutes Business
BOARDMAN, Ohio -- By applying business principles to Northeast Ohio Medical University, Jay Gershen has seen it double in size since he became its sixth president in January 2010.
“We’re bringing business to campus to commercialize our intellectual property [to fund further research],” the keynote speaker said Thursday at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s annual Salute to Business breakfast. Gershen is president of the medical university.
Honored at the breakfast were Thomas E. Mosure, president and CEO of MS Consultants Inc., business professional of the year; William D. Kutlick, owner of Kutlick Realty LLC, business advocate of the year; James Sutman, director and owner of Iron & String Life Enhancement, entrepreneur of the year; Suzanne Barbati, president and executive director of Oh Wow! The Roger & Gloria Jones Children’s Center for Science and Technology, nonprofit professional of the year; and Jaladah Aslam, staff representative of AFSCME Ohio Council 8, salute to labor achievement.
The head coach of the Youngstown State University football team, Eric Wolford, assured the full house at Mr. Anthony’s Banquet Center that the Penguins “don’t view [the season opener Saturday at the University of Illinois] as a money game. Our team expects to win. Our team is a confident group.”
The Penguins head coach has addressed the breakfast on his outlook for the season since Jim Tressel, now president of YSU, offered his perspective in the early 1990s.
Northeast Ohio Medical, Neomed for short, is a community-based medical university within reach to four million people in the northeastern quadrant of the Buckeye State. It is a “different type of university” than much larger medical schools, Gershen pointed out. Its relatively small size means “We’re not all things to all people” and so must choose its focus.
That focus consists of four areas:
- Research into how to retard Parkinson’s disease in those who suffer from the degenerative disorder that strikes most victims late in their lives.
- Stem cell research to prevent or halt heart disease.
- Alleviating obesity, especially childhood obesity, through behavior modification, exercise and adopting more healthful diets.
- Improving community mental health, especially preventing suicide.
The medical university remains highly competitive. Of the 3,000 applications for this fall’s freshman class, only 150 were accepted.
Neomed has established a high school on its campus devoted to STEMM -- science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine, Gershen related. The 30,000-square-foot area is open to any student in Ohio but to remain in good standing, the student must earn all A’s and B’s. “C’s are not allowed,” Gershen said.
The medical university president pointed to the 3,000 physicians who have graduated from Neomed since it was founded 40 years ago. (It has since added a program for pharmacists.) Of these, half practice in Ohio, 1,000 in northeastern Ohio and 257 in the Mahoning Valley.
Each physician generates $1 million annually in economic activity,” Gershen said. That ranges from the wages they pay their staffs to the medical supplies they order and prescriptions they give their patients to fill at pharmacies.
And Neomed has established partnerships with 24 hospitals in northeastern Ohio and the pharmacy chains that serve them and their patients.
Those partnerships plus the research grants -- “Research is a $17 million business”, he said -- and one can see that Neomed has considerable influence on the economic health of the region, Gershen said.
In his remarks, Wolford reported the Penguins “had a great camp.”
To succeed this season, “We’ve got to stay in the moment,” that is, not think too far ahead, and each member must “master your trade, ask himself, ‘What do I need to do today?’ ”
The coach described “This team as a bunch of no-name guys. They’ve embraced this. But they’re bunch of talented guys” and he expects the team to go far.
“Our mentality has changed,” Wolford said. “Defensively, we’re in good shape” with a new defensive coordinator, Jamie Bryant, “and healthy.”
The three men and two women saluted at the event remarked on the comeback the Mahoning Valley has made since the retrenchment and reconfiguration of the steel industry and their satisfaction in being a part of that comeback.
The chairman of the board of the regional chamber, Pete Asimakopoulos, noted how Mosure turned MS Consultants “into a powerhouse with nearly 400 employees in eight sites” since he succeeded his father. The younger Mosure joined the company in 1977 when it had 37 employees and primarily served the Mahoning Valley.
In addition to other honors won and his involvement in the business community, Mosure, a Type 1 diabetic, mentors others who suffer from diabetes.
Kutlick, who has played a major role in the commercial development of the U.S. Route 224 corridor from Poland to Canfield, began his career in 1974 and struck out on his own in 2004. “I started a business in tough times,” he said, and has helped restaurants, retail stores and companies find office space in the corridor. He credited his success to “teamwork” and “passion. I truly enjoy what I do. I’m excited about the future of the region. … We [the business community] must keep going. We must be positive.”
Sutman was saluted for his work with the special needs community. His acceptance presentation had a Garrison Keilloresque flavor. He began by reading a poem by Donald Hall, a former poet laureate of the United States, whom Keillor has read, before reminiscing about “Joe Gallagher, our first client,’ and the people ISLE has helped.
The Oh Wow! center, which opened in 2011, features “edutainment,” Barbati said, a major factor of its success as children up to age 14 -- and many adults much older than 14 -- have delighted in learning geology, physics, chemistry, meteorology and other sciences in the former McCrory’s department store downtown. More than 120,000 have visited the museum since it opened three years ago, Barbati related.
The other factor in the success of Oh Wow! is the ability of its board to raise funds. “Oh Wow! is here only because of your support,” Barbati told the audience. “None of us accomplishes success alone.”
Asimakopoulos credited Barbati's leadership for the museum reaching its $2.2 million goal in its capital campaign.
The recipient of the salute to labor award, Aslam, is proud of her involvement in the labor movement and her opposition to Senate Bill 5, which voters overturned in a referendum in November 2011. SB 5 sought to reduce the ability of pubic sector unions to bargain collectively.
Being a staunch advocate for labor, however, has not kept her from working with the Regional Chamber, government and business leaders in their collective efforts to get word out, “The Mahoning Valley is open for business,” Aslam said.
Aslam has been a member of the Mahoning Valley Coalition for Job Growth and Creation since it was formed two years ago. “I’m very proud of the work the coalition has done,” she said. “We have to make sure people know the Valley is a good place to invest.”
With the comeback the region has enjoyed, she expressed confidence that her son, age 18, “will not have to relocate outside the Valley” to get a good job.
Pictured: Jay Gershen, president of Northeast Ohio Medical University, address members of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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