Month: March 2015

Cutting Tourism Dollars Isn’t the Answer

We understand that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has a huge budget deficit to close — more than $750 million, by most estimates — and we don’t intend to overanalyze his efforts to do so, because almost all budgets are unpopular — and debatable.

But his announced intentions to slash funding for both the Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism (from $14.2 million to $6.1 million) and the regional tourism councils (from $5 million to $500,000) represent a tack we wouldn’t recommend.

That’s because the tourism sector is becoming an increasingly important contributor to the state’s economic health and well-being, and it will be even more so in the years to come as the casinos currently on the drawing board open their doors to the millions expected to visit those resorts each year. And also because, in this sector, perhaps even more than in some others, you really do have to spend money to make money.

Already, state legislators who understand the importance of tourist dollars to the cities and towns they represen are casting serious doubt about whether the governor’s proposal will fly, and we hope they’re right in their assessments. Dollars spent to promote the state and individual regions like Greater Springfield, the Berkshires, or the Amherst-Northampton corridor are not so much expenditures as they are investments, and the new governor’s administration needs to recognize that and find another way to trim some $12 million from the budget.

In a way, we can understand the administration’s thinking with regard to tourism funding, especially given the dearth of attractive options when it comes to cutting the budget. After all, the Commonwealth’s major attractions and convention facilities are not exactly state secrets, and Internet-savvy site finders have a wealth of information at their disposal.

But as traditional sources of employment and economic vitality (especially manufacturing) have declined in recent years, competition for tourism dollars has become increasingly intense.

And in this environment, visibility is critically important. Even states and cities that have long been popular destinations, spots that one might think wouldn’t need to advertise — Florida, California, Hawaii, New York City, and Las Vegas all come to mind — have invested millions in keeping themselves front and center when it comes to the minds and wallets of tourists.

Such a mindset has created a good amount of momentum locally, especially with regard to conventions and meetings. Greater Springfield is an attractive — and reasonably priced —alternative for convention planners, and these assets have been a big factor in an increase in bookings in recent years.

And now, those pushing this area as a convention or meeting site have something more to sell — the resort casino that will soon be taking shape in Springfield’s South End.

That’s an attractive addition, one that has the potential to make this area a real player in that segment of the tourism industry and one that should open some doors that were previously closed.

But for that door to open all the way, this state and this region have to be able to promote themselves — and now. Indeed, many conventions are booked years in advance, and now is the time to strike.

As we said at the top, closing a $750 million budget gap will be difficult, and it’s easy to say ‘don’t cut here’ or ‘don’t cut there.’ But in the case of funding for the Office of Travel and Tourism and the individual convention and visitors bureaus, cuts now could have some serious consequences later.

Opinion

Opinion

State Gets Serious About Opiate Abuse

By RICHARD PIETERS, M.D., BARBARA HERBERT, M.D., and DANIEL ALFORD, M.D.

Prescription drug abuse is now one of the toughest problems communities face, and officials at local, state, and federal levels are all wrestling with what to do about it. Multiple actions have been taken, including new laws and regulations, monitoring programs, and restrictions on prescribing, with varying results.

The Commonwealth’s new governor and attorney general, Charlie Baker and Maura Healey, have made opiate abuse one of their top priorities. That’s good news, because we are losing hundreds of lives to prescription and opiate abuse.

While drugs like heroin remain a prime cause of overdoses, 52% of the 44,000 drug-overdose deaths in 2013 were related to pharmaceuticals. And of those, 71% involved prescription pain medicines — mostly by people using drugs prescribed to someone else.

As the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has noted, pain is a significant public health problem. Some 100 million adults have chronic pain alone — more than those with diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. Whether chronic (constant and long-lasting), acute (of shorter duration), or cancer-related, pain is one of the most frequent reasons for physician visits and taking medication, which often helps with the acute pain of trauma, injury, or surgery.

Healthcare providers write a huge amount of prescriptions for pain medicines — 259 million in 2012 alone. Yet, with some 12 million Americans using prescription medications for non-medical reasons and with more than three out of four people who misuse prescription pain medicines using drugs prescribed to someone else, the reasons for abuse go beyond the number of prescriptions issued.

Physicians and patients together can work together to help reduce the abuse. Here’s how.

Physicians believe patients who experience pain should be able to get relief and understand that appropriately treating pain helps patients heal. Medications carry risk, however, and with opioids, one of the risks is addiction. Physicians must balance the risks and benefits of opioids — while exploring other kinds of treatment in open communication with patients.

Medicines like opioids, taken exactly as prescribed under a physician’s supervision, are excellent therapies for certain kinds of pain, but they may not be appropriate for all people.

Patients must clearly communicate expectations to their physicians. They understandably want immediate relief from pain, but taking more pills than the prescription calls for and dismissing the vital instruction of ‘take only as directed’ may risk harm and make the medicine less effective.

Insurers, who are reluctant to pay for other treatment options, such as physical therapy, acupuncture, and cognitive behavioral treatments, should begin to do so, giving physicians and patients other options besides pills.

Physicians must partner with their patients to figure out what the best treatment is, when opioids are best, and, when they’re not, what the best approach is for treatment. In many cases, the best approach may be one combining opioids with other medicines and additional methods like those named above.

Patients should be candid about their level of pain and tell their doctors what other medicines or substances (such as alcohol or marijuana) are being taken. Mixing substances is dangerous and can be lethal.

Above all, patients should be aware of the National Institute of Drug Abuse’s three elements of prescription abuse: (1) taking someone’s else’s medication; (2) taking medicine in a higher dosage or another manner than prescribed; and (3) taking medications for purposes other than prescribed. Patients have the power to act on all three.

Patients can stop the diversion of medications with responsible storage and disposal. Leaving prescriptions in medicine cabinets is a bad idea; it’s the primary way people who aren’t prescribed medicines get them. Medicines should be stored securely, preferably in lock boxes, and unused medicines should go to ‘take-back’ programs within communities.

Beyond prevention, adding more substance-abuse treatment programs to help with addiction and increasing the availability of naloxone, a prescription drug that prevents death from overdose, are steps that will save lives.

Dr. Richard Pieters is president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Dr. Daniel Alford is director of the Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Barbara Herbert is medical director of Addiction Service at Commonwealth Care.

Quantum Leap

MassMutual Partners with Smith, Mount Holyoke to Advance Data Science

Gareth Ross says a pipeline of data scientists, or people who possess skills related to the emerging field, is critical to the future of every company. But he also knows it’s difficult to find, attract, and retain qualified job candidates.

“It’s a very, very specialized area. The analytics involved are very complex and require a doctorate in statistics, computer science, or both,” said Ross, MassMutual’s senior vice president of Data Analytics and Target Markets.

Indeed, studies show there are not enough qualified individuals to analyze, interpret, explain, and make use of the enormous amounts of data spawned by modern technology, which range from the online behavior of Facebook users to outcomes of medical procedures, to the purchasing habits of shoppers. The information has merit because it can be used to increase sales, save money, and anticipate the products and services that consumers need, want, and are likely to buy.

“About two years ago, MassMutual hired four data scientists from Boston to determine whether they would be useful,” said Ross. “And within six months, it became absolutely clear just how valuable they were.”

However, when the company began to seek more people proficient in the field, it quickly became evident that it was extremely difficult to compete with Internet giants such as Google that were scooping them up and paying them six-figure salaries. After thinking about the problem, MassMutual officials realized that the machine learning, statistics, and computer science programs at UMass are among the top 10 in the nation, and the Five Colleges are renowned for their education, so they made the decision to resolve the quandary by hiring seven graduates with bachelor’s degrees related to data science and put them in a special training program.

“We told them, if they came to work for us, we would pay them to become data scientists over a period of three years,” Ross told BusinessWest. “It is a different path than students would normally take to get a master’s or doctorate degree, but we are sending them to classes and supplementing their skills with projects here. They are incredibly bright, and we have paired them with our data scientists and built an office for them in Amherst.”

The program is so innovative that it has attracted national attention, and students from as far away as California have expressed interest in it. However, Ross said the female graduates from Mount Holyoke and Smith have done exceptionally well, and since the data science field is male-dominated, MassMutual decided to form a partnership with the two women’s colleges and create a pilot program that will begin in the fall to help more women become versed in statistics and other data-science-related disciplines.

To that end, the company has allocated $2 million that will be given to the colleges over a four-year period. It will be used to pay for five new, non-tenure track positions and will also help support the development of classes associated with data science. Smith will get two new professors, and Mount Holyoke will hire three, but students can take classes from any of them as part of the five-college exchange program.

“We believe strongly in promoting women in science and engineering. There are not enough of them in these fields, and this program will increase the pipeline of students available to us and give us a way to tap into the talent at these two schools, which are among the best in the country,” Ross said, adding that the new professors will also provide week-long training modules during the summer for students already in the MassMutual program, which include a second group hired several weeks ago.

From left, Martha Hootes, Sonya Stephens, and Amber Douglas say 23 faculty members at Mount Holyoke College have been working to create a program that will allow more students to gain knowledge in data science.

Ross said the company is building algorithmic procedures to help underwriters determine what products their clients should purchase, based on information that includes their health and family histories, which is collected whenever a policy is sold.

“There is an enormous push to enhance profits with computer-generated recommendations,” Ross told BusinessWest, noting that their data scientists assign scores to the leads the company purchases, with the goal of determining who is most likely to buy life insurance, an annuity, a 401(k) product, or a long-term-care or disability policy. “We hope to build models that will predict what the customer will need next, and data gives us an efficient way to know our customers deeply in the same way that Google does.”

Numbers Game

These goals are in line with demand across the nation for data-science specialists. In fact, a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute reveals that the U.S. needs to increase the number of graduates with skills to handle large amounts of data by as much as 60%, and predicts there will be close to 500,000 new jobs associated with the field in the next five years and a shortage of up to 190,000 qualified data scientists, along with a need for 1.5 million executives and support staff with an understanding of data.

The report adds that the use of big data will become a key basis for business growth, and companies will begin leveraging data-driven strategies to innovate and compete as they capture real-time information.

Those numbers — and those sentiments — underscore the importance of MassMutual’s initiative with the two women’s colleges.

Ben Baumer, a visiting assistant professor and director of the program of Statistical and Data Sciences at Smith College, is enthusiastic about the initiative.

“It’s a huge win for us because our goals are perfectly aligned,” he said. “Five years ago, we weren’t talking about this, but today virtually every industry or company is probably collecting data about something or believe it will be useful to them.

“But the problem they face is finding someone to analyze it,” he went on. “They must be rooted in statistics, be a good programmer, and be able to link data of different styles and sizes. Just creating an informative graphic can be enough to make a difference if it can be easily digested.”

He explained that the term ‘big data’ refers to the problems people have when the volume of data they have is too large to manage, and that, unlike information collected in a clinical medical trial, almost all of it is observational and obtained from places ranging from cash registers to web server logs.

Students are recognizing the importance of the subject, however, and Smith College has created a minor in applied statistics that is overseen by its department of Statistical and Data Sciences. “Enrollment in statistics and data-science classes has doubled over the last decade,” said Baumer. “It’s a national trend, and although the tech industry is a male-dominated field, we have an opportunity to change that. It’s the right time to do it, and the job market is exceptionally strong.”

Charles Staelin agreed, and said data scientists must be well-versed in math and statistics as well as computer science.

Gareth Ross says MassMutual wants to create a pipeline of female college graduates well-versed in the field of data science.

“The tech industry is desperate to find people with these skills and is gobbling them up,” the Smith College professor of Economics told BusinessWest. “The demand for these courses has grown tremendously, and we are seeing students enroll in classes from six different departments. All of these courses are overenrolled because students realize they need to have some familiarity with statistics, as it’s a skill they will need in the workplace.”

Smith had already begun to focus on adding courses before MassMutual approached the institution, but funding that will pay professors’ salaries will make a significant difference. “It will help us to get this off the ground more quickly than we could have otherwise,” Staelin said.

Amber Douglas, associate professor of Psychology and Education at Mount Holyoke College, said the school is vested in the same goal, and the merger between statistics and computer science is helpful to professors as well as students.

“We have 23 faculty members from different backgrounds who have been collaborating to develop a curriculum across a variety of disciplines, and as we speak, data is being analyzed across genres in different time periods,” she said. “So, even if students aren’t going into data science, they need to take an introductory course in the subject so they can take part in conversations and consider the ethical implications of using it in the workplace.”

She noted that Mount Holyoke had been moving in a parallel direction with MassMutual before they collaborated to pilot the program. “Data science is the fastest-growing industry, and although some larger universities have undergraduate programs, they tend to be focused without the breadth that only liberal-arts colleges can bring to it,” she said.

Mount Holyoke hopes to create a minor and standalone major in data science, and has two pending proposals to establish internships through its Nexus Curriculum to Career Program.

Sonya Stephens, Mount Holyoke’s vice president for Academic Affairs and dean of faculty, agrees that learning about data science at a liberal-arts college yields myriad benefits.

“One of the things we do well is create flexible thinkers who can work collaboratively. That’s important, as data science involves a lot of collaboration because statistics, economics, computer-science skills, and communication skills are involved,” she said.

“We want to increase the number of women prepared to use this science, as everything we do is data-driven due to the increasing amounts of information becoming available,” Stephens added. “It is a critical skill in almost every domain and is about collaboration, creativity, and analytic ability.”

She added that the college has been extraordinarily successful in producing women scientists in a variety of fields.

“We’re thrilled to be working with MassMutual, because we have a similar agenda,” Stephens noted. “We want to advance understanding of the field and empower faculty to do their best with it, and we see this as an opportunity to work with not only a local firm, but one that has a national presence that will further our goals.”

Bright Futures

Since colleges and universities can’t turn out data scientists fast enough, creating a local pipeline of women in the field is a sure pathway to success.

Ross says MassMutual will use graduates to create ways to inspire people to purchase insurance products they need.

“Everyone wants to retire, be secure, and make good financial decisions, but 50% of Americans are underinsured, and 30% have no retirement. So, data science will help us to know our customers well enough to custom-tailor recommendations for them,” he said. “We want to drive people to take action, and having access to incredible pools of talent will help us make real progress. Our focus is to get the best scientists we can working for us.”

As the two women’s colleges and UMass continue to move forward on a parallel track with MassMutual, the hope is that graduates in this emerging field will help not only the financial services giant, but all companies in Western Mass. thrive in a world increasingly driven by technology.

Reach to Teach

Springfield Takes a Bold Step to Bring Diversity to the Classroom

Daniel Warwick says Reach to Teach is an imaginative effort to address the national problem of diversity in the classroom.

Like most urban centers in this country, Springfield struggles to have its teaching force match — or even approach — the diversity and demographic nature of the students sitting in the classrooms.

But unlike most of those cities, it is taking a unique, aggressive, and highly imaginative approach to addressing that critical issue.

It’s called Reach to Teach, an ambitious partnership with Westfield State University, renowned for its education programs throughout its 175-year history (in fact, it was once known as Westfield Teachers College). The program, launched in February, seeks to recruit, mentor, and train Springfield middle- and high-school students of color and eventually return them to the classrooms of their youth through guaranteed employment in the city’s public schools.

One of its primary goals is to attract people to high-need areas, such as math, science, and special education, said Springfield School Superintendent Dan Warwick, who called this a “grow-our-own” initiative. It’s a model he believes is unique, and one that comes complete with myriad benefits for Springfield schools and their future students, the young people recruited into the program, and Westfield State.

“Rather than trying to recruit minority teachers from elsewhere, when there’s a shortage everywhere, this was a way to grow our own kids and get them to come back to Springfield,” said Warwick, himself a product of Westfield State’s education program, adding that research has shown that, when students have teachers who come from the same racial and cultural background they do, they perform better academically, have higher self-esteem, stay in school longer, and graduate at higher rates. “If they do come back, they’re more likely to live in the city, and they’re more likely to stay in the profession.”

Cheryl Stanley, dean of Education at Westfield State and a classmate of Warwick’s at Springfield’s Cathedral High School, agreed, and noted that creating more diversity in the teaching ranks is now a national priority.

“We are now seeing this as a call to duty — for all institutions to start thinking about recruitment strategies to increase the diversity in our teacher-preparation programs,” she said, adding that WSU has been addressing this issue in various ways for years. “And it results from the increased number of students of color in the public schools.

“We’re being asked to be creative in our responses to this problem,” she went on, “and part of doing that is establishing partnerships with school districts, and the best school districts to partner with are in the urban settings because this is where these students are.”

Here’s how Reach to Teach works. The initiative will provide up to 20 eligible students from Springfield with automatic admission to Westfield State, technical support on the application process, available scholarship funding during junior and senior years, and, most importantly, a guaranteed job with mentorship for one year post-graduation in the Springfield Public School (SPS) system.

There are no firm quantitative goals for this initiative, said Warwick and Springfield’s assistant superintendent, Lydia Martinez, only a determined quest for “progress” in the current number of minorities among the ranks of faculty and staff members, and they believe this can certainly be accomplished.

But there is more to it than just diversity, said Martinez, a Springfield native who graduated from Westfield State’s Urban Education program and embodies the main thrust of Reach to Teach. She said SPS teachers who grew up in Springfield share more than a birthplace with their students.

“This program also helps us with the cultural piece, not just in terms of diversity of race,” she explained. “Through Reach to Teach, we can have more teachers who grew up in Springfield and are a part of the fabric of the city here, having come up through the system. It’s coming back home to what you know and helping the next cadre get to where they need to be.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the Reach to Teach initiative and its potential to change the landscape in Springfield’s schools.

New School of Thought

Springfield Public School enrollment numbers underscore the need for more teachers of color.

Indeed, 88% of the system’s students are non-white, while only 11% of SPS faculty and staff are non-white, according to 2013-14 enrollment data published by the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Similarly, at Westfield State for the 2014-15 year, only 11% of undergraduate, post-baccalaureate-certificate, and graduate-education-licensure candidates combined are non-white.

Reach to Teach was conceived to address this disparity, thus benefiting both entities, said Warwick, adding that discussions between the parties began last year and ended with a memorandum of understanding inked early this year.

In many ways, Reach to Teach is an effort to take an already-strong relationship between the Springfield Public Schools and Westfield State to an even higher level. Indeed, for decades now, WSU has been the lead source of teachers for not only the Springfield system but many others in the region, said Warwick, adding that the entities have partnered in many ways over the years, including a program that brings WSU students into the city’s schools for experience in an urban setting.

“This was a natural affiliation — Westfield State has a history of a great educational program, and that’s still true today,” he said, adding that Reach to Teach will tap into that relationship to address what has been a persistent and nagging challenge.

Indeed, as he talked about the need to recruit more people of color to the teaching ranks in the Springfield Public Schools, Warwick stressed repeatedly that the problem is hardly unique to Springfield.

“Like all other urban districts, we face a huge challenge recruiting and retaining a diverse, highly qualified staff,” he explained. “If you look at most school systems in the country, especially urban districts, there’s an under-representation with regard to minority teachers — and they’re all trying to do something about it.”

Thus, every major urban center is working hard to recruit minorities to its classrooms, he went on, adding that they are generally fishing in the same pond — schools with both education programs and high percentages of minority students.

“Every other major urban center is trying to do the same thing,” he said. “And they’re probably going to the African-American colleges, to Puerto Rico, and other areas; they’re all recruiting from the same places, and the competition for qualified candidates is intense.”

Cheryl Stanley, seen here with Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, says the key to achieving diversity in the classroom is partnerships with urban school districts like Springfield’s.

In a way, Reach to Teach is creating a new pond, said those involved with the initiative, although there are still plenty of challenges to overcome when it comes to achieving the desired diversity at the front of the classroom.

Indeed, there are many reasons why there is a distinct shortage of minorities in teaching roles, ranging from the difficulty with attaining a degree and becoming certified to teach both a specific subject and at a specific level, to the comparatively low rate of pay in this field, at least when compared to other professions requiring college degrees.

“The low rate of pay to start is certainly an issue, and there’s also the testing protocol that kids have to go through now to qualify as education majors — there are a lot of barriers to people pursuing education today, said Warwick, adding that Reach to Teach will encourage young students to pursue that profession and then mentor them and assist with clearing the many hurdles involved.

“The problem with the minority teacher shortage is that not enough minority students are going on to college to pursue education,” he explained. “We want to really encourage young people to enter this field, so Westfield State has put together a framework to offer them assistance to get through college, and our head of guidance is providing some assistance in high school, encouraging them to pursue this.

“And we said that, if we can bring our kids back, and they complete Westfield State’s program, we’d be glad to hire them,” he went on.

This guarantee of employment is one of the program’s best selling points, said Martinez, adding that the process by which Springfield will seek to grow its own will begin with recruitment of students while they’re still in middle school, although for the first few years the targets will obviously be high-school students and those already in the workforce seeking a possible career change.

“We want to identify potential candidates as early as possible, ideally in middle school,” she explained, adding that, by doing so, the SPS can mentor the students and help prepare them for the road ahead through participation in the Future Teachers of America program and other initiatives. “We want to teach them as they enter high school so we can mentor them, track them, help them get to Westfield State University, and then help them come back.”

While those involved hoped to have some students enrolled in the education program at WSU this fall, they expect the initiative to really get rolling in the fall of 2016.

There is a need for minority teachers across the board, said Stanley, but the need is especially acute in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), mostly because of the rugged path to attaining licensure to teach those subjects, the perception that such positions are beyond one’s grasp, and the immense competition across several fields for students who develop such aptitudes.

“When you think about the best and the brightest, we’re competing against many other occupations for those individuals,” she told BusinessWest. “This includes corporations that can offer much more in terms of dollar signs. So the world has really opened up, and all fields are looking for people of color, and they have choices. And teaching doesn’t appear to be as rewarding as other fields where you might get a bonus up front, a full scholarship right up front, and a guaranteed job right up front. That’s what teaching is competing against.”

Despite all that competition, Stanley said the Reach to Teach initiative is already garnering some interest within the community — primarily because of the guaranteed jobs for students who successfully complete the program — and noted that some potential career changers are making inquiries.

Learning Curves

As he talked about the demographic disparity in the SPS between the students and those teaching them, Warwick said he didn’t have any hard numbers when it came to percentage of teachers who would be considered minorities.

“Let’s just say it’s not what we want it to be and we need it to be,” he told BusinessWest. “I think inroads have been made, but there’s certainly more opportunity there.”

To realize those opportunities, something bold and imaginative is needed, he went on, adding that Reach to Teach certainly fits that description.

If it succeeds as planned, other urban centers may have an effective blueprint to follow. Meanwhile, and more importantly, Springfield will have a base of faculty and staff far more reflective of the community being served.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Life-changing Stories

Businesses Help Link to Libraries Carry Out Its Critical Mission

Susan Jaye-Kaplan says the Business Book Link Project is about far more than monetary donations.

When Susan Jaye-Kaplan and Janet Crimmins founded the Link to Libraries program in 2008, their mission was simple: to put free books in the hands of needy children who might not otherwise have them in their homes.

Their success has been laudatory, and since that time, more than 225,000 new books in seven languages have been distributed to students in preschool through grade 7 through schools and nonprofit organizations. But it would not have been possible without help from local businesses, whose generous contributions of time and money have made a significant difference in the lives of local children.

To that end, Link to Libraries launched its Business Book Link project in September 2013 to raise awareness about the program, and 51 companies signed up and agreed to two requirements: to perform some sort of volunteer service at the school they adopt and make a donation of $1,200 a year for three consecutive years, with the guarantee that the school or group will receive 250 to 400 books each year to give away or put in their library.

“It’s important to build home libraries because 60% of the children we serve have never owned a book,” Jaye-Kaplan told BusinessWest, adding that more than 85% of the children in schools Link to Libraries works with qualify for free lunch.

Businesses that join the program visit the school they adopt, where they meet the principal, are taken on a tour of the building, and receive a plaque as well as a wish list of intangible and tangible things the school needs but cannot afford.

However, Jaye-Kaplan said they are not mandated to provide anything on the list. Instead, they talk with the principal and figure out what they can do to help that is mutually agreeable, which can be as simple as sending someone to read a book to a classroom.

Jaye-Kaplan said a business with six employees decided to knit hats, mittens, and scarves for children who needed them, while others have taken students on tours of their workplaces or purchased a computer, TV, or picnic tables for a school’s playground.

But the most critical component of the program is the relationships that are forged. “This program is about far more than making a monetary donation,” said Jaye-Kaplan, explaining that, when a business professional takes time to interact with children in a way that promotes literacy, it encourages them to read and lets them see that people in the community care about their future.

Crimmins says the experience is rewarding for volunteers.

“It’s easy for our community business partners to get hooked when they realize the program is an opportunity to put their resources to work by offering children exposure to their world,” she said. “Whether they send an employee to a school to provide computer tutoring or take students on a field trip, the activity ignites the children’s natural curiosity. And once their interest is sparked, they are encouraged to read a book about the topic.”

Unexpected Benefits

David Kalicka told BusinessWest that being involved with Link to Libraries, which provided 70,000 new books and 3,000 gently used tomes to children in fiscal year 2014 alone, is a gratifying experience. He’s a partner at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, CPA, and his wife is a guidance counselor at Sullivan Elementary School in Holyoke, which the firm adopted.

“I have a deep connection to Holyoke schools; I graduated from Holyoke High and believe literacy is critical to children and businesses have an obligation to give back to the community,” he said. “Although this is not the only organization we are involved with, it’s very rewarding to see the excitement on the children’s faces when I visit the school, read to them, and give them books to take home.”

Bill Trudeau concurs, and said that when he made the decision to have the Insurance Center of New England join the Business Book Link project, he had no idea his wife and children would become involved and that he would find the program so rewarding, he would convince another business to sign up and adopt a school.

But that’s exactly what happened.

“Reading is so important, and it’s easy to see the results of this program. It strengthens the Pioneer Valley in many different ways,” Trudeau said as he spoke about children at the Martin Luther King Charter School of Excellence in Springfield, which his firm adopted.

But despite the altruism of many local businesses, Link to Libraries still has 28 schools on its waiting list, and the need for help continues to grow.

“Getting sponsors is a big challenge for us, so we are thrilled when a business wants to visit our site and learn about our grassroots organization,” Jaye-Kaplan said, adding that making a large financial donation is unnecessary. “Having heart and soul and a commitment to the community is what is important.”

She noted that 90 cents of every dollar donated is used to purchase books, and the $1,200 businesses donate to the program annually does not cover the cost of the tomes the school they adopt receives.

Grants and private donations make up the difference, and she has forged strong relationships with publishers who provide discounted pricing, and with educators who provide lists of books appropriate for different age groups.

“We also work very closely with the Irene and George Davis Foundation, as they are the leaders in education in Western Mass.,” she continued.

Limitless Possibilities

Link to Libraries has a Read Aloud Program for elementary-school students, one for homeless children, and another that provides every kindergartner in Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke with a welcome bag containing a bookmark, books, and educational materials from the Davis Foundation and Big Y.

“The children we serve today are the leaders, parents, and employees of the future,” Jaye-Kaplan said. “Books are food for the brain, and the Business Book Link project allows local companies to give children a gift that is truly meaningful.”

Businesses or individuals who want to learn more about the Link to Libraries Business Book Link program are invited to call (413) 224-1031 or e-mail [email protected].

Course of Action

A chart of the region’s colleges and universities

Click HERE to download the PDF chart

Noble Pursuit

Community Hospital Explores Affiliation with Baystate Health

Nine years ago, Baystate Health was in serious talks to bring Noble Hospital into its system, but the potential deal fell through late in 2006.

But that was a much different time, said Ronald Bryant, who became Noble’s president and CEO four years ago and is engaged in revived talks to become a Baystate affiliate — the fifth acute-care hospital, in fact, under the Baystate banner.

“It’s a different healthcare environment today,” he told BusinessWest, while being unable to specifically address what happened in 2006. “Noble is a different organization, and Baystate Health is a different organization. I can only deal with what’s in front of me.”

Specifically, that’s a financial and care-delivery landscape that has changed significantly for hospitals over the past decade, as economic pressures, technology costs, and regulations governing safety and quality have all increased, creating a perfect storm for small, independent, community hospitals like Westfield-based Noble.

For that reasons, the boards of trustees of Noble Hospital and Baystate Health have authorized the organizations to sign a letter of intent exploring, once again, the potential of Noble becoming a member of Baystate Health. That changing landscape, Bryant said, could make a merger a more attractive scenario for both entities.

“A few things are driving this change,” he said. “Obviously, the healthcare environment and new regulations are forcing hospitals to act differently from a reimbursement and quality angle. The market is being driven toward alternative payment methodologies and population health, and if we’re going to compete in those areas, we should be part of a system with greater resources.

“With that said, we’re all being measured more on quality today than at any other time. That’s only going to increase. If we want to maintain the quality we provide — and Noble has some of the best quality scores in the Valley — we want the resources and access that allows you to do that,” Bryant continued. “Because of the changing healthcare environment and demands on us to maintain quality and programs and equipment and our employee base, there’s pressure on community hospitals. As part of a system, we can ensure that we have healthcare in Westfield for many years to come. So, really, this is a product of the marketplace.”

Ron Bryant says community hospitals are being squeezed by a tighter fiscal environment and increasing regulatory demands.

It helps, he added, that Baystate and Noble are partners (along with other hospitals) in a regional heart-attack program that expedites emergency cases to Baystate Medical Center, the region’s designated angioplasty center. In addition, Baystate and Noble collaborate on telemedicine for stroke patients and women’s services, partnerships that have grown stronger since the failed merger in 2006.

“We have worked closely with Noble and its team of caregivers for a long time, and we recognize the excellent quality of care and compassion they provide to their patients,” said Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health. “Given our common commitments to high-quality and high-value care, I share with our board members a strong belief that this potential partnership would serve the missions of both organizations and the needs of our communities.”

Taking Wing

The announcement comes just six months after Wing Memorial Hospital in Palmer officially became part of Baystate Health. Wing was the region’s third community hospital to join the system, following Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield in 1986 and Mary Lane Hospital in Ware in 1991.

Baystate officials said the Wing affiliation strengthens what the health system calls its Eastern Region, which also includes Baystate Mary Lane. Noble would represent a significant western expansion, as Noble serves patients from Westfield, Southwick, Agawam, and the hilltowns.

“We talk informally with many other organizations from time to time,” said Ben Craft, director of Public Affairs for Baystate Health, noting that the time seemed right to reconvene affiliation talks with Noble.

“It’s hard to pinpoint a formal start date, but our discussions with the Noble organization picked up in the past several months,” he told BusinessWest. “In the current environment, with all its change and strains, I’d say the majority of healthcare providers are looking at their current relationships and affiliations and any potential new ones, and assessing what’s going to be best for the patients and communities they serve.”

Craft said moves like the Wing merger and a similar potential move with Noble don’t spread Baystate Health too thin, but rather strengthen both the system and its individual hospitals.

“We believe a well-coordinated, cost-effective, and high-quality regional network of care is a critical element of the long-term health and success of our Western Massachusetts community,” he explained. “We believe this potential new relationship would help us better coordinate healthcare and wellness efforts, provide high-level care as close to home as possible, and reduce instances where patients need to travel outside their community for care when they prefer not to.”

Baystate and Noble have a history of working together, and this new partnership would be building on existing relationships, including referral relationships in which Noble’s providers already refer a significant number of patients to Baystate. Baystate Reference Laboratories provides clinical diagnostic services in partnership with Noble, which also maintains its own on-site lab services and Blood Donor Center.

“Our organizations already collaborate in many areas, including lab services, heart and vascular care, women’s services, and neurology,” Craft noted. “There is a strong referral relationship between Noble and Baystate. We’ve learned from these partnerships how well we can work together, and that leads us to believe that both organizations, and most importantly our patients, would benefit from a closer relationship.”

Bryant agreed. “Having a strong working relationship just makes the transition easier,” he said. “Any time you have an organization of their caliber so close, and they can help you bring more resources to your organization and to your patients — which they have been doing — it just makes any type of relationship going forward that much easier and stronger. The physicians are already familiar with each other at some levels, management is familiar with each other, and so are many employees. It makes for a more natural, fluid process.”

Bryant noted that many patients who come to Noble’s emergency room are transferred to Baystate, the region’s only level-1 trauma center and tertiary-care center, receiving referrals from across Western Mass. “In many ways, we’ve already been complementing them, and they’ve been complementing us for years.”

He emphasized the latter point, noting that Baystate isn’t the only organization bringing value to a potential merger. “We’ve done tremendous things in the community. Four years ago, we employed one primary-care physician; now we have 16 at Noble Medical Group. Our physician-practice group has gone from 35 employees to 70.”

In addition, recent improvements include a renovated patient wing; a new Comprehensive Primary Care Office building; a new, $450,000 Noble Walk-In Express Care service next door that sees some 1,100 patients monthly; a urology practice; new orthopedic offices; and comprehensive breast cancer services with a full-time breast surgeon.

“We’ve done more and more each year, and we want to continue to do that, to provide more services to the community,” Bryant said. “If we partner with Baystate, we want to be sure we complement them and they complement us. It would really be a win for Westfield and the surrounding area. You could walk into Noble Hospital with the confidence that we’re backed up by an academic, tertiary-care center with the status of Baystate Health.”

What’s Next?

Noble’s potential affiliation with Baystate Health now enters a period of review and due diligence within the organizations and in partnership with relevant regulatory and oversight bodies — work expected to occur over the next several months. In the meantime, Bryant and Keroack said, it will be operations as usual for both organizations.

“At this stage, we’re at the beginning of a discussion about this potential partnership, and patients should not expect to see any changes for the near future,” Craft noted. “I think we share with the leadership of Noble a lot of optimism about the potential in this proposed relationship, and we’d certainly apply that optimism to the future of Noble Hospital if we move forward.”

Added Bryant, “we’re in the due-diligence phase, where we share documents and regulatory agencies look at bylaws and financial-quality indicators. We want to make sure each organization is comfortable with the other. It’s a feeling-out process. Once we go through that and both sides are comfortable, then we’ll continue.”

Of course, there’s the matter of what a merger would do to Noble’s employment needs and which positions, if any, might be consolidated. Noble now boasts about 750 employees, while Baystate Health employs some 11,500 across its network of hospitals and other provider practices.

It’s much too early to say what might happen with staffing after a merger, Bryant told BusinessWest. “We do know, certainly, that there’s apprehension among the employees. That part is natural. But this is about increasing utilization and access to care in our community.”

“There’s a lot of complexity in healthcare today,” he added. “But this is a process — a natural process.”

And one that might become more common for community hospitals weighing the benefits of joining a larger system or standing alone.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Diagnosing the Problem

Healthcare, IT Experts Discuss How Their Worlds Are Colliding

From left, Michael Feld, Dr. Neil Kudler, and Delcie Bean discuss how information technology in healthcare is increasingly driven by medical needs.

When the federal government gave physicians a deadline to implement electronic medical records (EMR) in their practices, they were met with a flood of options, said Delcie Bean, president of Paragus Strategic IT, who saw a business opportunity to guide doctors through the process.

Unfortunately, “when medical records first came out, they were designed by technologists, not doctors. We saw that disconnect; they weren’t designed around how interactions are normally done,” Bean said at a recent seminar, “Technology Has the Power to Change Healthcare,” produced by BusinessWest and the Healthcare News, and sponsored by Comcast Business.

As a result, he continued, many practices tried out two or even three EMR systems before finding one they could work with, and that came with a cost. “We’ve seen improvements in that area, but there’s still a long way to go.”

Delcie Bean

The EMR landscape is just one facet of a larger problem, one discussed at length by Bean and two other panelists: Neil Kudler, vice president and chief medical information officer (CMIO) for Baystate Health; and Michael Feld, CEO of VertitechIT and acting chief technology officer of Baystate Health and Lancaster General Hospital.

That problem, in a nutshell, is that information technology in healthcare has not, to this point, been driven by the needs of care providers, and that has caused frustration and confusion and led to a situation where, Kudler argued, healthcare is at least two decades behind other industries in implementing new IT advances.

For instance, he said, compare IT in healthcare with the way the Internet has altered retail consumer habits. “None of you use a travel agency anymore, or go to one store, then another store, then another store,” he told about 100 people who attended the event. “When I grew up in the ’70s, it was a rite of passage to go to the mall. But my kids shop on Amazon quickly and easily, with the same momentary thrill as I had when I bought records in a record store.”

The difference, of course, is that IT advances in retail met well-established needs: greater convenience and the ability to quickly compare prices, which drives down costs. Bean said healthcare has been slow to identify exactly what it wants from technology.

“We’re all about grabbing market share, not creating better products,” he said, noting that poor EMR products left a bad taste in doctors’ mouths. “It’s leveling out now, though, and we’re starting to see need drive the innovation. We’re adopting technology because we want to do something better. As long as need drives the technology, we’ll wind up with products that are sustainable.”

Feld understands this, noting that his firm, VertitechIT, recently hired a doctor. “We’re pure IT,” he said. “We need to know more about medicine. IT often has blinders on; it doesn’t know what the customers require.”

Dr. Neil Kudler

As a result, he said, healthcare organizations — which have made striking advances in the use of technology to improve imaging, surgery, and overall quality of care — continue to struggle when it comes to implementing information technology.

But that story might be changing.

Pushed Along

Specifically, Kudler said, if healthcare is moving forward, in some cases, it’s being moved by outside forces.

“The Affordable Care Act has really pushed us along, and has rocketed healthcare IT over the past five or six years because of federal mandates requiring us to make use of these technologies,” he noted. “Now, I hear from my friends and colleagues, ‘I didn’t go to medical school to be a data analyst, or to sit in front of a computer screen.’”

As the CMIO at Baystate, he continued, “my approach to healthcare IT is really, how do we make these technologies more seamless and integrated into workflow, so people are not held up by the computer itself, and so computers don’t take the place of a person? That really is the crux of technology: how can we engage the patients in their own care — and engage doctors, nurses, all the allied professionals — and make sure these technologies improve care without disrupting it in negative ways?”

Michael Feld

Kudler said healthcare is at a sort of “nexus point” where providers must better understand technology if they don’t want to be frustrated by it, because changes are definitely coming — one of the reasons his role at Baystate is so critical.

“The CMIO is a position cropping up across the country and various health systems,” he explained. It is, in fact, an evolution from doctors who have long taken an interest in IT and promoted its adoption among their peers. It’s an important role, he added, because, in most cases, “there’s a very clear distinction between information technologists and those who deliver healthcare.

“Having not only the right resources and technology, but the right clinicians in place,” he added, “will drive demand for those technologies while building a powerful infrastructure.”

IT doesn’t come without concerns, however, among them the thorny issue of information sharing in an age of heightened privacy regulations.

“Privacy is a mandated issue; there are rules we all have to follow,” Feld said. “The real issue in sharing, from a technological point of view, is compatibility. That, frankly, is proving to be much more difficult.”

In short, he said, computer systems in various health systems were not built to be interconnected. “It’s parochial in nature. There’s no centralized location I can go to get data about a patient. These are problems that need to be overcome for proper sharing.”

And if patient data will eventually be connected, what about the challenge of ensuring that all providers have the necessary bandwidth access to reach it?

“There has been a lot of progress in that field in the last 10 years,” Feld noted. “The amount of infrastructure, fiber, and wireless towers installed in this country is amazing. Europe is still ahead of us in cellular technology and wired technology to houses, but that gap is narrowing quickly.

“We may have all this technology to collect data,” he added, “but unless this data is moved around to where it can be used, it doesn’t do much good.”

Even cities known for plentiful bandwidth, like Springfield, have gaps, Bean was quick to note.

“You can’t say, ‘Springfield is all set, Agawam is all set.’ Oftentimes, they’re not. If you open an office on the wrong street, you don’t have bandwidth. We have clients in Springfield who don’t have bandwidth, and they have to bear the construction costs of the carrier — $50,000, $80,000, $90,000. So many small practices can’t afford to bring bandwidth to their office.”

The panelists also touched on the issue of data breaches, like the recent one involving Anthem, which may have exposed 11 million customers’ medical and financial data to hackers. Feld said one challenge is convincing organizations that everyone must understand security matters, not just the C-suite and IT professionals.

“The real issue is that people aren’t aware of the security requirements in their daily operations,” he said. “It’s a dangerous thing to make two, three, or four people responsible for it. The community has to be responsible for it. At Baystate, we’re going to different groups; we are educating every one of the employees on proper security procedures — things as simple as password controls and not storing things on certain devices.

“It’s a major effort,” he added, but one that will bear fruit as more companies get serious about it. “You’ll see these kinds of breaks in the future, but you should see them start to decline. But it’ll take time.”

Bean agreed on the importance of educating entire organizations. “It could be reception, could be the HVAC installer, could be a more innocuous part of the organization that causes a breach in security,” he said. “You have to educate the end users, the vendors. You have to think about where the doors are being kept open right now.”

Tools of the Trade

None of the panelists doubted that healthcare has the ability to close the 20-year gap Kudler spoke of. But change might not be driven by large health systems alone, Bean noted.

“Because of the availability of technology and the fact that its cost is scaled to the size of the organization, we’re seeing some of the most advanced technology being used by the smallest groups,” he said. “Technology is an equalizer. Sometimes smaller companies are the most innovative, plowing a path for other organizations to see what works and what doesn’t work. Smaller clients are able to be more nimble than large organizations.”

In the end, though, “technology is not a silver bullet; technology is a tool,” Bean said. “You can’t advance technology without defining what outcomes you want to achieve — whether its more convenience or better care — and work backward from those. You can’t just say, ‘technology is a solution; let’s implement it, and good things will happen.’”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

For Sale, for Lease

Commercial Real Estate Sections

A listing of available commercial properties

Click HERE to download the PDF chart

Trading Places

Commercial Real Estate Sections

Shakeout from Casino Project Stabilizes Downtown Market

Attorney Gerald Berg in his new office at 130 Main St. in Springfield. In the background is 95 State St., his former business address.

Attorney Gerald Berg says the letter arrived in late January.

It was from MGM Springfield, and it essentially informed him that he had to vacate his offices at 95 State St. in Springfield, inside the footprint of the planned $800 million casino complex, within 30 days.

He was expecting such a missive — as well as that time frame — and basically knew he would have to find new quarters once the election returns started coming in last Nov. 4 and it became clear that voters would reject a referendum question that would have effectively ended the casino era before it really got started.

So Berg, who specializes in real-estate and domestic-relations law, started looking for a new mailing address within days of the election. He briefly considered leaving downtown Springfield after spending nearly four decades in a succession of offices at 95 and 101 State St., but eventually concluded that he still wanted to be within walking distance of the various courts and the Hampden County Registry of Deeds just down the street.

What’s more, he feared that casino construction and pending repair work on the I-91 viaduct would make parking in the vicinity of the court complex a nightmare, so he passed on the suburbs.

He looked at several locations in the central business district, experienced some mild (but, again, certainly expected) sticker shock as he looked at certain properties, especially the Class A buildings, and eventually settled on 990 square feet in 1350 Main St., a.k.a. One Financial Plaza.

“It’s a nice spot,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s good space, I’m on the 11th floor, we have a nice view, we face southeast, so we get the sun … things worked out well.”

With those comments, Berg is truly representative of what has transpired since the election and during the great commercial-real-estate shakeout prompted by MGM’s pending transformation of Springfield’s South End. The shuffle isn’t officially over yet, but most of the dust — at least the immediate fallout from MGM’s property acquistions —has settled.

And while this wasn’t exactly a seismic event, it has had a definite impact on the downtown market, in terms of filling some long-vacant space and bringing a dose of stability to rates when, by most all accounts, some was needed.

“There’s still a good amount of office space left in downtown Springfield,” said Doug Macmillan, president of Macmillan & Son Inc. “But this has done a lot to stabilize rents; it’s put something solid under lease rates that had been vacillating and floating up and down for years.”

Evan Plotkin, a principal with NAI Plotkin and co-owner of 1350 Main St., agreed, and said MGM’s movement into the South End and the forced relocation of several commercial tenants helped improve an occupancy rate that had been lagging for the better part of the past 15 years and certainly since the economic downturn.

“It’s great for the market when you can absorb office space when we’ve had chronically high vacancy rates in the Class A office market, as well as Class B and C,” he explained. “There’s long been a glut of office space downtown, and that’s why I’ve been against the development of new space.”

But while most everyone forced to relocate by the casino project has found a new home or is close to doing so, the overall impact from the MGM project downtown may be far from over.

Indeed, Kevin Jennings, owner of Jennings Real Estate, who has placed — or is placing, to be more precise — several of the impacted businesses, says he’s seeing heightened interest downtown from those not in the official casino footprint.

“I don’t think we can look at it purely in terms of those who needed to be relocated,” he said. “I think there’s activity in addition to those parties, a heightened interest in downtown overall.”

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, BusinessWest looks at what’s transpired in recent weeks — and might happen next — as the casino era enters a new and intriguing phase in Springfield.

New Lease on Life

Macmillan called it “an interesting footrace.”

That’s how he chose to describe the past four months or so, or since the fate of the referendum question became clear.

What that vote did was send dozens of commercial tenants — a slew of lawyers, a few nonprofit agencies, Springfield’s Office of Health & Human Services, and the Hampden County Alcohol Correctional facility, among others — looking for new quarters into a greatly accelerated process of acquiring space.

“It’s been interesting because many of them had a demanding timeline to meet,” he explained. “It was ‘here’s your notice; you have less than 90 days to get out.”

Tenants in 95 State St., most of them attorneys, were among those who had to relocate to make way for MGM Springfield.

The lawyers, spread out across 73, 83, 95, and 101 State St. — long-time homes to the legal community because of their proximity to the court complex and Registry of Deeds — all faced the same basic questions. These involved whether to stay downtown, and, if so, where.

Some did go to the suburbs — Macmillan said he placed a few in surrounding communities — but most chose to stay in the central business district (CBD), and for those reasons listed by Berg.

There were some incentives offered by MGM to do so — $3 per square foot to stay in what’s considered downtown and $4 to remain in the CBD (generally considered to be the stretch between the Arch and State Street) — but Travaun Bailey said that was not a real consideration in his decision to relocate his office at 83 State St. to 1350 Main.

He was swayed more by convenience and parking, and that’s what prompted him to grab nearly 3,000 square feet on the third floor, a large portion of which he’s subleasing out to several other lawyers.

“We had a conversation about moving out of downtown, but it wasn’t seriously considered, said Bailey, who specializes in criminal defense, personal injury, and family law. “We wanted to stay close to the courts.”

Overall, 10 lawyers landed in 1350 Main, the Class A building closest to the court complex, together occupying nearly 8,000 square feet on three different floors. Others touched down in 115 State St. (a.k.a. the Clocktower Building), the Colonial Block further south on Main Street and across from the casino site, as well as Monarch Place, Tower Square, the TD Bank Building, and the buildings between Harrison Avenue and Falcons Way.

“Almost every building downtown has benefited from these relocations, in addition to those coming in from outside the market,” said Jennings. “It’s just been a real healthy shot in the arm for downtown.”

Some of the displaced entities are still looking for homes, including a few law firms, HHS, and the correctional facility, but much of the shakeout is over.

However, the overall activity level remains high — or at least higher than it’s been for much of the past 10-15 years.

Jennings said he’s been talking with interested parties about space in Harrision Place, including the long-vacant and highly visible ground floor, and to others, including a restaurateur, about storefronts along Main Street.

Meanwhile, Plotkin said he’s showing space at 1350 Main to a number of prospective tenants, including an insurance company, an entity specializing in shared office concept, and others.

Both attribute at least some of this interest to the casino and, more specifically, the interest they believe it is generating in Springfield and its downtown.

“There’s a new optimism concerning Springfield,” Plotkin said, choosing that word carefully. “And much of it stems from the building of this resort. Forget for a minute that it’s a casino as well, which is a huge draw; this is a resort, a destination resort, and one that will bring 8 million visitors a year to Springfield. The spinoff and benefit from that tourism and that activity in the downtown is huge.

“There’s been a lot of interest in downtown office space from some of the large real-estate search firms, the site selectors that are looking at space for clients based outside of the area that are looking for locations in different markets,” he went on. “And Springfield is one of them.”

Jennings agreed.

“We’re showing space to a lot of interested parties, and it runs the gamut, from restaurants to professionals,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s an exciting time for Springfield.”

Building Momentum

Meanwhile, Plotkin believes the destination resort that will be MGM Springfield will have an impact throughout downtown, not only in the direct vicinity of the casino’s footprint, including Pynchon Park, Union Station, Stearns Square, and other landmarks.

“Now that there’s new optimism and a new direction for downtown — and more money available to do these kinds of things — I see lots of positive things happening,” he said.

In other words, the impact downtown will likely extend far beyond the recent game of musical chairs.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Groundbreaking Events

Commercial Real Estate Sections

MGM Springfield Set to Begin Changing the Landscape

Mike Mathis wasn’t offering much by way of details.

MGM Springfield is slated to stage a groundbreaking on March 24 for its $800 million casino complex in Springfield’s South End, and there is naturally widespread speculation about what’s on tap for that event, given the nature of the company staging the ceremony and an intriguing, more flashy time for groundbreaking ceremonies in general.

Indeed, recent events in Boston, which is witnessing an explosion in new construction, have featured everything from mimes to confetti cannons to mayors operating backhoes. Meanwhile, the casino industry has long been noted for its imagination and extravagance with such events.

Mathis, president of MGM Springfield, hinted that there might be something dramatic unfolding that morning on the grounds of the former Zanetti School, the first of several buildings that will come down over the next few months. But for the most part, he was, as might be expected, keeping things pretty close to the vest.

“We’re still finalizing some of the details. We’ll have a show — that’s all I want to say for now,” said Mathis. “We’re known for throwing good parties — and for keeping the details of those parties under wraps. Suffice to say, we won’t disappoint.”

He was, however, much more forthcoming about what will transpire after the ceremonies.

Indeed, after years of planning, formalizing its unique inside-out concept, negotiating with Springfield and a host of neighboring communities, and eventually winning the contest for the coveted Western Mass. casino license, MGM is finally set to begin altering the landscape — and in a number of ways.

But especially with the look and feel of several blocks within Springfield’s South End.

Things will start with the demolition of nearly 20 properties, starting with the tornado-damaged school, but then moving on to a host of buildings on State, Main, Howard, Bliss, and Union streets. And as structures start coming down, MGM’s huge parking garage, able to accommodate more than 3,000 cars, will start to go up, probably by this summer, said Mathis, adding that it is due to be ready for occupancy by the end of 2016.

The next structures to take shape will comprise what’s known as the project’s “podium,” meaning the low-rise buildings on the property, said Mathis, evoking an industry term. The signature hotel tower — 25 stories tall, according to the latest plans, and easily the most visible component of this complex — will be the last component to take shape.

As for the overall look of the project. Mathis said the phrase “final design” is not one that he’s comfortable using, because, well, things are far from final, and that state will continue to be a moving target in many respects.

“The concept continues to evolve,” he told BusinessWest. “There are certain elements that are fairly permanent, and there are others that we’ll continue to tweak; 90% of the project will stay largely the same as what we’ve shown in the past.”

The former Zanetti School on Howard Street will be the first of 19 buildings razed to make way for MGM Springfield.

By that, he meant the concept seen in the artist’s rendering on page 41, which shows the hotel tower, casino area, retail elements, and more. There is a tight timetable for getting it all done, and the clock essentially started ticking at midnight on Nov. 5.

“Technically, we could go into 2018 in terms of an outside date for getting this done,” he explained, “but we certainly want to get this project up and going as quickly as we can for the benefit of the city and the Commonwealth, as well as our company and our stockholders. We’re looking at a 33- to 34-month window that should put us into the fall of 2017.”

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, BusinessWest talked with Mathis about the next steps in this, the largest commercial project in the region’s history, and how and when the skyline will begin to change.

Razing Their Game

As he talked with BusinessWest from Las Vegas, where he still spends most of his time, Mathis joked that he hoped what the region has witnessed over the past 90 days or so constitutes what he called a “100-year winter,” and that it’s officially over by the time work commences March 24.

“I hope you’re getting it all out of the way before we really get going — and we don’t need another one like this,” he said with a laugh, noting that frequent snowstorms and bitter cold aren’t helpful when it comes to meeting a tight construction deadline.

But, then again, neither are the 120-degree days that frequent Las Vegas, he went on, adding that the company has worked through and around those while building the massive City Center project and other initiatives there.

“Las Vegas construction is as sophisticated as any in the country or the world,” he explained, while noting that the company is well-versed with large-scale projects and demanding timelines. “City Center was many times the size and cost of what we’re doing here. This [MGM Springfield] is well within our comfort zone in terms of scale.

“What makes it unique are the historical aspects and the New England environment,” he went on, adding that the company now has three projects underway simultaneously — MGM Springfield, the National Harbor project just outside Washington, D.C., and a large casino complex in Macau.

Overall, it’s been a busy four months of activity for MGM since the state’s voters turned aside a referendum question that would essentially have outlawed casinos in the Commonwealth.

As chronicled in the real-estate-transaction pages of this magazine, the company completed acquisition of the various properties it secured options on in 2013 and 2014, and then proceeded to issue notices to vacate to occupants of the buildings to be torn down or made part of the casino complex (see related story, page 44).

There have also been discussions and negotiations with the city’s Historical Commission regarding some of the properties in the footprint — including 73 Main St., the former Electric Light building, the Western Mass. Correctional Alcohol Center (formerly a YWCA) and its façade, and the State Armory on Howard Street — and some of those talks are ongoing.

“As always, this is about striking a balance,” Mathis explained, “and we’ve been recognized by the Gaming Commission for going above and beyond the work that many other developers would do in terms of incorporating historic buildings into the plan.”

As an example, he cited one recent tweak to the overall plan for MGM Springfield. Indeed, 95 State St., one of the properties vacated and scheduled to come down, will instead become part of the new casino complex, likely housing MGM administrative offices. Meanwhile, 101 State St., which was targeted for internal use, will instead be leased to outside tenants.

“The plan was to put our executive offices into 101 State, but that would not have left much capacity for other commercial tenants,” he explained. “Keeping 95 State is a significant step toward giving some capacity back to the downtown.”

As for the Correctional Alcohol Center, tests on that site have determined that the façade cannot be saved and the building will have to be razed, he noted, adding the MGM has proposed replicating some of its architectural elements elsewhere in the complex.

Demo Daze

MGM also named a general counsel — Seth Stratton, formerly with Fitzgerald Attorneys at Law, and, earlier this month, it named Brian Packer vice president of Development and Construction. In that capacity, he will provide executive oversight for all aspects of construction and program-management activities at MGM Springfield.

The company has also hired a construction manager, Tishman Construction of Boston, in a departure from the general-contractor model, said Mathis, a move that brings numerous advantages for the developer.

This aerial architect’s rendering shows the various elements of MGM Springfield, including the 25-story hotel tower.

Elaborating, he noted that a CM, as one is called, is traditionally brought into a project at the very beginning as a partner of sorts, handling every phase of the construction program, fielding bids, managing the job, crunching numbers, and devising ways to add value. A general contractor, meanwhile, is brought in after a full set of finished architectural and engineering drawings have been created. The GC then bids out the various components of the job and presents the client with one final number.

In the CM model, MGM will have greater flexibility when it comes to parceling out in the work in various-sized packages, or “spreading the wealth,” as Mathis put it, especially among local firms.

“We don’t intend to give the entire project to one general contractor that would then typically bring in their own established teams of subcontractors — the traditional list of people they would go to,” he explained. “This [CM model]gives us the ability to break the project up into components and allow smaller packages for more local opportunities.”

As one example of this, he cited the demolition work soon to commence at the former Zanetti School and other buildings in the casino footprint. Rather than include the fencing that accompanies such work in the demolition package, that item has been kept separate, giving more companies, and especially those in the 413 area code, a slice of the pie.

“Not surprisingly, there’s a pent-up desire for a health capital project like this one,” he explained. “We’ve done general notices on certain construction packages for demolition, excavation, fencing, and other elements of this work because we want to make sure we reach as many different companies as we can about the various opportunities.

“We’re going to work hard to create smaller packages, which is somewhat unique,” he went on. “We’re customizing things to this market to provide as many opportunities to different contractors as we can. There will be smaller, less-lucrative single packages, but we’ll be able to touch more smaller businesses this way.”

Building Momentum

While the specifics of the March 24 groundbreaking remain a closely guarded secret, the company’s plans, as Mathis said, will not disappoint.

And it will certainly work to make sure the same can be said for each aspect of the project — from the design to the construction timeline, to the opportunities for local business to share in the wealth from the $800 million.

Whether all that goes as planned remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the landscape is going to start changing, and in some very big ways.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Getting Off the Ground

Entrepreneurship Sections

A chart of area resources for entrepreneurs

Click HERE to download the PDF chart

Planting Seeds

Entrepreneurship Sections

Grinspoon Foundation Inspires Students’ Entrepreneurial Dreams

Bill Goldfarb and his wife, Melissa, display products from Lefty’s Brewery at a Grinspoon conference.

Five years ago, Bill Goldfarb was a college student with an interest in making beer.

“I was going to Greenfield Community College, taking business classes,” Goldfarb said. “While I was there, a professor recommended I apply for a Grinspoon Foundation award, so we put together a presentation, and I was picked for a grant. That was the first funding I received for my company, and that helped me get my first set of brewing equipment. That was huge.”

These days, as Lefty’s Brewery celebrates its fifth anniversary, the Bernardston-based enterprise boasts 10 employees and about 250 clients — and can trace its success back to that one initial award from the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation, the arm of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation that supports entrepreneurship efforts among young adults.

But the value of that $1,000 award went well beyond a dollar figure, he added.

“Obviously, the financial part was extremely helpful,” he told BusinessWest, “but just the encouragement from my professors, and the encouragement through the Grinspoon Foundation for student entrepreneurs, helped me lay the groundwork for a lot of business planning, as well as giving me the incentive that this was something I could do. It was my incentive to get the ball rolling.”

And roll it has. Lefty’s Brewery crafted 128 barrels in its first year; it’s on track for 2,000 barrels this year. “I’d say that’s decent growth, to say the least,” Goldfarb said. “Things are moving right along for us.”

His is not an isolated story.

Indeed, since launching his entrepreneurship programs in 2003, Grinspoon and his staff have supported more than 525 college students with more than $500,000 in grants, through a series of tiered programs aimed at different stages of the startup process.

“Harold’s vision is for college students to understand that entrepreneurship is not only a viable option, but also a prestigious one,” said Cari Carpenter, director of entrepreneurship initiatives at the Grinspoon Charitable Foundation.

“Over the past 12 years, we have engaged all 14 colleges in the Valley in an endeavor to collaborate to really support students exploring those career options,” she added. “I really think the fact that we have this intercollegiate collaboration, where each college has a faculty-member liaison on campus, and they encourage students to participate in our high-profile events, encourages business creation in the Pioneer Valley.”

Cari Carpenter says the foundation encourages students to see entrepreneurship as a viable, even prestigious, career option.

For this issue’s focus on entrepreneurship, BusinessWest explores the many ways in which the Grinspoon Foundation and its programs are encouraging young men and women to turn their ideas and passions into viable businesses and gratifying careers — and, at the same time, give a boost to an emerging, and important, sector of the region’s economy.

From Idea to Reality

The foundation actually offers four types of awards each year, each aimed at a different stage of the startup experience: elevator-pitch awards for compelling ideas, concept awards for startups in the pre-revenue stage, Entrepreneurial Spirit awards for companies that have begun to generate revenue, and alumni awards for later-stage successes.

The foundation’s annual spring banquet — this year slated for April 22 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke, with keynote speaker Aaron St. John, co-founder of HitPoint Studios — attracts about 600 attendees, including budding entrepreneurs from all 14 colleges and universities. The event features the presentation of the Spirit awards and the elevator-pitch competition, which is financially supported by local banks and judged by commercial bankers.

Meanwhile, an annual fall event, typically drawing about 500 people, is positioned more as an educational program, with speakers and breakout sessions giving students an opportunity to learn more about entrepreneurship. “In many cases,” Carpenter said, “it’s their first professional conference.”

Parker Burr was one beneficiary of a Spirit Award, earning $1,000 last spring after being nominated by a professor at UMass Amherst. Combined with $200 he had won in a class competition, Burr put the funds toward his first piece of equipment — a hot-iron press — for a sock-making enterprise he calls Feat Socks.

“Feat Socks are printed by hand right here in Amherst,” he explained. “I’m basically trying to create a sock for every shoe; we don’t want to sell you a running sock, a dress sock, a business sock … we want your sock to go with any shoe. Our patterns and designs are a little more unique than the next company because we’re not printing hundreds of the same sock. These are handmade in Western Mass.”

Like Goldfarb, he said the Grinspoon award was critical to simply getting production rolling. “I’m still using the equipment I bought to print today. That’s what really got me going.”

Carpenter cited, as another example, Marcie Muehlke, who won an award several years ago that helped her launch Celia Grace, an Amherst-based company that sells fair-trade wedding dresses.

“She got married and couldn’t find anything in the parameters of fair-trade wedding gowns,” Carpenter explained, adding that Muehlke began working with seamstresses in Cambodia and India whose shops abide by safe working conditions, pay a living wage, and prohibit child labor. “Again, she called her award a vote of confidence that allowed her to get started.”

Many of the startups that benefit from Grinspoon’s programs were similarly born from a passion or an interest — everything from supporting overseas labor standards, as Muehlke does, to installing custom beer taps in bars, restaurants, and ‘man caves,’ as Audra Quintin decided to do as an MBA student at Bay Path University. Today, Wilbraham-based East Coast Taps continues to expand right along with the ever-growing craft-beer market.

“When I asked her how the Spirit Award helped her,” Carpenter recalled, “she said, ‘this really was one of the first votes of confidence in our idea. It allowed me to purchase some materials and make the first prototype and buy some marketing materials and really start to expand.’”

She returned to the concept of a ‘vote of confidence’ several times while talking with BusinessWest. “I think that’s a huge aspect of this. And when we do these high-profile events, and when students at the early stage of business see other students at the early stage, it’s very contagious to be part of all that energy.”

Reason to Believe

Lauren Way agreed.

“It’s not only money, but support,” said Way, director of the master’s program in Higher Education Administration at Bay Path University, who also advises students in Grinspoon entrepreneurship initiatives. “That money says people believe in you, and that alone has an emotional underpinning — ‘yes, this is real, what you’re doing is real, and we support it and applaud it, and we’ll give you money to advance it.’”

That’s a critical part of the foundation’s entrepreneurship initiatives, Carpenter said. “Mr. Grinspoon wants to reward them, not only with financial awards, but with public recognition.”

Not all ideas will be successful, of course, and some young entrepreneurs don’t find a winner with long-term potential until their third or fourth different attempt, she noted. And not every startup has designs on explosive growth.

“Lots of students have done less-scalable types of businesses — custom greeting cards, woodworking, we’ve had students start landscaping businesses … it just runs the gamut. When we go to events, we see the breadth of their ideas.”

Way said the Grinspoon programs have helped to cultivate a culture of entrepreneurship on campuses and collaboration among them.

Parker Burr shows off some of the hand-printed offerings of Feat Socks.

“It’s a catalyst for the schools to work together in ways they otherwise wouldn’t work together and share best practices,” she told BusinessWest. “It’s also a catalyst for schools to make more of an impact on the community than they could do individually. Finally, it brings students together at these events in large numbers, where they get to know each other’s work as well as compete with each other.”

Way noted that grant applicants aren’t just young 20-somethings, but many are older adults with past business experience or startups well past the initial stages. She recalled one whose business was on track to make $1 million in its first year. “The [award] money doesn’t matter to her. But she really wanted that award.”

The reasons for such enthusiasm are varied. “Winning means you can put the recognition on your website and in press releases. You can call yourself an award-winning business. It’s huge. So, I feel like the foundation helps us reach students at both ends of the spectrum.”

At a time when local economic-development leaders are emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurship to the region’s vitality, Carpenter said, the collaborations being encouraged by these initatives is especially valuable.

“We feel like a critical part of this ecosystem. We are very closely tied into other initiatives and programs in the region,” she noted, making a point of crediting Valley Venture Mentors for its accelerator program, offering incubator support to burgeoning startups.

“College students have very developed mentoring programs, but once they graduate, once their businesses get to a certain stage, there isn’t a lot for them,” she went on. “[VVM] has created this mentoring program, and we have been a feeder with some of our awardees going into their mentoring programs, into their accelerator. They’ve been very supportive.”

VVM has also opened its doors to college students to work internships with companies in its accelerator — a win-win for the students to gain business experience, and the startups to gain low-cost assistance in taking their enterprises to the next level, Carpenter added. “We have a very nice relationship with them; they’re so supportive, and what they’re doing is so important.”

Dance Fever

Carpenter told BusinessWest how Grinspoon, after the spring banquet a few years ago, told her to add a dance competition. He wasn’t joking.

“So we give $100 awards for the 10 best dancers,” she said. “He was thinking, there’s so much positive energy at this event, and it dissipates when people walk out the door. So he wanted to capture that fun and energy. It’s really fun; the students love it.”

The exuberance of the spring event finds a counterpart in the nitty-gritty of the fall seminar, Way said, and together, they inspire and educate potential entrepreneurs — two ways of encouraging the next generation of business successes. “They come together with students from other schools, and say, ‘wow, this is a viable career path for me.’”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

What’s Covered

A chart of health and dental plans serving Western Mass.

Click HERE to download the PDF chart

Palate Paradigm

Government Likely to Reverse Recommendations About Cholesterol

Richard Wood says nutrition is a very individual matter, and the relationship between cholesterol and heart health is a complicated one.

For more than 50 years, the federal government has warned people that eating foods high in cholesterol could raise their cholesterol levels and lead to heart disease.

But that warning, which led many consumers to drop eggs from their diet and caused a 30% reduction in consumption, is likely to be retracted by the end of the year.

A preliminary report issued in December by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, stating that “cholesterol is not considered a nutrient of concern for overconsumption,” is expected to be reflected in the 2015 Dietary Guidelines that will be issued by the Agriculture and Health and Human Services departments in the coming months. However, warnings about high levels of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol in the blood, which have been linked to heart disease, will not be reversed.

Still, dieticians say the government is finally catching up to what research has shown for decades: that foods high in cholesterol do not have a direct correlation to heart disease, and the cause of high cholesterol is indeed a complex matter.

“People forget that the liver can make cholesterol,” said Paula Serafino-Cross, a registered dietician nutritionist at Baystate Medical Center. “I know someone who was slim and ate all the right foods and still had a heart attack. It’s a much more complex issue than we originally thought.”

Richard Wood agreed. “It’s great to see the government finally making progress, but this information is long, long overdue,” said the associate professor and director of the Center for Wellness, Education and Research at Springfield College. “Nutrition is a very individual matter. Some people can eat foods high in cholesterol with no ill effects, while the same foods cause a rise in others. But there are many, many steps between eating an egg yolk and developing atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, and even though food may have a lot to do with heart health, so does exercise, smoking, stress, sleep, and the level of inflammation in the body.”

Nancy Dell told BusinessWest there is no one formula or “right” way of eating that works for everyone.

“The guidelines are finally catching up to what dieticians and health experts have known for years,” said the registered dietician, nutritionist, certified diabetes educator, and owner of Nancy Dell and Associates Nutrition Counseling.

She cited results from the Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948 with 5,209 adult subjects from Framingham and is considered by researchers to be the gold standard, because it has continued and is now following a third generation of families. Dell said the study shows that, although LDL, or ‘bad’ cholesterol, is one of the risk factors for heart disease, other variables such as high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, and psychosocial factors play a role in the equation.

Nancy Dell says there’s no one formula or “right” way of eating that works for everyone.

“The only three foods in our diet with really high levels of cholesterol are egg yolks, shrimp, and liver, but they don’t have a great impact on the cholesterol in blood,” Dell said. “And eggs are simply not an issue. People in a Tufts University study ate six eggs every day for eight weeks, and only two people had their cholesterol levels go up,” and those very minimally.

Wood concurred. He said Springfield College has run studies in which participants ate three eggs a day for a month, and only a small percentage saw any increase in their blood cholesterol.

“If the diet-heart hypothesis was true, everyone’s cholesterol would go up,” he said. “So, in essence, the risk of eating foods with high cholesterol levels is very small.”

Experts in the field of nutrition expect the government’s new dietary guidelines to contain recommendations to eat more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains and advise people to watch their intake of sodium and, more importantly, saturated fats.

But the latter is an ingredient many people ignore.

“I often get clients who schedule an appointment because they are concerned about their cholesterol levels; they tell me they are doing well because they have stopped eating foods with a high cholesterol count and are looking at the amount of cholesterol on food labels. But it’s the wrong thing to look at,” Dell said, explaining that trans fats and partially hydrogenated oil are much more damaging to health than foods high in cholesterol, and that carbohydrates and sugar also effect cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Critical Findings

Wood said the chemical reactions that take place in the body with regard to cholesterol are complex.

“Since it’s a fat, it doesn’t dissolve in water, so the body packages it into particles of different sizes,” he said, explaining that ‘good’ HDL particles remove cholesterol from the bloodstream and carry it away, while ‘bad’ LDL particles tend to stick to the artery walls and form plaque.

“Eating an excessive amount of carbohydrates can increase LDL, decrease HDL, and increase inflammation,” he continued, explaining that, after government warnings to eliminate foods high in cholesterol were issued, people began consuming products like margarine that were created by food manufacturers to mimic the real thing.

Dell explained how products such as Crisco are made. “If you take oil and add hydrogen to it, it becomes hard. People like the semi-solid texture, and it makes crackers and chips crispier and pie crusts flakier,” she said.

However, consuming it is far from heart-healthy. Dell said when 200 women in a Harvard study ate an extra 1.6 grams, or a third of a teaspoon, of trans fat a day, their risk of heart disease increased by 500%.

She also cited the example of a client whose cholesterol level shot up without warning.

“I talked to her about what she was eating and discovered she had started using fat-free coffee creamer every day. The first ingredient in it is partially hydrogenated oil, and she was consuming three to four grams a day without realizing it. A month after the woman stopped using the creamer, her cholesterol dropped by 50 points,” said Dell, adding that products such as microwave popcorn contain trans fat.

The particles the body forms to carry cholesterol through the bloodstream come in different sizes and shapes, and new research shows that people whose LDL cholesterol particles are predominantly small and dense have at least a threefold greater risk of coronary heart disease than people with large particles. In addition, some studies suggest that determining the number of small, dense particles in the blood provides a more accurate prediction of heart disease than simply measuring total LDL cholesterol.

Blood tests can measure particle size, and special diets that cut carbohydrates and sugar, but allow people to eat foods with a high fat content, have been created for individuals with an abundance of small LDL particles.

But clinicians fear that people will make their own assumptions if and when the dietary guidelines change.

“Some people may take the new information about cholesterol as an excuse to eat anything they want,” said Serafino-Cross. “But the government recommendations are not going to change much, particularly when it comes to the need to eat more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. The consumption of vegetables in this country has gone down.”

Dell says strategies to increase good cholesterol in the bloodstream include losing weight, adding exercise to one’s daily routine, eliminating smoking, reducing white flour and sugar, and taking the supplement CoQ 10.

In addition, research has shown specific foods can help reduce LDL. Although eating them doesn’t cause a dramatic reduction, it can make a difference over an extended period of time. “Oats can reduce LDL by 2%; a half-cup of nuts a day can lower it by 4% to 24%; 10 grams of fiber can reduce the risk of heart disease by 17%; and an ounce of pistachios daily cuts LDL by 9%,” Dell said, citing results from studies.

She added that tea (with the exception of herbal varieties), fish, and whole soy foods, such as edaname and roasted soybeans, along with nuts and foods naturally high in fiber, can also help lower cholesterol. “But it’s better to get the fiber from fruits and vegetables. It doesn’t have the same effect when it has been separated and ground into food as when it is found in nature.”

Wood says it can be helpful for people to keep a dietary log of what they eat and how they are feeling. “Adding more vegetables is fine for everyone, but people need to look at the total amount of carbohydrates and sugar they are consuming as well as their total calorie consumption and how often they prepare foods as compared to buying prepared foods.”

Personal Prognosis

Each person’s body is different, and there is no formula that guarantees equal or positive results, especially since medication, exercise, sleep, stress, and other factors enter into the heart-health equation.

“Exercise reduces inflammation, and employing stress-management techniques can be helpful,” Wood said. “But it’s complicated, and most people would really benefit from meeting with a nutritionist who can investigate their eating patterns and how they relate to their current state of health.”

Serafino-Cross concurred. “People need to examine their overall dietary patterns. But most don’t want to do the hard work, which involves looking at everything they eat and cooking from scratch, as it takes a lot of effort.”

And although some people may need to be more strict than others, Dell told BusinessWest, “ultimately, it’s about finding a balance.”

The Next Chapter

Cover Story

Rick Sullivan Settles into New Role as EDC President

Having been a mayor, Richard Sullivan Jr. understands how city leaders think. But he wants them to broaden their horizons.

“Cities often don’t focus on the importance of regional development,” said Sullivan, the new president of the Western Mass. Economic Development Council (EDC). “I understand the parochialness; every community wants development they think is appropriate for their community first.

“But there also needs to be a realization,” he continued, “that all the cities and towns of the region need to be strong and growing — that it’s good for neighboring communities when jobs are created in Holyoke, Chicopee, Northampton, or Greenfield, because people from surrounding communities are going to work at those companies and do business with those companies.”

The EDC, which Allan Blair led from its inception 19 years ago until his retirement last fall, has strived for decades to create region-wide vitality, but in some ways, the challenge is greater now, Sullivan said.

“We would rather have growth opportunities happening in neighboring communities than in other parts of the country,” he told BusinessWest. “We live in a time when businesses, for the most part, don’t have to be in any one city or town; they can be really flexible. So we need to really sell the attributes we have as a region.”

To do that, he continued, “we’ve got to change the way we look at ourselves in Western Massachusetts. “There are so many great attributes of the region, so we need to be confident that this is, in fact, a good place to work, to do business, to live. We understand we have needs, but we’re coming from a good place, and we need to tell that story.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that good things only happen here when the economy is strong and something spills over from Boston,” Sullivan added. “But I think it’s time Western Massachusetts took the lead and became aggressive in telling our story. It’s a great story; so many good things are happening here. We need to go out, get to the table, and get our share of wins.”

State of Affairs

Sullivan has traveled a wide and varied road to his latest assignment. After serving as Westfield’s mayor from 1994 to 2007, he headed up the state Department of Conservation and Recreation before Gov. Deval Patrick brought him into his cabinet in 2011 as secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, a role in which he oversaw six environmental, natural-resource, and energy-regulatory agencies.

From there, Patrick tapped him to be his chief of staff, where he remained through the ex-governor’s second term last year.

“Having spent the last seven and a half years in Boston, I’ve been able to make some contacts there. And I learned that Western Mass. really needs to get a seat at the table when there are growth opportunities; we need to be able to tell the story of Western Mass.,” he said, using as one example the region’s wealth of talent in precision manufacturing.

“You’re seeing growth in the economy of Eastern Mass. as companies ramp up and take new technologies to scale and begin manufacturing. Here in Western Mass., that’s one of our strengths — we can do those manufacturing processes. We can be competitive with other parts of the country; they don’t need to go to some southern state. We need to be at the table on this.”

Allan Blair, who led the EDC from its inception in 1996 until his retirement last year, forged a number of key partnerships among education and workforce-development entities.

But he doesn’t want to limit his gaze to the east when persuading companies to consider the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires. “We also have to look south, down the Route 91 corridor — now known as the Knowledge Corridor — from New Haven up through Franklin County; that’s an important part of the economy in Massachusetts. We are well-positioned here in Western Massachusetts. The future is bright.”

Sullivan often brings up the concept of “telling our story,” something he did for years serving in Patrick’s administration.

“I did feel an obligation every day, as member of the cabinet, to bring the Western Mass. story to the table,” he said. “Certainly, it was really easy with Gov. Patrick, because he was very cognizant of the whole state, every single day. He has a home in Richmond, and he has a special place in his heart for Western Mass.”

But telling the story in Boston and spearheading a number of initiatives creating positive change are two different challenges, he went on. “Western Mass. has taken a regional approach for a long time, perhaps out of necessity because we’re smaller than most regions, and we need to band together. The EDC is a place where all voices can be convened. We are well-positioned to be that strong voice.”

The job was an attractive one, he said, opening up as Patrick neared the end of his last term as governor. “I’ve got a long history with the EDC, dating back to my time as mayor of Westfield and working on a project there.”

Actually, he quickly added, he was still City Council president when the EDC and the Westmass Area Development Corp. brought forward plans for Summit Lock Industrial Park, which eventually attracted CNS Wholesale Grocers as its largest tenant. “That was certainly a real turning point in the organization and the region, and allowed Westmass Development to move forward.”

Three Buckets

The EDC’s role in the regional economy is a broad one, boasting affiliations with local chambers of commerce and business improvement districts, Westmass, the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau (GSCVB), Westover Metropolitan Airport, and Valley Venture Mentors. But Sullivan said its key focus can be narrowed to three “buckets”: precision manufacturing, higher education, and entrepreneurship, or the innovation economy.

“Precision manufacturing is really the invisible backbone of the economy of Western Mass.,” he explained. “There are a couple of large manufacturers, but there’s a whole network of smaller advanced manufacturers that call Western Mass. home — and have for generations.”

If the industry is a regional calling card, Sullivan said, it’s one the EDC and its partners need to talk up, since these are businesses that don’t typically focus on bringing attention to themselves.

“We need to help them by taking the conversation out there,” he said. “The individuals running these businesses, frankly, don’t have time to be the voice touting this industry, the importance of this network in Western Mass. That’s part of what we need to do as the EDC.”

The industry’s biggest issues revolve around talent and skill sets — not just to fill the jobs available today, but the wave of openings on the horizon over the next decade.

“The workforce on the floor right now is older, and a lot of jobs will come open in the next five to 10 years,” Sullivan said. “So we’re working with the technical schools, the community colleges, and other universities here in Western Mass., working with the Regional Employment Board, to develop really specific education and training.”

A good example is CNR Changchun Railway Vehicles, the Chinese company planning to launch manufacturing operations in Springfield — a project expected to generate more than 100 construction jobs but, more important, up to 250 permanent jobs in the plant. But those positions will require specific skills and certification, as do many manufacturing jobs.

“Manufacturing jobs today are clean, high-tech, IT-driven jobs, and they’re jobs that provide enough income for you to have good quality of life, a good middle-class living,” Sullivan said. “We want to make connections with the rail-car company and other manufacturers in the region and grow the industry here.”

The second bucket, and one that’s related to the first, is the higher-education system in Western Mass. “It’s strong in Western Massachusetts, which is important for an educated workforce,” Sullivan said. “It’s an important business sector here, and we need to tell the story of our schools of higher education here.”

The reason, of course, is to build the skilled workforce that will not only stay in Western Mass., but will develop their own enterprises and scale them up.

“I met with the college presidents,” he said. “They’re willing to step up and play those roles. That’s exciting.”

The third bucket is intertwined with the second, and that’s the region’s innovation economy, built largely through entrepreneurship. “You can see tangible growth in the sector. You see emerging technologies and clusters like Amherst or the Holyoke Innovation District or here in Springfield, with Valley Venture Mentors and commitments from companies like MassMutual and the Davis Foundation, to name just two.”

Innovation crosses all industries, Sullivan continued. “It can be IT-related or biotech-related. There are some great opportunities when you look at issues like clean energy and water technology and innovation.”

From his years dealing with environmental issues on the state level, Sullivan is well aware of the importance of the burgeoning green industries in Western Mass. and projects like a federally funded drinking-water-innovation center at UMass Amherst, tasked with finding solutions for cleaning up the world’s water supply.

“You can go down to the Cape and look at nitrate contamination, but clean water is a global issue,” he said. “And there’s no reason why it can’t be centered here in our region. If we can capture that market, it plays into the good work we have started with innovation and entrepreneurship.

“I think it’s a really exciting time for the region as a whole,” he went on, “and the EDC has a great opportunity to really set the agenda for the region around business growth and business development.”

Games and Gaming

Other EDC-affiliated organizations, like the GSCVB, have their own priorities. “I want to be supportive, plug in where I can be helpful,” Sullivan said. “Mary Kay [Wydra, GSCVB president] is clearly the professional there. The perfect example of that is work on Boston’s Olympic bid and where Western Massachusetts can plug into that. The EDC can be the larger regional voice, but they obviously have the experience to do the nitty-gritty work.”

While Boston’s bid is far from a sure thing, another recreational draw, MGM Springfield, is definitely on its way, breaking ground this spring on an $800 million casino complex in Springfield’s South End. That poses more opportunities — and challenges — for the EDC.

“Obviously, we’ve got construction that’s going to take place,” Sullivan said. “I’ve had conversations with [MGM Springfield President] Mike Mathis, who has been a good partner, trying to plug into our local construction companies and subs, helping to train up the workers. We want our companies, our workers, on these construction projects. That’s the promise they’ve made, and they’ve been very good about keeping that promise.”

Long-term, because MGM is talking about 3,000 permanent jobs in the completed casino, “it goes back to workforce training and narrowing skills gaps,” he continued. “Some jobs will require a high-school or community-college degree, while some higher-level jobs will require more. As a region, we need to be able to do the training for long-term jobs in casino operations.”

The EDC also wants to facilitate connections between the casino and a host of potential locally based vendors, he noted. “We’d like local florists to provide services, or local linen companies, cleaning companies — all the functions that occur on a daily basis in casino operations. We need to make these connections here in Western Massachusetts. I think the EDC can play a role, both with the casino and the rail company — these long-term, large-impact projects — in making sure our local vendors get these jobs.”

Some of those vendors might not have the size to take on that work, he added, which is why the EDC wants to cultivate programs to help them grow. As for the rail-car operations, workers will need to be trained and certified to tackle that manufacturing niche.

“That process just doesn’t happen overnight,” Sullivan said, referring to both the casino and Changchun. “The time is now to make those impacts. Years from now, when things are under construction, that’s be a little late in the game. It seems early, but it’s really not, with the lead time involved with many of those functions.”

Moment in Time

If all that seems like a lot for the EDC to have on its plate during a crucial time in Greater Springfield’s history, well, Sullivan doesn’t deny that. But he’s encouraged by the fact that many different organizations have already made the connections to support the programs needed for further economic growth.

In addition, he’s gratified by the reception he’s received from area mayors, chambers of commerce, and other economic leaders in taking on his new role.

“Everyone has been very welcoming, and there’s a real sense of excitement — not about me personally, but excitement about the potential of the region and what can happen here,” he told BusinessWest. “So, I think this is a moment in time that, if we seize it, can have some long-term economic impact in Western Massachusetts. I have to say, I’m extremely excited about the potential.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Braman Termite and Pest Elimination Earns Angie’s List Award

AGAWAM — Braman Termite and Pest Elimination, a provider of pest-management services in Southern New England since 1890, has earned the service industry’s coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award, reflecting an exemplary year of service provided to the local marketplace, according to the consumer-review site in 2014.

“We are honored at Braman Termite and Pest Elimination to have once again earned the Angie’s List Super Service Award, especially this year as we celebrate 125 years in business,” said Jerry Lazarus, third-generation owner. “I am confident that we provide a superior level of customer service that our customers have come to expect. This service is the result of our entire staff, but also under the leadership of several dedicated members that have been with Braman for decades.”

Only about 5% of the companies in the Greater Springfield market have performed consistently well enough to earn the Super Service Award, said Angie’s List founder Angie Hicks. “It’s a really high standard.” Service-company ratings are updated daily on the website. Companies are graded in areas ranging from price to professionalism to punctuality.

Angie’s List Super Service Award winners have met strict eligibility requirements, which include an ‘A’ rating in overall grade, recent grade, and review-period grade. The company must be in good standing with Angie’s List, pass a background check, and abide by Angie’s List operational guidelines.

Teresa Petit de Mange Recognized as 2015 Power Broker

EAST LONGMEADOW — Hub International Limited, a leading insurance brokerage, risk-advisory, and employee-benefits firm, announced that Teresa Petit de Mange, producer, was selected as a recipient of the 2015 Power Broker Awards distributed by Risk & Insurance.

According to the publication, the criterion for this award is based on customer service, depth of industry knowledge, and what each individual has done to help manage risk in the past 12 months. Petit de Mange was selected as a winner in the Energy Specialist category. She was recognized for being the vertical leader for Hub’s energy vertical.

“We are extremely proud of Teresa on receiving this tremendous honor and being recognized for her achievements,” said Shawn McLaughlin, chief sales officer. “Her dedication to serving the energy industry is evident in her strong client relationships and proven results.”

Headquartered in Chicago, Hub International Limited is a leading global insurance brokerage that provides a broad array of property and casualty, life and health, employee-benefits, investment, and risk-management products and services through offices located across North America.

CHD Slates Annual Cammer Cup for March 28

WESTFIELD — The Western Mass. Knights, the Center for Human Development (CHD) Disability Resources junior and adult sled-hockey teams will host the annual Cammer Cup at Amelia Park in Westfield on Saturday, March 28. Members of CHD’s Disability Resources program will face off against local celebrities in the first game at 3 p.m. and then uphold an annual tradition by taking on the Charter Oak Men’s League team in memory of their teammate, Alex Camerlin.

Proceeds from the $10 admission, raffle, and concessions will benefit the Western Mass. Knights adult and junior sled-hockey programs to help pay for ice time, purchase and maintain equipment, and offset travel costs to annual USA Hockey Disabled Festivals (2015 in Buffalo, N.Y. and 2016 in Detroit, Mich.). Tickets can be purchased through participating players, at Amelia Park in Westfield, or at CHD’s home office at 332 Birnie Ave., Springfield.

The following local celebrities have already committed, with a few more expected to join: Jim Goodwin, CHD president; Julie Schwager, CHD vice president of Adult Services; Elizabeth Preston, Westfield State University president; Pat Kelly of Laser 99.3; Bob Kester of Rock 102; Shaggy of Kix 100.9; Mike Skurko of CBS 3 Springfield; Ryan Walsh of WWLP 22; and Andy Zilch, Springfield Falcons broadcaster.

CHD’s Disability Resources program provides barrier-free recreational and competitive opportunities for individuals with physical disabilities or visual impairments. Through a variety of activities, including adaptive sports, recreational outings, social gatherings, and educational events, Disability Resources seeks to enhance the self-confidence, interactive skills, and physical abilities of program participants.

Endangered Connecticut River Sturgeon Gets Its Own Beer

GREENFIELD — The People’s Pint Brewery and the Connecticut River Watershed Council (CRWC) are partnering to raise awareness of the shortnose sturgeon with a new beer, the Shortnose Stout.

The shortnose sturgeon is an endangered fish that lives and reproduces in the Connecticut River. The public can learn more about this fish at CRWC’s open house on Wednesday, March 25 from 4 to 6 p.m. at 15 Bank Row, Greenfield, and at the People’s Pint uncorking celebration on Friday, March 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. at its pub on Federal Street, Greenfield. Both events are free and open to the public.

“Sturgeon coexisted with dinosaurs,” noted Boyd Kynard, a local researcher on migratory fish and Connecticut River shortnose sturgeon, “so having shortnose sturgeon living in the Connecticut River is biologically special. Our Connecticut River shortnose was greatly diminished by 19th- and 20th-century damming, but today, federal and state agencies are involved in improving the survival for the few shortnose that remain in the river.”

CRWC works along the 410-mile Connecticut River basin to protect rivers and fish. “Over the years, we’ve created many obstacles for migratory fish to overcome as they return to our rivers from the ocean,” said CRWC Executive Director Andrew Fisk. “But there has also been lots of great work throughout New England to remove those obstacles and make our rivers more fish-friendly. Thanks to the support of our members and many great partners, we have been working on projects to benefit fish all along the Connecticut River basin.”

Recent projects include installing a fish ladder that opened last spring on the Rogers Lake Dam on Mill Brook in Connecticut, removing two deadbeat dams on the upper Wells River in Vermont, and planting over 8,700 trees and shrubs along streams to reduce erosion and improve fish habitat.

“Brewing the Shortnose Stout, and working with the Connecticut River Watershed Council, is a great opportunity to make a real difference with the beer we brew here at the Peoples Pint,” said Chris Sellers, People’s Pint brewer. “I am very excited to continue to use our brewery and restaurant as a platform and a tool to raise awareness of issues affecting both our local environment and our local community. So join us at the Peoples Pint, or buy a bottle at your local package store, and raise a glass of Shortnose Stout to helping increase awareness about improving the health of our local waterways and all the species who reside in them. Cheers!”

Shortnose Stout is a traditional dry Irish stout. It has a light body with hints of caramel followed by a deep, roasted finish. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of this beer go to the Connecticut River Watershed Council.

To learn more about the CRWC, or to join the effort and help protect area rivers, visit www.ctriver.org or call (413) 772-2020, ext. 201.

February Unemployment Rate in Massachusetts Drops to 4.9%

BOSTON — The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (EOLWD) released preliminary February 2015 estimates that show the Massachusetts total unemployment rate dropped to 4.9% from the January rate of 5.1%, a 0.2% decrease. Over the year, the unemployment rate fell by 1.1% from 6.0% in February 2014.

The share of working-age residents employed or unemployed, also known as the labor participation rate, was 65.9%, an increase of 0.3% since January. Compared with February 2014, the labor participation rate increased a full percentage point over the year. February 2015 estimates show that 3,430,500 residents were employed and 177,300 were unemployed. Compared with February 2014, February 2015 had 34,400 fewer unemployed, the largest annual decrease in the number of unemployed since October 2011.

Over the month, jobs were up 800, with a private-sector loss of 800. Since February 2014, jobs grew by 58,100, with 46,300 private-sector job gains. The sectors with the largest job gains over the year were education and health services and professional, scientific, and business services.

Monson Savings Bank Elects New Corporators

MONSON — Monson Savings Bank recently announced the election of five new corporators who are advisors to the bank, representing the communities the bank serves. They also possess certain governing functions, including the election of the bank’s president.

Monson Savings has 55 corporators, including the five elected at the bank’s annual meeting on March 4: Louis Abbate, president emeritus, Willie Ross School for the Deaf, Longmeadow; Mark Borsari, president, Sanderson MacLeod, Palmer; Joseph Lawler, benefits consultant, the Gaudreau Group, Wilbraham; Roy St. George, vice president, Moulton Insurance Agency Inc., Ware; and Julie Quink, managing principal, Burkhart, Pizzanelli, P.C., West Springfield.

“We’re extremely fortunate to have these folks join our team,” said Steve Lowell, president of Monson Savings Bank. “We rely on our corporators to keep us in touch with the needs of our communities, provide invaluable insight into our operations, and also to help us spread the word of all that we have to offer. Our corporators are leaders in the communities we serve, they are highly engaged with us, and we very much appreciate their involvement.”

Baystate Rug & Flooring Touts Safety on Formaldehyde Emissions

CHICOPEE — Baystate Rug & Flooring, a local, family-owned provider of flooring, announced that it complies with all emissions standards regarding formaldehyde often used by manufacturers of flooring adhesives, unlike some big-box competitors.

“It was very disappointing to hear that a big retailer was selling foreign-made products that did not comply with formaldehyde emission levels,” said Joseph Montemagni, president of Baystate Rug & Flooring, with locations in Chicopee and East Longmeadow. “We are a family company and have grown over the years on the value of developing relationships that create customers for life — a long, healthy life. Customers concerned about levels of formaldehyde, especially in laminate flooring, can feel safer shopping at Baystate Rug & Flooring.”

A class-action lawsuit against a national competitor, Lumber Liquidators, was filed earlier this month in the U. S. district court on behalf of Massachusetts consumers who were sold laminate wood flooring tainted with hazardous levels of formaldehyde, a carcinogen that can cause respiratory issues at high levels and and can cause eye, nose, and throat irritation at lower levels.

Westfield State University to Host Second Annual Relay for Life

WESTFIELD — Following up last year’s successful event, Westfield State University will host its second annual Relay for Life on Friday, April 17 in Woodward Center’s indoor track. The event begins at 6 p.m. on the April 17 and concludes at 7 a.m. on Saturday, April 18.

The inaugural Relay for Life raised more than $40,000. “Even thinking about it now, I am blown away by last year’s success,” said event organizer Beth Teague, president of the Relay for Life club. “With the short amount of time we had to plan and with how small our school is, nobody expected us to raise anywhere close to the amount we reached. The generosity of our community here, as well as our home communities, astounds me.”

Relay for Life is the main volunteer-driven fund-raising event of the American Cancer Society. Created in the U.S., the event has spread to 21 countries. Relays are held in local parks, campus universities, and military bases, and all proceeds go to cancer research and to improving the lives of those living with cancer. Relay for Life events have raised nearly $5 billion to date.

Teague has volunteered for numerous Relay for Life events during the past decade and wanted to bring the iconic fund-raiser to Westfield State.

“I participated in Relays off campus and realized there was no reason we shouldn’t have Relay for Life on the Westfield State campus,” Teague said. “I wanted to bring something that could make life better to the WSU campus, and it has been received so well. With such an amazing first year, I know this is going to be an event that stays strong at Westfield State in years to come.”

Teague said that the Relay for Life club plans to beat last year’s fund-raising total, setting a goal of $55,000 from this year’s event.

Westfield State University’s Relay for Life is open to students, faculty, staff, and the community. To sign up or donate, visit www.relayforlife.org/wsuma. The minimum fund-raising suggestion is $100 per participant.

The American Cancer Society Relay for Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. Each year, more than 4 million people take part in this global phenomenon and raise much-needed funds and awareness to save lives from cancer. To learn more about Relay for Life, visit www.relayforlife.org or e-mail Teague at [email protected].

Dave Griffin Jr. Earns Certified Insurance Counselors Designation

HOLYOKE — The Dowd Agencies announced that Account Executive David Griffin Jr. has received the Certified Insurance Counselors (CIC) designation. This accomplishment is not mandated for the insurance industry, but provides an extensive knowledge base to benefit consumers.

“Prestigious designations like CIC are essential if you want to be considered among the leaders in our industry,” said John Dowd Jr., president and CEO of the Dowd Agencies. “It shows a true commitment to professionalism and excellence in the business of insurance sales. David is a rising star here in the Pioneer Valley business community, and we are proud of his accomplishments.”

The CIC program includes 20 hours of rigorous coursework for each of the five industry categories: personal insurance lines, commercial casualty insurance, commercial property insurance, life and health insurance, and agency management. After completing the coursework, Griffin completed the exams for each course and the final essay exam to earn his designation, all while working full-time and maintaining several community-based leadership positions.

The CIC program was developed in 1969 by the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research. It continues to be the leading organization for creating, developing, and delivering practical continuing-education programs for insurance and risk-management professionals.

Griffin works in the Holyoke office of the Dowd Agencies. Since joining the firm in 2009, he has grown in his role and now assists the leadership team. He began his career in the insurance industry as a property and casualty underwriter for Liberty Mutual, where he supported the company in Schaumburg, Ill. and Charlotte, N.C., before joining the Dowd Agencies. He is a 2007 graduate of Bentley University, where he earned a degree in finance.

Additionally, Griffin supports the Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and volunteers on the boards of directors for the Holyoke Rotary Club, the Sisters of Providence Health System, and Wistariahurst.

Pioneer Valley USO to Present Military Ball & Gala on April 25

HOLYOKE — The Pioneer Valley USO announced that the fifth annual Military Ball & Gala Honoring Our Troops will be held Saturday, April 25 at 5:30 p.m. at the Log Cabin in Holyoke.

Presenting sponsors include Steve Lewis Subaru and 1812 Auto Body, and the Purple Heart sponsor is Bay Path University. Music will be provided by the Bronx Wanderers. Tickets are available by calling the USO office in Chicopee at (413) 557-3290.

The Military Ball & Gala is the largest fund-raising effort of the year and funds many of the Pioneer Valley USO’s programs and services. It was designed in keeping with the long-standing traditions of formal military balls while allowing the public to attend and participate in a gala evening. Military formal and business dress is required.

The Pioneer Valley USO serves the needs of active military and their families through the individual efforts of the volunteers, board of directors, and the public.

WomenUpFront Accelerates Women Business Owners’ Growth

SPRINGFIELD — In support of the growth and success of Pioneer Valley women presidents and the businesses they own, WomenUpFront is launching a new monthly roundtable for women business owners whose annual revenues have passed the $200,000 mark but have not quite reached $1 million.

Sponsored by PeoplesBank and hosted at the Business Growth Center at Springfield Technology Park, WomenUpFront is looking for business owners from Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties for this newest program, set to begin on Wednesday, April 15. WomenUpFront is bringing its successful model piloted in Berkshire County to the Pioneer Valley because there is a need to support women business owners of growing businesses.

“There have been conversations over the years about starting this, but none has materialized until now,” said Cathy Crosky, founder and facilitator of WomenUpFront. “Scaling a business has its challenges, and this is a proven model that helps women business owners succeed. They really appreciate this kind of facilitated peer mentoring, too.”

Joan Leahy, vice president of Marketing for PeoplesBank, said the bank “is proud to sponsor WomenUpFront and bring this important opportunity to area women business owners. As an organization that runs on innovation and collaboration, we know the benefits of mentoring, teamwork, and the free exchange of ideas. We support WomenUpFront because it will provide these entrepreneurs with many of the same opportunities and successes that we have enjoyed.”

The roundtable provides a learning forum for owners to get out of the weeds of the day-to-day and look at their businesses more strategically. The objective is to help women accelerate their businesses to the next level and place their companies in a better position to access new opportunities and continue to prosper. Lasting and meaningful relationships are formed among the participants.

“I’m thrilled that the Business Growth Center is hosting WomenUpFront,” said Marla Michel, director of the center. “Women business owners are focused, dedicated, and strong, and often have overcome many obstacles to get to where they are. WomenUpFront can help them learn skills and get advice in a very collegial environment to accelerate further success.”

Monthly roundtable meetings will be held at the Business Growth Center the third Wednesday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon.

Loomis House Nursing Center Recognized for Excellence

HOLYOKE — The Loomis Communities announced that the Loomis House Nursing Center has received perfect scores on surveys from the Mass. Department of Public Health (DPH) for the third year running.

The DPH reviews all areas of care practices to make certain that all regulations are followed. These areas include resident rights, facility practices, infection control, quality of life, resident satisfaction, quality of care delivered, culinary services, all nursing and ancillary services, rehabilitation, physical environment, and administration. In addition, a second life-safety survey reviews the physical plant issues that make a safe living and working environment.

“Deficiency-free surveys are a top indicator of excellence in nursing homes,” said David Scruggs, president and CEO of the Loomis Communities. “We are extremely proud of the dedicated staff at the Loomis House Nursing Center.”

Loomis House Nursing Center was the first nursing home in Massachusetts to receive certification as a leader in providing person-centered care, a concept that adapts the way care is delivered to accommodate each resident’s preferences. “This holistic approach to successful aging and self-determination honors and respects the individual,” Scruggs said. The certification comes from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities International, an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human-services organizations.

With a mission of enriching the lives of older adults, the Loomis Communities offers independent-living apartments and cottages, assisted living, and skilled nursing care at campuses including Applewood in Amherst, Loomis House in Holyoke, Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing in Springfield, and Loomis Village in South Hadley.

Last Chance to Purchase Tickets to Difference Makers Gala

HOLYOKE — Time is running out to purchase tickets to the seventh annual Difference Makers award program, staged by BusinessWest, to be held Thursday evening, March 19, at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke.

Difference Makers is a program, launched in 2009, that recognizes groups and individuals that are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. The class of 2015 — Katelynn’s Ride, MassMutual Financial Services, Judy Matt, Valley Venture Mentors, and the new ownership group of the Student Prince and the Fort — was profiled in the Feb. 9 issue and on businesswest.com.

Tickets cost $60 per person. To reserve a spot, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100, or e-mail [email protected].

NiSource Receives Ethics Award for Fourth Consecutive Year

WESTBOROUGH — NiSource Inc. has been designated as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the fourth consecutive year. The designation recognizes those organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

“We are greatly honored to have again been recognized for our team’s commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices, and corporate social responsibility,” NiSource President and CEO Robert Skaggs Jr. said. “This commitment begins with the nearly 9,000 NiSource employees, who embody our company’s core values of fairness, honesty, integrity, and trust.”

NiSource is one of 132 companies recognized by Ethisphere for leadership in promoting ethical business standards as measured in five key categories: ethics and compliance program, corporate citizenship and responsibility, culture of ethics, governance and leadership, and innovation and reputation.

“The World’s Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward-facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing,” said Ethisphere CEO Timothy Erblich. “We congratulate everyone at NiSource for this extraordinary achievement.”

Added Steve Bryant, president of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, “I am proud to work in and lead an organization that is serious about ethics, honesty, and transparency. These are elements that are truly woven into our culture and that are evident in the work that our employees do each and every day.” 

More on NiSource’s commitment to ethics and compliance, as well as the company’s overall sustainability priorities, can be found in the 2013 Sustainability Report, available at www.nisource.com/sustainability. The 2014 report will be published later this year.

Summer Beer Festival Coming to Downtown Springfield Aug. 29

SPRINGFIELD — White Lion Brewing Co. announced that it will host its inaugural beer festival, called Valley Fest, at Court Square in downtown Springfield on August 29. MGM Springfield will be the presenting sponsor.

The festival is poised to be White Lion’s signature annual event, introducing the young brand to craft-beer enthusiasts throughout New England and beyond. White Lion Brewing Co., the city of Springfield’s only brewery, launched in October 2014. Founder Ray Berry and brewmaster Mike Yates have released three selections under the White Lion brand and have been busy promoting their efforts in venues all over Massachusetts and other New England states.

“Valley Fest will have the best of the best local, regional, and national beer and hard cider brands,” Berry said. “Even in our inaugural year, Valley Fest will be the largest one-day beer festival in Western Massachusetts. We expect to draw up to 2,000 enthusiasts from throughout New England. We are very excited to showcase the fourth-largest city in New England and all of its amenities.”

Berry anticipates that more than 50 breweries and many local food vendors will converge on Court Square for two sessions. Enthusiasts will have an opportunity to sample more than 100 varieties of beer and hard cider alongside pairing selections by local chefs.

Michael Mathis, MGM Springfield president, said his company “is excited to take the lead in sponsoring the inaugural Valley Fest. The local entrepreneurial spirit of White Lion Brewing, coupled with the historic Court Square setting, is a winning combination to start a new Springfield tradition. We look forward to Aug. 29.”

A number of sponsors have already committed to the event, including MassMutual Financial Group, the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, the Dennis Group, Springfield Sheraton Monarch Place, Paragus Strategic IT, Williams Distributing, and the Springfield Business Improvement District (BID).

“We are honored to sponsor Valley Fest and look forward to it being an annual event that shares in the facilitation of growth within the downtown community,” said Chris Russell, executive director of the Springfield BID.

Visit www.valleybrewfest.com for event details, ongoing updates, and sponsorship opportunities. A portion of Valley Fest proceeds will support several local charities.

Vining Sparks Chief Economist Speaks at MSB Annual Meeting

MONSON — Craig Dismuke, senior vice president and chief economist for Vining Sparks IBG, was the guest speaker at Monson Savings Bank’s recent annual meeting.

Dismuke, who is responsible for the projection and publication of Vining Sparks’ economic and interest-rate forecasts and is a frequent guest on CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg TV, told the group that there is good news for the economy in the short term, but several factors present challenges to strong growth in the longer term.

Among the positive short-term markers, the deleveraging process appears to be complete, in that household debt as a percentage of net worth and real-estate assets has leveled off, ending the deleveraging process for the consumer, Dismuke noted. Secondly, the economy, having added more than 1 million payrolls in the last three months, is showing the best pace of job growth since 1997. And while wages have not yet increased, strong corporate profits and historical patterns suggest that some level of wage growth is on the way.

This good news for the short term was tempered, however, by Dismuke’s discussion of longer-term challenges to continued strong growth in GDP. These include an aging population, which means both fewer workers and lower consumer spending; mounting federal debt, with a growing gap between government spending and tax receipts; a housing market that is still somewhat shaky because its recovery has been fueled more by invest-to-rent purchases than by traditional home ownership; and weak global growth.

“We were extremely pleased to host Craig at our annual meeting,” said Steve Lowell, president of Monson Savings Bank. “He is a wealth of trusted information, data, and research, and our trustees, corporators, and officers were very appreciative of his highly informed and objective insights.”

Also at the annual meeting, Lowell reported on the bank’s outstanding 2014 results, focusing on the themes of strength, stability, and community-mindedness. “I am proud to report that our bank is extremely healthy and strong,” he said, “with strong growth, increased capital, extremely low loan delinquencies, and exceptional profitability, with the fifth-highest return-on-assets ratio of all banks of $300 million or less in assets across the Commonwealth.”

Lowell also reported that the bank continued its practice of giving more than $100,000 back to the communities it serves, with more than $130,000 in charitable giving and also a significant investment in its Dollars & Sense financial-literacy program. “This is always what I’m most proud of,” he said.

Tech Foundry Starts Recruiting for Class of 2015 with Open House

SPRINGFIELD — Following a successful inaugural year, Tech Foundry has turned its focus to filling this year’s class of students, beginning with an open house on Wednesday, April 8 at its headquarters on the ninth floor of 1391 Main St., Springfield. The open house begins at 5:30 p.m., and prospective students and parents are encouraged to attend.

In addition, the staff at Tech Foundry will be going into area schools and meeting with guidance counselors and other community influencers to drive as many applications as possible before the April 17 deadline to apply. Applications can be found at www.thetechfoundry.org.

Founded by Paragus IT CEO Delcie Bean, Tech Foundry is a nonprofit education and job-placement program looking to transform underemployed and overlooked populations into a powerful and robust workforce in the information-technology field. With partners such as Mass Mutual, the Davis Foundation, UMass, and Baystate Health, it raised nearly $450,000 to get started.

Tech Foundry aims to create a homegrown workforce for the many area businesses looking for tech professionals, and began the program this year with an inaugural class of high-school students. Upon completing the program and graduating high school, the goal is to place students in an entry-level IT job in the Valley in the $30,000-$40,000 salary range. In the long term, Tech Foundry aims to turn Western Mass. into a technology hub, attracting companies from all over the country to locate some of their high-tech jobs in the Pioneer Valley.

Carl Cameron Named COO at Holyoke Medical Center

HOLYOKE — Spiros Hatiras, president and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center, announced the promotion of Carl Cameron to chief operating officer of Holyoke Medical Center (HMC).

In his new role, Cameron will lead implementation of important changes to the institution, which includes transforming patient rooms and the expansion of the Rehabilitation unit, including Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Cardiac Rehab, and Pulmonary Rehab. Cameron most recently served as vice president of Operations and was also chief information officer at HMC.

“Over the past 14 years, Carl has continued to guide Holyoke Medical Center in an innovative direction, especially in the area of information systems,” said Hatiras. “He has helped bring HMC to the forefront of electronic medical records, enabling HMC to be of the first in the state to have a health-information exchange and connect to the Mass HIway, securing the sharing of patient medical records with healthcare providers throughout the Commonwealth. His guidance and expertise are key to moving our organization forward in transforming healthcare delivery in the Pioneer Valley and surrounding areas.”

Cameron earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western New England University and an master’s degree in information systems from WNEU. He also earned a certificate in Lean Healthcare from the University of Michigan. Prior experience includes serving as director of information technology for the city of Holyoke and at Lennox Healthcare, a long-term healthcare company with 150 nursing homes throughout the U.S.

UMass Economist’s Lecture Ponders ‘When Big Is Too Big’

AMHERST — UMass economist Gerald Epstein will offer a new take on restructuring the financial sector as part of his Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Tuesday, March 24, titled “When Big Is Too Big: Do the Financial System’s Social Benefits Justify Its Size?” The third in this year’s Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series, Epstein’s talk begins at 4 p.m. in the Goodell Building’s Bernie Dallas Room. Following his talk, he will receive the Chancellor’s Medal, the highest recognition given for service to the campus.

Epstein will assert that, by virtually any measure, the financial sector has grown spectacularly over the last several decades while failing to promote social well-being. By 2006, financial-sector profits constituted a full 40% of total domestic profits in the U.S. Epstein will argue that, in light of the financial crisis of 2008, the growth of speculative activity in the financial sector has become a continuing threat to the economy’s financial stability.

His research shows that, in the pre-war period, the financial sector did a reasonably effective job in filling a range of socially beneficial roles — including channeling resources into productive investment, providing mechanisms for households to transfer income over time, and helping families and businesses to reduce risk — but that, since the 1980s, financial-sector activity has failed to provide these critical services and, instead, has generated huge profits for the sector itself.

Among the policies Epstein will propose to reduce the volume of speculative trading are taxes on financial transactions, increasing required reserves to offset financial investments gone sour, limiting risk-taking behavior by large financial firms getting public support, and increasing support for “finance without financiers” through credit unions, cooperative banks, and public banks.

Epstein is co-director of the Political Economy Research Institute at UMass Amherst, and was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Accomplishments in Research and Creativity in 2012. His work with graduate student Jessica Carrick-Hagenbarth on conflicts of interest facing academic financial economists who consult for the financial industry was widely reported and helped inspire the adoption of a code of conduct on these issues by the American Economics Assoc. He is currently at work on a book analyzing the appropriate size and functioning of the financial sector, under a grant from the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

A graduate of Swarthmore College who earned a master’s degree in public policy degree and a Ph.D. in economics at Princeton, Epstein taught at Williams College and at the New School for Social Research before joining the UMass Amherst faculty in 1987.

The final lecture in the 2014-15 Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series will be presented on Monday, April 13, as Margaret Riley of the Biology department addresses “Rethinking the Antibiotic Arsenal: New Strategies for the Age of the Microbiome.”

PVPC Receives Award from PolicyLink to Advance Equity Agenda

SPRINGFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC), on behalf of LiveWell Springfield, is one of just six organizations across the country to receive an award from the Leadership Conference Education Fund and PolicyLink to advance affordable, accessible transportation policy.

PVPC will use the funds to embed transit-equity principles into LiveWell Springfield, and will host local activities to engage, educate, and empower local leaders within communities of color to lift up the Equity Caucus agenda locally and federally. Specifically, PVPC is collaborating with Joseph Krupczynski and the Center for Design Engagement, Natalia Muñoz of Verdant Multicultural Media, and Evelín Aquino to expand the successful capacity-building sessions implemented in 2014 for emerging leaders in Springfield. (For a summary of this work, visit www.pvpc.org/content/new-video-building-skills-equity-and-engagement-planning).

“When we completed our three-and-a-half-year, HUD-funded equity and engagement work last year, we knew we needed more funding to expand our capacity-building workshops,” explained Catherine Ratté, principal planner and section manager at PVPC. “Our civic-engagement goal is not just to engage individuals from under-represented groups, but also to create pathways for them into positions of power. Participation in democracy, especially from communities that are too often left out, brings important voices to the table and makes sustainable growth and development possible.”

Equitable transportation investments are crucial to connecting people to jobs, educational opportunities, affordable housing, healthcare, and other basic needs. Through a coalition of more than 100 organizations, the Transportation Equity Caucus is charting a new course for transportation investments, focused on policies that advance economic and social equity in America. For more information, see www.equitycaucus.org.

Live Well Springfield, a movement to promote healthy eating and active living, has been working for the last few years putting systems into action that support safe and friendly walking and biking. As part of LiveWell Springfield’s work in 2012-14, PVPC facilitated creation of the city’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Complete Streets Plan, implementation guide, Complete Streets policy draft, and Complete Streets buildout plan and map (www.livewellspringfield.org).

Waterdog Technologies Secures More Than $500,000 in Funding

SPRINGFIELD — When Delcie Bean started Waterdog Technologies, his goal was to disrupt the traditional IT distribution model by offering the best products and backing them up with the strongest support. In a field saddled with overseas call centers, terrible response rates, poor customer service, and an overload of substandard products, Bean said Waterdog’s direct, hands-on business model has connected with IT resellers all over the continent.

As Waterdog quickly found success, he realized it had to generate more funding in order to support the growth. Waterdog was able to secure more than $500,000 in funding from River Valley Investors, the Springfield Venture Fund (SVF), and a selection of area business owners. The funding will be used to hire additional staff to keep up with the demand.

“The money from SVF ensures that we will be in Springfield for the long haul,” Bean said. “When we were first seeking funding, we were afraid that we might have to go outside of the area. We couldn’t be happier to be able to stay right here in downtown Springfield and be part of the city’s growth.”

Waterdog is located on the second floor of 1391 Main St. but is currently in talks to build an expanded office space on the top floor to make room for the staff expansion. The company has taken on eight new staff members since this time last year, including Crash Lowe, an experienced, high-level sales director who relocated to the area to take the position. Waterdog plans to hire up to six more in 2015. And that’s just the beginning.

“Waterdog is on a path to reach the $10 million mark with about 30 employees within five years and the $100 million mark with around 50 employees within 10 years,” said Bean, who was recently named BusinessWest’s Top Entrepreneur for 2014 for his work with Waterdog, Paragus IT, Tech Foundry, and other ventures.

Added Lowe, “Waterdog’s growth so far is a drop in the bucket compared to what’s ahead. We have found a niche where the competition is stale and boring, but the market is enormous and growing.”

Red Cross Seeking Local Volunteers at March 26 Open House

SPRINGFIELD — The American Red Cross of Western Massachusetts will host a recruitment event and open house on Thursday, March 26 from 2 to 7 p.m. at its new location at 150 Brookdale Dr., Springfield.

The goal of the event is to showcase all of the volunteer opportunities available in community. Prospective volunteers will be able to visit table displays representing the programs and services of the Red Cross. Attendees can speak with active volunteers who can answer questions about what is involved.

Opportunities exist to respond to local disasters and provide relief to victims, including sheltering and feeding on larger events, working as a liaison with Red Cross partners, assisting with registration at blood drives, or staffing the reception desk. There are also openings to teach CPR, first aid, and preparedness education or help with various office-related tasks.

“The Red Cross provides the training and resources to enable our volunteers to truly make a difference in our community,” said Mary Nathan, disaster program manager.

The Red Cross asks that people consider sharing their time and talent to make a difference in the community, and visit the open house. Tours will be offered to all who attend. For more information, e-mail [email protected].

AIC Offers Master of Science in Leadership Program

SPRINGFIELD — In the Master of Science in Leadership (MSL) program at American International College (AIC), students learn the concepts and theories of leadership, qualities that effective leaders possess, and the impact leaders have on their organizations. An overarching concept of the program is entrepreneurial leadership — thinking and acting in new ways to lead organizations to their highest potential. Strategy and innovative concepts are used to explore and refine the skills needed to successfully lead an organization with the goal of enhancing each student’s individual effectiveness as a leader.

The MSL is a 33-credit program, comprised of 11 seven-week courses, each blended to include on-site and online components. Areas of concentration include higher-education leadership, designed to develop and enhance skills of future leaders in academia, and executive leadership, for those who aspire to reach top leadership roles in corporate and not-for-profit environments.

“All of AIC’s MSL program is taught through the lens of leadership, which sets this program apart”, said Kerry Barnes, director of Graduate Admissions at AIC. “And because it is cohort-based, students enter and remain as a group until they graduate. This fosters a close, team-based working relationship between the participants. Upon successful completion of the program, graduates will be prepared to serve as highly effective entrepreneurial leaders in their respective organizations.”

For more information, contact Barnes at (413) 205-3700 or [email protected]. To learn more about American International College’s graduate and undergraduate programs, visit www.aic.edu.

Western Mass. Home & Garden Show Slated for March 26-29