Innovation + Job News

Akron's Steve Washington based his business on a simple, but previously overlooked concept: offer financial services to people who want to invest, but have limited funds and might not know where to start.

Washington, a finance instructor at the University of Akron with a background in investment banking, last year launched Member Share Saving Network, reaching out to young workers, minorities and women looking to invest in their futures. The company is a division of SaveDaily.com, Inc., which aims to offer low cost financial services through an online asset management platform. Members Share currently has four employees.

"We offer services to unserved and underserved investment markets, using technology that significantly reduces the cost of the delivering services," Washington explained. "We are micro-investing small amounts of money the same way wealthy people invest large amounts."

The majority of the company's 7,400 clients are in Ohio, but investors from 43 states have become part of the Member Share Saving Network.

Washington said less wealthy investors are a large market that is just beginning to be tapped. And though Member Share is a business, it has a greater mission as well.

"It's estimated that 70- to 80-million people are outside the traditional investment or retirement apparatus in this country," he said. "It's a good business � but it's also socially important that as many people as possible participate in retirement planning for their own good, their families and the country as a whole to lessen the pressure on social security and other social services.

Source: Steve Washington, CEO Member Share Network
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

FirstEnergy has taken a 92-acre first step toward developing a massive natural gas and compressed-air power plant near Akron.

But this certainly isn't your mother's power plant. The recently purchased site in Norton would employ technology that compresses air through a turbine when demand is low at night, and release it during the day when demand is at its highest. And it could prove to be capable of producing as much electricity as three nuclear reactors.

FirstEnergy also bought the rights to a 600-acre abandoned underground limestone mine. FirstEnergy spokeswoman Ellen Raines says the high-tech system could be combined with renewable energy technologies.

"The wind blows when the wind blows and the sun shines when the sun shines," Raines says. "If you can combine those intermittent energies with storage, the storage acts like a large battery."

There are only other two such facilities in the world � one in Alabama and the other in Germany. But Raines says with the potential to produce as much as 2,700 megawatts, the mine in Norton would be much larger. To put that in perspective, one megawatt serves approximately 600 homes.

Raines says there is no timetable set when the plant would become operational. Nor is there a firm figure of jobs the mine would create.

"This has enormous potential down the road," she says. "People have looked at this Norton mine for decades to see how it could be used. We're just very happy to have purchased these rights to take advantage of this when the time is right."

Source: Ellen Raines, FirstEnergy
Writer: Colin McEwen

The pieces are beginning to fall into place as Dayton prepares to leverage its recent designation as Ohio's Aerospace Hub.

In September, Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher announced the first of what could be as many as a dozen Ohio Hubs of Innovation and Opportunity that promote urban revitalization and sustainable regional growth.

Dayton's selection is expected to create new companies, strengthen existing partnerships and attract new investment based on Ohio's research, development, and industry assets, including The University of Dayton and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Since September, a board representing five major partners --- the University of Dayton, the City of Dayton, Montgomery County, the Citywide Development Corporation and the Dayton Development Coalition -- has been laying the groundwork for development of a strategic plan that will guide efforts going forward.

While UD serves as lead partner, "it wouldn't be possible without the critical role of the other partners," says John Leland, director of the UD's Research Institute.

Adam Murka, communications director for the Dayton Development Coalition, notes that "Dayton achieved this designation because of how well folks in this region are working together. They really buy in, and that's very exciting."

Mickey McCabe, Vice President of Research and the UDRI's executive director adds that the hub designation is aimed not just at developing business partnerships, but an infrastructure of both business and quality-of-life components that "create a place where people can work, live, eat and play."

McCabe and Leland say a strategic board is starting to come together, after which an executive director will be hired and work on a strategic plan begun. While the hub begins work with $250,000 provided by the state, at least three times that will be needed for the first three years. Leland says the balance will be raised by the five partners.

Sources: Mickey McCabe and John Leland, University of Dayton; Adam Murka, Dayton Development Coalition
Writer: Gene Monteith

In the middle of Preble County, surrounded by the small town of Eaton and the cornfields beyond, stands an anomaly: Silfex. An anomaly because, as one of only a handful of U.S.-based companies that grow silicon crystals, you might not expect to find it here.

Yet, Silfex has managed to grab more than half the world-wide market for custom silicon parts used in machines that make memory and logic components -- at the same time other U.S.-based companies have found the required investment too daunting or been content to leave the business to foreign firms, says Michael Snell, general manager.

Silfex, a division of Lam Research Corp., started life in 1971 as Bullen Ultrasonics, a family-run business that specialized in ultrasonic machining technologies. In 1999, silicon crystal manufacturing was added. In 2006, Fremont, Calif.-based Lam Research Corp. -- one of Bullen's major customers -- purchased the company's silicon-growing and fabrication operations.

Silfex recently completed a large expansion of its silicon-growing operations and enhanced its capabilities for bonding, cleaning and clean room manufacturing. It employs some 250 in Eaton and another 50 at a sister plant in China, Snell says.

Snell says there are lots of good reasons to keep Silfex in Eaton, including the fact that "when you get to be this size, it's extremely costly to move. But our workforce is also an advantage. We have the experience and the work ethic in this area that we need."

He says the fact that Ohio has enjoyed relatively low electricity costs is another advantage. The silicon furnaces used to melt raw material and grow silicon into large, glassy crystals use megawatts of electricity -- so much that Snell says Dayton Power and Light plans to build a substation nearby.

Source: Michael Snell, Silfex
Writer: Gene Monteith

On Front Street in East Toledo, sandwiched between two abandoned buildings, LexaMed � a medical and pharmaceutical company �opened for business with eight employees in 2006. And hasn't looked back.

Today, LexaMed stands out as a neighborhood bright spot, even though it's surrounded by years of economic neglect.

LexaMed tests medical devices and pharmaceuticals, does auditing and conducts laboratory work. The company's own product line, BEC Growth-Chek � a liquid suspension containing micro-organisms for testing � is helping to take LexaMed to the next level.

The company now boasts 30 employees, not counting an additional 45 contracted employees. President Robert Reich proudly points to the company's hundreds of years of combined in-the-lab experience.

"I think we have a success story to tell, especially in Toledo," says Reich. "The environment in Northwest Ohio is certainly changing. We can't live on automotive batteries and auto parts anymore."

When LexaMed took over the previous company, the building had fallen into receivership. "The whole area has seen better days," he says.

Now, LexaMed is in the process of purchasing the 25,000-square-foot building. And plans are also in the works to spend some cash to fix up the aging facility and its 10 labs.

"It shows our commitment to staying in Ohio," Reich says. "And staying in Toledo."

He says he "wouldn't be surprised" if the company hired an additional half-dozen employees this year. LexaMed is also considering branching out its operations.

"We're constantly looking to improve," says Reich. "We're expanding our product offering, and expanding on our technologies. We want to stay current."

Source: Robert Reich, Lexamed
Writer: Colin McEwen

Aerospace companies with a colorful history are a dime a dozen. Aerospace companies with a tie to Orville Wright are something special.
 
Hartzell Propeller is the latter.

The company 's roots reach back to 1875, when John T. Hartzell founded a sawmill in Greenville, Ohio. The wood business took an upswing in 1917 when, amidst a growing airplane manufacturing industry, Hartzell's son, Robert, founded a wooden propeller blade business at his father's sawmill company, says Michael Disbrow, Hartzell senior vice president.

"The legend is that Orville Wright suggested the company start making wooden airplane blades," Disbrow says. "It had to do with a relationship with Orville Wright, who lived in Oakwood, two doors down (from Robert)."

While the fledging Hartzell Propeller never made blades directly for Orville Wright machines, the company did become an early supplier to the Dayton Wright Airplane Company, which purchased Wright's company when Orville left to pursue other interests.

Today, Hartzell seems worlds away from the early days of flight. Now headquartered in Piqua with 275 employees, Hartzell is a market leader in supplying both metal and lightweight composite blades for private and corporate aircraft.

Hartzell's website lists a fistful of firsts: the first composite blades in the 1940s; the first reversible blades, also in the '40s; the first full-feathering blades in the 1950s; the first practical turboprop blades in the 1960s.

In 1986, Hartzell manufactured the aluminum props that powered Burt Rutan's historic non-stop circumnavigation of the globe.

While Disbrow says the company was one of the pioneers in development of lightweight composite blades, "most of our props are still made from forged aluminum."

Customers include Hawker Beechcraft, Piper, Air Tractor and a number of others.

Source: Michael Disbrow, Hartzell Propeller
Writer: Gene Monteith

Innotech Products Ltd., already known to scores of soldiers and survivalists as the Heater Meals company, has begun offering a self-heating beverage kit.

Cafe2Go enables people to make 18 servings of hot coffee, tea or cocoa without striking a match or turning on an appliance. Its target users are police and firefighters, Red Cross workers and the disaster victims they assist, and even, on a lesser but albeit happier note, campers and tailgaters. Now, at any hour and under any circumstances, you can get the comfort that only a steaming jolt of joe can bring, says Dave Blandford, marketing director for the privately owned Cincinnati-area company.

Heat for the drinks and meals is produced when the user mixes salted water with a patented packet of powdered iron and magnesium. The simple exothermic reaction raises the existing temperature of the products around it by 100 degrees within about 10 minutes. In the case of Heater Meals for consumer use, that's enough warmth to turn an envelope of preserved food (tasty offerings like green pepper steak with rice or vegetarian pasta fagioli) into a decent dish.

Meals for military personnel are formulated with different calorie and nutrient contents for their special needs. For those purposes, Innotech provides the heater packets but not the food, Blandford notes. The company estimates its packets have heated about 1.5 billion meals. The used packets are biodegradable.

HeaterMeals are intended for a long shelf life. The "EX" line for extended storage last up to five years.

Innotech/HeaterMeals was founded in 1990. Blandford says the largest group of customers are military/government agencies; the earliest and longest-running fans of Heater Meals are truckers. Other buyers: hospitals, and social service agencies that aid homeless and elderly people. (HeaterMeals are donated to a local foodbank, too.)

The company employs 50 in Hamilton County.

Source: Dave Blandford, Innotech Products/Heater Meals
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Schools face a tough dilemma these days: how to integrate educational programs into the vast resources the Internet provides while minimizing the chances that their young students will zoom off to some undesirable website.

A Sharonville company has solved part of the problem by developing netTrekker, a "safe surfing" tool that has caught on with thousands of schools across the country.

Founded as Thinkronize in 1999 at the Hamilton County Business Center incubator, the company now does business under the name of its most successful product. The growth of the company, which recently moved to spacious new digs in Sharonville, was never a sure thing, says Joe Vallo, the company's Chief Operating Officer.

"We were formed in 1999 in the middle of the dot-com boom," he says. "It all went bust, but we didn't. We saw a great opportunity to help kids with netTrekker, which started as an educational search engine that was safe and fast and could be used to do their homework."

A great idea, he says, "but we weren't sure people would pay for it."

But pay for it they have. In droves. Today, netTrekker is used in all 50 states, by hundreds of schools around the world and by more than 10 million students globally. In the United States alone, the product is used by 21,000 schools -- or one out of every five.

One of the keys is the company's constant updating of the original product. Nettrekker, which provides content that correlates with each state's standards of instruction, has branched out into partnerships that capitalize on its use as a platform for all kinds of educational digital content.

The company employs 75, but plans to expand within the next year or two.

Source: Joe Vallo, netTrekker
Writer: Gene Monteith

Ohio's first university-business incubator is going strong, 26 years after becoming one of only 20 in the country.

While Ohio University's Innovation Center has evolved, its basic mission remains the same: To make an impact on local jobs and economic growth. So far, so good.

At a time when unemployment remains at troubling levels, three start-ups at the Innovation Center created 378 jobs and 16.9 million in income in 2008. Workers contributed $1.5 million in local tax revenue.

Among those start ups is Got Game Media, a tech firm that markets athletic recruiting software for coaches and sports teams.

"In this economy, people are becoming more innovative and entrepreneurial. They're creating jobs rather than seeking them. The university and the community are working hard to offer them support," says Jennifer Simon, Innovation Center director.

Launched in 1983, the Innovation Center was the state's first university-based small business incubator, and the nation's 20th. It currently has an 11-company portfolio, and operates out of a modern, 36,000 sq. ft. office and lab facility that opened in 2003.

Start-ups also have the support of the university's bioscience and alternative energy research, and the University's Technology Transfer Office that moves inventions from the research lab into the market.

The center hired its first Executive in Residence this year to give clients one-on-one attention, thanks to a recent Ohio Department of Development grant. And a city, county, university partnership, The Athens County Economic Council, launched Business Remixed to attract entrepreneurs.

Source: Ohio University Director of Research Communications Andrea Gibson
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Jack Berlekamp is an idea guy. A former marketer, he took knowledge garnered as a contractor for the armed forces, where workers handled specialized electronic instruments out in the field.

Those instruments, which tested or measured equipment on large vehicles or airplanes, were cumbersome and often failed in bad weather. For more than a decade Berlekamp worked to understand how to make life easier for these men and women in uniform. And in 2005, he founded Pallas Systems, LLC, an advanced logistics tool provider.

He started the company out of his Delaware County basement in 2005, with the help of some talented Ohio engineers who could make reality his idea. They created a rugged, multi-functional tool that streamlined tasks.

"Most of the time, when you go out in the field, each instrument has single function, and you have multiple boxes that you take out. We created a ruggedized instrument and its software is programmable. It can change its personality and add function based on what field service is doing," he said.

Berlekamp moved his company from Columbus to Springfield to be near the opportunities afforded by being located near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base . He's currently in Springfield's National Environmental Technology Incubator where he moved the company earlier this year. He has four contract engineers he plans to make full-time employees early next year, with the help of an Ohio Third Frontier Innovation loan.

"Because of the defense focus I recognized I needed to be more involved in the Dayton area. I moved my company to a part of Ohio better able to support the technology," he said. "You have to be a little flexible to be able to tap into those levels of expertise."

Source: Jack Berlekamp, founder Pallas Systems
Writer: Feoshia Henderson