By Dan Gearino,THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

More than 100,000 central Ohio households are on the leading edge of energy technology, having received high-tech electricity meters with the help of federal aid, a project an Obama administration official praised yesterday.

“Ohio could be the testing ground to show what this is all about,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, speaking at Battelle in Columbus.

The government is contributing $75 million to help American Electric Power pay for the $150 million initiative, providing “smart meters” to customers.

So far, 107,000 of the 110,000 planned have been installed in homes and businesses on the east side of the Columbus metro area. The rest, mainly destined for large businesses, will be installed before the end of October.

The meters communicate electronically with AEP’s offices, allowing remote meter reading and giving AEP an instant report when there is a power outage.

As soon as October, the customers will be able to use an AEP website to track their electricity usage the previous day. Future versions of the meters might allow for real-time tracking.

Electric utilities eventually might use the technology to offer different prices for power, depending on the time of day, which would encourage customers to use less power during times of high demand. This kind of change to pricing would require approval by state regulators.

As Chu sees it, the meters’ main asset is the way they provide information that can be used to cut power bills.

“First and foremost, it’s about saving money,” he said.

The government is paying for metering projects throughout the country, including 180,000 meters in Ohio and 2 million meters nationwide, according to the Department of Energy.

AEP’s project covers a 150-square-mile area, including parts of Columbus, along with Alexandria, Bexley, Blacklick, Gahanna, Johnstown, Minerva Park, New Albany, Pataskala, Reynoldsburg, Westerville and Whitehall. The service might eventually be rolled out in other parts of the company’s 11-state territory.

The use of smart meters has led to concern from privacy advocates who worry that the utility will know too much about customers’ behavior.

Joe Hamrock, AEP Ohio’s president and chief operating officer, said data security is an essential part of the project.

“In all cases, consumers’ data is secure,” he said.

Akron Beacon Journal, Tuesday, Aug 24, 2010

Stark State College is expanding its campus via a new state program that lowers construction costs. The college in Jackson Township is spending more than $20 million in two new academic buildings, new parking lots and renovations through an ”enhancement” program approved for two-year colleges by the General Assembly last year.

The new investment is the ”largest injection of capital into the campus at one time,” said Tom Chiappini, Stark State’s chief operating officer and treasurer.

”It’s a really good opportunity for the college and the perfect time, what with financial costs being low and construction costs being competitive,” he said.

This is the first time the rapidly growing two-year college has borrowed money. In the past, it financed construction through a $12 a credit hour facilities fee embedded in the credit-hour cost and also by state capital appropriations.  

This time, the college ”couldn’t generate enough money fast enough through the credit-hour fee,” which produces $3.3 million a year, Chiappini said.

Last week, Stark State became the first college in Ohio to take part in the state’s new intercept program, which Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a credit rating of Aa2, which is near the best.

 The Ohio Building Authority sold bonds on the college’s behalf last week. The college will pay back the debt with $1.6 million of the $3.3 million facilities fee it collects yearly from students.

If Stark State cannot meet its debt service payments, the program authorizes the chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents to divert state payments from the institution to the bond trustee.

Because Stark State got a higher bond rating than it would have received on its own, its borrowing costs were lower. The Ohio Building Authority estimates it will save up to $1.4 million.

The college already has broken ground for both buildings — a 40,000-square-foot Business and Entrepreneurial Center, which will open in January 2012, and the 46,450-square-foot North Academic Building, which will open next fall.  The latter project will include a bridge that will cross a public street to a parking lot.  In addition, the atrium in Stark State’s main building and classrooms in existing buildings will be renovated.

Stark State has recorded double-digit enrollment annually for several years. Current enrollment, buoyed once more by double-digit growth on the opening day of classes on Monday, is more than 13,000.

Other two-year colleges are expected to apply for the state program now that Stark State ‘’successfully tested the waters,” OBA chairman Thomas L. Fries Sr. said in a media release.  ”There is a huge void we think we can fill. Many of our community colleges have significant capital needs,” he said.

Stark State is the sixth-largest of the 23 two-year public colleges in Ohio and one of the fastest growing nationwide.

Chantilly, VA (PRWEB) August 24, 2010

Mission Essential Personnel, LLC (MEP) is pleased to announce it has been included again on Inc. magazine’s prestigious Inc. 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing companies based on percentage revenue growth.  MEP ranks #162 overall this year, after having hit #52 last year. The company’s revenue has grown from $43 million in 2007 to more than $375 million in 2009.

“It’s great for MEP to be recognized for its continued strong growth,” said MEP CEO Chris Taylor. “Inc.’s recognition highlights our company’s tremendous success expanding its current business while beginning to branch into new areas of work. Our great personnel in the U.S. and across the world deserve credit for their unwavering commitment to our customers and their mission.”

MEP is a global professional services company that provides human-capital solutions and program support to government and corporate clients. Currently, MEP is the US government’s leading provider of translators, interpreters and cultural advisors, with more than 6,000 personnel in 13 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. In addition to language services, MEP provides intelligence support, training and technical services to the US Department of Defense, intelligence agencies and international development organizations. Regardless of a mission’s size or complexity, MEP finds professionals with the skills to support it.

by Kevin Kemper , Business First Columbus

August 20, 2010 

If it weren’t for Ohio’s Third Frontier program, Orlando Simonetti says Columbus-based EXCMR Ltd. likely wouldn’t be in business.

“Without the Third Frontier we probably wouldn’t have got off the ground,” said Simonetti, EXCMR’s CEO. “We certainly wouldn’t have gotten where we are now … with a prototype and in the process of building four machines.”

Founded in May 2008, EXCMR is a small company that is attempting to commercialize a medical technology developed at Ohio State University Medical Center.

Its name stands for “exercise stress cardiac magnetic resonance imaging,” reflecting its treadmill exercise stress testing in conjunction with cardiac imaging.

Tom Breckenridge, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Venture investing in startup companies has picked up through the first half of the year, following a dismal 2009.

Venture capitalists and angel investors in the 21-county region have funneled $36 million into 39 deals through June, JumpStart Inc. reported Wednesday.

That’s up from $30 million and 24 deals the first half of 2009. For all of last year, venture investments totaled only $99 million in the 21-county region, after averaging a robust $249 million each of the previous four years.

The recession was a big factor as venture investors have pulled their horns in.

“Things are better than the worst year in over a decade,” said Baiju Shah, president of BioEnterprise, a University Circle-based incubator of health-care startups. “We are not yet back to normal levels in venture activity here or nationally. We’re nowhere close to it.”

JumpStart, a venture-development nonprofit based in Cleveland, believes venture activity for the year will eclipse $100 million. By how much is the question.

Activity is typically busiest in the fourth quarter, as startup companies and their investors sign deals before year’s end, said JumpStart spokeswoman Cathy Belk.

Nationally, venture activity is at $11.4 billion through June, up 49 percent over last year, Belk said. That covered 1,646 deals between startups and investors, a 23 percent increase.

In Northeast Ohio, the 39 investment deals through June was a 63 percent jump from 2009. While the rate of growth in regional deals was higher than the nation’s, the amount invested in each deal here is smaller.

“We’re still in the process of creating and forming new companies,” Belk said. So regional deals “tend to be at an earlier stage and require less money.”

Health-care startups drew 71 percent of the venture money, in keeping with historic trends.

There’s a “growing willingness” by health-care investors to “dip their toes back into newer investments,” Shah said. “But it’s still small and still very cautious.”

The sector faces uncertainty on a number of fronts. There’s a growing push for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take a fresh look at ensuring the effectiveness and safety of medical devices and drugs, Shah noted.

That could mean more time and testing before products hit the market, heightening risk and capital needs for startup companies.

But the region and Ohio enjoy at least one advantage, Shah said. There’s more seed- and early-stage funding here, thanks partly to the $2.1 billion Third Frontier program, which invests in high-tech development, Shah said.

The region has seen four startup companies acquired this year, compared with just one last year, Belk said.

Such “exits” are important because investors get a return on investment and funnel their wealth into new companies.

“Exits in general are what keep the capital engine running,” Belk said.

The region, and the nation, won’t see a return to pre-recession levels of venture investing until the economy brightens considerably, said Scott Shane, a professor specializing in entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University.

New company acquisitions and initial public offerings remain sluggish, he noted.

“It doesn’t matter how many [new company] opportunities we have here,” Shane said. “The bad economy for the investment industry will keep us from growing a lot here.”

Business First of Columbus; August 18, 2010

A provider of training and staffing for the government is one of several contractors vying for a piece of a nearly $500 million contract with a federal security agency. 

Columbus-based Mission Essential Personnel LLC said it was one of six companies nationwide awarded an omnibus support services contract through the Army Intelligence and Security Command. The five-year contract has a ceiling of $492.4 million and is labeled indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, meaning Mission Essential could take on a number of tasks over the period.CEO Chris Taylor in a release called the contract a “great win” for the company and its new intelligence services business unit. 

Mission Essential provides staffing, training and language services and has more than 6,000 contracted personnel in 13 countries. The company in 2008 cemented its presence in Central Ohio with plans to add more than 100 employees in the coming years at its Easton Commons headquarters, lured by more than $1 million in state incentives.

Stark State College will join with Kohler Coating in a unique partnership that has the potential to create a world-class center of excellence in the design and manufacture of new engineered materials utilizing corrugated paper. The project could create as many as 450 full-time jobs and $15 million in annual payroll as it progresses through a three-phase development plan.

Kohler Coating makes thin film metering equipment that applies coatings and adhesives for the corrugating and paper industries. The company received a $750,000 grant July 31 from the Ohio Department of Commerce through the Job Ready Site Projects designed to study ways to save money, eliminate waste and save energy. The path to lower energy requires training in green curriculum; Stark State will enhance existing curriculum through its environmental, health and sciences major and develop additional curriculum for the corrugating industry. These studies will focus on the manufacturer and supplier side, according to Herb Kohler, president of Kohler Coating.

“Stark State is committed to fundamental job creation and the creation of new industry in Ohio,” said John O’Donnell, PhD, Stark State College president. “This is a necessary first step in creating a corrugating center of excellence in Ohio.”

According to Kimberly Zurz, Ohio’s director of commerce, the grant will provide an economic stimulus that could create as many as 30 highly skilled jobs in the first two years with average salaries of $45,000.

“This will revolutionize the corrugating industry,” said Canton Mayor William Healy, Jr. “There will be a very positive impact on Canton and our region. What happens in Stark County affects Canton and vice versa.”

The project also has potential to bring in global customers for training, generating local hotel and tourism revenue. Stark Development Board President Steve Paquette anticipates that $1 million to $2 million will be added to the economy by companies visiting Canton to study the project. “Kohler Coating will run the only research and development center on corrugating in the United States,” he said, “and it will be here in Stark County.”

Cargill, an international producer and marketer of food, agricultural, financial and industrial products and services, is the chemistry technical partner in the project.

For more information about Job Ready Site Project funding visit the cantonrep.com news story. 

Tuesday, August 3, 2010  

by Dan Gearino

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A series of work-force-training efforts will be announced today, and they are receiving financial backing totaling $775,000 from American Electric Power.

The three initiatives, to be announced at an event in Delaware, are part of the utility’s “Partnership with Ohio,” which the company describes as a $15million commitment running through 2011 that addresses health, hunger and housing for needy Ohioans.

Under the first program, $500,000 will be available to county governments in AEP Ohio’s service territory for use in job-training programs. County commissioners can submit proposals for up to $100,000 each to fund programs training low-income people for jobs in targeted industries. Applicants will be asked to provide matching funds for at least 25 percent of the proposed project’s budget.”

AEP Ohio has established this work-force development program to provide meaningful assistance to Ohioans by preparing them to compete for jobs in this struggling economy,” said Joe Hamrock, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer, in comments prepared for today’s announcement at Columbus State Community College’s new Delaware campus.

Columbus-based AEP also is providing $225,000 in scholarships for low-income residents to attend community and technical colleges. Prospective applicants can learn more about the scholarships through the admissions offices of the nine participating schools.

In addition, AEP is giving $50,000 to Ohio Women in Sustainable Employment, which offers recruitment and training to women interested in manufacturing, energy and construction jobs.

To qualify for the programs, prospective participants must be at or below 200 percent of the 2009-10 federal poverty guidelines, AEP Ohio said.

Chuck Soder

July 26, 2010

Health care companies in Northeast Ohio attracted more venture capital dollars during the first half of 2010 than they did during the like period last year, but not nearly enough to rival money raised in 2008 or 2007, according to BioEnterprise Corp.’s Midwest Health Care Venture Investment Report.

Seventeen health care companies attracted a total of $36.7 million, up about 20% from $30.5 million during the first half of 2009, but down 39% from $59.9 million during the first half of 2008 and off 82% from $199.1 million during a record-setting first half of 2007.

The statistics show that health care investing has yet to recover from the recession, said Baiju Shah, president of BioEnterprise, a nonprofit that assists health care companies in Northeast Ohio. However, Mr. Shah noted that investment activity across the Midwest started to pick up in June — possibly the result of Congress passing, and therefore ending debate on, the health care reform bill.

“Investors were just waiting on the sidelines because there was so much at stake,” he said.

The companies that raised the most money during the first half of 2010 were heart imaging technology firm CardioInsight Technologies Inc. of Cleveland, which brought in $6 million, and orthopedic implant maker OrthoHelix Surgical Designs Inc. of Medina, which raised $4.6 million. The period does not include the $14.5 million that spinal implant developer AxioMed Spine Corp. of Garfield Heights raised earlier this month.

Ohio as a whole didn’t do as well, bringing in just $47.3 million during the first half of 2010, down 45.5% from $86.9 million during the same period the previous year. Health care companies across the Midwest raised $412.3 million, which is up 2.4% from $402.5 million in the first half of 2009, but down significantly from previous years.  

Chantilly, VA (PRWEB) July 25, 2010

Mission Essential Personnel, LLC, (MEP) today announced the creation of a board of advisors to counsel senior company leadership on company strategy, ethics, and world affairs. A trio of highly accomplished professionals, this board will enhance MEP’s strategic planning, thought leadership, and superior performance throughout the world.

MEP CEO Chris Taylor said, “MEP’s exponential growth has brought us great success and new challenges and choices. In order to ensure we continue to deliver certainty to our customers, we will look to the collective wisdom of our Board of Advisors to help us critically think through the opportunities of the new global economy and how MEP can continue to create value for our stakeholders. We are all excited about this new relationship and Mitchell, Sarah, and David will serve as the cornerstones of MEP’s bright future.”

The board of advisors consists of:

Ambassador Mitchell Reiss – Recently made the 27th president of Washington College, Reiss was previously Vice Provost at the College of William & Mary. He is a scholar and diplomat best known for successful negotiations during the Northern Ireland peace process and the North Korean nuclear crisis. From 2003 to 2005, he was Director of Policy Planning at the US State Department under Secretary of State Colin Powell and earned the Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service. Reiss concurrently served as President George W. Bush’s Special Envoy to Northern Ireland Peace Process until 2007. As a White House Fellow from 1988-89, he served as special assistant to the national security advisor.

Sarah Sewall – Sewall teaches international affairs and directs the Program on National Security and Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and is the founder and faculty director of the Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) project. She led President Obama’s Transition National Security Agency Review process. Sewall is a member of the DOD’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee and the Center for Naval Analyses Defense Advisory Committee. She served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance in the Clinton Administration. From 1983-1996, she served as senior foreign policy adviser to Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.

Dr. David Kilcullen — Kilcullen served more than 20 years as an Australian light infantry officer before joining the US Government and serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Southeast Asia and the Horn of Africa in counterterrorism, diplomacy, international development, strategy, and counterinsurgency roles. In 2007, Kilcullen was Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to Gen. David Petraeus, then Commanding General, Multinational Force-Iraq. In 2008-2009, he served as Special Advisor for Counterinsurgency to the Secretary of State. Since leaving government, he has worked closely with NGOs, international aid agencies and communities affected by conflict. He is the author of “The Accidental Guerilla” and “Counterinsurgency” and is a consultant to NATO in Afghanistan and to the US and allied governments.

About MEP – MEP is a global professional services company that provides and manages turnkey human-capital solutions and program support to government and corporate clients worldwide. Currently, MEP is the US government’s leading provider of translators, interpreters and cultural advisors, with more than 6,000 personnel in 13 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe.

In addition to language services, MEP provides intelligence support, training and technical services to the US Department of Defense, intelligence agencies and international development organizations. Regardless of a mission’s size or complexity, MEP finds professionals with the skills to support it.