SMART Holdings USA - SMARTvt Magazine Spring 2017

SMART Holdings USA – SMARTvt.org Issue # 36, Spring 2017

B U S I N E S S S T A R T - U P A D V I S O R :

S T A R T I N G , G R O W I N G , O P T I M I Z I N G

Biz Lauches Moving People SMARTvt Member - niche moving state visitors affordably

The name beguiles its form and function.

Affordable Transportation launched in 2016 to make theme-based transportation like weddings, sports, shopping, arts, and fun accessible and affordable for everyone.

SMARTvt.org–SMARTHoldingsUSA

JohnMayer,MarkRenkert,MichaelKipp,MichaelHussey,GabrielleMeunier

driveSMARTHoldingsUSAeconomicDevelopmentEngineCrea;ngUS

CompaniesandJobs.SMARTvtcreatedataskforcethatprovidesresources,

educa&on,training,financingsolu&onstobusinessstartupsforapprovedplans.

AboutSMARTvt.org.Vermont'slargestsolu*onproviderfeaturingteamsof

subject-ma#erexpertswithonevoiceasonefirm;SMARTvt.org,aglobal

Vermont’s Power Center for Business Idea Creation

Happenings

SMARTvt’s Ken Martin buys fleet to meet transporation needs of Vermont tourism’s destination business.

Sean O’Connell – Now A Network Television “Creative” – mixed media design for NBC Universal in NYC.

Promoted to VP Finance – Racing Executive Vern Sharrow- BK Brad Keselowski Racing

…..Hopeful Thoughts of Spring …..

Transportation Guru, Kenneth Martin of Hinesburg, utilizing his knowledge as expert in public transportation saw a niche and jumped at the chance. “I have always enjoyed transportation.”

consultancyofferingsustainablesociallyresponsibleapplica2onssuchasHands-

onEngineering,Accoun-ng,Finance,Marke-ng,NewProductDevelopment,

Research,MedicalDevicesandTechnology,Pharmaceu8cals,Telephony,E-

enterprise,IT/ISimplementa1on-service,Merger&Acquisi/on,LBO,Business

Valua%on,ForensicAccoun%ng, SECCompliance,

PetrochemicalExtrac/on, DefenseSystems,and

globalmanufacturing enterprises.

Larry Crist, CEO of Bending The Curve – Stopping VT Family Collapse+

Carolyn Smith, Healthcare Executive Manager To Lead SMARTvt’s HIE/ HIT Applications Education Division SMARTvt Jean Twombly Retires to Vermont – providing IT services to growing VT Firms

SMARTvt’s New Vice President of Data Innovations Matt Wilcox Appointed VP of Finance.

Elegance in Motion – Carved Solutions Expands, Dawn Lancaster, CEO Leads The Way

2

SMART Holdings USA Issue # 36, Spring, 2017

Nerium Biotechnology, Inc. (NBI) holds a unique position in the international pharmaceutical sector: NBI has a well-defined Nerium oleander plant-based product that represents the "first of its kind" botanical drug containing cardiac glycosides (oleandrin) for potent inhibition of the proliferation of cancer (Anvirzel™). Texas University Research at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has demonstrated that components of Anvirzel® are active on dual pathways at the cellular level to promote apoptosis and/or autophagy (cell death) in human tumors but not normal cells. The findings led to the publication of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles that describe Anvirzel® and its components (oleandrin). These publications present the ongoing research conducted by Robert A. Newman, Ph.D., as Founder and Co-

Director of the Pharmaceutical Development Center, Department of Experimental Therapeutics, at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Today, Dr. Robert

Newman remains actively involved in continuing research and clinical evaluation as Scientific Advisor to Nerium Biotechnology, Inc. From this research analytical methods have been developed for the characterization and quantification of the cardiac glycosides oleandrin, odoroside, neritaloside and the aglycone oleandrigenin, all contained in Anvirzel®. He has applied this analytical method to the determination of oleandrin in human plasma following administration of Anvirzel®.

SMARTvt & Nerium Supporting Breast Cancer Research

Nerium A Technology Innovator

… Affordable Transportation, Ken Martin

One of Vermont’s biggest success stories: growing jobs expanding the economy.

There are at least 8,000 Scheduled and Charter Transportation Service Companies in the US employing >60,000 people and valued at >$2B according to IBIS World Data Aggregators.

Bus transportation grows at roughly the rate of inflation <2% and thrives during economic boom and stalls during economic downturns.

Entrepreneurial innovators, like Hinesburg, Vermont’s Kenneth Martin, a Transportation Guru with three decades of expertise, saw a niche, bought of fleet of vehicles, self-financed the launch, hired a Director of Operations and his business functions at maximum capacity serving the New England with Specialty Theme-based Destination Transportation.

With the coming of Spring, Martin is receiving increased inquiry for wedding transportation services. And, surprisingly, Summer Youth Programs, have him scrambling to meet demand.

The Scheduled and Charter Bus Services industry has a moderate to high level of capital intensity, with the average industry operator expected to spend $0.30 on capital for every $1.00 spent on wages. The vast majority of industry capital spending is on the purchase and maintenance of bus fleets. A new bus is a form of fixed capital that must be used to transport passengers over a long period of time in order to recuperate the cost of its purchase. In addition, industry operators usually make very heavy use of the buses they own, sometimes for days or weeks without stopping, to operate as many routes as possible with a limited bus fleet. Such heavy usage requires substantial spending on routine bus maintenance and less regular larger repairs.

Between 1995 and 2014, annual spending on buses by US transit agencies ranged between $1.4 billion and $3.1 billion. This extreme range in spending has resulted in many manufacturers going bankrupt, leaving the market, or being acquired by competitors. Today, only three major transit bus manufacturers remain serving the heavy-duty transit bus market, and a similar number serve the market for small- to mid-sized transit buses. Yet despite the many companies that have left, recently the industry has seen notable new entrants bring battery-electric bus technology to the US market.

Martin says, “One of the greatest threats to transportation is insurance cost." He also says there are unfair disadvantages in the market place with insurance rates for fleets of school buses who run as “no-profits” being charged significantly less than for profit charter services. You have to carefully weigh your options because it is not possible to pass the higher insurance cost to your clients. Martin says he’ll double his fleet size every two years and employ 50+ drivers by 2019.

Martin, however, has found a unique balance of people, profit, and planet with major plans for re-newables, energy conservation, and best practices employment.

3


Bending The Curve Graphic Analysis

Bending The Curve, Larry Crist

The State of Vermont, is a top US State the seizes children from parents. While some are happy with the distinction. It is important to note that many children are seized from parents and no report of abuse or crime have been committed and no true investigation by Law Enforcement has been completed – yet the children are removed.

The damage to the family is massive.

The trauma to the children is massive and never heals.

The cost to the tax payers is staggering.

One man, the former CEO of The American Red Cross, Larry Crist has a plan. He can heal families, decrease cost by 75%, and better communicate with investigators. Larry Crist seeks to “Bend the Curve” and save VT Taxpayers $26.4M Crist explains: Vermont has experienced 10 to 20 percent increases in the number of children coming into state custody over each of the past five years, with most of these children younger than age five. Vermont’s rates of custody and in the termination of parental rights are consistently among the highest in the nation. Changes in leadership, increases in funds and the addition of state social workers have failed to stem custody rates. We propose a change in the states approach to child protection; one that reduces the number of children coming into custody, reduces the associated workload of state agencies, cost significantly less, while strengthening families and ensuring the wellbeing of Vermont’s children.

Vermont’s child protection system was created 40 years ago, with a primary focus on abuse and neglect. Today, this same system is tasked with addressing new challenges arising from widespread Opioid dependency among the parents of infants and young children. This new challenge requires assessing “risk” of abuse or neglect, a determination requiring extensive assessment, expertise from medical and social service agencies, and a working relationship between families and state social workers.

Today’s child protection system contains few of the elements necessary to address risk. State employees are neither trained to conduct detailed family assessments nor are they integrated with community service agencies which have the capability to do so. In instances where families are offered services, they are required to coordinate those services while navigating a system that requires a level of executive functioning absent in most families. The relationship between state workers and families at risk of losing their children is one of mutual fear. The default position for state government is to either leave a

4


child in the home with little certainty that they will be adequately cared for, or take the safer course of action by recommending custody. As a result, caseloads continuously rise.

We do not propose altering the state’s mandate to ensure child protection, or altering the structures of the agencies currently charged with that mandate. What we do propose is as better way of carrying out the mandate. It enumerates failings and challenges inherent in the current system and offers straightforward solutions to each. Over a four year period it has been demonstrated in three different pilot projects (the Rapid Intervention Pre-Natal Parenting Project, Strengthening Families Initiative and the Integrated Family Services pilots) that establishing a Bending the Curve Team that includes an attorney, a service coordinator, DCF social worker and community agencies working in a coordinated system with performance metrics and a chain of command, BEFORE a custody affidavit is filed with the State’s Attorney, can reduce custody rates for very young children by 30 percent.

TheProblem:Thecurrentchildprotec/onsystemisincrisis.Ittakestoomanyyoungchildrenintocustodytoosoon,doestooli3leforthemandspendstoomuchmoneyintheprocess.! Caseloadincreasesof10to20percentannually.! Ranks6thinthena)oninthepermanentremovalofchildren.! Lackscoordina,on,performancemeasures&accountability.! Lackseffec)vefrontendstrategies,includingin-depthassessmenttools.! Operatesinanatmosphereoffearonthepartoffamiliesandstateworkersalike.! Terminatesparentalrightsfarmorefrequentlythanoccursinallneighboringstates.! Returns50percentofthechildrenbackhomea1erremovingthem.! Hascreatedextensivejudicialbacklogs.! Operatesasaclosedsystemimmunetoscru-ny,neworinnova&veapproaches.! Spendsatleast30%morethanisnecessary.! Operatesunderextreme,con1nuousstress.! Subjectschildren,needlessly,totraumafromfamilydisrup'onandfostercare.

ABe%erApproach-BendingtheCurveIni/a/ve(BTC):EstablishingtheBendingtheCurveIni4a4veinanygivencountywouldcost$225,000,butwouldsave>$625,000inthefirstyear;whilereducingcaseload.Withinayear,thisprogramcouldbereplicatedresul1nginsimilarsavingsstate-wide.Thismodelcanachievethefollowingoutcomes:! Reducethecustodyrateandassociatedcostsforyoungchildrenby30%.! Shortenthelengthofstayforthosechildrenwhodo

enterfostercare.! ProvidetheStatewithenhancedinforma*ontostemthecurrentprac*ceofremovingchildrentoosoon,orleavingothersinunsafehomestoolong.! Ins$tutesystem-widecoordina+on,accountabilityandperformancemeasures.! ReduceoverallworkloadintheofficesoftheA6orneyGeneral,DefenderGeneral,State’sA1orney,JudiciaryandDept.forChildren&Families.! Openthechildprotec.onsystemtocon.nuousqualityimprovement.! Reducethecurrenthos-lityandfearbetweenstateworkersandfamilies.! AddressVermont’sdeficitregardingfrontendstrategies.! BringVermontintolinewithoutcomesinneighboringstatesandna(onally.

Ac#onSteps:1.EstablishaBendingtheCurveTeamthatincludesana"orney,aservicecoordinator,DCFsocialworkerandcommunityagenciesworkinginacoordinatedsystemwithperformancemetricsandachainofcommand,BEFOREacustodyaffidavitisfiledwiththeState’sA(orney.Thisensures,thoroughfront-endve&ngofeachcase,coordinatedservicesandalevelofaccountabilitynotpresentinthecurrentsystem.Inpilotprojects,thisformulahasrepeatedlyachievedsignificantcaseloadreduc0ons.Theaddi0onofana&orneyandservicescoordinatorarecri-calelementsoftheteam.

2.Thedevelopmentofperformancemeasuresforpar5cipa5ngagenciesandfamiliesisthesecondkey,alongwithensuringthattheBendingtheCurveTeamhasinputintoanyAffidavitsbeforesubmissiontotheState’sA2orney.Theresultbeingareduc&oninjudicialhearingsandcustodyrates.

Goal:Divert12–25childrenfromstatecustodyinagivencounty.�Basedonpilotprojects,adiversionrateofatleast30%iswithintheprogram’scapability,with50%oftheavoidedcostbeingstatefunds(50%arefederalfunds).

�Averagefostercarecost=$25,000perchildperyear*

�BTCCostinagivencounty=$225,000annually

�AnnualCaseloaddecreasesavings(ofwhich50%arestatefunds):

12children=15%reduc0on=$300,000,16children=20%reduc1on=$400,00020children=25%reduc0on=$500,00025children=30%reduc1on=$625,000*Theaveragefostercarecostsdoesnottakeintoaccounttherelated costs incurred by the Defender General’s Office,A"orney General’s Office, State’sA"orney’s OfficeorCourtcosts.

5


….. Get Ready…. Start Your Engines

Vermont Racing Expert, Vern Sharrow, with Thunder Road Roots, now is an Executive on the Keselowski Racing Team in South Carolina. Sharrow, a former Senior Executive in Finance with Northern Power, uses his CPA skills to keep the Kesolowski Racing Team in top form able to skillfully buy the best resources to keep their performances in the top tier. NASCAR is increasingly turning to finance guru’s like Sharrow as large declines in their fan base started to erode profitability. The 2008 Economic Collapse Hurt NASCAR’s Fan Base the most with millions of lost jobs, $4 per gallon gas, and giant economic buying pattern contractions. 2007 The Year That NASCAR Peaked….. now with declines as high at 49% - International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc. — the publicly owned corporations that operate 20 of the Cup series’ 23 tracks — have seen attendance revenue fall. According to a review of the companies’ annual reports, ISC’s attendance revenue is down 49% from its highest point, in 2007; SMI’s is down 46% from its peak, in 2008. What happened on Wall Street hurt Main Street and NASCAR in 2008. Says George Pyne, CEO of Bruin Sports Capital during a recent Bloomberg discussion, “No question the economic reverberations of the collapse of 2008 has resulted in as much as a 2/5th’s decline in NASCAR’s fan base. Our fans, says Pyne, of Massachusetts, our those who fought in wars, lost jobs, and suffered the most and recovered the least during the last 10 years. However, just as we have added new drivers, refreshed teams, and heralded new female drivers…. our efforts are gong to grow the fan base back.” Just as the Great Depression sent psychological shockwaves through 80 years, the Great Recession will do the same says, Labor Behaviorist, Mark Renkert, a researcher who studies consumer behaviors. The Great Recession will likely permanently change the lower tier of socio-economic demographic. Buying behaviors will change for these people’s “forever” adds Renkert. “You don’t forget $4 per gallon gasoline, the fear of job loss, home foreclosures, having the electricity turned off, and losing your health. Sharrow says Keselowski Racing is poised for great things this season with new merchandising and fan building give-aways. “I miss Vermont,” says Sharrow, “but I love racing. For us – racing and NASCAR is a Family Building Activity adding, “Charlotte, NC is a happening place and great place to be in a racing family.”

A new horizon: leaders, like Vern Sharrow, of Brad Keselowski Racing have emerged who are rebuilding fan bases, making things affordable again, using social media and other unique venues to refresh the image…. and bringing new efforts for home entertainment viewing and NASCAR merchandise and messaging to fans.

Based in Statesville, North Carolina and led by Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR XFINITY Series champion Brad Keselowski (@Keselowski), Brad Keselowski Racing (@TeamBKR) fields the No. 19 and the No. 29 Fords in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

BKR aims to provide young talented drivers the opportunity to improve their skills with a professional, competitive team.

Vern Sharrow, Charlotte, NC – BKR Racings

6


SMARTvt’s Curtis Ostler Leading Major Development Program seizing opportunity, expanding services, creating new products and building new alliances. Governor Phil Scott, recognizing the importance of Vermont Tech intensified efforts to modenize offering. Vermont Tech is ranked 15th among the Best North Regional Colleges for 2017 by U.S. News & World Report. In the public

college category, Vermont Tech ranks 8th in the North region, making it one of the top 15 public colleges in the north for the fifth year in a row. The college is also ranked 7th in the North region among the Best Colleges for Veterans. Vermont Tech is one of just two Vermont schools to rank in the Veteran's, best northern regional colleges and best public college categories. Says SMARTvt.org’s CEO, Michael J. Kipp, “Mr. Ostler represents the very best of what Vermont talent can bring to an organization. We are certain that his community building expertise and his unceasing passion for making the world a better place will inspire all. SMARTvt is proud to support and endorse and recommend Mr. Ostler in his new leadership role. We look forward to his contributions,” says SMART Holdings USA Chairman, Mark Renkert. Ostler has a Manufacturing Leadership background that sold product directly to the White House. He mentors adults in the APL Program and is an Advising Board Member of SMARTvt.org. Additionally as a Senior Strategist Ostler is a noted advisor to growing non-profits. Ostler holds and undergraduate degree from Johnson State College, hold a leadership position with the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce, and resides in Waterbury.

Data Innovations – VP Finance, Matt Wilcox

Matt Wilcox was named VP Finance for Data Innovations in a recent move.

Data Innovations, a provider of software for medical laboratories based in Burlington in 2015 was purchased by Roper Industries, the parent company of Sunquest Information Systems Inc, a maker of laboratory information systems. Data Innovations is a portfolio company of Battery Ventures, a global investment firm.

Data Innovations, founded in 1989 provides middleware to help manage operations in clinical and blood laboratories. The company has more than 4,500 customers in 83 countries.

"Data Innovations has a 25-year history of developing connectivity solutions that enhance the capabilities of instrument manufacturers and laboratory information systems. About Data Innovations Founded in 1989, Data Innovations (DI) is a major clinical and blood laboratory middleware company. With a focus solely on laboratory data management, DI offers a complete middleware system to manage laboratory operations, including pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical sample processing and non-clinical tasks such as equipment maintenance and specimen archiving. Data Innovations is headquartered in Burlington, VT with offices in Florida, Belgium, Brazil and Hong Kong. Source: SAN FRANCISCO, CA - (Marketwired - February

7


SMARTvt Program Graduate Sean O’Connel, Motion Graphics Guru – A Note To Followers NBC Universal Studios – New York City

Since the election, O’Connell’s work has been comprised of political graphics working closely with the NBC News team, mostly MSNBC. Much is routine. Says O’Connell, “Much of what I do is “Meet the Press,” and “Nightly News.” (http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/ )

Adding, “We just launched with Lester Holt and NBC Nightly News. A couple of those spots are attached. We really wanted to showcase Lester, as he really is a Jack-of-all-trades at NBC. He has this personal side and warm touch with people who have usually just gone through something devastating and emotional. Not to mention he really has a steel trap of a brain, so we just really wanted to sit down with him and just let the cameras roll and chat about stories and moments that have really stuck with him over his years as a journalist and news anchor.” O’Connell says working in New York City is the “epicenter of brainiacs” and as a consequence a rising tide lifts all ships, saying, “we all get smarter and better every day.” Describing Holt O’Connell says, “It was amazing hearing him recount these stories that stuck with him in great detail and then going back and looking through hours and hours of footage trying to find they story he was referencing only to find that he had re-caped it years or months later in a shot by shot detail sort of way. It was truly amazing. That was a great project to have worked on, and I think

O’Connell describes another project - the "Rokerthon". Rokerthon started as Al Roker wanting to break a Guinness world record 3 years ago. Says O’Connell, “So what we did was create a week around Al Roker broadcasting the weather for a full 24hrs straight. We live streamed the event and got tons of media impressions. Al had special guests appearances from some of the fellow Today Show hosts, and describes as fun event that we decided to do every year. This year O’Connell’s 3rd involves Roker visiting colleges to try and break individual Guinness records with college students who submit ideas. O’Connell – “We actually won an Emmy for our Rokerthon 2 spot last year.” O’Connell describes a program where they used Roker and a Goat to create a theme that became a social media megastorm and hugely popular and funny. O’Connell closes his note to SMARTvt with: “Lately we are providing weekly topicals. I was tasked with updating and refreshing the today topical spot graphics and so our first one was to promote a sort of day after a recap of the Academy awards. I decided to take the look and feel very modern and stylish. Something that previously had failed wth the branding team for the TODAY Show. This time around they seemed to "love" it and love the energy it had. Moving to New York City from Vermont proved to be a brilliant move for O’Connell after years of earning poor wages for Vermont’s companies that failed to grasp the power of multi-media. Says O’Connell’s father, Tim, “We would have loved to keep Sean in VT but… he has done so very well… it is a pity we parents don’t’ live in a state that values our college graduates.

Below O’Connell in his NYC Design Studio with his dog.

8


Started in 2005 Carved Solutions is a Corporate Brand Building Partner to Business and CEO, Dawn Lancaster is expanding her Williston Location. Corporate Gifts, leveraging the spirit of reciprocity has a long tradition of cementing relationships on the path toward balancing people, profit and planet

Carved Solutions makes personalized soaps, candles, and other high-end household items and launched Pure | Energy Apothecary, a soap line intended for the mass market. As a leading e-commerce developer, located at Avenue C in Williston’s Industrial Park, Lancaster says “Corporate Gifts, as an industry, grows from 8 – 13% per year dependent on economic times,” and the data supports her posit according to “The International Journal, 2006, 11:1, 43-45” Corporate Gift Giving is responsible for growing businesses in powerful ways – when the medias are silent –gifts continue to send powerful brand and buying messages creating unique bonding experiences. Carved Solutions has expanded penetrating big box clients and delivering products across the United States to roughly 2,000+ retailers, including the likes of Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, and Neiman Marcus. Their products have earned accolades and attention from the likes of O magazine and the talk show The View.

Where Are They Now ? SMART Co-Founder Jean Twombly,

SMARTvt's Web designer, since 2012 has managed multiple IT consulting projects for CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of Owings Mills, MD; the BC/BS Federal Employees Program Operations Center (FEPOC) in Washington, DC; and John Hancock Insurance headquartered in Boston, MA. At CareFirst, she was engaged in projects implementing the Affordable Care Act of 2010. She created interactive online training, standard operating procedure, and compliance modules for the division, conducted multi-day training sessions and testing for employees and management, and was a key member of the testing team for proprietary IS systems. As a consultant for the FEPOC, Jean managed service level requirements projects for the BC/BS Service Benefit Plan of the US Office of Personnel Management, compliance and testing projects related to new IS installations, and presented executive summaries to senior management for a variety of team projects. In 2015, she assumed team leadership as a consultant for new interactive Internet applications at John Hancock Insurance. She led planning meetings with cross-functional managers, presented current and desired future-state documentation, obtained approvals for installations, managed third party vendors, and scheduled roles and responsibilitie for two business analyst contributors. As of mid-2016, Jean returned to the Burlington, VT area to manage several design and construction projects and is again actively engaged with the SMARTvt and The Bench operations teams.

Economy & Finance

SMART Holdings USA - SMARTvt Magazine Spring 2017